Referring to overhaul rifts, Herzog says national days must be left ‘above all dispute’

President Isaac Herzog opens his speech at the main Holocaust memorial day ceremony by urging Israelis to leave this and upcoming national days free of the deep friction caused by the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

“This year is no ordinary year. And this memorial day is like no other. This year, feelings are rough and shoulders are hunched, as if to attest to the weight of the discord bearing down on us,” Herzog says at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

Referring to next week’s Memorial Day for fallen IDF soldiers and terror victims and Independence Day, Herzog adds: “I appeal to you, citizens of Israel, with a simple prayer: Let us leave these sacred days… above all dispute; let us all come together, as always, in partnership, in grief, in remembrance.”