Military cemeteries locked ahead of start of Memorial Day events
Visits to memorial sites and graves banned for all, including bereaved families, due to virus fears; High Court denies families’ last-minute petition asking prohibition be lifted
As Israel headed into the annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, military cemeteries across the country were sealed shut, preventing visits by bereaved families due to fears of spreading coronavirus.
From 4 p.m. Monday it was forbidden to visit military cemeteries or memorial sites, with police deployed to block access roads and entrances at many locations.
However, officers were instructed to only discourage visits. If any bereaved families nonetheless turned up and ignore the orders, police were told to avoid physical confrontations with those who remain determined to reach the graves of loved ones.
The High Court of Justice rejected a last-minute petition asking that the ban be lifted, ruling that though painful, the prohibition was not illegal.
During the day, small Israeli flags, each with a black ribbon, as well as flowers and memorial candles were placed by IDF soldiers on every military grave in the country.
Formal events marking Memorial Day will being with a siren marking a minute of silence at 8 p.m., during which the country traditionally comes to a standstill. An official ceremony will then be held, as it is every year, at the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem. It will be attended by President Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi, but there will be no audience present. The ceremony will be broadcast live on television and online.
At the end of the ceremony, in a demonstration of national unity under the virus restrictions, the Israeli public has been called upon to step out onto their balconies and sing “Hatikva,” the national anthem, Channel 13 news reported.
At 9 p.m. the “Songs in Their Memory” event will be broadcast. The ceremony, which was filmed in advance at the Knesset, includes the projection of the names of those who have fallen onto the walls of the parliament building.
Various other events have been planned for online broadcast including a “Songs in the Square” event organized by the Tel Aviv municipality.
On Tuesday, at 11 a.m., there will be another siren, this one two minutes long, after which the main memorial ceremony will begin at the Mount Herzl military ceremony in Jerusalem. That ceremony will also be broadcast live and will conclude with a brief flyover by IAF jets, with one plane symbolically missing from the formation.
At 1 p.m. there will an official ceremony in memory of those who died in terror attacks, also to be broadcast live.
Independence Day events and celebrations will begin on Tuesday evening, but this year will be held remotely under a national curfew.
On the subject of shuttered cemeteries, Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of Yad LaBanim, the largest bereaved family organization in Israel, told the Walla news website that thousands of bereaved families visited the graves of fallen soldiers over the past week, after the organization encouraged them to move up their visits rather than violate the ban on Memorial Day.
“I believe we won’t have a situation in which bereaved parents will arrive at cemeteries,” he said. “I spoke with the acting police commissioner and told him that the last thing I would want to see is a policeman raising his hand against bereaved parents. I don’t believe it will happen. If a few [parents] do [arrive] they [police] won’t prevent them, but if there are masses it will be stopped at the roadblocks.”
Ben-Shem noted that there are some 6,000 bereaved parents who are now over the age of 80 and therefore “we must not endanger them, we need to protect them.” The coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, has been particularly lethal among elderly patients.
He urged parents to follow orders and not try to visit the cemeteries.
“We don’t need [to do so on] Memorial Day,” he said. “Our Memorial Day is every day.”
The High Court petition against the cemetery ban was filed by Nati Smadar, whose father was killed in a Jerusalem terror attack in 2002. Smadar had claimed the ban was unreasonable and out of proportion, and urged instead that those who visit cemeteries maintain social distancing.
Last week the cabinet voted in favor of severely limiting commemorations and celebrations of Israel’s independence and memorial days and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in the latest bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.
On Independence Day, which begins Tuesday evening and ends Wednesday evening, a general curfew will be in effect requiring people to remain within 100 meters of their homes — except for medical needs — and banning intercity travel, similar to the curfew earlier this month for Passover. Supermarkets will not be open.
The Independence Day curfew will begin at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and end at 8 p.m. the next day.
Forty two soldiers and civilians were killed since last Memorial Day and the number of Israeli casualties of war stands at 23,816, according to figures released by the Defense Ministry on Friday.
Since last Memorial Day, 75 new names were added to the roster of those who died defending the country since 1860. Forty-two were IDF soldiers, police officers and civilians, and 33 were disabled veterans who passed away due to complications from injuries sustained during their service.
The figures include all soldiers and police who died during their service over the past year, including as a result of accidents, suicide or illness.
The Times of Israel Community.