Police to boost forces at Memorial Day events but told to keep a low profile
National protest organizers say no plans to demonstrate against judicial overhaul at ceremonies, but fears persist that bereaved families could clash with coalition politicians
Police are set to bolster forces to secure Israel’s Memorial Day events next week amid fears that protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul program will clash with politicians.
However, according to a Channel 12 report Wednesday, officers have been instructed to keep a “low profile” and try and avoid conflicts with bereaved families.
Organizers of the mass protests that have rocked Israel for the past several months were quoted as saying that they had no intention of staging protests at memorial ceremonies.
“We are not involved in this,” said protest leader Nadav Golan.
However, there was still a chance of incidents following repeated calls by bereaved parent organizations for politicians to stay away.
Police would be instructed not to come between the families and politicians who nevertheless choose to attend ceremonies, the report said, adding that police fear a public backlash if they are seen clashing with bereaved relatives in military cemeteries.
On Wednesday, a group representing reservist soldiers protesting against the judicial overhaul called on its activists not to demonstrate against the reforms on Memorial Day.
“On the coming Memorial Day, we will not protest because our hearts will be with our brothers and sisters in arms who fell in battle, we will bow our heads for them, we will cry and hug the families,” the Brothers in Arms group said in a statement on social media. “We call on all the brothers and sisters in arms to leave their protest shirts at home and not to come to the cemeteries with them.”
Thousands of parents of fallen soldiers have demanded that politicians not attend or speak at Memorial Day ceremonies at military cemeteries next Tuesday, the chairman of the Yad Labanim commemoration organization Eli Ben-Shem has said.
Ben-Shem warned that verbal and even physical confrontations could break out at military cemeteries if government ministers and MKs — particularly those who did not serve in the IDF — attend Memorial Day events at the sensitive sites.
“I very much hope that they [the government] understand that these places are dynamite,” said Ben-Shem on Kan Radio, in reference to military ceremonies on Memorial Day.
Referencing legislation recently proposed by the government that would grant ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students blanket exemptions from IDF service at a younger age than currently, Ben-Shem said that having politicians who did not perform military service participate in Memorial Day services would be akin to “lighting a bonfire in a cemetery.”
Ben-Shem and others delivered the same message to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a meeting on Tuesday, although Gallant reportedly rejected the request, as well as another proposal by Yad Labanim to draft talking points for politicians who do attend the ceremonies in order to avoid the politicization of the events.
Ben-Shem said there were seven ceremonies where politicians who did not perform IDF service are scheduled to participate, including an event in Beersheba where the leader of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, is expected to speak.
Ben Gvir did not perform military service because the IDF declined to draft him due to his involvement in ultra-nationalist agitation as a youth before reaching the age of enlistment.
“They need to exercise common sense, otherwise there will be a catastrophe. [The military] cemeteries are the holy of holies of the State of Israel. If we see violence and shouting over the graves of our children, I would want to die,” said the Yad Labanim chairman, who is himself a bereaved father.
Last week, Ben-Shem said that some 8,000 parents had contacted his organization and requested that politicians not attend the services. He noted that there was particularly strident opposition to Ben Gvir’s participation in the Beersheba ceremony
The Kan public broadcaster reported that Ben Gvir has yet to decide if he will attend or not.
Also on Wednesday, opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid announced he would not attend the traditional torch-lighting ceremony which ends Memorial Day and opens Independence Day, due to societal divisions he said the government has created due to its radical judicial overhaul program.
Lapid’s decision comes following reports on Tuesday that Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who is responsible for the ceremony, plans to cut the live broadcast of the event and switch to a rehearsal recording should the actual torch-lighting ceremony be interrupted by anti-government protestors.
In a message to Regev on Wednesday, Lapid tweeted that “my seat at the torch-lighting ceremony will be empty” and that she had left him “no choice” in the matter.
Channel 12 quoted police sources as saying that they have no intelligence on plans by protesters to disrupt the ceremony.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Regev insisted that the broadcast would be only be interrupted if there were some kind of security incident, and called on Lapid and National Unity leader Benny Gantz to attend, saying she would “save a seat” for them and adding that she intended to call them about the matter as well.
In contrast to Lapid, and in an apparent rejection of the position of Yad Labanim and others, Gantz said it was incumbent on political leaders to attend the state ceremonies on Memorial Day as part of their duty as elected officials.
