Yom HaZicharon (Memorial Day)
Controversy swirled around Israel’s memorial day ceremonies. 24,468 soldiers and terror victims have died since the establishment of Israel 75 years ago. Traditionally, on this day, bereaved families of the fallen gather at cemeteries around the country, laying wreaths, flowers, and small Israeli flags. Usually there is a brief memorial ceremony with speeches by military and political figures.,
This year bereaved families asked that government representatives not attend the ceremonies so as to stave off any anti-government protests on this somber day. Israeli mayors and officials also called on demonstrators to cease their protests during the Memorial Day ceremonies out of respect to the fallen.
Speaking at the official ceremony at Mt. Herzl, Israel’s President Yitzchak Herzog called for calm, saying this was a day when the sirens that sound for two minutes in the morning should be a wake up call for unity. Herzi HaLevi, Israel’s IDF Chief-Of-Staff, said politics should be left out of the cemeteries.
Still, some coalition government representatives insisted on attending ceremonies. Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, was blocked by anti-government protesters from entering a military cemetery in the largely Druze town of Isfiya.
Far-right National Security Minister, MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, was asked not to attend memorial services in the Negev capitol of Beer Sheva. He refused to cancel his appearance. Some bereaved families came to the cemetery a day early to avoid being in his presence.
However, according to Ynetnews, Ben Gvir showed up anyway. Ynet headlines read, “Families feud over Ben Gvir at Memorial. Some sang to drown out the minister others shouted out against them (those singing) causing altercations lasting past the ceremony.” One bystander said that Ben Gvir “seems to enjoy” the fracas. Another angry family member said, “He should have just kept quiet.”
A pundit quipped that Ben Gvir thrived on the attention and like former President Trump, made sure he was in the news every day, one way or another.
On April 27th, according to Moran Azoulai writing in Ynetnews,, Eli Ben Shem the chairman of the "Yad Labanim,” the national organization in memory of fallen soldiers and bereaved families, accused Ben Gvir of bringing "Hundreds of people who have no connection to the bereaved families. And in the middle of the ceremony they applauded him. …At what state ceremony in a cemetery do you clap your hands?' This is a disgrace to the fallen and a serious injury to the families, we will demand from the Knesset a comprehensive investigation."
GA
A few days prior to the Memorial Day celebrations, the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America met in Israel at the Expo Tel-Aviv fairgrounds. Nearly 2,000 federation members gathered for the four-day conference. They heard from pro-democracy leaders while anti-reform demonstrators loudly protested outside the gates of the compound.
Israel’s president Yitzchak Herzog told the gathering that “Today, Israel’s greatest threat was from within.” In another forum Herzog called for a “Global Initiative” and the formation of a council for Jewish dialogue where “we can engage in serious sensitive and strategic discussions on the most complex and pressing issues facing our people.”
JFNA Chairperson Julie Platt reportedly told the audience during her opening remarks “To the protestors exercising their democratic rights, we are inspired by your love of Israel.” Protesters outside were heard to cheer her words.
MK Simcha Rothman, one of the architects of the Judicial Overhaul plan, appeared on a panel at the GA. He was accused by fellow panelist Yochanan Plesner, former Yes Atid party MK and now president of the Israel Democracy Institute, of “crushing Israeli Democracy.” Rothman accused Plesner of “siding with a political group that exercises control through an undemocratic court.”
Rothman was briefly trapped inside the room by anti-reform protesters. Rothman stayed inside the room as demonstrators outside shouted “Shame” and “Democracy,” before he was extracted by police. Reportedly, Rothman had come to meet with right-wing delegates at the congress.
The 2,000 delegates reviewed drafts of condemnation of the Judicial Overhaul but no vote was taken after a debate. In any case, said one observer, the JFNA’s vote would only be symbolic since the organization has no power over the government.
Reportedly, most of the attendees at the GA were put off by the demonstrations and chose to stay above the fray. One said, “We’re told, we don’t live here. We don’t serve in the army, so we have no voice. Now they want us to get involved.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to have spoken at the event, was convinced to cancel his appearance. He said that ‘scheduling considerations’ not fear of the protesters was the cause of the cancellation, although observers doubted the veracity of that claim. Most said Netanyahu feared an outbreak of violence that would embarrass him and disturb the assembly meetings.
According to the Times of Israel, the JFNA slammed the government’s plan to legislate an ‘override clause’ that would allow a bare 61 seat Knesset majority to overrule High Court decisions. “He shouldn’t have been invited to speak in the first place,” Said Anna Kislonsk, CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism…Netanyahu is responsible for the current deep rift in Israel Diaspora relations.”
Observers point out that many pro-Israeli American Jews are worried that the protests in Israel weaken Israel’s image and point out to a commensurate rise in antisemitism. One woman reported that in her village in Northern California swastikas were painted on their small synagogue in the town’s first ever sign of anti-semitism. She attributed the act to the protests in Israel that showed a deep division encouraging anti-Semites to strike.
According the NPR (National Public Radio), the ADL reported that Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. rose 36% in 2022, an annual audit by the Anti-Defamation League shows. 3,697 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault targeting Jewish people and communities. New York is the state with the highest number of reported incidents: 580. California follows with 518, New Jersey with 408, Florida with 269 and Texas with 211. "Combined, these five states account for 54 % of the total incidents."488 anti-Jewish acts were committed in Poland in 2022, more than four times the total number for the European Union in 2021.
In Britain, MP (Member of Parliament) Diane Abbot, the first black woman to be elected to the British Parliament was suspended from Parliament for arguing that anti-Semitism was not racism. She later apologized and withdrew her remarks. Abbot was an ally of former Labor party chief Jeremy Corbyn who was forced to step down as Labor chief after anti-Semitic statements.
Independence Day
Israel’s population has reached nearly 10 million, a 12-fold increase since 1948.
“Unity” was again stressed by President Herzog during a speech on Israel’s 75th Independence Day. The same theme was used many times during the annual Independence Day ceremony at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem.
Former MK Avigdor Kahlani, hero of Yom Kippur War
The festive ceremony passed without incident. One observer pointed out that this was preordained since “Miri Regev, one of Netanyahu’s cheerleaders, was in charge of invitations to the event.” Regev, Ministry of Transport, National Infrastructure and Road Safety, and former Minister of Culture and Sport, “made certain that no anti-government protests would be allowed,” said the observer.
The highlight of the event was the traditional torch lighting by 12 people with powerful life-stories that enhanced the State of Israel. However, this year some of those asked to light a torch refused as a protest against the Judicial Overhaul.
Smiling faces at Yom Ha’atzmaot ceremony, Mt. Herzl
The event was covered by a number of cameras, but it seemed to one cynic, that every time the camera landed on an audience member, or group, they were smiling gleefully at the camera and enthusiastically waving little Israeli flags. “Clearly, someone is directing these people, like TV studio audiences that have to clap when the ‘applause’ sign goes on,” said the cynic. “
Judicial Reforms
Israel’s Knesset began meeting for the summer session. Pro Judicial Overhaul ministers say they plan to push through the reforms despite the mass protests that have engulfed the country in a drama that could devolve into a civil war, according to pundits.
Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS that the Judicial Overhaul in its present form would be modified. Likud MK Avi Dichter told Israel Radio Reshet Bet that once all of the reforms were passed it would be clear that they did not harm Israel. He said that President Herzog’s proposals for compromise were 80% acceptable to the Netanyahu coalition.
However, according to the Times of Israel, Israel’s attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has warned that the coalition’s current package of legislation would hand the government virtually unrestrained power without providing any institutional protection for individual rights.
Pro-Judicial Reform protest in Jerusalem April 27, 2023
On Thursday night, April 27th, approximately 200,000 Pro-Judicial Overhaul protesters showed up opposite the Knesset. Some reports said that religious and settler groups were reportedly behind the call.
Reportedly, nearly 1,000 buses carried pro-Judicial Reform protesters to the demonstration. Some reports said the buses were paid for by the Netanyahu’s Likud, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit parties and other right-wing groups. According to Channel 13 TV news, Prime Minister Netanyahu sent an English language message on Twitter supporting the gathering.
According to media reports, the gathering took place because the pro-reform protesters felt that the right had won the election and the left had taken to the streets as sore losers. That the 17 weeks of huge protests by the anti-judicial Reform demonstrators were really meant to unseat the right-wing government.
Channel 1 Kan TV’s political analyst Ayala Sasson said that this demonstration was a grass roots movement by the mass of people who voted for the coalition and now feel as if they’re made insignificant.
Sasson said the issue for the hundreds of thousands who showed up on Thursday was that they felt disenfranchised, as if their votes didn’t count. She also said that Justice Minister Yariv Levine has said that he would resign if the reforms don’t move forward within a month. A threat, other critics said, he’d made in the past and not kept.
When Levine spoke to the huge gathering, he said that the vile insults hurled against him only strengthened his resolve to pass the reforms. Kan TV political reporter Michael Shemesh said that Levine was extremely harsh in his criticism of the High Court saying the court was more interested in protecting terrorists than Israeli soldiers. Levine also said that the coalition won the election and those who voted for the coalition voted for Judicial Reform.
Speakers like ultra-right wing ministers Shmotrich and Ben-Gvir as well as deputy Justice minister Amsalem all told the audience that the Judicial Reforms would be passed. “The nation wants Judicial Overhaul, the nation will get Judicial Overhaul,” Finance Minister Shmotrich told the cheering gathering.
This caused some pundits to point out that the compromise negotiations being held at the President’s residence were a diversion to keep the anti-Judicial Overhaul protesters from taking more extreme action.
Channel 1 Kan’s Sasson also said that Netanyahu has paused the move towards judicial reforms while the negotiations are ongoing and thus cannot appear to support the demonstration. Haaretz columnist Yossi Verter said that Netanyahu was seeking a way to ‘climb down from the tree’ that Levine has climbed without causing a crises that would lead to new elections.
Netanyahu’s legal team is now discussing mediation of the charges against him with the prosecution. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has yet to decide on the matter. The trial on just one of the three indictments has been going on for three years with only forty of the nearly one hundred prosecution witnesses called. A pundit pointed out that should the Judicial Overhaul get passed, Netanyahu could simply fire the present attorney general and appoint one to his liking that would dismiss all charges against him.
Guns and Cars and Terror
Terror incidents marred the holiday events. On the eve of Memorial Day five Israelis were injured near the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem when a car, driven by a 39-year-old father of five from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa and a reported Hamas supporter, rammed into a group of pedestrians. Beit Safafa is one of the quietest neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a drive-by shooting attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Saturday, April 22nd. Huwara has been the scene of a number of shootings lately. Route 60 cuts through the busy commercial center of the Arab town where most of the shootings take place.
According to Ynetnews, Amad Aduan Nazer, a Jordanian parliamentarian of Palestinian descent, was caught on Saturday April 22nd trying to smuggle 200 weapons, 183 Glock and Sig Sauer pistols and 17 M-16 rifles, hidden in three large suitcases, through the Allenby checkpoint from Jordan into Israel. Nazer, a member of the Palestine Committee in the Jordanian Parliament, is considered an ardent support of the Palestinian cause and hostile to Israel. Nazer has, according to the report, previously expressed support for terrorists organizations, such as Hamas. Members of Nazer’s family in the West Bank are known as militants who do not hesitate to engage in firefights with the Palestine Security forces.
Israel made it clear that they did not suspect the Jordanian government of being involved in the gun smuggling. The Israel Security Services are holding Nazer trying to determine who was to receive the guns.
MOTL
March of the Living Finale, Latrun Tank Museum
At the conclusion of Independence day, the evening before the huge pro-reform demonstration in Jerusalem, the 35th March Of The Living finale took place at the Latrun Tank Museum outdoor auditorium.
Nearly 9,000 participants had taken part in the two week event, one week touring Poland and visiting Holocaust sites, marching nearly two miles from the concentration camp at Auschwitz to the one at Birkenau accompanied by 42 Holocaust survivors, dignitaries and the international press, and then a week touring Israel.
At the finale replete with dance troupes, popular singers, including Neta Barzalai who won the Eurovision contest five years ago, elaborate fireworks displays and even a swarm of drones programmed to form images like a heart, an Israeli flag, the outline of the country, and the number 75.
The theme again was love for Israel and unity. And the singing of Am Yisrael Chai, long live Israel.
