Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked both faced abuse on Wednesday while speaking at Memorial Day events.
As Bennett spoke during a memorial service at Mount Herzl National Cemetery to commemorate the more than 4,000 Israelis killed in terrorist attacks, members of the audience called the prime minister a “traitor,” “swindler,” and “scoundrel.”
“Shut up,” a person was heard yelling.
Amid the shouting, Bennett stood silently on the podium for several minutes before resuming his speech.
“The bereaved are sacred. They can cry and they can mourn,” he said.
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“Beloved families, I love you very much,” he added. “I hear your pain.”
The heckling lasted more than five minutes before Bennett began his speech, and he was interrupted several times after he began, Channel 12 News reported.
Lee Abramovitz, who hosted the ceremony, said six to ten spectators took part in the heckling.
מהומה בטקס בהר הרצל כשראש הממשלה בנט עולה לנאום pic.twitter.com/IzLdpXeMvD
— אהרן רבינוביץ (@AronRabino1) May 4, 2022
Abie Moses, head of the national organization for victims of terrorism, spoke after Bennett and apologized to the prime minister for heckling. In response, a person could be heard shouting “we’re not sorry.”
After the ceremony, others in the audience said they regretted the heckling. “I’ve been coming here for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. Shameful,” said an older man.
“The Prime Minister said we have different opinions and that is fine and legitimate,” added another woman in interviews with Channel 12 News. “But to disturb is disrespectful in my opinion.”
“I am appalled that people are using a day like today for political arguments,” said another man.
One of the hecklers was Herzl Hajaj, whose daughter Shir was one of four soldiers killed by a terrorist in a ramming attack in Jerusalem in 2017.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett waits for heckling to stop during a state memorial service for victims of terror at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem May 4, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Hours earlier, his wife had held up a sign to protest the government as Bennett spoke during another event at Mount Herzl honoring fallen troops. The couple have previously taken part in numerous protests against the current government.
“Bennett, anyone who formed a government with terrorist supporters is not welcome here,” read the sign Merav Hajaj held up.
According to the public broadcaster Kan, relatives of Lt. Col. Emmanuel Moreno – a task force and former comrade of Bennett who was killed in the 2006 Lebanon War – Hajaj to go.
יום הזיכרון תשפ” | אחרים מבני המשפחות דרשו שתוריד את השלט והמוחה יצאה@yaara_shapira pic.twitter.com/qoBwrqS01k
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 4, 2022
Right-wing government critics have regularly criticized the inclusion of Ra’am in the coalition, an Islamist faction they denounce as “terrorist sponsors”. The leader of Ra’am has repeatedly denounced the terror and also held talks with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before joining the current coalition.
Shaked, the No. 2 in Bennett’s Yamina party, was interrupted while speaking at a memorial ceremony in Petah Tikva.
“Go home. Disgusting. You should be ashamed,” a man was heard yelling.
The event was briefly interrupted when the heckler was removed, with Shaked apparently taking the interruption in stride.
“It’s okay. The bereaved are sacred. They are allowed to express their pain,” she said in a similar response to Bennett.
The heckler was identified as Arik Hanan, whose brother was killed in fighting in Lebanon in 1985.
“It came out in the heat of the moment,” Hanan told Haaretz, calling the government’s trust in Ra’am “unimaginable.”
“There have been people who have told me to be quiet, but I think it was the right thing to do,” he said. “If this isn’t the time or place, then when is it?”
Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked holds a press conference at Ben Gurion Airport on March 13, 2022. (Roy Alima/Flash90)
Such interruptions have become relatively common in recent years, even as members of previous governments spoke at Memorial Day ceremonies. However, Bennett’s heckling took a particularly long time.
“The survivors deserve it [memorial day] and it is our duty in any way we can to embrace them and lovingly accept their criticism, too, for they paid the price for our rebirth and existence,” Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz said at a Memorial Day event on Wednesday.
He appeared to be referring to a call by dozens of bereaved families for cabinet ministers not to attend Memorial Day ceremonies as they accused the government of being backed by “terrorists” since Ra’am was accepted into the coalition.
In the Memorial Day remarks to the Shin Bet, Security Agency chief Ronen Bar appeared to target such a critic of the government’s response to terror.
Last month, far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir issued a statement railing against Bar, accusing him of being responsible for a series of “mistakes” that led to a spate of terrorist attacks and tensions in Jerusalem and Gaza.
“Our strength has always been in our unity. Precisely on this day when we all gather, we must remember the danger of divisions, violent discourses and hate speech that can lead us into a dangerous abyss,” said Bar.
“Members of this organization will not speak or tweet. They will be a shield and will not be seen,” he added with an apparent jab at Ben Gvir.
Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz looks at the names of fallen soldiers in the memorial hall at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem during a memorial service May 4, 2022. (Elad Malka/Department of Defense)
At 11 a.m., sirens rang out nationwide, bringing the country to a two-minute silence in memory of the 24,068 fallen soldiers and thousands more victims of terrorism killed in Israel and its pre-state progenitor over the past century and a half.
Since Israel’s last memorial day, 56 soldiers have died while on military service. Another 84 disabled veterans died as a result of injuries sustained while on duty.
33 names have been added to the list of terrorist victims who died in attacks last year. Another four disabled victims died as a result of serious injuries sustained in attacks, bringing the total to 3,199 since Israel’s founding in 1948.
Counting from the “early days of Zionism” in 1851, the total number of victims of terrorism is 4,216, according to Israel’s National Insurance Institute.
Memorial Day, established in 1951 by then Prime Minister and Defense Secretary David Ben-Gurion, was set on the 4th Iyar of the Jewish calendar, the day before Independence Day.