Israel Salutes Its Fallen Soldiers
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem----April 25.... A one-minute siren will be heard throughout Israel at 8 p.m. this evening, honoring the 20,196 Israeli soldiers who have fallen since the State was established. Israel Remembrance Day officially begins at 7:30 Sunday evening when President Moshe Katsav opens memorial day at the Western Wall.
Representatives of bereaved parents as well as IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon and OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh will also attend.
The main Remembrance Day memorial will take place Monday at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem and be carried out simultaneously at 43 military cemeteries around the country.
A two-minute siren will sound at 11 a.m. A ceremony will also take place at the memorial for fallen Beduin Israeli soldiers at the Hamovil junction in the Galilee.
The Israeli Defense Ministry has made available additional buses and public transportation for people wishing to get to military cemeteries.
Israel Remembrance Day is to be marked officially by lighting memorial flames and placing wreaths on graves. The Defense Ministry has already placed a miniature Israeli flag on the graves of all the fallen soldiers in military cemeteries across the country. In addition to the flags, black memorial ribbons will also be placed on the graves.
Israel Remembrance Day was to have started Saturday night, but it was moved one day later recently in Israel to accommodate observant families so that Shabbat would not be desecrated.
However, the original date was kept abroad, which created a bizarre and uncomfortable situation where communities in the Diaspora will be celebrating Independence Day while here in Israel the nation will still be mourning.
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“Whoever feels the pain of the bereaved families, who sees them cry their endless tears, will appreciate to the end of his days our soldiers and officers” - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said at a ceremony marking the opening of Israel’s 56th Remembrance Day .The ceremony, which commenced at 20:00 with a siren heard around the country, took place at the Yad Lebanim IDF memorial hall in Jerusalem in memory of the men and women who have fallen in Israel’s wars. Speaker of the House Reuven Rivlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak, and deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert , Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky and dozens of bereaved families attended the ceremony as well.
Sharon also said “we will not wait, we will not tarry, we will not let others determine our fate for us… we will march forward with determination, and we will fashion with our own hands whatever reality we determine are in the best of our political and security interests, along with our urgent desire for peace. I see my first and most pressing task as doing my utmost to make sure that no more headstones will be added to the rows of graves, so that our best and brightest flowers are not cut down in the prime of their lives”.
At the state ceremony
at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, President Moshe Katsav said that Israel’s
War of Independence has not yet been won”, and Chief of Staff Moshe
Ya’alon said “21,781 faces, 21,781 entire worlds of fallen IDF
soldiers”. He
said the IDF “will not rest until peace and security is restored
to every citizen”.
As hundreds of thousands of Israelis visit the country’s cemeteries, flags in all public institutions will be lowered to half mast, radio and television networks will broadcast special programs and all entertainment establishments will shut down.
After the siren, memorial ceremonies will be held throughout the country. The central state rally will be held in the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem.
Since 1948, 20,196 Israelis were killed in wars and hostilities. Since 1860, the time when the first settlers left Jerusalem’s Old City, 21,781 Israelis were killed, 16,062 of them soldiers.
The central ceremony
will be held on Mount Herzel, with the president, prime minister and chief
of staff.
In previous years the ceremony was held in the center of the mountain
and some 100,000 people who came to visit the graves of their loved ones
were forced to undergo a physical security check at the cemetery entrance.
This caused great delays and prevented many families from reaching their
loved ones’ graves. This time it was decided to hold the ceremony
at the nation’s founders’ plot, to which there is a side entrance.
Consequently, only the 2,000 people who attend the ceremony will have
to undergo the physical check up.
The IDF will hold guards of honor at 43 military cemeteries and wreathes, soul candles and state flags will be laid on the graves. Computer stands at some cemeteries will help visitors locate their relatives’ graves. This can also be done via the Internet at www.izkor.mod.gov.il.
Unlike previous years, the national anthem may be sung at the end of the state ceremonies this year. The cabinet is due to settle this issue at Sunday’s meeting.
“Usually, the Israeli national anthem is sung at the end of all military ceremonies, but it was never sung at cemeteries,” said Yad Lebanim Chairman Eli Ben-Shem. He said this angered many families, some of which even thought of bringing megaphones and singing the anthem themselves. “The parents are angry. Whom were their sons killed for? Aren’t they worth the national anthem?” he demanded.
Yad Labanim asked
the chief of staff and defense minister to have the anthem sung at the
end of the ceremonies this year. The Defense Ministry asked the ministerial
ceremony committee, headed by Minister Danny Naveh, to do so already six
months ago. But so far no decision has been reached.
Outside the military cemeteries hundreds of Israel Defense Forces orphans
are planning a silent protest on Monday. The orphans, whose parents were
killed while serving in the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, have been
fighting to be recognized as an independent group for about five years.
Many of them have chosen not to attend state memorial ceremonies this
year, but to demonstrate against the government, Knesset and Defense Ministry
instead. They plan to light torches and candles outside the fences of
the military cemeteries.
Although they have been forbidden to demonstrate, the orphans’ vow to continue their protest, said the chairman of the IDF Orphans’ Association, Adi Caspi. The member orphans will wear a badge saying “IDF orphans are out of the fence.” Immediately after the siren they will walk out of the cemeteries and not attend the ceremonies.
Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah conducted a historic prisoner swap in January after years of tense, secret negotiations brokered by Germany.
Two planes left Cologne, Germany, after the exchange - one touching down in Beirut, Lebanon, to an enthusiastic greeting and the other landing in Tel Aviv, Israel, amid great national sorrow and anger.
Israel Defense Forces said more than two dozen Lebanese and Arab prisoners - including two senior Hezbollah officials, Mustafa Dirani and Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid - flew to Beirut after the exchange occurred at an air base in Cologne. Stephan Smyrek, a German who worked with Hezbollah, also was freed.
Hezbollah, which Israel and the United States regards as a terrorist organization, released Elhanan Tannenbaum - an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel - and the bodies of three IDF soldiers.
The swap was completed after Israel identified the soldiers' remains, which then were flown from Lebanon to the German air base.
In Tel Aviv, the mood
reflected anguish, in part because some Israelis said they considered
the exchange lopsided.
Israel has always honored its fallen soldiers and has made great sacrafices
to secure their bodies for a proper funeral in Israel. Many say one Israeli
soldiers is worth 1,000 of the enemy. This prisoner exchange reflected
that reality.
A state military ceremony was held at the airport after the bodies arrived.
Israel identified the soldiers as Sgt. Adi Avitan, Staff Sgt. Benyamin Avraham and Staff Sgt. Omar Sawaid. They had been missing since October 2000 and presumed dead.
Scores of people - including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, other dignitaries and distraught family members of the slain - watched soldiers carry three Israeli flag-draped coffins and listened to speeches and music. People stood as the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, was recited. A Muslim prayer also was said. (Sawaid was a Bedouin Arab who was a Muslim.)
In an apparent reference to controversy over the deal, Sharon said the right move was made to bring the soldiers back to the "soil of their motherland" and their bereaved families.
"Together they fell in the fire of the enemy, and together they returned to the homeland they were called upon to defend," Sharon said. "May Benny, Adi and Omar be a blessed memory."
After speaking, the prime minister bowed in front of each coffin and took his seat.
Also as part of the exchange, Israel released 400 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank and Gaza, Germany said.