The politics of mutual grief
Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians held an annual memorial event for victims on both sides of their conflict after the High Court of Justice overruled an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel to attend the ceremony, which is held on the same day that Israel honors its fallen soldiers.
Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv on May 7 for the annual event commemorating the victims on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony is traditionally held the same day that Israel commemorates its fallen soldiers.
Right-wing activists demonstrated outside the joint ceremony, which has been held for the last 14 years by the Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF) and Combatants for Peace. Hundreds of protesters turned out as occurred last year, after Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tried to block the commemoration by claiming that it “violated [Israel’s] Memorial Day.” That the ceremony’s organizers included bereaved parents who had lost loved ones was not worthy of consideration in Liberman’s eyes.
This year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, tried to prevent the ceremony from taking place. Netanyahu is himself a bereaved brother, and it is his right, of course, to memorialize his own loss in any way he sees fit. The bereaved parents who organized the ceremony have chosen to memorialize their children and other relatives by making a statement: It is not enough to merely remember loved ones and to agonize over their deaths. One should also actively work toward ending the conflict causing the loss of life.
As happened last year, the PCFF and Combatants for Peace petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ), which overruled Netanyahu’s decision to ban entrance to Israel by several hundred Palestinians to take part in the ceremony. The justices wrote, “No defense minister should intervene in the way in which a family wants to express its private grief and sorrow over the premature death of a loved one.” They also rebuked Netanyahu by asserting, “The defense minister is charged with maintaining the security of Israel’s residents, and his task is to protect Israel’s inhabitants from all dangers. We do not see how the ceremony constitutes a danger to the Israeli public.”
