As COVID fades, Gantz tells families to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies
After being unable to visit their fallen loved ones in military cemeteries on Remembrance Day last year due to coronavirus restrictions, bereaved families should attend the ceremonies next week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Sunday.
Nuclear families will be allowed to enter military cemeteries on Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism, which will take place next Wednesday, April 14.
Preventing families from entering cemeteries last year was widely criticized. This year, Gantz called on the public and the political system to encourage families to attend ceremonies.
“I hope that in such a political system we could manage to keep national remembrance above politics,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “This is the right thing to do, and I believe that this is what will happen.”
There will be “moderate enforcement” of coronavirus restrictions in military cemeteries this year, which will make it easier for bereaved families to pay their respects to their loved ones, Gantz said.
Major ceremonies at the Western Wall, the National Hall for Israel’s Fallen in Mount Herzl and in Yad LaBanim Memorial Center in Jerusalem are set to take place on Remembrance Day Eve, Tuesday, April 13. Attendance will be restricted to Green Pass holders. Only people with a vaccination certificate or a certificate of recovery will be allowed to attend the ceremonies.
Arieh Moalem, deputy director of the Defense Ministry’s Family, Memorial and Heritage Department, said 5,000 people will be allowed to attend the Western Wall ceremony.
However, ceremonies in the cemeteries on Remembrance Day will not be limited to Green Pass holders.
Moalem requested of people who are not bereaved families not to attend ceremonies in cemeteries on Remembrance Day.
“We call on the wider public to visit the cemeteries on the week before Remembrance Day, from April 9 to 13,” he said. “We call this week Memorial and Remembrance Week, and we call on the public to come and honor the memory of the fallen soldiers. They are invited to come, lay a wreath, light a candle and honor their memory.”