Hecklers interrupt Israeli Prime Minister’s memorial day speech on unity

HECKLERS interrupted Israel’s Prime Minister for several minutes during a Memorial Day address in which he called for unity, laying bare the country’s internal divisions even as it mourns its dead.

At least two people shouted “swindler” and “shame” as Naftali Bennett cast friction among Jews as an existential threat to the country.

At one point, Mr Bennett, whose family has received death threats in recent weeks, put his hand over his heart as he looked out over the crowd at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

“Bereaved families are holy. You are allowed to shout, you are allowed to mourn,” he said as the yelling and screaming continued for several minutes. “I hear the pain.”

Mr Bennett has faced vicious criticism from erstwhile allies on Israel’s nationalist right for forming a coalition government with leftwing parties and an Arab faction last year following a series of gridlocked elections.

It was a sharp display of bitterness on a day and in a setting that are among Israel’s most solemn.

A few hours earlier, sirens wailing for two minutes called the country to a halt. People stopped and stood, heads bowed, in honour of more than 24,000 people lost in the nation’s conflicts.

In addition to the soldiers killed, Memorial Day honours more than 3,000 people killed in militant attacks.

Typically, bereaved families visit cemeteries and attend memorial ceremonies, as television and radio shift programming to somber music, broadcasts of memorial services and documentaries about slain soldiers.

At sunset, the occasion turns festive as Israelis celebrate Independence Day with military flyovers and parties.

Last week, as Israel remembered the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, Mr Bennett pleaded for Israelis to refrain from fighting one another, even at a time of great division in the fragile government he leads.