By: Jonathan Feldstein
Controversy surrounded Israel’s observance of Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, this week. As much as possible, given the social divisions the past month, political and military leaders of all backgrounds called for Israelis to keep the sacred memorial events apolitical, about unity and not divisiveness.
However, a tangential event connected to Yom Hazikaron drew an estimated 15,000 people, after Defense Minister Yoav Galant said he would not authorize permits for Palestinian Arabs to attend, creating controversy all around. Galant’s decision was overturned by the Supreme Court, on a legal basis. But how and why it was appropriate and necessary to hold this event, and why now, remains perplexing.
If Israeli leaders called for unity, why was it fitting for Palestinian Arabs to be given permits to attend in general, and particularly in a period in which dozens of people have been murdered in terrorist attacks this year alone? More than disunity, with tens of thousands grieving 4255 terror victims, 740 of whom are minors of whom 118 have lost both parents, why are their sensitivities not considered on what is Israel’s most solemn day? Do the sensitivities of grieving Israeli citizens who have lost loved ones due to Palestinian Arab terror not outweigh the even well-intentioned participation of Palestinian Arabs in events in Israel where they are neither residents nor citizens?
What was the event that was so important for Palestinian Arabs to attend despite the sensitivities of the families of terror victims, and why? For nearly two decades, a left-wing group “Combatants for Peace” has organized this event to bring together Israelis and Palestinian Arabs who have lost loved ones. The event has been controversial from the beginning, though this year seemed to have been particularly inappropriate. Some say it legitimizes terrorism, equating Israel’s fallen soldiers and terror victims with the terrorists whose sole purpose is to attack and kill Israelis. Palestinian Arabs critics fault “normalization” with Israel, which of course flies in the face of the terrorists’ narrative, much less do nothing to promote peace.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for ways to create relationships between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. But that needs to be done with sensitivity, not poking the other in the eye. And if Israeli leaders are calling upon Israelis to keep politics out of memorial events, why was it appropriate, or even permitted, to bring Palestinian Arabs to a memorial event in Israel to accuse Israel of crimes, on its most sacred day?
One of the Palestinian Arab participants, Mohammed Beiruti, founded “A Land for All” which advocates for “two states in one homeland.” That’s code for eliminating Israel as a Jewish state. Beiruti reportedly told the mostly Israeli audience that the Israeli government was “fascist,” and seemingly justified terror by threatening, “Stop the occupation if you want peace.”
Did anyone notice the irony of a man who represents himself as a Palestinian Arab who has the last name “Beiruti,” indicating that his family were among hundreds of thousands of Arab migrants to benefit from the prosperity of the Jewish people returning to the Land, lecturing that Israel as occupying anything?
While Israelis were asked to keep Memorial Day events apolitical, an Israeli university administrator, Neta Ziv, used the platform of the left-wing event to attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government. “Evil winds, extremist and racist, are currently blowing from official centers of power in Israel. They preach Jewish supremacy and work to deepen the occupation. They seek to widen the rift and spread hatred between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.” So much for Israelis not being political.
Some of the speakers were more conciliatory. Yuval Sapir said, “It is easy and natural to hate, and to be angry, and to want revenge, and to feed the fire of conflict again and again. I chose to try to break the chain of revenge and hatred.”
Yusra Abdel Aziz Mahfouz from the Palestinian Arab city Nablus lost her son, Alaa, in 2000 to a stray bullet. “In the first days after the tragedy, I had a strong desire for revenge, to do something to heal myself, but I didn’t know what to do.” Eventually she said she came to understand that “their (Israeli’s) pain is similar to mine, and the will to take revenge changed to the understanding that it is better to seek peace, not to continue violence.”
No doubt there is pain among Palestinian Arabs. As the case of Mahfouz, there are cases in war where a civilian bystander is killed. For Israelis, who try to avoid civilian casualties, the contrast between Palestinian Arab civilians being killed by a stray bullet, and Israeli civilians being directly targeted by terrorists is jarring. This is made all the more so when Palestinian Arab society celebrates the murder of Israelis and pays terrorists a pension known as “Pay to Slay.”
Recognizing that there is pain and suffering, trying to understand one another, and build bridges between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs is a good thing. Much more can and ought to be done, but with sensitivity. Appropriately. For Palestinian Arabs to come to an event in Israel, on Israel’s most solemn day, in a year that dozens more Israelis have been murdered and Israelis are specifically being asked to keep politics out of memorial events, and then being completely political, is offensive.
It rubs salt in the wounds of Israelis who are grieving. If it’s under the supposed banner of reconciliation, it’s simply wrong.
But no less wrong is their hijacking our Memorial Day. In a few weeks, they will observe what they call the “nakba,” the catastrophe of Israel’s independence and very existence. Palestinian Arab terrorists have hijacked boats, planes, and buses, and murdered thousands. They hijack our history by saying that Jews have no connection to, or legitimacy in, the Land of Israel. Rather than hijacking our Memorial Day, if they wanted to do a joint memorial event, ideally about reconciliation and not continued blaming Israel (the victim) for 100 years of war and terror inflicted on us, let them pick any other day of the year. Or let them do it in Gaza, Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin, or Nablus.
But no, they cannot hijack our Memorial Day, and not on our Memorial Day in the heart of a nation that’s mourning.