President Rivlin
Photo: Mark Nayman/GPO
New regulations require ministers to attend war memorials
After Netanyahu pledges to rectify 'regrettable mistake' of failing to send government representative to attend Yom Kippur War memorial ceremony, new regulations put in place to ensure same mistake never repeated.
After families of fallen soldiers expressed dismay at the government’s failure to send any representatives to attend a Yom Kippur War memorial service, the Government Secretariat has instituted new regulations to ensure the same oversight does not occur again in the future.
While the service held at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl Military Cemetery earlier this month was attended by President Reuven Rivlin, none of the government's ministers, nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, were in attendance.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed remorse for what he acknowledged to be an ignominious error and pledged to rectify it by ensuring that Israel’s fallen soldiers would henceforth be appropriately honored.
President Rivlin at the Yom Kippur memorial (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
"I apologize for the fact no government representatives attended the memorial service for fallen Yom Kippur War soldiers. This is a regrettable mistake, and I apologize wholeheartedly to the bereaved families," Netanyahu said at the beginning of October.
In the same remarks, he pledged to formulate new regulations that would make mandatory the presence of at least one government minister at every major ceremony honoring Israel’s fallen soldiers of six major wars fought since its birth.
"I've instructed the Government Secretariat to ensure, starting now, a government representative will be present at all ceremonies for Israel's fallen soldiers. This is a duty of unsurpassed magnitude to our loved ones who fell in battle, so that we may live," the prime minister added.
(Photo: Mark Neiman, GPO)
While it was not made immediately clear which wars would make it onto the list requiring a minister’s presence, the list is expected to include the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1982 First Lebanon War, the 2006 Second Lebanon War and either the 1956 Sinai War (also known as Operation Kadesh) or the 1967-1970 War of Attrition.
The new regulations will also only be applicable to ceremonies organized by the Defense Ministry, even if they are not official state ceremonies, as those take place once every ten years.
The Government Secretariat will decide on which minister is selected to attend each ceremony.
