An Israeli soldier salutes after placing a national flag with a black ribbon on the grave of a soldier ahead of Memorial Day for fallen soldiers at the Mt. Herzl Military cemetery in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI | License Photo
As Israel remains embroiled in war in Gaza after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, the nation prepares to memorialize the soldiers who have died for the nation’s right to exist.
Israel’s day of memorial will be here in days and will be followed by the country’s 76th Independence Day celebrations. Advertisement
“As we brace ourselves to mark the first Remembrance Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims since the harrowing events of October 7, our hearts are weighed down by the immense, numbing loss our country has suffered,” wrote IDF Widows & Orphans Organization director Dave Metzler.
Yom Hazikaron is known as Israel’s official Memorial Day, which falls in late April or early May and is immediately followed by what will be Israel’s 76th Independence Day. This year, Israel will observe Memorial Day from sunset May 12 until sunset May 13.
“On the one hand, it’s a loss on a national scale, and on the other, the loss for each of us is also deeply personal,” Metzler wrote in an opinion piece for The Jerusalem Post.
Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Memorial Day honoring those lives lost in the struggle for Israel to be an independent state, “is different in its character and mood from the American Memorial Day,” according to My Jewish Learning. Advertisement
For example, all businesses and other public venues close for a 24-hour period in remembrance.
Yom Hazikaron begins with a siren that goes off at 8 p.m. in the evening local time, during which all Israeli service members stop what they are doing to stand and remember.
Israel’s Remembrance Day comes as the United States has delayed the shipment of thousands of precision weapons to Israel to pressure the U.S. ally not to invade Rafah, according to reports Tuesday citing U.S. and Israeli officials.
Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose older brother Yonatan Netanyahu was killed during a 1976 raid to free Israeli hostages from Uganda — had made an appeal to Israeli brotherhood in his Remembrance Day address
“Today, more than ever, on the day we remember the heroes of the nation, we must remember that we are brothers: Jews, Druze, Muslims, Bedouins, Christians, Circassians,” Netanyahu said in his 2023 speech at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl Military Cemetery.
Israeli Soldiers pay their respects at Mt. Herzl Military cemetery
An Israeli soldier places a national flag with a black ribbon on the grave of a soldier ahead of Memorial Day for fallen soldiers at the Mt. Herzl Military cemetery in Jerusalem on May 8, 2024. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
