Rafanel's parents
צילום: אוראל הרשקו
Police to bereaved father: Will you cause a ruckus?
Following tumult created by bereaved families at Kadima Rosh Hashana banquet, police arrive at bereaved father Moshe Muskal's house to ascertain if he plans on demonstrating during remembrance ceremony for fallen paratroopers. Muskal outraged: 'What kind of hallucinatory state are we living in?' Police chief: 'Issue taken care of with maximal sensitivity'
Moshe Muskal, father of fallen soldier Rafanel Muskal who was killed in the Lebanon war, was surprised to receive a telephone call for the Shfela district police during which a police officer asked if he could come to his house to talk with him.
When the police met the bereaved father, he was shocked to discover that the reason they bothered themselves to come all the way to his front door was to ascertain if he intended "to make a ruckus" at a ceremony commemorating fallen paratroopers, expected to take place Wednesday. Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Defense Minister Peretz are slated to participate in the ceremony.
Muskal told Ynet: "In the afternoon, a local policeman called me and told me that he and an intelligence officer of the Shfela district want to come visit me. I didn't really understand why, but I said it would be okay and that they could come over. Within a quarter of an hour they were at my house.
"After the officer found the words, he said that they sent him from by command about the assembly in order to check if I am planning on doing some sort of something. I looked at him a moment and then answered that there is a difference between a Rosh Hashana banquet and a memorial ceremony. After they had apologized and were about to leave, I looked at him and asked him: What kind of hallucinatory state are we living in?"
Rehovot Police Chief Alon Levavi explained, "In light of the fact that past events have been accompanied by protest, we needed to know if there is an intention to make a scene again. The issue was taken care of with maximal sensitivity."
'Reminiscent of oppressive regimes'
Last week, Muskal participated in the Rosh Hashana banquet of Kadima where he made calls to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The ceremony, which was supposed to be festive, turned very quickly into a confrontation zone between the prime minister, bereaved parents, and reservists.
One of the bereaved fathers who came to the banquet with a Golani Brigade flag, wove the flag while making shaming remarks about the prime minister. There were even comments calling Olmert a "murderer."
From the headquarters of the reservists' struggle, it was reported in response, "It is appropriate that the prime minister and his associates focus on investigating the failures of the war and not the bereaved families and the reservists. One cannot compare political events such as a banquet with commemoration of soldiers who fell while serving duty. Such a comparison is outrageous and there is no doubt that such a ceremony is no place for expressing any kind of protest."
Dr. Udi Lebel, a political psychology professor at Ben Gurion University in the Negev, said to Ynet, "This is a grave step, both from a democratic perspective and from the perspective to all connected with the relations between the current regime and the bereaved families. Marking bereaved families as an enemy only because their position is against the government is an ethical deterioration reminiscent of oppressive regimes."
