Bereaved families left out of Western Wall ceremony
Several families of Protective Edge fallen soldiers were forced to return home due to overcrowding at inauguration of 75 Torah scrolls in troops' memory.
Soon before the ceremony began, the gates for the closed-off area were closed because of overcrowding and several members of the bereaved families invited were left out, furious.
The ceremony's host, Yehoram Gaon, announced that he was postponing the ceremony's opening until all the families could enter, and called upon the ushers to hurry up and make sure this happened. But some of the families were still left out.
Ilan, the father of Sagi Erez, who was killed in the pillbox incident at Nahal Oz, said: "I feel that they exploited us, used us and threw us out. We reached the Western Wall area, we took the day off, and suddenly we discover that they were not letting us enter. They drilled us all the way to Jerusalem, told us it was a ceremony for the inauguration of Torah scrolls in honor of those fallen during Operation Protective Edge, but in the end we found out that only two Torah scrolls were donated for that war while the other books were for all those fallen in Israel's wars. All the families got there, we waited for hours, no one talked to us and in the end we had to return home because we were not allowed to enter."
Erez said that following the incident, he decided to resign from Yad Labanim, the association for families of fallen soldiers.
"It's just a disgrace. I'm so upset by what happened to us there. And I'm not the only one. There were mothers who cried because of the situation. It really is not respectful, a year after we lost what's most precious to us, we have to face this humiliation. No one made sure there was order, it was overcrowded," he said.
Alon Carmeli, father of the late Sean Carmeli, the lone soldier whose funeral was attended by 20,000 people, added: "There was massive chaos, disorganization and distress for all of us. Now we're headed back home because we were not allowed to enter. We waited for hours and they never let us in. I feel really humiliated. They invited us here to Jerusalem, they reserved chairs for us, but did not welcome us."
During the ceremony held at the Western Wall, 75 Torah scrolls were inaugurated in memory of the casualties of Operation Protective Edge, both soldiers and civilians. The ceremony was attended by families of the fallen, President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Shin Bet Yoram Cohen, the Commissioner of Prisons, army generals and many others.
Yad Labanim said in response, "The ceremony was in honor and in memory of all the fallen soldiers of Israel. We regret that due to the constraints of tight security restrictions of the Israeli Police some parents felt uncomfortable. Yad Labanim and the organization's head embrace the families on this special night, giving honor to our fallen at this historic event of deep significance for all Jews everywhere in the world."
