Bereaved parents call to lower tensions
Following the shouting in the Knesset last week between MKs and the parents of fallen soldiers, a group of families write an open letter with a message of unity.
Following the heated exchange between MKs and bereaved family members of fallen soldiers in the Knesset last week, and ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day, families who lost loved ones in Operation Protective Edge published an open letter to the public, including a message of unity: “We ask everyone to lower the flames and not to encourage the division and humiliation that cause harm In the memory of our sons.”
The letter begins, “Recently, a number of publications have been published in the name of bereaved parents from Protective Edge. The latest of which was a letter in which a bereaved parents’ group refused to accept the prime minister’s apology for the incident in which several Knesset members attacked one of them, who had expressed himself exceptionally sharply against the Knesset members and the prime minister.
“We are also a group of bereaved parents from Operation Protective Edge. We see it as our duty to announce that we do not speak for all bereaved parents, and all that can be said is that some parents think one way, and some think differently.
“Unfortunately, the political inclinations of some of the parents are being heard in the context of our sons’ deaths. So far, both bereaved parents and elected officials have tried to keep the memory of the fallen out of the political fray. This delicate line has been broken recently.”
The letter later notes, “Everyone in the State of Israel belongs to a bereaved family, if not in practice, then potentially. Everyone serves in the army or sends his children and grandchildren to the army. A large part of the nation serves in reserves, and in principal, despite our having paid a heavy price for life here, in an independent Israel, we support the existing political system and believe that the government is replaced at elections.”
