Parallel to the torch-lighting ceremony at Mount Herzl, an alternative torch-lighting ceremony (called the 'Democratic-Liberal Torch-Lighting Ceremony') was held in Tel Aviv. Knesset member Naama Lazimi (The Democrats) spoke: 'We are here because we care. We care about Kiryat Shmona, not for votes at the ballot box, but because they are citizens of the state who have been abandoned! We care that waiting for a doctor takes months, that mental health has become a luxury in a reality of national trauma.' She added: 'We care that human life has become cheap here, from the lack of protection to citizens who are murdered just because they are a minority abandoned to the Wild West of crime organizations—the right to life and security is not a luxury, it is the basic duty of a state.'