Israel came to a halt with a two-minute memorial siren on Monday commemorating its 3,117 victims of terrorism and 23,544 soldiers who fell since before the establishment of the Jewish state.
Traffic significantly increased to Israel’s 52 military cemeteries, as well the military sections in hundreds of other cemeteries, as some 1.5 million Israelis came to pay their respects to the dead on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day.
The official Yom Hazikaron ceremony started at 11 AM on Monday at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, with IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Karim reading a prayer for the dead, The Times of Israel reported. The memorial day began at 8 PM the previous evening, with a one-minute siren calling Israelis across the country to attention.
@lufthansa flight on eve of #Israel's Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers & Victims of Terror. #Israelis pay their respects. #Awe @StandWithUs pic.twitter.com/thYHiF3Snt
— Shahar Azani (@ShaharAzani) May 1, 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Sunday evening at Jerusalem’s Yad Labanim, or Memorial for the Sons, saying that the nation’s “mutual guarantee and shared fate … is the true source of our strength, and to a high degree unique to the State of Israel. It is our unique source of resilience and strength.”
Together we bow our heads in memory of the 23,544 who fell in our nation’s battles and the thousands who were killed by murderous terrorists pic.twitter.com/tgkL4zf838
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 30, 2017
According to official figures, 23,544 men and women died defending the pre-state Jewish community and the Jewish state since 1860. The names of 97 soldiers were added since last year, including 37 who were injured previously but succumbed to their wounds over the past year.
“By this wall of tears and of hopes, this evening, 50 years after the liberation of Jerusalem, we remember: our liberty is sacred, both sacred and hard,” President Reuven Rivlin told bereaved families at an official commemoration ceremony at the Western Wall on Sunday. “We know that there is a price to be paid for our existence here, for our liberty. There is a price, and we, in awe and terror, are willing to pay that price.”
“Dear bereaved families, we are living that privilege. You paid the price. The price of our liberty purchased in blood,” Rivlin said.
Remembering Israel's fallen heroes. The IDF is all of us: it defends us, we defend it. Together we fall, and together we stand #YomHaZikaron pic.twitter.com/bmeKaZqOOQ
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) April 30, 2017
Attending the annual @JewishAgency Yom HaZikaron ceremony memorializing victims of antisemitic attacks around the world. pic.twitter.com/AGHWFC8Aq8
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 1, 2017
[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube ]