Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and MK Elazar Stern have reached agreement regarding Stern’s bill, a bill that would permit the families of non-Jewish soldiers to have their fallen loved ones buried alongside Jewish soldiers in an IDF military cemetery.
Stern, a retired IDF major-general and head of Personnel Branch feels that the current policy of prohibiting the burial of non-Jewish soldiers alongside their fellow Jewish soldiers is unacceptable.
In line with the agreement between Stern and Ya’alon, non-Jewish soldiers would be interred in the same section of their Jewish counterparts but in separate rows, not directly alongside as Stern requested. Following the agreement Stern agreed to pull his bill, which was on the schedule for the Ministerial Legislative Committee for Sunday, 29 Tammuz 5773.
Stern told the media on Sunday morning that he reached the agreement with Ya’alon on erev Shabbos (27 Tammuz) and he feels the agreement satisfies his concerns towards sending an important message to the entire Israeli society as well as to the Jewish People in and outside of Israel.
“I commend the defense minister on his decision in the matter. Today, an injustice was corrected, one that existed many years. I am pleased the matter was addressed by mutual agreement rather than having to compel the change via legislation for in essence, the bill intended to create a more respectable and united reality.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Any attempt at achdus is agood thing.
B’H for Menachem Begin Z’L, he chose to be interred on Har haZeisim alongside these 2 soldiers who blew themselves up the nite before the British could kill them, so he is Zoche not to have to be dependent upon a Defense Minister’s solution.
BTW those two soldiers were favorites of Rav Aryeh Levin zt”l, and a visit to the Russian Compound prison will give you a great education about those pre 1948 days.