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Cabinet ministers on Memorial Day regularly attend memorial services around the country, representing the government. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on this Memorial Day represented the cabinet in the central ceremony in the Druse community of Ossifeyeh. Also participating in the event was the religious leader of the Druse community, Mouafeq Tariff, Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara and prominent members of Israel’s Druse community.

Deri laid a wreath on the kevarim of the community’s fallen, telling participants that the Druse community has lost 410 members of the community in Israel’s security forces, “symbolizing the shared fate” between Israel and the Druse community.

Deri added “The cemetery is the symbol of the heroism of those who gave their lives for others. As a resident of Har Nof, Jerusalem, I will not forget the policeman from the Druse community who gave his life to defend the mispallalim in the attack in the shul in the neighborhood”.

Before the ceremony, Deri visited the monument to the fallen in the Carmel blaze disaster in the Carmel Forest. Deri stood silent there during the siren, reciting Tehillim. He then met with and spoke to widows of those killed in the tragic fire, which claimed 44 lives including 37 cadets in an Israel Prison Authority training program, three policepersons and three firefighters”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)