Isaac Herzog, April 25th, 2023
Isaac Herzog, April 25th, 2023Erik Marmor/Flash90

Israeli President Isaac Herzog commemorated Israeli victims of terrorism Tuesday afternoon, during a state ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.

During his address at the event, two hours after a ceremony on Mount Herzl honoring fallen Israeli soldiers, Herzog urged the public to keep politics out of Memorial Day events.

"Once more, like every year, we meet here; and this year, I appeal to the entire public in Israel, as I appealed to you at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem, and as I appealed to you last night at the State Ceremony at the Western Wall, and ask that we cast off our arguments, remove the barriers, wrap ourselves in pain and longing, and commune with the memory of your loved ones—our loved ones."

Herzog referenced the recent string of Arab terror attacks, including the April 7th shooting in the Jordan Valley that left three members of the Dee family dead.

"Those who in recent weeks, painfully and tragically, have been joined by three pairs of sisters and brothers. The beautiful and cherished, never parted in life or in death! And the many more victims, who this year have joined the overly-long list of victims, that heartbreaking list on the walls of this memorial, which pulses with the heartbeats of an entire nation; paying the price for our sovereign liberty here, on the soil of our homeland."

"I remember that we stood here last year, hoping and praying that the family of grief would grow no more. I remember, we all remember, that just one day later, at the end of Independence Day, in Elad, there was a brutal massacre, which shocked us all."

"Since then, over the past year, Michal and I have been visiting and offering comfort at the bereaved homes of every single family that saw its world destroyed and joined the circle of grief. All across the land; people of every faith, worldview, and lifestyle, veteran Israelis and immigrants. Each family, with its own story. Each family, with its own unbearable tragedy."

Herzog also eulogized the two young victims of the deadly ramming attack in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood in February.

"Today, I wish to tell you about two such encounters: one day apart, we visited two bereaved households. Where we met two mothers. So different and so similar. Two women whose lives disintegrated in a moment. The first, Devorah Paley, from Jerusalem, the mother of five-year-old Yaakov Yisrael and four-year-old Asher Menachem, Ushi."

"These two tender boys were murdered in a terror attack as they waited at a bus stop, wearing their Shabbat finest, on their way to a family celebration. Their father, Avraham, was seriously wounded in that attack. Devorah Paley, a woman of noble spirit, in the advanced stages of pregnancy, welcomed us with her remaining children, radiating an extraordinary power. Out of her terrible, private grief, Devorah strengthened our spirits."

"The following morning, in the Bedouin village of Hussniyya, in the Misgav Regional Council in the Galilee, I met Saada Sawaed, mother of Border Police fighter sergeant Asil Sawaed, who fell in a terror attack in Jerusalem. Through a broken heart and heavy tears, Saada told me how throughout Asil’s service, she hadn’t slept; she had sat up every night, waiting for her beloved son to return. And he did not return."

"This image of the two mothers, Devorah and Saada, is an image that tells the whole Israeli story. For them and their families, and for each and every family—in Tel Aviv, in Elad, and in Nof HaGalil, in Kisra-Sumei, in Har Bracha, and in Bnei Brak, in Kibbutz Ginossar, in Efrat, in Jerusalem, and in many other places—it is the same pain. The same fate. The same heroism. That bears the same suffering."