Bennett at Memorial Day ceremony in Holon
Bennett at Memorial Day ceremony in HolonSpokesperson

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) took part in a Memorial Day ceremony in the Holon military cemetery Monday morning, honoring Israel’s fallen soldiers.

“Whoever goes out to fight understands that he may not make it back,” Bennett said in an address during the ceremony. “Those who send their children to the IDF know that the knock on the door [of an army official notifying them of their child’s death] could be coming. Despite that, your sons and daughters chose to defend the state, to defend us. Your daughters and sons stood up and said, ‘here I am’.

“We can never bring back those who have fallen. We can’t assuage [the grief of those mourning the fallen]. But we can resolve to be more worthy of you.

“More worthy of you’re [sacrifice] when we’re arguing amongst ourselves; more worth of you by stopping incitement between people; more worthy of you [by expressing] baseless love rather than baseless hatred, and by stopping people from labelling one another.

“We should be more worthy of the ultimate sacrifice you made for the people united, and not, heaven forbid, a contentious and divided people.

“The State of Israel - we and the state’s leaders especially – need to resolve to promote greater national unity, so that we can be more worthy of your sacrifices, dear families.”