Tzachi Wachsman, the brother of Nachshon Wachsman, a soldier who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 1994 after a failed rescue operation, slammed the “Israeli-Palestinian joint memorial ceremony” in light of the Supreme Court's decision to allow the entry of 100 Palestinian Arabs into the ceremony.
"I am shocked by the holding of an alternative memorial ceremony, with the encouragement of the Supreme Court, in memory of terrorists with the participation of their families," Wachsman wrote on his Facebook account: "This decision makes me feel doubly sad and grieved on the day of remembrance for our holy fallen. I feel frustrated and humiliated that this is my country.”
"Can something be done? I am trembling with anger, please Jews help me," added the bereaved brother. "The tears do not stop. How long will we continue to be trampled and despised by the so-called enlightened who extend their necks to the slaughter? You can hold your ceremonies on any day of the year, why hurt tens of thousands of families who are reunited with their loved ones on this holy day? Come on.”
Earlier, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin attacked the court's decision.
"If anyone needed further proof of the vital and immediate need for a fundamental reform of the judicial system, especially a change in the face of the Supreme Court, he has it in the form of the outrageous ruling on the entry of Palestinians into Israel," Levin said.
"It's regrettable that precisely at this time, on the eve of Memorial Day and Independence Day, the court again chooses that which separates over that which unifies," he added.
In the ruling, Supreme Court Justice Anat Baron wrote: "Sometimes, bereavement, a kind of shared fate, can be a source of identification and unity, as difficult as it is to say."
"The heavy price paid by the participants has the ability to bring hearts closer and break walls that separate those who by definition belong to two camps," the judge wrote.