Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf (UTJ) announced on Wednesday morning that he will not participate in the Memorial Day ceremony in Kiryat Gat after he learned that there is a fear that he will be attacked by protesters, which would desecrate the holy day.
Instead, he announced that he will travel to Jerusalem and dedicate time to read Psalms in memory of the fallen soldiers and victims of terror.
On Tuesday, Haim Saadon, who lost his brother Avner in Lebanon in 1972 and signed a letter to Minister Goldknopf asking him not to come to the ceremony, told Maariv: "I, as a bereaved brother for over 50 years, simply feel insulted by the way this is being done. People who preach not to enlist in the military come to speak about fallen soldiers, I'm not even talking about Goldknopf's personal behavior.
"It's not just him, it's all the haredi ministers who go; they insult us by the fact that they don't enlist, and they insult us that on the holiest and most significant day of the year for us, they want to come and speak at the state ceremony. I think you can't lend a hand to this."