National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke today (Tuesday) at the Israel Police's Memorial Day ceremony on Mount Herzl.
The minister said: "They tell the story of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, who once came to a yeshiva student from Beit Vegan to tell him that he wanted to go north to the graves of the righteous. The rabbi looked at him and said, "Why north?" The rabbi pointed toward Mount Herzl and said to the young man: "There is Mount Herzl, where hundreds and thousands of righteous people are buried. Go and pray there.".
The Israeli calendar is perhaps the most difficult and complex of all. It is a calendar that carries within it the tradition of our ancestors, alongside a renewed Zionism. It is a calendar that reminds us of our deep roots, the heavy price we paid, and we are still paying, for the right to live in our land.
That calendar in which, in one such Israeli week, we all go through one jolt after another, from a beacon of rebirth, from memory and heroism, to celebrations of joy. The sirens that pierce the air and penetrate deep into our hearts, as we bow our heads in memory of those heroes, are the most Israeli moment of the year for many of us.
A few minutes throughout the year that leave behind, for a short time, perhaps even too short, all the disputes, everything that divides, everything that distances us from each other, and emphasize that we are one people, in one small country, which this year, praise be to the Creator, showed the entire world its strength and power.
The power and might they projected into the world came with a heavy price, paid by heroes and heroines who were and are no longer.
The pain? Tremendous. And the words? Words are not always enough to comfort. What do you say to a little girl whose father will no longer accompany her on her way to the wedding? How do you explain to a child that his father will no longer take him to a soccer game? How do you comfort a husband whose wife will no longer be waiting for him when he returns home? What words can possibly offer comfort to a woman whose only desire is to caress her lover one last time?
And when there are no words, sometimes silence suffices, "Vaidum Aharon." Silence filled with gratitude, appreciation, bowing of the head, and the promise that is the most important and most important Israeli commandment of all, that their death will not be in vain, that we will be worthy.
And alongside that powerful silence, a pair of words that repeat themselves time and time again, 'Let us be worthy.' These two words, 'Let us be worthy,' are no longer an expression for me as Minister of National Security. They have become my work plan.
A plan that I implement every day, every time I go into the field, with every law that passes, every time we give support to our police officers, our warriors, our prison warriors, we always have the obligation to 'be worthy.'.
I stand before you today, the bereaved families of Israel Police officers and IPS fighters, and I pledge to you that we will continue to be worthy.
Worthy of their courage. Worthy of their determination. Worthy of their sacrifice. The legacy of the fallen requires us not only to remember, but to act.
October 7th was a moment of testing, a very sad moment, it is also a moment of great opportunity, of great spirit, an opportunity to change the concept, an opportunity to re-establish deterrence, the status of the IDF, the police, the Prison Service, and Israel as a superpower. We embraced some of these opportunities with both hands.
I am proud that we have an army, Mossad, and Shin Bet that eliminated Sinwar, Nasrallah, and Khamenei, and tens of thousands of other murderers. I am proud of our police, that on 7/10 policemen and women, fighters left their homes, sometimes with only a gun against heavy Hamas weapons, and managed to save the situation. I am proud of our prison service, which completely changed its previous worldview, and today the summer camps have been stopped, there is order in the prisons, there is governance, there is determination, there is sovereignty.
I say here, in front of the graves of the heroes and the righteous, our duty is not only to remember, our duty is to 'be worthy.'.
Together we will build, together we will continue the journey, together we will continue the legacy they left us, and with God's help, together we will win and will win a complete victory over our enemies so that our children can sit here in peace.
"May God avenge their blood.".
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