Ron Kerman and Yossi Tzur, two bereaved parents, today sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him not to speak at the main Memorial Day ceremony next week.
In the letter - which was forwarded through the Almagor organization - the two write, also on behalf of their friends, that they were deeply hurt by the delays in releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of the political negotiations, and protest that the speakers at the ceremony are President Shimon Peres and Supreme Court President Asher Grunis. "Three people with a fundamental stake in releasing murderous terrorists from prison!", they say.
Kerman and Tzur continue and write: "Please spare us and the other families of the martyrs of terror your speech this year. Do not attend the ceremony on Mount Herzl and do not speak. Do not direct a 'politician's gaze' at bereaved families, and make promises that you made in the past and did not keep. We have had enough of the abundance of clichés, empty slogans and promises. You do not mean a word, and we no longer believe you or a word you say. Your words and your words will fall on deaf ears anyway.".
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
The two parents note that the three dates of the murderers' release were "three dates that were engraved in our flesh and cut into our hearts. You knowingly hurt us. If you had truly shared our grief and recognized our importance, you could have prevented such unnecessary suffering from us. These days, as if to add insult to injury, the bodies of suicide bombers are being released just like that. This is encouragement for terrorism, and again you could have prevented this move, but you are not doing so. Please, let us go and let us be alone in peace and with respect with our loved one.".
The late soldier Tal Kerman, Ron's daughter, and the teenager Assaf Tzur were murdered in a bus attack on Moriah Boulevard in Haifa, in 2003.
