New memorial hall to be built for fallen soldiers, security agents

The cornerstone was laid for a new memorial building for fallen soldiers and security agents at the Mount Herzl military cemetery on Wednesday. The structure is expected to be completed in two years.

It will include the name of every fallen soldier or agent from each arm of Israel’s security establishment — the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad, Shin Bet security agency, Israel Police, Border Police, and Israel Prison Service. On the date of each person’s death, a light will turn on beside his or her name.

Credit: Defense Ministry 

The hall, an initiative put forward by the defense establishment, will be 18 meters (59 feet) high and will be built in the shape of a torch. At its center, there will be an eternal memorial flame. The building was planned by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects in partnership with Kalush-Chechik Architects.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino all attended the foundation stone laying ceremony at Mount Herzl.

Also at the ceremony were Yad Labanim Chairman Eli Ben-Shem, IDF Widows and Orphans Organization head Nava Shoham Solan and representatives of bereaved families. Head of the Families and Commemoration Department at the Defense Ministry, Aryeh Moalem, spearheaded the project.

„Our national journey, which allowed us to rise from the ashes and to ingather the exiles of thousands of years, is a shared destiny,” Netanyahu said at Wednesday’s ceremony. „The lifelong alliance of the fallen Jews, and alongside them our fellow gentiles, who fought shoulder to shoulder and gave their lives so that Israel could live in security and peace.”

Ya’alon said that the hall will be, „A joint home for the pain, the memory, the self-sacrifice and care, for the fallen and for life.”

„May the list never get longer”

An integral part of preparations for next week’s Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers is the „flags for the fallen” ceremony, which took place for the twelfth time this year at the Mount Herzl cemetery. During the ceremony, Israeli flags adorned with black ribbons were placed on the graves of fallen soldiers. Gantz saluted the fallen IDF soldiers and security agents.

Head of the Israel Defense Forces Personnel Directorate Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai also took part in the flag ceremony as did Ben-Shem. Flags will be placed on every grave by Memorial Day on Monday.

„The tombstones of the fallen may look alike,” Gantz said at the ceremony, „And the earth the covers the graves is the same — the earth of the Israel they loved, but each and every one of the soldiers buried here is a unique piece of Israeli society.”

The Israel Police is also preparing for Memorial Day, with Danino and Itai, the son of murdered Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi [LINK: www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=16879%5D placing Israeli flags on the graves in the police section of the Mount Herzl cemetery.

This is the seventh year the flag ceremony has taken place for fallen police officers. By Monday, flags will be placed on the graves of 1,417 police officers. „As the commander of the Israel Police, I feel great honor and pride in placing the flag of the Israel Police on the grave of the last fallen [police officer] who was buried here on Mount Herzl, as I pray and hope that the list [of the fallen] never gets longer,” Danino said.

Speaking about Mizrahi’s murder, Danino said, „The incident is still so fresh that the ceremony today takes us back to the funeral. The wound is still open in our hearts. A shocking incident that touched the hearts of every Israeli.”