Because of the insistence on delivering a live broadcast speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered into a war of words with his close friend, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein.
Edelstein said Wednesday that lawmakers might refuse to participate in the traditional torch-lighting ceremony on Israel's "Independence Day", expressing discontent with a proposal by Culture Minister Miri Regev to have Netanyahu speak at the event.
“The chairwoman of the Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols, Miri Regev has again raised in recent days the proposal to significantly alter the traditional torch-lighting ceremony on Mt. Herzl,” the speaker wrote in a letter to Knesset employees. He warned that such a move would undercut the most important public event of the year.
“Should the Knesset not be the sole representative of the people in Israel at the ceremony as it is every year, I regret, the Knesset and its people will not be able to take part," Edelstein wrote.
“The ceremony was never the domain of one tribe or another in Israeli society,” he wrote. “It is so beloved precisely because it shows sometimes what we can’t see in the heat of the moment: that our society is one human tapestry whose tremendous achievements stem from the spirit of unity that flows from it. Therefore, it is precisely the Knesset, in which all Israelis’ representatives gather, representing all sectors, ethnicities and varieties of Israeli society, that has traditionally led this special ceremony, with unity, respect and dignity. I have no doubt that if its national character is erased, then the flame will jump off the torches and ignite the divisions between us, which cry out for a respite. We cannot lend a hand to this.”
The letter followed public exchanges between Edelstein and Regev on the disagreement.
