Yair Lapid hosted the Tel Aviv Municipality’s Remembrance Day ceremony, “Singing
in the Square,” on Tuesday night, despite protests and controversy surrounding
his role.
“Singing in the Square,” which took place in Rabin Square and
featured popular singers such as Mosh Ben-Ari, Omer Adam, Yoni Rechter, Zahav
Ben and others performing songs about fallen IDF soldiers, is Tel Aviv’s
official ceremony and is broadcast on Channel 10.
Lapid, a former news
anchor who came up with the idea, has been hosting the ceremony for the past 15
years. In addition, short documentaries about the fallen are shown.
In
the weeks leading up to the ceremony, various politicians, groups representing
bereaved families and others spoke out against Lapid hosting the event, as he
plans to run for a Knesset seat.
However, during the ceremony, Lapid
refrained from saying anything that could be interpreted as political. In fact,
he did not make any personal comments, simply introducing and reading poems
about and by fallen soldiers.
Last month, Lapid wrote on his Facebook
page that he had originated “Singing in the Square” and could continue to host
it without making it political.
Unlike in previous years, Army Radio did
not broadcast the ceremony, choosing to air the Remembrance Day event at the
Knesset, instead. One of the reasons the station cited is that “the ceremony in
Tel Aviv will be moderated by a political person.”
Meanwhile, the Almagor
Terror Victims Association held an alternative ceremony in the plaza in front of
the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, in protest of Lapid’s central role in “Singing in
the Square.”
“We are angry and do not understand how, despite the
requests of families of victims of terror not to give a platform to politicians
on Remembrance Day, Yair Lapid took advantage of a loophole that allows him to
get into every home in the country,” the organization stated.
On Monday,
the High Court rejected a petition by attorney Assaf Even-Chen for an injunction
to stop Lapid from participating in “Singing in the Square.”
The High
Court’s reasoning was technical, relying on the fact that because Even-Chen did
not include Lapid or Channel 10 in the petition and because he did not submit
the complaint far enough in advance.
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