Knesset to hold more modest Remembrance Day event, saving over NIS 1 million

The annual “Singing in their Memory” ceremony will be held in the legislature’s Chagall Hall instead of in the outdoor plaza.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Peres and Gantz at Remembrance Day ceremony (photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
Peres and Gantz at Remembrance Day ceremony
(photo credit: Mark Neiman/GPO)
The Knesset will spend less than half of what it did last year on the official Remembrance Day ceremony on May 4, a Knesset source said on Thursday.
The annual “Singing in their Memory” ceremony, hosted by the Knesset with the Defense Ministry and National Insurance Institute, will be held in the legislature’s Chagall Hall for the first time.
In previous years, the ceremony took place in the plaza in front of the Knesset, with a stage and bleachers installed especially for the occasion.
The Knesset also provided water bottles and fleece blankets, because of the cold and intense winds.
This year, the Knesset will save over NIS 1 million on those expenses and hold the ceremony in its main event hall.
During the ceremony, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen and Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino, among others, will read poetry dedicated to fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism In addition, singers Shlomi Shabbat, Ruhama Raz, Natan Goshen, Yuval Dayan, Liron Lev, Rivka Zohar, IDF chief cantor Shai Abramson and army bands will perform.
Short films about the deceased will be shown, including one featuring Raz and her family speaking about her sister, who was killed in the 1989 Bus 405 terrorist attack. Another film focuses on Tamir Nabuani, the first Druse soldier to almost finish training for the IDF’s General Staff Reconnaissance Unit.