Knesset marks Remembrance Day with songs and poetry

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Police Chief Insp.-Gen. Roni Alsheikh all read poems at the event.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein stand in silence among others at the Knesset's Remembrance Day ceremony on April 17th, 2018. (photo credit: ISAAC HARARI / KNESSET SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Sara Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein stand in silence among others at the Knesset's Remembrance Day ceremony on April 17th, 2018.
(photo credit: ISAAC HARARI / KNESSET SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)
The Knesset remembered the slain Tuesday night, with its traditional Remembrance Ceremony based on songs and poems written by and in memory of soldiers.
The songs and poems were interspersed with memorials for specific soldiers and victims of terrorism, from Eli Ben-Zvi who died in the War of Independence in 1948, days before he was set to be married, to the Israelis killed in two attacks that took place in July of last year: Kamil Shanan and Camil Shanan and Haiel Sitawi, the border policemen murdered on the Temple Mount last summer, and Yossi, Chaya and Elad Salomon, a father and his two adult children, murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Yossi’s home.
In one of the night’s most moving moments, Reut Salomon, the young daughter of Elad, who lost her father, aunt and grandfather, eulogized her father, and paid tribute to her mother, who made sure the children stayed quiet, while they heard their relatives being killed below. Reut broke down in tears several times during her remarks.
In a video shown during the ceremony, Miri Firstenberg told the story of how she lost her entire family in 1954, in the massacre in Ma’aleh Akravim, on a bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat. She hid from the terrorists and survived, and was adopted by a kibbutz.