Cabinet okays memorial hall for nation’s fallen

The hall, which will cost NIS 40 million, will commemorate all of the nation’s fallen.

By HERB KEINON
PROPOSED memorial hall at Mount Herzl 370 (photo credit: Defense Ministry)
PROPOSED memorial hall at Mount Herzl 370
(photo credit: Defense Ministry)
The cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved the establishment of a memorial hall at Mount Herzl as a central location for the commemoration of the nation’s fallen soldiers and fighters.
The decision came two days before this year’s commemoration of Remembrance Day, which begins Tuesday evening.
The hall, which will cost NIS 40 million, will commemorate all of the nation’s fallen and serve as a central location for official government memorial ceremonies.
“We do not have a central hall to commemorate all the fallen of Israel’s battles,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
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“After 10 years of discussing this, the time has come to make a decision. We are a nation steeped in memory. We are doing this out of a deep appreciation of the contribution of the fallen, and I hope there will not be a need for other places like this.”
The hall will be built in the shape of a torch rising some 18 meters where a flame will burn all year long. The walls of the hall will be lined with bricks with the names of the fallen soldiers engraved in chronological order.