In a reversal, a former Israel Defense Forces soldier who fought in Jerusalem during the Six Day War and recently lost his son in the October 7 terror onslaught will take part in an upcoming ceremony for Jerusalem Day ceremony, after Hebrew media reports said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had him barred him from participating for political reasons.
Shai Hermesh is a former MK from the now-defunct Kadima party. He and his family live in Kfar Aza, where Hamas terrorists rampaged as part of their October 7 attack, in which Hermesh’s son Omer was murdered.
According to Hebrew media reports on Friday, Hermesh was considered a particularly suitable candidate to read a memorial prayer during a state ceremony at Ammunition Hill on Jerusalem Day, which marks the city’s reunification following the 1967 war. However, he was blocked from participating over a column he wrote in the Haaretz daily describing the government as being “held hostage by a group of messianists,” referring to some ministers as convicted criminals and referencing Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Worded as a letter to Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri, Hermesh reminisced about a time when the two were friends in both their political and personal lives, before criticizing him for being part of a government “that is willing to sacrifice the hostages for agendas that will turn the State of Israel into to a dark, homophobic, and anti-minority kingdom.”
After reports that Hermesh was barred from the ceremony garnered heavy criticism, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs denied that Netanyahu was responsible, saying that arrangements were under the purview of a government department that arranges state events and ceremonies.
“After seeing the reports, I brought the issue to the prime minister’s attention, and at his instruction, I contacted the ceremonies department requesting them to allow Mr. Hermesh to lead the memorial prayer at the ceremony at Ammunition Hill,” Fuchs said.
However, Fuchs sent a screenshot of the column in a message seen by the Ynet news site to the chairman of the foundation that manages Ammunition Hill, writing, “There’s no way he can represent this year… look what he wrote.”
The report said the foundation tried to convince the Prime Minister’s Office to let Hermesh, unsuccessfully arguing he would not use the event to advance a political agenda and noting he was to read a prayer and not give a speech.
According to the Walla news site, President Isaac Herzog’s office told the Prime Minister’s Office before Fuchs’s statement that the president would boycott the ceremony if Hermesh was not allowed to participate.
Meanwhile, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and Economy Minister Nir Barkat slammed Netanyahu over the reports.
Gantz ripped into the decision, calling it “an unprecedented low.”
“I urge you to call him, apologize and inform him that he will lead the memorial prayer at the ceremony,” Gantz wrote on X. “Bringing political considerations into bereavement dismantles the most sacred foundations of Israeli society.”
Barkat, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said “political interference against a bereaved father is a disgrace and breaks all of the Israeli rules of morals and respect for bereaved families.”
Barkat urged Netanyahu to change his mind and added that as a former “mayor of Jerusalem, officer in the Paratroopers Brigade, and a member of the government, I apologize to Shai Hermesh and his family for this shameful behavior.”
The minister added that Hermesh had the right to criticize the prime minister as well as other elected officials, and still be able to read a prayer for his son.