Violence disrupts shared grief on Israel’s Memorial Day

The deep divisions in Israeli society were dramatically illustrated by reactions to the annual joint Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) ceremony last week.

For the Israelis and Palestinians who participitated, the joint mourning is an opportunity to overcome hate and move towards a shared future, as Ittay Flescher and Hannah Chester reported for The Jewish Independent. .

But the ceremony also drew violent protest and exposed a lack of political willingness to stand up against extremism.

Protesters against the ceremony broke into a synagogue which was screening the ceremony, with eyewitnesses reporting that stones were hurled, objects thrown, and fireworks set off nearby. The activists reportedly chased attendees, shouting “May your village burn” and “Go to Gaza.”

The offenders were among dozens of right-wing activists protesting outside the Beit Samueli synagogue, home to a Reform congregation in Ra’anana.

As the violence and threats escalated, attendees were forced to flee for their lives. Police began evacuating the viewers in small groups towards their vehicles while dozens of right-wing protesters continued to pursue them. In video footage, the mob can be seen chanting “Death to terrorists,” “Not in our country,” and “All Arabs are whores.”

Despite advance warnings of the planned attack, police initially dispatched only a single patrol car. Later, the police reported that only three individuals had been detained, and they were released shortly afterwards.

Congregants and attendees described the atmosphere as “like a pogrom.” One woman was hospitalised after a stone broke her car window and struck her shoulder. Hilli Battler, the synagogue’s office manager, said the intimidation began that morning. “We were very frightened all day as we went in and out of the building. We saw people lurking outside; we received threatening phone calls telling us to cancel the event,” Battler told Haaretz’s Allison Kaplan Sommer. “We saw incitement online, with posts accusing attendees of being terrorism supporters who would be honouring Hamas,” he added.

Beit Samueli, which has housed the Kehillat Ra’anan congregation since 1986, has been a target before. Like many Reform synagogues in Israel, it has faced vandalism from opponents of liberal Judaism. Graffiti has repeatedly defaced the building, and the congregation’s rabbis have been boycotted or heckled at public events – most recently at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rabbi Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni, the synagogue’s senior rabbi, said that congregants feared for their lives while trapped inside. “The scenes from last night echo dark chapters in our history, when Jews were attacked in their houses of prayer. But this time, the horror was compounded: the attackers were Jews themselves,” she said. “It is natural, after such a night, to feel anger or even hatred. But we must resist… If we give in to that darkness, our Judaism – built on compassion – will be defeated.”

The synagogue vowed to continue its mission. “We will not be silenced,” Rabbi Ben-Or Tsfoni declared. “This synagogue will remain a place of prayer, peace, and moral courage.”

The head of Likud in Ra’anana, Racheli Ben Ari Sakat, expressed support for the violence and issued threats against “Israel’s oppressors.”

On Facebook, she wrote: “To the left in Ra’anana, this is just the opening shot. Don’t test us… Everyone who came from outside Ra’anana – stay away from here, don’t disgrace the city. And those in Ra’anana, you’ve been warned. We will not remain silent any longer; we will come out in droves.”

Earlier, she had called to prevent the screening, denouncing it as an attempt to equate Israel’s fallen soldiers with Hamas’ Nukhba terrorists.

The violent right-wing attack on the Reform synagogue in Ra’anana is the kind of event that demands a firm, uncompromising response. Instead, it was met with shameful silence from most opposition leaders and inaction by the police.

Only Yair Golan, the leader of the Democrats party, spoke out. Even Ra’anana resident and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – who once called attendees of the alternative ceremony “mourners of baby killers and terrorists who blow up buses” – remained silent. Bennett recently registered a new political party and has been courting centrist voters. No one in Likud condemned their branch head’s threats. The city’s mayor, Chaim Broyde, also failed to issue any statement on the violence.

President Isaac Herzog did speak on Saturday with Rabbi Ben-Or Tsfoni, condemning the attack and offering support to the community. In the call, Herzog stressed that violence and intimidation “have no place in Israeli society” and emphasised the importance of protecting freedom of expression and assembly for all citizens, regardless of political or religious affiliation.

What happened in Ra’anana is neither unusual nor a one-off, as Haaretz pointed out in a critical editorial. “The violent, predatory right is throttling any attempt at Israeli-Palestinian communication. Certain films are banned, those who empathise with Palestinian suffering are arrested, and the annual Nakba march was cancelled under police threats. Israel is cloistering itself around a single, ultranationalist, racist voice that silences all alternatives. Opposing this is a weak, cowardly opposition.”

“To speak out, to stand with Palestinians, to reject the violent mob now claiming to represent the Jewish mainstream is to risk condemnation, arrest, and attack,” writes Etan Nechin in Haaretz. “The gutless liberal leaders who should be on the front lines are cowering before the right’s assault. They are terrified of being labelled ‘pro-Palestinian’ or accused of antisemitism, even as the right weaponises those terms to suppress dissent and push a repressive agenda. In this political atmosphere, a pogrom at a synagogue is acceptable – as long as it’s a Reform synagogue and the perpetrators are the ‘right’ kind of Jews.”

READ MORE

Ra'anana Rabbi says people 'feared for their lives' as far-right mob stormed Reform synagogue (Haaretz, Allison Kaplan Sommer)

Herzog condemns attack on Ra’anana synagogue: ‘Hatred and violence have no place here' (Jerusalem Post)

Israeli Right-wingers staged a pogrom against Reform Jews – and the opposition stays silent (Haaretz, Editorial)

From Brooklyn to Ra'anana, violence against Jews is fine, if it comes from right-wing Jews (Haaretz, Etan Nechin)