Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke this morning (Wednesday) at the state memorial ceremony for the first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula, at the grave site in Sde Boker and said: "I ask for your forgiveness for what is happening here."
He added: "But forgiveness is not enough. We will not be silent or rest until we fix it and change the situation."
"I did not come today to eulogize Ben-Gurion, I came to apologize to him. What is happening today in the State of Israel is contrary to everything he believed in, to every commandment he left us," Lapid said, adding, "These days a new government is being established in Israel, it does not believe in it. No In equality for women, not in equality for LGBT people, not in political equality, not in social equality and certainly not in equality for non-Jews.
This is a democratically elected government, but wants to destroy democracy.
Democracy is not just the will of the majority.
Democracy is also the protection of the minority against the majority, the separation of authorities and the independence of the court, freedom of expression and telling the truth."
"I ask for your forgiveness for what is happening here."
Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Lapid also said that "the new government does not believe in all this, but I want to say here from your grave, David, they may not - but we do. We are Zionists. We believe in the Declaration of Independence. We believe in a Jewish and democratic state. We believe in the rule of law. We are not We will give up our country, not the principles that stand behind it, and not Ben-Gurion's legacy. This is our life's mission, just as it was his life's mission."
State President Yitzhak Herzog also spoke at the memorial ceremony and said, "I would like to say a few words to the Israel Defense Forces, and emphasize that the IDF is a state army.
The IDF will continue to be a state army, with an ethical, professional and state chain of command."
"Discussions on morality and the purity of weapons are important, criticism is legitimate and sometimes necessary," the president added.
"But I would like to clarify; we must in no way harm the statehood of the IDF.
The IDF must not be dragged into the political field and certainly must not be turned into a tool for political confrontation. We have one IDF, which acts on behalf of all of us, and for all of us.
And just as he protects us, we must also protect him," he said.
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Yair Lapid
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