Placard Criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu Yanked From Slain Soldier’s Grave
A placard critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was removed from the Jerusalem grave of a soldier who was killed while fighting in Gaza.
The placard, which was removed Thursday from the grave of Leet Matt, read: “Lillik died on the watch of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi, and of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Bogie.”
In a statement to the news site nrg.co.il, a ministry spokesperson on Friday said that the sign was removed following complaints by visitors to the cemetery. A guitar and a surfboard that were placed by the family near the grave were also taken.
Signs carrying political or partisan messages are not allowed in military cemeteries, the spokesperson added.
Motti Matt, Lee Matt’s father, accused the ministry of “coming like thieves in the night” to take the objects. “They should be ashamed of themselves, they’re are bullying the dead.”
The Matt family want military authorities to allow them to place the names of siblings of Lee Matt on his headstone at the Herzl Mount Military Cemetery as a symbol of their devotion to their brother. The family says the inscription is permitted under recent laws allowing personal messages on military headstones, while the military says it is not.
Because of the ministry’s refusal to add the siblings’ names, the Matt family declined to place any headstone at the grave. They put the placard in its place.
Staff Sergeant Lee Matt, a 19-year-old Paratroopers Brigade soldier from Eilat, died last year during Israel’s Protective Edge offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
