Singer Hanan Yovel is known as one of the composers of the Israeli soundtrack. Over six decades, he has gone from being a tenor in the army’s Nahal band (in the heyday of Israel’s military music groups) and member of some of the most popular pop combos of the late 1960s and early ’70s, to recording 20 solo albums – adding Mizrahi tones and Jewish liturgy to his repertoire when they became fashionable.
Last weekend, though, Yovel, now 76 but still very active, made his first-ever political intervention.
He was invited to sing at the Knesset’s annual ceremony marking Israel’s Memorial Day (in two months’ time). However, he responded that “to sing there before these boorish people is to be untrue to myself.”
His refusal was in protest at the online video released last week by Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Almog Cohen, who was mocking opposition parliamentarians during a vote. “This is not my Knesset,” Yovel wrote. “Integrity is something I’ve worked for all my life.”
But it was also connected to the wider dispute over the government’s judicial overhaul that is splitting Israel.
In an interview with Haaretz, Yovel said: “They say the people are sovereign, right? So I’m sovereign and I can’t bear this disgusting stuff. I can’t go into that place [the Knesset], and it’s my right not to perform there. This has nothing to do with my political opinion; I haven’t even stated my opinion.”
Hanan Yovel refusing to perform at a national ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers is the equivalent of Andrea Bocelli saying he’ll never sing in Italian again. It would have made an even greater stir than the headlines it did generate in all Israeli news organizations if the country wasn’t already being convulsed by what is undoubtedly the greatest internal conflict in a generation, if not longer.
It is hard to make too big a fuss on a weekend when pilots and other reservists in elite commando and intelligence units are threatening not to turn up for duty.
There is no lack of national institutions putting themselves on the line when 98-year-old Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Horev, one of the last surviving commanders of the Palmach (the elite strike force of the Haganah, the pre-state underground Jewish militia) and also a man who never intervened in politics before, turned up at a pro-democracy rallyon Saturday night with the sign declaring: “I, one of the Palmach founders, am fighting for our state again.”
The protests against the government’s plans to weaken the Supreme Court are nearly at the two-month mark and show no sign of abating.
Their main features until now – beyond hundreds of thousands taking to the streets – had been the more predictable backlash from the legal establishment, and the much less predictable mobilization of the business community, especially the high-tech sector.
As neither side seems in any mood for compromise, the next stage will be the battle for Israel’s national symbols, including the Israel Defense Forces – the country’s most respected institution, and not only that.
Yovel’s refusal to sing in the Knesset is a reminder that around the corner, from April 24-26, are the two most hallowed days on the Israeli secular calendar: Memorial Day and Independence Day. And this year, it’s also a nice round number – Israel’s 75th anniversary.
Independence Days have created their fair share of controversies in the past. On the 50th, back in 1998, the big bash was ruined when the Batsheva Dance Company refused to go on stage after then-Education Minister Yitzhak Levy demanded that they wear less revealing costumes. Back in 2005, then-Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin was accused of politicizing the torch-lighting ceremony that marks the transition between Memorial Day and Independence Day when his speech mentioned the Gush Kativ settlers in the Gaza Strip who were soon to be evicted in the Disengagement.
Despite their solemnity, Memorial Days can often become controversial when politicians get heckled at services – as happened last year to then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
This year, if things continue as they are now, the two national days will be one long saga of controversy.
Every government minister can expect to be jeered as they attend morning services at military cemeteries across the country, especially since many of them have scant service records of their own and will be seen by many of the families of the fallen soldiers as desecrating their memory.
Yovel will not be the only one boycotting some of the main events. We can expect most of the opposition to boycott the torch-lighting ceremony, as will many other senior figures. And the Israel Prize awards ceremony that usually ends Independence Day will certainly be lively, with many of the current and former laureates and their families turning up to heckle.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to have an international contingent present, with talks ongoing with dozens of world leaders that he has informally invited. But no names have been announced as of yet and it would not be a surprise if, with the exception of like-minded quasi-authoritarians such as Narendra Modi and Viktor Orbán, few if any democratic leaders turn up. It will be a bit like at Russia’s Victory Day parade in 2018, when only Netanyahu and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić came as President Vladimir Putin’s guests.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. One of the few world leaders RSVPing for Israel's Independence Day celebrations?Credit: BERNADETT SZABO/ REUTERS
And then there is the question of the participation of Diaspora leaders. In recent years, they have been given a torch to light as well – but who will accept this government’s invitation?
Spoiling the national party on Independence Day may not seem like a major issue when the very future of Israeli democracy is at stake, when the shekel is on the slideand thousands of reservists are threatening to tear up their military IDs. But this is as much about symbols as it is issues.
The timing could not be worse for Netanyahu and his ministers, who were hoping to get the first stage of their constitutional revolution passed in the Knesset before Passover begins in early April.
This will linger for much longer and Israel’s tarnished diamond jubilee will hang over the country, reminding everyone how Netanyahu has split the nation.
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