As Israel heads towards its election, bereaved families can be found across almost every part of the political spectrum. Their grief has become fertile ground for a particularly cruel form of political exploitation: the misuse of their loved ones’ memory.
A recent example of this troubling phenomenon is the case of Laly Derai. “They have dragged my son out of his grave dozens of times,” she said.
Her son, Saadia, was killed while serving in the Israeli army. Now she is standing for election with Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party, and, she says, people are invoking Saadia’s memory to accuse her of betraying him.
The attacks come amid pressure from Israel’s political right for Derai’s party to withdraw. The fear is that it will fail to cross the electoral threshold, wasting votes that could otherwise help other right-wing parties. That is a legitimate subject for political argument.
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