In Memorial to War Dead, Israel Avoids Addressing Its Conflicts

When Israel’s leaders gather on Wednesday at the country’s new National Memorial Hall for Israel’s Fallen, there will be little trace of the long battle it took to build it.

The somber, annual Memorial Day ceremony will take place a day before the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of Israel’s foundation, according to the Hebrew calendar — and it took nearly that long to create the country’s first national pantheon. Adjacent to the national military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the Memorial Hall opened to the public without fanfare a few months ago.

The product of decades of political wrangling, emotional strife and procrastination, the monument reveals little about Israel’s wars with its external enemies.