As emotions continued to run high over Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev's decision to break with tradition and invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at the annual Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem – the first time any prime minister has been invited to address the crowd at an event that has always adhered to a strictly nonpolitical line – the inclusion of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in the program is now drawing even more criticism.
Hernández will be the first foreign leader to take an active role in the ceremony, held annually.
Hernández is slated to make a co-appearance with an honoree representing Mashav, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, an arm of the Foreign Ministry. Hernández completed the Foreign Ministry's course in social leadership in 1992 and is the first Mashav graduate to be elected a head of state.
Regev said, "I am happy and proud that the president of Honduras, who is a Mashav graduate, will attend the ceremony and accompany the honoree lighting a torch on behalf of the Foreign Ministry. Mashav is a program close to Israel's heart, one that strives to make the world a better place."
"Mashav brings the knowledge and wisdom that exist in Israel to every place in the world, in times of calm and in times of crisis," Regev continued. "Bringing more good to the world is the goal of the State of Israel, and I am happy that the center [Mashav] will be lighting a torch to mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding."
Newly elected Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg appealed to Regev to cancel Hernández's planned participation.
"It looks like this [Hernández's inclusion in the program] was specifically intended to justify Prime Minister Netanyahu's participation," Zandberg wrote. "This is an outrageous decision that legitimizes a president who was just recently 'elected' in suspicious elections plagued with fraud allegations, and who is responsible for grave violations of human rights in his country."
In response, Regev remarked that "it would be best if the shouters on the Left, primarily Ms. Zandberg, would uphold the official tone of the torch-lighting ceremony and the official interests of Israel in general, instead of grabbing headlines. These are baseless accusations."
Netanyahu's associates confirmed that the prime minister would be attending the ceremony, but there was no indication whether he would speak.
Meanwhile, former head of the Shin Bet security agency Carmi Gillon drew fire on Friday by calling on the public to protest if Netanyahu does, in fact, address the Mount Herzl ceremony.
Gillon underscored that he was not urging anyone to boycott the ceremony itself, which is broadcast live on Israeli television. In a messaging group, Gillon wrote that "viewers who want to protest against the fact that the country's stateliest ceremony is being turned into a Netanyahu political event, should turn off the TV or change the channel while he is speaking."
"If a few hundred thousand viewers do that – it could have an impressive public effect," Gillon wrote.
