The Defense Ministry plans to repair the graves of fallen soldiers who fought with the pre-state militias, thus eliminating existing discrepancy between the shabby state of many of those headstones and the well-maintained graves of fallen IDF soldiers.
Some of the graves of fallen soldiers killed before 1948 aren't maintained at all. Some headstones are broken, and the engravings of the soldier's name have become so weathered that they can barely be deciphered. For the most part, the neglected graves are the resting places of soldiers who had no relatives or friends to visit the sites and help with upkeep. Many made aliyah to Israel during World War II and died childless.
One such soldier was Benzion Gradis, who made aliyah from Latvia and was killed in 1938 by a stray bullet while acting as a navigator for the Haganah, the pre-state military organization that formed the basis for the Israel Defense Forces. Gradis was buried in Kfar Saba, and his grave was neglected for the last 80 years, until Asi Nisselson Lurje, who works to commemorate the Jews of Latvia, found it.
Lurje contacted the Defense Ministry, which agreed to replace Gradis' grave. A ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of his death is scheduled to take place two weeks from now.
A probe of the case of Gradis' grave revealed that not all graves in the country's military cemeteries are given equal treatment. While fighters killed before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 are defined as "fallen soldiers," they were laid to rest in civilian ceremonies and given civilian headstones that their families, if they had any, selected. Soldiers killed from 1948 were buried with full military honors and their graves were maintained by the state.
Previous decisions by the Defense Ministry to commemorate the fallen soldiers killed before 1948 have been mostly symbolic.
Israel Hayom contacted the Defense Ministry, which decided to change its policy on the pre-1948 graves.
"The issue of the graves of the fallen from pre-state Israel is a sensitive one of great importance. A decision has been taken to erect and maintain standardized gravestones for all the fallen," a spokesman for the ministry said.
"The decision will be discussed at the next meeting of the Public Council for the Commemoration of Soldiers [comprised of representatives of bereaved families], whose role is to advise the defense minister on issues of commemoration," the spokesperson said.
