The film, "Advocate," tells the life story of Tsemel, who has gained notoriety for her persistent defense of terrorists, including Abdel Aziz Salha, who took part in the 2000 lynching of two IDF reservists in Ramallah and was pictured in the infamous photograph waving his blood-soaked hands in the air.

Tsemel has also defended dozens of Hamas terrorists, as well as former Knesset minister Basel Ghattas, who was convicted of smuggling cell phones to jailed terrorists. Most recently, she represented the family of the terrorist who murdered and raped 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher in February.

The international film festival is held every year in Tel Aviv and is sponsored in part by the Culture and Sport Ministry.

The award includes a 70,000-shekel ($19,000) cash prize and an additional 150,000 shekels ($41,000) to promote the film as the Israeli candidate for an Academy Award.

"For the past five decades, Tsemel has been defending terrorists who've murdered a large number of Israelis, including many of our children, wives, husbands, siblings, and other relatives," read the letter from the Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families.

"The funding of this prize is a spit in the faces of bereaved families. It is shocking and horrifying that such a film could represent Israel in the Oscars."

In response to the letter, Regev criticized the award but did not address the families' request to cancel it.

"It is outrageous and irritating to have a film centered around Lea Tsemel, an attorney who represents, supports and speaks in the name of many who aim to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel. These individuals inflict terror on our soldiers and citizens and then enjoy the legal and public protection of Tsemel," said Regev.

Regev added: "A film that depicts her actions in a positive light is outrageous and condemnable and should not leave any Israeli citizen who cares about the future of the state indifferent."

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Sirens blared across the country at 11 a.m., bringing traffic on roads and highways throughout Israel to a halt as pedestrians stopped in place to bow their heads in silence.

A state ceremony for fallen soldiers at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem began immediately following the moment of silence, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin in attendance.

Speaking at the ceremony, Netanyahu vowed never to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons as Tehran announced that it was rolling back its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Netanyahu was scheduled to attend another ceremony later Wednesday afternoon in honor of victims of terrorist attacks.

Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism is a solemn day in Israel, with over 1.5 million Israelis were expected to pay their respects at the gravesides of those killed in wars or terror attacks throughout Israel's history in 52 official military cemeteries and hundreds of other smaller military sections in civilian cemeteries across the country.

At ceremonies on Tuesday evening, both Netanyahu and Rivlin told bereaved families that the sacrifice of Israel's fallen soldiers has allowed the Jewish people to live freely in their homeland and vowed to continue working to return the bodies of fallen soldiers still missing.

Memorial Day commemorations began Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. with another moment of silence ushering in the annual 24-hour period of mourning that will transition to patriotic celebration of Israel's 71st Independence Day on Wednesday evening.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

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Shir explained Tuesday that currently, brothers and sisters of the fallen have no official standing. After a soldier is killed or a civilian dies in a terrorist attack, the victim's parents, spouse, and children receive notification. Siblings, however, do not. Siblings also do not receive official invitations to memorial ceremonies.

Shir noted that in cases in which bereaved siblings of fallen IDF soldiers require financial assistance to pay for grief counseling, they do not receive it automatically, although they can apply for help.

If the Knesset passes Shir's bill, the Defense Ministry and the IDF will be required to notify the brothers and sisters of any fallen soldier, police officer, border police officer, or member of Israel's other security forces, in addition to their parents, widow/er, and children. These instructions would also apply in cases of civilians who are killed in terrorist attacks.

The bill also proposes making the Defense Ministry legally responsible for paying the cost of psychological treatment for bereaved siblings who need it, as well as grants that would cover up to half the cost of a B.A. degree for bereaved siblings.

Eli Dabi, founder of Lenetzach Ahi, a group that supports bereaved siblings, and an active member of the Yad Labanim organization, said that "until now, bereaved siblings were invisible to the government ministries."

Dabi said that siblings receive all their information about their loss from their grieving parents, and if their parents are not alive, no one notifies them.

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This evening, when the Jewish state enters into a 24-hour mourning period for all the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terrorism who have been killed since its inception, four new names will have been added to the list. Four new sets of spouses, children, parents and siblings will have earned the dreaded label of "bereaved."

Each will wish he or she could have turned the clock back to the minute before Moshe Agadi, Moshe Feder, Ziad al-Hamamda and Pinchas Menachem Pashwazman were murdered by missile fire that changed the course of their history.

Agadi, a 58-year-old father of four, was killed on Saturday night when a rocket hit his Ashkelon home. He had gone outside to smoke a cigarette and didn't make it back to the bomb shelter in time to avoid being struck by shrapnel in his chest and stomach.

Moshe Feder, a 68-year-old father of two from Kfar Saba, was killed on Sunday while on his way to Erez Thermoplastic Products, the plant near the Gaza border where he worked as head roofer. Feder's car was targeted by a Kornet anti-tank guided missile.

Ziad al-Hamamda, a 47-year-old Bedouin Israeli father of seven, was killed on Sunday by shrapnel to the chest when the factory where he worked in Ashkelon took a direct hit by a rocket.

Pinchas Menachem Pashwazman, a 21-year-old married father of a toddler, was killed on Sunday as well. A dual Israeli-American citizen, he was hit in the chest by shrapnel while running in the stairwell of an Ashdod building towards its bomb shelter.

Four Israelis, whose lives had nothing particular in common last week, are now indelibly linked in death. All slaughtered by bloodthirsty Palestinian jihadists bent on Israel's destruction. All forever connected by virtue of the latest, but by no means the last, onslaught from Gaza.

Four families whose names will always be noted and quoted together by virtue of their shared tragedy over the course of a single fateful weekend.

What they will not be, however, is forgotten. Unlike the terrorists with a grip on Gaza – who have spent the billions of dollars, euros and shekels earmarked for "rehabilitation" on deadly weapons, while using their people as hapless human shields and faceless cannon fodder – Israelis honor every individual casualty of war.

Indeed, reading aloud the names, ages and circumstances of the deaths of each will be part and parcel of the solemn events held in schools, community centers, parks and cemeteries across the country beginning tonight and continuing through Wednesday.

Two sirens will be sounded: the first, for one minute, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday; the second, for two minutes, on Wednesday at 11 a.m. When these sirens go off, everyone in the country will stand in silence, head lowered, to pay homage to Israel's fallen.

Undoubtedly, some people's hearts will jump at the sound, believing it to indicate yet another rocket barrage.

Though air-raid sirens rise and fall, while those used for mourning are monotone, it is hard at times for traumatized members of the public to distinguish between them. Just as many young children who were taught last week to stand in silence for Holocaust Remembrance Day mistakenly assumed the somber position when they heard the warning of an incoming blitz from Gaza, adults this week are likely to be confused in the opposite direction. The irony is as tragic as the situation is untenable.

Yet somehow, in spite of it all, Israelis continue to rank high on the happiness scale, and, according to a new study by the Israel Democracy Institute, a majority believes that the country's achievements outweigh its failures.

This cheer will be in full display as soon as Memorial Day ends on Wednesday evening and the country erupts into celebration for Independence Day. Fear of missiles and the act of mourning will be replaced by fireworks and dancing at night, and barbecues the following day.

While Hamas and Islamic Jihad plot their next assault on the Jewish state from their hell-hole in Gaza, we Israelis will be wishing our thriving democracy a happy 71st birthday with a vengeance.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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