{"id":1688,"date":"2024-10-27T15:40:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T15:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=1688"},"modified":"2024-10-27T15:40:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T15:40:21","slug":"israeli-military-demands-removal-of-dead-soldiers-christian-headstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2024\/10\/27\/israeli-military-demands-removal-of-dead-soldiers-christian-headstone\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli military demands removal of dead soldier\u2019s christian headstone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"FILE
FILE PHOTO. Israeli soldiers. Mostafa Alkharouf\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Officials have said displaying a cross in the cemetery is offensive to the relatives of Jewish troops laid to rest nearby<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to rebury a fallen Christian soldier unless his family agrees to remove a cross from his gravestone, the man\u2019s relatives have told local media. David Bogdanovsky moved to Israel from Ukraine in 2014 and was killed by an anti-tank rocket in Gaza last December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bogdanovsky\u2019s family told the media on Monday that they had received a letter from the Defense Ministry demanding that they remove the cross or have the staff sergeant\u2019s remains reinterred outside the Haifa military cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dBy law, it is not permissible to place a cross or any other religious marker on a military headstone,\u201d<\/em> the ministry said. The letter reportedly cited a ruling by the IDF\u2019s chief rabbi saying the holiness of the Jewish cemetery is violated by the presence of a cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military officials also reportedly claimed that they had received complaints from \u201cfamilies whose loved ones are buried nearby <\/em>[and] who claim that the cross hurts their feelings and their ability to pray.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bogdanovsky\u2019s mother told Ynet that when she visited her son\u2019s grave earlier this month, she found his gravestone covered in black cloth.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have words to describe the humiliation I felt,\u201d<\/em> the woman told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dI thought that my David, who gave his life to the country, who loved the country with all his heart\u2026 is no different than any of the other guys, <\/em>[and] is not a second-class citizen. I stood there and cried with anger, frustration, and disbelief,<\/em>\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a post on Facebook, the soldier\u2019s mother explained that her late son\u2019s faith was an \u201cintegral part\u201d<\/em> of his identity. She also expressed shock over her son being singled out, noting that there are other graves with crosses in the cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While graveyards are typically separated by religion in Israel, a special law allows the burial of non-Jewish service members alongside their Jewish comrades in military cemeteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2023, Israel\u2019s Central Bureau of Statistics estimated that Christians accounted for 1.9% of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel launched its military operation in Gaza after Hamas militants staged a deadly incursion into Israeli territory in October 2023, killing around 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. According to the health authorities in the Palestinian enclave, a year of heavy Israeli aerial bombardment and a ground offensive have left nearly 42,000 people dead in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials have said displaying a cross in the cemetery is offensive to the relatives of Jewish troops laid to rest nearby The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to rebury a fallen Christian soldier unless his family agrees to remove…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}