Yerushalayim…Two leading IDF figures, Major General Uzi Dayan (Res.) and Colonel (Aluf Mishne) Amer Bar Lev, were reunited on Wednesday December 22nd at a meeting with the International Committee for Har Hazeisim (ICHH), led by Shalom Lerner, its executive director. The meeting to discuss security issues on Har Hazeisim was held in the office of Amer Bar-Lev, Israel’s Minister of Internal Security.
At the meeting, the ICHH raised the need for increased security on the 3000-year-old cemetery and holy site and particularly focused on the soon to be built Visitor Education Center which will include a state-of-the-art police station. Representing the ICHH was Mr. Lerner and Major General Uzi Dayan who is a prominent member of the Israel Board of the ICHH.
The two former high-ranking officers shared the opinion that the Center will reaffirm Jewish sovereignty on the mountain and “is one of the most important buildings to be built in that area in centuries.” The security on the mountain will be greatly enhanced by the large numbers of visitors who are expected to visit the holy mountain which includes nearly 150,000 Jews that are buried there including the leaders of the Jewish nation dating back to the Nevi’im.
Minister Bar Lev was the commander of the Sayeret Matkal elite commando unit between 1984 and 1987. He reported directly to Maj. General Uzi Dayan, who is a nephew of the late Israeli politician and military hero Moshe Dayan. He served in the Sayeret Matkal from 1966 to 2002 and subsequently became the commander of the unit. In addition, he was the head of the IDF’s Central Command, Deputy Chief of Staff, and headed the Israeli National Security Council (2000–2002). He was a member and later head of an elite commando unit that reportedly made eight to ten attempts to assassinate Yasser Arafat. Dayan was a founder of the Tafnit party which ran in the 2006 legislative elections. In mid-2008, the party joined Likud.
Following the meeting, Minister Bar-Lev posted his summary of the meeting: “I met today with my former commander Uzi Dayan and with Shalom Lerner, the executive director of the International Committee for Har Hazeisim (ICHH). They briefed me on the security situation and their plans to build a Visitor Center on Har Hazeisim. In my eyes, the cemetery on Har Hazeisim is a historic heritage site for the Jewish people and for Israel. We agreed that once the Center goes up that we will work together to assure the safety of the expected large number of visitors.”
In summarizing the meeting, Mr. Lerner said that “we wanted to make sure that the Bennett Administration is fully committed to the security of the international cemetery of the Jewish people.” It is estimated that Jews from over 40 countries are buried here. The Minister agreed to meet periodically with the ICHH to assure all security issues are addressed.
Thanks to the ICHH, founded in 2010 by Menachem and Avraham Lubinsky, the desecration of graves was virtually halted, attributed to a network of 176 surveillance cameras, gating, a police station, and the deployment of Border Patrol units. The changed security situation has prompted thousands to visit the cemetery particularly for the yahrzeits of some of the notable gedolim who are buried there.
