A beret march completion ceremony was held at the Golani Interchange area in northern Israel on Thursday. Parents arrived at the site at dawn to meet their children, who had completed the physically demanding all-night endurance exercise.

However, for some parents and soldiers, the joy and excitement of the ceremony were overshadowed by a lack of consideration for their religious way of life, Arutz Sheva reported.

The father said his family stayed overnight in nearby Mitzpe Hoshaya to arrive at the ceremony at 5 a.m. Right before the ceremony began, an announcement was made informing attendees that female singing would be incorporated into the event and that anyone who found it objectionable was welcome to step aside during those portions.

“Some families left along with quite a few soldiers,” the father said, adding that because the ceremony site was surrounded by loudspeakers, stepping away did little to mitigate the noise of the singing. “There was nowhere to escape. It was pathetic.”

He said the ceremony alternated between speeches by commanders congratulating the soldiers and their families and performances by two female soldiers and one male soldier, who sang both together and individually.

“Time and again you could see mothers wearing headscarves and men wearing kippot walking off to the side,” he said.

“Then I suddenly saw my son joining them, followed by more soldiers wearing kippot who went over to stand with their families. When the song ended, they returned to formation. Then another commander would speak, and as soon as he finished, the small singing group would come back on stage, and once again the families and soldiers would leave and stand off to the side. It was disgraceful.”

The father said his son later told him, “Is this what we marched dozens of kilometers all night for? So they could spit in our faces like this?”

He said that the hurt was evident on his son’s face.

“The feeling was that we were the outsiders—the strange ones who had to leave the ceremony. At the same time, they were telling us, ‘Well done, parents, for your dedication,’ and praising us.”

Asked whether anything could have been done, the father said that after the ceremony, several parents looked for the unit Rabbi, who had attended previous ceremonies and addressed the families, but were unable to find him.

“They told us he had left earlier,” he said.

“We couldn’t do much. It’s a military ceremony, and we respect the army and the occasion. But I’m not sure that respect is mutual.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)