Victims of Acts of Terror Memorial
The Victims of Acts of Terror Memorial in Israel is a monument to civilian Jewish and non-Jewish victims of terrorism in modern Israel and the pre-state Land of Israel, from 1851 to the present. The memorial was established in 1998 in the National Civil Cemetery of the State of Israel on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. At the same time, Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Remembrance Day, was officially renamed the Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror.
History
The memorial was the result of a grassroots effort to get the Israeli government to recognize civilian victims of terror as it does soldiers who fall in the line of duty. Until the establishment of the memorial, bereaved families erected their own memorial plaques and markers at the places where terrorist acts had occurred. After successfully pressuring the government to pay pensions to families of terrorist victims in the 1970s, the campaign lobbied for the inclusion of a memorial ceremony for civilian victims of terror during the official state Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Mount Herzl military cemetery. This idea was strongly opposed by the families of fallen soldiers, but a compromise was reached in 2000 to hold the memorial ceremony for victims of terror two hours before the ceremony for fallen soldiers. The two ceremonies continue to be held separately.Design
The Victims of Acts of Terror Memorial, arranged as a series of stone walls, was designed by architects Moshe and Rita Oren. It was constructed by the National Insurance Institute and the Ministry of Defense in cooperation with the Israeli Terror Victims' Association, the legal representative of terror victims and their families. The design is intended to depict "the stand of the Jewish People against those wishing to demolish its existence". The memorial is located midway between the military graves and the grave of slain Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin.A total of 78 black marble plaques embedded in the stone walls are engraved with the names of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of terrorist attacks in Israel. The plaques are grouped according to the following time periods: 1851-1919; 1920-1929; 1930-1939; 1940-1947; 1947-1949; 1950-1959; 1960-1969; 1970-1979; 1980-1989; 1990-1999; 2000-2009; October 2009 to the present. Plaques 1 through 60, which memorialize civilian victims of terror who died by the end of 1999, were permanently engraved on the eve of Yom Hazikaron 2006. The remainder of the plaques, memorializing civilian victims of terror who died from 2000 onwards, are temporary markers which will be permanently engraved following the approval of the victims' families.