Education Minister Yoav Kish reversed the cancellation of this year's Israel Prize ceremony and announced in a statement Wednesday that the prizes will be awarded.
“We have changed our original decision and decided to award the Israel Prize in various categories alongside the award in the revival category,” the education minister said on Wednesday.
Kish said his legal advisers did not support his position regarding the Israel Award in court.
He further explained his decision by saying, “It is clear to everyone that we cannot afford to have any more unnecessary discussions internally, and the aspiration that each of us should have is broad solidarity.'' did. .
Israel Prize backlash
In February, Kish announced that the traditional Israel Prize categories would be abolished and replaced with one category, “Civic Heroism,” to be awarded to six winners.
The decision sparked a fierce backlash and the High Court ordered the minister to explain why the award was revoked.
On Tuesday, Kish announced that the Israel Prize for Reconstruction and Civilian Heroism will be awarded to Menachem Kalmanson and Ithiel Zohar of the “Elchanan Team.” On October 7, Mr. Zohar, Mr. Kalmanson, and Mr. Kalmanson's brother Elchanan traveled from Othniel to the Gaza border community, where they rescued dozens of residents of Kibbutz Be'eri, a kibbutz that had been attacked in order to save people. returned to repeatedly.
During the rescue, Elchanan was killed by terrorists.
Leon Kreim and Matan Wasserman contributed to this article.
