"Family Of Christian Soldier Who Died Fighting For Israel In Gaza Told To Remove Cross From Headstone"

"The family of a Christian soldier who died fighting for Israel in Gaza has been given an ultimatum by the Israeli Defense Ministry demanding they remove the cross from his headstone at the Haifa military cemetery or have his body dug up and buried elsewhere.

The IDF's Chief Rabbi ruled that the 'holiness' of the cemetery is being harmed by the cross.

From The Times of Israel, 'Family of fallen soldier told to take down headstone because it has a cross on it':
The family of a soldier who was killed fighting in the Gaza Strip last year say that they have been given an ultimatum to remove the headstone from his grave because it has a cross on it, or have his body reburied outside the Haifa military cemetery.

The family of Staff Sgt. David Bogdanovskyi told Hebrew media on Monday that they had received a letter from the Public Council for Commemoration of Fallen Soldiers in the Defense Ministry following an ongoing dispute that had seen his headstone covered with a black cloth for several months.

Bogdanovskyi, 19, was killed along with several of his comrades when an anti-tank guided missile hit a Namer armored engineering vehicle they were in, in southern Gaza's Khan Younis in December.

The Bogdanovskyi family had emigrated from Ukraine to Israel in 2014.

In a Facebook post, his mother defended the decision to put a cross on the headstone, saying, 'David loved Israel from the bottom of his heart. The cross engraved on his headstone was an integral part of his personal identity and the faith in which he was raised.'

[...] 'The family are crushed, they cry non-stop and are in despair at the situation,' a relative told Chanel 12 news. 'The were told that if they don't take down the headstone the grave would be moved.'"