Israel will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its founding on Sunday in a tense environment, with opposition on the street challenging judicial reform and violent clashes with Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip.
Despite the strong strengthening of security throughout the country, the blue and white flag with the Star of David and symbol of national unity is flown in all streets, on lampposts, in front of the windows of houses or cars, hanging from the shoulders, everywhere at Four Days of Remembrance Day and Independence Day.
On May 14, 1948, at 4 p.m. local time, Israel’s Declaration of Independence was signed in the hall of Tel Aviv’s former National Museum (now the Museum of Independence), a few hours before the end of the British Mandate over Palestine, a document read by David Ben-Gurion.
“The natural right of the Jewish people is affirmed, like all other nations, to be the master of its own destiny on the soil of its own sovereign state,” affirmed Ben-Gurion, who would later proclaim “the establishment of a Stand the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, which shall be called the State of Israel.”
In addition to independence, Israelis are also invited to honor the 24,213 fallen soldiers and 4,255 civilian victims of terrorism, according to official data, since the declaration of independence.
The 75th anniversary of independence, however, is mostly tainted by the challenge of judicial reform by Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the most right-wing executive ever, including the orthodox nationalist right, which sparked a debate about the nature of the State. – Jewish, Democratic or both.
The match forced the intervention of Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, who has insisted on the need for unity among the people, bearing in mind that the debate over judicial reform is deeply agitating Israeli society.
In the past ten days, thousands of bereaved politicians have asked politicians not to go to cemeteries and, above all, not to speak, as usual.
Some accepted the request, others did not, as was the case with Itamar Bem-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister from the ultra-nationalist right, whose speech was interrupted by shouts or greeted with applause, according to the site.
Earlier, politicians such as Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid had called for unity and respect for the dead.
For Palestinians, as in previous years, this date is the date that marks the Nakba – the “catastrophe” – that is, the exodus of thousands of Palestinians.
“Nakba,” an Arabic word that can also mean “disaster,” refers to the Palestinian exodus of 1948, when at least 711,000 Palestinian Arabs, according to UN records, fled or were driven from their homes as a result of the 1947 civil war- 1948 and of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Palestine is a historical name for the geographic area that currently includes the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Until 1948, Palestine was the name of the British Mandate and before that it was the region under the Ottoman Empire, which lasted more than 800 years.
The current borders of the State of Israel were “designed” with subsequent conflicts: In the Six-Day War (or Israel-Arab War) between June 5 and 10, 1967, the third battle between the State of Israel and neighboring Arab countries, the Israelis captured the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
This was followed in 1973 by the Yom Kippur War, in which land near the Suez Canal, on the border between Israel and Egypt, was under discussion.
Source: DN
