By Adar
At 8pm the evening after Yom HaZikaron begins Yom HaAtzmaut, Independence Day. It's to commemorate May 14th, 1948, when Ben Gurion officially declared the independence of the State of Israel. And people go crazy. It's a celebration very similar to Fourth of July, with fireworks at night and barbecues during the day. In Haifa, there was a giant street party called Tzubachutz (a slang translation for, roughly, get out on the streets) in the center of town, with big name bands like Hadag Nahash (http://www.youtube.com/user/hadagnahashofficial) and street vendors. It was several hours long and over 60,000 people were there. I tried to find my adoptive student but the cell reception was so bad, and it was so crowded, that after looking for each other in a space of about ten meters for a solid fifteen minutes, both of us gave up and went back to our friend groups. It was a ridiculous night and everyone was dancing and having a good time. People wore silly hats with Israeli flags on them, and had blow-up plastic boppers to cause havoc. It was an all-ages event, though really I questioned parents who were pushing their kids' strollers through the loud, pushy crowd. You should probably wait a couple of years before bringing your kid here.
The Israeli independence war in 1948 was awful. Soldiers had no weapons, civilians under siege were starving, many fled their villages (and were not able to return, a point I'll get to in a future post). People had no idea what was going to happen. My grandfather was a seventeen year old soldier, just out of high school, fighting on the front lines. And my grandmother was twelve, living in Jerusalem under siege. She tells me stories sometimes, about what living under water rations and with no food was like, though there is much about that time that I don't think she particularly wants to share. Logically, it makes no sense that a country that had no military, no money, no ammunition, and starting with less than 30,000 soldiers survived for more than a few weeks of battle with forces from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Yemen, the Arab Liberation Army, and Saudi Arabia. And I could go into the details of strategy, effectiveness, and battles, but in the end I believe that Israel won its independence because it had something very important worth fighting for.
In my Hebrew class, we read the Declaration of Independence. I've posted it here, though I cut out some of the more technical paragraphs.
ERETZ-ISRAEL was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim[(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
David Ben-Gurion, et al
I think the declaration shows the state of mind of the country at the time, and makes me think about whether some of the phrases in it have been realized today. It talks about peace with Arabs, cooperation with the UN and neighboring countries, equal rights for all citizens. What will it take to get this declaration into reality, 65 years later?
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At the same time as we participated in celebrating Yom HaAtzmaut, the day is called a-Nakba النكبة, The Catastrophe in Arabic. It is a day of mourning, commemorating the nearly 725,000 Palestinian Arabs who left their homes during the war, and have not been able to return. Some say they left voluntarily, others say they were pushed out. Regardless of the terminology, generations upon generations of Palestinians lived in these particular villages and towns. Grandparents still hold the keys to their houses, and the deeds to their land. But Israel has developed, torn down abandoned houses or moved into them. Tel Aviv University is built on land that was an old Palestinian village. The Right of Return is a concept that deals with the Palestinian right to return or get reparations for land that they used to own, and it is always a major issue when dealing with peace talks. It's a non-zero sum game. No clear winners or losers. Meanwhile, these 725,000 refugees that fled now live in Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, and other surrounding countries, and have majorly changed the demographics there. The majority population in Jordan is Palestinian, and they're a group that has rebelled against the King several times. In Lebanon for years, being a Palestinian was cause to be beaten up on the streets. A couple of generations now have been born and raised in refugee camps, with no development or opportunities.
The juxtaposition of the massive celebrations of Israeli sovereignty and independence, as well as the mourning for the terrible sorrows of Palestinian refugees, demonstrates how contradictory living here can feel. I think a lot of people feel the futility of the situation, really not knowing what to do. My friend gave me the metaphor of a soap opera, where the young couple that loves each other goes through terrible obstacles -- relatives die, both make mistakes, one is unfaithful, the other is unstable -- but in the end it works out because they love each other and make it through. Well Israel and Palestine are not in love, not even remotely close. So where do we go?
Another juxtaposition is Yom Hazikaron, memorial day, which leads directly into Yom Haatzmaut, independence day. A day of mourning and a day of celebration, inseparable. I actually think it's quite a beautiful concept. Though we take the time to remember and mourn the hardships those around us and before us have faced, we know that we have to keep moving forward, and celebrate the positives we can count.