Independence Day celebrations kicked off on Thursday, with festivities set to last for the next couple of days. But as Dana Regev reports from Jerusalem, a joyful day for some could mean something different for others.
Image: Reuters/A. Cohen
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As loud music, cheers of children and the smell of barbecues pierced through the usually cool Jerusalem air, it was almost hard to imagine that just last night, Israel commemorated one of its saddest days on the calendar.
The annual Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers is marked deliberately one day ahead of the country's Independence Day, making the switch from grief to festivity somewhat artificial and hard to digest.
Sirens sounded throughout the country at 11:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, when even in Israel's most vibrant cities life is paused for two silent minutes, with cars pulling over at the side of the road and people standing still, paying their respects to the dead. Independence Day itself, however, is anything but silent.
Just a few meters outside Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, young Jewish settlers are raising donations "to expand Jewish presence in the West Bank," they shout at passersby. "Every shekel will bring us closer to redemption," 15-year-old-Naomi tells DW. She generally refuses to talk to the media, but said that "for the holy sake of rebuilding Judea and Samaria, no measure is too extreme."
'Reminder of what I don't have'
Meanwhile, two kilometers west of the Old City, 28-year-old Ahmed is helping tourists find their way around the lively quarter. He manages a boutique hotel and is constantly in touch with visitors from all over the world – as well as from other parts of Israel.
This year's Independence Day marks 70 years since the founding of the State of IsraelImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Schalit
"Israel's Independence Day is like any other day for me," he says. "A constant reminder of what I don't have – but also of what I can have." Ahmed is hoping to move to Germany with his girlfriend, to get his master's degree there and eventually find a job. "My parents obviously don't want me to leave," he admits. "Not only because I will be far from them, but also because – in their words – they don't want us [Palestinians] to leave this land for the Jews."
When he was younger, he reveals, he couldn't stand Israelis. "I cursed soldiers. I cursed all of them." But now that he speaks fluent Hebrew and is in daily contact with many Israelis, he thinks differently. "When you are taught from day one that the other people want to destroy you – what are you supposed to think? I don't blame Israelis. I don't blame Palestinians either."
Reason to celebrate?
Along the busy Jaffa Street, English-speaking teens are waving Israeli flags and spraying each other with foam. French, Spanish and Italian speakers seem to enjoy the live concerts, light exhibitions and rather relaxed atmosphere only few associate with Jerusalem normally.
In merely a month from now, US President Donald Trump will open the American embassy in the city, a controversial move that has triggered harsh criticism and enraged left-wing activists, Palestinians and the Muslim world alike. But not all Israelis are concerned.
Airshows and military displays are part of the celebrationsImage: picture-alliance/D. Hill
"We have every reason to celebrate,” says 42-year-old Miri Hajbi, a high school teacher who brought her two teenage daughters to watch the annual airshow passing above Sacher Park, one of the most attended events in the city. "We are strong, we are united, we have a blooming high-tech industry and a powerful army – we made it against all odds,” she pauses for a bit, "and whoever's got a problem with that is welcome to test us."
Her words resonate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements at the ceremony, in which he declared that the Jewish state was becoming a "world power," adding that its light would overcome what he called its enemies' "darkness."
In another 70 years' time, he continued, "you'll find a country that is many times stronger because what we've done until today is just the beginning.”
Promised land, enemy land: Israel 70 years after independence
Triumph or catastrophe? The state of Israel was declared 70 years ago this week, according to the Hebrew calendar — a turning point for Jews after the Holocaust. DW looks back at events that have shaped Israeli history.
Image: Imago/W. Rothermel
Long-held hope is victorious
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, future first prime minister of Israel, declares the state's independence, outlining the Jewish story: "The people kept faith with (the land) throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom." It was the birth of an internationally recognized Jewish homeland.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The darkest hour
While the controversial idea of a God-given land for Jews has biblical roots, the Holocaust was a close, powerful backdrop for the significance of Israel's founding. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews across Europe, and those who survived the concentration camps endured expulsion and forced labor. The above photo shows survivors of the Auschwitz camp following liberation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/akg-images
'Nakba': Arabic for 'catastrophe'
Directly after Israel's founding, it was attacked by troops from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq - among others. Israel pushed back and expanded its control over 77% of Palestinian territory. Some 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes. "Nakba" is what Palestinians call this event. The war encapsulated the still unresolved Mideast conflict sparked in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration.
Image: picture-alliance/CPA Media
Life on a kibbutz
These land collectives, known as kibbutzim in the plural, were established across Israel following independence. Many were run by secular or socialist Jews in an effort to realize their vision of society.
Image: G. Pickow/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A state at war
Tensions with its Arab neighbors erupted in the Six-Day War in June 1967. With a surprise attack, Israel is able to swiftly defeat Egypt, Jordan and Syria, bringing the Arab-populated areas of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights under Israeli control. Victory leads to occupation — and more tension and conflict.
Image: Keystone/ZUMA/IMAGO
Settlements on disputed territory
Israel's settlement policy worsens the conflict with Palestinians. Due to development and expansion of Jewish areas on occupied Palestinian land, the Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of making a future Palestinian state untenable. Israel has largely ignored the international community's criticism of its settlement policy, arguing new construction is either legal or necessary for security.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill
Anger, hate and stones: The first intifada
In winter 1987, Palestinians begin mass protests of Israel's ongoing occupation. Unrest spreads from Gaza to East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The uprising eventually wound down and led to the 1993 Oslo Accords — the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the representative body of the Palestinian people.
Image: picture-alliance/AFP/E. Baitel
Peace at last?
With former US President Bill Clinton as a mediator, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat hold peace talks. The result, the Oslo I Accord, is each side's recognition of the other. The agreement leads many to hope that an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict is not far off, but peace initiatives suffer a major setback when Rabin is assassinated two years later.
Image: picture-alliance/CPA Media
A void to fill
A right-wing Jewish fanatic shoots and kills Rabin on November 4, 1995, while he is leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Rabin's assassination throws the spotlight on Israel's internal social strife. The divide is growing between centrist and extremist, secular and religious. The photo shows Israel's then-acting prime minister, Shimon Peres, next to the empty chair of his murdered colleague.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Delay
Addressing the unspeakable
Nazi Germany's mass murder of Jews weighs on German-Israeli relations to this day. In February 2000, Germany's then-President Johannes Rau addresses the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in German. It is a tremendous emotional challenge for both sides, especially for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, but also a step towards closer relations after unforgettable crimes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The Israeli wall
In 2002, amid the violence and terror of the Second Intifada, Israel starts building a 107-kilometer-long (67-mile-long) barrier of barbed wire, concrete wall and guard towers between itself and Palestinian areas of the West Bank. It suppresses the violence but does not solve the larger political conflict. The wall grows in length over the years and is projected to reach around 700 kilometers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb/S. Nackstrand
A gesture to the dead
Germany's current foreign minister, Heiko Maas, steps decisively into an ever closer German-Israeli relationship. His first trip abroad as the country's top diplomat is to Israel in March 2018. At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, he lays a wreath in memory of Holocaust victims.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Yefimovich
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Understanding the complexity
Niv Dagan, a 32-year-old social worker, disagrees with the prime minister. "If we don't find a way to share this land with Palestinians, not only will we not be stronger – we simply won't be. For us it's Independence Day – for them it's the Nakba [catastrophe]. We have to find a way to understand this complexity," he argues.
Not far away from there, outside the Mahane Yehuda market, Chilean, German and American tourists are sharing a table with two Israelis they have just met. "We actually planned this vacation long before we realized it's a special day here in Israel," 19-year-old Rebecca from Chicago told DW, pointing at her fellow students.
"Is this a happy day or a sad day?" she asks one of the Israelis at the table. "Well, I guess it depends on who you ask around here," he replied. "For us anyway, it's happy."
Foreign fighter jets like the UK Royal Air Force's Hercules, were also on displayImage: Reuters/A. Cohen
