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A huge flag of lights in honor of Israel's 57th (AP)
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Thousands of worshippers inaugurate a huge new synogogue in Kfar Darom, slated for destruction by the Sharon government. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 12, 2005 |
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| An Israeli boy in Jewish Gaza touches the hand of a friend on the other side of a huge Israeli flag. (AP) |
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Teenaged girls disrupted a traditional Israeli Independence Day event, the World Youth Bible Quiz, protesting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot from their homes and destroy the communities of ten thousands Jewish citizens in Gaza and northern Samaria.
When Sharon was called on to ask a question, several youths held up a sign with the slogan, "Jews do not expel Jews," and shouted at Sharon. Security guards ushered the demonstrators out of the hall.
The YESHA settler council said it did not sponsor the protest but called it "legitimate, non-violent and inoffensive," adding that "it expresses the feeling among the people. We do not condemn what the girls did."
Near Jerusalem, several dozen ultra-Orthodox Jews marched in a protest against Zionism and the state of Israel. Police broke up the gathering, where Jews burned the Israeli flag. Black flags flew from some of the house in the neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose the existence of a Jewish state in the Holy Land, believing that only God can create such a state.
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"I fear a rift that could lead us to disaster ... More than anything I fear that this will be a year of civil war. How will we stand here on the 58th independence day if this coming year, brothers will spill each other's blood?"
MK Reuven Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset
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Elsewhere, the holiday passed in the traditional festive fashion. Israelis flocked by the thousands to vacation spots, forests and army bases.
Security was tight, with police and soldiers patrolling to prevent Palestinian attacks. Police set up roadblocks on highways and inspected cars passing through. Palestinians were banned from entering Israel beginning Wednesday, and the military said the closure, a routine holiday security measure, would be lifted Saturday night after the Jewish sabbath.
The nation's 57th birthday started with a ceremony at sundown Wednesday at the Jerusalem military cemetery on Mt. Herzl, marking the end of the annual memorial day for soldiers and other Israelis killed in wars and terror attacks.
Many army bases are open for visitors on independence day, also a traditional time for family cookouts in back yards, parks and forests.
Israel was declared as an independent state on May 14, 1948, with the end of the British mandate over Palestine, but the state celebrates its founding according to the Jewish lunar calendar.
At the Mt. Herzl ceremony, thousands of people, many wrapped up in coats and scarves against the unseasonably cold weather, watched dance troops and soldiers on the large parade ground. They created patterns including Israel's flag and 57.
Israelis lit 12 torches, representing the tribes of ancient Israel, to signify the abrupt switch from the somber observance of memorial day. Among them was Azzam Azzam, an Israeli freed from an Egyptian prison this year after serving eight years on a charge of spying for Israel. Azzam and Israeli officials denied the charges.
Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel's 6.9 million citizens, according to population statistics released by the government on the eve of the holiday. The figures do not include more than 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Reuven Rivlin, speaker of the Israeli parliament, inserted a note of pessimism into the festivities, worrying about conflict between opposing groups of Israelis over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip and four from the West Bank in the summer. Rivlin, a member of Sharon's Likud Party, opposes the withdrawal, as do many other Likud stalwarts.
"I fear a rift that could lead us to disaster ... More than anything I fear that this will be a year of civil war," Rivlin said. "How will we stand here on the 58th independence day if this coming year, brothers will spill each other's blood?"
"I'm greatly worried about a rupture," he said, "that might bring calamity upon all of us, one that?s much greater than the planned evacuation of the communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria... I stand before you this year with very great fear of the raucous sounds of a total turning of [our] backs on our covenant with the Land, of the true intentions of those who have 'shown disdain to the coveted Land,' and of the scorn heaped upon those who love it and are loyal to it. I am fearful of the malicious joy of some at the misfortune of those who have given and are giving their lives for the settlement and redemption of this land."
More than 50,000 people reportedly visited the Gaza communities on the holiday in a show of solidarity with the settlers and to protest the planned evacuation. Several hundred marched to the four West Bank settlements slated for removal, passing through Palestinian towns.
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