This week, as Israel celebrates its 68th Independence Day, streets all over the country are decorated with its distinctive blue-and-white flag, a simple design of a thin blue stripe above and below the Star of David, symbolizing Israel’s Jewish heart.
This time of year is also symbolic, perhaps the most emblematic in the Hebrew calendar. It begins with Passover, which celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land, today’s modern State of Israel, over 3,000 years ago.
The following week, the country commemorates the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and honors the heroism of Jewish resistance against the Nazis on Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.
One week later, the nation pays tribute to its fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terrorism. It is no coincidence that the Memorial Day is observed a day before Independence Day, reminding of the horrific sacrifices made in order to establish and defend our independence.
The Zionist movement that flourished at the end of the 19th century, declared the right of the Jewish people to national revival in their own ancient homeland. The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, following the UN General Assembly Resolution 181, on 29 November 1947. The UN resolution which called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish State and an Arab State was accepted by the Jews, yet rejected by the local Arab inhabitants and surrounding Arab States, which led to the launch of a war against the newborn State.
The State of Israel went on to fulfill its historic role as the homeland of Holocaust survivors and Jewish immigrants from all over the world, including Arab countries.
The Declaration of Independence serves as Israel’s anchor to the principles of justice and peace, as well as to complete equality of social and political rights for all its inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race or sex. It guarantees freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture and enshrines respect for progressive democratic and Jewish values.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s foremost founder and its first Prime Minister once said: “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles”. Even today, when Israel has grown and developed, its reality tells a miraculous story. Some of its extraordinary achievements, to name just a few, include having:
- The highest ratio of university degrees to total population in the world;
- The leading percentage of scientists and technicians in the workforce;
- The largest amount of start-ups per capita; Israel is also third in the world for venture capital availability;
- Nine Nobel Prize Laureates for: Peace (3), Chemistry (3), Economics (2) Literature (1); and
- The third-highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world.
When Israel looks over the Mediterranean Sea, it comes across Cyprus. Both are cradles of democracy and civilization which share historic and modern traits that bind the two countries together. The people of Israel, like the people of Cyprus, value life, freedom, education, family, community, the land, the Nation and, above all, peace.
In its Declaration of Independence, the newly-born State of Israel extended a hand of peace to all its neighbors. As we celebrate our 68th Independence Day, this call for Peace is more valid than ever.
Yael Ravia-Zadok
Ambassador of the State of Israel to Cyprus