Yom Hazikaron

During the early twentieth century some of the Jewish people decided that they could no longer live among the other peoples in Central and Eastern Europe, the atmosphere there was too threatening, too dangerous. This resulted in the development of modern political Zionism, the liberation movement of the Jewish people. Many Jews emigrated to the West, to America and Britain, but many too came to Palestine. In Palestine, they also faced hostility and attacks from the local Arab population. At that time Britain controlled Palestine under the terms of a Mandate from the League of Nations in 1922, but from the late 1930s Britain became more and more pro-Arab. After the unparalleled tragedy of the Holocaust during WWII and as the British tried to prevent further Jewish immigration into Palestine, a conflict developed between the British and the Jews that lead to Britain relinquishing the Mandate in 1948.
Then the Jewish people, what was left of it, made a commitment never again to live under the domination of any other people. Sovereignty was the answer to the eternal persecution that had dogged the Jews for centuries. Yes, Jews could live and practise their religion in the democratic countries of the West, but still the only place where Jews could speak their own language Hebrew, and control their own fate, was the State of Israel. So finally the UN voted in 1948 to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. At that time the population of Israel was 800,000, while today it is 7.6 million, an increase of ten-fold in 61 years!
April 28 in Israel is Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, the day when we remember those who have fallen in defense of the Jewish country (not to be confused with Yom Hashoah that took place last week). The total number that has been estimated from all the terrorism and all the wars is 22,570 people killed from 1860, when the first immigrants arrived, to 2009. We are welded to this land by the blood they have shed and the ultimate sacrifice they made.
Last night (the eve of Yom Hazikaron) Naomi and I were the official delegates from the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) in Netanya to the official ceremony held at the memorial canter for the fallen, Yad L'banim. A siren was sounded at 8 pm, and about 1,000 people stood in the amphitheater in the dark. The sound of the sirens evoked distant memories for me of the sound of the sirens in London of the German bombing raids when I was a child .
Then there were speeches by relatives of fallen soldiers and the Mayor of Netanya, songs, lighting of small torches and large memorial flames. On the roof of the one-story building the images of the fallen soldiers was projected on a large screen, their name, a picture, their age at death. Throughout the ceremony the images changed silently, one after another, men and women, many of them age 19. Cut down so young, their faces staring out, grainy black and white photos from the 1940s and coloured smiling faces from the 1990s onward.
The cost of having and defending our State is very high, as a famous poem of Nahman Bialik says "it won't be handed to you on a silver platter." But, on the other hand, look at the cost of not having a State, of being defenceless. It's not a simple equation but, 22,570 or 6 million? A difference between us and the Palestinians is that none of us want to die, no Israeli is a suicide bomber, they all go out to fight, to win and to return. But, unfortunately many of them did not return.
These were some of the thoughts that passed through my mind as we were there at the memorial ceremony for the fallen, and still the images flitted by on the screen.
Then today, the eve of April 28, the day turns into Yom H'a'atzmaut, when we joyfully celebrate our Independence Day. Last night we went to a party in Rehovot and today we are going on a tiyul (tour) and a picnic in Modi'in. This and much more is what their sacrifices have bequeathed us.