Arabs and some Jews mourn Israel's anniversary
Palestine-Israel, History, 4/28/1998

For Arabs, it was a day of disaster. For Jews, it was a day of victory. The major event took place on May 15, 1947 but Israel marks it according to its own Jewish calendar. On Thursday, while Israelis mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of their country, the Palestinians have more reasons to mourn the anniversary despite all the present talk of peace. For many, it is even because of these peace accords that failed to restore the minimum of Palestinian rights that many Palestinians feel so antagonized by the Israeli celebrations.

Not only Arabs, but also one of the Jewish sectors has a reason to mourn, while their fellow Jews dance and sing in the streets. Members of the most ultra-orthodox Natorei Karta sect plan to hold a mourning procession on Israel's independence day in their own Mea' She'arim neighborhood. The procession is due to go along the streets of this religious neighborhood, whose name in Hebrew means the Hundred Gates. Participants decided to wear mourning clothes because for them, it was a disastrous day when Israel was proclaimed a state. They believe the state rose within an anti-religious base and therefore, they consider the celebrations of the 50th anniversary as the power of the devil and the evil inclination.

Natorie Karta have always been opposed to Israel and the concept of a Jewish country. They believe that such a country can only exist once the Messiah returns to earth. When Israel conquered the rest of the Palestinian territories in the June 1967 war, Natorei Karta officials at the time refused to pray at the Western Wall until they obtained a special clearance from Jordan, which was the sovereign authority in East Jerusalem before the war. When the Palestinian National Authority was established in 1994, Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, considered as the foreign minister of the movement, became an honorary member of the Palestinian cabinet. He is the special advisor to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Jewish affairs.

Despite the feelings of joy, many of the Israelis, especially from within the secular sect, still feel they miss their assassinated prime minister, whose assassination marked for them the near-collapse of the first peace chance between them and the Palestinians. A poll conducted lately in Israel showed that Yitzhak Rabin was the figure whom Israelis miss most on the eve of Israel's 50th proclamation anniversary.

According to the survey, 37.4 percent of the Israeli public miss Rabin. Within the secular sector, this number climbs to 52 percent within the traditional only 28 percent and among the religious and ultra-orthodox just 7.7 percent miss him. The survey, which covered 503 Jewish Israelis, found that after Rabin the list includes three other prime ministers: Menahem Begin (24.7 percent) who was the first to sign a peace treaty with an Arab country (Egypt), the state founder David Ben-Gurion (16.4) and Golda Meir (3.8).

Previous Stories:
  Interviews: 50th anniversary of Deir Yassin massacre   (4/10/1998)
  Palestinian academic calls for preservation of Arab sites' names   (11/26/1997)
  Ashraf, children on the run   (9/15/1997)

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