ISRAEL SPEAKS
Hallelujah for all that has been,
and all that is yet to come, hallelujah!
Hallelujah for all that has been,
and all that is yet to come... just a moment!
Let there be peace on Israel! Hallelujah!
Every spring the Israelis go to the streets and parks
to celebrate Independence Day.
This year, in 2013,
65 years have passed since the establishment of the state.
Indepence Day is the climax of a week full of national events,
as it is preceded by Holocaust Day and the Day of Remembrance
for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism.
Israel's first prime minister David Ben Gurion declared
the establishment of the state on 15 May 1948.
In Israel, the date of the Indepence Day is determined
by the Jewish calendar,
its Western date changes from year to year.
In 2013, Indepence Day was as early as in mid-April.
The 65th birthday was celebrated by many public events
in Jerusalem and across the country.
Chaim Ben Shimon works in the culture department
of the Jerusalem municipality.
He was responsible for the public events
on Independence Day.
On the eve and on Independence Day
Jerusalem has tens of occasions and performances.
After all, this is the capital of Israel.
30,000 people celebrated in the city center.
At Safra and Hatulot squares and on Hillel street
thousands of people danced on the eve of Indepence Day.
We had stages also in the neighborhoods,
in Pisgat Ze'ev, Gilo, Kiryat Yovel and Kiryat Moshe.
Tens of thousands danced and celebrated with great artists.
We had also fireworks, of course.
There was a great celebration in the city center.
This is a great joy and a great celebration.
It's a great honour to organize the celebrations of Jerusalem.
It's fun to see children, adults and young people
coming to rejoice and dance on the birthday of the state.
Jerusalemites told us about their feelings on Independence Day.
We are celebrating the birthday of our state.
We are enjoying and rejoicing, that our state exists
and grows every year.
It's important that everybody celebrates and shows love to it.
- What does Independence Day mean to you?
- It's a great celebration.
We are celebrating that we could make our own destiny
and not be dependent on others.
Here independence is not taken for granted
as in many other countries.
I came from Germany, and there it was taken for granted.
Does Independence Day have a special meaning for you?
We, the Jewish people, have dreamed for hundreds of years
that we would again have a national home.
Today we have a state, the state of Israel,
that was established not only for the Jewish people,
but it is also a democratic state for all of its citizens.
It shouldn't be taken for granted. It should be guarded and improved.
It's very important.
Independence Day unites most Israelis -
seculars and religious alike.
Dan Diker moved to Israel in 1984.
He lives with his family in Efrat near Jerusalem.
He is the former secretary general of the World Jewish Congress.
World Jewish Congress gathers several Jewish organizations
that guard the rights of the Jews around the world.
Dan Diker has also served as a security policy analyst
in an Israeli national TV channel.
Currently he is a doctoral student on anti-terrorism
at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzlya.
Dan Diker, former secretary general of the World Jewish Congress
In the Jewish national sensation, joy and sorrow are often combined.
Thus the founders of the state decided to link
Remembrance Day and Independence Day,
which are celebrated on two consecutive days.
Shmuel Belay is a Jewish believer in Jesus,
who have moved to Israel from Ethiopia.
He lives in Yad Hashmona near Jerusalem.
Shmuel is one of the many Israelis who have lost friends
in defending the country.
In 2001 we were in action in the area of Shechem.
It's interensting, that in that operation I had a dream.
Usually I don't dream much.
After the dream I told my friends that we won't make it.
Two of his best friends were killed in an anti-terror operation,
in which also Shmuel took part.
Remembrance Day reminds him of them.
You can't understand it until it happens on your backyard.
You realize that these people gave their lives for you.
They didn't do it for some great people.
I knew, that my friend, who I served with, had my back.
I trusted him and he trusted me.
He looked back, and I looked forward. We were together.
All that happens around us in our land is based on sacrifice.
We live in peace and our families are alive,
because someone fought and gave his life.
Blood was shed. t's not a matter of course.
People suffered, so that we could enjoy our lives.
For every piece of land and every moment of peace
some people are suffering outside somewhere.
Our soldiers on the border.
Mount Herzl, Day of Remembrance
Dan Diker, former secretary general of the World Jewish Congress
It's a most beautiful thing to have Independence Day
just after the Day of Remembrance.
From the pain and the death suddenly a resurrection.
It's so beautiful. I believe it is inspired by God,
that our nation decided to do this.
Do not uproot that which has been planted
Do not forget the hope
Over the honey and over the thorn
Over the bitter and over the sweet
Although Shmuel was not born in Israel
and he has had adaptation difficulties,
he feels a strong connection to his people on Independence Day.
After all our longing to come here,
when we finally came, we experienced a ressurrection.
We didn't feel like outsiders
because of all the promises of our land and everything.
We all celebrate together. This reason joins us all.
This is a very good reason.
Even the cold weather this year did not keep the people
from celebrating the day traditionally in parks.
Shmuel's family usually gathers on Armon Hanatziv Promenade.
It has an amazing view of the Old City.
Also the prayer meetings of the Ethiopian Jews
have always taken place there.
We praise God there for bringing us to the land.
Suddenly it came true and we came here.
So we thank God for our return.
We also lived in Armon Hanatziv. I grew up there.
We lived there almost 26 years.
We celebrate there as a family.
First the eve is a celebration of the whole nation,
but then we come to celebrate intimately within the family.
Both of them are equally important.
We say "till 120", but what do you wish for a state?
That it would continue developing, and much more than 120 years,
for many generations to come.
For peace and security, both with our neigboring countries
and within our society, that we'll have better society.
- Are you optimistic? - Yes, I am.
What do you wish for the State of Israel?
Peace and quiet.
Israel is a relatively young state.
Thus there a still people who remember the first independence day
and the Independence War which broke out immediately after that.
I went out with three children.
I think we were going for a walk.
Suddenly we heard how planes started bombing.
One of the children threw me on the floor
and shouted: "Lie down!"
This was my first Independence Day.
Yosef Aharon is a Holocaust survivor.
He lost his mother and some of his brothers in the Holocaust.
As a small child he experienced many horrors
in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Yosef moved to Israel in 1948 and settled in Jerusalem
two months before the breakout of the Independence War.
On 15 May 1948 I celebrated my Bar Mitzva.
I studied at a Yeshiva.
It was a Sabbath.
Ben Gurion declared the state, and the people at the Yeshiva said:
"We have a state of our own!"
"It's yours, it's mine!"
I didn't understand it all. I couldn't be happy and smile.
But on the other hand,
people took me to dance, and all these little things.
Until today I have celebrated the Independence Day.
It's both a sad and a happy day.
I love to celebrate Independence Day.
I am happy that we established this state
and that we came here from the Holocaust.
We gave something to this state.
I don't think young people understand
what it was like 65 years ago.
They see it as the birthday of the state.
Sometimes I talk about it with young people,
and they wonder,
how I came already before the establishment of the state.
I came before 15 May.
I have been in Israel so long.
I am happy that they ask about it,
and I can tell them.
Sometimes I can't answer their questions.
My life has not been a picnic, and it never will be.
I have been in hard situations.
In spite of his many sufferings, Yosef is happy to live in Israel.
He is happy also for having seen all the phases of the state
from the establishment of the state until today.
I am pleased.
This is one of the most beautiful and developed countries.
I feel most safe here in Israel.
I wouldn't leave Jerusalem,
even if they'd give me a house in New York or Los Angeles.
For a million dollars I would not leave.
In this little apartment in Jerusalem I have everything.
I came here, and here I want to die.
Translation: Hannele Tainio