JERUSALEM (AP) – In a jarring contrast, Israel is transitioning from melancholic reflection to remember its fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism to joyous Independence Day celebrations.
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“We are obliged to speak out about facts, but not to deny them”, Rivlin said.
At the ceremony, performers sang and danced, soldiers marched in formation, and fireworks lit up the sky.
Celebrations continue on Thursday, with traditional cookouts, flybys by air force jets and other festivities.
Wednesday’s event was attended by Arab Knesset members, the heads of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, which constitutes the unofficial leadership of the Israeli Arab community, and thousands of people displaced from their original villages by the War of Independence. Radio and television networks broadcast programs about battle and loss.
“Yes, I will be coming soon”, Trump said without giving further details in response to a question from the Israel Hayom newspaper, a freesheet considered close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The move comes amid an ongoing wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which has claimed the lives of 28 Israelis and 203 Palestinians since October 2015.
The Israel Diamond Exchange is marking the country’s Memorial Day with a ceremony in the rough diamond trading hall on 11th May at 11am.
(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit). Israeli soldiers salute after placing small flags on the grave of fallen soldiers on the eve of memorial Day in Kiryat Shaul military cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, May 10, 2016.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released key population statistics this week to coincide with Israeli Independence Day – also known as Yom Ha’atzmaut, a holiday that commemorates the nation’s 1948 independence.
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The figure of 23,477 fallen soldiers is calculated from when Jews first began to settle outside of Jerusalem.
