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On May 15, Palestinians will commemorate their Nakba (disaster), a day after Israel's sixty-third Independence Day. Events, in fact, began on May 9 by lighting beacons at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl national cemetery, marking the conclusion of Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Memorial or Remembrance Day. On May 10, Independence Day (ID) was celebrated according to the Jewish calendar, this year days before May 14.
Events around the country were held, including ceremonies, military fly-overs, and a naval demonstration. ID evening, the annual Israel Prize, its highest honor, was awarded.
This year, Israel's Independence Day theme was "Looking after one another - the year of mutual care," denied anyone not Jewish, especially Palestinians, but also Israeli Arabs, one-fifth of the population treated more like a fifth column than citizens.
Ahead of ID ceremonies, President Shimon Peres reflected on "the historic miracle of the birth of a nation," saying Israel's War of Independence established "one of the best and most moral armies in the world."
In fact, he and other Israeli officials ignore its decades of slaughter, destruction, and ruthlessness against regional Arabs, belying any notion of morality. Palestinians understand well, by far paying the greatest price, ongoing daily.
Roots of Israel's 1947 - 48 plan began with:
-- Zionism's 19th century birth; in 1895, founder Theodor Herzl, wrote: "We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by....denying it employment in our country."
-- establishment of the 1901 Jewish National Fund (JNF) to compile a detailed registry of Arab communities, so later Zionists knew what to colonize and where; it was also to buy and occupy Palestinian land;
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