Jerusalem - Israel Wednesday evening opened 24 hours of
massive celebrations marking 60 years since it was founded in May
1948, with a call for peace and a stern warning to its enemies.
'I say to the people of terror, we want peace. We pursue peace for
the sake of our children and we also want the well-being of your
children.
'But be careful, our children, who so much want peace, will know
very well the acts of war if needed,' Knesset (Parliament) Speaker
Dalia Itzik told a festive ceremony and show on Jerusalem's Mount
Herzl, opening the celebrations.
In a prerecorded televised message, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, 62, Wednesday evening congratulated Israelis, and said that
while he was part of the generation that built the state, it was now
up to the younger generation to 'consolidate our existence here on
the basis of peace, of quiet, of security.'
While 60 years was the 'the middle' in the life of a man, it was
'just the beginning of the beginning of the life of a state,' he
said.
He earlier told a memorial service for Israel's fallen soldiers at
Mount Herzl, where most of the country's former leaders are buried,
that 'there is nothing we desire more than to end the conflict with
out neighbours and there is nothing that would benefit both sides
more than to end the conflict.'
'This is in no way a conflict without a solution, despite the
difficulties and pain,' he said.
At 8 pm (1800 GMT), officers raised the Israeli flag from half to
full mast on Mount Herzl, marking the end of Israel's Memorial Day
for Fallen Soldiers, and ushering in the 60th Independence Day
celebrations.
Twelve Israeli citizens also lit torches, symbolizing the
dispersal of the 12 biblical tribes of Israel across the globe when
the Romans conquered the region around the start of the common era,
and the return of the Jews from 2,000 years of 'exile' with the
creation of modern-day Israel.
Later in the evening, fireworks lit up the skies from Eilat in the
south, to Nahariya in the north. Hundreds of thousands poured into
city streets and attended performances by local artists and musicians
on outdoor stages erected on central squares across Israel. Laser and
light shows were also held in a number of major cities.
On Wednesday during the day, the Israel Air Force is to give shows
off the shores of Tel Aviv and elsewhere, while dozens of naval
vessels are to sail from the port city of Haifa in the north to that
of Ashdod in the south.
Israelis are also expected to flock to nature reserves, picnic
sites and museums, which are open to the public without payment for
the occasion.
Thousands of police, including special units, are to secure the
events. Roadblocks will be set up at city entrances and beefed up
forces have begun patrolling the border with the West Bank and Gaza,
police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The police have raised their alert to the second-highest level,
amid warnings that Arab militants might try to mar the festivities
with a major attack.
Israel also sealed off the West Bank earlier this week, allowing
no Palestinians through checkpoints into its territory, except in
urgent humanitarian cases.
Israel declared statehood on May 14, 1948, a day before the expiry
of Britain's United Nations-mandate over historic Palestine. But it
celebrates its annual Independence Day according to the Jewish
calendar, which this year falls almost a week before May 14.
Each year, it celebrates its foundation a week after its Holocaust
Memorial Day, and immediately after its Memorial Day for Fallen
Soldiers. The sequence of events is meant to symbolize the country's
rise from the ashes of the attempted Nazi genocide of Europe's nine
million Jews, and to remember that statehood came at a cost.
Festivities for Israel's 60th birthday are to continue throughout
the year, with US President George W Bush and other key world leaders
scheduled to attend a three-day conference hosted by President Shimon
Peres in Jerusalem next week.
Palestinians, for their part, are to commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the start of the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's
creation, known to them as the Nakba (Catastrophe in Arabic), on
Thursday next week with marches, rallies and an address by President
Mahmoud Abbas.
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