The three Yom’s

In Israel, there are three holidays of national significance that are commemorated one after the other. Yom Hazmaut (“Independence Day” in Hebrew) celebrates the declaration of Independence of the State of Israel in 1948 proclaimed by David Ben-Gurion. The event took place on Thursday 5 May, bringing to an end the Middle Eastern power’s three public holidays.

The other “Yom”, i.e. day in Hebrew, refers to Yom Hazikaron (“Day of Remembrance” in Hebrew) which commemorates and remembers the civilian victims taken from Israel (not only Jews, but also Christians and Israeli Arabs) who fell at the ungodly and merciless hands of terrorism. In addition to civilian casualties, and not least, it commemorates soldiers who have fallen in battle or who were also killed by Islamic terrorists, especially Hamas.

And perhaps the day that means the most not only to Israel, but to the Jews of the world and humanity is Yom HaShoah (“Holocaust Remembrance Day”), which remembers the innocent Jewish victims murdered by the Nazi machine and its Jewish extermination plan, among those victims, one and a half million children.

Among other things, it also remembers the bravery of those who resisted or tried in the dark days of World War II, as well as the survivors of the Holocaust, and of course, the Hasidei Umot Ha-Olam (“Righteous Among the Nations”), the best known of whom is perhaps Oskar Schindler, although the person who managed to save the most Jews thanks to his intermediation, vocation and above all his great soul is undoubtedly the Swede Raoul Wallenberg, remembered as “The Angel of Budapest” who managed to save up to 100,000 people, only to be captured, tortured and murdered by the Russians in one of their Soviet-era prisons.

Israel has the capacity to commemorate such hard days and at the same time the day of greatest national celebration on the occasion of that Independence which honours, dignifies and means so much to a people. The days of remembrance strike a chord with Holocaust survivors or descendants of Holocaust survivors. Just as society constantly suffers, feels and fears the threat of terrorism, there is also a constant yearning for the victims of terrorism and the fallen soldiers, considering that it is a country with compulsory military service for both men and women.

It is sad to understand the reality of Israel and to realise how the international media, the international community and different sectors try to cover up so much pain, which although the Jewish people have learned to deal with, does not mean that they do not have it or feel it, or that they stop celebrating when they should celebrate and above all not stop for a second in their eternal mission to be a beacon for the world.

In fact, the night of May 5th leaves a terrorist attack with at least 3 dead in the religious city of Elat, killed with axes, after the inhuman Hamas terrorist group called for this very thing.

Israel knows how to recover and is stronger than its enemies, it is proven not by words but by deeds, not by historical assumptions but by facts. The prophet of the Eternal, Isaiah, says: “Comfort my people, comfort them, speak to the heart of Jerusalem!