What is being an Australian on Israel’s Independence Day
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The pulse of the country this week was palpable as more than 8 million people celebrated 70 years of Israel’s independence.
It was my first experience of what Israelis know to be a truly magical day every year… and, as a foreigner, my eyes were wide with wonder.
You see, as an Australian looking at Israel’s unique political context, I became deeply reflective.
I asked myself, against what backdrop do we, Aussies, throw our ‘shrimps on the barbie’ every January 26th? What response do we face as we mark our claim to the land?
For Israelis… they’re barbecuing their lamb cutlets, as their sons and daughters don helmets and brandish M-16s in the name of ensuring the country’s existence, amidst calls for its destruction.
On the surface of things, Israel’s Independence Day bore many of the same hallmarks as Australia Day; barbeques, rooftop parties, the coastline packed with beachgoers…
In Tel Aviv — from dusk until the following dusk (and well into the night) the streets were filled with music, folk dancing and concerts — cars unable to access the roads for the masses of people and kids covering each other with cans of spray snow, oddly an identifying feature of Israel’s Independence Day.
But, it was the day preceding this one that got the cogs in my head turning.
Let me explain.
Every year, Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) follows a very somber 24 hours known as Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day).
The country effectively shuts down, while the people pay their respects to the thousands of fallen soldiers, security and intelligence personelle (and now, victims of terror) who have paid the ultimate price in defence of their country.
A one minute siren sounds across the entire nation on the evening before memorial day and then a two minute alarm the following morning — throughout which all activity comes to a complete halt.
Pedestrians come to a dead stop on the streets and bow their heads.
Cars turn off their engines on the roads and freeways; the occupants open their doors, stand up outside of their vehicles… to hold the moment.
It is chilling, to say the least, and incredibly powerful to feel the unity of an often divided population.
On the evening of memorial day, once the cost has been acknowledged, the country then erupts into celebration for the founding of the state. I could feel the passion and pride of the people for the achievements of such a tiny country that flourishes against extraordinary odds.
Recovering from the whiplash of marking these two days side by side, I looked around.
I noted how different Israel’s Independence Day felt to the way in which my birth country deals with its claim to land.
Let’s look at AUSTRALIA
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This year, on the day before Australia celebrated its national day in January, a statue of British explorer James Cook (the first European to discover Australia) was vandalised in Melbourne. It was covered with pink paint and brandished with the words “No Pride”.
While many Australians see the country’s “birthday” as a chance to celebrate its lifestyle, culture and achievements… for Australia’s Indigenous population, it is not a happy day.
Some 220 years ago… on the 26th of January, Governor Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Sydney Cove. It is known by the Aboriginal community as Survival Day (also Invasion Day) commemorating the tragedy their people faced at the hands of European colonisation.
The birth of a nation also began the demise of the country’s Aboriginal people and their culture.
In recent years, a legitimate debate over whether the date for Australia Day celebrations should be changed casts a shadow over the day’s festivities.
When Australia was founded, the war — of guns versus spears — was instantly at an end. But, for the Aboriginal community, a battle of a different kind is still not over — albeit fought in a very different way to that of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
It took until 1998 for Australia to create what is known as National Sorry Day. It’s an annual event that remembers and commemorates the mistreatment of the country’s Aboriginal people.
Hardly a consolation.
But here we are…
And the war of words continues…
In 2016, Aboriginal singer A.B Original released the song called “January 26”.
Now let’s look at ISRAEL
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Israel faces more than powerful prose.
Domestically, the country also rummages through its own ethical discourse…
But then, there’s the very real war.
When it comes to the internal dissonance — there are some ultra religious Jews, Arab citizens and even a few extreme leftists who oppose the Jewish state.
These people will not stand in silence during those sirens to pay respects to the soldiers who died to protect it — (I’ll be honest — this confuses me some. I ask myself, how can one comfortably reap the fruits without acknowledging the price at which they come? I’ll continue to enquire).
Then, when it comes to its hostile neighbours, Israel has armed its borders so as to maintain its independence against the many outside forces contesting it.
On Thursday night, once the celebrations were well and truly over, I walked down Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard.
Here stands the building in which Israel’s independence was declared by David Ben Gurion in 1948. It’s a very modest building, which cases the echo of one of the most critical moments in Israel’s history. It witnessed what is seen as a victory by the Jewish people, but, in actual fact, the fight for the country’s existence had in many ways only just begun.
You see, before 1948, there was no sovereign Jewish state. The Jewish people lived in the land then known as Palestine — now Israel — as well as across the Middle East and the broader world. In these countries, they were tolerated to various degrees. The horrors of the Holocaust must, of course, be noted here too.
In 1947, prior to Israel’s declared independence, the UN partition plan recommended the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State. Jews accepted; Arabs rejected and launched a war to destroy Israel. That battle is not yet over. So, from the get go, Israel was rejected by its neighbours. What’s changed over time is that Israel’s military might has only but developed and the country’s ability to defend itself has proven itself, thus far, unmatched.
The human toll for all parties is heart wrenching. That’s war for you.
Lay them side by side and what do I see?
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Firstly, in Australia, the Aboriginals’ battle is a domestic issue. The Indigenous Australians had their ability to self determine swallowed up hundreds of years ago by a colonial war, about which the rest of the world is silent.
Israel is a country whose legitimacy, is contested by many. Its affairs, and the way in which it defends itself (others would say imposes itself), divides public opinion the world over.
Secondly, Jews and Palestinians both claim to be natives. The argument of who was here first and who took what from who continues to divide historians, theologians, politicians, archeologists and your every day punters.
It stands in the way of a forward-looking approach to finding a way of living side by side, or even mixed in with one another, with tolerance and equality. So how can two groups of native peoples (I can feel some readers squirming) resolve entirely legitimate but competing claims to the same place?
And thirdly, one can’t ignore that an enormous variable unique to the Middle East is, of course, ideology.
In Australia, the narrative is very clear. One people inhabited the land, another came, raped, pillaged, stole and took the land.
In the Middle East? You do the reading.
I wonder how a “National Sorry Day” would go down in Israel?
What’s absolutely shared across Australia and the Middle East, is that all civilians want to live in peace. I think that’s fair to say, no?
We all want basic human happiness, and, above all, to live normal lives.
And just like other countries decades Israel’s senior, Australia is still battling internally with issues of racism and equal rights for its citizens, just as the Jewish State is at 70 years old.
When it comes to external forces, for Israel, a combination of impossible and complex situations, as well as sometimes imperfect responses, has led to a history filled with pain and conflict. Israel and its neighbours would have to make painful, emotional and historical compromises to find the kind of peace that Australia and other Western nations enjoy. For optimism’s sake, there have always been elements in both Israeli and Palestinian society that are both forward-thinking and courageous — but the conflict, sadly, is still very much ongoing.
Israel wants this land, the Arab world wants that land…. the mind boggles and my heart aches as innocent lives are lost over it, year on year.
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Since the dawn of time and the world over, blood has been on the hands of every country to raise its flag.
It’s clear that for both Israelis and Australians, marking their respective country’s establishment is bittersweet… and both countries are trying to navigate a way forward.
The stark difference I noted, is the blissful freedom and peace, Australians experience, in spite of that.
So, I’m left wondering…. will there come a time, when Israelis can enjoy the same?
