State’s of Israel 63rd Independence Day
On the 5th May in Riga, in Latvian Society House, Charge d’Affaires of the State of Israel in Latvia, Mr. Naftali Tamir held a reception in honour of the 63rd Independence Day of the State of Israel.
At the reception the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Mr. Daniel Ayalon delivered a speech, congratulated everyone on the holiday and wished prosperity to the people of Latvia and Israel.
The State of Israel was proclaimed on the 14th May 1948 (5th Iyar 5708 as per Jewish calendar). The World War II was over, the world celebrated victory over the Nazism. After that War only one third of almost nice million large Jewish community of Europe remained alive. The British government passed the issue of Palestine problem to the United Nation’s organisation. On the 29th November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly with the majority of votes – 33 ‘for’, and 13 ‘against’ passed a resolution on separation of Palestine into two states.
On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and David Ben-Gurion read the declaration of independence, which got the official name – Medinat Israel (state of Israel). In 2011 this date falls on the 10th May.
Couple of hours after the Independence was declared, the regular armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the new state, forcing Jewish people to defend the sovereignty it had regained in its ancestral homeland. In the war, which was fifteen months long, more than 6000 people died. They granted their lives for the State of Israel to become reality. The other year Knesset, the parliament of Israel, passed the law about the national holiday on the 5th day of month Iyar, which got the name Yom Ha’atzmaut – the Day of Independence.
