National Day of Israel

national dayThe National Day of Israel is on the  14 May, according to Jewish calendar at 5 Iyar (Yom Ha’atzmaut, proclamation of independence from the British Mandate of Palestine 1948). See the history behind this national day.

National Day of Israel

The National Day of Israel is known as Yom Ha’atzmaut in Hebrew. It here is celebrated annually on the 5th of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in April or May in the Gregorian calendar.

Today the modern state of Israel was established on the 14th May 1948. This following a United Nations vote to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The resolution was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab leaders. This lead to violence and a civil war in the region.

Then on the day that the British mandate expired, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, declared the establishment of the State of Israel, and he became the country’s first prime minister. The declaration of independence was based on the Zionist idea of creating a homeland for the Jewish people in their ancestral land.