Jerusalem Day
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Jerusalem Day (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the "reunification" of East Jerusalem (including the Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967, which saw Israel occupy East Jerusalem and the West Bank, effectively annexing the former. It is celebrated annually on 28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, and is marked officially throughout Israel with state ceremonies and memorial services.
A notable celebration that marks the holiday is a flag-flying parade known as the Dance of Flags. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Jerusalem Day to be a minor religious holiday, as it marks the regaining for Jewish people of access to the Western Wall.<ref name="bj"/><ref name="Berlin2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
Historical background
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Template:See also Under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which proposed the establishment of two states in British Mandatory Palestine – a Jewish state and an Arab state – Jerusalem was to be an international city, neither exclusively Arab nor Jewish for a period of ten years, at which point a referendum would be held by Jerusalem residents to determine which country to join. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, including the internationalization of Jerusalem, but the Arabs rejected the proposal.<ref name="passia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A civil war between Jewish forces and Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine internationalized in to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the day after Israel declared independence and the surrounding Arab states sent their armies in to the former Mandate territory.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Jordan captured East Jerusalem and the Old City while Israel captured the western section of the city. Israeli forces made a concerted attempt to dislodge the Jordanians but were unable to do so, and the war concluded with Jerusalem divided between Israel and Jordan by the Green Line. The Old City and the rest of East Jerusalem, along with the entirety of the West Bank, was occupied by Jordan, who forced the Jewish residents out, while the Palestinian Arab residents of western Jerusalem, at the time one of the more prosperous Arab communities, fled widespread looting and attacks by the Haganah, going from 28,000 to fewer than 750 remaining.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Under Jordanian rule, half of the Old City's 58 synagogues were demolished and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was plundered for its tombstones, which were used as paving stones and building materials.<ref name="forward">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1967, in the Six-Day War, Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan on 7 June 1967. Later that day, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan declared what is often quoted during Jerusalem Day:<ref name="pmo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="knesset">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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The war ended with a ceasefire on 11 June 1967 with Israel in control of the entirety of territory of Mandatory Palestine, including all of Jerusalem. On 27 June 1967, Israel expanded the municipal boundaries of West Jerusalem so as to include approximately Template:Convert of territory it had captured in the war, including the entirety of the formerly Jordanian held municipality of East Jerusalem (Template:Convert) and an additional 28 villages and areas of the Bethlehem and Beit Jala municipalities Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 30 July 1980, the Knesset officially approved the Jerusalem Law, which called the city the complete and united capital.<ref>Knesset website, Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel</ref>
Celebrations
On 12 May 1968, the government proclaimed a new holiday – Jerusalem Day – to be celebrated on the 28th of Iyar, the Hebrew date on which the divided city of Jerusalem became one. On 23 March 1998, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Day Law, making the day a national holiday.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
One of the themes of Jerusalem Day, based on a verse from the Psalms, is "Built-up Jerusalem is like a city that was joined together" (Psalm 122:3).<ref name="myjewishlearning">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1977, the government advanced the date of Jerusalem Day by a week to avoid it clashing with Election Day.<ref name="FrankelMedding1988">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 2015, Yad Sarah a non-profit volunteer organization began organizing a special tour specifically for residents who use wheelchairs, which focuses on Jerusalem history.<ref name="jpost2">Template:Cite news</ref>
Chanting "Death to Arabs"
2015,<ref name="Shalhoub-Kevorkian">Template:Cite journal</ref> 2021,<ref name="Intercept">Template:Cite news</ref> 2024.<ref>Haaretz Tens of Thousands Rampage Through Jerusalem's Old City, Muslim Quarter During Flag March; Five Arrested, June 5, 2024 [1]</ref> and 2025,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Israeli nationalists have chanted "death to Arabs" (Template:Langx) and in parades on Jerusalem Day.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2025, they also sang "May Your Village Burn."<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref name=":0" />
50th anniversary
In 2017, the golden jubilee of Jerusalem Day was celebrated. During the course of the year many events marking this milestone took place in celebrations of the 50th Jerusalem Day. Many events were planned throughout the year, marking the jubilee. The main theme of the celebrations was the "Liberation of Jerusalem". The celebrations began during Hanukkah 2016, at an official ceremony held at the City of David National Park in the presence of Minister Miri Regev, who was responsible for the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary. A logo was created for the jubilee and presented by the minister Miri Regev.<ref>United Jerusalem. Cabinet minister Miri Regev Jubilee logo, with motifs reflecting on King David, the Six Day War and the "Jerusalem of Gold" song written by Naomi Shemer.</ref>
Events During the Jubilee Year
The ceremony was held at the City of David National Park at the event the ancient "Pilgrims' Route", that led from the City of David to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period, was unveiled. The ceremony was attended by Knesset members, mayors and the three paratroopers that were photographed by David Rubinger at the Western Wall in 1967. At the event, the Minister Miri Regev was quoted by the press as saying, "Mr. President Barack Obama, I am standing here, on Hanukka, on the same road on which my forefathers walked 2,000 years agoTemplate:Nbsp... No resolution in any international forum is as strong as the steadfast stones on this street." Noting several of the 14 countries that participated in the resolution – including New Zealand, Ukraine, Senegal, and Malaysia – the minister added, "no other people in the world has such a connection and link to their land."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Significance
While the day is not widely celebrated outside Israel,<ref name="bj">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and has lost its significance for most secular Israelis,<ref name="Feige2009">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Benvenisti2007">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Steinsaltz2011">Template:Cite book</ref> the day is still very much celebrated by Israel's Religious Zionist community<ref name="Etzioni-Halevy2002">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Balint2001">Template:Cite book</ref> with parades and additional prayers in the synagogue.
Religious observance
Religious Zionists recite special holiday prayers with Hallel.<ref name="Berlin2011"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Chief Rabbinate of Israel ruled in favor of reciting Hallel with a blessing on this day. Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, Ashkenazi chief rabbi at the time, explained this decision as follows: "When the state was declared [in 1948], we asked the Creater of the World a question, and we did not know if our way would succeed. In the six days we received an answer!"<ref>Yoel Bin Nun, Zachor VeShamor, p. 510</ref> Other rabbis (including Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Joseph B. Soloveitchik) ruled that Hallel should or could be recited only without a blessing, either because Israel was still in danger, or for technical reasons.<ref name=sb/><ref name="Angel1997">Template:Cite book</ref> Today, various communities follow differing practices.<ref name=sb>Should one recite Hallel on Jerusalem Day?, Shlomo Brody, Jerusalem Post, 17 May 2012.</ref>
Some Haredim (strictly Orthodox), who do not recognise the religious significance of the State of Israel, do not observe Yom Yerushalayim.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Rabinowicz1997">Template:Cite book</ref> Rabbi Moshe Feinstein maintained that adding holidays to the Jewish calendar was itself problematic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 2015, Koren Publishers Jerusalem published a machzor dedicated to observance of Jerusalem Day and Independence Day.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Reactions and concerns
The settlement of Eastern Jerusalem and the claim of Jerusalem as a capital for the State of Israel is controversial among the left wing and the Arab population of Jerusalem, who regard it as a day marking the conquest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.<ref>Yishai Friedman, Students Against Jerusalem: "Legitimizing the Occupation," 4 April 2013, NRG</ref>
One of the celebrations marking Jerusalem Day is a youth parade with flags known as Dance of Flags, which begins at Gan Sacher, winds through the streets of downtown Jerusalem, threads through the old city and ends with a gathering for a final prayer at the Western Wall. The parade is controversial, and violent interactions have been reported between Arabs and Israeli youth during the procession.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2014, the Meretz political party submitted a bill to repeal the Jerusalem Day Law.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In May 2015, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a petition to prevent the Jerusalem Day parade from marching through the Muslim sector of the city. The justices said, however, that police must arrest parade participants who shout racist and violent epithets such as "Death to the Arabs!" or commit violent acts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Ethiopian Jews' Memorial Day
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A ceremony is held on Yom Yerushalayim to commemorate the Beta Israel who perished on their way to Israel. In 2004, the Israeli government decided to turn this ceremony into a state ceremony held at the memorial site for Ethiopian Jews who perished on their way to Israel on Mount Herzl.<ref>Ceremony marking the memory of the Ethiopian Jews who perished on their way to Israel, Decision No. 1425 of the 30th Government of Israel, 2004, on the website of the Prime Minister's Office.</ref><ref name="jpost">Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
- History of Jerusalem
- Independence Day (Israel)
- Quds Day (Template:Langx, Template:Langx; lit. Jerusalem Day, with Quds being the Arabic name for Jerusalem), established in Iran one year after the Islamic Revolution to express opposition to Zionism and the state of Israel
References
External links
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls
- Infobox holiday fixed day
- Infobox holiday fixed day (2)
- Infobox holiday (other)
- Pages with broken file links
- 1968 establishments in Israel
- Hallel
- Late modern history of Jerusalem
- Iyar observances
- Culture of Jerusalem
- Minor Jewish holidays
- Public holidays in Israel
- Recurring events established in 1968
- Remembrance days
- Unity days