Jerusalem Day: A Day to Celebrate

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                                           Jerusalem Day, a holiday to remember Jerusalem

Evening of Sun, May 25, 2025 – Mon, May 26, 2025

Jerusalem Day (Hebrew: יום ירושלים, Yom Yerushaláyim) 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.

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.

A civil war between Jewish forces and Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine internationalized in to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War (1947-1949) the day after Israel declared independence (May 14, 1948)  and the surrounding Arab states sent their armies in to the former Mandate territory.  Jordan captured East Jerusalem and the Old City.  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. Meanwhile,  Israel had captured the western section of the city.

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,  going from 28,000 to fewer than 750 remaining.  

The battle to capture Deir Yassin during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence remains one of the most infamous, yet misunderstood, incidents in the history of Israel. During the battle, launched by the Irgun, approximately 100 Arabs were killed.

Meanwhile, the Arab forces, which had engaged in sporadic and unorganized ambushes since December 1947, began to make an organized attempt to cut off the highway linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem - the city's only supply route. The Arabs controlled several strategic vantage points, which overlooked the highway and enabled them to fire on the convoys trying to reach the beleaguered city with supplies. Deir Yassin was situated on a hill, about 2600 feet high, which commanded a wide view of the vicinity and was located less than a mile from the suburbs of Jerusalem. The population was 750.

On April 6, Operation Nachshon was launched to open the road to Jerusalem. The village of Deir Yassin was included on the list of Arab villages to be occupied as part of the operation. The following day Haganah commander David Shaltiel wrote to the leaders of the Lehi and Irgun:

I learn that you plan an attack on Deir Yassin. I wish to point out that the capture of Deir Yassin and its holding are one stage in our general plan. I have no objection to your carrying out the operation provided you are able to hold the village. If you are unable to do so I warn you against blowing up the village which will result in its inhabitants abandoning it and its ruins and deserted houses being occupied by foreign forces....Furthermore, if foreign forces took over, this would upset our general plan for establishing an airfield.

The Irgun decided to attack Deir Yassin on April 9, while the Haganah was still engaged in the battle for Kastel. This was the first major Irgun attack against the Arabs. Previously, the Irgun and Lehi had concentrated their attacks against the British.

During the 1948 Palestine war in which the State of Israel was established, around 700,000^] Palestinian Arabs, or 85% of the total population of the territory Israel captured, were expelled or fled from their homes. The causes of this mass displacement have been a matter of dispute, though today most scholars consider that the majority of Palestinians were directly expelled or else fled due to fear.

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:

               
IDF paratroopers seeing the Wailing Wall (Kotel) for the first time

     Dancing the Hora in celebration of finally seeing and being in their capital, Jerusalem

"This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples' holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity."

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.  Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people. It is the only remains of the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount, the site of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem, held to be uniquely holy by the ancient Jews.

Resource:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-capture-of-deir-yassin#1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_1948_Palestinian_expulsion

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Hamas and PA's Determination to Keep Arabs Unhappy

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Despite the danger, Israelis are one of the happiest people
on the planet.  That was found in a survey.  

1920 before losing 80% to Abdullah

Hamas Terrorists and the PA cannot abide the Palestinian Arabs to be in a state of peace  for they'll never be able to drive Israelis into the sea in such contentment.   Their goal has been to keep them angry and keep telling them a false narrative of their own history and nothing about the Jews' history who had returned to live there.  The UN has been complicit in this charade.  
                                                                   

Happiness for Jews was being able to come once again to the Wailing Wall, a place of prayer that they were kept from since 1948.  

 1967 was when all the surrounding Muslim countries attacked Israel and got the surprise of their life when Israel won the battle against so many with such few.  It gave Israel a surprise, too, being they thus won back the land Jordan had taken from them that was tagged to be a major part of the JEWISH HOMELAND that the League of Nations conferred upon them back in the 20s at the end of WWI.  They weren't counting on the two-facedness of England who turned around for self-benefits by giving away 80% of the land to prince Abdullah of Arabia.  He in turn is the ancestor of today's King of Jordan and the land became part of Jordan.  The East and west of the Jordan River was involved.  
Israel then held the territory that was compiled of 4 areas.  

                                                     

Deir Yassin, Arab village near Jerusalem
Jewish militia sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine.  This turned out to be
a bad scene, one of the few that happened.  

1. Judaea and Samaria-their ancient Israel that Moses had led the Israelites to as G-d willed this. 
                                                       

 This territory had been until 1948, Israel's birth on May 14th, part of the British Mandate of Palestine.  Above is Samaria Gorge.  Between 1948 and 1967 it was ruled by Jordan which they annexed in 1950.  Jordan treated everything on the land that was Jewish with contempt.  For example, what happened to Jewish headstones in the cemeteries was to families, historians  and genealogists unforgivable.  Samaria is part of Northern Israel where the capital of Israel was Samaria and so the whole area came to be called Samaria.  Judaea kept Jerusalem as their capital.  
                                               

Gaza getting some payback for all the missiles they've been shooting into Israel.  

 2. The Gaza Strip-had been part of the British Mandate of Palestine as well.  The only difference here was that there was a brief interruption in 1956 to 57 following the Sinai War when it was administrated by the Egyptian Military Government.  It was not annexed by Egypt.  
                                           

                                                   

                                                                 

3. The Sinai Desert was administered by Egypt until 1967.

                                                  

4. The Golan Heights-were under Syrian administration until 1967.  
President Trump of the USA just recognized the Golan to be under Israeli jurisdiction as of yesterday.  Pictured here is the winery area and growing grapes.  
                                                        

Can anyone change their minds and become peaceful? 
They only know NO.  

Pending a peace settlement in which the borders between Israel and its neighbors would be decided it was that of territories occupied during a war. Israel had held off annexing any part of the areas.  East Jerusalem was reunited in June 1967 with West Jerusalem and has been once city under one mayor since then.  A peace settlement has not been forthcoming from the Palestinian Arabs.   They decided that at the Kartoum Conference in Africa with their 3 famous NOs NOs Nos.  

By July 1972, almost a million Arabs were living in the administered areas.  640,600 of them lived in Judaea and Samaria which was 5,900 sq. km or 2,270 sq mi.  

388,600 lived in the Gaza Strip which was 360 sq km or 140 sq mi.  

and North Sinai and 8,000 lived on the Golan Heights which was 1,250 sq km or 800 sq mi.  

The population  of these areas won were predominantly Muslim.  The smaller Christian communities of Greek Orthodox and Latins were mainly in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala.  On the Golan Heights there are Druzes living in peace.  

While waiting for peace settlements to be created and signed, Israel's politics tried to achieve some peaceful objectives.  

1. Maintain condition of security for Israel and Arabs alike.
2. Enable conditions of normalcy of life without losing contact with Arabs in other countries.  
3. Make possible rapid economic development.
4. Encourage co-existence and cooperation between the Arabs of the areas and Israelis, as an example for relations to come between the 2 peoples.  
                                                     

Nazerath now a Palestinian town

They were arriving at these goals.  They did experience tranquil and thriving lives for a little while.  The local affairs have been administered by their own local population.  Open bridges on the Jordan allowed movement in either direction between the areas and the Arab States.  Arabs and Israelis, who  until 1967 had lived in mutual segregation and estrangement, were enjoying the beginnings of a peaceful and fruitful co-existence.  This experience, however so short, was hoped to make a meaningful contribution towards a transformation of Arab-Israeli relations giving them a taste of what life could be like and free from conflict into cooperation.   Arab's continual attacks on Jews nullify much of the goodness accomplished.  

Resource:  facts about israel, Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, 1972