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Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel's Wars
and Israel Independence Day
16-17 April 2002 - 4-5 Iyar 5762
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The national anthem: Hatikva
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Israel Independence Day is celebrated annually, according to the Hebrew calendar, on 5 Iyar, the anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. This year it will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 17. The day preceding this celebration is devoted to the memory of those who gave their lives for the achievement of the country's independence and its continued existence.
On Yom Hazikaron, Remembrance Day, which will begin on Monday evening, April 15, the entire nation remembers its debt and expresses eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters who gave their lives for the achievement of the countrys independence and its continued existence. It is a day of collective and personal anguish mingled with awe and honor for the fallen.
| Number of soldiers and security personnel who have fallen since the War of Independence |
19,589 |
Total number fallen (including the pre-State period)
This number includes disabled IDF veterans who later died from their wounds and non-IDF personnel who fell in the line of duty. |
21,182 |
| Number of soldiers killed since Remembrance Day last year |
277 |
David Ben-Gurion
declares the
establishment of the
State of Israel
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Israel's 54th Independence Day celebrations will commence on Tuesday evening, April 16, when the state flag is raised to full mast at a national ceremony on Mount Herzl, at which twelve torches are lit.
With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence, lost two thousand years earlier, was restored.
Independence Day is a celebration of the renewal of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel, the birthplace of the Jewish people. In this land, the Jewish people began to develop its distinctive religion and culture some 4,000 years ago, and here it has preserved an unbroken physical presence, for centuries as a sovereign state, at other times under foreign domination. Throughout their long history, the yearning to return to the Land has been the focus of Jewish life.
On the eve of Independence Day, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced that the population of Israel has reached 6.5 million - an eightfold increase since 1948, when the population numbered 806,000, or an average increase of 4% annually. While almost a third of the country's population are native-born Israelis, almost 2 million people living here today immigrated to Israel. 37% of the world Jewish population currently live in Israel.
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