Central Bureau of Statistics says that as of 2022, some 73% of Israelis are Jews, 21% are Arabs and 5% are members of other religious groups. Aliyah stats break a 20-year record. About 45% of the total Jewish population in the world lives in Israel and about 79% of Israelis were born here.
The ceremony, which is aimed at bringing together families of Israelis who died in war or from terrorism with families of dead terrorists, draws criticism every year for implicitly drawing a moral equivalence between the two types of deaths.
Israel came to a halt as a siren wailed on Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism honoring the Jewish state's 24,068 fallen soldiers and 3,199 victims of terrorist attacks. Bennett says "our people yearn for unity; now more than ever, we are required to strengthen the fabric that weaves us all into one nation."
It calls on college directors to adopt a “flexible” approach to Arabs who resist taking part in the moment of silence when the sirens blast nationwide in memory of Israel's fallen soldiers.
"They serve as a reminder to how fortunate and privileged we are to have the State of Israel, a home that we must never take for granted," PM Bennett says at event.
Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism will be marked with a series of state services nationwide until Wednesday night, at which point Independence Day celebrations are to begin.
According to the Israeli Voice Index for April 2022, just one-third of Jewish respondents give Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's policy for dealing with the security events of the last month a good rating.
"Just as memorial ceremonies can be held in Haifa or any other Israeli city, they will be in Miami and New York, too. These families gave their children, and we have to hug them wherever they live," says Efrat Shefa Dor, manager of the Tiberias District for Bereaved Families.
In a special Independence Day interview, President Isaac Herzog says Riyadh's future accession into the Abraham Accords depends greatly on its relations with Washington.
The country's main ceremony in Jerusalem, which usually boasts a grandiose fireworks finale, will instead hold a silent pyrotechnic show. Tel Aviv also scraps its fireworks display.
