Israeli leaders intentionally designed the sequence of these fabricated, secular holidays, timing them to fall just after Passover on the Jewish calendar. First, Israel uses Passover to establish a mythical pattern of Jewish history as recurring cycles of oppression and freedom.

Then, the holidays between Passover and "Independence Day" secularize and modernize Passover's oppression-to-freedom story. Each year, they tell Israelis that Jews, especially in diaspora, are doomed to persecution — but a Jewish apartheid state with a strong army can save us.

Israeli leaders made this forced Zionist narrative explicit. As PM Eshkol said, "With our exodus from Egyptian bondage, we won our ancient freedom; now, with our ascent from the Holocaust, we live once again as an independent nation" (that is, a settler-colony on stolen land).

One week after Passover, Israel's Holocaust day serves to suggest that European antisemitism and the Nazi genocide of Jews represent our modern period of oppression. And Israeli statehood — and the horrific violence against Palestinians it required — represent our redemption.

Unlike other Holocaust days, Israel's "Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day" celebrates Jews' *justified* armed resistance to Nazism and, disturbingly and wrongly, connects it to the *inexcusable* mass murder and expulsion of Palestinians by Zionist militias, i.e. the Nakba.

This contrived, sinister connection between the Holocaust and the Nakba is cemented one week later on Yom HaZikaron. This day memorializes soldiers killed in the 1948 "War of Independence" and ever since — that is, while perpetrating the Nakba, which continues to this day.

The Zionist state-building narrative reaches a climax the next day on Yom HaAtzmaut, or "Independence Day," which commemorates the creation of Israel in 1948 and was originally celebrated on May 15. Each year, Palestinians mark May 15 as Nakba Day with protests around the world.

By pairing its memorial to “fallen" soldiers with its statehood celebration, Israel reinforces the myth of Jews as perennial victims who need a militarized state to protect us. It even victimizes Israeli soldiers, obscuring the power and violence they wield against Palestinians.

We don't buy any part of this Zionist narrative. We reject the Israeli state's distortion of our religion's liberation story into an ahistorical myth of endless Jewish persecution. We refuse the idea that we are doomed to victimhood unless we accept militarism and nationalism.

We don't want the memories of ancestors murdered in the Holocaust to be instrumentalized to justify the murder and expulsion of Palestinians. And we want the stories of our ancestors' resistance to Nazis to inspire oppressed people around the world — not valorize oppressors.

We don't need a militarized, colonial, apartheid state to keep us safe at Palestinians' expense. We want to live in a world with freedom, justice, and dignity for ALL, and we're building it through solidarity with other communities targeted by racism and white supremacy.

Sources: State Ceremonies of Israel: Remembrance Day and Independence Day by Handelman and Katz The Memorial Ceremony in Israeli Schools: Between the State and Civil Society by Lomsky-Feder #YomHaShoah #YomHazikaron #yomhaatzmaut

@jvplive @threadreaderapp unroll please

@jvplive @threadreaderapp unroll

@jvplive The mixing and intermingling of historical facts, mythology and religion, memorializing and glorifying constructs for an unjust immoral political end is a recipe for disaster. Reality will not bend forever to delusions.

@jvplive I love how you put the "War of Independence" in scare quotes. Tres chic! I suppose you prefer "The War of Unjustified Jewish Aggression"?

@jvplive There is no "Zionist narrative" that justifies the so-called "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" There is no "Zionist narrative" that say anything about a "militarized, colonial, apartheid" state. Zionism is quite to he contrary.

@jvplive STOP MISREPRESENTING ZIONISM!

@jvplive Yes JVP, the Holocaust is compelling evidence that Jewish people need a state [& military] to be safe. FYI Passover's date is biblical, Israel Ind. Day is British Mandate's end, Holocaust Mem. Day is Warsaw Ghetto uprising; your wild conspiracy theory highlights your ignorance.

@jvplive @IfNotNowOrg It's not even logical. Suppose the entire world turned hostile towards Jews. Could all 7-8 or million Jews who live outside Israel go there for refuge? Would there be enough food, housing, medical care etc. for millions of additional people? No