Thousands of people are expected to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow in Gush Katif. Buses will leave for the area from throughout the country, and a march across the Katif region will begin at 11 AM. Heading the anti-expulsion march will be Minister Natan Sharansky and his wife Avital. It is expected that a large turnout will signal to the government the extent of the support Gush Katif enjoys amongst the public at large.
The Gush Katif hosts will also be organizing a concert and public ceremony including rabbis, government ministers and Knesset Members under the theme, "Together we will protect your/our homes and homeland." Gush Katif residents, who have been intensively campaigning for the past two weeks across southern Israel against the evacuation/expulsion plan, will hold a special "crying-out prayer" service at 6 PM this evening at the main Sephardic synagogue in N'vei Dekalim.
Other Independence Day events include: a cantorial concert at 5 PM tomorrow at the Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem; a musical celebration and a salute to the IDF this evening in the tradition of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach in Tzfat's Old City; and a family-oriented celebration at Wingate Institute near Netanya throughout the day tomorrow.
Likud MK Ruby Rivlin will deliver a short speech as he lights a traditional torch at the central Independence Day ceremony at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem this evening. His mother Rachel, a seventh-generation Jerusalemite, will celebrate her 100th birthday precisely as her son, Speaker of Israel's 16th Knesset, arises to speak. It was announced yesterday that Rivlin plans to dedicate his words to the Knesset, the security forces, and to the "pioneers who walk in front of the camp, those who settle the Land of our Forefathers and redeem its land, from Hanita [in the north] to Kfar Darom [in Gaza], and from Negba to Kiryat Arba-Hevron."
At the Memorial Day commemoration in Gush Etzion today, MK Rivlin had sharp words for the country's leadership and its exhaustion in the struggle to retain the Land of Israel: "We will continue to hold on to this good land, even if we see signs of tiredness at the edges of the camp - and even if this tiredness is eating away at the leadership, at those who bore the vision of the land for many long years and whose hands have now become weak."
The Gush Katif hosts will also be organizing a concert and public ceremony including rabbis, government ministers and Knesset Members under the theme, "Together we will protect your/our homes and homeland." Gush Katif residents, who have been intensively campaigning for the past two weeks across southern Israel against the evacuation/expulsion plan, will hold a special "crying-out prayer" service at 6 PM this evening at the main Sephardic synagogue in N'vei Dekalim.
Other Independence Day events include: a cantorial concert at 5 PM tomorrow at the Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem; a musical celebration and a salute to the IDF this evening in the tradition of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach in Tzfat's Old City; and a family-oriented celebration at Wingate Institute near Netanya throughout the day tomorrow.
Likud MK Ruby Rivlin will deliver a short speech as he lights a traditional torch at the central Independence Day ceremony at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem this evening. His mother Rachel, a seventh-generation Jerusalemite, will celebrate her 100th birthday precisely as her son, Speaker of Israel's 16th Knesset, arises to speak. It was announced yesterday that Rivlin plans to dedicate his words to the Knesset, the security forces, and to the "pioneers who walk in front of the camp, those who settle the Land of our Forefathers and redeem its land, from Hanita [in the north] to Kfar Darom [in Gaza], and from Negba to Kiryat Arba-Hevron."
At the Memorial Day commemoration in Gush Etzion today, MK Rivlin had sharp words for the country's leadership and its exhaustion in the struggle to retain the Land of Israel: "We will continue to hold on to this good land, even if we see signs of tiredness at the edges of the camp - and even if this tiredness is eating away at the leadership, at those who bore the vision of the land for many long years and whose hands have now become weak."