Though famous for their informal dress and way of speech, Israelis are enamored of formal ceremonies. Independence Day is, of course, a hub of such ceremonies, along with intense arguments about who participates in what and even who gets to sit next to whom. Those who do not or cannot go to the ceremonies themselves watch them on television. As an immigrant, I have often marveled at the importance Israelis attribute to these events, but over the years I have come to understand them as a public gathering not only celebrating Israeli identity, but also symbolically constructing it, or what it should be. These ceremonies reveal, then, not necessarily what Israel is, but what its active, identity-constructing citizens think it should be.

This year, three of these ceremonies are indicative of three different visions of Israel’s futures – three different visions that are at odds with each other. I refer to the coalition-led ceremony in Jerusalem, the liberal-democratic ceremony in Tel Aviv, and the Gur Hasidic celebration of housing benefits held a day earlier, on Memorial Day, in Ness Ziona.

The Jerusalem ceremony was clearly the highest-budget event, with musicians, dancers, Rabbis, on duty soldiers and police officers, and even the president of Argentina.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)