Deep unease as Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary

Despite the celebrations, not one of the commentators outside or within Israel has been able to disguise the deep sense of unease and disillusionment that pervades Israel. Many Israelis had opposed a flamboyant celebration: an online petition calling for a scaling back of expenditure achieved 90,000 signatures by the end of March against the original target of 10,000. As a result, the government was forced to announce that 35 percent of the $28 million budgetfar less than the $70 million spent on the 50th anniversary in 1998would be spent on educational, infrastructure and remembrance projects.

Neither could commentators fail to contrast this with how the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the squalid refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and in the Diaspora, regard the event.