Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, begins at sundown on April 28th. This is the 61st anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel. It is preceded by Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers, a reminder that Israel owes its independence and existence to the many soldiers who sacrificed their lives. Observance of Yom HaShoah (Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Heroism) begins at sundown on April 20th, one week after the seventh day of Passover.
For almost 2000 years the idea of the re-establishment of the Jewish State was only a dream. Efforts to re-establish Israel took hold with the First Zionist Congress, called by Theodore Herzl, on August 29, 1897 in Basle, Switzerland. Herzl wrote in his diary after the congress, “In Basle I founded the Jewish state . . . Maybe in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will realize it.”
Fifty years and nine months later, on May 14, 1948, approximately six months after the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the plan for the partition of Palestine, just a few years after 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and European Jewry looked down the shaft of extinction, and while Egyptian fighter-bombers flew overhead, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the independence of the State of Israel. One day later the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon invaded the Jewish state. Thousands of Jewish soldiers died defending their reborn country. For a summary of the events leading up to and after independence, titled Israel's War of Independence, visit http://isracast.com/articles/548.aspx.
In reaction to the establishment of Israel over 1 million Jews in ten Arab countries and Iran, whose communities existed in the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf region for more than 2,500 years, were expelled from their homes. (The population of Jews in those areas today is estimated at 27,000.) Approximately 600,000 of these refugees sought refuge in Israel, including more than 100,000 Iraqi Jews who emigrated in 1951 in a dramatic airlift. The Jewish refugees were forced to abandon virtually all of their property, especially as they fled from the most hostile countries of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Libya. (See http://tinyurl.com/2ukwe7 and www.justiceforjews.com/jjac.pdf.) They were gradually absorbed and integrated into Israeli society without any assistance from the United Nations.
Their story is told in a film titled The Forgotten Refugees. A few years ago the film was shown at the Jewish Film Festival, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, at the Jacob Burns Film Center. It is currently available on DVD. After the film there was a discussion with two of these refugees. One gentleman told the story of his family, how they secretly traveled from Syria, hid in Lebanon, lived under threats against their lives and of their desperation to leave. He was unable to contain his emotions as he told how his family learned on Passover that they had received permission to enter Mexico, living their own personal Exodus. You can learn more about this film and the Forgotten Refugees at www.theforgottenrefugees.com.
There have been several hundred resolutions on the Middle East conflict adopted by U.N. General Assembly including over 120 resolutions referring to Palestinian refugees. During that same time, there were no U.N. resolutions, there was no U.N. recognition and there was no U.N. assistance for Jewish and other refugees from Arab countries and Iran. (See http://tinyurl.com/c6gt6d, http://tinyurl.com/2gpoz5, http://tinyurl.com/2ofl9v and http://tinyurl.com/2vz2b6.) Today efforts are underway to catalogue the loss of their communal and individual assets and document the mass human rights violations committed against them (www.wojac.com and www.justiceforjews.com).
In contrast to the experience of the Jewish refugees, refugee camps were established for the approximately 600,000 Palestinian Arabs who fled their homes during war for independence. The camps were set up and maintained, and are still maintained today, primarily by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is dedicated solely to the welfare of the Palestinians. Not the Holocaust before nor subsequent genocides or ongoing world strife since have warranted the creation of another relief agency dedicated to the continuous maintenance of a single people as refugees. They are still denied citizenship and basic rights by their Arab hosts including the right to work and own property.
Be sure to organize your local and synagogue groups to march in the 
This coming Shabbat, March 21, 2009, Gilad Shalit will mark his 1,000th day in captivity by HAMAS.