Yom haAtzmaut

IAF fly over our church

Today Israel celebrates Yom haAtzmaut or Independence Day. It's a national holiday of course and Israelis traditional go out to the parks and forests to barbecue. This year was a record - some one million israelis went out in force to all the parks and forests for their family barbecue so much so that traffic jams along the 2 major highways lasted several hours during the evening.

I had to go to see the doctor because one of the antihistamine jabs (some time ago at the Emergency Ward) had become infected. It's painful to walk or sit ... and subsequent antihistamine jabs on that spot had exacerbated the infection.

Crowds along Tel Aviv beaches
watching the airforce display

After the visit (which I went very early at 5am because I was afraid of the traffic), I decided to go and rest in Jaffa nearby.  There was one job I had to do but I managed to rest for an hour there. The rest of the "rest" was filled with phone calls and messages .... some 38 within and hour. it ruined my sleep that I needed very much.

Anyway the Israeli Air Force (IAF) performed a flypast that was impressive. Remember the past 2 years it was dismal ... first because of the Gaza war (Gaza was firing missiles into Tel Aviv so the IAF had to call off the flypast), and last year because of poor weather.

Flyover the City

This year 4 fighter jets did somersaults which wowed the crowds ... followed by flypast of helicopters and various fight planes. All in all it was very impressive .... and something which assured the Israelis in the light of the stabbing attacks these last half year.

I was in a very unique spot ... on the roof of our church in Jaffa. Being built up on the promontory of Jaffa, the highest point in the City, all the planes use it as a landmark in their flight routes. So also the IAF flypast. The planes fly directly over our belfry ... and I was below to take photos. And besides this festivity at noon, I had the chance to meet up some old friends who have stalls in the plaza in front of our church. They did brisk business as not only tourists had filled the area but much more local Israelis seeking a good view of the flypast from the promontory.