Israel: Fallen Soldiers Remembered

Israel observed a day of remembrance Wednesday for the 20,332 men and women who fell fighting to create or defend the Jewish state.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah began Wednesday's events with a private ceremony at the Jerusalem grave of Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, an army commando officer killed during the rescue of Israeli hostages in an airline hijacking in 1977.

Netanyahu and Weizman then presided over the first annual state ceremony in memory of "victims of terrorism." The two leaders dedicated a monument to the civilian victims at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl cemetery.

At 11:00 a.m., sirens wailed across the nation, signaling a two-minute moment of silence in memory of the fallen soldiers. Following the siren, memorial services were to be held in Israel's 41 military cemeteries, with the main ceremony organized at Mount Herzl, the final resting place for most of Israel's leaders.

Thousands of people stopped walking and stopped their cars to observe the silence. But in a Tel Aviv suburb called Bnei Brak, the ultra-orthodox refused to obey the siren and observe the silence.

The annual Memorial Day took on added significance this year as it coincided with the 50th anniversary of Israel's creation.

The official commemoration of the golden anniversary begins at sundown Wednesday and will continue through Thursday.

At 4 p.m. on May 14, 1948 -- the 5th of Iyar, 5708 according to the Jewish calendar -- David Ben-Gurion and other Jewish leaders met in Museum Hall in Tel Aviv to declare the state of Israel. According to the Jewish calendar, Israel marks the anniversary of that event on Thursday.