Hatikva: The Song of Hope

The words of Israel's national anthem were written as a nine-stanza poem by poet Naftali Herz Imber and were first published in 1876 or 1877 (the exact date is unknown). It served as the anthem of the Zionist Movement at the 18th Zionist Congress in 1933. When the State of Israel was established, the first stanza and refrain were adopted as the national anthem. Until 2004, Hatikva was not officially the national anthem when it was rooted in the "Flag and Emblem Law" of 1949 which then became the "Flag, Emblem, and National Anthem Law, 5709-1949."

False Charges that Israel Is Racist

Every few years there is a voice that emerges which seeks to brand Israel or its leaders as racist. The most famous case of this anti-Israel charge was the decision of the UN General Assembly in November 1975 to brand Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as racism. Israel's ambassador to the UN at the time, Chaim Herzog, speaking in the name of the Jewish people as a whole, responded by saying that the resolution was based on hatred, falsehood, and arrogance. It was devoid of any moral or legal value.