TEL AVIV (EJP-AFP)---As Israel turns 60, the country is planning to celebrate its birthday with dozens of events, some of which are to continue into the next year. A central theme of many of them is set to be Israeli children.
Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, when its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared statehood as Britain's UN mandate over historic Palestine was expiring.
Holidays in Israel, however, are marked according to the Hebrew calender, so the celebrations are to begin on May 7, the eve of what in Israel is known as Independence Day.
As part of dozens of additional projects, children have begun collecting 1.5 million marbles, symbolizing the 1.5 Jewish children who died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Artists plan to use these marbles to construct a memorial to them.
A highlight of the celebrations is a three-day international conference hosted by President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem.
Many of the world's leaders are to attend the festivities, including US President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former Soviet president Michael Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Like Bush, some of the other dozen presidents on the list have been to Israel before, but this will be a first visit for Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, among others.
Other presidents to attend the conference include Victor Yushchenko of Ukraine, resident Lech Kaczynski of Poland, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Michael Saakashvili of Georgia, Stjepan Mesic of Croatia, Bamir Topi of Albania, Blaise Campoare of Burkina Faso, Danilo Türk of Slovenia and Valdis Zatlers of Latvia.
As a Nobel Prize winner, Peres invited other Nobel Prize laureates, at least seven of whom will be coming to Israel to share their views of the future.
Prominent figures from the private sector who will attend include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
The agenda for the conference covers a myriad of topics, including the future of the world economy, the content and meaning of a Jewish state, the extent to which Jewish tradition is relevant in tomorrow's world, whether a green Israel is possible, the tipping point of the geopolitical arena, Israel's ability to continue to be a leading contender in the world of science and cultivating future leaders of Israel and the Jewish people.
Israel is still fighting off what it views as bids by its detractors in and outside the United Nations to delegitimize its existence and stoke anti-Semitism.
Last month, Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman lamented the fact that today more than 50 countries still refuse to recognize the Jewish state.
At the post for the past five years, the feisty Gillerman has helped Israel greatly improve its standing in the world body.
Three years ago, he was elected as one of the vice presidents of the General Assembly, a body long accused of anti-Israel bias as epitomized by its1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism. That text was revoked in 1991.
UN Conference on racism
But amid renewed Middle East tension, Israel fears its detractors aim to use an upcoming UN review conference on racism as a platform to try to undermine Israel's legitimacy and fuel anti-Semitism.
The parley, expected to be held in June 2009 at an as yet unspecified venue, is to review implementation of commitments made at the 2001 first World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa.
That conference, known as Durban I, was condemned by the United States, Canada and Israel for degenerating into an anti-Israel slugfest.
"We have all seen what Durban I was. Durban II (which will not be held in South Africa) looks like another platform for Israel-bashing, for anti-Semitism," Gillerman told an Israel advocacy group in New York.
"Israel sees absolutely no reason to take part in a total charade of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism."
He welcomed Canada's decision to boycott the conference, adding: "We are pretty confident that both Israel and the United States will do the same and hopefully other countries will decide that it is wrong to be there."
Ugly things did happen in Durban in 2001, but it was a parallel Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) forum, which was not run by the UN, and its polarized debate on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory that created most of the controversy.
"A low point in the NGO forum was reached with the circulation of virulent anti-Semitic materials," which prompted the US and Israel to withdraw from the UN conference, he added.
Gillerman did not entirely close the door to Israel's participation at the next conference.
"If at any point the world decides to have a conference which is constructive, I assure you that Israel will be the first to be there," he said.
