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Hatikvah

The text of "Hatikvah" superimposed on an Israeli flag.

"Hatikvah" (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה), meaning "The Hope", is the national anthem of Israel. Its lyrics are adapted from a poem by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Złoczów, Austria-Hungary (modern day Zolochiv, Ukraine). Imber wrote the first version of the poem in 1877, while the guest of a Jewish scholar in Iași, Romania. The romantic anthem's theme reflects some Jews' hope of moving to the Land of Israel (at the time Ottoman Palestine, later transferred to the British Empire) and declaring it a sovereign nation.

Hatikvah in "Next Year in Jerusalem"[]

After the State of Israel fell to the Palestinians in the 21st century, public performance of the "Hatikvah" was banned. One of the ways in which the Second Irgun attempted to stir up a general Jewish uprising against Arab rule in the 22nd century, was to hack into Palestine's public address system, replacing all automated minarets' call to Muslim prayer with recordings of the Sh'mah, followed by the banned Israeli anthem.[1]

References[]

  1. Imaginings, pgs. 16, 20.
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