Anti-, Non- and Post-Zionists

There are three groups of Israelis who do not celebrate Independence Day.

The Israeli Muslim Arabs, Ashkenazi Chareidim and Left-Wing Post-Zionists.

For very different rationales, these three groups have ideological objections to:

1. The Creation of the State of Israel
a. Israeli Arabs - due to the Jewish nature of the State and the "occupation" of Arab territories
b. Chareidim - due to religious objections to establishing a Jewish State prior to the Messianic era and the secular nature of the State and its Founders.
c. Post-Zionists - some post-Zionists acknowledge the importance of the establishment of Israel, however believe that, with a flourishing and secure state which exists today, it has run its useful course and a new direction is required; others, based on New-Historians, hold that the State was established in an act of injustice to Arabs and of racist prejudices in favour of Jews.

2. The Army
a. Israeli Muslim Arabs (ie excluding Druse and Bedouin) - due to concerns of fratricide and divided loyalties, in that they share ethnic & religious commonality with Israel's regional enemies.
b. Chareidim - due to a belief that they serve & protect the Jewish people by learning Torah, and that they believe Army life is incompatible with Chareidi precepts and customs.
c. Post Zionists view the IDF as a force of occupation in the West Bank.

3. The Flag, National Anthem, Independence Day, Memorial Day and other Symbols & Ceremonies of The State of Israel
a. Israeli Muslim Arabs - the Jewish-centric narrative to these symbols, such as the Star of David in the flag, the returning to Zion in Hatikva, etc, make this symbology at best irrelevant, and even objectionable to Israeli Arabs.
b. Chareidim - these national symbols and ceremonies are viewed as derived from gentile practices, and therefore believed to be intrinsically flawed.
c. Post-Zionists view these symbols as overly "Jewish" and therefore divisive in a country self-described as "a democracy for all its citizens".

4. Religious Services on Independence Day, Jerusalem Day; Prayer for the State & Soldiers
a. Israeli Arabs - not relevant, as the prayers are Jewish.
b. Chareidim - a discussion of why Chareidim chose not to observe these religious ceremonies is beyond the scope of this article.
c. Post-Zionists tend to have a minimalistic approach to the Jewish religion, which also excludes observing a religious dimension to State-related events.

In statistical terms, Israeli Arabs constitute 1.6m (20% of the population); Ashkenazi Chareidim (750,000 less 150,000 Sephardim, who are more Zionistic in orientation = 600,000; which is to say around 8% of the population); and the Post Zionists are more intellectually influential than numerous; as an indication, the Meretz party won 6 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, ie 5% of the vote; 5% of the population is around 400,000 people.

Total of anti-, non- and post-zionist Israelis is therefore around 33% of the population.