Israel completely closes the Palestinian territories to mark creation of Israeli state

On monday Israel imposed a complete closure on what remains of the Palestinian territories and announced a 'high state of emergency' as part of the celebrations of Israel's establishment in 1948 ('Independence Day'), official Palestinian news agency, Wafa reported. The closure will remain in place until all celebrations are done. Israel will be commemorating an Israeli death toll since 1948, including all its wars with Arab countries and the Palestinians. Israel occupied historical Palestine in 1948, right after the evacuation of the 1917’s British colonial mandate in Palestine, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to nearby Arab countries and to the Diaspora. In March 2007, Arab countries renewed the 2002 peace proposal, inviting Israel to resume normal peaceful ties in return for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands it occupied in 1967 and acceptance of a fair solution for the refugee problem, based on UN resolution 194.