celebration

As the sun sets on Israel’s Memorial Day, 12 torches, together symbolising the spirit of the nation, are lit to mark the beginning of Independence Day, the anniversary of the country’s establishment in 1948 – which led to the ethnic cleansing of at least 750,000 Palestinians.

To be selected to light one of the torches over the resting place of Theodor Herzl, the man widely credited with the creation of modern Zionism, is regarded as one of the greatest honours in Israel.

This year, among those selected to light the torch on Tuesday evening is Avraham Zarbiv, a rabbi so controversial that even the Israeli military – an organisation that admits to having killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza – has publicly distanced itself from him. A military spokesperson said last week that Zarbiv “was not selected in coordination” with the military, and was not representing it at the ceremony, despite his being an army reservist.

Obliterate

Zarbiv first came to national prominence in Israel in the early months of 2024, when the 52-year-old rabbi and state rabbinical judge was filmed throwing grenades at Palestinians in Khan Younis during a firefight.

Since then, he has recorded himself gleefully demolishing Palestinian homes – his name even becoming a verb meaning to flatten or obliterate – and has delivered sermons from the ruins of Rafah promising “victory and settlement”. Zarbiv pairs it all with the traditional mannerisms of a religious leader, punctuating his threats and violence with footage of him blowing on a traditional ram’s horn, or shofar, as well as reciting prayers and parts of the Torah.

Zarbiv has also shared footage of himself taking part in the demolition of homes in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces are accused of deploying the same scorched earth tactics as they did during Gaza’s genocide.

Speaking to Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 in January 2025, Zarbiv boasted of the destruction inflicted on Gaza.

“There are tens of thousands of dead. The dogs and the cats ate them because no one collected them,” he said. “Tens of thousands of families – they have not a piece of paper, no childhood photo, no IDs, they have nothing. No home, there is nothing. They come, they have no idea where their house is. It’s something unbelievable.”

While the army leadership itself might be seeking to distance itself from Zarbiv, the rabbi himself says that he represents his fellow soldiers.

“I am one soldier among many, I am a soldier of the Givati Brigade,” he said in an interview last week.

Illegal settlement

Last week, the Israeli organisation Kerem Navot, which monitors illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, filed a complaint to Israel’s judicial watchdog after confirming that Zarbiv had built his home illegally on private Palestinian land in the Beit El settlement, accusing him of violating the ethics rules for both judges and rabbinic judges.

That had no bearing, however, on Transport Minister Miri Regev’s decision to nominate Zarbiv for the torch-bearing ceremony.

“Rabbi Zarbiv, a father of six, continues to serve in reserve duty and combines in his life in an inspiring way between the book and the sword – between Torah and the army, between study and action, and between spiritual leadership and security responsibility,” the right-wing minister said.

She continued, describing the man now accused of multiple war crimes as representative of a generation “that refuses to part with responsibility, that chooses to bear the burden and continue to build, out of great faith in the future”.

Nevertheless, in January 2025, The Hind Rajab Foundation, the Belgian-based NGO that seeks to prosecute Israeli soldiers on the basis of the video evidence they themselves frequently provide, filed an official complaint against Zarbiv with the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the foundation’s lawyers, Zarbiv’s gleeful boast of destroying 50 buildings per week in Gaza, participating in the complete destruction of entire neighbourhoods, and having publicly incited violence and hatred through his appearances on Israeli media, were clear enough breaches of the Geneva Convention and Rome Statute to deserve prosecution.

Zarbiv was not a neutral public figure being honoured for civic virtue, Dyab Abou Jahjah, cofounder of The Hind Rajab Foundation, told Al Jazeera. Rather, “he is a notorious perpetrator of grave international crimes”, Abou Jahjah said.

“His selection [for the Independence Day ceremony] is therefore not incidental – it is revealing,” Abou Jahjah added. “When an individual implicated in acts that constitute genocide is elevated in this way, it reflects the underlying logic of a state project historically rooted in the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. From that perspective, his selection is entirely consistent.”

B’tselem, the Israeli rights group, is also

among those objecting to Zarbiv’s selection.

“The government’s decision to laud Zarbiv as an ‘exemplary citizen’, after more than two years of genocide in Gaza and amid a reality of unprecedented state and settler violence in the West Bank, represents a state-level endorsement of the complete dehumanization of Palestinians and the systematic destruction of Palestinian life,” B’tselem said in a statement.

“This selection sends a clear message to the citizens of Israel and the entire world: In Israel, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes are the ‘spirit of the nation’,” the group added.

SEMANA Santa – also known as Holy Week – is the biggest religious festival celebration across Spain.

During a recent trip to the country, I experienced this nationwide event after staying in a local town and was left stunned how different it was to our Easter.

Starting on Palm Sunday (March 29 this year) the days leading up to Easter see towns and cities hosting long, dramatic processions.

While cities like Seville and Malaga are famous for their huge crowds of tourists and locals, I discovered the tradition feels much more authentic in a small town.

Oliva, in the Valencian region, is usually calm and laid back, especially compared to Spain’s tourist hotspots.

But during this Holy Week, the town is transformed as the streets I had walked down earlier that day were transformed at night.

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Huge ornately decorated floats (pasos) were carried by ‘cofradías’, or brotherhoods made up or local religious groups, including neighbours, families and friends.

The procession started in baited silence, even from the kids.

It was then that the drums began, with haunting brass create a sombre tone.

Hooded figures, or ‘nazarenos’ emerged from the darkness as they moved in unison, with costumes typically only revealing the eyes (designed to make it about the faith rather than the person underneath).

While it certainly sounded eerie, I had never seen anything like it and was swept into the atmosphere along with everyone around me.

I felt like I was part of the local community, as the smaller towns are less focused on making them tourist-friendly.

There are so many other events also on during the week. For example, at 4am on Good Friday, locals climb the nearby mountain barefoot while carrying the floats.

Seeing the small-town community coming together at this hour, sacrificing sleep and comfort showed just how deeply Semana Santa runs here.

But as the week unfolds, the mood slowly shifts from mourning to celebration.

Sweets are thrown in the streets on Easter Sunday, celebrating the resurrection – a definite highlight for the local kids.

Food plays a massive role during Easter traditions, with their pastries stealing the spotlight. 

Mona De Pascua – soft, brioche-like breads covered in chocolates and cream – are everywhere.

Traditionally gifted by godparents to children on Easter Sunday, they remain a staple throughout Semana Santa.

Bakeries are filled with them all week and sharing one feels like another way the town comes together to celebrate.

Experiencing it in such a small town away from the tourists and city spectacles is incomparable to just reading about it.

The elaborate floats, music and outfits make it an unforgettable experience – and certainly more of a celebration than the Brits eating hoards of chocolate instead.

I went in curious and came out completely blown away. It was unlike any Easter I have experienced in the UK.

For more holiday ideas, here are the cheapest family holiday destinations under three hours from UK that are over 20C this Easter.

Plus, the Spanish city closest to the UK that’s quieter than Barcelona is getting new TUI holidays.

Look at a satellite photograph of Britain taken on a clear night and the only things visible are the glowing street lights of towns and cities. If you cast your eyes to the centre of northern England, the distinctive, cupped-hand-shaped boundary of the Peak District national park is clearly outlined as an island of darkness washed by an ocean of light from the industrial conurbations of the north and Midlands.

It was established in April 1951 as the first national park in Britain. And that view from space gives the clearest indication possible of why this site was chosen – it put a national park where it was most needed in the country. It has been estimated that about a third of the population of England and Wales lives less than an hour away from the Peak District.