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And Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told diplomats foreign pressure would aggravate the Middle East crisis -- a jab at the US administration that has pressed Israel to make concessions in a bid to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.
"Peace cannot be enforced, it must be built," the right-wing minister said.
He also insisted the status of Jerusalem, one of the "core issues" in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, was not negotiable.
"Today I stand before you in Jerusalem, as Israel's foreign minister, and reaffirm late prime minister (Menachem) Begin's statement: Jerusalem is our undivided, eternal capital."
Celebrations kicked off at sundown on Monday with fireworks in honour of Israel's founding on May 14, 1948, corresponding this year to April 20, according to the Jewish calendar.
The occupied West Bank was sealed off from Israel and annexed Arab east Jerusalem for the duration of Israel's only secular public holiday.
US President Barack Obama affirmed in a statement his country's "unbreakable bond" with Israel.
He said he looked forward "to continuing our efforts with Israel to achieve comprehensive peace and security in the region, including a two-state solution" with the Palestinians.
Ties between Israel and its main ally have been deeply strained as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed US and Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement construction in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of just two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, also called for renewed peace efforts.
"I am pleased to congratulate you on the occasion of your Independence Day celebrations," he said in a letter to President Shimon Peres.
"I would like to take this opportunity to call on you once again to redouble your efforts to get the Middle East peace process back on track in order to end the cycle of violence and bloodshed."
Meanwhile, thousands of Israel's Arab citizens marked the Nakba, or "catastrophe," that attended the Jewish state's creation, when some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Protesters carrying Palestinian flags and signs with the names of destroyed Arab villages marched to the site of the village of Maskah, emptied in 1948, to demand the "right of return" for those exiled following Israel's birth.
Today more than 4.7 million UN-registered refugees live in camps in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and their fate is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.
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"Peace cannot be enforced, it must be built," the right-wing minister said.
He also insisted the status of Jerusalem, one of the "core issues" in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, was not negotiable.
"Today I stand before you in Jerusalem, as Israel's foreign minister, and reaffirm late prime minister (Menachem) Begin's statement: Jerusalem is our undivided, eternal capital."
Celebrations kicked off at sundown on Monday with fireworks in honour of Israel's founding on May 14, 1948, corresponding this year to April 20, according to the Jewish calendar.
The occupied West Bank was sealed off from Israel and annexed Arab east Jerusalem for the duration of Israel's only secular public holiday.
US President Barack Obama affirmed in a statement his country's "unbreakable bond" with Israel.
He said he looked forward "to continuing our efforts with Israel to achieve comprehensive peace and security in the region, including a two-state solution" with the Palestinians.
Ties between Israel and its main ally have been deeply strained as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed US and Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement construction in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of just two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, also called for renewed peace efforts.
"I am pleased to congratulate you on the occasion of your Independence Day celebrations," he said in a letter to President Shimon Peres.
"I would like to take this opportunity to call on you once again to redouble your efforts to get the Middle East peace process back on track in order to end the cycle of violence and bloodshed."
Meanwhile, thousands of Israel's Arab citizens marked the Nakba, or "catastrophe," that attended the Jewish state's creation, when some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Protesters carrying Palestinian flags and signs with the names of destroyed Arab villages marched to the site of the village of Maskah, emptied in 1948, to demand the "right of return" for those exiled following Israel's birth.
Today more than 4.7 million UN-registered refugees live in camps in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, and their fate is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict.
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