Today we call Israel’s Independence Day יום העצמאות

 – literally, the day of the independence.

Another term for this day which has largely fallen out of use is יום הקוממיות,

where קוממיות

is one of the words for sovereignty (the other is ריבונות).

For example:

בתעודה הזאת משנת 1963 רשום “יום הקוממיות” במקום “יום העצמאות.”

On this certificate from the year 1963 it says “Yom Hakomemiut” instead of “Yom Haatzmaut.”

קוממיות

first appears in Biblical Hebrew, where it refers to a people walking upright in their sovereign land. It derives from the root ק.י.מ

 meaning existence.