Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Living by the Declaration of Independence
More than a year ago, we decided it would be a cool idea to publish a collection of documents which reflect how Israeli society lives with the noble sentiments written in its Declaration of Independence. A couple of our top researchers looked into the idea for a bit, and then we held a first brainstorming session. We regretfully decided not to try and bring the story up to date, because the closer you get to the present day, the more documents are still classified; even if their content isn't particularly problematic, declassifying recent stuff is a hassle. So we decided to concentrate on the first two decades of Israel's history, the period between the founding of the state in 1948, and the Six Day War in 1967.
A careful reading of the Declaration revealed the following themes:
1. The historical context of the founding of the State of Israel;
2. The Holocaust, remembering it, and the survivors;
3. Building the country;
4. The status and equality of Israel's non-Jewish minorities;
5. Holy sites (and especially non-Jewish holy sites)
6. Foreign relations;
7. Security policies;
8. Israel and its neighbors;
9. Israel and the Jewish diaspora;
10. Education and culture;
11. Religion and state;
12. The national institutions;
13. Law and justice;
14. Immigration.
We also decided to do a section on the document itself (the Declaration).
So we had a team of 7-8 veteran staffers scouring the archives. Each researcher was given a subject or two, and off they went. Sometimes they went looking for well-known documents (Ben Gurion announcing the capture of Adolf Eichmann, say); often they sought out documents no-one had ever looked at which told interesting tales. As they passed the thousand-interesting-document milestone we slowed the search and began the winnowing out. We expected to be able to publish a few hundred documents, which meant that most of the candidates wouldn't be used.
Then we faced the technology issue. The current ISA website was set up a number of years ago with the most minimal of all budgets. It's a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand, no-one ever intended it to be a state-of-the-art showcase. We do intend to have such a website someday, but even if our current projections all work out, this won't happen before 2015. The website we have is not well suited for the task at hand.
So we cast around, and found the Center for Educational Technology (CET), an outfit with much more advanced web prowess than anything we can offer at the moment. On the other hand, the CET doesn't have an archives in which one can find just about anything, so the match was mutually beneficial.
Given the time constraints and the fact that we were a new quantity for the CET team, we decided (a bit regretfully) to cut down the number of documents even further, while beefing up audio-visual parts. This means that after combing the archives and identifying more than a thousand "good" documents, we then chose only 10% of the cull. Sad.
The result has been up at the CET website for the past week or so. Ah - in Hebrew, which is Israel's main language (Arabic is the second official language) and the tongue in which most school-children can be expected to learn. If you aren't Hebraically-challenged, we warmly recommend perusing the trove of documents. If you are Hebraically-challenged, we'll be presenting some of the documents here on the blog. But not all of them, so you might want to polish up your Hebrew anyway.
Here's an English-language translation of the Declaration of Independence itself.
A careful reading of the Declaration revealed the following themes:
1. The historical context of the founding of the State of Israel;
2. The Holocaust, remembering it, and the survivors;
3. Building the country;
4. The status and equality of Israel's non-Jewish minorities;
5. Holy sites (and especially non-Jewish holy sites)
6. Foreign relations;
7. Security policies;
8. Israel and its neighbors;
9. Israel and the Jewish diaspora;
10. Education and culture;
11. Religion and state;
12. The national institutions;
13. Law and justice;
14. Immigration.
We also decided to do a section on the document itself (the Declaration).
So we had a team of 7-8 veteran staffers scouring the archives. Each researcher was given a subject or two, and off they went. Sometimes they went looking for well-known documents (Ben Gurion announcing the capture of Adolf Eichmann, say); often they sought out documents no-one had ever looked at which told interesting tales. As they passed the thousand-interesting-document milestone we slowed the search and began the winnowing out. We expected to be able to publish a few hundred documents, which meant that most of the candidates wouldn't be used.
Then we faced the technology issue. The current ISA website was set up a number of years ago with the most minimal of all budgets. It's a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand, no-one ever intended it to be a state-of-the-art showcase. We do intend to have such a website someday, but even if our current projections all work out, this won't happen before 2015. The website we have is not well suited for the task at hand.
So we cast around, and found the Center for Educational Technology (CET), an outfit with much more advanced web prowess than anything we can offer at the moment. On the other hand, the CET doesn't have an archives in which one can find just about anything, so the match was mutually beneficial.
Given the time constraints and the fact that we were a new quantity for the CET team, we decided (a bit regretfully) to cut down the number of documents even further, while beefing up audio-visual parts. This means that after combing the archives and identifying more than a thousand "good" documents, we then chose only 10% of the cull. Sad.
The result has been up at the CET website for the past week or so. Ah - in Hebrew, which is Israel's main language (Arabic is the second official language) and the tongue in which most school-children can be expected to learn. If you aren't Hebraically-challenged, we warmly recommend perusing the trove of documents. If you are Hebraically-challenged, we'll be presenting some of the documents here on the blog. But not all of them, so you might want to polish up your Hebrew anyway.
Here's an English-language translation of the Declaration of Independence itself.
THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
May 14, 1948
Text:
ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
David Ben-Gurion
May 14, 1948
On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved the following proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The new state was recognized that night by the United Statesand three days later by the USSR.
Text:
 |
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations based on the terms of the San Remo Conference of 1920, which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the In-gathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up-building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and up-building and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
| Daniel Auster Mordekhai Bentov Yitzchak Ben Zvi Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi | Rachel Cohen Rabbi Kalman Kahana Saadia Kobashi Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein Zvi Luria Golda Myerson Nachum Nir Zvi Segal Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman | David Zvi Pinkas Aharon Zisling Moshe Kolodny Eliezer Kaplan Abraham Katznelson Felix Rosenblueth David Remez Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok |
* Published in the Official Gazette, No. 1 of the 5th, Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
Monday, April 15, 2013
4th of Iyar - Gush Etzion's Last Stand
On the 4th of Iyar 5708--May 13, 1948--the day before Israel's declaration of independence, Gush Etzion fell. Gush Etzion, which consisted of the settlementsKfar Etzion, Massu'ot Yitzhak, Ein Tzurim and Revadim, was built between 1943-47. The majority of residents were members of the religious Zionist movement (with the exception of Revadim, which belonged to the secular Ha'shomer Ha'tzair movement). After clashes broke out following the UN partition resolution on November 29, 1947, the residents of the bloc found themselves in a hostile Arab region and under attack from the Arabs of Hebron and Bethlehem. The bloc was of strategic importance of the first order, since it controlled the axis of traffic from south to north towards Jerusalem, and held back large irregular Arab forces, which could otherwise have attacked Jerusalem.
Hagana headquarters in Jerusalem tried to bring supply convoys to the bloc, but this became impossible after the destruction of the "Convoy of the 35" (known by its Hebrew name – the Lamed Hey) in mid-January 1948, and the Nebi Daniel convoyon March 1948, which was attacked on the way back by irregular Arab forces; 14 of its fighters were killed and the rest surrendered their weapons and gear to the British, in exchange for free and safe passage to Jerusalem.
With the intensification of fighting in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Command pressured the Gush Etzion force to prevent movement of Arab forces on the Hebron-Jerusalem road. Fighters from Gush Etzion attacked traffic on the road, including vehicles of the Arab Legion. The Legion, nominally part of the British army, but in fact an independent force under the orders of King Abdullah of Transjordan, started attacking the bloc with heavy fire. Attacks by an irregular Arab force, under the cover of the Legion, were repulsed on April 12 and on May 4. On May 13, a Legion force, along with hundreds of irregular Arab fighters, attacked and conquered the Etzion bloc in a fierce battle. After their surrender, more than a hundred defenders of Kfar Etzion were murdered by irregular Arab fighters. In other settlements, the Legion intervened and prevented further killing. Wounded prisoners were taken to Jerusalem and prisoners were taken to POW camps in Jordan and released after the Armistice agreement with Jordan in April 1949.
Below, we reproduce a handwritten report and a printed English report by the commander of the Jewish Settlement Police in Gush Etzion, Jacob Altman, on the repelling of a large Arab attack on January 14, 1948 (click to enlarge). Altman fell in battle on May 13, 1948, as the deputy commander of Gush Etzion. His children returned to Gush Etzion after the Six Day War and rebuilt Kfar Etzion, where they, and their descendants, live to this day.
Hagana headquarters in Jerusalem tried to bring supply convoys to the bloc, but this became impossible after the destruction of the "Convoy of the 35" (known by its Hebrew name – the Lamed Hey) in mid-January 1948, and the Nebi Daniel convoyon March 1948, which was attacked on the way back by irregular Arab forces; 14 of its fighters were killed and the rest surrendered their weapons and gear to the British, in exchange for free and safe passage to Jerusalem.
With the intensification of fighting in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Command pressured the Gush Etzion force to prevent movement of Arab forces on the Hebron-Jerusalem road. Fighters from Gush Etzion attacked traffic on the road, including vehicles of the Arab Legion. The Legion, nominally part of the British army, but in fact an independent force under the orders of King Abdullah of Transjordan, started attacking the bloc with heavy fire. Attacks by an irregular Arab force, under the cover of the Legion, were repulsed on April 12 and on May 4. On May 13, a Legion force, along with hundreds of irregular Arab fighters, attacked and conquered the Etzion bloc in a fierce battle. After their surrender, more than a hundred defenders of Kfar Etzion were murdered by irregular Arab fighters. In other settlements, the Legion intervened and prevented further killing. Wounded prisoners were taken to Jerusalem and prisoners were taken to POW camps in Jordan and released after the Armistice agreement with Jordan in April 1949.
Below, we reproduce a handwritten report and a printed English report by the commander of the Jewish Settlement Police in Gush Etzion, Jacob Altman, on the repelling of a large Arab attack on January 14, 1948 (click to enlarge). Altman fell in battle on May 13, 1948, as the deputy commander of Gush Etzion. His children returned to Gush Etzion after the Six Day War and rebuilt Kfar Etzion, where they, and their descendants, live to this day.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Independence Day, 2013: From Declaration to Reality - A Joint Project with the Center for Educational Technology
Next week, Israel will celebrate the 65th anniversary of its independence. In 2008, the Israel State Archives marked the 60th anniversary in a joint exhibition with the Israel Museum, "Blue and White Pages," which centered on Israel's Declaration of Independence, the most important document held by the Archives. In the absence of a constitution, the Declaration laid down the principles by which the new state was to be conducted. The exhibition, which included documents in Hebrew and English, reached a large audience, including tourists and groups of high school students.
This year, the ISA has produced an online exhibition for teachers and students, in a joint project with the Center for Educational Technology. A selection of documents shows how Israel and its citizens met the challenge of turning the principles of the Declaration into reality in the first two decades of the state, ending with the Six Day War. It covers a variety of subjects: immigration and absorption, religion and state, social problems, relations with the Arab minority, Israel's wars and foreign policy, and many more.
The 120 documents include government meetings, Knesset debates, letters from public figures and private citizens, reports, memoranda and laws, photographs, illustrations, audio and video films. They are all in Hebrew, but we will describe some of them here.
Today we showcase an example of a little-known episode of Israel's history, which sheds further light on our post on President Izhak Ben-Zvi and his refusal to accept a salary raise. Israel in the 1950s and 60s faced many economic problems, among them the deficit in the balance of payments and demands by different sectors for pay increases. However it was also a small and close-knit society, with a strong sense of solidarity and willingness to make sacrifices.
In a letter from February 1966, workers in the Israel Military Industries agreed to give up 5% of their wages – if all the workers would do the same. This letter was part of a movement led by a group of university lecturers for voluntary wage cuts, during the economic recession which hit Israel in 1965-6. In the Israel State Archives commemorative volume about Prime Minister Levi Eshkol you can read more about this movement, which demanded that the government attack inflation and reduce the deficit by decreasing its expenditure. The government actually agreed.
Eshkol spoke to the nation on the radio on February 21, calling for restraint in Israel's standard of living. Prosperity had led many sections of society to a frenzy in which each grabbed what it could. He praised the wage cut movement and read out a letter from Avraham Shapira, a disabled war veteran, who had returned a large back payment given after his pension was raised, since he thought the country could not afford it. Eshkol ended with the appeal: "If you are really worried about your tomorrow – do something for it today!"
However the movement did not last long. It was abandoned after the recession led to widespread unemployment, which only ended after the Six Day War.
 |
| The Declaration of Independence |
The 120 documents include government meetings, Knesset debates, letters from public figures and private citizens, reports, memoranda and laws, photographs, illustrations, audio and video films. They are all in Hebrew, but we will describe some of them here.
Today we showcase an example of a little-known episode of Israel's history, which sheds further light on our post on President Izhak Ben-Zvi and his refusal to accept a salary raise. Israel in the 1950s and 60s faced many economic problems, among them the deficit in the balance of payments and demands by different sectors for pay increases. However it was also a small and close-knit society, with a strong sense of solidarity and willingness to make sacrifices.
In a letter from February 1966, workers in the Israel Military Industries agreed to give up 5% of their wages – if all the workers would do the same. This letter was part of a movement led by a group of university lecturers for voluntary wage cuts, during the economic recession which hit Israel in 1965-6. In the Israel State Archives commemorative volume about Prime Minister Levi Eshkol you can read more about this movement, which demanded that the government attack inflation and reduce the deficit by decreasing its expenditure. The government actually agreed.
Eshkol spoke to the nation on the radio on February 21, calling for restraint in Israel's standard of living. Prosperity had led many sections of society to a frenzy in which each grabbed what it could. He praised the wage cut movement and read out a letter from Avraham Shapira, a disabled war veteran, who had returned a large back payment given after his pension was raised, since he thought the country could not afford it. Eshkol ended with the appeal: "If you are really worried about your tomorrow – do something for it today!"
 |
| Prime Minister Levi Eshkol |
Living by the Declaration of Independence
More than a year ago, we decided it would be a cool idea to publish a collection of documents which reflect how Israeli society lives with the noble sentiments written in its Declaration of Independence. A couple of our top researchers looked into the idea for a bit, and then we held a first brainstorming session. We regretfully decided not to try and bring the story up to date, because the closer you get to the present day, the more documents are still classified; even if their content isn't particularly problematic, declassifying recent stuff is a hassle. So we decided to concentrate on the first two decades of Israel's history, the period between the founding of the state in 1948, and the Six Day War in 1967.
A careful reading of the Declaration revealed the following themes:
1. The historical context of the founding of the State of Israel;
2. The Holocaust, remembering it, and the survivors;
3. Building the country;
4. The status and equality of Israel's non-Jewish minorities;
5. Holy sites (and especially non-Jewish holy sites)
6. Foreign relations;
7. Security policies;
8. Israel and its neighbors;
9. Israel and the Jewish diaspora;
10. Education and culture;
11. Religion and state;
12. The national institutions;
13. Law and justice;
14. Immigration.
We also decided to do a section on the document itself (the Declaration).
So we had a team of 7-8 veteran staffers scouring the archives. Each researcher was given a subject or two, and off they went. Sometimes they went looking for well-known documents (Ben Gurion announcing the capture of Adolf Eichmann, say); often they sought out documents no-one had ever looked at which told interesting tales. As they passed the thousand-interesting-document milestone we slowed the search and began the winnowing out. We expected to be able to publish a few hundred documents, which meant that most of the candidates wouldn't be used.
Then we faced the technology issue. The current ISA website was set up a number of years ago with the most minimal of all budgets. It's a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand, no-one ever intended it to be a state-of-the-art showcase. We do intend to have such a website someday, but even if our current projections all work out, this won't happen before 2015. The website we have is not well suited for the task at hand.
So we cast around, and found the Center for Educational Technology (CET), an outfit with much more advanced web prowess than anything we can offer at the moment. On the other hand, the CET doesn't have an archives in which one can find just about anything, so the match was mutually beneficial.
Given the time constraints and the fact that we were a new quantity for the CET team, we decided (a bit regretfully) to cut down the number of documents even further, while beefing up audio-visual parts. This means that after combing the archives and identifying more than a thousand "good" documents, we then chose only 10% of the cull. Sad.
The result has been up at the CET website for the past week or so. Ah - in Hebrew, which is Israel's main language (Arabic is the second official language) and the tongue in which most school-children can be expected to learn. If you aren't Hebraically-challenged, we warmly recommend perusing the trove of documents. If you are Hebraically-challenged, we'll be presenting some of the documents here on the blog. But not all of them, so you might want to polish up your Hebrew anyway.
Here's an English-language translation of the Declaration of Independence itself.
A careful reading of the Declaration revealed the following themes:
1. The historical context of the founding of the State of Israel;
2. The Holocaust, remembering it, and the survivors;
3. Building the country;
4. The status and equality of Israel's non-Jewish minorities;
5. Holy sites (and especially non-Jewish holy sites)
6. Foreign relations;
7. Security policies;
8. Israel and its neighbors;
9. Israel and the Jewish diaspora;
10. Education and culture;
11. Religion and state;
12. The national institutions;
13. Law and justice;
14. Immigration.
We also decided to do a section on the document itself (the Declaration).
So we had a team of 7-8 veteran staffers scouring the archives. Each researcher was given a subject or two, and off they went. Sometimes they went looking for well-known documents (Ben Gurion announcing the capture of Adolf Eichmann, say); often they sought out documents no-one had ever looked at which told interesting tales. As they passed the thousand-interesting-document milestone we slowed the search and began the winnowing out. We expected to be able to publish a few hundred documents, which meant that most of the candidates wouldn't be used.
Then we faced the technology issue. The current ISA website was set up a number of years ago with the most minimal of all budgets. It's a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand, no-one ever intended it to be a state-of-the-art showcase. We do intend to have such a website someday, but even if our current projections all work out, this won't happen before 2015. The website we have is not well suited for the task at hand.
So we cast around, and found the Center for Educational Technology (CET), an outfit with much more advanced web prowess than anything we can offer at the moment. On the other hand, the CET doesn't have an archives in which one can find just about anything, so the match was mutually beneficial.
Given the time constraints and the fact that we were a new quantity for the CET team, we decided (a bit regretfully) to cut down the number of documents even further, while beefing up audio-visual parts. This means that after combing the archives and identifying more than a thousand "good" documents, we then chose only 10% of the cull. Sad.
The result has been up at the CET website for the past week or so. Ah - in Hebrew, which is Israel's main language (Arabic is the second official language) and the tongue in which most school-children can be expected to learn. If you aren't Hebraically-challenged, we warmly recommend perusing the trove of documents. If you are Hebraically-challenged, we'll be presenting some of the documents here on the blog. But not all of them, so you might want to polish up your Hebrew anyway.
Here's an English-language translation of the Declaration of Independence itself.
THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
May 14, 1948
Text:
ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
David Ben-Gurion
May 14, 1948
On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved the following proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The new state was recognized that night by the United Statesand three days later by the USSR.
Text:
|
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which adopted the terms of The San Remo Conference of 1920 which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the In-gathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up-building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and up-building and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
| Daniel Auster Mordekhai Bentov Yitzchak Ben Zvi Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi | Rachel Cohen Rabbi Kalman Kahana Saadia Kobashi Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein Zvi Luria Golda Myerson Nachum Nir Zvi Segal Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman | David Zvi Pinkas Aharon Zisling Moshe Kolodny Eliezer Kaplan Abraham Katznelson Felix Rosenblueth David Remez Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok |
* Published in the Official Gazette, No. 1 of the 5th, Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
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