Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict
- Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
The Declaration of the
Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, was the official
announcement that a new Jewish state, newly-named as the State of Israel
(Medinat Yisrael in Hebrew), had been formally established in the
British Mandate of Palestine, the land where once the Kingdom of Israel
and the Kingdom of Judah had been.
It has been called the start of the "Third Jewish Commonwealth" by some
observers. (The "First Jewish Commonwealth" ending with the destruction
of Solomon's Temple, and the second ending with the destruction of the
Second Temple in Jerusalem two thousand years ago.)
Historical background
The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel was publicly read
in Tel Aviv on the eve of May 14, 1948. It was drafted in the months
beforehand, and the final version is a result of a compromise between
the various parts of the Israeli public of that time. On May 14, 1948,
on the day in which the British Mandate of Palestine expired, the Jewish
People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and approved
the proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel.
The new state and its government was recognized de facto minutes later
by the United States and three days later de jure by the Soviet Union
(Stalin thought a communist or communist-oriented Jewish state could be
a useful "thorn in the back" to his capitalist rivals in the Middle
East).
It was however opposed by many others, particularly Arabs (both the
surrounding Arab states and the Palestinian Arabs) who felt it was being
established at their expense.
The declaration is written in a style reminiscent of UN resolutions,
beginning with preambulatory sentences explaining the causes for the
declaration and the right of Jews to an independent country, and then
operative sentences detailing the attributes of the forthcoming State of
Israel.
Context of the Declaration of the State of Israel May 14, 1948
The document commences by drawing a direct line from Biblical times to
the present:
"...the Land of Israel, 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."
It acknowledges the Jewish exile over the millennia, mentioning both
ancient "faith" and new "politics":
"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."
It speaks of the urge of Jews to merge with their ancient homeland:
"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."
It describes Jewish immigrants to Israel in the following terms:
"Pioneers,...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 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 what it claimed to be
its own country. This right was supported by the British government in
the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 and re-affirmed in the
Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave
international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish
people and Palestine and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild
its National Home.
No Arab nations were at the time members of the League of Nations, and
hence the Arabs of Palestine lacked representation.
The European Holocaust of 1939 - 1945 is part of the imperative for the
re-settlement of the homeland:
"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
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 community of nations. Survivors of the Nazi
Holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world,
continued to migrate to 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 World War II, the Jewish community of Palestine supported the Allied
Forces against the Axis Powers, and in particular against the Nazis,
while some members of the Arab Palestinian community supported the Nazis
(see Grand Mufti of Jerusalem). Many maintain that the region's Jews
thus earned the right to be among the peoples who founded the United
Nations.
On the November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a
resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Israel,
requiring the inhabitants of 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.
Thus members and representatives of the Jews of Palestine and of the
Zionist movement upon the end of the British Mandate, by virtue of
"natural and historic right" and based on the United Nations resolution:
"...Hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of
Israel to be known as the State of Israel."
And so the state will be open for Jewish immigration and for the
"Ingathering 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 new state pledged that it will take steps to bring about the
economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
To the surrounding Arab states:
"...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 upbuilding 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 neighbouring
states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness,
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."
A final appeal is made to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to
rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and
upbuilding and to stand by them in the struggle for the realization of
their age-old dream, the redemption of Israel.
Concluding by "Placing our trust in the Rock of Israel [language which
was the result of a compromise between religious and secular groups]..."
the signatories affixed their signatures. First to sign was David
Ben-Gurion, and some of the famous names associated with the founding of
the state: Yitzchak Ben Zvi, Golda Myerson (Meir), Rabbi Yehuda Leib
Hacohen Fishman, Moshe Sharett.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Establishment_of_the_State_of_Israel
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