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00291.txt
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$Unique_ID{bob00291}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Israel
Declaration of Israel's Independence}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of Israel, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Israel, Washington DC}
$Subject{jewish
state
nations
israel
palestine
national
right
united
assembly
jews}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Title: Israel
Book: The Flag Of Israel
Author: Embassy of Israel, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of Israel, Washington DC
Date: 1989
Declaration of Israel's Independence
Issued at Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948 (5th of Iyar, 5708)
The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their
spiritual, religious and national identity was formed. Here they achieved
independence and created a culture of national and universal significance.
Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world.
Exiled from Palestine, the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all
the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their
return and the restoration of their national freedom.
Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the
centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood.
In recent decades they returned in masses. They reclaimed the wilderness,
revived their language, built cities and villages and established a vigorous
and ever-growing community, with its own economic and cultural life. They
sought peace yet were ever prepared to defend themselves. They brought the
blessing of progress to all inhabitants of the country.
In the year 1897 the First Zionist Congress, inspired by Theodor Herzl's
vision of the Jewish State, proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to
national revival in their own country.
This right was acknowledged by the Balfour Declaration of November 2,
1917, and re-affirmed by the Mandate of the League of Nations, which gave
explicit international recognition to the historic connection of the Jewish
people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute their National Home.
The Nazi holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved
anew the urgency of the re-establishment of the Jewish State, which would
solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and
lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.
The survivors of the European catastrophe, as well as Jews from other
lands, proclaiming their right to a life of dignity, freedom and labor, and
undeterred by hazards, hardships and obstacles, have tried unceasingly to
enter Palestine.
In the Second World War the Jewish people in Palestine made a full
contribution in the struggle of the freedom-loving nations against the Nazi
evil. The sacrifices of their soldiers and the efforts of their workers gained
them title to rank with the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted
a Resolution for the establishment of an independent Jewish State in
Palestine, and called upon the inhabitants of the country to take such steps
as may be necessary on their part to put the plan into effect.
This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people
to establish their independent State may not be revoked. It is, moreover, the
self-evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations,
in its own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY, WE, the members of the National Council, representing the
Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together
in solemn assembly today, the day of termination of the British Mandate for
Palestine, by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish people
and of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations,
HEREBY PROCLAIM the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be
called ISRAEL.
WE HEREBY DECLARE that as from the termination of the Mandate at
midnight, this night of the 14th to 15th May, 1948, and until the setting up
of the duly elected bodies of the State in accordance with a Constitution, to
be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly not later than the first day of October,
1948, the present National Council shall act as the provisional
administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of
Israel.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all
countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for
the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty,
justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social
and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race,
creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education
and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and
Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of
the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be ready to cooperate with the organs and
representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the Resolution
of the Assembly of November 29, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the
Economic Union over the whole of Palestine.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the
building of its State and to admit Israel into the family of nations.
In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants
of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in
the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due
representation in all its bodies and institutions-provisional or permanent.
We offer peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples,
and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common
good of all.
Our call goes out to the Jewish people all over the world to rally to our
side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the
great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations-the
redemption of Israel.
With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this
Session of the Provisional State Council, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this
Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth day of May, 1948.