Israel

ZOHAR – INTRODUCTION

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Zohar
Volume 1:1aא׳:א׳ א

Rabbi Hizkiyah opened, “It is written, as a rose among thorns.” That a rose is the Assembly of Israel. Because there is a rose and there is a rose, just as a rose among thorns is tinged with red and white, the Assembly of Israel consists of judgment and mercy. Just as a rose has thirteen petals, the Assembly of Israel is surrounded on all sides by the thirteen attributes of mercy. However, Elohim, that is here, thought to bring out the thirteen words that surround the Assembly of Israel and guard it.

After this, in order to bring out the five rigid leaves that surround the rose, it is mentioned another time in the passage. These five mean salvation. These are 5 gates. And this secret is written about, “I will raise the cup of salvation.” This is the ‘cup of benediction.’ The cup of benediction must rest on five fingers, and no more, just as the rose rests on five rigid leaves that represent the five fingers. This rose is the cup of benediction. From the second to the third mention of the name Elohim, there are five words. From this point the Light was created and concealed and enclosed within that covenant that entered the rose and fructified it. This is referred to as a tree bearing fruit whose seed is within it and this seed really exists in the letter of the covenant. And just as the covenant is sown by forty-two conceptions from that same seed, so is the holy name of the creation sown.

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Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People

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1 — Basic principles

A. The land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established.

B. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.

C. The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.

2 — The symbols of the state

A. The name of the state is “Israel.”

B. The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in the center.

C. The state emblem is a seven-branched menorah with olive leaves on both sides and the word “Israel” beneath it.

D. The state anthem is “Hatikvah.”

E. Details regarding state symbols will be determined by the law.

3 — The capital of the state

Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.

4 — Language

A. The state’s language is Hebrew.

B. The Arabic language has a special status in the state; Regulating the use of Arabic in state institutions or by them will be set in law.

C. This clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect.

5 — Ingathering of the exiles

The state will be open for Jewish immigration and the ingathering of exiles

6 — Connection to the Jewish people

A. The state will strive to ensure the safety of the members of the Jewish people in trouble or in captivity due to the fact of their Jewishness or their citizenship.

B. The state shall act within the Diaspora to strengthen the affinity between the state and members of the Jewish people.

C. The state shall act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the Jewish people among Jews in the Diaspora.

7 — Jewish settlement

A. The state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.

8 — Official calendar

The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the Gregorian calendar will be used as an official calendar. Use of the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar will be determined by law.

9 — Independence Day and memorial days

A. Independence Day is the official national holiday of the state.

B. Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day are official memorial days of the State.

10 — Days of rest and sabbath

The Sabbath and the festivals of Israel are the established days of rest in the state; Non-Jews have a right to maintain days of rest on their Sabbaths and festivals; Details of this issue will be determined by law.

11 — Immutability

This Basic Law shall not be amended, unless by another Basic Law passed by a majority of Knesset members.

The Law was adopted by Knesset  on 19 July 2018 (7th Av, 5778)

Israel has no constitution but instead passed over time a series of Basic Laws which have constitutional status. The nation-state law is the 14th such basic law.

BASIC LAW OF ISRAEL

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  1.  Basic Law: the Knesset –Passed on February 12, 1958, by the Third Knesset.
  2.  Basic Law: Israel Lands -Passed on July 25, 1960, by the Fourth Knesset.
  3.  Basic Law: The President of the State (1964) -Passed on June 16, 1964, by the Fifth Knesset.
  4.  Basic Law: The Government (2001)-Passed initially on August 13, 1968, by the Sixth Knesset
  5.  Basic Law: The State Economy (1975)-Passed on July 21, 1975, by the Eighth Knesset.
  6.  Basic Law: The Army (1976) -Passed on March 31, 1976, by the Eighth Knesset.
  7.  Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel (1980) -Passed on December 13, 1980, by the Ninth Knesset.
  8.  Basic Law: The Judiciary (1984)-Passed on February 28, 1984, by the Tenth Knesset.
  9.  Basic Law: The State Comptroller (1988) -Passed on February 15, 1988, by the Twelfth Knesset.
  10.  Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1994) -The law was passed in its original version on March 3, 1992, by the Twelfth Knesset.
  11.  Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992) -Passed on March 17, 1992, by the Twelfth Knesset.
  12.  Basic Law: Referendum (2014) -Passed on March 12, 2014, by the Nineteenth Knesset.

History of Jews and Israel

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1800 BEC

 Abraham migrates to Canaan according to Jewish tradition.
1300? BCE Migration and conquest of Canaan by the Philistines and Israelite tribes. Map of Canaan.
1000? BCE Jewish conquest of Jerusalem; reign of David (maps); After the death of David’s son, Solomon, the kingdom split into two: Israel in the north, Judea in Jerusalem and the south (maps).   Brief History of Early Palestine in maps.
721 BCE Fall of Israel (Northern Kingdom) to Assyria
586 BCE Fall of Judea (Southern Kingdom) to Babylon and destruction of the first temple
About 539 BCE Fall of Babylon. Jews allowed to return to Judea. Tradition has it that Ezra and Nehemia led this return, and later rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, but the walls were apparently not built until 100 years later.
About 519 BCE Rebuilding of the Second Temple under Persian rule.
331 BCE Alexander the Great conquers Persia. The land was subject to Egyptian rule after his death, followed by Seleucid Syrian rule.
166 BCE Revolt of Judah Maccabee against Syrian Hellenic dynasty; Simon. 164 – Liberation of Jerusalem. Judah is named Friend of the Roman Senate and People; Rule of the Maccabees: 166 – Judah 160 -Jonathan 143 
 

66-73 AD

 First Jewish revolt. Fall of the Jewish Second Temple to Romans in 70 AD.
133-135 Second Jewish revolt under Bar Kochba  crushed. Judea renamed Palestina. Jews are banned from Jerusalem by Hadrianus Caesar.
614 Persians conquer Judea and Jerusalem..
628 Emperor Heraclius defeats Sassanid Persians, reconquers Jerusalem..
 

About 638

 Arab conquest of Jerusalem (slightly earlier or later according to different sources). CaliphOmar provides the Christians of Jerusalem with a Covenant guaranteeing their protection. Land  divided into the Jund of filastin, in the south (capital in Al-Lod and later in Ramlah), and the Jund of Urdunn in the north, with capital in Tiberias (Tabariyeh).
1099 Crusaders conquer Jerusalem, slaughter most Jewish and Moslem inhabitants, expel Jews.
1187 Saladin (Salah-al-din) reconquers Jerusalem
1291 Crusaders defeated at Acre and evicted from Palestine.
1517 Ottoman Turkish conquest of Palestine.

1740

 Ottoman Sultan invites Rabbi Haim Abulafia (1660-1744),  Kabbalist and Rabbi of Izmir, to come to rebuild the city of Tiberias; thousands of Jews immigrate to the land in a wave of Messianic fervor, including  Rabbi Moses Haim Luzzatto (1707-1746).  
1799 Napoleon conquers Jaffa but retreats before Acco (Acre); 1799 – Napoleon’s Proclamation of a Jewish State was stillborn, and his declaration of equal rights for Jews was repealed in part in 1806.
1831 Egyptian Conquest of Palestine area by Mehmed Ali of Egypt, who rebelled against the Ottomans. He was forced to withdraw in 1840 under pressure by European allies.
1843 First Zionist writings of Rabbi Alcalay and of Rabbi Kalischer, Emuna Yeshara.
1844 First census in Jerusalem shows 7120 Jews, 5760 Muslims, 3390 Christians.
1856 Ottoman reforms (Tanzimat) – including requirement to register ownership of land in Palestine and pay taxes on it.
1860 First Jewish settlement (Mishkenot Sha’ananim) outside Jerusalem walls.
1878 First Zionist Settlement – Petah Tikwa.
1870s Formation of Hovevei Tzion in Russia
1881-1885 Wave of Russian pogroms catalyzes First Aliya (wave of immigration to Israel)..
1882 Russian May Laws; Leon Pinsker writes Auto-Emancipation in 1882; formation of BILU; beginning of the First Aliya (wave of immigration).
1897 First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland.
1903 Kishinev Pogrom and Russian Pogroms of 1905 catalyze Second Aliya
Nov 2, 1917 British issued the Balfour Declaration,  promising a “National Home” for the Jews in Palestine.
August, 1929 Arab Riots and Massacres in Hebron, Jerusalem, Safed, Haifa, Motza and elsewhere. The Jews had set up a dividing screen at the Wailing Wall in Yom Kippur of 1928 to separate men and women worshippers, prompting rumors that the Jews wanted to build a synagogue at wall, which were spread deliberately by Hajj Amin El Husseini.
1936-1939 Arab Revolt led by Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Over 5,000 Arabs were killed according to some sources, mostly by British. Several hundred Jews were killed by Arabs. Husseini fled to Iraq and then to Nazi Germany. British White Paper (1939) severely restricts Jewish immigration.
May 9, 1942 Biltmore Program – Zionist leaders, headed by Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, convene at the Biltmore Hotel in New York and declare their postwar program (known as the Biltmore Program).  The program recommended an end to the British Mandate and demand Jewish control over immigration to Palestine with the aim of founding a Jewish “Commonwealth.” wish history, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Timeline, Zionist movement, Israel history, Middle East history
May 15, 1948 Israel War of Independence  (1948 War). Declaration of Israel as the Jewish State; British leave Palestine; Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia declared war on Israel. Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian invasion began.
April 3, 1949 Armistice – Israel and Arab states agree to armistice. Israel gained about 50% more territory than was originally allotted to it by the UN Partition Plan.
Oct. 29, 1956 Suez Campaign. In retaliation for a series of escalating border raids as well as the closure of the straits of Tiran and Suez canal to Israeli shipping, and to prevent Egyptian use of newly acquired Soviet arms in a war, Israel invades the Sinai peninsula and occupies it for several months, with French and British collaboration.
May, 1964 PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) founded with the aim of destroying Israel. The Palestinian National Charter (1968) officially called for liquidation of Israel.
May, 1967 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closes the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and dismisses UN peacekeeping force. Negotiations with US to reopen the Straits of Tiran fail.
June 5-10,1967 Six day war – Israel destroys the Egyptian air force on the ground, conquers and occupies Sinai and Gaza, then conquers the West Bank from Jordan, and Golan Heights from Syria. UN resolution 242 called for  Israeli withdrawal, establishment of peace.
June 19, 1967 Israeli Cabinet decides on secret offer, to be delivered to Syrians and Egyptians though American diplomats, calling for return of territories conquered in the Six day war  in return for peace.
Oct. 6, 1973 Yom Kippur War (October War). In a surprise attack on the Jewish day of atonement, Egypt retook the Suez canal and a narrow zone on the other side. Syria reconquered the Golan Heights. Following massive US and Soviet resupplying of the sides, Israel succeeded in pushing back the Syrians and threatening Damascus. Ariel Sharon was instrumental in the successful crossing of the Suez Canal, which cut off the Egyptian Third Army. Israeli casualties were unacceptably high however, and both Syria and Egypt celebrate the anniversary of the war as a victory.
March 26, 1979 Peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel.
June 7, 1981 Israel destroys Iraqi nuclear reactor in daring raid.
Oct. 6, 1981 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated while on the reviewing stand of a victory parade.
June 6, 1982 Massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon to fight PLO.
Sept. 13, 1993 Oslo Declaration of Principles – Israel and PLO agree to mutual recognition.
Sept 28, 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement signed. Palestinian Authority to be established.
Nov. 4, 1995 Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by right-wing Israeli fanatic Yigal Amir. Rabin is replaced by Shimon Peres
June, 1996 Right-Wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu elected Prime Minister in Israel, replacingShimon Peres.
Sept, 1996 Al-Aqsa tunnel riots – Arab sources spread the false rumor that a gate opened in an underground tunnel tourist attraction by the Israeli government, endangered the foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque. This caused several days of rioting and numerous casualties.
Jan 18, 1997 Israel and Palestinians reach agreement on Israeli redeployment in the West-Bank city of Hebron
Oct. 1998 Wye River Plantation talks result in an agreement for Israeli redeployment and release of political prisoners and renewed Palestinian commitment to correct its violations of the Oslo accords including excess police force, illegal arms and incitement in public media and education.
May 17, 1999 Israel elects Labor party leader and Former General Ehud Barak as Prime Minister in a landslide. Barak promises rapid progress toward peace.
March, 2000 Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations fail when Hafez Assad rejects an Israeli offer relayed by US President Clinton in Geneva.
Sept. 28, 2000 Palestinians initiated riots after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon  visited the Temple Mount, which is also the location of the Haram as Sharif holy to Muslims.
Feb 6, 2001 Right-wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon elected Prime Minister in Israel replacing Ehud Barak and promising “peace and security.”
Mar.-Apr. 2002 Israel conducts operation Defensive Wall in the West Bank, following a large number of Palestinian suicide attacks on civilian targets. Saudi peace initiative adopted at Beirut summit.
Jan 28, 2003 Elections in Israel give wide margin (40 seats) to right wing Likud party, returning PM Ariel Sharon for another term.
July 9, 2004 International court of Justice (ICJ) rules that the Israeli security barrier violates international law and must be torn down.
Nov 11, 2004 Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat dies.
Jan 9, 2005 Mahmoud Abbas elected President of the Palestinian National Authority.
Jan 2006 On January 4, Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke, leaving the leadership of Israel and the new Kadima party in the hands of Ehud Olmert  
Jan 26, 2006 On January 26, the radical Islamist Hamas movement won an upset victory in Palestinian Legislative Council elections, threatening to end about 40 years of Fateh-PLO leadership of the Palestinians and to completely ruin hopes for peace with Israel. Hamas spokesmen sent mixed signals, but vowed never to recognize Israel and never to give up their claim to all of Palestine.
March 28 Ehud Olmert elected PM of Israel, heading Kadima party coalition
July 12 Second Lebanon War – Hezbollah terrorists cross the blue line border with Lebanon, attack an Israeli patrol, killing 3 and capturing 2 soldiers. Additional soldier dies the following day and several are killed when a tank hits a mine, pursuing the captors. At the same time, Hezbollah began a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel. In subsequent days, Israel carried out massive but selective bombing and artillery shelling of Lebanon, hitting rocket stores, Hezbollah headquarters in Dahya quarter of Beirut (see Beirut Map and al-Manara television in Beirut, and killing over two hundred persons, many civilians. Hezbollah responds with several hundred rocket attacks on Haifa, Tiberias, Safed and other towns deep in northern Israel, killing 13 civilians to July 18 (See Map of Hezbollah Rocket Attacks) , and a Hezbollah Iranian supplied C-802 missile hits an Israeli missile cruiser off the cost of Beirut, killing 4. Hezbollah rocket also sinks at least one foreign neutral ship and damages an Egyptian one. G-8 meeting calls for cessation of violence, return of Israeli soldier and disarmament of Hezbolla in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and UN Security Council Resolution 1680. 
Aug 14, 2006 Cease fire, based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701
Feb. 2007 Israeli renovations near the Mughrabi gate of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem spark widespread unrest in the Arab world, over false charges that Israel is destroying the mosque.
Feb. 8, 2007 Palestinian Unity Agreement in Mecca. Hamas and Fatah agree to share power, based on vaguely worded agreement. Hamas officials reiterate that they will never recognize Israel. US and Israel insist that the new government must recognize right of Israel to exist, disarm terrorist groups and agree to end violence.
Feb. 19, 2007 Trilateral Israeli-Palestinian-American summit with Secretary of State Rice, PM Ehud Olmert and President Abbas ended with no visible result.
March 17, 2007 Palestinian unity government sworn in.
June 2007 Hamas ousts Fatah from Gaza in bloody coup.
Nov. 26-28 US convenes peace summit at Annapolis, Md. with participation of Arab nations, Quartet, EU members, GCC and others including South Africa. Israelis and Palestinians are forced to agree on a joint statement that vows to implement the quartet roadmap in parallel, with US monitoring performance and the sides negotiating continuously with the aim of concluding an agreement by the end of 2008. See: Joint Israeli-Palestinian Declaration, and its meaning  
Jan. 2008 President Bush visit to Middle East; Hamas “breakout” into Egypt at Rafah Crossing.
Feb. 12, 2008 Hezbollah “militant” Imad Moughniyeh killed by car bomb in Damascus. Moughniyeh was a “militancy” mastermind, responsible for attacks on U.S. embassy and US marines in Lebanon in the 80s, for kidnapping of American nationals, for explosions in Israel Embassy and Jewish Center in Argentina and apparently for planning the kidnappings that triggered the second Lebanon War. FBI had a $5 million dollar reward out for Moughniyeh. Israel denies any involvement in the killing of Moughniyeh.
Dec 27, 2008-Jan 18, 2009 Operation Cast Lead – Israeli operation in Gaza to stop Hamas rocket attacks. Over 1,000 Palestinian casualties.
April 1, 2009 Following elections,  Likud party head Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Prme Minister.
June 4, 2009 Address by President Obama in Cairo, June 4, 2009 – Historic speech of rapprochement with the Arab and Muslim world also has direct implications for Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since the President calls for an end to Israeli construction of settlements in the occupied territories, as well as Arab recognition of Israel and a two state solution.

 

Balfour Declaration [1917]

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Foreign Office

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet

His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours,

Arthur James Balfour

THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

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Related image

May 14, 1948

Published in the Official Gazette, No. 1 of the 5th, Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 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 States and three days later by the USSR.
THE TEXT OF THE DECLARATION

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.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, 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 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 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 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.

WE APPEAL 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 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).

David Ben-Gurion

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

The Hebrew Aleph-Bet