1. “We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel”: The Gamble of the Declaration of Independence
The figure standing at the center of what became one of the most iconic images in Israel’s historical memory is not tall. On the wall behind him, partly concealed by a curtain, hang two enormous new flags of the state being born at that very moment. Above him is a portrait of the man who foresaw this day decades earlier.
David Ben-Gurion declares the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the fifth of Iyar, 5708. A photograph that represents a rare point of broad national consensus.
But how close did we come to having no such photograph at all? And what was Ben-Gurion’s role in ensuring it existed?
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” (Martin Luther King)
About a year earlier, decades of determined Zionist activity were beginning to take practical shape. In 1947, Britain returned the Mandate for Palestine to the United Nations, and in late November, the UN voted in favor of partition. Jews across the country poured into the streets in celebration, but despite that historic moment, they still had no state.
On Friday, May 14, 1948, the future citizens of the new nation awoke to a storm of emotion and collective uncertainty. Newspapers announced excitedly that “the state will be established today”, but the subheadings predicting an immediate attack by five Arab armies were terrifying. Would those armies, as they had repeatedly threatened, join the local Arabs and attack at once? Would the state survive even a single day?
Behind the scenes, an intense debate unfolded among the leaders of the national institutions and armed services of the Jewish community. Golda Meir had just returned from a secret meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, who told her (with sorrow, according to her memoirs) that if a Jewish state were declared, he would be forced to join the other Arab states and attack. Moshe Sharett returned from the United States with a stark warning from Secretary of State George Marshall: a declaration of statehood would be suicidal, the Arab armies would destroy the Jews, and America would not save them. Yigael Yadin was quoted as estimating Israel’s chances of survival at roughly fifty-fifty.
But Ben-Gurion viewed the situation differently.
Throughout the previous year, in addition to the open struggle for international recognition of the Jewish right to an independent state, he had been conducting a shadow campaign to secure the weapons and defensive capabilities that would make such independence viable. Envoys of the Haganah left his office convinced that “the man had gone mad”. He spoke of airplanes, naval vessels, and tanks. Where would the Jewish community obtain such things? It sounded as unrealistic as speaking of help arriving from Mars.
But Ben-Gurion’s efforts were not detached from reality. They reflected his sober understanding of it. He believed, almost knew, that the Arab armies would not allow a declaration of statehood to pass without a response. He understood that the alternative facing them was the destruction of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel.
Still, he believed they could endure. Their strength lay in the courage of that generation and in the weapons and equipment acquired through extraordinary effort.
So when the critical moment arrived, he locked Moshe Sharett, pale with dread, in his office until Sharett promised to report the news from America objectively and not frighten the People’s Council with dire predictions. At the same time, Ben-Gurion conducted a “trial vote”. Those present were asked how they would vote if the declaration were put before them that day.
Four opposed it. Let us wait, they said. Let us see how the situation develops and what the world will propose. We cannot afford to alienate the Americans. Five supported it. They felt it was now or never. Ben-Gurion tipped the balance. In the end, he made the decision himself, without holding another formal vote.
The State of Israel would be established, now. Before the United Nations reversed itself. Before the world imposed a political arrangement on the Jews that did not include full independence. The Jewish People had waited almost two thousand years. No more.
The ceremony was prepared so hastily that it left a trail of amusing stories about the disorganization, from the search for the parchment for the signatures to acquiring flags and arranging the hall. None of this occupied Ben-Gurion. Those who saw him that day recalled that he seemed withdrawn and preoccupied. He later wrote that he had been seized by fear. At moments, he was convinced he was condemning the Jewish People to destruction.
In his diary he wrote: “Today we founded a state. Its fate is in the hands of the defense forces.”
“I remember thinking this as I left the ceremony one my way home in the evening, seeing people dancing in the streets and celebrating the historic act we had accomplished together. I did not join them, although I shared their feelings. They were right to dance, I thought, even though I knew well, and many of the dancers surely knew well, how great the dangers were before us and how heavy the sacrifices we would have to make to defend the political independence we had just attained.” Immediately after the ceremony, which lasted only about thirty-two minutes, he convened the General Staff to prepare for the invasion.
2. “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and the Ingathering of the Exiles”: Opening the gates of the country in the midst of war
From the very first moment, there was no doubt about the central purpose of establishing a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
“The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people – the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe – 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.”
(Israel’s Declaration of Independence)
Zionism had always envisioned the Jewish state as a refuge for Jews everywhere: a place where they could flee from persecution and live without fear of their neighbors or their government. But in Ben-Gurion’s eyes, the equation worked in both directions. Jewish immigration was not only for the sake of the people; it was essential for the state itself. The people needed a state, but the state needed a people no less.
Nadav Man, Bitmuna. From the Yitzhak Altuvia Collection, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, the National Library of Israel
“Always, in every generation, from the days of Joshua until the battles of the Israel Defense Forces, we have stood few against many. Even if we succeed, and I believe we will succeed, in bringing over millions more Jews, we will still be few. Only if we remain faithful to the mission of Jewish history and to its vision will we endure.”
And then, with Ben-Gurion’s declaration, the State of Israel came into being. The Mandate regulations expired. No more certificates, no more quotas, no more immigrant ships being turned back to Europe.
If this sounds like the fulfillment of the dream, it is because that is exactly what it was. Yet at the moment of truth, matters were not so simple.
From the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel
The Jewish community of the tiny new state was fighting for its life with everything it had. The “model society” Ben-Gurion longed for – strong, modern and secure – was still far from reality. The newborn state was locked in a war for the most basic right of all: the right to exist.
At the same time, in the displaced persons camps across Europe, hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors waited: alone, penniless, many sick, all in need of support. On the other side of the world, Jewish communities in Arab countries suddenly found themselves in mortal danger.
In this atmosphere of chaos and fear, there were those who argued that immigration should be limited. Let in only skilled workers, they said. Or only those with means. Our lives come first. We cannot take responsibility for hundreds of thousands of destitute refugees.
But Ben-Gurion refused to consider any restriction. After all, why had they established a state? He answered plainly: “The Ingathering of the Exiles is the mission, purpose and duty of the State of Israel.” The immigrants would come, and the state would absorb them. And each new arrival, in the end, would only strengthen the country.
In the summer of 1950, the Law of Return was placed before the Knesset. A special session was held on the anniversary of Herzl’s death, and the law passed unanimously.
That day Ben-Gurion said in the Knesset: “The Law of Return is one of the foundational laws of the State of Israel. It expresses the central purpose of our state: the Ingathering of the Exiles. The law decrees that it is not the state that grants a Jew abroad the right to settle in Israel, but rather that this right is inherent in him by virtue of being a Jew, if only he wishes to join in building the land.”
During the first two years of statehood, the population doubled – even as the guns of war thundered and food was rationed under austerity measures. The hardships were severe, and the trauma of the transit camps (Ma’abarot) left a deep mark on Israel’s collective memory. The winter after the Law of Return passed was harsh and difficult. Even so, those hundreds of thousands of Jews who arrived from across the world felt that they were fulfilling a dream, both personal and national. In the years that followed, despite all the challenges, and perhaps also because of them, they helped build the country, added countless cultural and social layers, joined in its defense, and became an inseparable part of the foundation of the national project. Without them, the State of Israel would not have become what it is.
From the Yemenite Jews Community Collection, Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi (Israel Revealed to the Eye). This item is part of the Archive Network Israel project and is made available through the collaboration of Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi, the Ministry for Jerusalem and Heritage, and the National Library of Israel
3. “A woman is not disqualified from any service, deprived of any right or exempt from any duty”: Women vote and are elected
Even before statehood, in 1926, the Assembly of Representatives of the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine recognized the equal rights of women “in all areas of civil, political and economic life.” This came only after a determined struggle by pioneering women who had worked in every sector and fought for women’s basic right to equality.
Their greatest ally within the institutions of the Zionist movement was Ben-Gurion himself. He believed that in the state-in-the-making there must be no distinction between men and women. Equal rights for women, he insisted, were a core element of the just, free and egalitarian society they hoped to build.
“We have a moral duty to erase the stain created by the Mandate laws, which denied women full and complete equality.”
(Ben-Gurion, January 1949, following the first Knesset elections)
The night before the Declaration of Independence, Ben-Gurion worked on refining the text. At breakfast the next morning, he held the final draft in his hands. Paula, his wife, read it over his shoulder and said: You are missing one word.
Ben-Gurion nodded and replied: You are right. I will add it, and we will read it aloud and see how it sounds.
It sounded right. And so the phrase “irrespective of religion and race” became the familiar wording:
“The State of Israel… will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
Photo: K. Mairovitz, Ben-Gurion House Archive. This item is part of the Archive Network Israel project and is made available through the collaboration of the Ben-Gurion House Archive, the Ministry for Jerusalem and Heritage, and the National Library of Israel
In 1949, Ben-Gurion appointed Golda Meir as Israel’s first female government minister. When she hesitated, he wrote to her: “I am not prepared to form a new government without your participation.”
Even so, the decision was far from universally accepted. Religious parties fought a rearguard battle, demanding that women not serve as ministers. Ben-Gurion was furious and declared that any party refusing to accept this principle would not join the coalition.
At a Knesset debate on the Women’s Equal Rights Law, Ben-Gurion became unusually emotional:
“We are blessed that our mothers labored with us in building the community, in defending it, in safeguarding its honor. But that is not the reason compelling their equality in rights and duties. We owe our very existence to our mothers. All that is good and beautiful and pure in us we received from them. Is there anyone closer, more intimate than one’s mother? It is impossible to accept that my mother, my sister, who is also a mother, my daughter, who will one day be a mother, should be inferior to anyone else. This is the simple and human reasoning behind the proposed law.”
Israel, small and traditional as it was, found itself ahead of many other countries. It remains one of the few Western states that has had a woman serve as its head of government.
4. “This morning I went up to Jerusalem to establish my office”: Declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel
“Zionism” took its name from the historic city that an entire people had dreamed of restoring for nearly two thousand years. Yet when Zionism became a practical movement, its leaders were forced to set the question of Jerusalem aside.
Under the UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem, home to holy sites of the three monotheistic religions, was meant to become a demilitarized, international zone.
In closed-door discussions among the leadership of the Jewish community, the question of the capital surfaced again and again. Various alternatives were proposed, some more imaginative than others, but no agreement was reached.
In Israel’s Declaration of Independence, in what seems to have been an attempt to signal acceptance of the UN plan, Jerusalem was not mentioned as the capital of the new state.
But soon the Partition Plan collapsed, and Arab armies crossed the borders. On 28 May, the Jewish Quarter fell, and Jerusalem’s Old City passed to Jordanian control. When the fighting paused during the first truce, Ben-Gurion stated: “Jerusalem lies within the jurisdiction of the Jewish government (for now, unfortunately, without the Old City) exactly as Tel Aviv does, and there is no distinction between the two.”
The UN was far from pleased. Diplomacy swung back into motion in support of once again internationalizing the city.
On 9 December 1949, the General Assembly passed Resolution 303, reaffirming the demand that Jerusalem be demilitarized and placed under international administration.
Ben-Gurion was unmoved. Despite the firm opposition of Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett and fears of harsh international backlash, the Government of Israel declared Jerusalem the capital later that month.
“Israelis will give their lives for Jerusalem,” Ben-Gurion said in one cabinet meeting, “no less than the English for London, the Russians for Moscow, and the Americans for Washington.”
Sharett sent a resignation letter, but Ben-Gurion rejected it, saying he would not even inform the government. Sharett, he insisted, must accept the majority decision.
On December 26, 1949, the Knesset opened its session in Jerusalem, and it has remained there ever since. Jerusalem became, in practice, the capital of Israel.
“This morning I went up to Jerusalem,” Ben-Gurion wrote of that day, “to establish my office (not the Ministry of Defense) in Jerusalem, and thereby complete the transfer of the government to Jerusalem… The internationalization of Jerusalem removes 100,000 Jews from the State of Israel. We cannot build such a community overnight… But Jerusalem is not only 100,000 Jews. It is the City of David. If the Land of Israel is the heart of the Jewish nation, Jerusalem is the heart of that heart… Our success in the matter of Jerusalem will resolve all international issues surrounding the State of Israel. Will we succeed? Perhaps, perhaps not… This struggle will raise our standing in the world, even among our opponents, and rally the Jewish people around us.”
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“The price of greatness is responsibility,” Winston Churchill once said of leadership.
David Ben-Gurion stood at the spearhead of a people in one of the most formative moments in their history. He likely would have been remembered regardless, simply because of the time and place in which he served.
But the State of Israel was never a given, and along the way there were many crossroads, moments when different decisions could have changed the entire course of history.
It was the courage and responsibility behind these difficult, far-from-obvious decisions that made Ben-Gurion not just a man in the right place at the right time, but a man who chose to do the right thing. A great figure.
And in his own words:
“This act required considerable wisdom and diplomatic intuition, courage and foresight. It would have been easy to lose or squander this historic opportunity, through excessive caution and timidity, championed by the so-called realists lacking vision, or through maximalist rhetoric detached from reality, uttered by those who ‘grasp at too much with their mouths and demand it of others,’ as a poet once sharply put it.”
(Ben-Gurion on the decision to declare independence)
For decades, David Ben-Gurion led the Jewish community in the Land of Israel, from his role as secretary-general of the Histadrut labor federation to his many years as head of government: provisional prime minister and then prime minister of Israel’s first, second, third, fourth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth governments.
He bore countless fateful decisions on his shoulders, sometimes steering the majority, sometimes standing alone against the advice of those around him.
