The Israel - Arab Reader (Paperback)

State of Israel: Proclamation of Independence (May 14, 1948)

The Proclamation of Independence was published by the Provisional State Council in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948. The Provisional State Council was the forerunner of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The British Mandate was terminated the following day and regular armed forces of Transjordan, Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries entered Palestine.
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 the Land of Israel 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 centu- ries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood. In re- cent decades they returned in their masses. They reclaimed the wilderness, revived their language, built cities and villages, and established a vigor- ous and ever-growing community, with its own economic and cultural life. They sought peace, yet were prepared to defend themselves. They brought the blessings of progress to all inhabitants of the country and looked for- ward to sovereign independence.
In the year 1897 the First Zionist Congress, inspired by Theodor Her- zl's vision of the Jewish State, proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national revival in their own country.