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Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948

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 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 the
termination of the British mandate for Palestine, by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish
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 and 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 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 the 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.