Jewish Community Relations Council, Boston, Massachusetts

              Irrlarattnn nf ttjp $EBtablishmi?tit nf the 8>talp of Ssrapl
ERETZ ISRAEL1 was the birthplice of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was
shaped. Here they fir«t attained to statehood, rrasrted cultnral values of national and universal significance and gave to the
world the eternal Book of Book
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'pilim2 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  indepandant   nationhood.
In the year 56S7 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodor 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 Balfonr Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and reaffirmed in the Mandate of
the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people
and  Kr.t • l-rj.-l and to the right of the Jawlsli p**ple to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people—the massacre of millions of J.:** 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, nndaunted 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^Nazij' wickedness 'and,, byvth'e blood of/its soldiers and its war effort,
gained the right to be reckoned among the)peoples, who' founded the  United Nation

On the 29th November 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
Nations of the right of
other nations, in their
necessary on their part for Whe,implem'entatio'n\of ,that.resolution. This recognition 'by^heJUnited N
the Jewish people to estaiblish's their? State  is  irrevocable
This right is the natural right of the^Jewish people.to 
own sovereign State. 
ACCORDINGLY ,WE,MEMBERS OF6THE PEOPLEJS'COUNCIUT REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISR/TeL AND OFs.THE"ZIONIST'MOVEMENT, AREVfiiERK7 ASSEMBLED ON THE
DAY OF THE TERIVJINATFON'OF THE BRITISH-MANDATE'OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL^AND, BY VIRTUE OF
OUR NATURAL AND (HISTORIC RIGHT AND ONTHE~STRENGTH OF THE^ESOLUTION OF THE UNITED
NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY. HEREBY DECLARE -THE ESTABLISHMENt/bF7 V JEWISH STATE IN
ERETZ-ISRAEL. KNOWN AS THE STATEjjOFjfSRAEL. 
lie moment of] the termination of the [Mandate/being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, S708  tl5thv'May,.1948), until the.establishment'of.the.elected. regular authorities of the Sta
WE DECLARE that,|with1e'ffcr't)from the
(he 6lh Iyar, S708 tl5thx'May,.1948), until the.establishment'of.the.elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which* Shall'be adoptediby.the-Elecied/Cnni.tiluent Assembly  the 1st October, 1948,
the People's Council shall act 'as ^'Provisional Counci)t"of;State,' and/its! executive organ',, the* People's Administration, shall

bo the Provisional Governm'ent'of'the Jewish State'.'to"be'called "Israel

the Holy Places of all religions ;"!a'hd it Avill be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Natior

THE STATE OF ISRAEL is .prepared to cooperate with  the  agencies and representatives  of the  United  Nations in
implementing the resolution of the',Ge'herai.l'Assemblv of'thef29th~N6vemberT"'1947; und'will  take  ste
tO'assist_the,Jewish people.in-the buildi
economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel
WE APPEAL to the United Nations
of Israel into the comity of nations.
steps  to  bring about  the
building-up of its State and to receive the State
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^lhe 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 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 ALMIGHTY. 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 TELAVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE Sth DAY OF IYAR. S708 (14th MAY, 1948).
David  Ben-Gnrion
Daniel Auster
Mordekhai  Bentov
Yitzchak Ben Zvi
Eliyahu   Berliene
Fritz  Bernstein
Rabbi Wolf Gold
Meir Grabovsky
Yitzchak Gruenbaum
Dr. Abraham Granoviky
Eliyahu Dobkin
Meir Wilner-Kovner
Zerach Wahrhaftig
Herzl Vardl
Rachel Cohen
Rabbi Kalman Kahana
Saadia  Kobashi
Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin
Meir David Loevensteln
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
Rerl Repetur
Mordekhai Shattner
Ben Zion Sternberg
Bekhor Shitreet
Moshe  Shapira