On Friday night, 5th of Iyar 5708 (May 14th 1948), at the Tel Aviv Museum on Rothschild boulevard, all the leaders of the Jewish settlement and the Zionist organizations came together in a festive atmosphere to hear
David ben Gurion
announce the formation of the State of Israel and to sign the scroll of Independence.
In Israel and around the world, the Jewish people held their collective breath. The dream of a thousand generations had at last come to fruition. After an exile of over 1,800 years and countless attempts at the destruction of the Jewish people, the culmination of which was the holocaust during World War II in which 6 million Jews were slaughtered, finally the Jewish people had a homeland. The gates of Israel were reopened to all Jews around the world; the Jewish people had returned home to be free in the holy city of Jerusalem and the land of Zion.
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The original scroll of the Declaration of Independence, together with the silver casket.
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The modern movement for the establishment of the State of Israel was the culmination of a process which started in Paris, France in 1894. In this year, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, was wrongly accused of treason and sent to Devil's Island for life. Theodore Herzl, an Austrian journalist sent to cover the Dreyfus trial, was so affected by the obvious anti-Semitism that he established the Zionist Congress. The first Zionist Congress convened in Basel in 1897, and here Herzl stated the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in what was then Palestine.
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This basic right was recognized in the Balfour declaration of
2nd November 1917, which came about partly a result of the relationship between
Arthur Balfour and Chaim Weizman,
who went on to become Israel's first President. The declaration was ratified by
the League of Nations in July 1922, thus giving international recognition to the
declaration, and giving foundation to the historical connection between the
Jewish people and the land of Israel.
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On November 29th 1947, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in the land of Israel, and on Friday May 14th
1948, the state was founded.
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The Declaration of Independence sets out the foundations and theories for the
government of the new-born State. The values set out in the Declaration continue
to shape the religious, political, social and economic platforms of the modern
State, and provide the base for the building and maintenance of the democratic
system today.
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