The Declaration of Independence is first and foremost the most seminal document in Israel’s history. It lays out succinctly and clearly the blueprint and justification for the newly founded State of Israel and tells the story of the Jewish people.
The declaration opens with the assertion of the Jewish people’s historical right to the land of Israel and points to the thousand years of Jewish life in the Land before the Jews were taken into exile. It cites the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate as international confirmation of the legal right of the Jews to the Land of Israel, and refers to the Holocaust as testament to the urgency in which the Jewish State must become a reality. The Declaration also establishes the values on which the State shall be founded, and calls upon all diaspora Jews to congregate in the Land of Israel and together bring the vision of the redemption of the land to life.
It tells a story of the Jewish nation which is historically accurate as it is conclusive. Unfortunately, over the past decades there are those who strive to diminish that narrative’s internal cohesiveness by using groundless narratives to pick at the justifications presented in the seminal document, and many of the Jews in Israel are losing sight and conviction of the justness of the Jewish nation’s cause.
This loss of conviction in the justness of the Zionist cause is one of the most dangerous phenomena manifesting recently in Israel’s society; without deep faith in the absolute right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, we have little reason to exist in that land. Without that conviction, we cannot ensure a conclusive and long-standing victory in the current war and we surely will not be able to guarantee peace for our future generations.
“Accordingly we are here assembled”: the factors laying the groundwork for the establishment of the State of Israel
Historical right
The Declaration of Independence was penned only three years after World Ward 2 and the atrocities of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, the document does not open on the story of the six million Jews who perished in Europe, but with the assertion: “Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] is the birthplace of the Jewish people, where its spiritual, religious and political identity was forged”. In other words, the Declaration’s point of departure is the historic right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, stating: this is the place from which the Jewish people had arisen as a nation; here we lived as sovereigns of our land for generations, and here we created our national cultural inalienable assets. The Declaration underscores the “forcible” exile of the Jews from their land, and asserts that despite this, even in its exile, the Jewish people had staunchly kept its allegiance to the Land of Israel, yearningly praying for the return to the Jewish homeland and the renewal of its national liberty.
The Declaration addresses the Zionist enterprise, mentioning the pioneers who came to the Land of Israel to cultivate its soil and revive the Hebrew language, as well as the speech in the first Zionist Congress (1897) by the founding father of the Zionist movement, Theodor Hertzel, stating the Jewish nation’s right to be reinstated in its land as a nation.
Legal justification
Furthermore, the Declaration addresses the legal right of the Jewish nation to the Land of Israel. It draws on the Balfour Declaration from 1917, which acknowledges the right of the Jewish people to establish their national home in the Land of Israel. The Balfour Declaration was the basis for the British Mandate in Israel. The Mandate document states: “…the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917 by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers [the Allied Powers], in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…”
The Mandate, conferred upon Britain by the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations) is the most binding legal document pertaining to international recognition of the Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel, in which the British have accepted the responsibility of acting to put this right into effect. It should be mentioned that Arthur James Balfour’s original intention was to establish a national home for the Jewish people on the entirety of the land of biblical Israel, including the Transjordan territories – Greater Eretz Israel.
However, history shows that the British Mandate in effect acted in contradiction to the mandate they were given, and rather than facilitating the establishment of the Jewish State as agreed upon in the Mandate document, the British administration prevented the immigration of Jews to Israel and moreover – allowed scores of Arabs from the entire Middle East to pour into the area. Furthermore, the British issued the White Paper (policy paper), which blatantly flouted the terms agreed upon in the Mandate. And if that were not enough, the British excluded the Transjordan territories from the historic territory of Greater Israel and of the Jewish national homeland, and allowed the creation of a new sovereign entity unorganic to the area under the Hashemite rule, named Jordan, in the Transjordan area.
Despite the British violation of the Mandate conferred upon then, and their commitment to the League of Nations, the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate remained legal binding documents that stated beyond doubt that the Jewish people have national rights to the Land of Israel.
The Holocaust imperative
It is only after the declaration asserts the historical and legal right of the Jewish nation to the Land of Israel, that it addresses the Holocaust, citing that “The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people – the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe” as a “clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State”. The Declaration states that the State of Israel would be open for Jewish immigration from all exiles of the Jewish nation, thereby laying the foundations for the Law of Return, which grants people of Jewish descent the automatic right to live in Israel and gain citizenship.
The fashion in which the case for the Jewish right to the Land of Israel is laid out aimed to ensure that the Holocaust would not be taken as the framework of – and surely not the sole justification for – the Jewish entitlement to their national homeland. The authors of the Declaration single out the Holocaust as testimony to the urgency of an immediate solution, such that is deeply engrained in the historical and legal right of the Jews to the Land of Israel – far predating the events of the Holocaust.
Fast forward to present day Israel.
Sadly, over the recent decades, a growing number of Israelis have been forgetting this right, and have come to see the Holocaust as the driving factor justifying the existence of Israel.
It behooves us to understand that albeit a deeply painful reminder of the importance of a Jewish homeland, the Holocaust is not the pretext for the establishment of Israel, and that the Jews live in Israel by right and not by the grace of others.
The Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly
The first part of the Declaration ends with the mention of the UN resolution for the establishment of a Jewish State in the land of Israel, on November 29, 1947. The Declaration underscores that this recognition is “irrevocable”, and emphasizes that the right of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel is “… the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State”.
This takes us to the most historic and iconic declaration in the document: “We, members of the people’s council…declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel”
As envisioned by the ancient profits of Israel: the bedrock values of the Declaration of Independence
The values of the state to be
The last portion of the Declaration addresses the nature and values of the new State, and chiefly the assertion that the State “shall be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles”, in effect designating the State as the national homeland of the Jewish people. Later are mentioned additional values such as liberty, peace, equality and the freedom of religion, as envisioned by the biblical profits of Israel, thereby indicating, again, a return to the historic and religious anchor that defines the Jews as a nation.
Today, they are voices that accuse Israel of failing in its commitment to afford equal rights to all its citizens. These claims are with no foundation as every eligible citizen of the State of Israel has the right to vote, and all votes are equal; Evey civil body – including all bodies of government, Knesset and the Judiciary – have representatives from every demographic in the State of Israel; All Israeli citizens are equal before the law, regardless of their ethnicity, and since its very inception the State never had separate systems of laws for Jews and Arabs. The State’s education system and employment market have equal opportunities for all, and the increasing rate of Arab students in the country’s education institutions year on year – reflect almost their portion in the country’s population – all these stand as testimony that refutes such claims. Moreover, since 2020, nearly half of the new doctors in Israel come from the Arab and Druze sectors. This is the shape of a society based on equal rights.
Extending a hand to peace
The latter part of the Declaration also addresses the complex security demands of the Jewish state vis a vis the Arab population therein and the surrounding Muslim countries. It opens with inviting the Arab population to partake in the building of the State as fully equal nationals. Then the Declaration addresses the Middle East countries, stating “We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness”, and expresses the commitment of the new State to “do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East”, thereby clearly establishing the peaceful nature of the State of Israel.
The redemption of Israel
The Declaration ends with an appeal to the Jewish people of the diaspora, calling on the world Jewry to come to Israel and together realize the dream of generations of Jews of the redemption of Israel.
The last line of the Declaration is a return to that which unites the Jewish people as a nation, and mentions that the Declaration was signed with “Trust in the ‘Rock of Israel’”, i.e God.
Refraining from determining the form of government and borders: what is not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence
A Jewish egalitarian state
The authors of the Declaration were deliberate in selecting each word in the document and no less – that which was not mentioned. Nowadays it is a matter of fact that the State of Israel is Jewish and democratic; however, it is interesting to see that while the words “Jew” and “Jews” appear 20 times in the Declaration, the word “Democracy” does not appear even once. This is no coincidence.
The Declaration of Independence refrains from specifying the new state’s form of government simply as at the time it was not a given that Israel would become a democracy. In fact, the majority of the leadership was deeply connected to communist Russia and held the ideology of the kibbutzim – agricultural coop communities – in the highest regard, hence many among them supported the installation of a communist, rather than a democratic, form of government.
On the other hand, the Declaration proclaims a statehood that upholds such values that are congruent with those underpinning the democratic ideology i.e. equality, justice and liberty, thereby establishing the balance which is much addressed by Israeli society, of a national homeland for the Jewish people on the one hand, and a democratic state, on the other. Fully understanding the Declaration of Independence shows that the two are compatible and not contradicting.
Without demarcation of borders
Another topic that the Declaration of Independence does not address – and justly so – is that of the borders of the state-to-be. The authors of the Declaration refrained from mentioning the Partition Plan, voted on by the UN General Assembly on November 29. This stems from the understanding that the borders of the State of Israel are yet to be formed.
And indeed, no sooner was the Declaration signed, seven neighboring hostile armies rose against Israel, which found itself in a fight for its survival in the War of Independence. Not only was that war won by Israel – it redefined the country’s borders. Since that war, Israel had found itself in numerous confrontations that led to the reshaping of its borders, and there are large parts of Israel’s society that would see Israel regain its historic biblical borders of “Greater Eretz Israel”.
Between politics and security: the Declaration of Independence and the reality today
The politicization of the Declaration
The Declaration of Independence had become the defining document of the State of Israel. Sadly, in recent years – particularly on the background of the loaded debate on the judicial reform – it has become a battering ram of sorts, for all stakeholders.
Many groups in Israel resort to the Declaration of Independence to buttress their claims. As welcome as this renewed interest and discourse may be – as it reflects a wide recognition in the seminal importance of the Declaration – it also misuses the document by cleaving from it a narrow political interpretation that defies the full meaning of the Jewish nation’s most important document in modern history. It is imperative to understand that the Declaration of Independence represents an organic concept that cannot be partially accepted or rejected, no more than the story of the Jewish people can be partially acknowledged.
One of the most dangerous things Israeli society can do is turning the document that is the foundation for its existence in the Land of Israel, into a means to political gain.
The loss of an ethos
Without understanding the Declaration of Independence with all of its articles, we allow subversive elements to undermine not only the entire national ethos of Israel but also the conviction in the right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.
Over the past several years, we are witnessing the proliferation of lies attempting to show Israel as a colonialist force scheming to occupy a land with which it has no legitimate connection. These lies wish to expunge the story of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and as such should be vehemently rejected, not only by Jews but also by any truth seeking individual.
It is imperative that the Israeli public knows to differentiate between essence and practice – firstly, it must understand and embrace the narrative of a Jewish people, returning to its lost land, and rising again as a nation in the comity of nations. Only on the foundation of this inalienable document can true and long-term solutions be had. Thus, even when compromises are necessary – as painful as they might be – they will stem from a practical vantage point that clearly sees the dictates of reality, rather than from a position that turns its back on the values that define the Jewish people.
Protecting ourselves, by ourselves
Sadly, the current debate on issues of security and defense in Israel have been derailed to the realm of shallow, political sloganism. In order to truly address this topic with all the seriousness and reverence it deserves, we must look to the Declaration of Independence as a guiding light.
The Declaration states that the Jewish nation had never stopped demanding its natural right to live as a free, respected nation in its birthright land. Implied in the narrative of the document is the imperative of the Jewish nation to establish the ability to protect its land, by itself, thereby laying the ideological and ethical foundation on which the new state should stand.
The DNA of the Jewish nation: the eternal importance of the Declaration of Independence
The current “iron Swords” war in Gaza and its counterpart in Lebanon underscore the importance of the conviction in the justness of the Jewish claim to its land. The prime entity that is the driving force behind this war is Iran – a country with which Israel has no common borders and no territorial disputes whatsoever. The Iranian Republic and its global and regional network of proxies are fueled by a single-minded desire to eradicate the State of Israel, stoked by Teheran’s zealous hatred of Israel. Hence, the real struggle of the State of Israel is not for land – it is ideological.
In this respect, Israel has a long way to go. Its enemies are well skilled at preserving and instilling their own ethos, while the infighting that is tearing at the very fabric of Israeli society only weakens its ethos as a nation and alienates it from the values that have been the bedrock of the Jewish nation for thousands of years, akin to a tree, whose roots are rotting and can no longer sustain itself, destined to eventually collapse.
To sustain the tree that is the Jewish nation and the State of Israel, and prevail in this ideological war, we must reconnect to the Declaration of Independence and to the defining narrative of the Jewish people. It is the spirit – not only the size of the army and the superiority of its weapons – that will win the present struggle and ensure the security of Israel for generations to come. It is the spirit that derives from the conviction in the justness of the Jewish nation and its historic and present right to the Land of Israel.
