Let us look at Israel's Declaration of Independence

Jewish Journal
May 5, 2008
By J. ZEL LURIE

It was erev Shabbat May 14, 1948, the fifth of Iyar, 5708. The British had announced that they were giving up the Palestine Mandate and would sail away the following day. The United Nations had decided to partition Palestine into three parts, an Arab state and a Jewish state with almost equal areas and an international rule over Jerusalem.

The U.N. resolution to divide Palestine had been adopted on November 29, 1947. The Jewish community numbered 600.000. The Palestinian Arabs outnumbered them better than 2 to 1. The Arabs did not accept the UN decision to partition the land. They wanted all of it. The attacks on the Jews began the day after the UN vote, on November 30, 1947. Undaunted by 6 months of war while the UN dithered and constant advice by world leaders not to do it, on the fifth of Iyar, David Ben Gurion rose at a small assembly in the Tel Aviv museum to read Israel's Declaration of Independence. He began with these stirring words:

"The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people… Here they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books."

The next day the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, with contingents from Morocco and Yemen began the invasion of Palestine. They had little coordination. With the exception of the British-led Jordan Legion, their officers were ill-trained members of the Arab aristocracy. The Jews were fighting for survival. They had the support of Communist Russia, whose Czechoslovakian satellite sold the Jews arms and airplanes. Holland, Germany and France also supplied arms and ammunition. American and British Jews raised the money to pay for the arms and sent volunteer soldiers and experts to train the survivors of the Holocaust, who were flocking in.

The proclamation of Independence promised that Israel "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." This double promise has been kept.

The casualties in Israel's first fight for survival were tremendous. Israel lost one percent of the population, 6,000 young men and women. The equivalent in the United States would be almost 3 million dead in just one of its wars.

The Arabs call it Al Nakba, the disaster. About two-thirds of the Arab population fled or were expelled. Those that remained were promised full equality and citizenship. Here are the words of the proclamation read by Ben Gurion sixty years ago:

"The State of Israel… will foster the development of the country for all its inhabitants. It will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel. It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights irregardless of religion, race or sex."

The promise of full equality has not been fulfilled, despite the admonition of the prophets to treat the stranger as one of your own, "for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Sikkuy, an Israeli organization has been documenting Israeli discrimination against its Arab citizens for many years. Improvement has been miniscule.

American Jewish organizations record a vast improvement. They "discovered" the Israeli Arabs during the second Lebanese war in 2006 when Arabs and Jews in the Galilee were bombed equally by Hezbollah rockets. UJA allocations to Arabs in the Galilee rose from zero to tens of millions, still a drop in the bucket of what we spend in Israel. And an interagency task force was organized to educate Jewish professionals on Israeli Arab problems.

Israel's Declaration of Independence does not mention Israel's borders. In the War of Independence Israel increased its share of Palestine from the about 47 percent, allotted by the UN resolution, to 78 percent. The Palestinians in the remaining 22 percent have agreed to form a Palestine State and negotiations are ongoing for its borders. The Palestinians are demanding all of the 22 percent while Israel wants to keep the cities it has built on West Bank territory, such as Maale Adumim.

I have a suggestion which might alleviate some of the friction between Ehud Olmert and Mohammed Abbas (Abu Mazen). My suggestion is that the economic union of the Jewish and Arab states, laid down in the UN resolution sixty years ago, be revived. The Declaration says that the "State of Israel… will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz Israel." At the moment the economy is dominated by the Jewish majority. Laws can be passed, similar to those in the United States which give minority-owned businesses a leg up in securing government contracts.

Because the fifth of Iyar this year falls on a Saturday, Israel will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary on the third of Iyar which is Thursday May 8. The Palestinians will mark Al Nakba on May 15.