Jewish
Rights to Israel (part 1):
Declaration
of Independence
Once
Jewish rights to Israel were obvious. Even those who had no connection or
sympathy to Zionism knew where Jews came from, about Jewish connection to the
Holy Land. To top it off, Jew haters often demanded Jews “go home to Palestine.”
Then everyone knew that Palestine was just another name for Zion.
Now,
somehow, Jewish rights to Israel are not so obvious. Interestingly, both
anti-Semites and modern liberal Jews find themselves asking the same questions
(albeit for different reasons): Is it legitimate to found and maintain a
State specifically for the Jewish People?
The
antisemite denies the legitimacy of the Jewish State out of hatred for the
existence of the Jewish People. Jewish sovereignty is abhorrent because Jewish
existence is abhorrent.
The
liberal Jew on the other hand is taking into consideration the questions of
pluralism, equality and an innate aversion to anything that could remotely be
considered racism. In a time when political movements are calling for the
abolition of borders and nationalism is equated with extremism it can seem
difficult to defend the idea of a State for a single people.
Added
to this is the additional complexity of the Arab population both within and
without Israel, many of whom object to the existence of the Jewish State in its
entirety while others say that their objections are to specific laws and
policies of the Jewish State.
Many
of us find ourselves at a loss to explain Jewish rights to the Jewish land to
the modern progressive, post religion, low information (but loudly opinionated)
person. My friend Ryan Bellerose has gone to great lengths to teach us
effective terminology, explaining the concept
of indigeneity and
how this differs from people of longstanding presence in a land. Reference to
the Bible, while a very powerful motivator to the religious person, are
counterproductive in dialogue with the non or anti-religious. Indigenous status
is a whole different ballgame.
Surprisingly
(or maybe not so surprisingly), Israel’s Declaration of Independence spells out
Jewish rights to the land of Israel in exactly the format Ryan suggests. There
is no “Because God said so” while indigeneity is placed above all other
explanations. It also addresses the difference between the indigenous people
and the inhabitants who are not indigenous, while declaring that in the Jewish
State all individuals will have the same, equal rights. This is the precursor
to the recently passed Nation State Law which I will address in a separate
article (Jewish Rights to Israel: Part 2).
As
part of my work at the Israel Forever
Foundation I did
something few of us bother to do – I read the most basic document regarding the
foundation of the Jewish State – the Declaration of the Establishment of the
State of Israel. It fascinated me to discover that, although the document
was written before the questions of this time arose, it addresses them clearly
and concisely, spelling out the reasons for the legitimacy of the Jewish Nation
State.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence
“The Land of Israel was the birthplace
of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity
was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of
national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of
Books.”
In
Hebrew there is no word for indigenous however, the description that opens the
Declaration of Independence is the definition of indigeneity: the land in which
a nation was born, the place where that nation first formed their culture,
built spiritual, cultural and political institutions.
Israel
is the land in which the Jewish people were sovereign and the place from which,
as a Nation, the Jewish People influenced the world (through the ideas laid out
in the Bible).
Indigeneity
is the strongest claim any People can have to any specific land: this
specific piece of land and no other is the ancestral homeland of my People.
While lacking the word for indigenous in Hebrew it was clear that the writers
of Israel’s Declaration of Independence had clear understanding of the meaning
and the power of this concept.
“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.”
This
second paragraph reinforces the first with the explanation that the Jewish
People were forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland and did not leave or
abandon the land from their own free will. Despite centuries of exile, the Jewish
People never gave up the hope to return and regain sovereignty in their
ancestral homeland. This is an extraordinary and unparalleled testament to the
deep connection of a People to the land.
“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, defiant returnees, 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 independent nationhood.”
This
paragraph takes Jewish hope to the realm of practicality: Impelled by
this historic and traditional attachment, impelled by Jewish history in
the land and the connection that was continued in exile through hope and
prayer, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish
themselves in their ancient homeland. Jews not only retained esoteric
hope but took action, in every generation, to re-establish
themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades (prior to the
Declaration of Independence) Jews returned in their masses. Following
this is a description mirroring the first paragraph of the document and
elaborating the revival of the Jewish People in their indigenous land –
reviving the language in which their original culture was articulated, building
thriving communities, taking custodianship of the land (making the desert
bloom), controlling their own economy and culture.
Here,
for the first time, the document refers to “all the country’s inhabitants” – in
other words, the Jews and non-Jews (Arabs). This was written after the Arab
massacres of their Jewish neighbors:
·
In 1920 a number of settlements in the
Galilee were attacked (among them Tel Hai where Trumpeldor and seven others
were murdered) and in Jerusalem. Some 30 Jews were murdered and hundreds
injured.
·
In 1921 Jews were attacked in Tel Aviv,
Petach Tikva and Mikveh Yisrael and other communities, dozens were murdered and
many more injured.
·
In August of 1929 Jews in Jerusalem
were attacked and entire neighborhoods were destroyed. In Hebron 69 Jews were
massacred, many others were severely injured and the community was wiped out.
Jews were also attacked in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Gaza, Ramleh, Akko, Beit Shean and
more.
·
The great Arab revolt of 1936-1939 in
which 630 Jews were murdered and some 2000 were injured. At first Jews hoped
that if they kept their heads down, the violence would subside. Then Orde
Wingate decided to help the Jews, teaching them self-defense tactics which
changed the balance of power (and have since become fundamental elements of the
IDF’s doctrine).
It is
within this context that the Declaration of Independence explains that the
Jewish community
while, loving peace knows how to defend itself and
will bring the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants.
“In the year 5657 (1897), at the
summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore 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 Balfour
Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the
League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the
historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right
of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.”
Here
the document moves from the explanation of indigenous rights to the discussion
of Jewish rights under international law – from the first Zionist Congress, to
the Balfour Declaration, it’s reaffirmation by the League of Nations which
recognized the historic connection between the Jewish people and
Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National
Home.
“The catastrophe which recently befell
the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews 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 community of nations.”
The
Holocaust as an example, not a reason – in this paragraph the Declaration mentions
the Holocaust, explaining that this is a clear demonstration of the need to solve
the problem of homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish
State. It is important to note that the Holocaust is not brought as a
reason or justification for the establishment of Israel but as an example
of what can happen when the Jewish People have no Israel and are not
seen by the community of nations as equal and with full privileges.
Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in
Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to
Eretz-Israel, undaunted 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.
Here
too as an example - also after the Holocaust, survivors and other Jews
continued to make aliyah undaunted by difficulties and never ceased to
assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their
national homeland. It was not because of the Holocaust survivors that
the State of Israel was established but they, whose dignity had been stripped
from them, joined those already struggling to establish a life of Jewish
freedom and were followed by additional Jews who all came together 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 Nazi wickedness and, by
the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned
among the peoples who founded the United Nations.”
This
paragraph is an interesting assertion of rights of Israel’s Jewish community,
not because they are freely given (as one might expect) but as something earned
due to behaving like other peace-loving nations and through the
blood of its soldiers.
“On the 29th November, 1947, the 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 necessary on their part for the implementation
of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the
Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.”
The
United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the
establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel but this was not something the
nations swooped in and did for the Jewish People; the General Assembly
required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary
on their part for the implementation of that resolution – which they did.
Was the statement of legal fact, that the recognition by the
United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is
irrevocable, a premonition of future questions regarding the legitimacy
of the Jewish State?
“This right is the natural right of the
Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their
own sovereign State.”
The
right to be master of your own fate is a natural right. The Jewish People, like
all other nations, have the right to their own sovereign State.
Accordingly we, members of the People's
Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the
Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the
British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic
right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General
Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel,
to be known as the State of Israel.
In
accordance with all the reasons given above, by virtue of our natural and
historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations
General Assembly, on the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz
Israel the representatives of the Jewish Community of Israel (not the Jewish
world community) and of the Zionist Movement (the National Movement for Jewish
self-determination) declare the establishment of a Jewish state in
Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. This was an important
determination that the Jewish historic name of the land would be the name by
which the new State would be called.
“We declare that, with effect from the
moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the
6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected,
regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which
shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st
October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State,
and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional
Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel."
The State of Israel will be open for
Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the
development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be
based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it
will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its
inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of
religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the
Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations.
Here
the document declares the State of Israel open to immigration of all Jews, the
basis for what is now called the “Law of Return”.
While
the document clearly discusses Jewish rights, it is important that here, we see
for the second time, mention of “all inhabitants.” The addition of these two
little words explains a crucial concept - the Jewish People are recognized as
indigenous and have the rights of an indigenous people returning to their
ancestral homeland. The other inhabitants, while not indigenous, are recognized
as having rights do to their residence within the land and thus, in accordance
with the visions of the prophets of Israel who described what the Jewish State
needs to look like and in accordance to the principles of the Charter of
the United Nations the State of Israel will provide for the benefit of
all, not just the Jews but for Jews and Arabs alike: the development of
the country, freedom, justice and peace, complete equality of
social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion,
race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language,
education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.
These
rights were later established in Israeli law but it is important to note that
those were a realization of this declaration which was based on the ancient
visions of what a Jewish State needs to be.
“The State of Israel is prepared to
cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in
implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947,
and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of
Eretz-Israel.
We appeal to the United Nations to
assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the
State of Israel into the community of nations.”
The
declaration expresses the willingness of the new State to cooperate with
international bodies and requests that the United Nations assist the Jewish
People and receive the State of Israel into the community of nations.
“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 the upbuilding of the
State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all
its provisional and permanent institutions.”
Here,
for the first time, the Arab inhabitants of Israel are addressed directly, in
the context of the previous pogroms against the Jews of Israel and the winds of
war that were recognized by the declarers - with the request to preserve
peace and participate in the 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 neighboring
states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, 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 a common effort for the advancement of the entire
Middle East.”
The
declaration does not stop with the Arab inhabitants of Israel but extends a hand
of peace to all neighboring Arab countries and an offer of collaboration – that
they assist with the settling Jews in the sovereign Jewish State (a request
that includes the Jews living at the time in Arab lands) and a promise that the
State of Israel will do its share in a 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.”
The
last request is to Jews around the world to assist with the tasks of
immigration and upbuilding and stand by the Jews of Israel in the great
struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of
Israel.
Placing
our trust in the Almighty [the first and only time God is mentioned in the
document], 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
Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May,
1948).
David Ben-Gurion
Daniel
Auster Mordekhai Bentov Yitzchak Ben Zvi Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi
Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu
Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi Rachel Cohen Rabbi
Kalman Kahana Saadia Kobashi Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein
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 Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion
Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok
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Friday, September 07, 2018
