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Palestine Declared Israel OvernightBy Sue Schuurman MAY 18, 1998:
On May 15, 1948, Jews reclaimed the land of their ancestors and proclaimed Palestine to be the new state of Israel. While the need for a Jewish homeland, especially after the genocide of World War II, cannot be disputed, on Israel's 50th anniversary the continued limbo the Palestinians suffer is a generations-old injustice. How ironic that a people who have been oppressed for centuries now find themselves criticized for restricting the economic and political freedoms of others.
TEL AVIV, Israel--Britain surrendered her 25-year-old mandate
over Palestine at midnight and one minute later the new Jewish
state of Israel came into existence.
The newly-born state faced an almost immediate threat of
blood as Arab nations of the Middle East, awaiting the end of
the mandate to launch their regular armies on an invasion of the
Holy Land, poised troops on its frontiers. ...
Leaders of the new Israel promised, however, that its militia,
Haganah, would defend the Jewish nation against the bloodiest
Arab attacks. ...
The 2000-year-old Jewish dream of a homeland became almost
a complete realization at 4:06 p.m. yesterday when leaders of
the new state issued their declaration of independence.
The painstaking simple ceremony lasted only an hour. Prime
Minister David Ben Gurion read the proclamation. ...
Meanwhile, the Arab League of Nations planned to set up
an administration--not a state--of their own in Palestine to function
with occupying Arab forces. ...
The general secretariat of the Arab league proclaimed a
state of war exists between the Arab League nations and Palestinian
Jewry. ...
Israel's government called upon Arabs living in the Jewish
state 'to return to ways of peace and play their part in the development
of the state, with full and equal citizenship.'
The proclamation said the Jews had the historic right of
a national home in Palestine and a 'right to a life of
dignity, freedom and labor.' ...
'The Nazi holocaust which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe
proved anew the urgency of re-establishment of a Jewish state
which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening
the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality
in the family of nations,' the proclamation said. ...
Source: Albuquerque Journal; May 15, 1948
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