On May 14, 1948, the day in which the British Mandate over Palestine expired, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first and longest serving prime minister, also known as the ‘Founder of Israel,’ proclaimed the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, at the Tel Aviv museum. The following day the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq invaded the new Jewish State, in what became known as the War of Independence. The fighting continued until the signing of the Armistice Agreement in July 1949.

In the Declaration of Independence, David Ben-Gurion states that, The Land of Israel, Palestine, 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. 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……continued...