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Sale 49
Lot 556
1st Printing of Israel's Declaration of Independence - Signed By 11 Original Signers. Israel's Provisional Government Official Bulletin No. 1 (14 May 1948) with the complete Declaration of Independence Signed in Hebrew on page two by eleven of the 37 original signers, 3pp, 13½ x 8¼ in., n.p., n.d. Thirty-eight copies of the Declaration of Independence were printed by Bank Leumi and placed in presentation cases; one was given to each of the 37 signers, who were members of the Provisional Council of State, and one was retained by Bank Leumi. This copy is housed in a red presentation case and is in fine condition. Very rare and a most historic document. This is only the second signed copy in private hands that we know of. The first, signed by ten of the original signers, was sold by Ira & Larry Goldberg in November 2007 and brought $109,250.
The eleven signers of this original issue of the Israeli Declaration of Independence are:
David Ben Gurion (1886-1973) - First Prime Minister
Yitzhak Ben Zvi (1884-1963) - 2nd President
Golda Meyerson (Meir) (1898-1978) - Labor Minister, future Prime Minister
Moshe Shertok (Sharett) (1894-1965) - Foreign Minister, future Prime Minister
Moshe Kolodny (Kol) (1911-89) - Zionist leader; future Minister of Tourism
Felix Pinchas Rosenblueth (Rosen) (1887-1978) - Zionist leader; future Minister of Justice
Izrak Gruenbaum (1879-1970) - Minister of the Interior
Moshe Shapira (1902-70) - Jewish Agency Executive; future cabinet minister
Harav Izrak Meir Levin (1894-1971) - Orthodox Religious Affairs Minister
Behor-Shalom Shitrit (1895-1967) - Minister of Police
Nahoum Nir - 2nd Speaker of the Knesset
At 4:00 pm on Friday, May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. His reading of Israel's Declaration of Independence was broadcast to Jews all over the country. Ben Gurion became the first Prime Minister of the new state, which was quickly recognized by the United States and the USSR.
Here is the text of the Declaration of Independence:
THE LAND OF ISRAEL was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world.
Exiled from Palestine, the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and the restoration of their national freedom.
Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood. In recent decades they returned in masses. They reclaimed the wilderness, revived their language, built cities and villages and established a vigorous and ever-growing community with its own economic and cultural life. They sought peace yet were ever prepared to defend themselves. They brought the blessing of progress to all inhabitants of the country.
This right was acknowledged by the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, and re-affirmed by the Mandate of the League of Nations, which gave explicit international recognition to the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute their National Home.
The Nazi Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the urgency of the re-establishment of the 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 survivors of the European catastrophe, as well as Jews from other lands, proclaiming their right to a life of dignity, freedom and labor, and undeterred by hazards, hardships and obstacles, have tried unceasingly to enter Palestine.
In the Second World War the Jewish people in Palestine made a full contribution in the struggle of the freedom-loving nations against the Nazi evil. The sacrifices of their soldiers and the efforts of their workers gained them title to rank with the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Resolution for the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine, and called upon the inhabitants of the country to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put the plan into effect.
This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their independent State may not be revoked. It is, moreover, the self-evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations, in its own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY, WE, the members of the National Council, representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn assembly today, the day of the termination of the British mandate for Palestine, by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish people and of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations,
HEREBY PROCLAIM the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called ISRAEL.
WE HEREBY DECLARE that as from the termination of the Mandate at midnight, this night of the 14th and 15th May, 1948, and until the setting up of the duly elected bodies of the State in accordance with a Constitution, to be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly not later than the first day of October, 1948, the present National Council shall act as the provisional administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of Israel.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be ready to cooperate with the organs and representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions provisional or permanent.
We offer peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all.
Our call goes out to Jewish people all over the world to rally to our side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations the redemption of Israel.
With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this session of the Provisional State Council, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth of May, 1948.
Estimated Value $50,000 - 75,000.
Obtained directly from the family of one of the signers.
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