Israel’s Declaration of Independence is the source document of the Jewish state. Here we present a number of engaging learning activities for unpacking the document and helping learners interpret and make meaning for the past and present
Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. Every year since, we celebrate the rebirth of the modern Jewish state on the 5th of Iyar, the date of independence on the Hebrew calendar. The resources provided here will assist you in bringing your community together to celebrate this joyous day.
Yom HaZikaron (Day of Remembrance) is Israel’s Memorial Day. In the early years of statehood, memorials for soldiers who had fallen in the 1948 War of Independence were held on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. After Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion appointed a special committee, the memorials were moved to the 4th Iyar, the day before Yom Ha’Atzmaut. The day was anchored into Israeli law in 1963 with the passage of the Heroes’ Remembrance Day (War of Independence and Israel Defense Army) Law. This law was amended in 1980 to Memorial Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars Law.
Dr. Nachman Shai, former IDF Chief Spokesperson and Member of Knesset, shares his thoughts on Yom HaiZkaron 2020. Included in his brief remarks is a tribute and remembrance of a former comrade in the IDF, Yuval Moshensky Erez.
Using original sources, learners will explore the origins of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, in Israel. The unit includes historical discussion on the importance of commeorating the tragedy of the Holocaust and different proposals that were put forward in the Land of Israel both before and after the creation of the state doing so. A writing prompt is included for use in school settings.
This whiteboard video explains the history of the World Zionist Congress, its impact and function, how it is selected, and which groups are running as part of the 2020 Congress election.
Over the last decade, the gap between the military and political elites in Israel has increased and eventually peaked in 2019, when a group of senior officers who had just retired from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) formed a new party – led by three former chiefs of staff – and called for the replacement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. This gap has developed because Israel’s previous governments have represented a new kind of polarizing, right-wing politics beyond what is considered a shared national common sense.
The State Comptroller’s Office is the only institution outside of the defense establishment that conducts comprehensive and independent audits of security matters; hence its importance to national security. In the view of newly-appointed State Comptroller and Ombudsman Matanyahu Englman, an audit is meant to be a constructive process that addresses issues of national value; the audit process is a tool that supports the government and prime minister; audits that are liable to affect real-time decision making should be avoided; and the Comptroller should also report on the success of those audited. By contrast, his predecessor, retired judge Yosef Shapira, stressed that the State Comptroller is not the government’s in-house auditor and that audits do not depend on the good will of any external party.
From a practical standpoint, the Nation State law’s ramifications are not yet clear. Neither its opponents nor its supporters ever claimed that it would immediately create a totally new situation in Israel. By its nature, a constitutional amendment of this sort, at the vaguest and most general level possible of the definition of the state, years will go by before all its provisions have been interpreted and before they trickle down to substantive changes on the ground.
Professor Doron Shultziner explains the origins of Israel’s democratic norms and how the country has used Basic Laws to uphold the rule of law in the absence of a formal constitution.
The discussion surrounding the Nation-State Law has sparked a heated debate in Israeli society. One side claims that the law is a proper and necessary legislative anchor for the national character of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, against those who seek to deny the Jewish people’s right to a national home in its homeland. The other side argues that this is discriminatory legislation, which undermines the democratic nature of the State of Israel.
The most recent of Israel’s Basic Laws, the statutes enacted in place of a formal constitution, controversially asserts the Jewish nature of the state, even though almost a quarter of its citizens are not Jewish.
“The Palestine Mandate: 1920-1948” Kenneth W. Stein, Introductory, Upper-Level Seminar, Emory University, Spring 2007 This junior/senior colloquium reviews the 30-year history before the creation of Israel in 1948. We try to answer the question “Why…
Conclusions suggest that Israel has no direct responsibility for the massacre of
Palestinians in refugee camps in Beirut; Defense Minister Sharon resigns for ignoring the danger of potential
bloodshed.
An Israeli commission of inquiry assigns responsibility to military leaders for failures before and during the Yom Kippur War. Prime Minister Meir and Defense Minister Dayan avoid direct blame but soon resign.
The law authorizes appointed Israeli panels to investigate matters of public concern and state interest. These independent bodies are among Israeli democracy’s most trusted institutions, but there is not mechanism in the law to require their creation.
With no constitution, citizen rights and government responsibilities are stated in 14 laws. The Judiciary is covered in the Seventh Basic Law, February 1984.
This draft spoke eloquently about protecting individual, religious, and civil rights for all. Instead individual civil rights in Israel were protected by a series of Basic Laws.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence which was issued by David Ben-Gurion in Tel-Aviv on May 14, 1948 was drafted by a small committee. This video highlights the similarities and differences between the Israeli and American declarations of independence and outlines the Israeli Declaration’s contents including the state’s intentions towards its citizens, the historical connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, and the right of the Jewish people to determination.
In the months before the UN vote to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states in November 1947, the Jewish Agency leadership there had to overcome a series of foreign policy obstacles working against the Jewish state’s establishment.
The Status-Quo Agreement is an understanding reached between David Ben-Gurion, then the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, and the religious parties in the period before Israel became a state.
A key figure in the Jewish Agency’s political department, Moshe Shertok (later Sharett) argues for a Jewish commonwealth/state in Palestine. Pragmatically he realizes Arabs in Palestine oppose the Jewish presence, yet he rejects a potential binational Arab-Jewish state.
July 24, 2013 Haredi Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau are elected to 10-year terms as Israel’s chief rabbis — Yosef for the Sephardim and Lau for the Ashkenazim. Each wins 68 of the 147…
April 30, 2012 Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dies at home in Jerusalem at age 102. He was born Benzion Mileikowsky in Warsaw on March 25, 1910. His father…
