We declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel
On Friday, 14th of May, 1948, in the city of Tel Aviv,
David Ben Gurion stood behind the microphone and solemnly proclaimed
the establishment of a State for the Jewish people in Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel.
Born as David Yosef Grün on 16 October 1886 in Plonsk, Poland,
he already founded at the age of 14, an association in Warsaw to promote Hebrew studies and emigration to the Land of Israel.
In 1948, he stood confidently and spoke in an assured voice to the hearts of the Jews,
who listened to him realize the two-thousand-year-old hope of independence in their historical homeland.
So then, who are you, David Ben Gurion?
"Eretz Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped".
At the age of 20 he emigrated to Eretz Israel, and worked as a simple labourer in agriculture.
He started using the name Ben Gurion when signing the first article penned by him
as the editor of the newspaper of the Labor Zionist Poalei Tziyon political party
calling himself after Yosef Ben Gurion, one of the leaders of the great rebellion against the Romans in the 1st century CE.
In 1915, in the midst of the First World War, he was deported to Egypt by the Ottoman rulers,
from where he  traveled to New York, where he founded the Hechalutz movement,
dedicated to finding young Jewish people willing to emigrate to Eretz Israel to work and develop the land.
Following the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration and liberation of the Land  from Ottoman rule by the British,
Ben-Gurion became an enthusiastic supporter of the movement for voluntary enlistment in the Jewish Legion of the British Army.
In 1918 he enlisted in the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers of the British Army,
the battalion to which Jews of the United States and Canada volunteered.
The battalion trained in the suburbs of Halifax, Canada, and from there he wrote to his wife Paula:
I left you, darling, not because I do not love you enough.
I did what I must, for you too, and I promise you, dear Paula,
that the time is not far off when you yourself will feel this and understand.
The Jewish battalions operating under British command consisted of 5,000 volunteers.
In 1918, the battalion was sent to Eretz Israel,
and approximately one half of its soldiers fought in battles that took place in the Jordan Valley and in Samaria.
In 1919 he returned to Eretz Israel, where he became one of the prominent leaders of the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Eretz Israel.
He served for 15 years as the secretary-general of the Histadrut,
the General Trade Union that protected Jewish laborers in Eretz Israel.
In 1930 he was chosen to head Mapai – the Workers' Party of the Land of Israel,
which became the largest faction within the Zionist movement during that period.
In his appearance before the Peel Commission in 1936 he asserted:
"Our historical right exists from the dawn of the Jewish people, and the Balfour Declaration and Mandate were meant to recognize and affirm this right..."
In 1937, Ben Gurion agreed to the recommendation to partition Eretz Israel
into separate Jewish and Arab states, but the Arabs rejected the partition plan.
In response, the British government issued the "White Paper"
a policy paper that placed stringent restrictions on Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel and on the purchase of land by Jews.
Ben Gurion declared a quiet struggle against the British,
that included clandestine immigration and the establishment of Jewish settlements wherever possible, even if in prohibited locations.
In spite of this struggle, Ben Gurion supported the enlistment of Jews in the British army
that fought against the Nazis during World War Two.
"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"
At the end of World War Two, in 1945, he spoke before survivors of the Holocaust
in the displaced persons camps in Germany, promising to obtain visas for them to immigrate to Eretz Israel.
Concurrently, Ben Gurion began tireless efforts to purchase arms, raise funds and prepare logistically
for building an army that would be able to withstand attacks by local Arabs as well as by the armies of the neighboring Arab countries
Ben Gurion took on himself the defense portfolio of the Jewish Agency Executive, in which position he strove to form a people's army,
which became the IDF – the Israel Defense Forces, following the establishment of the state.
"On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Israel"
On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion read out the Declaration of Independence,
to which he had put the finishing touches, at the ceremony of the Proclamation of the State of Israel.
Several hours before, Ben Gurion had still faced opposition from within.
Ben Gurion stood firm against all the dissenting voices and succeeded in securing vital unity,
emphasizing that the historical opportunity should not be missed.
The Jewish state was established in the Land of Israel,
and Ben Gurion was elected and appointed as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, positions which he held for 13 years.
In all, he stood at the helm of the state-in-the-making and the Jewish state for a total of 26 years.
"The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles."
During Ben Gurion's first term of office as Prime Minister, the Jewish population of the state doubled thanks to a wave of mass immigration,
which included Jews from post-World-War-Two Europe as well as Jews that were expelled from Arab countries.
Ben Gurion described the establishment of the state as "a peerless wonder!"
not because of the victory over the invading Arab armies, but because of the ultimate victory of dozens of generations of Jews,
"dispossessed, displaced and landless wanderers of the world," denied all rights in their countries of residence.
"it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex"
Ben Gurion maintained that the Jewish state grant full equal rights to its non-Jewish citizens
and to safeguard the holy places of all the religions, in spite of the the Arab world's ongoing struggle with Israel.
"We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building up of its State"
To uphold Israel's international standing, Ben Gurion met with many world leaders, enlisting their support for the young state.
He worked to strengthen ties with western countries – mainly the U.S., England and France
but also opened the door to cooperation between Israel and the nations of Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Ben Gurion believed that the future of Israel lays in the Negev,
He saw the Negev as the cradle of the Hebrew nation,
and that the bulk and best of scientific, educational and pioneering resources should be directed to the Negev.
He was not merely content with preaching, but insisted on setting a personal case.
Imbued with faith, he resigned as Prime Minister at the end of 1953, and went at the age of 67 to live in a hut,
in a small, recently established collective community in the Negev – Kibbutz Sde Boker.
He shared in the work – in the field. Paula and David Ben Gurion were the oldest members of the young community.
Ben Gurion related how glad he was at the possibility "to plow fields that have never been touched by the hand of man,"
At the time of its independence, Israel had a population
of 800,000, compared to a current population of 8.7 million.
From a country which following its independence implemented an austerity regime to enable the absorption of millions of immigrants,
Israel has become a modern technology-based nation, famous for its innovative, entrepreneurial and trailblazing capabilities.
On the day of his resignation from the government, Ben Gurion broadcast on the radio an emotional farewell speech,
in which he thanked the people for their faith in him  without claiming that he had been free of "mistakes and failures,"
and quoted the psalmist in the Book of Psalms, his namesake King David:
"A song of ascents; of David. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty;
neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me."
