76 years ago today, the world endorsed the establishment of a State of Israel.
We celebrate today not only the foundation of the establishment of Israel, but also the endorsement of Zionism by the international community.
Today, the mob tries to strip Zionism of its legitimacy. We will not let them.
Proto Zionism
The first stage of political Zionism arguably began in 1845, when the Serbian, Sephardi Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai published Minchat Yehuda (the Offering of Judah), in which he tried to reconcile the idea of waiting for the Messiah with the need for a modern re-establishment of a Jewish state. (Herzl’s grandfather, Simon Loeb Herzl, is reported to have attended Alkalai’s congregation, and many believe that some of Herzl’s views on Zionism were shaped by his grandfather who was in turn shaped by Alkalai).
In 1853, Avraham Mapu wrote a book, “Ahavat Zion”, the first modern Hebrew fiction set in the Land of Israel. In 1862, Moses Hess wrote Rome and Jerusalem, in which he argued that Europe’s welcome of the Jews would forever be tenuous. In 1862, Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer wrote Drishat Zion, on the subject of how to cultivate the Land of Israel. In 1878 (yes, 1878), Naphtali Herz Imber wrote the poem Hatikvah (the Hope), yearing for a return to the Land of Israel In 1882, Leo Pinsker wrote Autoemancipation, in which he asserted that if we Jews wanted emancipation from antisemitism, we have to do it ourselves.
In 1890, the term “Zionism” was coined by Nathan Birnbaum, and then in 1896, Theodor Herzl launched political Zionism with the publication of Der Judenstaadt, morphing Zionism from an idea into a plan.
In 1897, Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. He wrote in his diary that in Basel, he had formed the Jewish State. He predicted that in 50 years, that state would be created. And he was right.
For the next 50 years, Jews who had always lived in Palestine, and those returning to their native land from their exile, laid the foundations of a state. They tilled the fields, drained the swamps, built Tel Aviv (the first Jewish city), reclaimed the desert, and built a thriving society. They did so, to the best of their ability, alongside the Arab inhabitants of Palestine too. Things weren’t always bad between them.
Through the 30 or so years of the British Mandate, the Jews took steps both together with and parallel to the British, to lay the framework for a future state, gaining a British endorsement of Zionism in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which would ultimately lead to today’s anniversary.
From 1853 to 1947, the dreamers, pioneers, labourers, and those seeking to create a New Jew, set the stage for what was to come in 1947.
November 29, 1947
The idea to partition Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was floated several times during the British Mandate. In 1937, following the increased Jewish immigration to Palestine and Arab uprisings against immigration and Jewish land purchases, the Peel Commission proposed a tiny Jewish State living alongside a much larger Arab State. This proposal was rejected by the Arabs and accepted by the Jews.
10 years later, in 1947, after 6 million Jews had been murdered in Europe, the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) suggested once again the idea of partition. By that time, the British had renounced their Mandate, and turned Palestine over to the UN.
The UNSCOP, having also proposed partition, referred the matter to the UN General Assembly for a vote. That vote was set for November 29, 1947.
Resolution 181 of the nascent UN stated:
Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem, set forth in Part III of this Plan, shall come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the [British] armed forces of the mandatory Power has been completed but in any case not later than 1 October 1948. The boundaries of the Arab State, the Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem shall be as described in Parts II and III below.
The vote was to create a Jewish State and an Arab State, living side by side, with Jerusalem being administered by an international regime.
When the votes were tallied, the results were thus:
10 states abstained from voting: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, China, Ethiopia, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia.
13 states voted against: Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Cuba.
33 voted for: Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, Liberia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Canada, and the United States.
Just like that, the Jewish state was born, voted on by 56 countries.
Jews tuned into the radio from around the world to hear the votes being counted. When the votes were tallied, and the resolution passed, Jews around the world, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, erupted in celebration. Bonfires blazed on kibbutzim around Palestine while cafes in Tel Aviv served free champagne.
Today, November 29 is celebrated in Israel and the Jewish world as the prelude to Israel’s Declaration of Independence six months later, on May 14, 1948. Israel’s Thanksgiving Day. There are streets in Israel named after this auspicious day too.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TODAY?
Of course, we Jews love to mark a good anniversary, and why shouldn’t we have our own Thanksgiving with the US and Canada each get to have their own too? Unfortunately, there is no food associated with this anniversary.
It is also notable that the passage of this vote on that date confirmed Herzl’s prophecy, of a Jewish State within 50 years of 1897. He nailed it.
This anniversary however makes two important points, which are relevant to today’s discourse in the context of the current Israel-Hamas War:
INTERNATIONAL LEGITIMACY: On 11-29-47, a majority of countries from around the world brought Israel into existence. The international community voted, the international community endorsed, and the international community decided. They endorsed Zionism. They legitimized our millennia-long struggle to re-establish Jewish Sovereignty in the Holy Land. They gave Zionism their blessing.
ARAB STATE: Resolution 181 also gave assent to the establishment of an Arab State. Whereas the Jews however took this legitimacy, and whatever land they were given, and opted to establish a Jewish State, the Arabs instead rejected the notion of Jewish Statehood, cutting their nose despite their face. They rejected Jewish Statehood more than they accepted Arab Statehood. They too could be celebrating the 76th anniversary of their state today, but they chose not to.
Today, when the mob shouts that Zionism or Israel are illegitimate, they are wrong. When they shout about the Nakba, or that the Israelis have prevented the Arabs from having a state of their own, they are wrong. When they refuse to give any agency to Palestinian leaders, to blame Israel for every ill that has befallen the Palestinians, they are wrong. What other state was brought into existence as a result of a vote at the UN? Israel was, and an Arab state could have been as well.
On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion did not simply declare the independence of a rogue state. He did so acknowledging that the world’s government had endorsed the step he was taking. In fact, Israel’s Declaration of Independence clearly states:
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
Despite the darkness that reigns today, let us take a moment to celebrate this anniversary. Of our religious and political history of looking to re-establish our sovereignty in the Land of Israel, of the blessing we received from the international community, and of the hard work that went into that re-establishment by generations of pioneers. As always, we stand on the shoulders of giants. Let us mark their achievements while we celebrate our own.