David Ben-Gurion: one of the founders of the State of Israel

😉 Greetings to my dear readers! David Ben-Gurion is a famous politician. The article provides a brief biography and his activities to create the State of Israel.

Biography of David Ben-Gurion

David Yosef Green was born in 1886 in Plonsk, Plona province. Now the territory of Poland, which was part of Russia. My father worked in a local court and was directly involved in the Hoven Zion organization.

The boy lost his mother very early. She died in childbirth when he was only ten years old. David could not recover for a long time after this heavy blow of fate. And the new marriage of his father served in the future to a rather cool relationship between them.

In 1891, David was assigned to the traditional Jewish school – cheder. And at the age of fourteen, a teenager with friends organized the “Ezra” society. There they taught Hebrew to children from poor families for free.

In 1904 David left for Warsaw to continue his studies. To earn a living, he gets a job as a teacher in one of the Jewish schools.

Palestine

When Green was twenty years old, he, with like-minded people and his beloved girlfriend Rachel Nelkina, went to Palestine, which was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The port of Jaffa greeted the young people with disappointment. It was dirty and there were merchants in it: Arabs and Jews.

Fourteen friends immediately left for Petah Tikva. Here Green began to work on an orange tree plantation. But a young active person does not sit still, he often moves, looking for a place where mainly Jews live.

Having met a childhood friend, he went on foot to Galilee, to the village of Sanjer, where only Jews worked. Here David experienced a new disappointment in life: his beloved girl became the wife of another.

Greene attends the congress of the new Poalei Zion party and is unanimously elected to the Central Committee. Together with his associates, he is actively working on a program that sets as its main goal the creation of a Jewish state, later called the “Raml Platform”.

In 1908, David, as a subject of the Russian Empire, was called up for active military service. For failure to appear, the family was threatened with a fine of 300 rubles. Green saw his father and arrived at the recruiting station, took the oath, but after a couple of months, deserted and returned to Palestine.

He settled in the new village of Kinneret, located on the coast of a picturesque lake. One day he came to Sajera, an exemplary Jewish settlement. Jews worked here, but the Circassians guarded the village.

For a long time, the population tried to persuade the head of the village of Krause to dismiss the Circassians, but to no avail. Then they stole the horse from him. And the security issue was resolved.

In 1909, Green accidentally witnessed how a group of Arabs killed his acquaintances. He enters Hashomer and begins to study foreign languages.

Alias

When the Young Turks revolt, David decides to join the Jewish workers’ movement. He writes proclamations and articles and signs them with “Ben-Gurion”, a pseudonym taken in honor of the Jewish commander Ben Gorion. He then moves to Istanbul to pursue a university degree.

David Ben-Gurion believed that Jews living in Palestine should accept Turkish citizenship and fight using the state institutions of the Ottomans. He was going to enter the parliament and help the development of Jewish statehood in the land of Palestine.

He goes to university. But in 1911 a war broke out between Turkey and Italy. The students were sent to the front. David went to Tiberias to the infectious diseases hospital as a nurse. He returned 4 months later because he became infected and became seriously ill.

USA

In 1914 he went to Plonsk to visit his relatives for several weeks. In July, David Ben-Gurion sailed to Turkey by steamer and reached Jaffa with great difficulty. The Turkish government introduced a special tax for Jews, and those without citizenship were subject to expulsion from the country.

Jemal Pasha called the Zionists enemies of Turkey and Ben-Gurion was expelled from Palestine. He traveled to New York and then visited many cities and towns in the United States.

There he regularly held meetings with Jews, urging them to join the movement. “Hehaluts”: Jews should be the masters of Eretz Yisrael and cultivate this land. However, the movement did not receive the expected popularity in the United States.

In 1917, David met Polina (Paula) Monbaz, a nurse working in the clinic. Before New Year 1918, they played a very modest wedding and settled in Brooklyn, where they lived for less than six months.

In November 1917, the Balfour Declaration was issued, where the British Foreign Minister Balfour announced that the government supported the idea of ​​creating a state of Jews in Palestine. Ben-Gurion took this message rather coolly, believing that the people themselves will return their homeland.

When it becomes obvious that Turkey is losing the war, Ben-Gurion proposes to create a Jewish squad. The purpose of the detachment is to join the American army and be based in Palestine.

In the United States, he meets with Brandeis, the Supreme Court Justice, to whom he described the idea in detail. Brandeis was interested in the proposal, but US President Woodrow Wilson did not support him, since the United States did not fight with Turkey.

But it is worth noting that such a detachment, a year later, was created in the British troops. In the spring of 1918, 32-year-old David Ben-Gurion took an oath of allegiance to this country and left for a Canadian military camp.

He was already a well-known politician and a talented speaker. In the summer he visited London, and a few days later, his part was transferred to Egypt. He stayed here for only six days and, catching an infection, ended up in the hospital. There he was awaited by the news from his wife about the birth of his daughter.

Return to Palestine

In the middle of autumn, Ben-Gurion came to Palestine. But the campaign has already ended and Palestine has gone under British control.

While in the hospital, Ben-Gurion read Katznelson’s article Forward to the Future, which said that the Jewish state would be built by Jewish agriculturalists. He understands that he has found a like-minded person. Soon he went to a meeting with Katznelson, who was offered the unification of all parties in Palestine.

Ben-Gurion, traveling around the country, solved many problems of the common people. He won the complete trust and respect of his fellow tribesmen. In 1923 he visited the USSR.

Since 1933, he has been directly involved in facilitating the emigration process of Jews leaving Germany under the so-called Haavar protocol.

In 1937, an international commission led by Peel reported that the territory to the west of the river. Jordan can be divided. The Arabs were categorically against partition and the plan was finally thwarted.

Britain in 1939 published the so-called White Paper restricting the return of Jews and the sale of land to them. In 1940, a law was passed on the division of Palestine into three parts. Only in one of them were Jews allowed to buy land.

State of israel

Whatever Green did, he stubbornly pursued his goal of creating a Jewish state. And this goal was achieved.

In May 1948, it was he who announced the Declaration of Independence of Israel and stood at the head of this young state. He laid the foundation for a now prosperous country. He played a huge role in resolving the main issues facing the country.

Under his direct leadership, Israel was able to defend its independence in the war with the Arabs, which lasted more than two years. And, unfortunately, it has not died out to this day.

In May 1948, the detachments of the IDF – the regular army – were able to repel the first attacks of the enemy. After two weeks of fierce fighting, the Israelis launched a counteroffensive. They conquered vast territories formerly owned by the Arabs.

Perhaps the bloodiest battle took place for Jerusalem. Although it ended in a partial victory for the Israelites, the Old City, along with the sacred Wailing Wall, remained in the hands of the Jordanians.

In July 1949, an armistice was concluded. This meant the end of the war. But Arab states continued to actively oppose Israel’s existence. Moreover, now it has increased significantly due to the conquered territories.

As a result, more than 700 Palestinian Arabs were forced to leave their lands and go to neighboring countries. Due to the war, many necessary government events were postponed and elections to the Knesset were held in 1949.

In this video, additional information to the article ↓

Head of the government

The Socialists won a convincing victory and David Ben-Gurion received the post of head of government.

Wise maneuvering helped him form a government with ambitious goals. In a troubled area, virtually from scratch, create a state of settlers. And develop efficient agriculture in the desert in a short time.

Fierce debates were fought over the role of religion in the country and education. The discussions were heated, which undermined the health of the already middle-aged politician. In 1953, Ben-Gurion announced that he would not be involved in politics.

He moved to a kibbutz located in the Negev desert, saying that he would work on the land, setting an example for the townspeople.

David Ben-Gurion passed away on December 1, 1973. He managed to see the fruits of his labors – the State of Israel, which occupies one of the first places in the field of science, medicine, industry, and agriculture. Great people are often small (Napoleon’s syndrome). Ben-Gurion’s height was only 1,52 m.

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