April 22, 2026, or the 5th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, is Yom Ha'atzmaut (Independence Day), marking the 78th anniversary of the birth of the modern Jewish and democratic State of Israel. David Ben-Gurion, the Zionist leader who became Israel's first Prime Minister, read aloud the Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now known as Independence Hall.
By Professor Steven E. Zipperstein
The international legal basis for Israel’s statehood rests on the Preamble to the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (July 24, 1922), where the League Council unanimously stated: “Whereas, recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country” [emphasis added].
The word “reconstituting” is extremely important, as it reflected the League’s view that Zionism embodied the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, who were returning after two millenia of exile to their homeland to exercise their lawful right to self-determination. Thus, Zionism should be regarded as the first great national liberation movement of the 20th Century, paving the way for tens of millions of others in the global south living under colonial rule to achieve self-determination after World War II.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence was also based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181(November 29, 1947), in which the General Assembly endorsed statehood for the Jewish people in the portion of Palestine which both the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and the General Assembly Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine had allocated to them. The General Assembly also endorsed statehood for the Palestinian Arabs in a separate area of Palestine allocated to them (see map below).
UNSCOP, chaired by the Swedish judge and diplomat Emil Sandstrom, heard extensive testimony from a broad range of witnesses in the summer of 1947 in Jerusalem and Beirut, except for the Palestinian Arabs, who boycotted the proceedings. Following several weeks of hearings, the UNSCOP members traveled to Geneva to deliberate their verdict. Unanimity proved impossible given the diverse composition of the Special Committee, but the majority favored partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
The Secretary General responded to the UNSCOP recommendation in favor of the two-state solution by appointing an Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by the Australian diplomat and former High Court Judge Herbert Evatt, to conduct further hearings regarding the details of the partition proposal.
The Ad Hoc Committee eventually split into three subcommittees, one focused on partition, the second focused on conciliation, and the third focused on an Arab counterproposal that would have allocated the entirety of Palestine for Arab rule. Ultimately the Ad Hoc Committee reiterated support for the two-state solution and rejected the Arab counterproposal, paving the way for the full General Assembly to consider whether to offer the two-state solution to the Arabs and Jews on behalf of the international community.
The UNSCOP and Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendation to adopt the two-state solution for Palestine were presented to the United Nations General Assembly in the form of Resolution 181(II) as the “Plan of Partition with Economic Union” for the proposed Palestinian Jewish and Palestinian Arab States. The following map shows the proposed borders of the two states, with the green area allocated for the Jewish State, the Orange Area allocated for the Arab State, and the area around Jerusalem in white designated as a corpus separatum remaining under international control:
Following a lengthy and extraordinarily tense debate, the General Assembly on 29 November 1947 approved, by the required two-thirds majority, the two-state solution for Palestine embodied in General Assembly Resolution 181(II).
Thirty-three nations (including both the United States and the Soviet Union) voted in favor, thirteen voted against, and eleven (including Great Britain) abstained.
The New York Times front page carried the story the next day, November 30, 1947:
The Palestinian Arabs and their supporters renounced the General Assembly vote as illegal and unjust. The Mufti (and British-designated war criminal) Haj Amin al-Husseini directed his followers to launch a civil war in Palestine. Bloody fighting raged in Palestine throughout the early months of 1948.
On May 14, 1948, hours prior to Britain’s departure from Palestine, Jewish leaders declared the establishment of the State of Israel. The surrounding Arab States reacted by launching war against the fledgling Jewish state.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arabs had taken no steps of their own to create a state in the portion of Palestine the United Nations had allocated to them. The Mufti formed an “All-Palestine Government” in October 1948, based in Gaza. The Mufti’s “government” existed on paper only, and vanished soon afterward.
In December 1948 a large gathering of Palestinians in Jericho passed a series of resolutions asking King Abdullah of Jordan to annex the West Bank and East Jerusalem. As of that time Egypt had occupied the Gaza Strip. The Jordanian and Egyptian occupations continued until the June 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel today faces difficult challenges, both internally and externally. It has lost the support of most of the world community, who have chosen to blame Israel for the manner in which it has defended itself since the Hamas massacres, sexual violence and hostage takings of October 7, 2023 and the larger regional conflict that ensued. At the same time, Israeli society has become polarized over profound disagreements regarding the role of the Supreme Court, the exemption of the ultra-religious Haredim from military service, the ongoing occupation of the West Bank, and a plethora of other issues.
As we reflect on Israel’s 78th anniversary, the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies remains as committed as ever to our mission of engaging in teaching, research and scholarship regarding Israel in all its nuance and complexity, offering differing and divergent scholarly views to our students and our global audience.
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Suggested Further Readings: Ben-Dror, E. (2007). "The Arab Struggle Against Partition: The International Arena of Summer 1947." Middle Eastern Studies 43:2, 259-93. Ben-Dror, E. (2014). "The Success of the Zionist Strategy vis-a-vis UNSCOP." Israel Affairs 20:1, 19-39. Granados, J.G. (1948). The Birth of Israel: The Drama as I Saw It. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Horowitz, D. (1953). State in the Making. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Mandel, D. (2004). H.G. Evatt and the Establishment of Israel: The Undercover Zionist. London: Frank Cass.