Video: 'Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel (English subtitles)'

(Friday, May 14, 1948, 4:00 p.m. Israel Standard Time) — The state of Israel, the first Hebrew nation in 2000 years, was born today in a Jewish declaration of independence asserting the “historic right” of the Jews of Palestine to reconstitute their national home.

The proclamation by the national council was effective at one minute after midnight, when Britain’s 31-year rule of the Holy Land ended.

While both superpower leaders, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, recognized the new state, a military coalition of Arab states would invade Israel the following day, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

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