Ben-Gurion diary entries on day of independence revealed: ‘I mourn among the joyful’
Document found in archives reveals how first PM worried over Arab invasion, writing on May 14, 1948, that nascent state’s fate was ‘in the hands of the security forces’
Two images of the handwritten diary of David Ben-Gurion from the evening of May 14, 1948 — the day the State of Israel’s establishment was proclaimed — were released Monday ahead of Israel’s Independence Day, revealing the first prime minister’s anxieties as the newly born country headed to war against invading Arab neighbors.
The original diary has not yet been located, the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute and the Ben-Gurion Archive said, as they revealed the image from the journal.
“At 4 p.m., Jewish independence was declared and the state was founded. Its fate is in the hands of the security forces,” he wrote.
He described the difficult situation on the ground as the armies of the Arab League invaded: “Harsh news about armored columns of the Legion… they bombed Tel Aviv last night.”
“Almost all [general] staff members opposed my view to attack with greater force and more stubborn energy to conquer the areas around the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway… I feel that they missed and are missing the conquest that will determine the fate of Jerusalem — and perhaps the fate of the entire campaign.”
In an earlier entry, he wrote, “We approved the text of the Declaration of Independence. Independence declared at 4 p.m. Across the land, there is joy and profound happiness, and again I mourn among the joyful, as on November 29” — the date of the 1947 UN General Assembly decision approving the partition of Mandatory Palestine. Ben-Gurion appeared to be referencing his fear that the war could lead to disaster.
The copy of the diary was found in the Ben-Gurion Archives as part of a collaboration between the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute and the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Eitan Donitz, CEO of the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute, called the findings “history incarnate.”
“While the country celebrates, he is dealing with the question of the existence of the young state and is very anxious about it,” he said.
Donitz said the diary reveals the dilemmas faced by the first prime minister, the “deep responsibility Ben-Gurion felt, and the leadership that chose not to celebrate, but to fight for the existence of the state.”
Ben-Gurion, who as head of the Jewish Agency assumed the office of prime minister after proclaiming the founding of Israel in 1948, moved with his wife Paula to the Negev Desert’s Kibbuz Sde Boker after resigning the premiership five years later (he returned in 1955 for another eight-year stint).
Upon his death in 1973, Ben-Gurion’s hut was turned into a museum in his memory. Sde Boker also houses the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, which develop methods for food production in arid areas and are affiliated with the Beersheba university that carries Ben-Gurion’s name.
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