David Ben-Gurion
Primary national founder and first prime minister of the State of Israel.
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David Yosef Gruen, born in 1886 in Płońsk, came from a family where Yiddish was spoken and had three brothers and two sisters.[1] He was a founder of the Israeli state and served as its first prime minister, holding that office from 1948 until 1963.[2]
Key facts and history
Ben-Gurion immigrated to Palestine in 1906 and adopted the name Ben-Gurion in 1909.[3] He rose to lead the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until Israel's establishment in 1948.[3] Under his leadership the 1948 Arab–Israeli War united Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces.[4] Ben-Gurion died from a brain haemorrhage in 1973 at age 87.[2]
The establishment of Israel was formally proclaimed by Ben-Gurion on 14 May 1948, and he was the initial signatory of the Declaration of Independence, a document he contributed to writing.[4] During his tenure as prime minister, Ben-Gurion was responsible for creating state institutions and managing the integration of Jewish immigrants.[5] A reparations agreement with West Germany, compensating for Nazi confiscations, was a key part of Ben-Gurion's foreign policy to strengthen ties.[5]
What the research sources say
The London Review of Books account describes Ben-Gurion as "brooding, explosive, often on the verge of collapse"[1] A biographer notes that Ben-Gurion had "a dictator’s ruthlessness" as Israel's leader during the 1948 war.[1] The same source states that Ben-Gurion's father Victor was an early supporter of Theodor Herzl and nurtured his son's Zionism.[1] The BBC obituary reports that Ben-Gurion realized his dream of creating an Israeli state on 14 May 1948.[2]
References
- Adam Shatz, "We Are Conquerors", London Review of Books Vol. 41 No. 20, 24 October 2019. facts only, no text reused. lrb.co.uk
- "1973: Israel's founding father dies", BBC, 1 December 1973. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "David Ben-Gurion" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brenner, "Zionism: A Brief History", Markus Wiener Publishers, April 2003, p. 184 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Ben-Gurion" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "1973: Israel's founding father dies", BBC, 1 December 1973 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "David Ben-Gurion" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: George Lavy, Germany and Israel: moral debt and national interest (1996) p. 45 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article David Ben-Gurion (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: David Ben-Gurion (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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