77 years ago, on May 14, 1948, at 16:00, eight hours before the expiration of the British mandate in Palestine, a historic event took place in Tel Aviv, at Rothschild Boulevard, 16, in the building of the city museum (formerly the house of the city’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff). Thousands of people gathered outside the building in anticipation.

The final version of the text of the Declaration of Independence was approved an hour before the ceremony, typed on a typewriter, and delivered a few minutes before the appointed time.

The text of the Declaration of Independence was finally approved an hour before the ceremony, typed on a typewriter, and delivered in the last minutes.

At exactly 16:00, David Ben-Gurion, the Chairman of the People’s Council, uttered the words that went down in history: “In the Land of Israel, the Jewish people was born. Here its spiritual, religious, and political identity was shaped; here it lived in its state, creating values of national and universal culture and giving humanity the eternal Book of Books…”

Of the 37 members of the People’s Council, only 25 signed the Declaration at that meeting — the remaining 12, who were in besieged Jerusalem, were only able to do so weeks later. 26 of the 37 signatories of the Declaration of Independence were natives of the Russian Empire.

The declaration acceptance ceremony was broadcast by the “Kol Israel” radio station.

The Declaration of Independence concludes with the words: “We call upon the Jewish people in the diaspora to unite around the inhabitants of the Land of Israel for repatriation and nation-building, to support Israel in the struggle to realize the age-old dream of freedom”.

The very next day, five Arab states — Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Transjordan — began a war against the newly born Jewish state with the aim of destroying it. We stood our ground!