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Photo Essay75 years ago, Israel gained independence. How did the media cover it?

We surveyed the front pages of papers at home and abroad to learn how the world understood Israel’s founding

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence and the United States quickly recognized the new country.

Newspapers around the world understood the significance of the moment, with many giving Israel front-page play. There was some variance in how they covered the moment, but certain themes emerged: the amassing and advancement of Arab armies; little to no mention of the effect of Israel’s declaration on Palestinians; the international community’s surprise at how fast the U.S. recognized Israel’s statehood; and alarm at how rapidly war seemed to be unfolding.

Together, the front pages below catalog the confusion and chaos brought by the official expiration of Britain’s mandate over Palestine on May 15, as agreed upon in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and Israel’s swift declaration of independence a day before.

The immense odds Israel faced were clear, embodied in this headline from the New York Daily Post: “4 ARAB ARMIES MOVE ON ZION.” Or, in this lede from the Associated Press, published in The Hollywood Citizen News on May 15: “Newborn Israel was invaded today from the north and south, shelled from the east and bombed and machinegunned from the air.” 

And tucked between bulletins from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were reports of local daily life — scenes of a world in which, in the middle of one tremendous change, everything proceeded much as it had before. 

In London, a tailor’s shop was robbed and a 4-year-old girl was rescued after having fallen in the Regent’s Canal. In Oklahoma, a 19-month-old girl was the victim of a hit-and-run. In Sydney, Australia, a fire broke out at the Peters Ice Cream factory, and a diver found a leather bag containing 126 three-strand strings of artificial pearls in the Sydney Harbour. 

While May 14, 1948 ,was the official date of Israel’s founding, many newspapers covered it a day later, on May 15. And in Israel, most papers announced the state’s founding on May 16, since May 15 was a Saturday. We’ve included papers from all three dates in the samples below.

1 / 18 The Forward (United States)

For the second time we know of — the other being V-E Day — the Forverts spent some extra gelt on red ink for their front page headline: “America Recognizes New Jewish State ‘Israel’.” Forward archivist Chana Pollack noted the subheadlines on the page included “Arab League in Battle Against Jews; Haganah victorious in Jerusalem,” and “America First State To Recognize State of Israel.”

2 / 18 The Evening Standard (United Kingdom)

Alongside a story about the beginning of swim season in Hyde Park, The Evening Standard reported that the British government was not told in advance that United States President Harry Truman intended to recognize the new state of Israel. “The question of taking similar action has not yet been considered by the Cabinet,” the bulletin reads.

3 / 18 The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

Above an article warning of a possible milk delivery stoppage in New South Wales, the Herald reported from the scene in Amman, Jordan, where a staff correspondent dined in a “glittering new restaurant” and watched as Arabs walking toward Palestine “fired their rifles in the air and sang lustily.”

4 / 18 The Daily Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Eric Downton, the Telegraph’s special correspondent, reported that the last High Commissioner of Palestine, Gen. Sir Alan Cunningham, left Britain’s Government House in Jerusalem “with the minimum of ceremony” to the sound of a lament, played by a piper.

5 / 18 Haaretz (Israel)

Because of Shabbat, Haaretz announced Israel’s independence two days after it was declared, on May 16, 1948. The headline reads: “The vision of the generations is fulfilled: the state of Israel was established.”

6 / 18 The New York Times (United States)

The “Newspaper of Record” reported that the ceremony in which David Ben-Gurion declared the new state of Israel had been planned with “great secrecy. None but the hundred or more invited guests and journalists was aware of the meeting until it started, and even the guests learned of the site only ten minutes before.”

7 / 18 The Chicago Tribune (United States)

The Chicago Tribune summarized Israel’s founding in this rather bleak and confounding headline: “START PALESTINE INVASION.”

8 / 18 The Los Angeles Times (United States)

After Israel declared its independence, “jubilation was lacking,” the Times wrote, “as Jews halted at 3:01 pm to pray for peace in the wartorn Holy Land.” The report added that a “shophar” was blown before a gathering of children at Temple Talmud Torah.

According to the paper, a 10,000-ton steamship named Sorol was scheduled to leave Los Angeles Harbor on Sunday for the new Jewish state with 120 tons of food, medical supplies and clothing, all of which “were collected in a local drive.”

9 / 18 The Daily Oklahoman (United States)

The Daily Oklahoman ran an article from The Associated Press detailing bombings from air-raiders over the “all-Jewish city” of Tel Aviv next to a report about a local raid on a dice game at the Jungle Club, in which four men were arrested and $110 was seized.

10 / 18 The Hollywood Citizen News (United States)

The Hollywood Citizen News left little to the imagination with this headline, which spotlighted the military conflict about to unfold over the young country: “Egypt to Fight Jews.”

11 / 18 The New York Daily News (United States)

On May 14, 1948, the front page of the Daily News signaled the impending “Zero hour,” referencing the expiration of Britain’s mandate over Palestine on May 15. It included “recent fotos” taken by the Associated Press showing “British-trained” infantry and cavalrymen in the forces of King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan “ready to cross the Palestine frontier at 12:01 A.M.”

12 / 18 The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (United States)

The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, under the headline “Proclaim a Jewish State in Palestine!,” reported that the Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Fund drive had raised $1,279,873, the equivalent of approximately $16 million today, in the last year, with the goal to raise $2,500,000. With the developments in the newly independent Israel, Chairman Irving G. Rhodes said in a statement, “now is the time when our money will do the most good.”

13 / 18 The Albertan (Canada)

The Albertan offered a helpful diagram showing the influx of Arab forces from a number of neighboring countries — Syria, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, Iraq and Egypt — into the newly established Israel, which the paper still labeled as “Palestine.”

14 / 18 The Montreal Daily Star (Canada)

The Montreal Daily Star included an article from the Canadian Press which detailed the expectation that Britain would keep Canadian nationals safe in Palestine, which The Montreal Daily Star characterized as an “all-out battleground.”

15 / 18 The Boston Globe (United States)

The Boston Globe quoted the president of Boston’s Zionist House, Fred Monosson, as saying, “After 2,000 years, the Jewish nation is coming home.”

16 / 18 Fort Worth Star-Telegram (United States)

Israel’s declaration of independence made the front page alongside an intercollegiate “flying meet” set to begin that Saturday at the National Guard Air Base at Eagle Mountain Lake.

17 / 18 The Bangor Daily News (United States)

Inside The Bangor Daily News on May 14, 1948, a series of notable Maine figures, including former Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice Edward P. Murray, wrote a letter appealing for donations on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal. “Never in the last 2,000 years has the plight of the Jews of Europe been more acute,” the letter reads. “Never have their hopes been so near fulfillment.”

18 / 18 The Honolulu Advertiser (United States)

Signaling the importance of the war, The Honolulu Advertiser displayed the headline “War in Palestine! Arabs Bomb Jews” above even their own masthead. Also on the front page: plans for a new “model city” on the island of Maui, with at least 700 new homes to be built by 1953.

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