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TELEGRAM OF THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF ISRAEL M. SHERTOK TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS USSR V.M. MOLOTOV

May 15, 1948

I have the honor to inform you and ask you to inform to your government that the National Council of the Jewish State, composed of members of elected representatives of the Jewish organizations of Palestine, met yesterday, May 14, after the termination of the British Mandate, and on the basis of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly of November 29, 1947 proclaimed the formation of an independent Jewish state in Palestine, which will be called the State of Israel. The Council declared that the State of Israel will be open to immigration of Jews from all countries in which they are scattered; will contribute to the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the principles of freedom, justice and peace; uphold the full social and political equality of all citizens regardless of race, creed or gender; will guarantee complete freedom of conscience, religion, education, culture and language; will safeguard the sanctity and integrity of the temples and holy places of all religions and will devote itself to upholding the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. 

The Council also announced that the State of Israel would be ready to cooperate with the organs and representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947 and will take steps to ensure the formation of an economic union for all of Palestine. The Council called upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the path of peace and play their part in our development through full and equal citizenship and due representation in her government, temporary and permanent. The Council also offered peace to all neighboring states and their peoples and invited them to cooperate with the State of Israel for the common good for all. 

On behalf of the Provisional Government of Israel, I hereby request official recognition of the State of Israel and of the Provisional Government by the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I express the hope that such recognition will soon follow, and I am sure that it will strengthen friendly relations between the Soviet Union and her peoples, on the one hand, and the State of Israel and the Jewish people of Palestine, on the other hand, as well as serve the cause of peace and justice in international relations in general.

I take this opportunity to express the deep gratitude and understanding of the Jewish people of Palestine, shared by Jews around the world, for the firm position taken by the USSR delegation to the UN in support of the formation of an independent sovereign Jewish state in Palestine; for her consistent promotion of this idea, despite all the difficulties; for her expression of genuine sympathy for the suffering of the Jewish people in Europe at the hands of Nazi torturers and for her support of the principle that the Jews of Palestine are a nation deserving of sovereignty and independence.

JSA. ! 30.02 / 2424/19.

On behalf of the Provisional Government of Israel

Moshe Shertok,

Foreign Secretary

Publ .: International life. - 1998.- No. 10.- P. 90.

[lersvod from English.