Israel: the Emergence of a Polity — Part I

• Author: Oscar Kraines
• Published date: 01 September 1953
• Date: 01 September 1953
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295300600307
• Subject Matter: Articles

ISRAEL: THE EMERGENCE OF A POLITY — PART I
OSCAR KRAINES
New York University
Part II, to be published in the December, 1953, issue of the WESTERN POLITICAL
QUARTERLY, will include the Judiciary, the Problem of a Constitution, and Israel’s Future.
THE PROVISIONAL PERIOD
HE
SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT State of Israel came into exist-
t ence when the mandate ended at midnight on May 14, 1948: the
British authorities then departed without transferring any of the ma-
chinery of administration to the new nation.’ However, for the previous six
months a National Council had been in operation, which had been estab-
lished in accordance with a resolution passed on November 29, 1947, by
the General Assembly of the United Nations. This resolution required
the new Arab and Jewish States to form provisional governments that
should function under the general supervision of the United Nations
Palestine Commission until formal termination of the mandate
2
The origin of the National Council dates back twenty-seven years
before the United Nations’ action on Palestine. In 1920, Great Britain
had been designated by the Supreme Allied Council as the administrating
power of Palestine. The mandate came into force on September 29, 1923.
During this entire period, until 1947, two Jewish quasi-governments existed
co-operatively and interdependently side by side, one for the Jewish com-
munity residing in Palestine, and another for the development of the
promised Jewish national home.
Although the community quasi-government came into existence in
1920, after the first elections had been held in Palestine, its status did not
become officially recognized until the mandate authorities enacted the
Jewish Community Regulations eight years later.3
3
An Elected Assembly
(Assefath Hanivcharim), chosen in secret ballot by all Jews over twenty
years of age with at least three months residence in Palestine, served as a
quasi-parliament in the Jewish community. It met at least once a year.
Between sessions its powers were exercised by a National Council (Vaad
Leumi), appointed by the Elected Assembly from among its own members.
1 Colonial Office and Foreign Office, Palestine: Termination of the Mandate, 15th May, 1948 (New York:
British Information Services, 1948).
2 United Nations, General Assembly, Official Records of the Second Session ... , Resolutions
...,
Doc. A 519, pp. 131-50. See United Nations, Report on Palestine, Report to the General Assembly
by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (New York: Somerset Books, Inc., 1947);
Leland M. Goodrich and Edvard Hambro, Charter of the United Nations, Commentary and Docu-
ments (2nd ed.; Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1949), pp. 153-56; Joseph Dunner, The Republic
of Israel: Its History and Its Promise (New York: Whittlesey House, 1950).
3
Charles R. Gellner, The Palestine Problem: An Analysis, Historical and Contemporary (Public Affairs
Bulletin No. 50, Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, Legislative Reference Service,
March 1, 1947] ); The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Great Britain and Palestine, 1915-
1936 ("Information Department Papers," No. 20 [New York: Oxford University Press, January,
1937] ).
518

---

519
In turn, the National Council nominated from its membership an executive
which acted as the administering power for the Jewish community through
a number of departments concerned with defense, education, culture,
health, social welfare, and religious affairs. The National Council had
legal authority, enforceable in the civil courts, to tax all members of the
Jewish community for purposes of education, social services, health, and
for maintenance of the Jewish religious courts.’
Under authority of Article 4 of the mandate approved by the Council
of the League of Nations on July 22, 1922, the development quasi-govern-
ment acted as an advisory body, co-operating with the mandate authorities
on such matters as agricultural colonization, building, immigration, indus-
try, and land purchase, in the interest of promoting and developing the
Jewish national home in Palestine. Until 1929, this quasi-government was
solely in the hands of the World Zionist Organization. That year the
Jewish Agency for Palestine was created to enlist non-Zionist support for
a Jewish national home, and the two organizations became collaborators
in the administration of the affairs concerning the eventual establishment
of the homeland.5
5
In 1934, an enlarged Jewish Agency was formed providing equal rep-
resentation for Zionists and non-Zionists on its governing bodies. It took
over all responsibility for the development of the national home, while the
World Zionist Organization concerned itself primarily with directing the
Zionist movement and with managing its land purchasing agency, the
Jewish National Fund.6
6
The community and development quasi-governments functioned in
close liaison and co-operation. The National Council appointed two rep-
resentatives to the Zionist General Council,7 and the president of the
World Zionist Organization was automatically the president of the Jewish
Agency. Far from being meek, the Elected Assembly and National Council
often acted boldly and expressed independent opinions and criticism.8
4
Fannie Fern Andrews, The Holy Land under Mandate (2 vols.; Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1931);
Samuel Dale Myres, Community Development in Palestine (Arnold Foundation Studies in Public
Affairs, Vol. I, No. 2 [Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1932] ); Norman Bentwich,
Palestine (London: Ernest Benn, 1934); Moshe Burstein, Self-Government of the Jews in Palestine
Since 1900 (Tel Aviv: Co-operative Printing, Hapoel Hatzair, 1934); W. F. Boustany, The Palestine
Mandate (Beirut: American Press, 1936); Herbert Sidebotham, Great Britain and Palestine (New
York: The Macmillan Co., 1938); Benjamin Akzin, "The Palestine Mandate in Practice," 25
Iowa Law Review, 32-77; Paul L. Hanna, British Policy in Palestine (Washington, D.C.: Public
Affairs Press, 1942); Paul Goodman (ed.), Jewish National Home: 1917-1942 (London: J. M. Dent,
1943); ESCO Foundation for Palestine, Palestine: A Study of Jewish, Arab, and British Policies
(2 vols.; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947); Israel Cohen, A Short History of Zionism
(London: Frederick Muller, Ltd., 1951).
5
Arthur Ruppin, Building Israel: Selected Essays, 1907-1935 (New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1949);
David Ben-Gurion, "The Palestine Administration and the Jews," in The New Judea, Vol. 18
(November, 1941), pp. 19-20; Julia E. Johnsen (comp.), Palestine: Jewish Homeland? ("The
Reference Shelf," Vol. 18, No. 6 [New York: H.
W.
Wilson Co., 1946] ); Albert M. Hyamson,
Palestine Under the Mandate (London: Methuen, Ltd., 1950).
6
Abraham Revusky, Jews in Palestine (3rd ed.; New York: Bloch Publishing Co., 1945), pp. 189-94.
7
The Zionist General Council is the supreme body of the World Zionist Organization in the periods
between World Zionist congresses.
8

See for example the Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Middle East: A Political and Economic
Survey (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1950), p. 302, where it is stated that
"through these bodies the Jewish Community had a certain measure of self-government."

---

520
By 1935, the Palestinian Jews were administering &dquo;their own com-
munity affairs and outnumbered all others on both the Zionist and Agency
Executives,&dquo; and &dquo;were thus receiving valuable experience in self-rule.&dquo;
The various departments of the quasi-government were staffed with resi-
dents of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine), &dquo;so that a core
of civil servants was also being trained.&dquo; 9 The National Council and the
Elected Assembly &dquo;were considered by the average Jew as truly representing
the sovereign power of the country,&dquo; and whatever was decided by such
organs &dquo;was considered binding upon the Jewish community, whereas the
regulations of the occupying power were followed only reluctantly
On the day that the State of Israel came into being, a Provisional
Council of Government was created comprising three elements -
a State
Council of thirty-eight members as the parliament, based on the relative
strength of the various political parties,ll a cabinet of thirteen ministers,
elected by the State Council from among its members and responsible to
it; and a president elected by the State Council. David Ben-Gurion, chair-
man of the Jewish Agency and leader of the dominant political party,
Mapam, was chosen Prime Minister and Minister of Defense; and two days
later, Dr. Chaim Weizmann was elected President. Actually, the National
Council of the mandate period formed the basis of the State Council, and
the executive of the National Council formed the basis of the cabinet. The
presidency was entirely new. 12
THE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES13
Representatives of twelve political parties sit in Israel’s parliament, and
at least seventeen distinct parties actively campaign among the electorate.
Even during the mandate period there were a dozen parties competing for
the relatively few elective positions in the community quasi-government.
9 J. C. Hurewitz, The Struggle for Palestine (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1950), p. 41.
10
Arieh Tartakower, "The Making of Jewish Statehood in Palestine," Jewish Social Studies, Vol. X
(July, 1948), p. 209.
11
The State Council was composed of delegates from 12 political parties: Mapai, 12; General Zionists,
7; Mapam, 5;...