David Ben-Gurion Quotes


Polities need written constitutions for two reasons -- either to link constituent units in a federal system or to republicanize absolutism


Context

At the start of the state of Israel, he wanted a written Constitution. However the first 60 person Knesset failed to agree upon enough to generate one. Nimerous attempts have been made, but there are few significant constitutional positions that a majority of the fractious Israeli population can agree upon. Israel at the end of te 20th century had given up on a constitution and became a legislative and common law nation. It is perhaps the hardest nation in which to practive law in that the common law that is recognized is based on Turkish Ottoman Law, Englaish Law and Jordanian law. Each of these was controlling at times in the recent past.


Citations

David Ben Gurion, 1886-1973, First Prime Minister of Israel, Quoted in Daniel J. Elazar, Introduction, The Constitution of the State of Israel

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

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David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
  • Born: October 16, 1886
  • Died: December 1, 1973
  • Nationality: Polish, Ottoman Empire, Palestinian, Israeli
  • Profession: Statesman

David Ben-Gurion, born David Grün, was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father".; David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel.

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