2016-05-14 Sat

The Zionist movement turned out to be a huge success and the state of Israel was formed on 14th May 1948. David Ben-Gurion became the first prime minister who led the state successfully through so many crises.

The notion of the "Land of Israel" has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. Since so many centuries the Jews who had no land of their own came together during the period of 2nd World War and proposed to have a state of their own. Many Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel" from where they have always been driven away.

This aspiration gave rise to the idea of forming a separate state for the Jews which further led to the Zionist mo9vemnt. The path, however, was not easy as the land they wanted was surrounded by the Arabs.

At the end of World War II, when the magnitude of the Holocaust became clear, the shock it created amongst world powers led to the emergence of a dominant view that the Jewish Problem must finally be solved. In September 1947, representatives to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) made far-reaching recommendations for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly ratified the UNSCOP recommendation and, on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion announced the founding of the State of Israel. The Jews finally got their homeland. Though, the aftermath of this bold move was wars and crises the tiny nation of Jews has outwitted all of them and has stood strongly.

The first stamps of Israel were inscribed in Hebrew ‘Doar Ivri’ (Hebrew Post) and featured coins issued by the Jewish authorities at the time of the first and second Jewish revolts against the Romans, or in the reign of the Hebrew king, Alexander Jannaeus. The stamps were designed by O. Wallish and typographed by the Haaretz Printing Press in Sarona.

Earlier the bank notes were issued by Anglo-Palestine Bank. After the founding of the state of Israel, the bank won the concession to issue new banknotes. In 1950, the bank was renamed Bank Leumi Le-Israel. The Anglo-Palestine Bank issued many notes with different Denomination.