Israel Declares Statehood as Arab-Jewish Fighting Erupts in Jerusalem

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New State of Israel Proclaimed by Jews Amid Bitter Battles By ELIAV SIMON TEL AVIV, May 14. — (UP) — A new Jewish state was born in Palestine Friday, and immediately bitter Arab-Jewish fighting for Jerusalem began. Even as the Jewish dream of almost 2,000 years — a state of their own — came true at 4 p.m. (8 a.m. CST) with a formal proclamation by Jewish leaders, Haganah troops were fighting Arabs in the Holy City. The veteran Jewish troops appeared to have the best of the fighting which probably will decide final control of Jerusalem, according to reports reaching here. They had seized the former British security zone as the last of the Tommies moved out, ending 30 years of stormy British rule in Palestine. The Jewish flag — blue and white with a yellow Star of David — already flew over many strategic buildings in Jerusalem, radio reports said, but strong Arab resistance was being met by Haganah men fighting their way toward the Jaffa Gate leading to the Old City. There was bitter Arab defense in the area of the former police headquarters and other government buildings on the Jaffa Road. Haganah men advanced house-by-house. [Map/photo caption] MANDATE ENDS — The new Palestine Jewish state was proclaimed by the Jewish provisional government in Tel Aviv (1); British High Commissioner left Haifa (2) — marking the end of the British mandate. The road between Nablus and El Affule was blown up, apparently by Arabs, to prevent a Jewish attack against the Arab triangle. Other underlined cities are scenes of Arab-Jewish fighting. To the north, Haganah troops attacked the historic port of Acre, where Napoleon's army was defeated, and by early afternoon had captured it, wireless reports to the Jewish headquarters here said. The Jewish dream of nearly 2,000 years — a state of their own — came true at 4 p.m. (8 a.m. CST) as the provisional government broadcast to the world that a new Jewish republic called Israel had been born, and would be defended against all enemies. Even as the formal proclamation was issued, the Jews were at war. Fighting men of Haganah, the Jewish army, were in bloody combat with Arab warriors from Dan to Beersheba, the Biblical limits of the Holy Land. And thousands more regular troops of surrounding Arab states — perhaps 20,000 men in all — were poised on the borders of Palestine for attack. Haganah sent all its 70,000 men and women to battle stations to defend the approximately 5,500 square miles of the new Jewish state — about the area the United Nations partition plan of last November gave the Jews. All men and women 18 to 35 were mobilized. Air raid precautions were ordered in Tel Aviv and other Jewish cities. The British mandate officially does not expire until midnight (4 p.m. CST), but British High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham formally signaled its end nearly 14 hours earlier. At 10:08 a.m. (2:08 a.m. CST), Cunningham stepped aboard a launch at the Haifa wharf to go to a British cruiser in the harbor. About six hours later, a stocky, 66-year-old Polish Jew, white-haired David Ben Gurion, proclaimed that the Jewish state of Israel was born, and would be defended as the last dream of Jewish blood. Ben Gurion, 48, is a fighter for Zionist ideals in Palestine, and will be first president of the republic. He is also defense minister. (See related story and pictures on page 20.) Great as were the difficulties confronting the new state, the Jews met the proclamation with rejoicing — they had referred to it for months as "our state that will be," and now it had become a reality. Tel Aviv was bedecked with the blue and white flag, with its yellow Star of David, the Jewish emblem. Its 250,000 men and women thronged the streets in a gay holiday mood. Saturday — the orthodox Jewish Sabbath — they would pray for it, but Friday they celebrated. The waitress who served my breakfast had the indelible blue number of a German concentration camp on her arm below her short sleeve. "Do you know," she said, "this is the first time in my life I have been happy." Her feeling was typical of most in Tel Aviv today. Bruce Jacobson, 35-year-old (Continued on Page 2, Col. 5)