This is a black and white photograph of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and his wife, Paula, voting in the first Israeli general elections on January 25, 1949. The room is filled with people, mostly men, who are watching the couple intently. The men are wearing overcoats or jackets, and Paula is wearing a fur coat. People can even be seen peeping through the window at the event.
The 1949 elections were for the Constituent Assembly, whose function was to draft a constitution for the new state. Because of the War of Independence, the Constituent Assembly became the first Knesset (Israeli parliament). The elections took place before the end of the fighting, and therefore the main political debate in the run up to the elections was whether to continue the war until the army had occupied all of the territory included in the Jewish state as outlined in the UN Partition Plan or to settle for existing borders and divert resources to the building of the young state. The atmosphere on election day was festive, and the turnout was high; there was a feeling of pride and celebration with the first democratic elections in the new Jewish State. The results of the elections gave the Mapai party, headed by Ben-Gurion, a clear advantage. However, in order to form a government, Mapai had to form a coalition with centrist and religious parties. The left-wing party, Mapam, and right-wing Herut remained in opposition.
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David Ben-Gurion – David Ben-Gurion is considered the father of the State of Israel and was its first prime minister. He was born in Poland in 1886 ,where he joined the socialist-Zionist group Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion). He immigrated to Israel in 1906 and became involved in creating the first agricultural worker’s commune – the precursor to the kibbutz –and Hashomer (the Watchman), a Jewish self-defence group. Ben-Gurion served as the first secretary general of the Histradrut, the trade union movement. He became the leader of the Mapai (Workers Party of the Land of Israel) party in 1930 and led the fight against the British White Paper which limited Jewish immigration and settlement in Israel. After the United Nations vote on the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, Ben-Gurion began the work of planning the infrastructure of the new state. In 1948, after he declared the creation of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion became the first prime minister and defence minister. During his time as prime minister, the infrastructure of Israel was developed, large numbers of immigrants – Holocaust survivors and Jews fleeing Arab countries – were absorbed, and Israel’s economic and military status was secured. In 1953 Ben-Gurion left government and retired, with his wife, Paula, to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev. He returned to political life in 1955 as defence minister and then as prime minister. Ben-Gurion resigned as prime minister in June 1963, although he remained involved in politics until he retired once again in June 1970 and returned to Sde Boker, where he passed away in 1973.
1949 Israeli General Elections – The 1949 elections took place on January 25, 1949, although they had originally been planned for the previous October. (They were postponed due to the ongoing fighting during the War of Independence.) The original purpose of the 1949 elections had been to elect the Constituent Assembly, whose mission was to write the constitution of the new State of Israel. However, after the elections, the Constituent Assembly was renamed Israel’s First Knesset. The Knesset was unable to reach consensus regarding a constitution, and, to this day, Israel does not have a constitution. Turnout for the elections was a high 87% of eligible voters, and the atmosphere surrounding the elections was festive. The main parties vying for control of the government were the two workers’ parties, Mapam and Mapai. Although agreeing on many issues, Mapam was pro-Soviet, while Mapai was pro-Western. David Ben-Gurion was the leader of Mapai, and his party won 46 of the 120 seats of the Knesset. Instead of entering a coalition with Mapam, who had won 19 seats, Ben-Gurion chose to create a coalition of centrist and religious parties, leaving Mapam and Menachem Begin’s Herut party in opposition.
