the provisional state council

temporary legislature, 1948-49

The 37 people who signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence, plus Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, formed the Provisional State Council upon the establishment of Israel in 1948. This wasn’t an elected council but a temporary legsilature to run the country until proper elections could be organized. Chaim Weizmann was appointed as the head, making him President of Israel, while Ben Gurion and 14 of these members formed an executive cabinet to run the day-to-day operations of the state. The first act of the Council was to repeal the British White Paper of 1939, fully opening Israel to Jewish immigration.