Great Speeches of Abba Eban

ON NOVEMBER 29, 1948, Israel applied for membership in the United Nations, and on March 24, 1949, the Security Council approved its application. In this speech, Abba Eban is seeking the ratification of the General Assembly. Fighting in the War of Independence had recently ceased, and Israel had signed or was in the process of negotiating armistice agreements with most of its adversaries. Israel was recognized by the United States on the day it declared independence, and had since gained recognition from Great Britain and from other countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and the British Commonwealth.

As a result of opposition from Arab states, the path to Israel's UN membership was complicated by the added step of scrutiny by the Ad Hoc Political Committee of the General Assembly, where this speech was delivered. In it, Eban protests the obstacles placed in the way of Israel's admission, which no other state had been required to surmount. His statement in support of Israel refers to issues raised in the committee, including Israel's positions on the status of Jerusalem and the refugee situation.

A few days after this speech, at a General Assembly session on May 11, 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations. The following day, Eban, accompanied by the Jewish state's first foreign minister (and future premier), Moshe Sharett, proudly raised Israel's flag outside of the UN building. Among the spectators was Eleanor Roosevelt.

In his autobiography, Eban writes of this milestone: “In terms of Jewish history, it was a moving symbol of a nation's return to the mainstream of world history after centuries of absence. It was no longer possible for Israel's juridical legitimacy to be denied. We were equal in law with all the other members of the organized world community.”