Second Year of the State of Israel
- Title:
- Second Year of the State of Israel
- Alternate Title:
- Second Year of the State of Israel
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Szapiro, Joseph & Michael Kara
- Other Creators:
- Kofar Monash Press, printers
- Date:
- 1949
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2391.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2391_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Other War & Peace
Pictorial
Politics & Government - Measurement:
- 61 x 32 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map celebrating the “Second Year of the State of Israel” was published in 1949 by the Israeli daily newspaper Davar. It is particularly interesting both for the delineation of boundaries and the unusual art that surrounds the map.
The legend shows three sets of border lines. Two of these are solid and bold, standing out on the map: the “International Boundaries of [Mandate] Palestine” (in red) and the “Armistice Lines between Israel and the Arab States” (in Green, the famous “Green Line”). The third set of lines are dashed and a faint red, the “Boundaries of the ‘Partition Plan,’” a reminder of the turbulent founding of Israel.
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted a proposed Partition Plan for Palestine. Under the Plan, separate Arab and Jewish States were to be created, with a special status for Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community accepted the proposed Plan, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and civil war began immediately in Palestine. At midnight on May 14, 1948, the British Mandate terminated and Israel declared its independence. The following day, forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq attacked. In the following 10 months of fighting, the Israeli army achieved decisive success. While the UN Partition Plan had allocated 55 percent of the Mandate territory to Israel, the Armistice Agreements of 1949 expanded the new nation’s boundaries - delineated by the Green Line - to 78 percent, confirming the outcome of the war. Thrall 2017, 41. It’s easy to understand why the lines of the Partition Plan are so faint on the Israeli map: like the proposed Arab State in Palestine, they were an artifact of a road not taken.
The work is the product of mapmaker Joseph Szapiro and Michael Kara, the artist responsible for the bordering illustrations. Kara spent his formative years behind the Iron Curtain and emigrated to Palestine in 1946. He was “one of the pioneers in the development of a distinctive Israeli art movement in the late 1940s - 1950s. It contains elements inspired by Communist Social Realism, among them farm and construction workers, as well as Zionist tropes, including immigrant families, Jewish iconography, and a soldier and young women holding aloft the flag. Communist ideology would go on to play a significant role in the development of the Israeli state, influencing, among other things, the rise of the Kibbutz System.” Kevin Brown, Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/IsraelSecondYear-shapiro-1949?mc_cid=b515484fc7&mc_eid=accf9b3a4f, accessed February 1, 2019.
The Collection includes a number of maps related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Search > "israel* AND palest*".
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.