ABSTRACT
The Declaration of Independence, on May 14, 1948, stated that “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of Exiles,”1
thereby adding material content to the announcement that “We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel to be known as the State of Israel,” that is, a Jewish state for the Jewish People, with the aim of returning the [exiled] People to its land. Accordingly, the People’s Council passed a resolution canceling the prohibition of Jewish immigration to Palestine under the British Mandate.2 It seemed obvious that, in the absence of any legal restriction on [Jewish] immigration, all Jews had the right to settle in the State of Israel from the moment of its establishment. If so, what was the point in the Law of Return, passed in the summer of 1950?
