Page 119 - big friday
P. 119
ld use the landing pad in the Valley of the Cross, and would deliver the signatories to
the ceremony of the declaration of the state in Tel Aviv. In practice, this did not happen,
and the nine signatories, including Dobkin, were not present at the ceremony; they added
their signatures at a later stage. Space was left for each of them to sign at the spot designated
for him. Dobkin signed only when he visited Tel Aviv during the first ceasefire, on June 11.
In the years to come he did not conceal his pride at being the tenth signatory on the
Scroll of Independence. Ben-Gurion signed first, followed by the other 36 signatories in
alphabetical order.
O n May 13, one day before the declaration ceremony, Dobkin had an important political
duty to fulfill. He had been appointed (apparently by Ben-Gurion) as the representative
who would bid farewell to the last High Commissioner, Sir Alan Cunningham, on behalf
of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael. His telegram to the Commissioner, dispatched in the
name of the Jewish Agency, was introduced with the words, "Owing to conditions beyond
our control, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion, will not be able to
come and offer his good wishes for the future and for a successful trip home." Dobkin, who
In beseiged Jerusalem, 1948. A Jordanian shell had come crashing through the
studio's ceiling of the painter Ludwig Blum's in central Jerusalem
The Same Day, in... 117
the ceremony of the declaration of the state in Tel Aviv. In practice, this did not happen,
and the nine signatories, including Dobkin, were not present at the ceremony; they added
their signatures at a later stage. Space was left for each of them to sign at the spot designated
for him. Dobkin signed only when he visited Tel Aviv during the first ceasefire, on June 11.
In the years to come he did not conceal his pride at being the tenth signatory on the
Scroll of Independence. Ben-Gurion signed first, followed by the other 36 signatories in
alphabetical order.
O n May 13, one day before the declaration ceremony, Dobkin had an important political
duty to fulfill. He had been appointed (apparently by Ben-Gurion) as the representative
who would bid farewell to the last High Commissioner, Sir Alan Cunningham, on behalf
of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael. His telegram to the Commissioner, dispatched in the
name of the Jewish Agency, was introduced with the words, "Owing to conditions beyond
our control, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion, will not be able to
come and offer his good wishes for the future and for a successful trip home." Dobkin, who
In beseiged Jerusalem, 1948. A Jordanian shell had come crashing through the
studio's ceiling of the painter Ludwig Blum's in central Jerusalem
The Same Day, in... 117
