The blue-white flag of Israel, 59th state to be admitted to membership in the United Nations, was hoisted for the first time today in the semicircle of flags on the lawn of U.N. headquarters here.
A cheering throng of 1,000 sang Hatikvah as the flag was hoisted into place between the emblems of Iraq and Lebanon by Fred Notz, a U.N. guard who saw service in Palestine as a member of the U.N. force there.
Many delegates emerged from committee sessions to witness the ceremony, among them Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt who was, however, unable to press through the crowd to greet Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. “It is always a historic moment when a new flag is hoisted,” Mrs. Roosevelt said.
Sharett declared at the flag-raising ceremony that the hoisting of Israel’s flag was a message to the world that the Jews who died on the battlefield had not died in vain. U.N. guards struggled with a straining crowd which wanted to reach Sharett. Many shook hands with the Israeli Foreign Minister, who, after the ceremony, promptly proceed to the Political Committee room and took his seat at the table.
The full text of Sharett’s speech at the ceremony reads:
“This Star of David, which has been carried with us in the thousands of years of our exile, dispersion and martyrdom; this Star of David which has been used by our oppressors as a badge of shame; this Star of David which has been our lodestar in all our wanderings; this white-and-blue flag which we have carried with us in our trials and tribulations in the land of Israel, which accompanied our pioneers when they broke new ground in the wilderness, which was raised by our fighters for freedom in the last World War on all battlefields, which was hoisted over the walls of the Chetto of Warsaw in that desperate rebellion; this flag which has been a rallying Point for the forces of the Jewish people struggling to achieve liberation in our ancestral home is now marking our fullemancipation and has new been raised proudly as the 59th flag in this great circle symbolizing the aspirations and unity of mankind.
“It is a great event. I can only pray that we may prove worthy of the dignity this restores to us, that we may prove equal to the responsibilities which this new status imposes on us. My heart goes out to all these who fell struggling for a new and better future, whose supreme sacrifice has brought us to this stage. May those who lost their dear ones in this momentous struggle find comfort by the thought that the sacrifice has not been in vain, that they died to achieve life, liberty and quality in the family of nations and full creative opportunity for the national genius of their people.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
