'A duty of national honor': Ben-Gurion’s historic 1949 radio address resurfaces ahead of elections

A historic 1949 radio address by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, has resurfaced about a week before Election Day, in which he urged citizens to vote as a 'duty of national honor.' The speech, titled 'To the People and the Army,' was delivered on January 24, 1949, the evening before Israel's first Knesset elections. It was released on Tuesday by the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute and the Ben-Gurion Archives at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and was also broadcast to displaced persons camps in Cyprus. Ben-Gurion emphasized that voting is 'not merely a right, but a duty' and that 'every man and woman to whom the law has granted the right to vote must not be absent from the polling station.' He also addressed IDF soldiers serving in Israel's War of Independence, telling them they should vote as free citizens 'solely according to the dictates of your conscience.' An editorial from the newspaper Davar echoed his sentiment. Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute CEO Eitan Donitz noted that for Ben-Gurion, 'elections were an expression of every citizen's responsibility for the future of the state.'