‘THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL’: Manuscript of a Speech by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson

Written by the former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, this is the first section of a speech which he delivered - and then revised for subsequent reuse - around the time of the publication of his book-length account of ‘the creation of the State of Israel’. A lifelong and unwavering Zionist, Wilson wrote into his 1981 publication, Chariot of Israel, his own involvement in Israeli history during his period as Prime Minister overlapping with the Six Days War.

This archive comprises the first page of Wilson’s speech, first given ‘just a little over six months’ after he published Chariot of Israel - placing the speech in December, 1981. In this introductory page he references a ‘major escalation of tension in and around the Israeli homeland - the bombings and the counter-bombings’ while promising to discuss ‘the impetus in the creation of the state of Israel [which] goes back into Old Testament days. We are privileged that it occurred in our own time - this privilege carries a responsibility...’ Wilson’s annotations in red ink allowed him to reuse the speech some years later. Accompanying the manuscript is a receipt for a copy of his book ordered by Wilson in 1988, Wilson’s nametag and a receipt from the Karen Kayemeth reafforestation fund which had planted a tree in Israel in Wilson’s name.

PROVENANCE: from the private collection of Harold and Mary Wilson, dispersed at auction following the death of Mary Wilson aged 102 in 2016. These items remained with the couple until their flat was sold.