Day 213 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION recorded receipt of the proposed union today. This dates receipt, whereas Folke Bernadotte proposed a union of Arab territory and מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL. dates presentation June 28. His initial assessment rejected the unsupported suspicion that the mediator was merely acting as an imperial agent. Later disagreement with the proposal must not be read backward into that first reaction.¹

The entry describes objections to the proposed central-front commander, questions about experience and concern about reassignment within the staff. These were particular professional and personal objections; the diary’s sharper characterization of them remains the author's viewpoint. The dispute developed into the later ministerial inquiry.²

The provisioning discussion reports permission for additional food tonnage and calls for concentrated foods. It differentiates inspectors’ allowances, requested stores and transport instructions. A requested 2,000 tons or a promise of dailyfuel is not evidence of that quantity delivered on June 29. Food availability in the capital depended on actual convoys and distribution, not permissions alone.³

אהרן רמז AHARON REMEZ reported about 300 foreign volunteers and said approximately half were refusing the oath, partly from fear of civil war after the Altalena confrontation. He warned that their departure would harm air power. These are his reported estimates and concerns, not a checked nominal list of refusals or departures. They show that the government’s demand for allegiance encountered practical anxieties among people serving its defense.⁴

A Dutch consul asked about missionary activity and an allegation that converts were imprisoned in the capital. The head of government affirmed freedom subject to state law and promised inquiry and release if religion had been the sole reason for detention. The diary establishes the question and reply; it does not verify the detention. Defending sovereignty of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL did not require inventing a proven case of religious imprisonment.⁵

The same date's JTA report concerns release of twelve prisoners of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL during imperial withdrawal. Its relative dating and exact release hour have not been settled from an original bulletin; it supplies contemporary reportage rather than a confidently new June 29 release event.⁶

This is the civil-day recap for 29 June 1948, Day 213 counted inclusively from 30 November 1947. The public OTD route is כ״ב בסיון ה׳תש״ח 22nd 𝑜𝑓 Sivan, AM 5708, the daytime Hebrew date converted from the Gregorian calendar; after local sunset it is כ״ג בסיון ה׳תש״ח 23rd 𝑜𝑓 Sivan, AM 5708. The route dates this recap, not every earlier act recounted in its sources. ^{7 8}

• Why does a diary recording receipt fail to date the proposal’s original presentation?
• Which record would turn the consul’s allegation about detention into an established occurrence?