Israel/Palestine: Israeli statesman and politician David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), portrait by Chaim Topol, 1997

David Ben-Gurion, born David Grün; (16 October 1886-1 December 1973) was the primary founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he became the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in The British Mandate of Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as 'Israel's founding father'.