(יא) הכל מעלין לארץ ישראל ואין הכל מוציאין, הכל מעלין לירושלים ואין הכל מוציאין, אחד האנשים ואחד הנשים.
(11) One may [forcibly] bring anyone to the Land of Israel, but one may not remove anyone. One may [forcibly] bring anyone to Jerusalem, but one may not remove anyone. [This law applies] both to men and to women.
מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל, יתרו, עמלק
שלשה דברים נתנו על תנאי, ארץ ישראל ובית המקדש ומלכות בית דוד, חוץ מספר תורה ובריתו של אהרן שלא נתנו על תנאי. ארץ ישראל מנין, שנאמר +דברים יא טז+השמרו לכם פן יפתה לבבכם וגו' וחרה אף ה' בכם.
Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael, Yitro, Amalek
Three things were given conditionally: the Land of Israel, the Temple, and the Kingship of the House of David. But the Torah and the Covenant of Aaron were given unconditionally.
From where do we know this about the Land of Israel? It says (in Deut. 11:16), "Take care, lest your heart be seduced to serve other gods and bow to them. For then the anger of the Lord will flare up against you...."
My Heart is in the East by Judah Halevy (12th Century)
My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west--
How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain --
Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.
To Jerusalem by Ytzhak Yasinowitz
To Jerusalem:
One does not travel to Jerusalem,
one returns
one ascends
the road taken by generations
the path of longing
on the way to redemption.
One brings rucksacks
Stuffed with memories
To each mountain
And each hill.
In the cobbled white alleyways
One offers a blessing
For memories of the past
Which have been renewed.
One does not travel to Jerusalem
One returns.
From Israel's Declaration of Independence
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all
WE APPEAL — in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months — to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream — the redemption of Israel.
כל עוד בלבב פנימה
נפש יהודי הומיה,
ולפאתי מזרח, קדימה,
עין לציון צופיה;
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו,
התקוה בת שנות אלפים,
להיות עם חפשי בארצנו,
ארץ ציון וירושלים.
Kol-'od balevav penimah
Nefesh yehudi homiyah
Ulefa’atei mizrach kadimah,
‘Ayin letziyon tzofiyah
‘Od lo avdah tikvateinu,
Hatikvah bat shenot alpayim
Lihiyot 'am chofshi be'artzeinu
Be'eretz Tzion VeYerushalayim
As long as in the heart, within
A Jewish soul still yearns
And onward, towards the ends of the east
An eye still yearns toward Zion
Our hope is not yet lost
The hope of two thousand years
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem