David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion (October 16, 1886 - December 1, 1973) served as head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, acting as the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine and spearheading the movement for an independent Jewish state. He formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, as the first signatory of its Declaration of Independence, becoming the country's primary national founder and first prime minister; under his leadership Jewish militias were unified into the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which ended in Israeli victory and the displacement of Palestinian Arabs. He served as prime minister from May 17, 1948, to December 7, 1953, and again from November 3, 1955, to June 26, 1963.