The idea to float bonds issued by Israel's government was conceived by Israel's first
prime minister,
David Ben-Gurion, in the aftermath of the
1948 Palestine war, when the nation was critically short of economic resources. Ben-Gurion turned to
Diaspora Jewry, with the goal of obtaining millions of dollars in funding by engaging them as active partners in building the new Jewish state. In September 1950, he convened a meeting of American Jewish leaders at Jerusalem's
King David Hotel, where Ben-Gurion shared his vision for a bond issue, which the delegates supported. The
Knesset voted to launch Israel's first bond issue in February 1951. In May, the prime minister traveled to New York City to help launch the inaugural Independence Issue at a
Madison Square Garden ceremony, raising $35 million. Expectations for first-year sales were $25 million. Instead, final results for 1951 more than doubled projections, exceeding $52 million. By 1957, "bond sales alone amount(ed) to an astonishing 35% of Israel's special development budget", with Foreign Minister
Golda Meir emphatically stating, "the central role in building our economic strength has been played by Israel bonds." Over subsequent decades sales continued to increase, particularly in times of crisis. During 1967's
Six-Day War, sales exceeded $250 million, and in 1973, the year of the
Yom Kippur War, sales exceeded $500 million. In 1991, the year of the
Gulf War and Iraqi missile strikes on Israel, sales exceeded $1 billion. In the first four weeks of the
Gaza war, several U.S. states invested $300 million; by November 11, 2023, a record-breaking $1 billion had been purchased by investors large and small. Israel Bonds became an issue in
Pennsylvania's 2024 treasurer race between Republican
Stacy Garrity and Democrat Erin McClelland. In October 2023, Garrity's office purchased $20 million in Israel Bonds, bringing Pennsylvania's investment in Israel Bonds to a total of $56 million. Erin McClelland, Garrity's opponent in the November general election, said that she did not believe that the state should invest in foreign bonds, particularly when it meant taking sides in an overseas conflict. In July 2024, an investigation by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that Israel Bonds was engaged in efforts to court taxpayers' money in the form of public investments in the bonds. After the outbreak of
war between Israel and Gaza on 7 October, it was reported that activists, including members of
Jewish Voice for Peace, began to target the Bonds in demands that corporations and institutions divest from financial instruments that appear to support the government of Israel. According to
Richard Painter, who worked as chief White House ethics lawyer during the
George W. Bush administration, the mixing of personal and official practices evidenced in transcripts of email documents exchanged to secure bond purchases in the U.S. appears to "go well beyond what's seen as acceptable." The
CSSF approved the new prospectus the same day. == Presidents of the Bonds ==