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Council of Europe Conseil de l'Europe
Logo of the Council of Europe Flag Logo
Anthem: Ode to Joy (orchestral)
Ten founding members   Joined subsequently   Official candidates   Observer at the Parliamentary Assembly   Observer at the Committee of Ministers   Observer at the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly
Seat		Strasbourg, France
Membership		47 European states 5 observers (Council) 3 observers (Assembly)
Leaders
-	Presidency	Albania
-	Secretary General	Thorbjørn Jagland
-	Deputy Secretary General	Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
-	President of the Parliamentary Assembly	Jean-Claude Mignon
-	President of the Committee of Ministers	Ahmet Davutoğlu
-	President of the Congress	Keith Whitmore
-	Commissioner for Human Rights	Nils Muižnieks
Establishment
-	Treaty of London	5 May 1949
Website www.coe.int

The Council of Europe (French: Conseil de l'Europe) is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body^[1] from the European Union (EU), which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council,^[1] which are both EU bodies.

The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.

Its statutory institutions are the Committee of Ministers comprising the foreign ministers of each member state, the Parliamentary Assembly composed of MPs from the parliament of each member state, and the Secretary General heading the secretariat of the Council of Europe. The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the member states.

The headquarters of the Council of Europe are in Strasbourg, France, with English and French as its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian, and Russian for some of their work.

History[link]

Plaque commemorating the first session of the Council of Europe Assembly at Strasbourg University

In a speech at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946, Sir Winston Churchill called for a "kind of United States of Europe" and the creation of a Council of Europe.^[2][3] He had spoken of a Council of Europe as early as 1943 in a radio broadcast.^[2]

The future structure of the Council of Europe was discussed at a specific congress of several hundred leading politicians, government representatives and civil society in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1948. There were two schools of thought competing: some favoured a classical international organisation with representatives of governments, while others preferred a political forum with parliamentarians. Both approaches were finally combined through the creation of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly under the Statute of the Council of Europe. This dual intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary structure was later copied for the European Communities, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Session of the Council of Europe's Assembly in the former House of Europe in Strasbourg in 1967

Japanese flag in front of Council of Europe following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London. The Treaty of London or the Statute of the Council of Europe was signed in London on that day by ten states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Many other states followed, especially after the democratic transitions in central and eastern Europe during the early 1990s, and the Council of Europe now includes all European states except Belarus,^[4] Kazakhstan,^[4] Vatican City^[5] and the European states with limited recognition.^[a]

Aims and achievements[link]

Article 1(a) of the Statute states that "The aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress." Therefore, membership is open to all European states which seek European integration, accept the principle of the rule of law and are able and willing to guarantee democracy, fundamental human rights and freedoms.

While the member states of the European Union transfer national legislative and executive powers to the European Commission and the European Parliament in specific areas under European Community law, Council of Europe member states maintain their sovereignty but commit themselves through conventions (i.e., public international law) and co-operate on the basis of common values and common political decisions. Those conventions and decisions are developed by the member states working together at the Council of Europe, whereas secondary European Community law is set by the organs of the European Union. Both organisations function as concentric circles around the common foundations for European integration, with the Council of Europe being the geographically wider circle. The European Union could be seen as the smaller circle with a much higher level of integration through the transfer of powers from the national to the EU level. Being part of public international law, Council of Europe conventions could also be opened for signature to non-member states thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe (see chapter below).

The Council of Europe's most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted in 1950 following a report by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights.

The wide activities and achievements of the Council of Europe can be found in detail on its official website. In a nutshell, the Council of Europe works in the following areas:

• Protection of the rule of law and fostering legal co-operation through some 200 conventions and other treaties, including such leading instruments as the Convention on Cybercrime, the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, the Conventions against Corruption and Organised Crime, the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, and the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.^[6]
• CODEXTER, designed to co-ordinate counter-terrorism measures
• The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)
• Protection of human rights, notably through:
  • the European Convention on Human Rights
  • the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
  • the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
  • the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings^[7]
  • the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse^[8]
  • social rights under the European Social Charter
  • linguistic rights under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
  • minority rights under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
  • Media freedom under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Transfrontier Television
• Protection of democracy through parliamentary scrutiny and election monitoring by its Parliamentary Assembly as well as assistance in democratic reforms, in particular by the Venice Commission.
• Promotion of cultural co-operation and diversity under the Council of Europe's Cultural Convention of 1954 and several conventions on the protection of cultural heritage as well as through its Centre for Modern Languages in Graz, Austria, and its North-South Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.
• Promotion of the right to education under Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and several conventions on the recognition of university studies and diplomas (see also Bologna Process and Lisbon Recognition Convention).
• Promotion of fair sport through the Anti-Doping Convention^[9] and the Convention against Spectator Violence.^[10]
• Promotion of European youth exchanges and co-operation through European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, Hungary.
• Promotion of the quality of medicines throughout Europe by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Pharmacopoeia.

Institutions[link]

The parliamentary hemicycle

The institutions of the Council of Europe are:

• The Secretary General, who is elected for a term of five years by the Parliamentary Assembly and heads the Secretariat of the Council of Europe. The current Secretary General is the former Prime Minister of Norway, Thorbjørn Jagland, who took office on 1 October 2009.^[11]
• The Committee of Ministers, comprising the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all 47 member states who are represented by their Permanent Representatives and Ambassadors accredited to the Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers' presidencies are held in alphabetical order for six months following the English alphabet: Turkey 11/2010-05/2011, Ukraine 05/2011-11/2011, the United Kingdom 11/2011-05/2012, Albania 05/2012-11/2012, Andorra 11/2012-05/2013, Armenia 05/2013-11/2013, Austria 11/2013-05/2014, and so on.
• The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which comprises national parliamentarians from all member states and elects its President for a year with the possibility of being re-elected for another year. In January 2010, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu from Turkey was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly. National parliamentary delegations to the Assembly must reflect the political spectrum of their national parliament, i.e., comprise government and opposition parties. The Assembly appoints members as rapporteurs with the mandate to prepare parliamentary reports on specific subjects. The British MP Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe was rapporteur for the drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights. Dick Marty's reports on secret CIA detentions and rendition flights in Europe became quite famous in 2007. Other Assembly rapporteurs were instrumental in, for example, the abolition of the death penalty in Europe, the political and human rights situation in Chechnya, disappeared persons in Belarus, freedom of expression in the media and many other subjects.
• The Congress of the Council of Europe (Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe), which was created in 1994 and comprises political representatives from local and regional authorities in all member states. The most influential instruments of the Council of Europe in this field are the European Charter of Local Self-Government of 1985 and the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities of 1980.
• The European Court of Human Rights, created under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, is composed of a judge from each member state elected for a renewable term of six years by the Parliamentary Assembly and is headed by the elected President of the Court. Since 2007, Jean-Paul Costa from France is the President of the Court. Under the new Protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, the terms of office of judges shall be nine years but non-renewable. Ratification of Protocol No. 14 was delayed by Russia for a number of years, but won support to be passed in January 2010.
• The Commissioner for Human Rights, who is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly for a non-renewable term of six years since the creation of this position in 1999. Since April 2012, this position has been held by Nils Muižnieks from Latvia.
• The Conference of INGOs. NGOs can participate in the INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe. Since the [Resolution (2003)8] adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 19 November 2003, they are given a "participatory status".
• Information Offices of the Council of Europe in many member states.

European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines.

The CoE system also includes a number of semi-autonomous structures known as "Partial Agreements", some of which are also open to non-member states:

• The Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris
• The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines with its European Pharmacopoeia
• The European Audiovisual Observatory
• The European Support Fund Eurimages for the co-production and distribution of films
• The Pompidou Group – Cooperation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs
• The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission
• The Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO)
• The European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA) which is a platform for co-operation between European and Southern Mediterranean countries in the field of major natural and technological disasters.
• The Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport, which is open to accession by states and sport associations.^[12]
• The North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in Lisbon (Portugal)
• The Centre for Modern Languages is in Graz (Austria)

Headquarters and buildings[link]

Aerial shot of the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg

The seat of the Council of Europe is in Strasbourg, France. First meetings were held in Strasbourg's University Palace in 1949, but the Council of Europe soon moved into its own buildings. The Council of Europe's eight main buildings are situated in the Quartier européen, an area in the north-east of Strasbourg spread over the three districts of Le Wacken, La Robertsau and Quartier de l'Orangerie, where are also located the four buildings of the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Arte headquarters and the seat of the International Institute of Human Rights.

Building in the area started in 1949 with the predecessor of the Palais de l'Europe, the House of Europe (demolished in 1977), and came to a provisional end in 2007 with the opening of the New General Office Building, later named "Agora", in 2008.^[13] The Palais de l'Europe (Palace of Europe) and the Art Nouveau Villa Schutzenberger (seat of the European Audiovisual Observatory) are in the Orangerie district, and the European Court of Human Rights, the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and the Agora Building are in the Robertsau district. The Agora building has been voted "best international business center real estate project of 2007" on 13 March 2008, at the MIPIM 2008.^[14] The European Youth Centre is located in the Wacken district.

Besides its headquarters in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe is also present in other cities and countries. The Council of Europe Development Bank has its seat in Paris, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe is established in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Centre for Modern Languages is in Graz, Austria. There are European Youth Centres in Budapest, Hungary, and in Strasbourg. The European Wergeland Centre, a new Resource Centre on education for intercultural dialogue, human rights and democratic citizenship, operated in cooperation with the Norwegian Government, opened in Oslo, Norway, in February 2009.^[15]

The Council of Europe has offices in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Ukraine; information offices in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine; and a projects office in Turkey. All these offices are establishments of the Council of Europe and they share its juridical personality with privileges and immunities.

Due to persistent budgetary shortages, the Council of Europe is expected to cut down significantly the number of its activities, and thus the number of its employees, from 2011 on. This will notably affect the economy of the city of Strasbourg, where a total of 2,321 people (on 1 January 2010) are doing salaried work for the CoE. Most offices in foreign countries are expected to be closed as well.^[16]

Symbols[link]

The Flag of Europe

The Council of Europe created and uses as its official symbols the famous European Flag with 12 golden stars arranged in a circle on a blue background since 1955, and the European Anthem based on the Ode to Joy in the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth symphony since 1972.

On 5 May 1964, the 15th anniversary of its founding, the Council of Europe established 5 May as Europe Day.^[17]

Although protected by copyright, the wide private and public use of the European Flag is encouraged to symbolise a European dimension. To avoid confusion with the European Union which subsequently adopted the same flag in the 1980s, as well as other European institutions, the Council of Europe often uses a modified version with a lower-case 'e' in the centre of the stars which is referred to as the "Council of Europe Logo".^[17][18]

Membership, observers, partners[link]

The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Greece and Turkey joined three months later, and Iceland and Germany the next year. It now has 47 member states, with Montenegro being the latest to join.

Article 4 of the Council of Europe Statute specifies that membership is open to any "European" State. This has been interpreted liberally from the beginning (when Turkey was admitted) to include any Eurasian state with a toe-hold in Europe.

As a result, nearly all European states have acceded to the Council of Europe, with the exception of Belarus (human rights concerns), Kazakhstan^[19] (human rights concerns/not sufficient democratization^{[citation needed]}), Vatican City (a theocracy) and some of the states with limited recognition.

Besides the status as a full member, the Council of Europe has established other instruments for cooperation and participation of non-member states: observer, applicant, special guest, partner for democracy.

Co-operation[link]

Non-member states[link]

  Council of Europe members

  Non-members invited to sign conventions

The Council of Europe works mainly through conventions. By drafting conventions or international treaties, common legal standards are set for its member states. However, several conventions have also been opened for signature to non-member states. Important examples are the Convention on Cybercrime (signed for example, by Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States), the Lisbon Recognition Convention on the recognition of study periods and degrees (signed for example, by Australia, Belarus, Canada, the Holy See, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand and the USA), the Anti-doping Convention (signed for example, by Australia, Belarus, Canada and Tunisia) and the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (signed for example, by Burkina Faso, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal as well as the European Community). Non-member states also participate in several partial agreements, such as the Venice Commission, the Group of States Against Corruption GRECO, the European Pharmacopoeia Commission and the North-South Centre.

Invitations to sign and ratify relevant conventions of the Council of Europe on a case-by-case basis are sent to three groups of non-member entities:^[20]

• Non-European states: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, South Korea, Kyrgystan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uruguay, Venezuela and the observers Canada, Israel, Japan, Mexico, United States.
• European states: Kazakhstan, Belarus and the observer Vatican City.
• the European Community and later the European Union after its legal personality was established by the ratification of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

European Union[link]

Relations in general between the CoE and the EU[link]

A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships between various multinational European organisations.v • d • e

As mentioned in the introduction, it is important to realise that the Council of Europe is not to be mistaken with the Council of the European Union (the "Council of Ministers") or the European Council. These belong to the European Union, which is separate from the Council of Europe, although they have shared the same European flag and anthem since the 1980s because they also work for European integration.

Cooperation between the European Union and the Council of Europe has recently been reinforced, notably on culture and education as well as on the international enforcement of justice and Human Rights.^[21]

The European Union is expected to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). There are also concerns about consistency in case law – the European Court of Justice (the EU's court in Luxembourg) is treating the Convention as part of the legal system of all EU member states in order to prevent conflict between its judgements and those of the European Court of Human Rights (the court in Strasbourg interpreting the Convention). Protocol No.14 of the Convention is designed to allow the EU to accede to it and the EU Treaty of Lisbon contains a protocol binding the EU to join. The EU would thus be subject to its human rights law and external monitoring as its member states currently are.^[22][23]

United Nations[link]

The Council of Europe holds observer status with the United Nations and is regularly represented in the UN General Assembly. It has organised the regional UN conferences against racism and on women and co-operates with the United Nations at many levels, in particular in the areas of human rights, minorities, migration and counter-terrorism.

Non-governmental organisations[link]

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can participate in the INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe and become observers to inter-governmental committees of experts. The Council of Europe drafted the European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of International Non-Governmental Organisations in 1986, which sets the legal basis for the existence and work of NGOs in Europe. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to freedom of association, which is also a fundamental norm for NGOs. The rules for Consultative Status for INGOs appended to the resolution (93)38 "On relation between the Council of Europe and non-governmental organisations", adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 18 October 1993 at the 500th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies. On 19 November 2003 the Committee of Ministers changed the consultative status into a participatory status (Resolution Res (2003)8)“considering that it is indispensable that the rules governing the relations between the Council of Europe and NGOs evolve to reflect the active participation of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in the Organisation's policy and work programme”.

See also[link]

Europe portal

• CAHDI
• CODEXTER
• Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
• Conference of Specialised Ministers
• Continental organizations
• Council of Europe Archives
• Film Award of the Council of Europe
• Europe
• European Anti-fraud Office
• European Court of Human Rights
• European Social Charter
• European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
• European Union
• Group of States Against Corruption
• International organisations in Europe, and Co-ordinated organisations
• List of Linguistic Rights in Constitutions (Europe)
• North–South Centre of the Council of Europe
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe statistics
• Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• WADA

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Council of Europe

Wikisource has several original texts related to: Council of Europe

• Official website
• Information Office of the Council of Europe in Armenia

v t e Council of Europe Institutions Secretary General Committee of Ministers Parliamentary Assembly Congress Court of Human Rights Commissioner for Human Rights Commission for the Efficiency of Justice Commission against Racism and Intolerance Members Full Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia1 Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Observer Canada Israel Japan Mexico United States Vatican City Former Czechoslovakia (1991–1992) Saar (assoc. 1950–1956) 1 Provisionally referred to by the Council of Europe as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"; see Macedonia naming dispute.

Golda Meir
4th Prime Minister of Israel
In office March 17, 1969 – June 3, 1974
President	Zalman Shazar Ephraim Katzir
Preceded by	Yigal Allon (Acting)
Succeeded by	Yitzhak Rabin
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office June 18, 1956 – January 12, 1966
Prime Minister	David Ben-Gurion Levi Eshkol
Preceded by	Moshe Sharett
Succeeded by	Abba Eban
Personal details
Born	Golda Mabovich (1898-05-03)May 3, 1898 Kiev, Russian Empire
Died	December 8, 1978(1978-12-08) (aged 80) Jerusalem, Israel
Political party	Alignment
Other political affiliations	Mapai Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Morris Meyerson (d. 1951)
Children	2
Alma mater	Milwaukee State Normal School (Now, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Profession	Teacher, diplomat
Religion	Judaism

Golda Meir (Hebrew: גּוֹלְדָּה מֵאִיר‎‎ [ɡolˈda] or [ˈɡolda] [meˈʔiʁ];^[1] earlier Golda Meyerson, born Golda Mabovich (Голда Мабович); May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of Israel.

Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969,^[2] after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.^[3] Former prime minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government"; she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people."^[4]

In 1974, after the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War, Meir resigned as prime minister. She died in 1978.

Early life[link]

Golda Mabovitch (Ukrainian: Ґольда Мабович) was born on May 3, 1898, in Kiev, Russian Empire, in present-day Ukraine, to Blume Neiditch (died 1951) and Moshe Mabovitch (died 1944), a carpenter. Meir wrote in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumors of an imminent pogrom. She had two sisters, Sheyna and Tzipke, as well as five other siblings who died in childhood. She was especially close to Sheyna.

Moshe Mabovitch left to find work in New York City in 1903.^[5] In his absence, the rest of the family moved to Pinsk to join her mother's family. In 1905, Moshe moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in search of higher-paying work and found employment in the workshops of the local railroad yard. The following year, he had saved up enough money to bring his family to the United States.

Golda Meir, 1910

Golda Meir in Milwaukee, 1914

Blume ran a grocery store on Milwaukee's north side, where by age eight Golda had been put in charge of watching the store when her mother went to the market for supplies. Golda attended the Fourth Street Grade School (now Golda Meir School) from 1906 to 1912. A leader early on, she organized a fund raiser to pay for her classmates' textbooks. After forming the American Young Sisters Society, she rented a hall and scheduled a public meeting for the event. She went on to graduate as valedictorian of her class, despite not knowing English at the beginning of her schooling.

At 14, she studied at North Division High School and worked part-time. Her mother wanted her to leave school and marry, but she rebelled. She bought a train ticket to Denver, Colorado, and went to live with her married sister, Sheyna Korngold. The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home, where Meir was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, women's suffrage, trade unionism, and more. In her autobiography, she wrote: "To the extent that my own future convictions were shaped and given form [...] those talk-filled nights in Denver played a considerable role." In Denver, she also met Morris Meyerson, a sign painter, whom she later married on December 24, 1917.^[6]

Return to Milwaukee, Zionist activism and teaching[link]

In 1913, she returned to North Division High, graduating in 1915. While there, she became an active member of Young Poale Zion, which later became Habonim, the Labor Zionist youth movement. She spoke at public meetings, embraced Socialist Zionism and hosted visitors from Palestine.

She attended the teachers college Milwaukee State Normal School (now University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee), in 1916, and probably part of 1917. After graduating from Milwaukee Normal, she taught in Milwaukee public schools.

In 1917, she took a position at a Yiddish-speaking Folks Schule in Milwaukee. While at the Folks Schule, she came more closely into contact with the ideals of Labor Zionism. In 1913, she began dating Morris Meyerson. She was a committed Labor Zionist and he was a dedicated socialist. Together, they left their jobs to join a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921.

When Golda and Morris married in 1917, settling in Palestine was her precondition for the marriage.^[4] Golda had intended to make Aliyah straight away but her plans were disrupted due to all transatlantic passenger services being canceled due to the First World War. Instead she threw her energies into Poale Zion activities.^[7] A short time after their wedding, she embarked on a fund raising campaign for Poale Zion that took her across the United States.^[4] The couple moved to Palestine in 1921 together with her sister Sheyna.

Aliyah[link]

Golda Meir in the fields at Kibbutz Merhavia (1920s)

In the British Mandate of Palestine, the couple joined a kibbutz. Their initial application to kibbutz Merhavia in the Jezreel Valley was rejected, but in the end they were accepted. Her duties included picking almonds, planting trees, working in the chicken coops and running the kitchen. Recognizing her leadership abilities, the kibbutz chose her as its representative to the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labour.

In 1924, she and her husband left the kibbutz and resided briefly in Tel Aviv before settling in Jerusalem. There they had two children, a son Menachem (born 1924) and a daughter Sarah (born 1926).

In 1928, she was elected secretary of Moetzet HaPoalot (Working Women's Council), which required her to spend two years (1932–34) as an emissary in the United States.^[8] The children went with her, but Morris stayed in Jerusalem. Morris and Golda grew apart, but never divorced.^[4] Morris died in 1951.

Histadrut activities[link]

In 1934, when Meir returned from the United States, she joined the Executive Committee of the Histadrut and moved up the ranks to become head of its Political Department. This appointment was important training for her future role in Israeli leadership.^[9]

In July 1938, Meir was the Jewish observer from Palestine at the Évian Conference, called by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss the question of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Delegates from the 32 invited countries repeatedly expressed their sorrow for the plight of the European Jews, but made excuses as to why their countries could not help by admitting the refugees. The only exception was the Dominican Republic, which pledged to accept 100,000 refugees on generous terms.^[10] Meir was disappointed at the outcome and remarked to the press, "There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore."^[6]

Pre-state political role[link]

In June 1946, the British cracked down on the Zionist movement in Palestine, arresting many leaders of the Yishuv. Meir took over as acting head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency during the incarceration of Moshe Sharett. Thus she became the principal negotiator between the Jews in Palestine and the British Mandatory authorities. After his release, Sharett went to the United States to attend talks on the UN Partition Plan, leaving Meir to head the Political Department until the establishment of the state in 1948.^[9]

In January 1948, the treasurer of the Jewish Agency was convinced that Israel would not be able to raise more than $7–8 million from the American Jewish community.^[4] Meir traveled to the United States and managed to raise $50 million, which was used to purchase arms in Europe for the nascent state.^[4] Ben-Gurion wrote that Meir's role as the "Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible" would go down one day in the history books.^[4]

On May 10, 1948, four days before the official establishment of the state, Meir traveled to Amman disguised as an Arab woman for a secret meeting with King Abdullah of Transjordan at which she urged him not to join the other Arab countries in attacking the Jews. Abdullah asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. Meir replied: "We've been waiting for 2,000 years. Is that hurrying?"^[11]

As head of the Jewish Agency Political Department, Meir called the mass exodus of Arabs before the War of Independence in 1948 "dreadful" and likened it to what had befallen the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.^[12]

Ministerial career[link]

Meir was one of 24 signatories (two of them women) of the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. She later recalled, "After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those who signed the Declaration of Independence, I couldn't imagine these were real people doing something real. And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of establishment." Israel was attacked the next day by the joint armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq, along with expeditionary forces from other Arab countries and Arab guerilla movements in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During the war, Israel stopped the combined Arab assault, then launched a series of military offensives and expanded its territorial holdings.

Ambassador to Moscow[link]

Carrying the first Israeli-issued passport,^[13][14] Meir was appointed Israel's ambassador to the Soviet Union. During her brief stint there, which ended in 1949, she attended high holiday services at the synagogue in Moscow, where she was mobbed by thousands of Russian Jews chanting her name. The Israeli 10,000 shekel banknote issued in November 1984 bore a portrait of Meir on one side and the image of the crowd that turned out to cheer her in Moscow on the other.^[15]

Labor minister[link]

Golda Meir at first session of the Third Knesset (1951)

In 1949, Meir was elected to the Knesset as a member of Mapai and served continuously until 1974. From 1949 to 1956, she served as Minister of Labour, introducing major housing and road construction projects.^[16] In 1955, on Ben Gurion's instructions, she stood for the position of mayor of Tel Aviv. She lost by the two votes of the religious bloc who withheld their support on the grounds that she was a woman.^[17]

Foreign minister[link]

In 1956, she became Foreign Minister under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Her predecessor, Moshe Sharett, had asked all members of the foreign service to Hebraicize their last names. Upon her appointment as foreign minister, she shortened "Meyerson" to "Meir," which means "illuminate." As Foreign Minister, Meir promoted ties with the newly established states in Africa in an effort to gain allies in the international community.^[16] But she also believed that Israel had experience in nation-building that could be a model for the Africans. In her autobiography, she wrote: "Like them, we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together, and how to defend ourselves." Israel could be a role model because it "had been forced to find solutions to the kinds of problems that large, wealthy, powerful states had never encountered."^[18]

Golda Meir with President Kennedy (1962)

On October 29, 1957 she was slightly injured in the foot when a 'Mills grenade' was thrown into the debating chamber of the Knesset. David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Carmel were more seriously injured. The attack was carried out by 25 year old Moshe Dwek. Born in Aleppo, his motives were attributed to a dispute with the Jewish Agency, though he was also described as 'mentally unbalanced'.^[19]

In 1958, she was recorded as having praised the work of Pope Pius XII on behalf of the Jewish people shortly after the pontiff's death. Pope Pius's legacy as a wartime pope remains controversial to this day.^[20]

The same year, during the wave of Jewish migration from Poland to Israel, Meir sought to prevent disabled and sick Polish Jews from immigrating to Israel. In a letter sent to Israel's ambassador in Warsaw, Katriel Katz, she wrote: "A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration."^[21]

In the early 1960s, Meir was diagnosed with lymphoma. In January 1966, she retired from the Foreign Ministry, citing exhaustion and ill health, but soon returned to public life as secretary general of Mapai, supporting the Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, in party conflicts.^[16]

Premiership[link]

Meir (center) with Pat and Richard Nixon in 1973.

After Levi Eshkol's sudden death on February 26, 1969, the party elected Meir as his successor.^[22] Meir came out of retirement to take office on March 17, 1969, serving as prime minister until 1974. Meir maintained the coalition government formed in 1967, after the Six-Day War, in which Mapai merged with two other parties (Rafi and Ahdut HaAvoda) to form the Israel Labour party.^[16]

In 1969 and the early 1970s, Meir met with many world leaders to promote her vision of peace in the Middle East, including Richard Nixon (1969), Nicolae Ceaușescu (1972) and Pope Paul VI (1973). In 1973, she hosted the chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt in Israel.^[16]

In August 1970, Meir accepted a U.S. peace initiative that called for an end to the War of Attrition and an Israeli pledge to withdraw to "secure and recognized boundaries" in the framework of a comprehensive peace settlement. The Gahal party quit the national unity government in protest, but Meir continued to lead the remaining coalition.^[23]

Munich Olympics[link]

In the wake of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Meir appealed to the world to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed."^[24] Outraged at the perceived lack of global action, she ordered the Mossad to hunt down and assassinate suspected leaders and operatives of Black September and PFLP.^[25] The 1986 TV film Sword of Gideon, based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, and Steven Spielberg's movie Munich (2005) were based on these events.

Dispute with Austria[link]

During the 1970s about 200,000 Russian-Jewish emigrants were allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel by way of Austria. When seven of these emigrants were taken hostage at the Austria-Czechoslovakian border by Palestinian Arab fighters in September 1973, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky closed the Jewish Agency's transit facility in Schönau, Lower Austria. A few days later in Vienna, Meir tried to convince Kreisky to re-open the facility by appealing to his own Jewish origin, and described his position as "succumbing to terrorist blackmail". Kreisky did not change his position, so Meir returned to Israel infuriated.^[26] A few months later Austria opened a new transition camp.^[27]

Yom Kippur War[link]

In the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence was not able to determine conclusively that an attack was imminent. However, on October 5, 1973, Meir received official news that Syrian forces were massing on the Golan Heights. The prime minister was alarmed by the reports, and felt that the situation reminded her of what happened before the Six Day War. Her advisers, however, assured her not to worry, saying that they would have adequate notice before a war broke out. This made sense at the time, since after the Six Day War, most Israelis felt it unlikely that the Arabs would attack. Consequently, although a resolution was passed granting her power to demand a full-scale call-up of the military (instead of the typical cabinet decision), Meir did not mobilize Israel's forces early. Soon, though, war became very clear. Six hours before the outbreak of hostilities, Meir met with Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan and general David Elazar. While Dayan continued to argue that war was unlikely and thus was in favor of calling up the air force and only two divisions, Elazar advocated launching a full-scale pre-emptive strike on Syrian forces.^[28]

Meir sided with Dayan, citing Israel's need for foreign aid. She believed that Israel could not depend on European countries to supply Israel with military equipment, and the only country that might come to Israel's assistance was the United States. Fearing that the U.S. would be wary of intervening if Israel were perceived as initiating the hostilities, Meir decided against a pre-emptive strike. She made it a priority to inform Washington of her decision. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger later confirmed Meir's assessment by stating that if Israel had launched a pre-emptive strike, Israel would not have received "so much as a nail."^[29]

Resignation[link]

Following the Yom Kippur War, Meir's government was plagued by in-fighting and questions over Israel's lack of preparedness for the war. The Agranat Commission appointed to investigate the war cleared her of "direct responsibility," and related to her actions on Yom Kippur morning;

Her party won the elections in December 1973, but she resigned on April 11, 1974, bowing to what she felt was the "will of the people." and what she felt was a sufficient premiership as well as the pending pressures of forming a coalition; "Five years are sufficient...It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden."^[29][30] Yitzhak Rabin succeeded her on June 3, 1974.

In 1975, she published her autobiography, My Life.^[29][31]

According to author Victor John Ostrovsky she had a long running affair with her minister without portfolio Yisrael Galili.^[32]

Death[link]

Golda Meir's grave on Mount Herzl

On December 8, 1978, Meir died of lymphatic cancer in Jerusalem at the age of 80. Four days later, on December 12, Meir was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.^[33]

Awards[link]

In 1975, Meir was awarded the Israel Prize for her special contribution to society and the State of Israel.^[29][34] In 1974, Meir was awarded the honor of World Mother by American Mothers, Inc.^[35] In 1974 Meir was awarded the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service by Princeton University's American Whig-Cliosophic Society.^[36]

Legacy[link]

Portrayals in film and theater[link]

Meir's story has been the subject of many fictionalized portrayals. In 1977, Anne Bancroft played Meir in William Gibson's Broadway play Golda. The Australian actress Judy Davis played a young Meir in the television film A Woman Called Golda (1982), opposite Leonard Nimoy. Ingrid Bergman played the older Golda in the same film. In 2003, the American Jewish actress Tovah Feldshuh portrayed her on Broadway in Golda's Balcony, Gibson's second play about Meir's life. The one-woman show was controversial in its implication that Meir considered using nuclear weapons during the Yom Kippur War.

Valerie Harper portrayed her in the touring company and in the film version of Golda's Balcony.^[37] Supporting actress Colleen Dewhurst portrayed her in the 1986 TV-movie Sword of Gideon.^[38] In 2005, actress Lynn Cohen portrayed Meir in Steven Spielberg's film Munich. Later on, Tovah Feldshuh assumed her role once again in the 2006 English-speaking French movie O Jerusalem. She was played by the Polish actress Beata Fudalej in the 2009 film The Hope by Márta Mészáros.^[39]

Commemoration[link]

Memorial plaque in Kiev

Golda Meir Square is designated in New York City south of Times Square

• Golda Meir School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin^[40]
• Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Golda Meir Boulevard, Jerusalem, Israel (and various other streets, neighborhoods and schools in Israel)
• Golda Meir Center for the Performing Arts, Tel Aviv
• Golda Meir Square, New York City^[41]
• Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership at Metropolitan State College of Denver^[42]
• Golda Meir House, Denver, Colorado^[6][43]
• Golda Meir House, Newton, Massachusetts

Cultural references[link]

In Israel, the term "Golda's shoes" (na'alei Golda), a reference to the sturdy orthopedic shoes that Golda favored, has become a euphemism for all that is ugly and old-fashioned.^[44]

Poll[link]

In 2005, she was voted the 75th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[45]

Published works[link]

• This is Our Strength (1962) – Golda Meir's collected papers
• My Father's House (1972)
• My Life (1975). Putnam, ISBN 0-399-11669-9.

See also[link]

• Évian Conference
• List of Israel Prize recipients

References[link]

Biographies[link]

• Agres, Elijahu (1969). Golda Meir: Portrait of a Prime Minister. Sabra Books. ISBN 0-87631-020-X. 
• Avner, Yehuda (2010). The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. The Toby Press. ISBN 978-1-59264-278-6. 
• Burkett, Elinor (2008). Golda Meir: The Iron Lady of the Middle East. Gibson Square. ISBN 978-1-906142-13-1. 
• Fallaci, Oriana (1976). Interview With History. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-25223-7. 
• Martin, Ralph G. (1988). Golda Meir: The Romantic Years. Ivy Books. ISBN 0-8041-0536-7. 
• Meir, Menahem (1983). My Mother Golda Meir: A Son's Evocation of Life With Golda Meir. Arbor House Pub. Co.. ISBN 0-87795-415-1. 
• Syrkin, Marie (1969). Golda Meir: Israel's Leader. Putnam. 
• Syrkin, Marie (1963). Golda Meir: Woman with a Cause. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Golda Meir

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Golda Meir

• Prime Minister Golda Meir – Israeli Prime Minister's Office.
• Knesset Member, Golda Meir – Knesset profile.
• Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Jewish Agency For Israel.
• Women’s International Center.
• Picturing Golda Meir – Photographs from the Collection at the UWM Libraries.
• The short film Golda Meir Interview (Reel 1 of 2) (1973) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• The short film Golda Meir Interview (Reel 2 of 2) (1973) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]

v t e Prime Ministers of Israel Ben-Gurion (1948–53) Sharett (1953–55) Ben-Gurion (1955–63) Eshkol (1963–69) Allon (acting) Meir (1969–74) Rabin (1974–77) Begin (1977–83) Shamir (1983–84) Peres (1984–86) Shamir (1986–92) Rabin (1992–95) Peres (1995–96) Netanyahu (1996–99) Barak (1999–2001) Sharon (2001–06) Olmert (2006–09) Netanyahu (2009–present)