How the modern state of Israel was created in 1948

The roots of modern Israel can be traced back to ancient times when the Israelites established a united kingdom under King Saul around 1020 BCE.

However, internal strife and external pressures led to the division of this kingdom into two: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

By 722 BCE, the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom, dispersing its inhabitants.

The southern kingdom of Judah managed to persist until 586 BCE when the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, captured Jerusalem and destroyed the First Temple, initiating the Babylonian Exile.

The return from this exile in 538 BCE, sanctioned by the Persian King Cyrus the Great, marked the beginning of the Second Temple period.

Over the subsequent centuries, the region witnessed a series of conquerors, from the Persians to the Greeks under Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, followed by the Seleucid Empire.

The Maccabean Revolt in 167 BCE led to the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty, a brief period of Jewish autonomy.

By 63 BCE, however, the Romans had annexed Judea, and it became a province of the Roman Empire.

The Roman period was marked by tensions, culminating in the Jewish-Roman Wars.

The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the Roman legions under Titus was a devastating blow.

A subsequent revolt, the Bar Kokhba rebellion (132-136 CE), further diminished Jewish autonomy in the region.

Following these events, the Jewish diaspora spread across the Mediterranean and beyond, though a Jewish presence remained in Palestine throughout the subsequent centuries.

The rise of Islam in the 7th century CE brought new rulers to the region, with the Umayyad and later the Abbasid Caliphates establishing control.

Over the next millennium, control of the region shifted among various empires, including the Crusaders, the Mamluks, and the Ottomans, who took over in 1517 and ruled until the end of World War I. 

Zionism, at its core, is a nationalist movement that emerged in the late 19th century with the goal of re-establishing a Jewish homeland in the historical region of Palestine.

The term 'Zionism' is derived from Zion, a biblical term that originally referred to a specific mountain in Jerusalem but later came to symbolize the city itself and, by extension, the entire Promised Land.

The seeds of Zionism were sown in the context of European nationalism and the challenges faced by Jewish communities in Europe.

Pogroms, or violent riots aimed at Jewish communities, particularly in Russia and Eastern Europe, combined with the cultural and intellectual currents of the time, led many Jews to seek a solution to the 'Jewish Question' – the matter of how Jews could achieve equality and security in a predominantly non-Jewish world.

Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist, is often credited as the father of modern political Zionism.

Disturbed by the anti-Semitism he witnessed, including the infamous Dreyfus Affair in France, Herzl concluded that assimilation was not the answer.

In his groundbreaking work, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) published in 1896, Herzl articulated the idea that Jews should establish their own state.

He believed that only through self-determination in their ancestral homeland could Jews live freely and without persecution.

Herzl's vision quickly gained traction, leading to the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897.

This congress established the World Zionist Organization (WZO), which aimed to promote Jewish migration to Palestine and garner international support for a Jewish state.

The Basel Program, adopted at this congress, officially defined Zionism's goal as "the creation of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law".

Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 25,000–30,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine during the First Aliyah, mainly from Eastern Europe, establishing agricultural settlements such as Rishon LeZion.

The British Mandate of Palestine, spanning from 1920 to 1948, was a pivotal period that significantly influenced the course of Middle Eastern history.

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain the mandate to administer the territory of Palestine.

This mandate was officially confirmed in July 1922 and came into effect in September 1923.

The foundation for British involvement in Palestine was laid with the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

In this declaration, Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, expressed the British government's support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

However, the declaration also stipulated that the rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine should not be prejudiced.

From the outset, the British faced challenges in balancing the aspirations of the Jewish and Arab communities.

Jewish immigration to Palestine increased during the 1920s and 1930s, driven by Zionist aspirations and the dire situation for Jews in Europe, particularly with the rise of Nazism.

During the 1930s, over 250,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, many fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe.

This immigration, combined with land purchases by Jewish organizations, led to significant demographic and economic changes.

The Arab community in Palestine, alarmed by the increasing Jewish presence and the potential loss of Arab majority status, voiced strong opposition to the Balfour Declaration and British policies that seemed to favor Jewish immigration.

This discontent led to several outbreaks of violence, including the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921, the 1929 Western Wall disturbances, and the more extensive Arab Revolt from 1936 to 1939.

In response to the challenges of governing a divided populace and the violent outbreaks, Britain issued several policy statements.

The 1930 Passfield White Paper sought to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases, while the 1937 Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

The latter was rejected by both Arab and Jewish leaderships. The 1939 White Paper, issued in the wake of the Arab Revolt, further limited Jewish immigration and land purchases, aiming for an independent Palestine governed jointly by Arabs and Jews within ten years.

World War II, a global conflict that raged from 1939 to 1945, brought unprecedented devastation and reshaped the political landscape of the 20th century.

Central to the war's narrative, particularly in its impact on the Jewish community and the subsequent formation of Israel, was the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

Beginning with discriminatory laws and escalating to mass deportations, it culminated in the extermination of Jews in concentration and death camps.

As the war progressed, the Nazis implemented the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question', a plan to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe.

Jews from Nazi-occupied territories were rounded up and transported to concentration and extermination camps, where millions met their end in gas chambers.

The discovery of the death camps by Allied forces in the final stages of the war revealed the full extent of the Holocaust's horrors.

The international community was confronted with the grim reality of skeletal survivors, mass graves, and evidence of industrial-scale murder.

The Holocaust had profound implications for the post-war world. The urgent need to address the plight of Jewish survivors, many of whom were displaced and stateless, became a pressing issue.

The revelations of the Holocaust intensified global sympathy for Jewish refugees and bolstered the case for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

By the mid-1940s, the British found themselves in an increasingly untenable position in Palestine.

The aftermath of World War II and the revelations of the Holocaust had intensified global sympathy for Jewish refugees and increased pressure on Britain to allow more Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Simultaneously, the Arab majority in Palestine, along with neighboring Arab states, opposed the establishment of a Jewish state.

Given the complexities and the escalating tensions, Britain decided to refer the issue to the United Nations in 1947.

In response, the UN formed a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to investigate the situation and recommend a solution.

As a result, UNSCOP visited the region in 1947 and interviewed both Jews and Arabs.

After these field visits, UNSCOP proposed the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international administration due to its religious significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.

Formally known as Resolution 181, this plan aimed to address the conflicting national aspirations of the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine, a territory that had been under British administrative control since the end of World War I.

The proposed plan divided the territory in such a way that the Jewish state would comprise roughly 56% of Palestine, despite Jews comprising only about one-third of the population.

The proposed section for Israel including much of the coastal plain and the Negev desert.

In contrast, the Arab state would encompass about 43%, including the highlands, the Galilee, and the major part of the Jordan Valley.

Jerusalem and its surroundings, given their unique status, would be placed under international trusteeship.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted on the partition plan. It was approved with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions.

The Jewish leadership in Palestine, seeing this as a pragmatic step towards realizing the dream of a Jewish homeland, accepted the plan.

However, the Arab leadership, both in Palestine and in the surrounding Arab states, rejected the proposal, viewing it as an imposition on the rights of the majority Arab population in Palestine.

The declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, was a momentous event, marking the culmination of decades of Jewish nationalist aspirations and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, made the declaration in a ceremony held at the Tel Aviv Museum.

In his proclamation, he announced the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

The declaration emphasized the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land, the hardships they had endured throughout history, and their right to self-determination.

It also extended an olive branch, calling for peace with neighboring states and assuring the Arab inhabitants of Israel of their civil rights.

The United States, under President Harry S. Truman, was the first country to recognize the State of Israel, doing so just 11 minutes after its declaration of independence.

By the early 1950s, Israel had absorbed nearly 700,000 Jewish immigrants, doubling its Jewish population.

This mass immigration, or Aliyah, presented both challenges and opportunities.

The new arrivals came from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, from Holocaust survivors from Europe to Jewish communities from Yemen, Iraq, and Morocco. Integrating these diverse groups required significant efforts.

The government established transit camps, known as Ma'abarot, to house the new immigrants temporarily.

While these camps were initially meant to be short-term solutions, many evolved into more permanent settlements, and some even became towns.

As a result of the Arab rejection of the partition plan, civil conflict had broken out between Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine, and the declaration of the State of Israel was immediately met with military intervention by neighboring Arab states.

The subsequent conflict, known as the 1948 Arab-Israeli War or the War of Independence, saw the fledgling State of Israel pitted against a coalition of Arab nations.

Despite being outnumbered and facing significant logistical challenges, Israel managed to not only defend its territory but also expand its borders beyond those proposed in the UN Partition Plan.

The war ended in 1949 with a series of armistice agreements between Israel and its neighboring states.

The 1949 Armistice Agreements established borders, often called the Green Line, which left Israel with approximately 78% of the territory of Mandatory Palestine.