History of Israel
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History of Israel
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The history of Israel encompasses the
history of the modern State of Israel, as well as that of the Jews in the Land of Israel. The area of modern
Israel is small, about the size of Wales or
half the size of Costa Rica, and is
located roughly on the site of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It is
the birthplace of the Hebrew language spoken in Israel
and of the Abrahamic
religions, first as Judaism and later of Christianity. It
contains sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druze and Bahá'í
Faith.
Although coming
under the sway of various empires and home to a variety of ethnicities, the
area of ancient Israel was predominantly Jewish until
theJewish–Roman
wars after
which Jews became a minority in most regions, except Galilee. The area
became increasingly Christian after the 3rd
century and then largely Muslim from
the 7th century conquest up until at least
the middle of the 20th century. After the Roman conquest, the area of ancient
Israel became known as the Holy Land or Palestine. It was a
focal point of conflict between Christianity and Islam between 1096 and 1291,
and from the end of the Crusades until the British conquest in 1917 was part of the Syrian province of first the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and then (from
1517) the Ottoman Empire.
In the late-19th
century, persecution
of Jews in Europe followed
by the creation of the Zionist
movement, led to international support for the establishment in
Palestine of a homeland for the Jewish people on the site of the
ancient kingdoms. Following the British conquest of Syria, theBalfour
Declaration in World War I and the formation
of the Mandate
of Palestine, Aliyah (Jewish
immigration to the Land of Israel)
increased and gave rise to Arab–Jewish tensions,
and a collision of the Arab and Jewish nationalist movements. Israeli independence in 1948 was marked
by massive migration of Jews from both Europe and
the Muslim countries to Israel, and of Arabs from
Israel leading to the extensive Arab–Israeli conflict.[1] About 42% of the world's Jews live
in Israel today.
Since about 1970,
the United States has become the
principal ally of Israel. In 1979 an uneasy Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed, based
on theCamp
David Accords. In 1993 Israel signed Oslo I Accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization and in 1994 Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed.
Despite efforts to establish peace
between Israel and Palestinians, many of whom live in Israel or in Israeli-occupied territories, the conflict continues
to play a major role in Israeli and international political, social and
economic life.
The economy of Israel was initially
primarily socialist and the country dominated by social democratic parties
until the 1970s. Since then the Israeli economy has gradually moved to
capitalism and a free market economy, partially retaining the social welfare
system.
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Ancient times
Prehistory
Between 2.6 and
0.9 million years ago, at least four episodes of hominine dispersal from
Africa to the Levant are known, each culturally distinct. The flint tool
artifacts of these early humans have been discovered on the territory of the
current state of Israel, including, at Yiron, the oldest stone tools found anywhere
outside Africa. Other groups include 1.4 million years old Acheuleanindustry,
the Bizat Ruhama group and Gesher
Bnot Yaakov.[2]
In the Carmel
mountain range at el-Tabun, and Es Skhul,[3] Neanderthal and early modern
human remains were found, including the skeleton of a Neanderthal female, named
Tabun I, which is regarded as one of the most important human fossils ever
found.[4] The excavation at
el-Tabun produced the longest stratigraphic record in the region,
spanning 600,000 or more years of human activity,[5] from the Lower Paleolithic to the present
day, representing roughly a million years of human evolution.[6]
Early Israelites
The
Merneptah Stele (JE 31408), the earliest record of the name "Israel"
(Cairo Museum)
The first record
of the name Israel (as ysrỉꜣr)
occurs in the Merneptah stele,
erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BCE,
"Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."[7] William Dever sees this
"Israel" in the central highlands as a cultural and probably
political entity, but an ethnic group rather than an organized state.[8]
Ancestors of the
Israelites may have included Semites native to Canaan and
the Sea Peoples.[9] McNutt says,
"It is probably safe to assume that sometime during Iron Age I a population
began to identify itself as 'Israelite'", differentiating itself from the Canaanites through such
markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and
genealogy, and religion.[10]
The first use of grapheme-based writing originated in the area, probably among
Canaanite peoples resident in Egypt. All modern alphabets are descended from
this writing. Written evidence of the use of Classical Hebrew exists from about
1000 BCE. It was written using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.
Villages had
populations of up to 300 or 400,[11][12] which lived by
farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient;[13] economic
interchange was prevalent.[14] Writing was known
and available for recording, even in small sites.[15] The archaeological
evidence indicates a society of village-like centres, but with more limited
resources and a small population.[16]
Israel and Judah
The Hebrew Bible describes constant
warfare between the Jews and other tribes, including the Philistines, whose
capital wasGaza.
Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split
into a southern Kingdom of Judah and a northern Kingdom of Israel.
The modern state
of Israel comprises part of the site of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, part of
the old Phoenician states, and part of the old Philistine states.
An alliance
between Ahab of
Israel and Ben Hadad II of Damascus managed to repulse
the incursions of the Assyrians, with a
victory at the Battle of Qarqar(854
BCE). However, the Kingdom of Israel was eventually destroyed by Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser
III around
750 BCE. The Philistine kingdom was also destroyed. The Assyrians sent most of
the northern Israelite kingdom into exile, thus creating the "Lost Tribes of Israel". The Samaritans claim to be
descended from survivors of the Assyrian conquest. An Israelite revolt (724–722
BCE) was crushed after the siege and capture of Samaria by Sargon II. Assyrian
King,Sennacherib, tried
and failed to conquer Judah. Assyrian records claim he punished
Judah and then left (Herodotus also described the
invasion).
Babylonian rule
In 586 BCE King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah.
According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to
Babylon. The defeat was also recorded by the Babylonians (see the Babylonian Chronicles). It is believed that the
Jewish king, Jehoiakim, switched
allegiances between the Egyptians and the Babylonians and that invasion was a
punishment for allying with Babylon's principle rival, Egypt. The exiled Jews
may have been restricted to the elite.
Classical era (538
BCE–636 CE)
Persian and
Hellenistic rule
In 538 BCE, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered
Babylon and took over its empire. Cyrus issued a proclamation granting
subjugated nations (including the people of Judah) religious freedom (for the
original text see the Cyrus Cylinder).
According to the Hebrew Bible 50,000 Judeans, led byZerubabel, returned
to Judah and rebuilt the temple. A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned
to Judah in 456 BCE although non-Jews wrote to Cyrus to try to prevent their
return. It is believed that the final Hebrew versions of the Torah and Books of Kings date from this
period and that the returning Israelites adopted an Aramaic script which they
brought back from Babylon, and that the Hebrew Calendar (which closely
resembles the Babylonian
calendar) also dates from this period.
In 333 BCE, Macedonian ruler Alexander
the Great defeated Persia and conquered the region.
Sometime thereafter, the first translation of the Hebrew Bible, (the Septuagint), was
begun in Alexandria. After
Alexander's death, his generals fought over the territory he had conquered.
Judah became the frontier between the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt,
eventually becoming part of the Seleucid Empire. In the 2nd century BCE, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ruler of the
Seleucid Empire) tried to eradicate Judaism in favour of Hellenistic
religion. This provoked the 174–135 BCE Maccabean Revoltled
by Judas Maccabeus (whose victory is
celebrated in the Jewish festival of Hanukkah). The Books of the Maccabees describe the
uprising and the end of Greek rule. A Jewish party called the Hasideans opposed both
Hellenism and the revolt but
eventually gave their support to the Maccabees. Modern interpretations see this
period as a civil war between Hellenized and orthodox forms of Judaism.[17][18]
Hasmonean dynasty
A coin (Hendin 485)
issued by Antigonus II Mattathias c. 40 BCE.
Obverse: Menorah with Greek inscription "BASILEWS ANTIGONOY" (King Antignus).
Obverse: Menorah with Greek inscription "BASILEWS ANTIGONOY" (King Antignus).
The Hasmonean dynasty of
(Jewish) priest-kings ruled Judea with
the Pharisees, Saducees and Essenes as the principal
Jewish social movements. As part of their struggle against Hellenistic civilization, the Pharisees established
what may have been the world's first national male (religious) education and
literacy program, based around meeting houses.[19] This led to Rabbinical
Judaism. Justice was administered by the Sanhedrin, whose
leader was known as the Nasi. The Nasi's religious authority gradually
superseded that of the Temple's high priest (under the
Hasmoneans this was the king).
In 125 BCE the
Hasmonean King John Hyrcanus subjugated Edom and
forcibly converted the population to Judaism. This is the
only known case offorced
conversion to
Judaism.[20] In 64 BCE the Roman general Pompey conquered Syria and
intervened in the Hasmonean civil war in Jerusalem. In 47 BCE the lives of Julius Caesar and his protege Cleopatra were saved by
3,000 crack Jewish troops sent by King Hyrcanus II and commanded byAntipater, whose
descendants Caesar made kings of Judea.[21]
Herodian kingdom
From 37 BCE to 6
CE, the Herodian dynasty,
Jewish-Roman client kings, descended from Antipater, ruled Judea. Herod the Great considerably
enlarged the temple (see Herod's Temple),
making it one of the largest religious structures in the world. Despite its
fame, it was in this period thatRabbinical
Judaism, led by Hillel the Elder,
began to assume popular prominence over the Temple priesthood.
The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was granted
special permission not to display an effigy of the emperor, becoming the only
religious structure in the Roman Empire that did not do
so. Special dispensation was granted for Jewish citizens of the Roman Empire to
pay a tax to the temple.
Roman rule
Judea was made a
Roman province in 6 CE, following the transition of Judean tetrarchy into a
Roman realm. Following the next decades, though prosperous, the society
suffered increasing tensions between Greco-Roman and Judean populations. In 66
CE, the Jews of Judea rose in revolt against
Rome, naming their new state as "Israel".[22] The events were
described by the Jewish leader/historian Josephus, including
the desperate defence of Jotapata, the siege of Jerusalem (69–70 CE) and
heroic last stand at Masada under Eleazar ben Yair (72–73 CE). Much
of Jerusalem and the Temple lay in ruins. During the Jewish revolt, most Christians, at this time a sub-sect of Judaism,
removed themselves from Judea. The rabbinical/Pharisee movement led byYochanan
ben Zakai, who opposed the Sadducee temple priesthood,
made peace with Rome and survived. After the war Jews
continued to be taxed in
the Fiscus Judaicus,
which was used to fund a temple to Jupiter.
From 115 to 117,
Jews in Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, Mesopotamia and Lod rose
in revolt against Rome.
This conflict was accompanied by large-scale massacres of both Romans and Jews.
Cyprus was severely depopulated and Jews banned from living there.[23]
In 131, the
Emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem
"Aelia
Capitolina" and constructed a Temple of Jupiter on the site of
the former Jewish temple. Jews were banned from living in Jerusalem itself (a
ban that persisted until the Arab conquest) and the Roman province, until then
known as Iudaea Province, was
renamed Palaestina, no other
revolt led to a province being renamed.[24] The names "Palestine"
(in English) and "Filistin" (in Arabic) are derived from this. From
132 to 136, the Jewish leader Simon Bar Kokhba led another major revolt against the
Romans, again renaming the country "Israel"[25](see Bar Kochba Revolt coinage). The Bar-Kochba revolt
probably caused more trouble for the Romans than the more famous (and better
documented) revolt of 70.[26] The Christians
refused to participate in the revolt and from this point the Jews regarded
Christianity as a separate religion.[27] The revolt was
eventually crushed by Emperor Hadrian himself. Although
uncertain, it is widely thought that during the Bar Kokhba revolt, when a rabbinical assembly decided which books could be regarded as part of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish apocrypha were left out.[28]
After suppressing
the Bar Kochba revolt, the Romans permitted a hereditary Rabbinical Patriarch
(from the House of Hillel) to
represent the Jews in dealings with the Romans. The most famous of these was Judah haNasi. Jewish
seminaries continued to produce scholars and the best of these became members
of the Sanhedrin.[29] The Mishnah, a major
Jewish religious text, was completed in this period. Before the Bar-Kochba
uprising, an estimated 2/3 of the population of Gallilee and 1/3 of the coastal
region were Jewish.[30] However,
persecution and the economic crisis that affected the Roman empire in the 3rd
century led to further Jewish migration from Palestine to the more tolerant
Persian Sassanid Empire,
where a prosperous Jewish community existed in the area of Babylon.
Early in the 4th
century, Constantinople became the capital
of the East Roman Empire and Christianity was adopted as the
official religion. The name Jerusalem was restored to Aelia Capitolina and it
became a Christian city. Jews were still banned from living in Jerusalem, but
were allowed to visit, and it is in this period that the surviving Western Wall of the temple
became sacred. In 351–2, another Jewish revolt in
the Galilee erupted against a corrupt Roman governor.[31] In 362, the last pagan Roman
Emperor, Julian
the Apostate, announced plans to rebuild the Jewish
Temple. He died while fighting the Persians in 363 and the project
was discontinued.
Byzantine rule
The Roman Empire
was finally split in 390 CE and the region became part of the East Roman
Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire.
Under the Byzantines, Christianity was dominated by the (Greek) Orthodox Church. In
the 5th century, the Western
Roman Empire collapsed
leading to Christian migration into Palastina and development of a Christian
majority. Jews numbered 10–15% of the population, concentrated largely in the
Galilee. Judaism was the only non-Christian religion tolerated, but there were
bans on Jews building new places of worship, holding public office or owning
slaves. Several Samaritan Revolts erupted in this
period,[32] resulting in the
decrease of Samaritan community from about a million to a near extinction.
Sacred Jewish texts written in the Holyland at this time are the Gemara (400),
the Jerusalem Talmud (500) and the Passover Haggadah.
In 611, Sassanid Persia invaded the
Byzantine Empire and, after a long siege, Khosrau II captured Jerusalem
in 614, with Jewish help, including possibly the Jewish Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen. Jews
were left to govern Jerusalem when the Persians took over, though the
short-lived Jewish commonwealth lasted only until about 617, when the Persians
capitulated. The Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, promised
to restore Jewish rights and received Jewish help in defeating the Persians,
but he soon reneged on the agreement after reconquering Palestine, issuing an
edict banning Judaism from the Byzantine Empire. (Egyptian) Coptic Christians took
responsibility for this broken pledge and still fast in penance.[33] Jews fleeing
Byzantium settled in the Baltic area, where the Khazar nobility
and some of the population subsequently converted to Judaism.
Middle Ages
(636–1517)
Arab rule
According to
Muslim tradition, in 620 Muhammed was taken on spiritual journey
from Mecca to
the "farthest mosque", whose location is considered to be the Temple Mount,
returning the same night. In 634–636 the Arabs conquered Palestine,
ending the Byzantine ban on Jews living in Jerusalem. Over the next few
centuries, Islam replaced
Christianity as the dominant religion of the region.
From 636 until the
beginning of the Crusades, Palestine was ruled first by Medinah-based Rashidun Caliphs,
then by the Damascus-based Umayyad Caliphate and after that the Baghdad-basedAbbasid Caliphs. In
691, Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik (685–705)
constructed the Dome of the Rock shrine on the Temple Mount. Jews
consider it to contain the Foundation Stone (see alsoHoly of Holies),
which is the holiest site in Judaism. A second building, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was
also erected on the Temple Mount in 705.
Between the 7th
and 11th centuries, Jewish scribes, called the Masoretes and located in Galilee
and Jerusalem, established the Masoretic Text, the
final text of the Hebrew Bible.
Crusader and
Ayyubid rule
During the Crusades, both
Muslims and Jews in Palestine were indiscriminately massacred or sold into
slavery.[34] The murder of Jews began during the
Crusaders' travels across Europe and continued in the Holy Land.[35] Ashkenazi orthodox
Jews still recite a prayer in memory of the death and
destruction caused by the Crusades.
In 1187, the Ayyubid Sultan, Saladin, defeated
the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin (above Tiberias), taking
Jerusalem and most of Palestine. A Crusader state centred round Acre survived in
weakened form for another century. From 1260 to 1291 the area became the frontier between Mongol invaders (occasional Crusader allies) and the Mamluks of
Egypt. The conflict impoverished the country and severely reduced the
population. SultanQutuz of Egypt
eventually defeated the Mongols in the Battle
of Ain Jalut (near Ein Harod) and his
successor (and assassin), Baibars, eliminated
the last Crusader Kingdom
of Acre in
1291, thereby ending the Crusades.
Mamluk rule
Egyptian Mamluk
Sultan, Baibars (1260–1277),
conquered Palestine and the Mamluks ruled
it until 1517, regarding it as part of Syria. In Hebron, Baibars banned Jews from worshiping at
the Cave of the Patriarchs (the second
holiest site in Judaism), the ban remained in place until its conquest by
Israel 700 years later.[36]
The collapse of
the Crusades was followed by increased persecution and expulsions of Jews in
Europe. Expulsions began
in England (1290)
and were followed by France (1306).[37][38] In Spain,persecution of
the highly integrated and successful Jewish community began, including
massacres and forced conversions. During the Black Death, many
Jews were murdered after being accused of poisoning wells. The completion of
the Christian reconquest of Spain led to
expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. These were the wealthiest and most
integrated Jewish communities in Europe. Many Jews converted to Christianity,
however, prejudice against Jewish converts persisted and led
many of these former Jews to move to the New World (see History of the Jews in Latin America). Most of
the expelled Spanish Jews moved to North Africa, Poland, to the Ottoman Empire and to Israel. In
Italy, Jews were required to live inghettos.
Ottoman rule
(1517–1920)
The Mamluk
province of Bilad a-Sham (Syria) was conquered by
Turkish Sultan Selim I in 1516–17,
becoming a part of the province of Ottoman Syria for the next four
centuries, first as theDamascus
Eyalet and
later as the Syria Vilayet (following the Tanzimat reorganization of
1864).
Old Yishuv
During the 16th
century the Jewish community in Galilee prospered, with Safed reaching a size
of 15,000 residents, mostly Jews. However economic decline and conflict between
the Druze and the Ottomans, led to the community's gradual decline by the
mid-17th century. In 1660, a Druze revolt led
to the destruction of the major Old Yishuv cities of Safed and Tiberias.[39][39][40] In the late 18th
century a local Bedouin Sheikh Daher el-Omar created a de facto
independent Emirate in the Galilee. Ottoman attempts to subdue the Sheikh
failed, but after Daher's death the Ottomans restored their rule in the area.
In 1799 Napoleon
briefly occupied the
country and planned a proclamation inviting Jews to
create a state. The proclamation was shelved following his defeat
at Acre.[41] In 1831, Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered Ottoman
Syria and decided to revive and resettle much of its regions. His conscription
policies led to a popular Arab revolt in
1834, resulting in major casualties for the local Arab peasants, and massacres
of Christian and Jewish communities by the rebels. Following the revolt,
Muhammad Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali, expelled nearly 10,000 of the local
peasants to Egypt, while bringing loyal Arab peasants from Egypt and discharged
soldiers to settle the coastline of Palestine, northern Jordan Valley was settled
by his Sudanese troops.
In 1838 there was
another revolt by the Druze. In
1839 Moses Montefiore met with Muhammed
in Egypt and signed an agreement to establish 100-200 Jewish villages in
Palestine,[42] but in 1840 the
Egyptians withdrew before the deal was implemented, returning the area to
Ottoman governorship. In 1844, Jews constituted the largest population group in
Jerusalem and by 1890 an absolute majority in the city, but as a whole the
Jewish population made up far less than 10% of the country.[43][44] In 1868, the
Ottomans banished the Bahá'u'lláh,
one of the founders of the Bahai religion,
to Acre where
he is buried, and the movement subsequently established its global
administrative centre in nearby Haifa. In 1874, Ottoman reforms led to the
area of Jerusalem gaining special status as the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.[45]
Birth of Zionism
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Following
widespread pogroms and antisemitism,
millions of Jews began leaving Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, mainly
for the United States, with a small percentage heading for Palestine. At that
time some Jews began to consider the possibility of re-establishing themselves
as an independent nation. The movement began as a religious movement in Russia
and Yemen, evolving into a secular movement that became popular among Jews
around the world, especially in Europe.
In 1870, an
agricultural school, the Mikveh Israel, was
founded near Jaffa by the Alliance Israelite Universelle. The first modern
Jewish settlement in Palestine, Petah Tikva, was
founded in 1878, followed by Rishon LeZion (1882). Other
settlements were established by members of the Bilu andHovevei Zion ("Love of
Zion") movements. This was accompanied by a revival of the Hebrew language. Zionism attracted Jews of
all kinds; religious, secular, nationalists and left-wing socialists.
Socialists aimed to reclaim the land by becoming labourers and forming collectives. In
Zionist history, the different waves of Jewish settlement are known as "aliyah". During the First Aliyah,
between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews moved to Palestine. By 1890,
Palestine was populated mainly by Muslim (settled and nomad Bedouins) and
Christian Arabs, as well as Jews, Greeks, Druzeand other minorities. The Jewish
population was still mostly concentrated in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and,
later, Tiberias, the four
main centers of Jewish life after the Ottoman conquest of Palestine. They
collectively had the term, in Jewish tradition - the Four Holy Cities.
In 1896 Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish
State), in which he asserted that the solution to growing antisemitism in
Europe (the so-called "Jewish Question")
was to establish a Jewish state. In 1897, the Zionist
Organisation was
founded and the First Zionist Congress proclaimed its aim
"to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under
public law."[46] However, Zionism
was regarded with suspicion by the Ottoman rulers and was unable to make major
progress.
Between 1904 and
1914, around 40,000 Jews settled in Southern Syria (the Second Aliyah). In
1908 the Zionist Organisation set up the Palestine Bureau (also known as the
"Eretz Israel Office") in Jaffa and began to adopt a systematic
Jewish settlement policy in Palestine. Migrants were mainly from Russia (which
then included part of Poland), escaping persecution. The first kibbutz, Degania, was founded
by Russian socialists in 1909. The first entirely Hebrew-speaking city, Ahuzat Bayit, was
established in 1909 (later renamed Tel Aviv). Hebrew
newspapers and books were published, schools were established, and Jewish political parties and
workers organizations were established.
World War I
French
and British influence and control (Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916)
During World War I, most
Jews supported the Germans because they were fighting the Russians who were
regarded as the Jews' main enemy.[47] In Britain, the
government sought Jewish support for the war effort for a variety of reasons
including an erroneous antisemitic perception of "Jewish power" over
the Ottoman Empire'sYoung
Turks movement,[48] and a desire to
secure American Jewish support for US intervention on Britain's behalf.
There was already
sympathy for the aims of Zionism in the British
government, including the Prime-Minister Lloyd-George.[49] In late 1917, the
British Army drove the Turks out of Southern Syria,[50] and the British
foreign minister,Lord
Balfour, sent a letter to Lord Rothschild. The letter subsequently
became known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It stated that the
British Government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people".
A Jewish Legion composed largely
of Zionist volunteers organized by Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor, which
were allowed to immigrate to Palestine by the Ottomans during the first and
second Aliyah, participated in the British invasion of Palestine. It previously
had participated in the failed Gallipoli
Campaign. A Zionist spy network provided the
British with details of Ottoman troops. In 1918 Chaim Weizmann,
president of the British Zionist Federation, formed a Zionist
Commission, which went to Palestine to promote Zionist objectives
there.
British Mandate of
Palestine (1920–1948)
First years
Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine
The British Mandate (in effect,
British rule) of Palestine, including the Balfour Declaration, was confirmed by
the League of Nations in 1922 and came
into effect in 1923. The boundaries of Palestine (along with most of the Middle
East) were drawn by the British and French, and initially included modern Jordan, which was removed from the territory
by Churchill a few years later.
Britain signed an additional treaty with the United States (which did not join
the League of Nations) in which the United States endorsed the terms of the
Mandate.
In 1921, the
Zionist Commission was granted official status as the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Article 4 of
the Mandate. An offer to create a similar Arab Agency was rejected by Arab
leaders of Palestine. Between 1919 and 1923, another 40,000 Jews arrived in
Palestine, mainly escaping the post-revolutionary chaos of Russia (Third Aliyah), as
over 100,000 Jews were massacred in this period in Ukraine and Russia.[51] Many of these
immigrants became known as "pioneers" (halutzim),
experienced or trained in agriculture and capable of establishing
self-sustaining economies. TheJezreel Valley and the Hefer
Plain marshes were drained and converted to agricultural use. Land was bought
by the Jewish
National Fund, a Zionist charity which collected money abroad for
that purpose. A mainly socialist underground Jewish militia, Haganah ("Defense"),
was established to defend outlying Jewish settlements.
The French defeat of the Arab Kingdom of Syria and the Balfour
Declaration led to the emergence of Palestinian Nationalism, anti-Jewish sentiments, and
Arab rioting in 1920 and 1921. In response,
the British authorities imposed immigration quotas for Jews. Exceptions were
made for Jews with over 1,000 pounds in cash (roughly 100,000 pounds at year
2000 rates) or Jewish professionals with over 500 pounds. The Jewish Agency
decided who received the British entry permits and distributed funds donated by
Jews abroad.[52] Between 1924 and
1929, 82,000 more Jews arrived (Fourth Aliyah),
fleeing antisemitism in Poland and Hungary, and because the United States Immigration Act of 1924 now kept Jews out.
The new arrivals included many middle-class families who moved into towns and
established small businesses and workshops—although lack of economic opportunities
meant that approximately a quarter later left Palestine. The first electricity
generator was built in Tel Aviv in 1923 under the guidance of Pinhas Rutenberg, a
formerCommissar of St Petersburg
in Russia's pre-Bolshevik Kerensky
Government. In 1925 the Jewish Agency established the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and
the Technion (technological
university) in Haifa.
From 1928, the
democratically elected Va'ad Leumi (or Jewish National Council, or JNC) became the main
institution of the Palestine Jewish community ("Yishuv") and included non-Zionist Jews.
As the Yishuv grew, the JNC adopted more government-type functions, such as
education, health care and security. With British permission, the Va'ad raised
its own taxes[53] and ran
independent services for the Jewish population.[54] From 1929 its
leadership was elected by Jews from 26 countries.
In 1929 tensions
grew over the Kotel (Wailing
Wall), a narrow alleyway where Jews were banned from using chairs or
any furniture (many of the worshipers were elderly). The Mufti claimed it was
Muslim property and that the Jews were seeking control of the Temple Mount.
This (and general animosity) led to the August1929
Palestine riots. The main
victims were
the ancient Jewish community at Hebron which came to an end. The riots led to
right-wing Zionists establishing their own militia in 1931, the Irgun Tzvai
Leumi (National Military Organization, known in Hebrew by its acronym
"Etzel").
Zionist parties
provided private education and health care: the General Zionists,
the Mizrahi and
the Socialist Zionists,
each operated independent services and sports organizations funded by local
taxes, donations and fees. During the whole interwar period, the British,
appealing to the terms of the Mandate, rejected the principle of majority rule
or any other measure that would give the Arab population, who formed the
majority of the population, control over Palestinian territory.
Increase of Jewish
immigration
In 1933, the
Jewish Agency and the Nazis negotiated the Ha'avara
Agreement (transfer
agreement), under which 50,000 Jews would be transferred to Palestine. The Jews
possessions were confiscated and in return the Nazis allowed the Ha'avara
organization to purchase 14 million pounds worth of German goods for export to
Palestine (which was used to compensate the immigrants). The Nazis did not
normally allow Jews to leave with any money or to take more than two suitcases.
The agreement was controversial and the Labour Zionist leader who negotiated
the agreement, Haim Arlosoroff, was
assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1933. The assassination was a long source of anger
between the Zionist left and Zionist right. Arlosoroff once dated Magda Goebbels and may have been
assassinated by the Nazis to hide the connection which only emerged recently.
In Palestine, Jewish immigration (and the Ha'avara goods) helped the economy to
flourish. A port and oil refineries were built at Haifa and there was a growth
of industrialization in the predominantly agricultural Palestinian economy.
Between 1929 and
1939, 250,000 Jews arrived in Palestine (Fifth Aliyah).
174,000 arrived between 1933 and 1936, after which the British increasingly
restricted immigration. The influx contributed to the 1933
Palestine riots. Migration was mostly from Europe and included
professionals, doctors, lawyers and professors from Germany. As a consequence
German architects of the Bauhausschool made
Tel-Aviv the world's only city with purely Bauhaus neighborhoods and Palestine had
the highest percentage of doctors per population in the world.
As Fascist regimes
emerged across Europe, persecution of Jews massively increased, and Jews
reverted to being non-citizens deprived of civil and economic rights, subject
to arbitrary persecution. Significantly antisemitic governments came to power
in Poland (from
1935 the government boycotted Jews), Hungary, Romania and
the Nazi created states of Croatia and Slovakia, while Germany annexed Austria and the Czech territories.
Arab revolt and
the White Paper
Increased Jewish
immigration and Nazi propaganda contributed to the large-scale 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, a largely
nationalist uprising directed at ending British rule. Ben-Gurion responded to
the Arab Revolt with a policy of "Havlagah"—self-restraint
and a refusal to be provoked by Arab attacks in order to prevent polarization.
The Etzel group broke off from the Haganah in opposition to this policy.
The British
responded to the revolt with the Peel Commission (1936–37), a
public inquiry which recommended that an exclusively Jewish territory be
created in the Galilee and western coast
(requiring the expulsion of 200,000 Arabs); the rest becoming an exclusively
Arab area. Jewish opinion was divided as to the merits of this scheme, but it
was rejected outright by the Palestinian Arabs and, in the absence of strong
Jewish support, eventually abandoned by the British as unworkable.[55]
Testifying before
the Peel Commission, Weizmann said "There are in Europe 6,000,000 people
... for whom the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places
where they cannot enter." In 1938, the US called an international
conference to
address the question of the vast numbers of Jews trying to escape Europe.
Britain made its attendance contingent on Palestine being kept out of the
discussion. No Jewish representatives were invited. The Nazis proposed their
own solution: That the Jews of Europe be shipped to Madagascar (the Madagascar Plan).
Another British
commission, the Woodhead
Commission (1938),
reported that the Peel Commission was unworkable, and recommended setting up
smaller Arab and Jewish zones, but this plan was rejected by both Arabs and
Jews. 20 years later, the Jewish Agency leader, David Ben-Gurion wrote: "Had
partition [referring to the Peel Commission partition plan] been carried out,
the history of our people would have been different and six million Jews in
Europe would not have been killed—most of them would be in Israel."[56]
With war in Europe
increasingly likely and with every country in the world closed to Jewish
migration, the British tried to appease the Arabs. The White
Paper of 1939, stated that with over 450,000 Jews having now arrived
in Palestine, the Balfour Declaration aim of "a national home for the
Jewish people" had been achieved.[57] The White Paper
recommended an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Arabs and Jews, be
established within 10 years. The White Paper agreed to allow 75,000 Jewish
immigrants into Palestine over the period 1940–44, after which migration would
require Arab approval. Both the Arab and Jewish leadership rejected the White
Paper. In March 1940 the British High Commissioner for Palestine issued an
edict banning Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine. Jews now resorted
to illegal immigration: (Aliyah
Bet or
"Ha'apalah"), often organized by the Mossad
Le'aliyah Bet and
the Irgun. Jewish refugees arrived in secret by sea, or, to a lesser extent,
overland through Syria. Very few Jews managed to escape Europe between 1939 and
1945. Those caught by the British were mostly sent to Mauritius.
World War II and
the Holocaust
Further
information: Aliyah Bet, History of the Jews during World War II, The Holocaust, and Italian bombing of Mandatory
Palestine in World War II
During the 2nd World War, the
Jewish Agency worked to establish a Jewish army that would fight alongside the
British forces. Churchill supported the plan but British Military and
government opposition led to its rejection. The British demanded that the
number of Jewish recruits match the number of Palestinian Arab recruits,[58] but very few Arabs
were willing to fight for Britain. In May 1941, the Palmach was established to
defend the Yishuv against
the eventual occupation of Palestine by the Axis in the event of
their victory over the British in North Africa. The British refusal to provide arms to
the Jews, even when Rommel's forces were advancing through Egypt in June 1942
(intent on occupying Palestine) and the 1939 White Paper, led to the emergence
of a Zionist leadership in Palestine that believed conflict with Britain was
inevitable.[59] In the meantime
the Jewish Agency called on Palestine's Jewish youth to volunteer for the
British Army (both men and women). In June 1944 the British agreed to create a Jewish Brigade, that
would fight in Europe.
A small group
(with about 200 activists), dedicated to Jewish resistance to the British
administration in Palestine, broke away from the Etzel (which advocated support
for Britain during the war) and formed the "Lehi" (Stern Gang), led by Avraham Stern. In
1943, the USSR released the Revisionist Zionist leader Menachem Begin from the Gulag and
he went to Palestine, taking command of the Etzel organization with a policy of
increased conflict against the British. At about the same time Yitzhak Shamir escaped from the camp in Eritrea where the British
were holding Lehi activists without trial, taking command of the Lehi (Stern
Gang).
Jews in the Middle
East were also affected by the war. Most of North Africa came under Nazi
control and many Jews were used as slaves.[60] The 1941 pro-Axis coup in Iraq was accompanied by massacres of Jews. The
Jewish Agency put together plans for a last stand in the event of Rommel
invading Palestine (the Nazis planned to exterminate Palestine's Jews).[61]
Between 1939 and
1945, approximately 6 million Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were murdered.
Almost a quarter of those killed were children. The Holocaust had an
overwhelmingly decisive impact on the Jewish world (and beyond). The Polish and
German Jewish communities, which had played such an important role in defining
the pre-1945 Jewish world, now virtually ceased to exist. In the United States
and Palestine, Jews of European origin became disconnected from their families
and roots. Sepharadi and Mizrahi Jews, who
had been a minority, became a much more significant factor in the Jewish world.
The Second World War left the surviving remnant of Jews in central Europe as displaced persons (refugees); an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry,
established to examine the Palestine issue, surveyed their ambitions and found
that over 95% wanted to migrate to Palestine.[62][63][64]
In the Zionist
movement the moderate Pro-British (and British citizen) Weizmann, whose son
died flying in the RAF, was undermined
by Britain's anti-Zionist policies.[65] Leadership of the
movement passed to the Jewish Agency in Palestine, now led by the anti-British
Socialist-Zionist party (Mapai)
and led by David Ben-Gurion. In
the diaspora, U.S. Jews
now dominated the Zionist movement.
Illegal Jewish
immigration and insurgency
The British Empire was severely
weakened by the war. In the Middle East, the war had made Britain conscious of
its dependence on Arab oil and it attached more importance to cordial relations
with the Arabs than to helping the Jewish people establish a homeland. Shortly
after VE Day, the Labour
Party won the general election in Britain. Although Labour Party conferences
had for years called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the
Labour government now decided to maintain the 1939 White Paper restrictions.
Illegal migration
(Aliyah Bet) became
the main form of Jewish entry into Palestine. Across Europe Bricha ("flight"),
an organization of former partisansand ghetto fighters, smuggled Jewish Holocaust survivors
from Eastern Europe to Italy, where small boats tried to breach the British
blockade of Palestine. Meanwhile, Jews from Arab countries began moving into
Palestine overland. Despite British efforts to curb immigration, during the 14
years of the Aliyah Bet, over 110,000 Jews eventually entered Palestine.
In an effort to
win independence, Zionists now waged a bitter guerrilla war against
the British. The main underground Jewish militia, the Haganah, formed an
alliance called the Jewish Resistance Movement with the Etzel and
Stern Gang to fight the British. In June 1946, following instances of Jewish sabotage,
the British launched Operation Agatha,
arresting 2700 Jews, including the leadership of the Jewish Agency, whose
headquarters were raided. Those arrested were held without trial.
In Poland, the Kielce Pogrom (July 1946) led to
a wave of Holocaust survivors escaping Europe towards Palestine. Between 1945
and 1948, 100,000–120,000 Jews left Poland. Their departure was largely
organized by the Zionist activists in Poland such as Adolf Berman and Icchak Cukierman under the umbrella
of the semi-clandestine organization Berihah ("Flight").[66] Berihah was also
responsible for the organized emigration of Jews fromRomania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia,
totaling 250,000 (including Poland) Holocaust survivors. The British responded
by imprisoning the growing numbers of Jews trying to illegally enter Palestine
by sea in Atlit
detainee camp and Cyprus internment camps. Those held were mainly
Holocaust survivors, including large numbers of children and orphans. In
response to Cypriot fears that the Jews would never leave (since they lacked a
state or documentation), the British later allowed the refugees to enter
Palestine at a rate of 750 per month.
The unified Jewish
resistance movement broke up in July 1946, after Etzel bombed the British Military Headquarters in the King David
Hotel killing 92 people. In the days following the bombing, Tel Aviv was placed
under curfew and over 120,000 Jews, nearly 20% of the Jewish population of
Palestine, were questioned by the police. In the U.S., Congress criticized
British handling of the situation and delayed loans that were vital to British
post-war recovery. By 1947 the Labour Government was ready to refer the
Palestine problem to the newly created United Nations.
United Nations
Partition Plan
On 2 April 1947,
the United Kingdom delegation addressed a letter to the Acting
Secretary-General of the United Nations requesting that the question of
Palestine be placed on the agenda of the next regular session of the General Assembly.[67] On 15 May the
General Assembly resolved (Resolution 106) that a committee, United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), be
created "to prepare for consideration at the next regular session of the
Assembly a report on the question of Palestine".[68] In July 1947 the
UNSCOP visited Palestine and met with Jewish and Zionist delegations. The Arab Higher Committeeboycotted the meetings. At this
time, there was further controversy when the British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin ordered an illegal
immigrant ship, theExodus
1947, to be sent back to Europe. The migrants on the ship were
forcibly removed by British troops at Hamburg after a long period in prison
ships.
The principal
non-Zionist Orthodox Jewish (or Haredi) party, Agudat Israel,
recommended to UNSCOP that a Jewish state be set up after reaching a religiousstatus
quo agreement with
Ben-Gurion regarding the future Jewish state. The agreement would grant
exemption to a quota of yeshiva (religious
seminary) students and to all orthodox women from military service, would make
the Sabbath the national weekend, promised Kosher food
in government institutions and would allow them to maintain a separate
education system.[69]
In the Report of
the Committee dated September 3, 1947 to the UN General Assembly,[70] the majority of
the Committee in Chapter VI proposed a plan to replace the British Mandate with
"an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of
Jerusalem" ..., the last to be under "an International Trusteeship
System".[71] On November 29,
1947, in Resolution 181 (II), the General
Assembly recommended to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for
Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and
implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan
of Partition with Economic Union set out in the resolution.[72] The Plan was to
replace the British Mandate with "Independent Arab and Jewish States"
and a "Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem administered
by the United Nations". The Plan of Partition in Part 1 A. Clause 2
provided that Britain "should use its best endeavours to ensure than an
area situated in the territory of the Jewish State, including a seaport and
hinterland adequate to provide facilities for a substantial immigration, shall
be evacuated at the earliest possible date and in any event not later than 1
February 1948". Clause 3. provided that "Independent Arab and Jewish
States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem ... shall
come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the armed
forces of the mandatory Power has been completed but in any case not later than
1 October 1948."
Neither Britain
nor the UN Security Council took any action to implement the resolution and
Britain continued detaining Jews attempting to enter Palestine. Concerned that
partition would severely damage Anglo-Arab relations, Britain denied UN
representatives access to Palestine during the period between the adoption of
Resolution 181 (II) and the termination of the British Mandate.[73] The British
withdrawal was finally completed in May 1948. However, Britain continued to
hold Jews of "fighting age" and their families on Cyprus until March
1949.[74]
Civil War
In the immediate
aftermath of the General Assembly's vote on the Partition plan, the explosions
of joy among the Jewish community were counterbalanced by the expression of
discontent among the Arab community. Soon after, violence broke out and became
more and more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals came fast on
each other's heels, resulting in dozens of victims killed on both sides in the
process. The impasse persisted as no force intervened to put a stop to the
escalating cycles of violence.[75][76][77][78] By the end of
March, there was a total of 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded.[79] These figures
correspond to an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 casualties per week in
a population of 2,000,000.
Shielded
Jewish convoy during the blockade of Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road
From January
onwards, operations became increasingly militarized, with the intervention of a
number of Arab
Liberation Army regiments
inside Palestine, each active in a variety of distinct sectors around the
different coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria.[80]Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni came from Egypt
with several hundred men of the Army
of the Holy War. Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, he
organized the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.[81] To counter this,
the Yishuv authorities
tried to supply the city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the
operation became more and more impractical as the number of casualties in the
relief convoys surged. By March, Al-Hussayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all
of Haganah's armoured
vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds
of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed.[82]
While the Jewish
population had received strict orders requiring them to hold their ground
everywhere at all costs,[83] the Arab
population was more affected by the general conditions of insecurity to which
the country was exposed. Up to 100,000 Arabs, from the urban upper and middle
classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated
abroad or to Arab centres eastwards.[84] This situation
caused the US to
withdraw their support for the Partition plan, thus encouraging the Arab League to believe that
the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could put an end
to the plan for partition. The British, on the other hand, decided on February
7, 1948, to support the annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by Transjordan.[85]
Although a certain
level of doubt took hold among Yishuv supporters, their apparent defeats were
due more to their wait-and-see policy than to weakness. David Ben-Gurion reorganized
Haganah and made conscription obligatory. Every Jewish man and woman in the
country had to receive military training. Thanks to funds raised by Golda Meir from sympathisers
in the United States, and Stalin's decision to support the Zionist cause, the Jewish
representatives of Palestine were able to sign very important armament
contracts in the East. Other Haganah agents recuperated stockpiles from the
Second World War, which helped improve the army's equipment and logistics. Operation Balak allowed arms and
other equipment to be transported for the first time by the end of March.
Ben-Gurion
invested Yigael Yadin with the
responsibility to come up with a plan in preparation for the announced
intervention of the Arab states. The result of his analysis was Plan Dalet, which
was put in place from the start of April onwards. The adoption of Plan Dalet
marked the second stage of the war, in which Haganah passed from the defensive
to the offensive. Within the framework of the establishment of Jewish
territorial continuity foreseen by Plan Dalet, the forces of Haganah, Palmach
and Irgun intended to conquer mixed zones. Palestinian Arab society was shaken. Tiberias, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, Jaffa and Acre fell,
resulting in the flight of more than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs.[86]
The British had,
at that time, essentially withdrawn their troops. The situation pushed the
leaders of the neighbouring Arab states to intervene, but their preparation was
not finalized, and they could not assemble sufficient forces to turn the tide
of the war. Most Palestinian Arab hopes lay with the Arab Legion of Transjordan's
monarch, King Abdullah I, but he had no intention of creating a Palestinian
Arab-run state since he hoped to annex as much of the territory of theBritish Mandate for Palestine as he could. He
was playing a double game and was just as much in contact with the Jewish
authorities as with the Arab League.
On May 14, 1948,
on the day in which the British Mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the
Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation declaring the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be
known as the State of Israel.[87] The 1948
Palestine war entered
its second phase with the intervention of the Arab state armies and the
beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
State of Israel
(1948–present)
On May 14, 1948,
the last British forces left through Haifa. The same day, in a public ceremony
in Tel-Aviv, Ben-Gurion read out the Israeli Declaration of Independence, declaring
the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State
of Israel.[88] Both superpower leaders, U.S.
President Harry S. Truman (as to the provision government as the
de facto authority of the new State of Israel)[89] and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin,
immediately recognized the new state.
War of
Independence
The Arab League members Egypt,
Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq refused to accept the UN partition plan
and proclaimed the right of self-determination for the Arabs across the whole
of Palestine. The Arab states marched their forces into what had, until the
previous day, been the British Mandate for Palestine. The new state of Israel
had an organized and efficient army, the Haganah, under the command of Israel Galili. The
Arab forces were of varying quality, but Arab states had heavy military
equipment at their disposal. The invading Arab armies were initially on the
offensive but the Israelis soon recovered from the initial shock of being
invaded on all sides. On May 29, 1948, the British initiated United Nations Security Council Resolution 50 and declared an
arms embargo on the region. Czechoslovakia violated the resolution supplying the
Jewish state with critical military hardware to match the (mainly British)
heavy equipment and planes already owned by the invading Arab states. On June
11, a month-long UN truce was put into effect.
Following the
announcement of independence, the Haganah became the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Palmach, Etzel and Lehi were required to
cease independent operations and join the IDF. During the ceasefire, Etzel
attempted to bring in a private arms shipment aboard a ship called "Altalena". When
they refused to hand the arms to the government, Ben-Gurion ordered that the
ship be sunk. Several Etzel members were killed in the fighting. Large numbers
of Jewish immigrants, many of them World War II veterans and Holocaust
survivors, now began arriving in the new state of Israel, and many joined the
IDF.[90]
After an initial
loss of territory by the Jewish state and occupation of Arab Palestine by the
Arab armies, from July the tide gradually turned in the Israelis favour and
they pushed the Arab armies out and conquered some of the territory which had
been included in the proposed Arab state. At the end of November, tenuous local
ceasefires were arranged between the Israelis, Syrians and Lebanese. On
December 1, King
Abdullah announced
the union of Transjordan with Arab Palestine west of the Jordan, the new state
name being the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He adopted the title
"King of Arab Palestine", much to the disgust of most other Arab
states.
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