Summary:
Medinat Israel better known as Israel declared its independence from Palestine on May 14, 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust and World War II. The Jewish population in Palestine greatly increased from the end of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century (from 12,000 to 85,000). Most of the people in Palestine were Arabs and had long been opposed the migration of Jews. The UN agreed on a Partition Plan to divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. This idea was greatly encouraged by the Soviet Union and the United States, whose Senate voted for the U.S. to help in establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine on December 12, 1945.
Medinat Israel better known as Israel declared its independence from Palestine on May 14, 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust and World War II. It was created as result of the Zionist movement, which was founded in Switzerland during 1897 by Theodor Herzl. Zionism was created to unite Jewish people of exile and settle them in Palestine. The movement's name derived from Zion, the hill on which the Temple of Jerusalem was located. Many of Israeli's political institutions and beliefs came from the concepts of the Zionist movement.
The population of Jews in Palestine greatly increased from the end of the 19th century to the early part of the 20th century (from 12,000 to 85,000). Most of the people in Palestine were Arabs and opposed the migration of the Jews. The majority of the support for the Zionist movement came from Jews in Europe and North America. By World War I the Zionist movement had attained support from Great Britain. Thereafter, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration to their Zionist leader Arthur J. Balfour, on November 2, 1917. The Balfour Declaration expresses support for the establishment of Jewish homeland in Palestine after World War I.
Following World War I the Balfour Declaration was mandated by Palestine and approved by the League of Nations in 1922. The Jewish population of Palestine, often referred to as Yishuv, increased greatly during the 1930's, when a massive number of Jews fled Europe to elude Nazi repression.
British officials initially governed Palestine; they were responsible for security, immigration and transportation among other things. The British attempted to sustain a balance between the Yishuv and the Arabs (who primarily populated the country.) As Jewish immigration to Palestine expanded, so did Arab opposition toward the Zionist movement. During World War II, the German Nazis killed more than five million Jews, which late became known as the Holocaust. When the Zionist leaders recognized the magnitude of the genocide occurring, their demands for self-government escalated.
Prior to the end of World War II, the Yishuv rebelled against Great Britain. Britain decided in 1947 to leave Palestine. The United Nations assembled for one of its first sessions and on November 29, 1947. The UN agreed on a Partition Plan to divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. This idea was greatly encouraged by the Soviet Union and the United States, (whose Senate voted for the U.S. to help in establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine on December 12, 1945). Coincidently, random fights broke out in Palestine, between Jews favoring the plan and Arabs opposing it.
In 1948, Israel officially became an independent state. Immediately after, the Arabs in Palestine protested the action. Armies from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Transjordan (now Jordan) joined Arabs, who worked against a Jewish state since the beginning of Zionism. They invaded Israel in an attempt to destroy the newly found Jewish county. There was complete chaos in the Middle East. In 1949 Israel defeated the Arab invaders and obtained most of the Arabic part of Palestine.
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