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History
Jewish
History in the Southern Levant
The Land of Israel, known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael,
has been sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times.
According to the Torah, God promised the Land of Israel to
the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people. Scholars place
the period of the three Patriarchs somewhere in the early
2nd millennium BCE. According to Biblical evidence
the first Kingdom of Israel was established around the
11th century BCE. Subsequent Israelite kingdoms and states
ruled intermittently over the next thousand years, and are
known from various extra-biblical sources.
Between the time of the First Kingdom of Israel and the
Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the Land of Israel
fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman,
Sassanian, and Byzantine rule.Jewish presence in the
region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt
against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Nevertheless,
Jewish presence in the Land of Israel remained continuous
and the Galilee became its religious center. The Mishnah
and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were
composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias
and Jerusalem.Following years of persecution at the hands
of Byzantine rulers, the Jews revolted in 610 CE,
allying themselves with the Persian invaders. After
capturing Jerusalem, the Persians and Jews killed
thousands of Christians and destroyed many churches. The
Byzantine emperor Heraclius recaptured Jerusalem in
628–629 CE, and was responsible for the massacre
and expulsion of the Jews. During the initial Muslim
conquests, in 635 CE, the Land of Israel, including
Jerusalem, was captured from the Byzantine Empire. Control
of the region transferred between the Umayyads, Abbasids,
and Crusaders throughout the next six centuries, before
falling in the hands of the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260. In
1516, the Land of Israel was conquered by the Ottoman
Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century.
Dome of Rock, Temple Mount
Zionism
and the British Mandate
Further information: History of Zionism
Many Jews living in the Diaspora have long aspired to
return to Zion and the Land of Israel, though the amount
of human effort that should be spent towards such aim is a
matter of dispute in Judaism. That hope and yearning was
articulated in the Bible, and is an important theme of the
Jewish belief system.After the Jews were expelled from
Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.
During the 16th century, communities struck roots in the
Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and
Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of
1,500 Jews to Jerusalem. In the second half of the 18th
century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as
the Perushim, settled in Palestine.
Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State, in
1901
The first large wave of "modern" immigration,
known as the First Aliyah, began in 1881, as Jews fled
pogroms in Eastern Europe. Although the Zionist movement
already existed in theory, Austro-Hungarian journalist
Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,
a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the
Land of Israel, by elevating the Jewish Question to the
international plane. In 1896, Herzl published Der
Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), offering
his vision of a future state; the following year he
presided over the first World Zionist Congress.
The Second Aliyah (1904–1914), began after the
Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in
Palestine, but nearly half of them left. Both the first
and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,
but those in the Second Aliyah included socialist pioneers
who established the kibbutz movement.During World
War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued
what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which "view[ed]
with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people". At the request of Edwin
Samuel Montagu and Lord Curzon, a line was also inserted
stating "it being clearly understood that nothing
shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or
the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country".
The Jewish Legion, a group of battalions composed
primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British
conquest of Palestine. Arab opposition to the plan led to
the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of the Jewish
organization known as the Haganah (meaning "The
Defense" in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi
paramilitary groups split off. In 1922, the League of
Nations granted the United Kingdom a mandate over
Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration.
The population of the area at that time was predominantly
Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11% of the
population.
The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyahs
(1924–1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to
Palestine. Finally, the rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to
the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million
Jews. This caused the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led
the British to cap immigration with the White Paper of
1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish
refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement
known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to
Palestine. By the end of World War II, the Jewish
population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total
population.
Independence
and first years
After 1945, Britain found itself in fierce conflict
with the Jewish community, as the Haganah joined Irgun and
Lehi in armed struggle against British rule. At the same
time, thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe sought
shelter in Palestine and were turned away or rounded up
and placed in detention camps by the British. In 1947, the
British government withdrew from the Mandate of Palestine,
stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable
to both Arabs and Jews. The newly created United Nations
approved the Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations
General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947,
which sought to divide the country into two states—one
Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an
international city—a corpus separatum—administered
by the UN.
The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab
League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it. On December
1, 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day
strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets.
Jews were initially on the defensive as civil war broke
out, but they gradually moved onto the offensive. The
Palestinian Arab economy collapsed and 250,000
Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.
David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli
independence on May 14, 1948, below a portrait of Theodor
Herzl
On May 14, 1948, the day before the expiration of the
British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed
independence, naming the country Israel. The following
day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon and Iraq—attacked Israel, launching the 1948
Arab–Israeli War; Saudi Arabia sent a military
contingent to operate under Egyptian command; Yemen
declared war but did not take military action. After a
year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary
borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan
annexed what became known as the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. About
700,000 Palestinian refugees were expelled or fled the
country during the conflict.
Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations
by majority vote on May 11, 1949.
In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist
movement led by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dominated
Israeli politics. These years were marked by an influx of
Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab lands, many of whom
faced persecution in and expulsion from their original
countries.Consequently, the population of Israel rose from
800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958. Most arrived
as refugees with no possessions and were housed in
temporary camps known as ma'abarot; by 1952, over
200,000 immigrants were living in these tent cities.The
need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a
reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered
mass protests by Jews angered at the idea of Israel
accepting financial compensation from Germany for the
Holocaust.
In the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by
Palestinian fedayeen, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied
Gaza Strip. In 1956, Israel joined a secret alliance with
Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the
Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the
Suez Crisis). Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula but was
pressured to withdraw by the United States and the Soviet
Union in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights
in the Red Sea and the Canal.
In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal
Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Final Solution, in
Argentina and brought him to trial. The trial had a major
impact on public awareness of the Holocaust, and Eichmann
remains the only person ever to be executed by order of an
Israeli court.
Conflicts
and peace treaties
Further information: Arab–Israeli conflict,
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and Positions on
Jerusalem
See also: List of United Nations resolutions concerning
Israel
Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel
Nasser refused to recognize Israel, calling for its
destruction. By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had
deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place
between official Israeli and Arab forces. In 1967, Egypt
expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula
since 1957, and announced a partial blockade of Israel's
access to the Red Sea. Israel saw these actions as a casus
belli for a pre-emptive strike that launched a Six-Day
War, in which Israel was able to occupy the West Bank,
Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. Jerusalem's
boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem,
and the 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary
between Israel and the occupied territories.
As the Arab states lost in the 1967 war against Israel,
Arab non-state actors came to have a more central role in
the conflict. Most important among them is the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, which
initially committed itself to "armed struggle as the
only way to liberate the homeland". In the late 1960s
and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of
attacks against Israeli targets around the world,]
including a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972
Summer Olympics in Munich.
On October 6, 1973, as Jews were observing Yom Kippur,
the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack
against Israel. The war ended on October 26 with Israel
successfully repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but
suffering massive losses.]
An internal inquiry exonerated the government of
responsibility for failures before and during the war, but
public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.
The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point
in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin's Likud
party took control from the Labor Party. Later that year,
Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel
and spoke before the Knesset in what was the first
recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state. In the two
years that followed, Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the
Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to
enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin's government
encouraged Israelis to settle in the West Bank, leading to
friction with the Palestinians in that area.
Israeli artillery at the Golan front, during the Yom
Kippur War, 1973
The Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980, was widely believed
to have reaffirmed Israel's annexation of Jerusalem and
reignited international controversy over the status of the
city. However, there has never been an official act that
has declared expanded East Jerusalem as having been
annexed by the State of Israel.The position of the
majority of UN member states is reflected in numerous
resolutions declaring that actions taken by Israel to
impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the
whole of Jerusalem are illegal and have no validity.
In 1982, Israel intervened in the Lebanese Civil War to
destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and
missiles at northern Israel; that move developed into the
Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but
maintained a borderland buffer zone until 2000. The First
Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule,
broke out in 1987 with waves of violence occurring in the
occupied territories. Over the following six years, more
than a thousand people were killed in the ensuing
violence, much of which was internal Palestinian violence.
During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO and many Palestinians
supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi missile attacks against
Israel, though Israel did not participate in that war.
In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following
an election in which his party promoted compromise with
Israel's neighbors. The following year, Shimon Peres and
Mahmoud Abbas, on behalf of Israel and the PLO, signed the
Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National
Authority the right to self-govern parts of the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip.The PLO also recognized Israel's right
to exist and pledged an end to terrorism. In 1994, the
Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan
the second Arab country to normalize relations with
Israel. Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by
the continuation of Israeli settlements and checkpoints,
and the deterioration of economic conditions. Israeli
public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck
by Palestinian suicide attacks. Finally, while leaving a
peace rally in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was
assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the
Accords.
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands at the
signing of the Oslo Accords, with Bill Clinton behind
them, 1993
At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership
of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron, and signed
the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the
Palestinian National Authority. Ehud Barak, elected Prime
Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing
forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations
with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S.
President Bill Clinton at the 2000 Camp David Summit.
During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the
establishment of a Palestinian state, but Yasser Arafat
rejected it.[133]
After the collapse of the talks and a controversial visit
by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, the
Second Intifada began. Sharon became prime minister in a
2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried
out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip
and also spearheaded the construction of the Israeli West
Bank barrier.
In July 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel's
northern border communities and a cross-border abduction
of two Israeli soldiers sparked the month-long Second
Lebanon War. Two years later, in May 2008, Israel
confirmed it had been discussing a peace treaty with Syria
for a year, with Turkey as a go-between.However, at the
end of the year, Israel entered another conflict as a
ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed. The Gaza War
lasted three weeks and ended after Israel announced a
unilateral ceasefire. Hamas announced its own ceasefire,
with its own conditions of complete withdrawal and opening
of border crossings. Despite neither the rocket launchings
nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped,
the fragile ceasefire remained in order.
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