In its Resolution 181, the United Nations General Assembly called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. It was adopted on November 29, 1947 with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent. The resolution was accepted by the Jews in Palestine, yet rejected by the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab states. The independence of the state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May, 1948 by David […]
Beginning with the words that define Israel’s central purpose: “Every Jew has the right to immigrate to this country…”. The Law of Return, which begins with these words defining Israel’s central purpose, was passed by the Knesset, the Parliament, in 1950. It solidifies the right of all Jews to make “Aliyah” or immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship, as long as they pose no imminent danger to public health, state security, or the Jewish people as a whole. In […]
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and annihilation of approximately six million Jews in Europe by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” (“Shoah”) is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. While the Nazi persecution of the Jews began in 1933, the […]
The British Mandate The British “Mandate for Palestine,” was instituted by the League of Nations in the early 20th century in order to administer non-self-governing territories after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The mandatory power, appointed by an international body, was to consider the mandated territory a temporary trust and to see to the well-being and advancement of its population. In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine. Recognizing “the historical connection […]
After World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews over the fate of Palestine and between the Zionist militias and the British army compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted and accepted the partition resolution, by 33 votes against 13. The plan called for the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the […]
The San Remo Conference was an international meeting held following the conclusion of World War I that determined the precise boundaries for territories captured by the Allied Powers. It also marked the beginning of the British Mandate over the state of Israel then known as Palestine. The conference, attended by Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan- with the United States as a neutral observer, was held in San Remo, Italy, in April 1920. The conference was a continuation of a […]
The Israeli Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, the day before the British Mandate was due to expire. David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel That day, the members of the People's Council proclaimed the establishment of the state. The proclamation is divided into four sections: the section […]
February 14, 1896 – Publication of Theodor Herzl’s treatise “The Jewish State” August 29, 1897 – Opening of First Zionist Conference at Basel, Switzerland November 2, 1917 – Issuing of Balfour Declaration: British support for a “Jewish Homeland” April 15, 1936 – Arab revolt begins November 29, 1947 – U.N. Partition Plan approved (Resolution 181) May 14, 1948 – Declaration of the State of Israel May 15, 1948 – January 1949 – War of Independence January 25, 1949 – Israel’s […]
The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premises: 1) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham; 2) the Jewish people settled and developed the land; 3) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people; 4) the territory was captured in defensive wars. The Twelve Tribes of Israel formed the first constitutional monarchy in Palestine about 1000 B.C. The second king, David, first made Jerusalem the nation's capital. […]
After 2,000 years in the Diaspora, and having endured countless pogroms and acts of genocide culminating in the Holocaust, the U.N declared the state of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish People in November 1947. Israel is a parliamentary democracy in the Middle East, since 1948, when it declared its independence. The state defines itself as both Jewish & democratic. Most of its population is Jewish with a large Arab minority. Israel's Capital (and the largest city) is Jerusalem […]