History of the Jews in the Land of Israel

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The history of the Jews in the land of Israel can be traced from the first appearance of the name "Israel" in the historic record, an Egyptian inscription of c.1200 BCE where it refers to an ethnic group apparently located in the northern part of the central highlands between the Mediterranean and the Jordan valley and south of Mount Carmel; the term "land of Israel" is found in the Hebrew bible, in texts dating from the Exilic period at the earliest, and referring there to an unclearly defined territory stretching over much of the southern Levant. Between these two widely-separated periods two kingdoms occupied the highland zone, the kingdom of Israel in the north and, somewhat later to emerge, the kingdom of Judah in the south: Israel was destroyed c. 722 BCE, and Judah in 586 BCE.

Jewish identity emerged in the post-586 BCE Exilic and post-Exilic period, and by the Hellenistic period (after 332 BCE) the Jews had become a self-consciously separate community based in Jerusalem. For a time in the 2nd century BCE the Jews succeeded in creating a nominally independent kingdom covering much of the biblical "Land of Israel", but by the end of the 1st century BCE this was absorbed into the Roman empire. A series of revolts against the Romans led to the forced dispersal of much of the Jewish population, and it was not until the 19th century and the growth of the nationalist Jewish Zionist movement that large-scale migration began the return of large numbers of Jews. This movement culminated in the 20th century with the creation of the present State of Israel, largely within the borders of the biblical "Land of Israel", although the original core areas, the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah, are, somewhat ironically, now the Palestinian occupied territories.

Contents

[edit] Origins of Israel and Judah (1200-586 BCE)

Main articles: History of ancient Israel and Judah, Kingdom of Israel, Kingdom of Judah, and Ugaritic mythology

The earliest historical evidence of the existence of a polity or tribal confederation known as Israel comes from an Egyptian inscription, the Merneptah Stele (1208 BCE conventional chronology) recording the ethnonym ysrỉ3r.

Since there is little or no archaeological or historical evidence to trace the Ancient Israelites prior to the 11th century BCE, scholars are reduced to discussing the historicity of the biblical accounts themselves. The Hebrew Bible presents a genealogy of patriarchs, deriving the Israelites from Jacob. The central founding myth of the Israelite nation surrounds the exit from Egypt under the guidance of Moses. The Exodus cannot be established as historical, but Jewish tradition places it in the 14th century BCE.

The archaeological record indicates that the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged in the Early Iron Age (Iron Age I, 1200-1000 BCE) from the Canaanite city-state culture of the Late Bronze Age, at the same time and in the same circumstances as the neighbouring states of Edom, Moab, Aram, and the Philistinian and Phoenician city-states.[1]

From the middle of the 8th century BCE Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire, which first split its territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria (722). Both the biblical and Assyrian sources speak of a massive deportation of the people of Israel and their replacement with an equally large number of forced settlers from other parts of the empire – such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy, a means of breaking the old power structure. The former Israel never again became an independent political entity.[2]

There is no definite answer to the question of when Judah emerged,[3] but in the 7th century BCE Jerusalem became a city with a population many times greater than before and clear dominance over its neighbours, probably in a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians to establish Judah as a pro-Assyrian vassal state controlling the valuable olive industry.[4] Judah prospered under Assyrian vassalage, (despite a disastrous rebellion against the Assyrian king Sennacherib), but in the last half of the 7th century BCE Assyria suddenly collapsed, and the ensuing competition between the Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian empires for control of Palestine led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582 and the deportation of the local elite.[4]

Throughout this period both Israel and Judah were normal Iron Age kingdoms of the region, sharing their religion, language, and other aspects of culture with the Edom, Moab, and the Philistines and the Phoenicians.

[edit] Babylonian exile, The Return to Zion and the Persian rule (538-332 BCE)

Main articles: Babylonian exile, The Return to Zion, and Yehud Medinata
An artist's depiction of the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple

Babylonian Judah suffered a steep decline in both economy and population[5] and lost the Negev, the Shephelah, and part of the Judean hill country, including Hebron, to encroachments from Edom and other neighbours.[6] Jerusalem, while probably not totally abandoned, was much smaller than previously, and the town of Mizpah in Benjamin in the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud Medinata.[7] (This was standard Babylonian practice: when the Philistine city of Ashkalon was conquered in 604, the political, religious and economic elite (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location).[8] There is also a strong probability that for most or all of the period the temple at Bethel in Benjamin replaced that at Jerusalem, boosting the prestige of Bethel's priests (the Aaronites) against those of Jerusalem (the Zadokites), now in exile in Babylon.[9]

The Babylonian conquest entailed not just the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, but the liquidation of the entire infrastructure which had sustained Judah for centuries.[10] The most significant casualty was the State ideology of "Zion theology,"[11] the idea that Yahweh, the god of Israel, had chosen Jerusalem for his dwelling-place and that the Davidic dynasty would reign there forever.[12] The fall of the city and the end of Davidic kingship forced the leaders of the exile community – kings, priests, scribes and prophets – to reformulate the concepts of community, faith and politics.[13] The exile community in Babylon thus became the source of significant portions of the Hebrew Bible: Isaiah 40–55, Ezekiel, the final version of Jeremiah, the work of the Priestly source in the Pentateuch, and the final form of the history of Israel from Deuteronomy to 2 Kings[14] Theologically, they were responsible for the doctrines of individual responsibility and universalism (the concept that one god controls the entire world), and for the increased emphasis on purity and holiness.[14] Most significantly, the trauma of the exile experience led to the development of a strong sense of identity as a people distinct from other peoples,[15] and increased emphasis on symbols such as circumcision and Sabbath-observance to maintain that separation.[16]

Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great in 539 and Judah (or Yehud medinata, the "province of Yehud") remained a province of the Persian empire until 332. According to the biblical history, one of the first acts of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror of Babylon, was to commission the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, a task which they are said to have completed c. 515.[17] Yet it was probably only in the middle of the next century, at the earliest, that Jerusalem again became the capital of Judah.[18] The Persians may have experimented initially with ruling Yehud as a Dividic client-kingdom under descendants of Jehoiachin,[19] but by the mid–5th century BCE Yehud had become in practice a theocracy, ruled by hereditary High Priests[20] and a Persian-appointed governor, frequently Jewish, charged with keeping order and seeing that tribute was paid.[21] According to the biblical history Ezra and Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of the 5th century BCE, the first empowered by the Persian king to enforce the Torah, the second with the status of governor and a royal mission to restore the walls of the city.[22] The biblical history mentions tension between the returnees and those who had remained in Yehud, the former rebuffing the attempt of the "peoples of the land" to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple; this attitude was based partly on the exclusivism which the exiles had developed while in Babylon and, probably, partly on disputes over property.[23] The careers of Ezra and Nehemiah in the 5th century BCE were thus a kind of religious colonisation in reverse, an attempt by one of the many Jewish factions in Babylon to create a self-segregated, ritually pure society inspired by the prophesies of Ezekiel and his followers.[24]

[edit] Hellenistic period (332-37 BCE)

Main articles: Seleucid Kingdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and Hasmonean kingdom

In 332 BCE the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great. After his death (322) his generals divided the empire between them. Ptolemy I seized Egypt and the Palestine region. Ptolemy successors later lost it to the Seleucids, the rulers of Syria, in 198 (see Seleucid Kingdom).

At first relations between the Seleucids and the Jews were cordial, but lator on as the relations between the hellenized Jews and the religious Jews deteriorated, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (174–163) attempted to impose decrees banning certain Jewish religious rites and traditions. Consequently, the this sparked a national rebellion, which ended in the expulsion of the Syrians and the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty.

The ensuing Maccabbee Revolt (167 BCE) began a twenty-five-year period of Jewish independence potentiated by the steady collapse of the Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire. However, the same power vacuum that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the Roman Senate c. 139 BCE was next exploited by the Romans themselves. Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Simon's great-grandsons, became pawns in a proxy war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great that ended with the kingdom under the supervision of the Roman governor of Syria (64 BCE).

In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem and made the Jewish kingdom a client of Rome.

The deaths of Pompey (48 BCE), Caesar (44 BCE), and the related Roman civil wars relaxed Rome's grip on Israel, and as a result, in 40 BC the Parthian Empire and their Jewish ally Antigonus the Hasmonean defeated the pro-Roman Jewish forces of high priest Hyrcanus II, Phasael, and Herod, invaded the Roman eastern provinces and manage to expell the Romans. Antigonus the Hasmonean was made king of Judea. Herod later on fled to Rome where he was elected "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate.

In 37 BCE, Herod the Great took back Judea with Roman support. Herod turned Antigonus over to Mark Antony, who had him beheaded,[25] ending the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty.

[edit] Under Roman rule (37 BCE-324 CE)

Main articles: Iudaea Province and First Jewish–Roman War

The installation of Edomite Jew Herod the Great as King of Israel created a Jewish client state of the Roman Empire in 37 BCE ended the Hasmonean dynasty. Subsequently, a new period of architecture under Herod occurred, with the Second Temple being built in Jerusalem, along with Herod's Palace, numerous Temples across the country, the Caesarea Maritima, a water channel and pilgrim road in Jerusalem, and Roman public facilities. In Ashkelon, Herod built elaborate bath houses, elaborate fountains, and large colonnades. His son, Herod Antipas, founded Tiberias as a Jewish city, and made it his personal realm in the Galilee.

Judea under Roman rule was at first an independent Jewish kingdom, but gradually the rule over Judea became less and less Jewish, until it became under the direct rule of Roman administration (and renamed the Iudaea Province), which was often callous and brutal in its treatment of its Judean subjects. In 66 CE, Judeans began to revolt against the Roman rulers of Judea. The revolt was defeated by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. The Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and, according to some accounts, stole artifacts from the temple, such as the Menorah. Altogether, 1,100,000 Jews perished during the revolt and another 97,000 were taken captive.

Major battles were in Masada and in Gamla. Gamla was the district capital of the Golan Heights first established by the last king of the Hasmonean dynasty. Gamla's citizens saw their battle as directly connected to Jerusalem and fiercely defended their stronghold. Eventually, all of the 9000 city's residents were killed. Both historical sites of Masada and Gamla have been excavated and are frequently visited in the modern State of Israel.

Judeans continued to live in their land in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion, until the 2nd century when Julius Severus ravaged Judea while putting down the Bar Kokhba revolt. 985 villages were destroyed. Banished from Jerusalem, the Jewish population now centred on Galilee.

This was also the time of Schism between Judaism and Christianity. Many Christians considered the new religion to supersede Judaism. See also Council of Jamnia.

In this period the tannaim and amoraim were active, rabbis who organized and debated the Jewish oral law. The decisions of the tannaim are contained in the Mishnah, Beraita, Tosefta, and various Midrash compilations. The Mishnah was completed shortly after 200, probably by Judah haNasi. The commentaries of the amoraim upon the Mishnah are compiled in the Jerusalem Talmud, which was completed around 400 CE, probably in Tiberias.

In 351 CE, the Jewish population in Sepphoris Roman laws started a revolt under the leadership of Patricius against the rule of Constantius Gallus. The revolt was eventually subdued by Ursicinus.

According to tradition, in 359 CE Hillel II created the Hebrew calendar based on the lunar year. Until then, The entire Jewish community outside the land of Israel depended on the calendar sanctioned by the Sanhedrin; this was necessary for the proper observance of the Jewish holy days. However, danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations. As the religious persecutions continued, Hillel determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come.

The last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian, allowed the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Temple. However, the Temple was not rebuilt.

[edit] In the Byzantine period (324-638)

Jews at this time in the province of Palestine were living under the rule of the Byzantines under whom there were two more Jewish revolts and three Samaritan revolts. Under the oppression, Jews still lived in at least forty-three Jewish communities in Palestine: twelve towns on the coast, in the Negev, and east of the Jordan, and thirty-one villages in Galilee and in the Jordan valley.

In 438, The Empress Eudocia removed the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site and the heads of the Community in Galilee issued a call "to the great and mighty people of the Jews": "Know that the end of the exile of our people has come"!

In about 450, the Jerusalem Talmud is completed.

In 613, a Jewish revolt against the Byzantine Empire coming into aid of the Persian invaders erupted. The Jews gained autonomy in Jerusalem for 5 years but were frustrated with its limitations. At that time the Persians betrayed the agreements with the Jews and Jews were again expelled from Jerusalem. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius then managed to overcome the Persian forces with the aid of Jewish leader Benjamin of Tiberias. Nevertheless, he betrayed the Jews too and put thousands of Jewish refugees to flight from Palestine to Egypt.

[edit] Under the Islamic Empire (638-1099)

In 638 CE the Byzantine Empire lost control of the Levant. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Under the various regimes the Jews suffered massacres and were forced to flee the inland villages towards the coast. They were subsequently induced to return inland after the coastal towns had been destroyed. Nevertheless, the Jews still controlled much of the commerce in Palestine. According to Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi, the Jews worked as "the assayers of coins, the dyers, the tanners and the bankers in the community."[26] During the Fatimid period, many Jewish officials served in the regime.[26] According to Israeli historian Moshe Gil, at the time of the Arab conquest in 7th century CE, the majority of the population was Jewish.[27]

[edit] In the Crusaders period (1099-1260)

Main article: History of the Jews and the Crusades
See also: Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
Capture of Jerusalem, 1099

In 1099, along with the other inhabitants of the land, the Jews vigorously defended Jerusalem against the Crusaders. When the city fell, the Crusaders gathered them in a synagogue and set it alight. In Haifa, the Jews almost single-handedly defended the town against the Crusaders, holding out for a whole month, (June–July 1099).[26] At this time there were Jewish communities scattered all over the country, including Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Gaza. Jews were not allowed to hold land in the Crusader period but concentrated their efforts on the commerce in the coastal towns during times of quiescence. Most of them were artisans: glassblowers in Sidon, furriers and dyers in Jerusalem.[26]

During this period, the Masoretes of Tiberias established the Hebrew language orthography, or niqqud, a system of diacritical vowel points used in the Hebrew alphabet. A large volume of piyutim and midrashim originated in Palestine at this time.[26]

Maimonides wrote that in 1165 he visited Jerusalem and went up on to the Temple Mount and prayed in the "great, holy house".[28] Maimonides established a yearly holiday for himself and his sons, the 6th of Cheshvan, commemorating the day he went up to pray on the Temple Mount, and another, the 9th of Cheshvan, commemorating the day he merited to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

In 1141 Yehuda Halevi issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to the land of Israel and took on the long journey himself. After a stormy passage from Córdoba, he arrived in Egyptian Alexandria, where he was enthusiastically greeted by friends and admirers. At Damietta, he had to struggle against the promptings of his own heart, and the pleadings of his friend Ḥalfon ha-Levi, that he remain in Egypt; and free from intolerant oppression. He started on the tedious land route, trodden of old by the Israelite wanderers in the desert. Again he is met with, worn-out, with broken heart and whitened hair, in Tyre and Damascus. Jewish legend relates that as he came near Jerusalem, over-powered by the sight of the Holy City, he sang his most beautiful elegy, the celebrated "Zionide," "Zion ha-lo Tish'ali." At that instant, he was ridden down and killed by an Arab, who dashed forth from a gate.

[edit] In the Mamluk period (1260-1517)

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In the years 1260-1516, Palestine was part of the Empire of the Mamluks who ruled first from Turkey, then from Egypt. War and uprisings, bloodshed and destruction followed Maimonides. Jews suffered persecution and humiliation but the surviving records cite at least 30 Jewish urban and rural communities at the opening of the 16th century[citation needed].

A notable event during the period was the settlement of Nachmanides in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1267 which since then a continuous Jewish presence existed in Jerusalem until modern day occupation of Jordan in 1948[citation needed]. Nahmanides then settled at Acre, where he was very active in spreading Jewish learning, which was at that time very much neglected in the Holy Land. He gathered a circle of pupils around him, and people came in crowds, even from the district of the Euphrates, to hear him. Karaites were said to have attended his lectures, among them being Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, who later became one of the greatest Karaite authorities. Shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem he addressed a letter to his son Nahman, in which he described the desolation of the Holy City, where there were at that time only two Jewish inhabitants — two brothers, dyers by trade. In a later letter from Acre he counsels his son to cultivate humility, which he considers to be the first of virtues. In another, addressed to his second son, who occupied an official position at the Castilian court, Nahmanides recommends the recitation of the daily prayers and warns above all against immorality. Nahmanides died after having passed the age of seventy-six, and his remains were interred at Haifa, by the grave of Yechiel of Paris. Yechiel emigrated to Acre in 1260, along with his son and a large group of followers [2][3] There he established the Tamudic academy Midrash haGadol d'Paris.[29] He is believed to have died there between 1265 and 1268.

In 1488 Obadiah ben Abraham, commentator on the Mishnah, arrived in Jerusalem and marked a new epoch for the Jewish community in The Land.

[edit] In the Ottoman period (1517-1917)

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Main article: Old Yishuv
See also: History of the Jews in Turkey

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa estimates the Jewish population of the Palestine region at "approximately 10,000 during the first half-century of Ottoman rule. Bold development projects for reviving the Holy Land were conceived by Jewish courtiers in Constantinople, such as Don Garcia Mendes and Don Joseph Nasi. Jerusalem, Tiberias and above all, Safad, became centres of Jewish spiritual and commercial activity... Many of the gains achieved by Islamic Jewry during the 16th century were lost over the next 200 years ... as Ottoman rule became more inefficient, corrupt and religiously conservative."[30]

Thirty Jewish communities exist at the time in Haifa, Sh’chem, Hebron, Ramleh, Jaffa, Gaza, Jerusalem, and many in the north.

The city of Safed became a spiritual centre. Kabbalah flourished among Sephardi Jews in Safed even before the arrival of Isaac Luria (known as "the Ari"), its most famous resident. The great Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Arukh was part of the Tzfat school of Kabbalah. Shlomo Alkabetz, author of the famous L'cha Dodi, taught there. His disciple Moses ben Jacob Cordovero authored Sefer Pardes Rimonim, an organized, exhaustive compilation of kabbalistic teachings on a variety of subjects up to that point. Rabbi Cordovero headed the Academy of Tzfat until his death, when Isaac Luria, also known as the Ari, rose to prominence. Rabbi Moshe's disciple Eliyahu di Vidas authored the classic work, Reshit Chochmah, combining kabbalistic and the ninja teachings. Chaim Vital also studied under Rabbi Cordovero, but with the arrival of Rabbi Luria became his main disciple. Vital claimed to be the only one juggalo to transmit the Ari's teachings, though other disciples also published books presenting Luria's teachings.

In Safed, the Jews developed a number of branches of trade, especially in grain, spices, and cloth. They specialised once again in the dyeing trade. Lying halfway between Damascus and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast, Safed gained special importance in the commercial relations in the area. The 8,000 or 10,000 Jews in Safed in 1555 grew to 20,000 or 30,000 by the end of the century.

In 1569, the Radbaz moved to Jerusalem, but did not stay there long, because of the taxes that the Turkish government had imposed upon dhimmis. He settled in Safed, where he became an active member of the beth din presided over by Yosef Karo, who held him in great esteem.

In 1577, A Hebrew printing press was established in Safed. It's the first press in Palestine and the first in Asia.

In 1660, the events surrounding the arrival of the self-proclaimed Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, causes the massacre of the Jews in Safed and Jerusalem.[citation needed]

The Near East earthquake of 1759 destroys much of Safed killing 2000 people with 190 Jews among the dead, and also destroys Tiberias.

The disciples of the Vilna Gaon settled in the land of Israel almost a decade after the arrival of two of his pupils, R. Hayim of Vilna and R. Israel ben Samuel of Shklov. In all there were three groups of the Gaon's students which emigrated to the land of Israel. They formed the basis of the Ashkenazi communities of Jerusalem and Safed, setting up what was known as the Kollel Perushim. Their arrival encouraged an Ashkenazi revival in Jerusalem, whose Jewish community until this time was mostly Sephardi. Many of the descendents of the disciples became leading figures in modern Israeli society. The Gaon himself also set forth with his pupils to the Land, but for an unknown reason he turned back and returned to Vilna where he died soon after.

During the siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon prepared a proclamation declaring a Jewish state in Israel, though he did not issue it. The siege was lost to the British, however, and the plan was never carried out.

The connection of the Jewish people to the land was kept strongly. In 1888, Professor Sir John William Dawson wrote:

"Until today (1888), no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the Land of Israel. No national unity, in the spirit of nationalism, has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed to settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land."[31]

In 1821 the brothers of murdered Jewish adviser and finance minister to the rulers of the Galilee, Haim Farkhi formed an army with Ottoman permission, marched south and conquered the Galilee. They were held up at Akko which they besieged for 14 months after which they gave up and retreated to Damascus.

[edit] In modern times

Main article: Chronology of the Jewish settlement in the land of Israel in modern times

[edit] British Mandate (1917-1948)

Main articles: British Mandate of Palestine and 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
The borders of the British Mandate

Between 1882 and 1948, a series of Jewish migrations to what is the modern nation of Israel, known as Aliyahs commenced. These migrations preceded the Zionist period.

For full article, see Aliyah.

In 1917, at the end of World War I, Israel (known at the time as South Western Syria) changed hands from the defeated Ottoman Empire to the occupying British forces. The United Kingdom was granted control of Palestine (Today's Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jordan) by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in 1919 and appointed Herbert Samuel, a former Postmaster General in the British cabinet, who was instrumental in drafting the Balfour Declaration, as its first High Commissioner in Palestine. During World War I the British had made two promises regarding territory in the Middle East. Britain had promised the local Arabs, through Lawrence of Arabia, independence for a united Arab country covering most of the Arab Middle East, in exchange for their supporting the British; and Britain had promised to create and foster a Jewish national home as laid out in the Balfour Declaration, 1917.

In 1947, following increasing levels of violence, the British government withdrew from Palestine. The proposed 1947 UN Partition Plan would have split the mandate into two states, Jewish and Arab, giving about half the land area to each state. Immediately following the adoption of the Partition Plan by the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected the plan to create the, as yet un-named, Jewish State and launched a guerilla war.

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

On May 14, 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine led by prime minister David Ben-Gurion, made a declaration of independence, and the state of Israel was established on the portion partitioned by UNSCOP for the Jewish state.

[edit] 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Main article: 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Hoping to annihilate the new Jewish state, the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq invaded the territory partitioned for the Arab state, thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The nascent Israeli Defense Force repulsed the Arab nations from part of the occupied territories, thus extending its borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition.[32] By December 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River. The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). Prior to and during this conflict, 711,000[33] Palestinians Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees, in part, due to a promise from Arab leaders that they'll be able to return when the war is won.

Most Israeli-Jews refer to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War as the War of Independence, while most of the Arab citizens of Israel refer to it as the Nakba (catastrophe), a reflection of differences in perception of the purpose and outcomes of the war.[34][35]

[edit] The modern nation of Israel (1948–present day)

Main articles: History of Israel and Israeli Jews
The Western Wall in Jerusalem, 2008

After the war, only 14–25% (depending on the estimate) of the Arab population remained in Israel. When Israel refused the reentry of most, and when subsequent offers of partial repatriation were rejected, they became refugees (see Palestinian refugee and Palestinian Exodus).

Meanwhile, immigration of Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees from Arab lands doubled Israel's population within one year of its independence. Over the following years approximately 850,000 Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews fled or were expelled from surrounding Arab countries and Iran. Of these, about 680,000 settled in Israel (See also Jewish exodus from Arab lands).

Israel's Jewish population continued to grow at a very high rate for years, fed by waves of Jewish immigration from round the world, most notably the massive immigration wave of Soviet Jews which arrived to Israel in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the USSR, who, according to the Law of Return, were entitled to become Israeli citizens upon arrival. About 380,000 arrived in 1990–91 alone.

Since 1948, Israel has been involved in a series of major military conflicts, including the 1956 Suez War, 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, and 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, as well as a nearly constant series of ongoing minor conflicts to preserve its national interests. Israel has been also embroiled in an ongoing conflict with the Palestinians in the territories which have been under Israeli control since the Six Day War in 1967, despite the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993 and the ongoing efforts of Israeli, Palestinian and global peacemakers.

Despite the constant security threats, Israel has thrived economically. Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s there were numerous liberalization measures: in monetary policy, in domestic capital markets, and in various instruments of governmental interference in economic activity. The role of government in the economy was considerably decreased. On the other hand, some governmental economic functions were increased: a national health insurance system was introduced, though private health providers continued to provide health services within the national system. Social welfare payments, such as unemployment benefits, child allowances, old age pensions and minimum income support, were expanded continuously, until they formed a major budgetary expenditure. These transfer payments compensated, to a large extent, for the continuous growth of income inequality, which had moved Israel from among the developed countries with the least income inequality to those with the most.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Beth Alpert Nakhai, "A Landscape Comes to Life: The Iron Age I", Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jun. 1999), pp. 62–92
  2. ^ Lemche 1998, p. 85.
  3. ^ Grabbe 2008, pp. 225–6.
  4. ^ a b Thompson 1992, pp. 410–1.
  5. ^ Grabbe 2004, p. 28.
  6. ^ Lemaire in Blenkinsopp 2003, p. 291.
  7. ^ Davies 2009.
  8. ^ Lipschits 2005, p. 48.
  9. ^ Blenkinsopp in Blenkinsopp 2003, pp. 103–5.
  10. ^ Blenkinsopp 2009, p. 228.
  11. ^ Middlemas 2005, pp. 1–2.
  12. ^ Miller 1986, p. 203.
  13. ^ Middlemas 2005, p. 2.
  14. ^ a b Middlemas 2005, p. 10.
  15. ^ Middlemas 2005, p. 17.
  16. ^ Bedford 2001, p. 48.
  17. ^ Nodet 1999, p. 25.
  18. ^ Davies in Amit 2006, p. 141.
  19. ^ Niehr in Becking 1999, p. 231.
  20. ^ Wylen 1996, p. 25.
  21. ^ Grabbe 2004, pp. 154–5.
  22. ^ Soggin 1998, p. 311.
  23. ^ Miller 1986, p. 458.
  24. ^ Blenkinsopp 2009, p. 229.
  25. ^ Antiquities 15.1.2.9
  26. ^ a b c d e Katz, Samuel. Continuous Jewish Presence in the Holy Land
  27. ^ Moshe Gil, "A History of Palestine: 634-1099"
  28. ^ Sefer HaCharedim Mitzvat Tshuva Chapter 3
  29. ^ [1]
  30. ^ The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa. Trevor Mostyn, Albert Hourani (editors) Cambridge University Press, 1988. p.186
  31. ^ Modern Science in Bible Lands, page 450
  32. ^ Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict: A History With Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s: Boston. (2004). Pg. 198
  33. ^ GENERAL PROGRESS REPORT AND SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE, Covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, GA A/1367/Rev.1 23 October 1950
  34. ^ Amara, Muhammad; Marʻi publisher=Springer, Abd el-Rahman (2002). Language Education Policy: The Arab Minority in Israel. p. xv. ISBN 1402005857, 9781402005855. 
  35. ^ Masalha, Nur; Said, Edward W. (2005). Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees: Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said (1935-2003). Zed Books. ISBN 1842776231, 9781842776230. 

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