The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel , that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for "achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nationality, race, colour, religion, sex or political views."
143-530: The prize is awarded in Israel by the Wolf Foundation , founded by Ricardo Wolf , a German-born inventor and former Cuban ambassador to Israel. It is awarded in six fields: Agriculture , Chemistry , Mathematics , Medicine , Physics , and an Arts prize that rotates between architecture, music, painting, and sculpture. Each prize consists of a diploma and US$ 100,000. The awards ceremony typically takes place at
286-522: A 2001 election ; he carried out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and spearheaded the construction of the West Bank barrier , ending the intifada. Between 2000 and 2008, 1,063 Israelis, 5,517 Palestinians and 64 foreign citizens were killed. In 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel's northern border communities and a cross-border abduction of two Israeli soldiers precipitated
429-568: A Jewish homeland in Palestine and gained British support . After World War I , Britain occupied the region and established Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased Jewish immigration in the leadup to the Holocaust and British colonial policy led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs , which escalated into a civil war in 1947 after the United Nations (UN) proposed partitioning
572-525: A Plan of Partition with Economic Union to which seven members of the Committee (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, the Netherlands, Peru, Sweden and Uruguay), expressed themselves in favour. CHAPTER VII RECOMMENDATIONS (III) contained a comprehensive proposal that was voted upon and supported by three members (India, Iran, and Yugoslavia) for a Federal State of Palestine . Australia abstained. In CHAPTER VIII
715-465: A unicameral parliament elected by proportional representation , the Knesset , which determines the makeup of the government headed by the prime minister and elects the figurehead president . Israel is the only country to have a revived official language, Hebrew . Its culture comprises Jewish and Jewish diaspora elements alongside Arab influences. Israel has one of the largest economies in
858-568: A Jewish " national home " in Palestine. Weizmann's interpretation of the declaration was that negotiations on the future of the country were to happen directly between Britain and the Jews, excluding Arabs. Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine deteriorated dramatically in the following years. In 1918 the Jewish Legion , primarily Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine . In 1920
1001-850: A Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule, broke out in 1987, with waves of uncoordinated demonstrations and violence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Over the following six years, the intifada became more organized and included economic and cultural measures aimed at disrupting the Israeli occupation. Over 1,000 people were killed. During the 1991 Gulf War , the PLO supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi missile attacks against Israel . Despite public outrage, Israel heeded American calls to refrain from hitting back. In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister following an election in which his party called for compromise with Israel's neighbours. The following year, Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas for
1144-423: A danger to the party. The defection of Jewish votes in congressional elections in 1946 had contributed to electoral losses. Truman was, according to Roger Cohen, embittered by feelings of being a hostage to the lobby and its 'unwarranted interference', which he blamed for the contemporary impasse. When a formal American declaration in favour of partition was given on 11 October, a public relations authority declared to
1287-616: A de facto independent emirate in the Galilee. Ottoman attempts to subdue the sheikh failed. After Zahir's death the Ottomans regained control of the area. In 1799, governor Jazzar Pasha repelled an assault on Acre by Napoleon 's troops, prompting the French to abandon the Syrian campaign. In 1834, a revolt by Palestinian Arab peasants against Egyptian conscription and taxation policies under Muhammad Ali
1430-722: A delegate to the United Nations, perhaps a Russian. A number of Arab leaders argued against the partition proposal on the grounds that it endangered the Jews of Arab countries. The Arab states warned the Western Powers that endorsement of the partition plan might be met by either or both an oil embargo and realignment of the Arab states with the Soviet Bloc. On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions and 1 absent, in favour of
1573-818: A massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers of the massacre, a bombing and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon . On 6 October 1973, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, opening the Yom Kippur War . The war ended on 25 October with Israel repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but suffering great losses. An internal inquiry exonerated
SECTION 10
#17328522394631716-552: A measure deemed compulsory "in the last resort". To address any economic problems, the Plan proposed avoiding interfering with Jewish immigration, since any interference would be liable to produce an "economic crisis", most of Palestine's wealth coming from the Jewish community. To solve the predicted annual budget deficit of the Arab State and reduction in public services due to loss of tax from
1859-537: A movement that sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, thus offering a solution to the Jewish question of the European states. Antisemitism, pogroms and official policies, in tsarist Russia led to the emigration of three million Jews in the years between 1882 and 1914, only 1% of which went to Palestine. Those who went to Palestine were driven primarily by ideas of self-determination and Jewish identity, rather than as
2002-452: A number of members of the Committee expressed certain reservations and observations. The report of the majority of the Committee ( CHAPTER VI ) envisaged the division of Palestine into three parts: an Arab State, a Jewish State and the City of Jerusalem , linked by extraterritorial crossroads. The proposed Arab State would include the central and part of western Galilee , with the town of Acre ,
2145-568: A part of Coele-Syria . Over the ensuing centuries, the Hellenization of the region led to cultural tensions that came to a head during the reign of Antiochus IV , giving rise to the Maccabean Revolt of 167 BCE. The civil unrest weakened Seleucid rule, and in the late 2nd century the semi-autonomous Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea arose, eventually attaining full independence and expanding into neighboring regions. The Roman Republic invaded
2288-637: A proclamation allowing the exiled Judean population to return to Judah. The construction of the Second Temple was completed c. 520 BCE . The Achaemenids ruled the region as the province of Yehud Medinata . In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region as part of his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire . After his death, the area was controlled by the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires as
2431-652: A regional power, with a capital at Samaria ; during the Omride dynasty , it controlled Samaria , Galilee , the upper Jordan Valley , the plain of Sharon and large parts of Transjordan . The Kingdom of Israel was conquered around 720 BCE by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The Kingdom of Judah, under Davidic rule with its capital in Jerusalem , later became a client state of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then
2574-517: A response to pogroms or economic insecurity. The Second Aliyah (1904–1914) began after the Kishinev pogrom ; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half left eventually. Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews . The Second Aliyah included Zionist socialist groups who established the kibbutz movement based on the idea of establishing a separate Jewish economy based exclusively on Jewish labor. Those of
2717-662: A secret alliance with the UK and France and overran the Sinai Peninsula in the Suez Crisis but was pressured to withdraw by the UN in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights. The war resulted in significant reduction of Israeli border infiltration. In the early 1960s, Israel captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial . Eichmann remains
2860-535: A series of coordinated attacks on Israel, leading to the start of the Israel–Hamas war . On that day, approximately 1,300 Israelis, predominantly civilians, were killed in communities near the Gaza Strip border and during a music festival . Over 200 hostages were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. After clearing militants from its territory, Israel launched one of the most destructive bombing campaigns in modern history and invaded Gaza on 27 October with
3003-467: A session in the Knesset . The Wolf Prizes in physics and chemistry are often considered the most prestigious awards in those fields after the Nobel Prize. The prize in physics has gained a reputation for identifying future winners of the Nobel Prize – from the 26 prizes awarded between 1978 and 2010, fourteen winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, five of those in the following year. In medicine,
SECTION 20
#17328522394633146-527: A significant Jewish minority) in the Jewish state. Thus the Jewish State would have an overall large Arab minority. Areas that were sparsely populated (like the Negev desert), were also included in the Jewish state to create room for immigration. According to the plan, Jews and Arabs living in the Jewish state would become citizens of the Jewish state and Jews and Arabs living in the Arab state would become citizens of
3289-630: 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 , including East Jerusalem , and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip . Over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled by Zionist militias and the Israeli military —what would become known in Arabic as the nakba ('catastrophe'). The events also led to
3432-501: Is debate about the earliest existence of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their extent and power. While it is unclear if there was a United Kingdom of Israel , historians and archaeologists agree that the northern Kingdom of Israel existed by ca. 900 BCE and the Kingdom of Judah by ca. 850 BCE. The Kingdom of Israel was the more prosperous of the two and soon developed into
3575-605: Is known as the Nakba , with those remaining becoming the new state's main minority. Over the following decades, Israel's population increased greatly as the country received an influx of Jews who emigrated, fled or were expelled from the Muslim world . Following the 1967 Six-Day War Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and Syrian Golan Heights . Israel established and continues to expand settlements across
3718-509: The jizya tax. Non-Muslim Ottoman subjects faced geographic and lifestyle restrictions, though these were not always enforced. The millet system organized non-Muslims into autonomous communities on the basis of religion. The concept of the "return" remained a symbol within religious Jewish belief which emphasized that their return should be determined by Divine Providence rather than human action. Leading Zionist historian Shlomo Avineri describes this connection: "Jews did not relate to
3861-544: The Four Holy Cities —Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron , and Safed —and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem. A 1660 Druze revolt against the Ottomans destroyed Safed and Tiberias . In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European Jews who were opponents of Hasidism , known as the Perushim , settled in Palestine. In the late 18th century, local Arab Sheikh Zahir al-Umar created
4004-566: The Gaza Strip and Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The country also has a small coastline on the Red Sea at its southernmost point, and part of the Dead Sea lies along its eastern border. Israel's proclaimed capital is in Jerusalem , while Tel Aviv is the country's largest urban area and economic center . Israel is located in a region known to Jews as
4147-843: The Gaza Strip in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war . Observers, including the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices and United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese , have cited statements by senior Israeli officials that may indicate an " intent to destroy " (in whole or in part) Gaza's population, a necessary condition for the legal threshold of genocide to be met. A majority of mostly US-based Middle East scholars believe Israel's actions in Gaza were intended to make it uninhabitable for Palestinians, and 75% of them say Israel's actions in Gaza constitute either genocide or "major war crimes akin to genocide". On 29 December 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel at
4290-646: The International Court of Justice pursuant to the Genocide Convention , United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations to partition Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate . Drafted by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on 3 September 1947, the Plan was adopted by
4433-710: The Iran–Iraq War , the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's sole nuclear reactor, then under construction, in order to impede the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Following a series of PLO attacks in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy the PLO bases. In the first six days, Israel destroyed the military forces of the PLO in Lebanon and decisively defeated the Syrians. An Israeli government inquiry (the Kahan Commission ) held Begin and several Israeli generals indirectly responsible for
Wolf Prize - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-627: The Israeli–Palestinian conflict after the interim Oslo Accords have not succeeded, and the country has engaged in several wars and clashes with Palestinian militant groups . Israel's practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international criticism—along with accusations that it has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people—from human rights organizations and United Nations officials. The country's Basic Laws establish
4719-523: The Jewish Agency for Palestine with misgivings. Zionist leaders, in particular David Ben-Gurion , viewed the acceptance of the plan as a tactical step and a steppingstone to future territorial expansion over all of Palestine. The Arab Higher Committee , the Arab League and other Arab leaders and governments rejected the Plan, as aside from Arabs forming a two-thirds majority, they owned most of
4862-582: 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. Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords (1978) and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty (1979). In return, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and agreed to enter negotiations over autonomy for Palestinians in
5005-735: The Land of Israel , synonymous with the Palestine region , the Holy Land , and Canaan . In antiquity, it was home to the Canaanite civilization followed by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah . Situated at a continental crossroad , the region experienced demographic changes under the rule of various empires from the Romans to the Ottomans . European antisemitism in the late 19th century galvanized Zionism , which sought
5148-758: The Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE), large parts of Canaan formed vassal states of the New Kingdom of Egypt . As a result of the Late Bronze Age collapse , Canaan fell into chaos, and Egyptian control over the region collapsed. A people named Israel appear for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an ancient Egyptian inscription which dates to about 1200 BCE. Ancestors of the Israelites are thought to have included ancient Semitic-speaking peoples native to this area. Modern archaeological accounts suggest that
5291-713: The League of Nations granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians. The population of the area was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11% and Arab Christians about 9.5% of the population. The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine. The rise of Nazism , and
5434-695: The Neo-Babylonian Empire . It is estimated that the region's population was around 400,000 in the Iron Age II . In 587/6 BCE, following a revolt in Judah , King Nebuchadnezzar II besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple , dissolved the kingdom and exiled much of the Judean elite to Babylon . After capturing Babylon in 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great , founder of the Achaemenid Empire , issued
5577-471: The Royal Navy and the refugees placed in detention camps in Atlit and Cyprus . On 22 July 1946, Irgun bombed the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, killing 91. The attack was a response to Operation Agatha (a series of raids, including one on the Jewish Agency , by the British) and was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era. The Jewish insurgency continued throughout 1946 and 1947 despite concerted efforts by
5720-469: The Sabra and Shatila massacre and held Defense Minister Ariel Sharon as bearing "personal responsibility". Sharon was forced to resign. In 1985, Israel responded to a Palestinian terrorist attack in Cyprus by bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunisia. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986 but maintained a borderland buffer zone in southern Lebanon until 2000, from where Israeli forces engaged in conflict with Hezbollah . The First Intifada ,
5863-456: The Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem and the short-lived Jewish revolt against Heraclius in 614 CE, the Byzantine Empire reconsolidated control of the area in 628. In 634–641 CE, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the Levant . Over the next six centuries, control of the region transferred between the Umayyad , Abbasid , Fatimid caliphates, and subsequently the Seljuk and Ayyubid dynasties. The population drastically decreased during
Wolf Prize - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-423: The Sea of Galilee , crucial for its water supply , and the economically important Red Sea . The committee voted for the plan, 25 to 13 (with 17 abstentions and 2 absentees) on 25 November 1947 and the General Assembly was called back into a special session to vote on the proposal. Various sources noted that this was one vote short of the two-thirds majority required in the General Assembly. On 23 September 1947
6149-403: The UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947 as Resolution 181 (II) . The resolution recommended the creation of independent but economically linked Arab and Jewish States and an extraterritorial " Special International Regime " for the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings. The Partition Plan, a four-part document attached to the resolution, provided for the termination of the Mandate;
6292-557: The Ubeidiya prehistoric site . The Skhul and Qafzeh hominins , dating back 120,000 years, are some of the earliest traces of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa. The Natufian culture , which may have been linked to Proto-Afroasiatic language , emerged by the 10th millennium BCE, followed by the Ghassulian culture by around 4,500 BCE. Early references to "Canaanites" and " Canaan " appear in Near Eastern and Egyptian texts ( c. 2000 BCE); these populations were structured as politically independent city-states . During
6435-404: The Zionist Congress to lend provisional approval to the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiations. In a letter to his son in October 1937 , Ben-Gurion explained that partition would be a first step to "possession of the land as a whole". The same sentiment, that acceptance of partition was a temporary measure beyond which the Palestine would be "redeemed ... in its entirety,"
6578-413: The destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple and a sizable portion of the population being killed or displaced. A second uprising known as the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) initially allowed the Jews to form an independent state, but the Romans brutally crushed the rebellion, devastating and depopulating Judea's countryside. Jerusalem was rebuilt as a Roman colony ( Aelia Capitolina ), and
6721-400: The illegally occupied territories , contrary to international law, and has effectively annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in moves largely unrecognized internationally. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War , Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt —returning the Sinai in 1982—and Jordan . In the 2020s, it normalized relations with more Arab countries. However, efforts to resolve
6864-419: The occupied West Bank , increasing friction with the Palestinians there. The 1980 Jerusalem Law was believed by some to reaffirm Israel's 1967 annexation of Jerusalem by government decree and reignited international controversy over the status of the city . No Israeli legislation has defined the territory of Israel, and no act specifically included East Jerusalem therein. In 1981 Israel effectively annexed
7007-435: The 2010s, increasing regional cooperation between Israel and Arab League countries have been established, culminating in the signing of the Abraham Accords . The Israeli security situation shifted from the traditional Arab–Israeli conflict towards the Iran–Israel proxy conflict and direct confrontation with Iran during the Syrian civil war . On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant groups from Gaza, led by Hamas, launched
7150-416: The Arab State in the final plan included about 43% of Mandatory Palestine and consisted of all of the highlands, except for Jerusalem, plus one-third of the coastline. The highlands contain the major aquifers of Palestine, which supplied water to the coastal cities of central Palestine, including Tel Aviv. The Jewish State allocated to the Jews, who constituted a third of the population and owned about 7% of
7293-414: The Arab state under the UNSCOP majority plan. The British report stated: the term Beersheba Bedouin has a meaning more definite than one would expect in the case of a nomad population. These tribes, wherever they are found in Palestine, will always describe themselves as Beersheba tribes. Their attachment to the area arises from their land rights there and their historic association with it . In respect of
SECTION 50
#17328522394637436-540: The Arab state. By virtue of Chapter 3, Palestinian citizens residing in Palestine outside the City of Jerusalem, as well as Arabs and Jews who, not holding Palestinian citizenship, resided in Palestine outside the City of Jerusalem would, upon the recognition of independence, become citizens of the State in which they were resident and enjoy full civil and political rights. Population of Palestine by religions in 1946: Moslems — 1,076,783; Jews — 608,225; Christians — 145,063; Others — 15,488; Total — 1,845,559. On this basis,
7579-475: The Arab states, and calls for a Jihad and an annihilation of all European Jews in Palestine. Under the terms of League of Nations A-class mandates each such mandatory territory was to become a sovereign state on termination of its mandate. By the end of World War II , this occurred with all such mandates except Palestine; however, the League of Nations itself lapsed in 1946, leading to a legal quandary. In February 1947, Britain announced its intent to terminate
7722-446: The British enforcement of the 1939 White Paper. On 3 September 1947, the Committee reported to the General Assembly. CHAPTER V: PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS (I) , Section A of the Report contained eleven proposed recommendations (I – XI) approved unanimously. Section B contained one proposed recommendation approved by a substantial majority dealing with the Jewish problem in general (XI). CHAPTER VI: PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS (II) contained
7865-486: The British maintained limits on Jewish immigration in line with the 1939 White Paper. The Jewish community rejected the restriction on immigration and organized an armed resistance . These actions and United States pressure to end the anti-immigration policy led to the establishment of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry . In April 1946, the Committee reached a unanimous decision for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine, rescission of
8008-413: The British military and Palestine Police Force to suppress it. British efforts to mediate with Jewish and Arab representatives also failed as the Jews were unwilling to accept any solution that did not involve a Jewish state and suggested a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, while the Arabs were adamant that a Jewish state in any part of Palestine was unacceptable and that the only solution
8151-455: The British to restore Jewish immigration rights, and cooperated with the British in the war against Fascism. Aliyah Bet was organized to spirit Jews out of Nazi controlled Europe, despite the British prohibitions. The White Paper also led to the formation of Lehi , a small Jewish organization which opposed the British. After World War II, in August 1945 President Truman asked for the admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine but
8294-417: The British would evacuate. As Arab militias and gangs attacked Jewish areas, they were faced mainly by the Haganah as well as the smaller Irgun and Lehi. In April 1948, the Haganah moved onto the offensive. On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion , the head of the Jewish Agency, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel". The following day,
8437-410: The City of Jerusalem [...] the last to be under an International Trusteeship System". Meanwhile, the Jewish insurgency continued and peaked in July 1947, with a series of widespread guerrilla raids culminating in the Sergeants affair , in which the Irgun took two British sergeants hostage as attempted leverage against the planned execution of three Irgun operatives. After the executions were carried out,
8580-461: The General Assembly established the Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question to consider the UNSCOP report. Representatives of the Arab Higher Committee and Jewish Agency were invited and attended. During the committee's deliberations, the British government endorsed the report's recommendations concerning the end of the mandate, independence, and Jewish immigration. However, the British did "not feel able to implement" any agreement unless it
8723-433: The Golan Heights from Syria. Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem. The 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories . Following the 1967 war and the " Three Nos " resolution of the Arab League, Israel faced attacks from the Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula during the 1967–1970 War of Attrition , and from Palestinian groups targeting Israelis in
SECTION 60
#17328522394638866-402: The Golan Heights. The international community largely rejected these moves, with the UN Security Council declaring both the Jerusalem Law and the Golan Heights Law null and void. Several waves of Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel since the 1980s, while between 1990 and 1994, immigration from the post-Soviet states increased Israel's population by twelve percent. On 7 June 1981, during
9009-585: The Holocaust. During the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen , nearly always against civilians, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip, leading to several Israeli reprisal operations . In 1956, the UK and France aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal , which Egypt had nationalized. The continued blockade of the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, together with increasing fedayeen attacks against Israel's southern population and recent Arab threatening statements, prompted Israel to attack Egypt. Israel joined
9152-413: The Irgun killed the two British soldiers, hanged their bodies from trees, and left a booby trap at the scene which injured a British soldier. The incident caused widespread outrage in the UK. In September 1947, the British cabinet decided to evacuate Palestine as the Mandate was no longer tenable. On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (II) . The plan attached to the resolution
9295-537: The Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples through the development of a distinct monolatristic —and later monotheistic —religion centered on Yahweh . They spoke an archaic form of Hebrew , known as Biblical Hebrew . Around the same time, the Philistines settled on the southern coastal plain . Most modern scholars agree that the Exodus narrative in the Torah and Old Testament did not take place as depicted; however, some elements of these traditions do have historical roots . There
9438-473: The Jewish refugees due to World War II, the Sub-Committee recommended to request the countries of which the refugees belonged to take them back as much as possible (Resolution No. II ). The Sub-Committee proposed to establish a unitary state (Resolution No. III ). The ad hoc committee made a number of boundary changes to the UNSCOP recommendations before they were voted on by the General Assembly. The predominantly Arab city of Jaffa , previously located within
9581-449: The Jewish state, it was proposed that the Jewish state pay an annual subsidy to the Arab state and take on half of the latter's deficit. The Palestinian Arab leadership rejected partition as unacceptable, given the inequality in the proposed population exchange and the transfer of one-third of Palestine, including most of its best agricultural land, to recent immigrants. The Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion , persuaded
9724-464: The Jewish state, was constituted as an enclave of the Arab State. The boundary of the Arab state was modified to include Beersheba and a strip of the Negev desert along the Egyptian border, while a section of the Dead Sea shore and other additions were made to the Jewish State. The Jewish population in the revised Jewish State would be about half a million, compared to 450,000 Arabs. The proposed boundaries would also have placed 54 Arab villages on
9867-403: The Jewish state. However, they agreed to accept the plan if "it would make possible the immediate re-establishment of the Jewish State with sovereign control of its own immigration." Arab states requested representation on the UN ad hoc subcommittees of October 1947, but were excluded from Subcommittee One, which had been delegated the specific task of studying and, if thought necessary, modifying
10010-422: The Levant was fairly cosmopolitan, with religious freedoms for Christians, Muslims, and Jews . In 1561 the Ottoman sultan invited Sephardi Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition to settle in and rebuild the city of Tiberias . Under the Ottoman Empire's millet system , Christians and Jews were considered dhimmi (meaning "protected") under Ottoman law in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of
10153-420: The Mandate for Palestine, referring the matter of the future of Palestine to the United Nations . According to William Roger Louis , British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin 's policy was premised on the idea that an Arab majority would carry the day, which met difficulties with Harry S. Truman who, sensitive to Zionist electoral pressures in the United States, pressed for a British-Zionist compromise. In May,
10296-455: The Mandate had become unworkable, and recommended partition into an Arab state linked to Transjordan ; a small Jewish state; and a mandatory zone. To address problems arising from the presence of national minorities in each area, it suggested a land and population transfer involving the transfer of some 225,000 Arabs living in the envisaged Jewish state and 1,250 Jews living in a future Arab state,
10439-520: The Middle East and among the highest GDP per capita and standards of living in Asia . One of the most technologically advanced and developed countries in the world, it spends proportionally more on research and development than any other and is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons . Under the British Mandate (1920–1948), the entire region was known as Palestine . Upon establishment in 1948 ,
10582-520: The Negev, to the Jews was overturned by an urgent and secret late meeting organized for Chaim Weizman with Truman, which immediately countermanded the recommendation. The United States initially refrained from pressuring smaller states to vote either way, but Robert A. Lovett reported that America's U.N. delegation's case suffered impediments from high pressure by Jewish groups, and that indications existed that bribes and threats were being used, even of American sanctions against Liberia and Nicaragua. When
10725-634: The PLO signed the Oslo Accords , which gave the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) the right to 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 peace treaty was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel. Arab public support for the Accords
10868-520: The Second Aliyah who became leaders of the Yishuv in the coming decades believed that the Jewish settler economy should not depend on Arab labor. This would be a dominant source of antagonism with the Arab population, with the new Yishuv's nationalist ideology overpowering its socialist one. Though the immigrants of the Second Aliyah largely sought to create communal Jewish agricultural settlements, Tel Aviv
11011-578: The Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea. Other Arab states mobilized their forces. Israel reiterated that these actions were a casus belli and launched a pre-emptive strike ( Operation Focus ) against Egypt in June. Jordan, Syria and Iraq attacked Israel. In the Six-Day War , Israel captured and occupied the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and
11154-711: The UN formed the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to prepare a report on recommendations for Palestine. The Jewish Agency pressed for Jewish representation and the exclusion of both Britain and Arab countries on the Committee, sought visits to camps where Holocaust survivors were interned in Europe as part of UNSCOP's brief, and in May won representation on the Political Committee. The Arab states, convinced statehood had been subverted, and that
11297-524: The UN's then 57 member states. On 26 November, after filibustering by the Zionist delegation, the vote was postponed by three days. According to multiple sources, had the vote been held on the original set date, it would have received a majority, but less than the required two-thirds. Various compromise proposals and variations on a single state, including federations and cantonal systems were debated (including those previously rejected in committee). The delay
11440-629: The UNSCOP plan failed to achieve the necessary majority on 25 November, the lobby 'moved into high gear' and induced the President to overrule the State Department, and let wavering governments know that the U.S. strongly desired partition. Proponents of the Plan reportedly put pressure on nations to vote yes to the Partition Plan. A telegram signed by 26 US Senators with influence on foreign aid bills
11583-574: The UNSCOP report, the Sub-Committee concluded that the earlier population "estimates must, however, be corrected in the light of the information furnished to the Sub-Committee by the representative of the United Kingdom regarding the Bedouin population. According to the statement, 22,000 Bedouins may be taken as normally residing in the areas allocated to the Arab State under the UNSCOP's majority plan, and
11726-634: The West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 11 March 1978, a PLO guerilla raid from Lebanon led to the Coastal Road massacre . Israel responded by launching an invasion of southern Lebanon to destroy PLO bases. Most PLO fighters withdrew, but Israel was able to secure southern Lebanon until a UN force and the Lebanese army could take over. The PLO soon resumed its insurgency against Israel, and Israel carried out numerous retaliatory attacks. Meanwhile, Begin's government provided incentives for Israelis to settle in
11869-598: The White Paper restrictions of land sale to Jews, that the country be neither Arab nor Jewish, and the extension of U.N. Trusteeship. The U.S. endorsed the Commission's findings concerning Jewish immigration and land purchase restrictions, while the British made their agreement to implementation conditional on U.S. assistance in case of another Arab revolt. In effect, the British continued to carry out their White Paper policy. The recommendations triggered violent demonstrations in
12012-628: The Zionist Emergency Council in a closed meeting: 'under no circumstances should any of us believe or think we had won because of the devotion of the American Government to our cause. We had won because of the sheer pressure of political logistics that was applied by the Jewish leadership in the United States'. State Department advice critical of the controversial UNSCOP recommendation to give the overwhelmingly Arab town of Jaffa , and
12155-508: The adult male Palestinian Arab population was killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled. The British introduced restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine 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 , 31% of
12298-456: The armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq—entered what had been Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ; contingents from Yemen , Morocco , Saudi Arabia , and Sudan joined the war. The purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state and to "sweep them [Jews] into the sea". The Arab League stated the invasion was to restore order and prevent further bloodshed. After
12441-505: The balance of 105,000 as resident in the proposed Jewish State. It will thus be seen that the proposed Jewish State will contain a total population of 1,008,800, consisting of 509,780 Arabs and 499,020 Jews. In other words, at the outset, the Arabs will have a majority in the proposed Jewish State." The Sub-Committee 2 recommended to put the question of the Partition Plan before the International Court of Justice (Resolution No. I ). In respect of
12584-667: The basis that the partition plan privileged European interests over those of the Palestinians, and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition. On 1 December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and riots broke out in Jerusalem . The situation spiraled into a civil war . Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones announced that the British Mandate would end on 15 May 1948, at which point
12727-419: The boundaries of the proposed partition. The Sub-Committee 2, set up on 23 October 1947 to draw up a detailed plan based on proposals of Arab states presented its report within a few weeks. Based on a reproduced British report, the Sub-Committee 2 criticised the UNSCOP report for using inaccurate population figures, especially concerning the Bedouin population. The British report, dated 1 November 1947, used
12870-462: The church and the authorities. Many Jews had emigrated to flourishing diaspora communities, while locally there was both Christian immigration and local conversion. By the middle of the 5th century, there was a Christian majority. Towards the end of the 5th century, Samaritan revolts erupted, continuing until the late 6th century and resulting in a large decrease in the Samaritan population. After
13013-440: The committee recommended that the region be partitioned into an Arab state and a Jewish state, which should retain an economic union. An international regime was envisioned for Jerusalem. The Arab delegations at the UN had sought to keep separate the issue of Palestine from the issue of Jewish refugees in Europe. During their visit, UNSCOP members were shocked by the extent of Lehi and Irgun violence, then at its apogee, and by
13156-429: The country formally adopted the name State of Israel ( Hebrew : מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל , Medīnat Yisrā'el [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel] ; Arabic : دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل , Dawlat Isrāʼīl , [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl] ) after other proposed names including Land of Israel ( Eretz Israel ), Ever (from ancestor Eber ), Zion , and Judea , were considered but rejected. The name Israel
13299-672: The crusaders before Muslim rule was fully restored by the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in 1291. In 1516, the Ottoman Empire conquered the region and ruled it as part of Ottoman Syria . Two violent incidents took place against Jews, the 1517 Safed attacks and the 1517 Hebron attacks , after the Turkish Ottomans ousted the Mamluks during the Ottoman–Mamluk War . Under the Ottoman Empire,
13442-486: The destruction of most of Palestine's Arab culture , identity , and national aspirations . Some 156,000 Arabs remained and became Arab citizens of Israel . By United Nations General Assembly Resolution 273 , Israel was admitted as a member of the UN on 11 May 1949. In the early years of the state, the Labor Zionist movement led by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion dominated Israeli politics . Immigration to Israel during
13585-523: The elaborate military presence attested by endemic barb-wire, searchlights, and armoured-car patrols. Committee members also witnessed the SS Exodus affair in Haifa and could hardly have remained unaffected by it. On concluding their mission, they dispatched a subcommittee to investigate Jewish refugee camps in Europe. The incident is mentioned in the report in relation to Jewish distrust and resentment concerning
13728-570: The entirety of the Gaza Strip and over 90% of the West Bank with Jerusalem as a shared capital. Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks. In late 2000, after a controversial visit by Sharon to the Temple Mount , the Second Intifada began. Palestinian suicide bombings were a recurrent feature. Some commentators contend that the intifada was pre-planned by Arafat after the collapse of peace talks. Sharon became prime minister in
13871-488: The establishment in Palestine of a "National Home" for the Jewish people, with the prerogative to carry it out. A British census of 1918 estimated 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews. In 1937, following a six-month-long Arab General Strike and armed insurrection which aimed to pursue national independence and secure the country from foreign control, the British established the Peel Commission . The Commission concluded that
14014-513: The following several centuries, dropping from an estimated 1 million during Roman and Byzantine periods to about 300,000 by the early Ottoman period , and there was a steady process of Arabization and Islamization . The end of the 11th century brought the Crusades , papally -sanctioned incursions of Christian crusaders intent on wresting Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control and establishing crusader states . The Ayyubids pushed back
14157-403: The form of Zionism . Jewish organizations collaborated with UNSCOP during the deliberations, while Palestinian Arab leadership boycotted it. The Plan's detractors considered the proposal to be pro-Zionist, as it allocated most land to the Jewish state despite Palestinian Arabs numbering twice the Jewish population. The Plan was celebrated by most Jews in Palestine and reluctantly accepted by
14300-436: The government of responsibility for failures before and during the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign. In July 1976, an airliner was hijacked in flight from Israel to France by Palestinian guerrillas; Israeli commandos rescued 102 of 106 Israeli hostages . The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin 's Likud party took control from
14443-418: The gradual withdrawal of British armed forces by no later than 1 August 1948; and the delineation of boundaries between the two States and Jerusalem at least two months after the withdrawal, but no later than 1 October 1948. The Arab state was to have a territory of 11,592 square kilometres, or 42.88 percent of the Mandate's territory, and the Jewish state a territory of 15,264 square kilometres, or 56.47 percent;
14586-504: The hill country of Samaria and Judea , an enclave at Jaffa , and the southern coast stretching from north of Isdud (now Ashdod ) and encompassing what is now the Gaza Strip , with a section of desert along the Egyptian border. The proposed Jewish State would include the fertile Eastern Galilee, the Coastal Plain, stretching from Haifa to Rehovot and most of the Negev desert , including
14729-518: The increasing persecution of Jews in 1930s Europe led to the Fifth Aliyah , with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This was a major cause of the Arab revolt of 1936–39 , which was suppressed by British security forces and Zionist militias. Several hundred British security personnel and Jews were killed; 5,032 Arabs were killed, 14,760 were wounded, and 12,622 were detained. An estimated ten percent of
14872-475: The land between them. The State of Israel declared its establishment on 14 May 1948. The armies of neighboring Arab states invaded the area of the former Mandate the next day, beginning the First Arab–Israeli War . Subsequent armistice agreements established Israeli control over 77 percent of the former Mandate territory. The majority of Palestinian Arabs were either expelled or fled in what
15015-678: The land, was to receive 56% of Mandatory Palestine, a slightly larger area to accommodate the increasing numbers of Jews who would immigrate there. The Jewish State included three fertile lowland plains – the Sharon on the coast, the Jezreel Valley and the upper Jordan Valley . The bulk of the proposed Jewish State's territory, however, consisted of the Negev Desert , which was mostly not suitable for agriculture, nor for urban development at that time. The Jewish State would also be given sole access to
15158-485: The late 1940s and early 1950s was aided by the Israeli Immigration Department and the non-government sponsored Mossad LeAliyah Bet ( lit. "Institute for Immigration B "). The latter engaged in clandestine operations in countries, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where the lives of Jews were in danger and exit was difficult. Mossad LeAliyah Bet was disbanded in 1953. The immigration
15301-457: The latter were often re-designated for the former, so Jews newly arrived from Arab lands generally ended up staying longer in transit camps. During this period, food, clothes and furniture were rationed in what became known as the austerity period . 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 that Israel could accept monetary compensation for
15444-764: The month-long Second Lebanon War . In 2007 the Israeli Air Force destroyed a nuclear reactor in Syria. In 2008, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed, resulting in the three-week Gaza War . In what Israel described as a response to over a hundred Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities, Israel began an operation in the Gaza Strip in 2012, lasting eight days. Israel started another operation in Gaza following an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas in July 2014. In May 2021 another round of fighting took place in Gaza and Israel, lasting eleven days. By
15587-534: The occupied territories, globally, and in Israel. Most important among the Palestinian and Arab groups was the Palestine 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 attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, including
15730-403: The one hand, and Syria and Lebanon on the other. Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel and called for its destruction. By 1966 Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces. In May 1967, Egypt massed its army near the border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeepers stationed in
15873-501: The only person executed in Israel by conviction in an Israeli civilian court. In 1963, Israel was engaged in a diplomatic standoff with the United States in relation to the Israeli nuclear programme . Since 1964 Arab countries, concerned over Israeli plans to divert waters of the Jordan River into the coastal plain , had been trying to divert the headwaters to deprive Israel of water resources, provoking tensions between Israel on
16016-537: The opposite side of the border from their farm land. In response, the United Nations Palestine Commission established in 1948 was empowered to modify the boundaries "in such a way that village areas as a rule will not be divided by state boundaries unless pressing reasons make that necessary". These modifications never occurred. Passage of the resolution required a two-thirds majority of the valid votes, not counting abstaining and absent members, of
16159-680: The patriarch Jacob who, according to the Hebrew Bible , was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the Angel of the Lord . The earliest known archaeological artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE). Early hominin presence in the Levant , where Israel is located, dates back at least 1.5 million years based on
16302-581: The plan was not implemented. In 1948, 85% of the Palestinians living in the areas that became the state of Israel became refugees. The British administration was formalized by the League of Nations under the Palestine Mandate in 1923, as part of the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire following World War I . The Mandate reaffirmed the 1917 British commitment to the Balfour Declaration , for
16445-532: The population at the end of 1946 was estimated as follows: Arabs — 1,203,000; Jews — 608,000; others — 35,000; Total — 1,846,000. At the time the UN passed its decision to partition the country, the arable land was owned as follows: 93 per cent by Arabs, and 7 per cent by Jews. The Plan would have had the following demographics (data based on 1945). In addition there would be in the Jewish State about 90,000 Bedouins, cultivators and stock owners who seek grazing further afield in dry seasons. The land allocated to
16588-417: The population of Palestine was Jewish. The UK found itself facing a Jewish insurgency over immigration restrictions and continued conflict with the Arab community over limit levels. The Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule. The Haganah attempted to bring tens of thousands of Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors to Palestine by ship. Most of the ships were intercepted by
16731-726: The prize is probably the third most prestigious, after the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award . Until the establishment of the Abel Prize , the Wolf Prize was probably the closest equivalent of a "Nobel Prize in Mathematics", since the more prestigious Fields Medal was only awarded every four years to mathematicians under forty years old. In agriculture, the prize has likewise been equated to a "Nobel Prize in Agriculture". The most recent Wolf Prize
16874-520: The proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable". Representatives of Arabs and Jews were invited to London for the St. James Conference , which proved unsuccessful. With World War II looming, British policies were influenced by a desire to win Arab world support and could ill afford to engage with another Arab uprising. The MacDonald White Paper of May 1939 declared that it
17017-570: The province of Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina . Jews were expelled from the districts surrounding Jerusalem. Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence, and Galilee became its religious center. Early Christianity displaced Roman paganism in the 4th century CE, with Constantine embracing and promoting the Christian religion and Theodosius I making it the state religion . A series of laws were passed that discriminated against Jews and Judaism, and Jews were persecuted by both
17160-619: The region in 63 BCE, first taking control of Syria , and then intervening in the Hasmonean civil war . The struggle between pro-Roman and pro- Parthian factions in Judea led to the installation of Herod the Great as a dynastic vassal of Rome . In 6 CE, the area was annexed as the Roman province of Judaea ; tensions with Roman rule led to a series of Jewish–Roman wars , resulting in widespread destruction. The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) resulted in
17303-430: The remaining 0.65 percent or 176 square kilometres—comprising Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would become an international zone . The Plan also called for an economic union between the proposed states and for the protection of religious and minority rights. The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of two competing movements: Palestinian nationalism and Jewish nationalism in
17446-469: The results of a new census in Beersheba in 1946 with additional use of aerial photographs, and an estimate of the population in other districts. It found that the size of the Bedouin population was greatly understated in former enumerations. In Beersheba, 3,389 Bedouin houses and 8,722 tents were counted. The total Bedouin population was estimated at approximately 127,000; only 22,000 of them normally resident in
17589-422: The southern outpost of Umm Rashrash (now Eilat ). The Jerusalem Corpus Separatum included Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. The primary objectives of the majority of the Committee were political division and economic unity between the two groups. The Plan tried its best to accommodate as many Jews as possible into the Jewish State. In many specific cases, this meant including areas of Arab majority (but with
17732-608: The stated objectives of destroying Hamas and freeing hostages. The fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, it has been the deadliest for Palestinians in the entire Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israel is accused of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people by experts, governments, United Nations agencies, and non-governmental organisations during its invasion of
17875-586: The territory was divided between Britain and France under the mandate system , and the British-administered area (including modern Israel) was named Mandatory Palestine . Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the Haganah as an outgrowth of Hashomer, from which the Irgun and Lehi paramilitaries later split. In 1922,
18018-462: The territory. They also indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division, arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter that granted people the right to decide their own destiny. They announced their intention to take all necessary measures to prevent the implementation of the resolution. A civil war broke out in Palestine, and
18161-514: The transition of authority from the League of Nations to the UN was questionable in law, wished the issues to be brought before an International Court, and refused to collaborate with UNSCOP, which had extended an invitation for liaison also to the Arab Higher Committee . In August, after three months of conducting hearings and a general survey of the situation in Palestine, a majority report of
18304-640: The vision of the Return in a more active way than most Christians viewed the Second Coming ." The religious Judaic notion of being a nation was distinct from the modern European notion of nationalism. The Jewish population of Palestine from the Ottoman rule to the beginning of the Zionist movement, known as the Old Yishuv , comprised a minority and fluctuated in size. During the 16th century, Jewish communities struck roots in
18447-546: The whole of Palestine would be consistent with the UN Charter. The Jewish Agency expressed support for most of the UNSCOP recommendations, but emphasized the "intense urge" of the overwhelming majority of Jewish displaced persons to proceed to Palestine. The Jewish Agency criticized the proposed boundaries, especially in the Western Galilee and Western Jerusalem (outside of the old city), arguing that these should be included in
18590-438: Was "not part of [the British government's] policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State", sought to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine and restricted Arab land sales to Jews. However, the League of Nations commission held that the White Paper was in conflict with the terms of the Mandate as put forth in the past. The outbreak of the Second World War suspended any further deliberations. The Jewish Agency hoped to persuade
18733-427: Was a unified Palestine under Arab rule. In February 1947, the British referred the Palestine issue to the newly formed United Nations . On 15 May 1947, the UN General Assembly resolved that a Special Committee be created "to prepare ... a report on the question of Palestine". The Report of the Committee proposed a plan to replace the British Mandate with "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and
18876-446: Was acceptable to both the Arabs and the Jews, and asked that the General Assembly provide an alternative implementing authority if that proved to be the case. The Arab Higher Committee rejected both the majority and minority recommendations within the UNSCOP report. They "concluded from a survey of Palestine history that Zionist claims to that country had no legal or moral basis". The Arab Higher Committee argued that only an Arab State in
19019-404: Was awarded in June 2022 to: Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2023 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if have multiple citizenship. Israel Israel , officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia . It is bordered by Lebanon and Syria to the north, the West Bank and Jordan to the east,
19162-431: Was damaged by the continuation of Israeli settlements and checkpoints , and the deterioration of economic conditions. Israeli public support for the Accords waned after Palestinian suicide attacks . In November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir , a far-right Jew who opposed the Accords. During Benjamin Netanyahu's premiership at the end of the 1990s, Israel agreed to withdraw from Hebron , though this
19305-519: Was essentially that proposed in the report of 3 September. The Jewish Agency, the recognized representative of the Jewish community, accepted the plan, which assigned 55–56% of Mandatory Palestine to the Jews. At the time, the Jews were about a third of the population and owned around 6–7% of the land. Arabs constituted the majority and owned about 20% of the land, with the remainder held by the Mandate authorities or foreign landowners. The Arab League and Arab Higher Committee of Palestine rejected it on
19448-409: Was established as the first planned Jewish town in 1909. Jewish armed militias emerged during this period, the first being Bar-Giora in 1907. Two years later, the larger Hashomer organization was founded as its replacement. Chaim Weizmann's efforts to garner British support for the Zionist movement eventually secured the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating Britain's support for the creation of
19591-825: Was in accordance with the One Million Plan . Some immigrants held Zionist beliefs or came for the promise of a better life, while others moved to escape persecution or were expelled from their homes. An influx of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab and Muslim countries to Israel during the first three years increased the number of Jews from 700,000 to 1,400,000. By 1958, the population had risen to two million. Between 1948 and 1970, approximately 1,150,000 Jewish refugees relocated to Israel. Some immigrants arrived as refugees and were housed in temporary camps known as ma'abarot ; by 1952, over 200,000 people were living in these tent cities. Jews of European background were often treated more favorably than Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries—housing units reserved for
19734-406: Was never ratified or implemented, and he signed the Wye River Memorandum , giving greater control to the PNA. Ehud Barak , elected prime minister in 1999, withdrew forces from southern Lebanon and conducted negotiations with PNA Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the 2000 Camp David Summit . Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state , including
19877-453: Was recorded by Ben-Gurion on other occasions, such as at a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938, as well as by Chaim Weizmann . The British Woodhead Commission was set up to examine the practicality of partition. The Peel plan was rejected and two possible alternatives were considered. In 1938, the British government issued a policy statement declaring that "the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in
20020-457: Was sent to wavering countries, seeking their support for the partition plan. The US Senate was considering a large aid package at the time, including 60 million dollars to China. Many nations reported pressure directed specifically at them: There is also some evidence that Sam Zemurray put pressure on several " banana republics " to change their votes. According to Benny Morris, Wasif Kamal, an Arab Higher Committee official, tried to bribe
20163-564: Was suggested by David Ben-Gurion and passed by a vote of 6–3. In the early weeks after establishment, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of the Israeli state. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish people respectively. The name Israel (Hebrew: Yīsrāʾēl ; Septuagint Ancient Greek : Ἰσραήλ , Israēl , " El (God) persists/rules", though after Hosea 12:4 often interpreted as "struggle with God") refers to
20306-486: Was suppressed; Muhammad Ali's army retreated and Ottoman rule was restored with British support in 1840. The Tanzimat reforms were implemented across the Ottoman Empire. The first wave of modern Jewish migration to Ottoman-ruled Palestine , known as the First Aliyah , began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe. The 1882 May Laws increased economic discrimination against Jews, and restricted where they could live. In response, political Zionism took form,
20449-405: Was used by supporters of Zionism in New York to put extra pressure on states not supporting the resolution. Zionists launched an intense White House lobby to have the UNSCOP plan endorsed, and the effects were not trivial. The Democratic Party, a large part of whose contributions came from Jews, informed Truman that failure to live up to promises to support the Jews in Palestine would constitute
#462537