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| Etymology | |
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The Star of David, symbol of Judaism since the Middle Ages.
This article contains Hebrew text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hebrew letters.
This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.
Upon independence in 1948, the new Jewish state was formally named Medinat Yisrael, or the State of Israel, after other proposed historical and religious names including Eretz Israel ("the Land of Israel"), Zion, and Judea, were considered and rejected.[28] In the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term "Israeli" to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett.[29]
The name Israel has historically been used, in common and religious usage, to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel or the entire Jewish nation.[30] According to the Hebrew Bible the name "Israel" was given to the patriarch Jacob (Standard Yisraʾel, Isrāʾīl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ; "struggle with God"[31]) after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord.[32] Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob,[33] led the Israelites back into Canaan in the "Exodus". The earliest archaeological artifact to mention the word "Israel" is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE).[34]
The area is also known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith. Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, the whole region was known by various other names including Southern Syria, Syria Palestina, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Iudaea Province, Coele-Syria, Retjenu, Canaan and, particularly, Palestine.
Tags:Jerusalem,Hebrew,Arabic,Jewish,Arab,Independence,Il,Syria,Egypt,Hebrew Text,Rendering Support,Arabic Text,Zion,Judea,Moshe Sharett,Hebrew Bible,Jacob,Septuagint,Greek,Canaan,Moses,Merneptah Stele,Ancient Egypt,Holy Land,Abrahamic Religions,Bahá'í Faith,Southern Syria,Syria Palestina,Kingdom Of Jerusalem,Iudaea Province,Coele-syria,Retjenu,Palestine, | |
| Antiquity | |
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Further information: History of ancient Israel and Judah, History of Israel, and History of Palestine
Masada, a national symbol
The notion of the "Land of Israel", known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael (or Eretz Yisroel), has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the land to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people.[35][36] On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE,[37] and the first Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Subsequent Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently over the next four hundred years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.[38][39][40][41]
Between the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE and the Muslim conquests of the 7th century CE (a period of over 1500 years), the region came under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanid, and Byzantine rule.[42][43] Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE.[44] Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and Galilee became its religious center.[45][46] The Mishnah and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem.[47] In 635 CE, the region, including Jerusalem, was conquered by the Arabs and was to remain under Muslim control for the next 1300 years.[48] Control of the region transferred between the Umayyads,[48] Abbasids,[48] and Crusaders throughout the next six centuries,[48] before being conquered by the Mamluk Sultanate, in 1260.[49] In 1516, the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and remained under Turkish rule until the 20th century.[49]
Tags:History Of Palestine,Masada,Torah,Patriarchs,Muslim Conquests,Assyrian,Babylonian,Persian,Roman,Sassanid,Byzantine,Bar Kokhba Revolt,Roman Empire,Galilee,Mishnah,Talmud,Arabs,Umayyads,Abbasids,Crusaders,Mamluk,Ottoman Empire, | |
| Zionism and the British mandate | |
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Further information: History of Zionism
Aliyah to Israel
Pre-Zionist Aliyah
The Return to Zion
Old Yishuv
Before May 14, 1948
First Aliyah · Second Aliyah
During World War I
Third Aliyah · Fourth Aliyah
Fifth Aliyah
During and after World War II
Bricha
After May 14, 1948
Operation Magic Carpet
Operation Ezra and Nehemiah
1968 Polish aliyah
1970s Soviet Union aliyah
Aliyah from Ethiopia
1990s CIS aliyah
2000s Latin America aliyah
Concepts
Judaism · Zionism
Jewish homeland
Jewish messianism
Law of Return
Galut · Yerida
Persons and
organizations
Theodor Herzl · Knesset
El Al · Nefesh B'Nefesh
World Zionist Organization
Related topics
History of Israel
History of Zionism
Israeli Jews
Jewish diaspora
Jewish history
Jews in the Land of Israel
Religious Zionism
Revival of the Hebrew language · Yishuv
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Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish State, in 1901
Since the Diaspora, some Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel",[50] though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute.[51][52] The hopes and yearnings of Jews living in exile were articulated in the Hebrew Bible,[53] and is an important theme of the Jewish belief system.[51] After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine.[54] During the 16th century, Jewish communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem.[55] In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.[56][57][58]
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.[59] Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice, Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism,[60] a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, by elevating the Jewish Question to the international plane.[61] In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), offering his vision of a future Jewish state; the following year he presided over the first World Zionist Congress.[62]
The Second Aliyah (1904–14), began after the Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them later left.[59] Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews,[63] although the Second Aliyah included socialist groups who established the kibbutz movement.[64] During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent a letter that stated:[65]
His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."[66]
The Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine in 1917. 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 (meaning "The Defense" in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi, or Stern Gang, paramilitary groups later split off.[67] In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration.[68] The population of the area at this time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11% of the population.[69]
The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine.[59] Finally, the rise of Nazism and the increasing persecution of Jews in the 1930s 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 1936–1939 and led the British to introduce 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.[59] By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.[70]
Tags:Knesset,World Zionist Organization,Pre-zionist Aliyah,The Return To Zion, | |
| Independence and first years | |
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David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli independence on 14 May 1948, below a portrait of Theodor Herzl in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now Israel's Independence Hall
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Israel
After World War II, Britain found itself in fierce conflict with the Jewish community, as the Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule.[71] At the same time, thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees from Europe sought a new life in Palestine, but were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps by the British. In 1947, the British government announced it would withdraw from the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a Tags:David Ben-gurion, | |
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