Last month we left off in 1937, when the British recommended dividing the Land of Israel into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the idea and empowered the Jewish Agency to negotiate with the British government in an effort to reformulate various aspects of the proposal. The Arabs were uncompromisingly against any partition plan.
In 1939, large-scale Arab anti-Jewish riots led Britain to issue a White Paper (a document) stating that the area known as Palestine would be neither a Jewish state nor an Arab one, but an independent state to be established within 10 years.
Jewish immigration to the Land was limited to 75,000 for the first five years and would later be contingent on Arab consent. Stringent restrictions were imposed on land acquisition by Jews. European Jews were denied a place of refuge during the Holocaust.
The White Paper decree was rescinded by the Provisional Council of State on May 15, 1948, when the State of Israel was established.
David Ben-Gurion, later Israel’s first prime minister, declared: “We will fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and the White Paper as if there were no war.”
When WWII began, over 26,000 Jewish men and women in the Land of Israel volunteered to join the British forces in the fight against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. In September 1944, following a prolonged effort by the Jewish Agency in the country and the Zionist movement abroad to achieve recognition of the participation of the Jews of the area known as Palestine in the war effort, the Jewish Brigade was formed, comprised of about 5,000 men, as an independent military unit of the British army, with its own flag and emblem.
After the war, the British intensified their restrictions on the number of Jews permitted to enter and settle in the Land. The Jewish community responded by instituting a wide network of “illegal immigration” activities to rescue Holocaust survivors. Between 1945 and 1948, approximately 85,000 Jews were brought to the Land, in spite of a British naval blockade and border patrols set up to intercept the refugees before they reached the country. Those who were caught were interned in detention camps on the island of Cyprus, or returned to Europe. Many members of the Jewish Brigade aided in the illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, Britain’s inability to reconcile the conflicting demands of the Jewish and Arab communities led the British government to request that the ‘Question of Palestine’ be placed on the agenda of the UN’s General Assembly, in April, 1947. As a result, a special committee was constituted to draft proposals concerning the country’s future. On November 29, 1947, the Assembly voted to adopt the committee’s recommendation to partition the land into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Once again, the Jewish community accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it.
Following the UN vote, local Arab militants launched violent attacks against the Jews in an effort to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state. After a number of setbacks, the Jewish defense organizations defeated the attacking forces, taking hold of the entire area which had been allocated for the Jewish state.
On May 14, 1948 when the British Mandate came to an end, Israel proclaimed its independence. Less than 24 hours later, the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded the country.
In what became known as Israel’s War of Independence, the newly formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fought the invaders in fierce intermittent battles, which lasted approximately 15 months and claimed over 6,000 Israeli lives (nearly one percent of the country’s Jewish population at the time).
During the first months of 1949, direct negotiations were conducted under UN auspices between Israel and each of the invading countries (except Iraq which refused to negotiate with Israel), resulting in armistice agreements which reflected the situation at the end of the fighting. Accordingly, the coastal plain, Galilee and the entire Negev were within Israel’s sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian rule, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City, and Israel the western sector.
Finally, it was time for Israel to focus on building the state which the people had struggled so long and so hard to regain. The first 120-seat Knesset (parliament) went into session following national elections on January 25, 1949 in which nearly 85% of all eligible voters cast their ballots. Two of the people who had led Israel to statehood became the country’s leaders: David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, was chosen as the first prime minister; and Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, was elected by the Knesset as the first president. On May 11, 1949, Israel took its seat as the 59th member of the United Nations.
The gates of the country were thrown open, affirming the right of every Jew to come to the country and, upon entry, to acquire citizenship. In the first four months of independence, 50,000 newcomers, mainly Holocaust survivors, made Israel their home.
By the end of 1951, a total of 687,000 men, women and children had arrived, thus doubling the Jewish
population.
The economic strain caused by the War of Independence and the need to provide for a rapidly growing population required austerity at home and financial aid from abroad. Assistance extended by the US government, loans from American banks, contributions of diaspora Jews and postwar German reparations were used to build housing, mechanize agriculture, establish a merchant fleet and a national airline, develop industries and expand roads, telecommunications and electricity networks.
Towards the end of the first decade, the output of industry doubled as did the number of employed persons, with industrial exports increasing four-fold. The educational system, which had been developed by the Jewish community in the pre-state period and now included the Arab sector, was greatly expanded. School attendance became free and compulsory for all children aged 5 to 14 (since 1978 it has been mandatory to age 16 and free to age 18). Cultural and artistic activity flourished, blending Middle Eastern, North African and Western elements, as Jews arriving from all parts of the world brought with them the unique traditions of their own communities When Israel celebrated its 10th anniversary, the population numbered over two million.
The information for this article came from Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs website.
