THE CREATION OF ISRAEL 271
After World War I, Britain
controlled Palestine under the
terms of the League of Nations
mandate and aimed to create
a home there for Jews. Since
Arabs formed 90 percent of the
population, many were opposed
to the idea. Tensions escalated
in the 1930s and 1940s when
many Jews fleeing from the
Nazis traveled to Palestine to
seek a safe refuge.
Caught in the dispute between
the Arabs and the Jews, Britain
imposed strict quotas on Jewish immigration. Thousands of Jewish
immigrants were imprisoned in British camps, and violence escalated.
In 1947, the British government handed over control to the United
Nations, which planned to partition Palestine and create one state
for Arabs and another for Jews. However, the Arabs rejected the idea.The first Arab–Israeli war
On May 14, 1948, the British mandate terminated and a Zionist
organization proclaimed the establishment of the independent State
of Israel. A military coalition of Arab states fought to gain control,
but by the time a cease-fire was agreed in 1949, the Israelis had taken
control of all the territories the UN had allocated to them, and made
further gains at the expense of their Arab neighbors. Hundreds
of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled their homelands to become
stateless refugees, while Israel held its first elections later that year.THE CREATION
OF ISRAEL
In 1917, Britain had pledged its support for “a national
home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, in a statement
now known as the Balfour Declaration. However, it was
not until after World War II that Israel became a state.
△ Commemorative stamp
A 1949 stamp depicts the foundation of
modern Tel Aviv. The city was established
in 1909 by 60 Jewish families, 15 miles (24 k m)
northwest of Jerusalem.VOYAGE OF THE EXODUS
Hundreds of would-be
Jewish immigrants
crowded the decks of the
refugee ship SS Exodus in
the port of Haifa, then part
of Palestine, in July 1947.
The British intercepted the
ship as it tried to make
an illicit landfall. The
passengers were forcibly
disembarked and then
shipped back across the
Mediterranean to France.US_270-271_F-Creation_of_Israel.indd 271 04/03/19 10:47 AM