known as Zionism, which aspired to establish a
homeland for diaspora Jews in Palestine. It was
based partly on the nationalist movements that
were sweeping Europe during the 19th century,
and it was partly a reaction against increasing
anti-semitism there. Although modern Zionism
was mainly secular, it was also mindful of the bib-
lical view that Canaan (an ancient name for Israel)
had been promised to the Jews as descendants of
Abraham (Gen. 17).
During World War I, Palestine was the main
scene of the Arab Revolt, an armed insurgency
of Arab forces, supported by the British, against
Ottoman troops. Arabs hoped to be able to gov-
ern themselves after the war. Instead, with the
defeat of Germany and the breakup of the Otto-
man Empire in 1918, the British took control of
Palestine as a mandate territory, in accordance
with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916
and approval of the League of Nations. In 1917,
the British Foreign Office issued the Balfour
Declaration, which stated it “viewed with favour
the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people” and affirmed “that
nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jew-
ish communities in Palestine.” Until they gave
up their mandate in 1948, the British tried
unsuccessfully to mediate between these two
competing and increasingly hostile nationalist
movements, one Jewish, one Arab Palestinian.
Jewish immigration from Europe increased in
the 1930s, as many fled from Nazi Germany.
A key figure for the Palestinian cause was Hajj
amin al-hUsayni (d. 1974), the mUFti of Jerusa-
lem who organized strikes and attacks against
British troops and Jewish settlers, culminating
in the Arab Revolt of 1936–39. He was unable,
however, to unify the different factions involved
on the Palestinian side of the struggle. On
the side of the Zionists, David Ben Gurion (d.
1973), who had immigrated to Palestine from
Poland in 1906, emerged as a prominent and
effective political leader.
The end of the British mandate precipitated
an all-out Arab-Israeli war in 1948, the first of
several such major regional conflicts. When the
United Nations approved a resolution for creat-
ing two states (General Assembly Resolution
181) in 1947, one for Jews and one for Arabs,
Jewish leaders declared their support for it,
while Palestinian Arabs, backed by other Arab
states, rejected it. When the last British troops
left in 1948, Israel declared its independence and
was recognized by the Soviet Union, the United
States, and other countries. Arab armies consist-
ing of troops from the arab leagUe states of
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and iraq were defeated in
the ensuing war. Approximately 800,000 Pales-
tinians fled or were driven from their homes and
forced to live in refugee camps in Syria, Jordan,
Lebanon, and Egypt. Their abandoned property
was seized by the victorious Israelis. Israeli Jews
remember this as their war of independence, but
Arabs call it “the catastrophe” (al-nakba). Once
Israel became independent, Jewish immigration
from abroad increased, including survivors of the
Nazi death camps in Europe. Middle Eastern Jews
also immigrated to Israel after experiencing anti-
Jewish discrimination and violence in several
newly independent Arab countries during the
1950s. Israel, for its part, encouraged this immi-
gration, which helped ensure that Jews became
the majority population.
Israel has had several more wars with Palestin-
ians and Arab neighbors since that time. The sec-
ond Arab-Israeli war, known as the Six-Day War,
occurred in 1967. It resulted in the shattering
defeat of Arab armies and occupation of the West
Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Egypt’s Sinai Pen-
insula. More Palestinian refugees were created,
and the secular palestine liberation organiza-
tion (PLO) led by yasir araFat (d. 2004) became
internationally recognized as the embodiment of
the Palestinian nationalist cause. Another major
war was the Yom Kippur/October War of 1973,
which led in 1978 to a peace agreement with
Egypt and return of the Sinai to that country. TheK 382 Israel