Israel

A Jewish Homeland

Palestine

• Territories of Israel, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip

History of Region

• 3,000 yrs ago Jews lived there

• Jews were driven out

• Palestinians moved in (135 AD)

• Arabs conquered the area in 7th Century

Diaspora

• Global dispersal of Jews from Palestine by the Romans

• Jews had no where to call their own

Zionist (Zionism)

• 19th and 20th Centuries a push for Jews to return to their homeland (Palestine)

WWI

• Ottoman Empire lost war and territory (Palestine)

• British were to oversee Palestine until it was ready for independence

Balfour Declaration

• 1917 British Foreign Secretary issued a statement to Zionist leaders promoting the idea of creating a homeland

Post- WWII

• 1947 UN voted to partition Palestine into Palestinian and Jewish states

• After the Holocaust US and European nations felt sympathetic for the Jews

• Arab/Islamic countries were against it

State of Israel

• May 14, 1948 became an independent state