Editing History of Israel (section)

==Ottoman period==
{{Further|History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Syria}}
Under the Mamluks, the area was a province of [[Bilad a-Sham]] (Syria). It was [[Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)|conquered]] by Turkish Sultan [[Selim I]] in 1516–17, becoming a part of the province of [[Ottoman Syria]] for the next four centuries, first as the [[Damascus Eyalet]] and later as the [[Syria Vilayet]] (following the [[Tanzimat]] reorganization of 1864).

===Old Yishuv===
{{Main|Old Yishuv}}
With the more favorable conditions that followed the Ottoman conquest, the immigration of Jews fleeing Catholic Europe, which had already begun under Mamluk rule, continued, and soon an influx of exiled [[Sephardic Jews]] came to dominate the Jewish community in the area.<ref name="Abraham-1999" />

In 1558, [[Selim II]] (1566–1574), successor to Suleiman, whose wife [[Nurbanu Sultan]] was Jewish,<ref>Mehmet Tezcan, Astiye Bayindir, 'Aristocratic Women and their Relationship to Nestorianism in the 13th century Chingizid Empire,' in Li Tang, Dietmar W. Winkler (eds.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&pg=PA308 ''From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105015332/https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&pg=PA308 |date=5 January 2020}} LIT Verlag Münster, 2013 {{isbn|978-3-643-90329-7}}, pp.297–315 p.308 n.31</ref> gave control of Tiberias to Doña [[Gracia Mendes Nasi]], one of the richest women in Europe and an escapee from the [[Inquisition]]. She encouraged Jewish refugees to settle in the area and established a Hebrew printing press. Safed became a centre for study of the [[Kabbalah]]. Doña Nasi's nephew, [[Joseph Nasi]], was made governor of Tiberias and he encouraged Jewish settlement from Italy.<ref>The Ghetto of Venice by Riccardo Calimani, pg 94, Mondadori 1995</ref>

In 1660, a [[Druze power struggle (1658–1667)#Lebanon and Galilee campaign|Druze power struggle]] led to the destruction of [[1660 destruction of Safed|Safed]] and [[1660 destruction of Tiberias|Tiberias]].<ref name="Barnay, Y 1992 p. 149">Barnay, Y. The Jews in [[Ottoman Syria]] in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine (University of Alabama Press 1992) {{ISBN|978-0-8173-0572-7}} p. 149</ref><ref name="Joel Rappel 1980 p.531">Joel Rappel, History of Eretz Israel from Prehistory up to 1882 (1980), vol. 2, p. 531. "In 1662 Sabbathai Sevi arrived to Jerusalem. It was the time when the Jewish settlements of Galilee were destroyed by the Druze: Tiberias was completely desolate and only a few of former Safed residents had returned...."</ref> In the late 18th century a local Arab ''[[sheikh]]'' [[Zahir al-Umar]] created a ''de facto'' independent Emirate in the Galilee. Ottoman attempts to subdue the Sheikh failed, but after Zahir's death the Ottomans restored their rule in the area.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Baram|first=Uzi|title=The Development of Historical Archaeology in Israel: An Overview and Prospects|journal=Historical Archaeology|year=2002|volume=36|number=4|pages=12–29|publisher=Springer|doi=10.1007/BF03374366|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290276708|jstor=25617021|s2cid=162155126 }}</ref>

In 1799, [[Napoleon]] briefly [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|occupied]] the country and [[Napoleon and the Jews#Bonaparte's proclamation to the Jews of Africa and Asia|planned a proclamation]] inviting Jews to create a state. The proclamation was shelved following his [[Siege of Acre (1799)|defeat at Acre]].<ref>Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine, Macmillan 1956, chapter 9</ref> In 1831, [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt]], an Ottoman ruler who left the Empire and tried to modernize Egypt, [[Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833)|conquered]] Ottoman Syria and imposed conscription, leading to the [[1834 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt]].<ref>{{Citation |first=Khaled M. |last=Safi |editor=Roger Heacock |title=Of Times and Spaces in Palestine: The Flows and Resistances of Identity |chapter=Territorial Awareness in the 1834 Palestinian Revolt |chapter-url=http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/483 |publisher=Presses de l'Ifpo |location=Beirut |year=2008 |isbn=9782351592656 |access-date=26 April 2023 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208100645/http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/483 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Kerem Avraham, Jewish workers.jpg|thumb|Jewish workers in [[Kerem Avraham]] neighbourhood of Jerusalem (c. 1850s)]]
In 1838, there was another [[1838 Druze revolt|Druze revolt]]. In 1839 [[Moses Montefiore]] met with Muhammed Pasha in Egypt and signed an agreement to establish 100–200 Jewish villages in the [[Damascus Eyalet]] of [[Ottoman Syria]],<ref>Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: How the British came to Palestine, Macmillan 1956, page 194-5</ref> but in 1840 the Egyptians withdrew before the deal was implemented, returning the area to Ottoman governorship. In 1844, Jews constituted the largest population group in Jerusalem. By 1896 Jews constituted an absolute majority in Jerusalem,<ref>Shlomo Slonim, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AnJIfuDAtp4C&pg=PA13 ''Jerusalem in America's Foreign Policy, 1947–1997,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928125827/https://books.google.com/books?id=AnJIfuDAtp4C&pg=PA13%2F |date=28 September 2020 }} [[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] 1999 {{isbn|978-9-041-11255-2}} p.13</ref> but the overall population in Palestine was 88% Muslim and 9% Christian.<ref>[[Gudrun Krämer]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=tWrW_CKODdQC&pg=PA137 ''A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel ,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108144336/https://books.google.com/books?id=tWrW_CKODdQC&pg=PA137 |date=8 January 2020 }} [[Princeton University Press]] 2011 {{isbn|978-0-691-15007-9}} p.137</ref>

===Birth of Zionism===
{{Main|History of Zionism|Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem}}
Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews moved to Palestine, known as the [[First Aliyah]].<ref name="omalley"/> In the Russian Empire, Jews faced growing [[History of zionism#Persecution of the Jews in the Russian Empire|persecution and legal restrictions]]. Half the world's Jews lived in the Russian Empire, where they were restricted to living in the [[Pale of Settlement]]. [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire|Severe pogroms in the early 1880s]] and [[May Laws|legal repression]] led to 2 million Jews emigrating from the Russian Empire. 1.5 million went to the United States. Popular destinations were also Germany, France, England, Holland, Argentina and Palestine.<ref>[[Alan Dowty]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=HR7UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT71 ''Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231025958/https://books.google.com/books?id=HR7UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT71 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[Indiana University Press]],{{isbn|978-0-253-03867-8}} 2019 p69-73, p.71.</ref><ref>Oleg Budnitskii, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dLdhSUZI-AYC&pg=PA18 ''Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231025953/https://books.google.com/books?id=dLdhSUZI-AYC&pg=PA18 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[University of Pennsylvania Press]],{{isbn|978-0-812-20814-6}} 2012, pp. 17–18.</ref>

Russian Jews established the [[Bilu (movement)|Bilu]] and [[Hovevei Zion]] ("Lovers of Zion") movements with the aim of settling in Palestine. In 1878, Russian Jewish emigrants established the village of [[Petah Tikva]] ("The Beginning of Hope"), followed by [[Rishon LeZion]] ("First to Zion") in 1882. The existing Ashkenazi-Jewish communities were concentrated in the [[Four Holy Cities]], extremely poor and relied on donations ([[halukka]]) from groups abroad, while the new settlements were small farming communities, but still relied on funding by the French Baron, [[Edmond James de Rothschild]], who sought to establish profitable enterprises. Many early migrants could not find work and left, but despite the problems, more settlements arose and the community grew. After the Ottoman conquest of Yemen in 1881, a large number of [[Yemenite Jews]] also emigrated to Palestine, often driven by [[Messianism]].<ref>Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mY-fAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 ''Traditional Society in Transition: The Yemeni Jewish Experience,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030001/https://books.google.com/books?id=mY-fAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[Brill Publishers|BRILL]], {{isbn|978-9-004-27291-0}}, 2014, pp. 89f.</ref>

In 1896 [[Theodor Herzl]] published ''[[Der Judenstaat]]'' (''The Jewish State''), in which he asserted that the solution to growing [[antisemitism]] in Europe (the so-called "[[Jewish Question]]") was to establish a Jewish state. In 1897, the [[World Zionist Organization]] was founded and the [[First Zionist Congress]] proclaimed its aim "to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2004/7/Herzl+and+Zionism.htm |title=Herzl and Zionism |date=20 July 2004 |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |access-date=5 December 2012 |archive-date=31 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031123113/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2004/7/Herzl+and+Zionism.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The Congress chose [[Hatikvah]] ("The Hope") as its anthem.

Between 1904 and 1914, around 40,000 Jews settled in the area now known as Israel (the [[Second Aliyah]]). In 1908 the World Zionist Organization set up the Palestine Bureau (also known as the "Eretz Israel Office") in Jaffa and began to adopt a systematic Jewish settlement policy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shavit |first=Yaacov |title=Tel-Aviv, the First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLQrEPLDkGAC&dq=Dr.+Arthur+Ruppin%2C+head+of+the+Palestine+office+of+the+World+Zionist+Organization+established+in+1908%2C+explained+that&pg=PA7 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2012 |page=7 |isbn=9780253223579}}</ref> In 1909 residents of Jaffa bought land outside the city walls and built the first entirely Hebrew-speaking town, [[Ahuzat Bayit]] (later renamed [[Tel Aviv]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Azaryahu |first=Maoz |chapter=Tel Aviv's Birthdays: Anniversary Celebrations, 1929–1959 |page=31 |title=Tel-Aviv, the First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities |editor-last1=Azaryahu |editor-first1=Maoz |editor-first2=Selwyn |editor-last2=Ilan Troen |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2012 |url={{GBurl|yLQrEPLDkGAC|page=31}} |isbn=9780253223579}}</ref>

In 1915-1916 [[Talaat Pasha]] of the [[Young Turks]] forced around a million Armenian Christians from their homes in Eastern Turkey, marching them south through Syria, in what is now known as the [[Armenian genocide]]. The number of dead is thought to be around 700,000. Hundreds of thousands were forcibly converted to Islam.  A community of survivors settled in Jerusalem, one of whom developed the now [[Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem|iconic Armenian pottery]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-1918-the-art-of-an-armenian-genocide-survivor-changed-jerusalem-forever/ | title=In 1918, the art of an Armenian genocide survivor changed Jerusalem forever | website=[[The Times of Israel]] | access-date=20 November 2022 | archive-date=13 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813190926/https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-1918-the-art-of-an-armenian-genocide-survivor-changed-jerusalem-forever/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

===World War I===
{{Main|Sinai and Palestine campaign|Balfour Declaration}}
[[File:Area_of_the_OETA.svg|thumb|[[Occupied Enemy Territory Administration]], 1918]]
During [[World War I]], most Jews supported the Germans because they were fighting the Russians who were regarded as the Jews' main enemy.<ref>Weizmann, the Making of a Statesman by [[Jehuda Reinharz]], Oxford 1993, chapters 3 & 4</ref> In Britain, the government sought Jewish support for the war effort for a variety of reasons including an antisemitic perception of "Jewish power" in the Ottoman Empire's [[Young Turks]] movement which was based in [[Thessaloniki]], the most Jewish city in Europe (40% of the 160,000 population were Jewish).<ref>[[David Fromkin]], ''[[A Peace to End All Peace]]'', part VI, pp. 253–305</ref> The British also hoped to secure American Jewish support for US intervention on Britain's behalf.

There was already sympathy for the aims of [[Zionism]] in the British government, including the Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George|Lloyd George]].<ref>''God, Guns and Israel'', Jill Hamilton, UK 2004, Especially chapter 14.</ref> Over 14,000 Jews were expelled by the Ottoman military commander from the Jaffa area in 1914–1915, due to suspicions they were subjects of Russia, an enemy, or Zionists wishing to detach Palestine from the Ottoman Empire,<ref>Jonathan Marc Gribetz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XYSiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 ''Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030017/https://books.google.com/books?id=XYSiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[Princeton University Press]], 2014 {{isbn|978-1-400-85265-9}} p.131.</ref> and when the [[Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation|entire population, including Muslims, of both Jaffa and Tel Aviv was subject to an expulsion order in April 1917]], the affected Jews could not return until the [[Sinai and Palestine Campaign#Palestine campaign|British conquest ended in 1918]], which drove the Turks out of Southern Syria.<ref>''God, Guns and Israel'', Jill Hamilton, UK 2004, Especially chapter 15</ref> A year prior, in 1917, the British foreign minister, [[Arthur Balfour]], sent a public letter to the British [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Lord Rothschild]], a leading member of his party and leader of the Jewish community. The letter subsequently became known as the [[Balfour Declaration]]. It stated that the British Government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] of a national home for the Jewish people". The declaration provided the British government with a pretext for claiming and governing the country.<ref>''A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East'' by James Barr, Simon & Schuster 2011, pages 375–376.</ref> New Middle Eastern boundaries were decided [[Sykes–Picot Agreement|by an agreement]] between British and French bureaucrats.

A [[Jewish Legion]] composed largely of Zionist volunteers organized by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] and [[Joseph Trumpeldor]] participated in the British invasion. It also participated in the failed [[Gallipoli Campaign]]. The [[Nili]] Zionist spy network provided the British with details of Ottoman plans and troop concentrations.<ref>Stanford J. Shaw, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_GQTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 ''The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030025/https://books.google.com/books?id=_GQTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[New York University Press]] {{isbn|978-0-814-77924-8}} 1991 p.235.</ref>

The Ottoman Empire chose to ally itself with Germany when the first war began. Arab leaders dreamed of freeing themselves from Ottoman rule and establishing self-government or forming an independent Arab state. Therefore, Britain contacted [[Hussein bin Ali]] of the [[Kingdom of Hejaz]] and proposed cooperation. Together they organized the [[Arab revolt]] that Britain supplied with very large quantities of rifles and ammunition. In cooperation between British artillery and Arab infantry, the city of [[Aqaba]] on the Red Sea was conquered. The Arab army then continued north while Britain attacked the ottomans from the sea. In 1917-1918, Jerusalem and Damascus were conquered from the ottomans. Britain then broke off cooperation with the Arab army. It turned out that Britain had already entered into the secret [[Sykes–Picot Agreement]] that meant that only Britain and France would be allowed to administer the land conquered from the Ottoman Empire.

After pushing out the Ottomans, Palestine came under martial law. The British, French and Arab [[Occupied Enemy Territory Administration]] governed the area shortly before the [[Armistice of Mudros|armistice with the Ottomans]] until the promulgation of the mandate in 1920.