Editing History of Israel (section)

==Mandatory Palestine==
{{Main|Mandatory Palestine}}

===First years===
{{See also|History of Zionism}}
The [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate]] (in effect, British rule) of Palestine, including the Balfour Declaration, was confirmed by the [[League of Nations]] in 1922 and came into effect in 1923. The territory of [[Emirate of Transjordan|Transjordan]] was also covered by the Mandate but under separate rules that excluded it from the Balfour Declaration. Britain signed a treaty with the United States (which did not join the League of Nations) in which the United States endorsed the terms of the Mandate,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/treaties/TS1/1925/54 |title=CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA RESPECTING TILE Rights of the Governments of the two Countries and their respective Nationals in Palestine Signed at London, December 3, 1924 |date= |website=[[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926134735/http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/treaties/TS1/1925/54 |archive-date=26 September 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> which was approved unanimously by both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The Balfour declaration was published on the 2nd of November 1917 and the [[October Revolution|Bolsheviks seized control of Russia]] a week later. This led to [[Russian Civil War|civil war]] in the Russian Empire. Between 1918 and 1921, a series of [[Pogroms of the Russian Civil War|pogroms]] led to the death of at least 100,000 Jews (mainly in what is now Ukraine), and the displacement as refugees of a further 600,000. This led to further migration to Palestine.<ref>Jeffrey Veidlinger, [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/killing-fields-ukraine 'The Killing Fields of Ukraine,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001160321/https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/killing-fields-ukraine |date=1 October 2022 }} [[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]] 22 February 2022.</ref><ref>Maurice Wolftal, introduction to [[Nokhem Shtif]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=_KGdDwAAQBAJ ''The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19: Prelude to the Holocaust,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030018/https://books.google.com/books?id=_KGdDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |date=31 December 2021 }} Open Book Publishers, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-783-74747-4}}</ref> Between 1919 and 1923, some 40,000 Jews arrived in Palestine in what is known as the [[Third Aliyah]].<ref name="omalley">{{cite book |last=O'Malley |first=Padraig |title=The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine--A Tale of Two Narratives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_kVBAAAQBAJ&q=Third+Aliyah+40,000+Jews&pg=PR11 |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2015 |page=xi |isbn=9780670025053 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030023/https://books.google.com/books?id=3_kVBAAAQBAJ&q=Third+Aliyah+40%2C000+Jews&pg=PR11 |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of the Jewish immigrants of this period were [[Poale Zion|Socialist Zionists]] and supported the [[Bolsheviks]].<ref>Trotsky and the Jews, Joseph Nedava, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1972 chapter 7</ref> The migrants became known as pioneers (''halutzim''), experienced or trained in agriculture who established self-sustaining communes called [[kibbutz]]im.<ref>{{cite book |last=Near |first=Henry |title=The Kibbutz Movement: A History, Origins and Growth, 1909-1939 v. 1 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |year=2007 |page= |isbn=9781874774389}}</ref> Malarial marshes in the [[Jezreel Valley]] and [[Hefer Plain]] were drained and converted to agricultural use.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rivlin |first=Paul |title=The Israeli Economy from the Foundation of the State through the 21st Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-viPxTC9_IIC&dq=draining+of+marshes+in+the+Jezreel+Valley+and+the+Hefer+Plain&pg=PA16 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |page=16 |isbn=9780521150200}}</ref> Land was bought by the [[Jewish National Fund]], a Zionist charity that collected money abroad for that purpose.<ref>{{cite news |author=A. Barkat |title=Buying the State of Israel |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=538435&contrassID=1&subContrassID=9&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y |publisher=Haaretz |date=February 10, 2005 |archive-date=2009-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201174658/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=538435&contrassID=1&subContrassID=9&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Founding of the Hebrew University.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The opening ceremony of The [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] visited by [[Arthur Balfour]], 1 April 1925]]
After the French [[Franco-Syrian War|victory]] over the [[Arab Kingdom of Syria]] ended hopes of Arab independence, there were clashes between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem during the [[1920 Nebi Musa riots]] and in [[Jaffa riots|Jaffa]] the following year, leading to the establishment of the [[Haganah]] underground Jewish militia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mark A. Tessler|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00tess_0|title=A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict|date=1994|publisher=Indiana University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-253-20873-6}}</ref>
A [[Jewish Agency]] was created which issued the entry permits granted by the British and distributed funds donated by Jews abroad.<ref>[[Peel Commission]], (Peel report) p. 172</ref> Between 1924 and 1929, over 80,000 Jews arrived in the [[Fourth Aliyah]],<ref name="omalley"/> fleeing antisemitism and heavy tax burdens imposed on trade in Poland and Hungary, inspired by Zionism<ref name=Metzer2008>{{cite journal |last1=Metzer |first1=Jacob |title=Jewish immigration to Palestine in the long 1920s: An exploratory examination |journal=Journal of Israeli History |date=September 2008 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=221–251 |doi=10.1080/13531040802284106 |s2cid=159622305 }}</ref> and motivated by the closure of United States borders by the [[Immigration Act of 1924]] which severely limited immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.<ref name=Metzer2008/>

[[Pinhas Rutenberg]], a former [[Commissar]] of St Petersburg in Russia's pre-Bolshevik [[Kerensky Government]], built the first electricity generators in Palestine. In 1925 the Jewish Agency established the [[Hebrew University]] in Jerusalem and the [[Technion]] (technological university) in Haifa. British authorities introduced the [[Palestine pound]] (worth 1000 "mils") in 1927, replacing the [[Egyptian pound]] as the unit of currency in the Mandate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Barbara J. |title=The Roots of Separatism in Palestine: British Economic Policy, 1920-1929 |date=1993 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2578-0 }}{{page needed|date=January 2021}}</ref>

From 1928, the democratically elected Va'ad Leumi ([[Jewish National Council]] or JNC) became the main administrative institution of the Palestine Jewish community ([[Yishuv]]) and included non-Zionist Jews. As the Yishuv grew, the JNC adopted more government-type functions, such as education, health care, and security. With British permission, the Va'ad Leumi raised its own taxes<ref>[http://www.amalnet.k12.il/meida/history/hisi1085.htm (in Hebrew accessed 22/4/2009)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319063204/http://www.amalnet.k12.il/meida/history/hisi1085.htm |date=19 March 2015 }} [[Peel Commission]] (Peel report), pp. 48–49</ref> and ran independent services for the Jewish population.<ref>[[Peel Commission]], (Peel report) chapters 5, 8 and 16</ref>

In 1929 tensions grew over the Kotel ([[Wailing Wall]]), the holiest spot in the world for modern Judaism,{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} which was then a narrow alleyway where the British banned Jews from using chairs or curtains: Many of the worshippers were elderly and needed seats; they also wanted to separate women from men. The [[Haj Amin al-Husseini|Mufti of Jerusalem]] said it was Muslim property and deliberately had cattle driven through the alley.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} He alleged that the Jews were seeking control of the [[Temple Mount]]. This provided the spark for the August [[1929 Palestine riots]]. The [[1929 Hebron massacre|main victims]] were the (non-Zionist) ancient Jewish community at Hebron, who were massacred. The riots led to right-wing Zionists establishing their own militia in 1931, the [[Irgun]] Tzvai Leumi (National Military Organization, known in Hebrew by its acronym "Etzel"), which was committed to a more aggressive policy towards the Arab population.<ref>James L. Gelvin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fOsgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA298 ''The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726101343/https://books.google.com/books?id=fOsgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA298 |date=26 July 2021 }} [[Cambridge University Press]], 2021 4th edition {{isbn|978-1-108-80485-1}} p.298.</ref>

During the interwar period, the perception grew that there was an irreconciliable tension between the two Mandatory functions, of providing for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and the goal of preparing the country for self-determination.<ref>Rory Miller,[https://books.google.com/books?id=HFyCQaonl68C&q=Palestine%2Bmajority+rule%2BMandate ''Britain, Palestine, and Empire: The Mandate Years,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030013/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Britain_Palestine_and_Empire/HFyCQaonl68C?hl=it&gbpv=1&dq=Palestine%2Bmajority+rule%2BMandate&printsec=frontcover#spf=1627292917734 |date=31 December 2021 }} [[Ashgate Publishing]] 2010 {{isbn|978-0-754-66808-4}}
pp.42-54,53-54</ref> The British rejected the principle of majority rule or any other measure that would give the Arab population, who formed the majority of the population, control over Palestinian territory.<ref>[[Edward Said]], ''A Profile of the Palestinian People,'' (1983) 1990 Palestinian Human Rights Campaign, p.5: 'throughout the British Mandate, Palestine was denied any measure of self-government'.</ref>

===Increase in Jewish immigration===
{{Main|Fifth Aliyah|Nuremberg Laws|Tripartite Pact}}
Between 1929 and 1938, 250,000 Jews arrived in Palestine ([[Fifth Aliyah]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Thatcher |first=Bruce D. |title=Adamant Aggressors: How to Recognize and Deal with Them |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77aDnC12IDEC&dq=fifth+aliyah+250,000+Jews&pg=PA203 |publisher=Xlibris |year=2011 |page=203 |isbn=9781462891955 }}</ref> In 1933, the Jewish Agency and the Nazis negotiated the [[Ha'avara Agreement]] (transfer agreement), under which 50,000 German Jews would be transferred to Palestine. The Jews' possessions were confiscated and in return the Nazis allowed the Ha'avara organization to purchase 14 million pounds worth of German goods for export to Palestine and use it to compensate the immigrants. Although many Jews wanted to leave Nazi Germany, the Nazis prevented Jews from taking any money and restricted them to two suitcases so few could pay the British entry tax and many were afraid to leave.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} The agreement was controversial and the Labour Zionist leader who negotiated the agreement, [[Haim Arlosoroff]], was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1933. The assassination was used by the British to create tension between the Zionist left and the Zionist right.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} Arlosoroff had been the boyfriend of [[Magda Goebbels|Magda Ritschel]] some years before she married [[Joseph Goebbels]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/reich-mother-loved-to-death/171407.article|title=Reich mother loved to death|work=[[Times Higher Education]]|date=6 September 2002|access-date=5 June 2016|last=Pine|first=Lisa|location=London|archive-date=14 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914104348/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/reich-mother-loved-to-death/171407.article|url-status=live}}</ref> There has been speculation that he was assassinated by the Nazis to hide the connection but there is no evidence for it.<ref>{{cite book|title=Qui a tué Arlozoroff ?|first=Tobie|last=Nathan|date=12 May 2010|publisher=Grasset}}</ref>

Between 1933 and 1936, 174,000 arrived despite the large sums the British demanded for immigration permits: Jews had to prove they had 1,000 pounds for families with capital ({{Inflation|UK|1000|1936|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}), 500 pounds if they had a profession and 250 pounds if they were skilled labourers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peel Commission Full Report (1937) - English |url=https://ecf.org.il/media_items/290 |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=ecf.org.il |language=en}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2023}}

===Arab revolt and the White Paper===
{{Main|1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine|White Paper of 1939}}
[[File:Ghaffis in Nesher 2.jpg|thumb|[[Jewish Settlement Police]] members watching the settlement [[Nesher]] during [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|1936–1939 Arab revolt]]]]
Jewish immigration and Nazi propaganda contributed to the large-scale [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]], a largely nationalist uprising directed at ending British rule. The head of the Jewish Agency, Ben-Gurion, responded to the Arab Revolt with a policy of "[[Havlagah]]"—self-restraint and a refusal to be provoked by Arab attacks in order to prevent polarization. The Etzel group broke off from the Haganah in opposition to this policy.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.jewishagency.org/peace-and-conflict/content/23707/ | title=Jewish Defense Organizations | date=31 May 2005 | access-date=25 November 2022 | archive-date=25 November 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125164225/https://archive.jewishagency.org/peace-and-conflict/content/23707/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

The British responded to the revolt with the [[Peel Commission]] (1936–37), a public inquiry that recommended that an exclusively Jewish territory be created in the [[Galilee]] and western coast (including the [[population transfer]] of 225,000 Arabs); the rest becoming an exclusively Arab area. The two main Jewish leaders, [[Chaim Weizmann]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]], had convinced the [[World Zionist Congress|Zionist Congress]] to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Roger Louis|title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization|year=2006|publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-347-6|page=391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222045215/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Benny Morris, One state, two states: resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, 2009, p. 66.{{full citation needed|date=September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004}}: p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonizing, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved –by a vote of 299 to 160 – the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."</ref> The plan was rejected outright by the Palestinian Arab leadership and they renewed the revolt, which caused the British to appease the Arabs, and to abandon the plan as unworkable.<ref>For more information see ''Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The making of British Policy, 1936–1945'' by Michael Cohen, New York 1979 Chapter 3</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004}}: p. 11, "The AHC renewed the revolt. Whitehall ... took vigorous steps to appease the Palestinians."</ref>

Testifying before the Peel Commission, Weizmann said "There are in Europe 6,000,000 people ... for whom the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places where they cannot enter."<ref>{{cite book|author=Chaim Weizmann|title=The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann: series B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsabNtx33VMC&pg=PA102|date=1 January 1983|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-87855-297-9|pages=102–|quote=On 25 November 1936, testifying before the Peel Commission, Weizmann said that there are in Europe 6,000,000 Jews ... "for whom the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places where they cannot enter."|access-date=30 November 2021|archive-date=30 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130170508/https://books.google.com/books?id=PsabNtx33VMC&pg=PA102|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1938, the US called an [[Évian Conference|international conference]] to address the question of the vast numbers of Jews trying to escape Europe. Britain made its attendance contingent on Palestine being kept out of the discussion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Conor Cruise O'Brien|title=The Siege|date=2015|publisher=Faber & Faber Limited|isbn=9780571324545|page=233|quote=The outside world, while shocked by Nazi atrocities, did little to help the victims. A conference of thiry-one countries, which met at Evian in early July did no more than confirm the validity of Weizmann's diagnosis, before the Peel Commission, of the condition of the European Jews in the late thirties: ... the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places into which they cannot enter." Palestine was excluded from the Evian agenda at the insistence of the British Government.}}</ref> No Jewish representatives were invited. The Nazis proposed their own solution: that the Jews of Europe be shipped to Madagascar (the [[Madagascar Plan]]). The agreement proved fruitless, and the Jews were stuck in Europe.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference | title=The Evian Conference | access-date=25 November 2022 | archive-date=8 May 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508150007/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Erbelding |first=Rebecca |date=17 May 2019 |title=The Evian Conference of 1938 and the Jewish Refugee Crisis |url=https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/33/1/136/5491038 |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=136–138 |doi=10.1093/hgs/dcz007 |archive-date=28 January 2023 |access-date=25 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128214315/https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/33/1/136/5491038 |url-status=live }}</ref>

With millions of Jews trying to leave Europe and every country in the world closed to Jewish migration, the British decided to close Palestine. The [[White Paper of 1939]], recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Arabs and Jews, be established within 10 years. The White Paper agreed to allow 75,000 Jewish immigrants into Palestine over the period 1940–44, after which migration would require Arab approval. Both the Arab and Jewish leadership rejected the White Paper. In March 1940 the British High Commissioner for Palestine issued an edict banning Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine. Jews now resorted to illegal immigration: ([[Aliyah Bet]] or "Ha'apalah"), often organized by the [[Mossad Le'aliyah Bet]] and the Irgun. With no outside help and no countries ready to admit them, very few Jews managed to escape Europe between 1939 and 1945. Those caught by the British were mostly [[History of the Jews in Mauritius|imprisoned in Mauritius]].<ref>The Mauritian Shekel: The Story of Jewish Detainees in Mauritius, 1940-1945 by Geneviéve Pitot, Rowman 2000</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://jewishdetaineesmauritius.com/home/our-story/ | title=Our Story }}</ref>

===World War II and the Holocaust===
{{Further|Aliyah Bet|History of the Jews during World War II|The Holocaust|Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II}}
{{See also|Einsatzgruppe Egypt}}
[[File:JB HQ.jpg|thumb|left|[[Jewish Brigade]] headquarters under both [[Union Flag]] and [[Flag of Israel|Jewish flag]]]]
During the [[Second World War]], the Jewish Agency worked to establish a Jewish army that would fight alongside the British forces. Churchill supported the plan but British Military and government opposition led to its rejection. The British demanded that the number of Jewish recruits match the number of Arab recruits.<ref>''Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The making of British Policy, 1936–1945'' by Michael Cohen, New York 1979, p. 103</ref>

In June 1940, Italy declared war on the British Commonwealth and sided with Germany. Within a month, Italian planes [[Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II|bombed Tel Aviv and Haifa]], inflicting multiple casualties.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/this-day-in-jewish-history/1.545939 |title=This Day in Jewish History 1940: Italy Bombs Tel Aviv During WWII |first=David B. |last=Green |date=9 September 2013 |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |location=Tel Aviv |access-date=29 August 2019 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002225652/http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/this-day-in-jewish-history/1.545939 |url-status=live }}</ref> In May 1941, the [[Palmach]] was established to defend the [[Yishuv]] against the planned [[Axis powers|Axis]] invasion through [[North African Campaign|North Africa]]. The British refusal to provide arms to the Jews, even when Rommel's forces were [[200 days of dread|advancing through Egypt]] in June 1942 (intent on occupying Palestine), and the 1939 White Paper led to the emergence of a Zionist leadership in Palestine that believed conflict with Britain was inevitable.<ref>''Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The making of British Policy, 1936–1945'' by Michael Cohen, New York 1979 pp. 122–130</ref> Despite this, the Jewish Agency called on Palestine's Jewish youth to volunteer for the British Army (both men and women). 30,000 Palestinian Jews and 12,000 Palestinian Arabs enlisted in the British armed forces during the war.<ref>{{cite book |last=Niewyk |first=Donald L. |title=The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QQ7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2000 |page=247 |isbn=0231112009 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=14 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114050020/https://books.google.com/books?id=_QQ7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=When Palestinian Arabs and Jews fought the Nazis side by side|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5524975,00.html|newspaper=Ynetnews|date=2019-06-16|access-date=3 August 2020|archive-date=26 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126152237/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5524975,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 1944 the British agreed to create a [[Jewish Brigade]] that would fight in Italy.

Approximately 1.5 million Jews around the world served in every branch of the allied armies, mainly in the Soviet and US armies. 200,000 Jews died serving in the Soviet army alone.<ref>[http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/jewish-soldiers "Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Armies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923164827/http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/jewish-soldiers |date=23 September 2017 }}. [[Yad Vashem]].</ref>

A small group (about 200 activists), dedicated to resisting the British administration in Palestine, broke away from the Etzel (which advocated support for Britain during the war) and formed the "Lehi" ([[Stern Gang]]), led by [[Avraham Stern]].<ref>Nachman Ben-Yehuda. ''The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel''. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: Wisconsin University Press, 1995, pp. 322.</ref> In 1942, the [[USSR]] released the Revisionist Zionist leader [[Menachem Begin]] from the [[Gulag]] and he went to Palestine, taking command of the Etzel organization with a policy of increased conflict against the British.<ref>{{cite book |last=Haber |first=Eitan |author-link=Eitan Haber |title=Menachem Begin: The Legend and the Man |publisher=Delacorte Press |location=New York |year=1978 |isbn=0-440-05553-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/menahembegin00eita}} <!-- Chapter 7: "Menahem Begin arrived in Palestine in May 1942" --></ref> At about the same time [[Yitzhak Shamir]] escaped from the [[Irgun and Lehi internment in Africa|camp in Eritrea]] where the British were holding Lehi activists without trial, taking command of the Lehi (Stern Gang).<ref>{{cite book | last = Golan | first = Zev | title = Stern: The Man and His Gang | publisher=Yair Publications | date = November 2011  | page = 94 }}</ref>

Jews in the Middle East were also affected by the war. Most of North Africa came under Nazi control and many Jews were used as slaves.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007312|title=Jews in North Africa: Oppression and Resistance|website=www.ushmm.org|access-date=28 October 2011|archive-date=9 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909121954/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007312|url-status=live}}</ref> The 1941 [[1941 Iraqi coup d'état|pro-Axis coup in Iraq]] was accompanied by [[Farhud|massacres]] of Jews. The Jewish Agency put together plans for a last stand in the event of Rommel invading Palestine (the Nazis planned to exterminate Palestine's Jews).<ref>''Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine'' by Mallman and Cuppers, 2010</ref>

Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis, [[Responsibility for the Holocaust|aided by local forces]], led systematic efforts to kill every person of Jewish extraction in Europe (The [[Holocaust]]), causing the deaths of approximately 6 million Jews. A quarter of those killed were children. The Polish and German Jewish communities, which played an important role in defining the pre-1945 Jewish world, mostly ceased to exist. In the United States and Palestine, Jews of European origin became disconnected from their families and roots. As the Holocaust mainly affected [[Ashkenazi Jews]], [[Sephardi Jews|Sepharadi]] and [[Mizrahi Jews]], who had been a minority, became a much more significant factor in the Jewish world. Those Jews who survived in central Europe, were [[Displaced persons camp|displaced persons]] (refugees); an [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]], established to examine the Palestine issue, surveyed their ambitions and found that over 95% wanted to migrate to Palestine.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archive.jta.org/article/1946/02/03/2743526/unrra-polls-displaced-jews-on-emigration-plans-first-vote-shows-palestine-is-favored |title=Unrra Polls Displaced Jews on Emigration Plans; First Vote Shows Palestine is Favored |publisher=JTA |date=3 February 1946 |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030026/https://www.jta.org/archive/unrra-polls-displaced-jews-on-emigration-plans-first-vote-shows-palestine-is-favored |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/educational_materials/shapira_survivors.asp |title=Survivors of the Holocaust – Educational Materials – Education & E-Learning |publisher=Yad Vashem |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=23 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223192615/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/educational_materials/shapira_survivors.asp |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Between National Socialism and Soviet Communism: Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany by Anna Holian Michigan 2011 pp 181–2</ref>

In the Zionist movement the moderate Pro-British (and British citizen) Weizmann, whose son died flying in the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]], was undermined by Britain's anti-Zionist policies.<ref>''Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The making of British Policy, 1936–1945'' by Michael Cohen, New York 1979 pp. 125–135</ref> Leadership of the movement passed to the Jewish Agency in Palestine, now led by the anti-British Socialist-Zionist party ([[Mapai]]) led by [[David Ben-Gurion]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Brenner | first1 = Michael | last2 = Frisch | first2 = Shelley | title = Zionism: A Brief History | publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers | date = April 2003  | page = 184 }}</ref>

===Illegal Jewish immigration and insurgency===
{{Main|Bricha|Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine}}
{{See also|Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–46}}
The [[British Empire]] was severely weakened by the war. In the Middle East, the war had made Britain conscious of its dependence on Arab oil. British firms controlled Iraqi oil and Britain ruled Kuwait, Bahrain and the Emirates. Shortly after [[VE Day]], the Labour Party won the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|general election in Britain]]. Although Labour Party conferences had for years called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, the Labour government now decided to maintain the 1939 White Paper policies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sofer |first=Sasson |title=Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |page=41 |isbn=9780521038270}}</ref>

[[File:19450715 Buchenwald survivors arrive in Haifa.jpg|thumb|[[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] survivors arrive in [[Haifa]] to be arrested by the British, 15 July 1945]]
Illegal migration ([[Aliyah Bet]]) became the main form of Jewish entry into Palestine. Across Europe [[Bricha]] ("flight"), an organization of former [[Jewish partisans|partisans]] and [[Jewish resistance under Nazi rule|ghetto fighters]], smuggled [[Holocaust survivors]] from Eastern Europe to Mediterranean ports, where small boats tried to breach the British blockade of Palestine. Meanwhile, Jews from Arab countries began moving into Palestine overland. Despite British efforts to curb immigration, during the 14 years of the Aliyah Bet, over 110,000 Jews entered Palestine. By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm |title=The Population of Palestine Prior to 1948 |publisher=MidEastWeb |access-date=4 October 2006 |archive-date=14 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814065619/http://www.mideastweb.org/palpop.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In an effort to win independence, Zionists now waged a [[British–Zionist conflict|guerrilla war]] against the British. The main underground Jewish militia, the Haganah, formed an alliance called the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]] with the Etzel and Stern Gang to fight the British. In June 1946, following instances of Jewish sabotage, such as in the [[Night of the Bridges]], the British launched [[Operation Agatha]], arresting 2,700 Jews, including the leadership of the Jewish Agency, whose headquarters were raided. Those arrested were held without trial.

On 4 July 1946 [[Kielce Pogrom|a massive pogrom in Poland]] led to a wave of Holocaust survivors fleeing Europe for Palestine. Three weeks later, Irgun [[King David Hotel bombing|bombed the British Military Headquarters]] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people. In the days following the bombing, Tel Aviv was placed under curfew and over 120,000 Jews, nearly 20% of the Jewish population of Palestine, were questioned by the police. In the US, Congress criticized British handling of the situation and considered delaying [[Anglo-American loan|loans]] that were vital to British post-war recovery.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Features/A-debt-the-British-paid-and-one-they-didnt|title=A debt the British paid – and one they didn't – Features – Jerusalem Post|website=www.jpost.com|date=15 January 2007 |access-date=3 December 2018|archive-date=3 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203205744/https://www.jpost.com/Features/A-debt-the-British-paid-and-one-they-didnt|url-status=live}}</ref> The alliance between Haganah and Etzel was dissolved after the King David bombings.

Between 1945 and 1948, 100,000–120,000 Jews left Poland.<ref name="Rosenberg-2023">{{Cite web |title=Where Did Displaced Jews in Europe Go After the Holocaust? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/displaced-jews-in-europe-1435462 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en |archive-date=27 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231227182548/https://www.thoughtco.com/displaced-jews-in-europe-1435462 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Ushmm-2023">{{Cite web |title=Brihah |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/brihah |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924071029/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/brihah |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Karesh-2006a"/> Their departure was largely organized by Zionist activists in Poland under the umbrella of the semi-clandestine organization ''[[Berihah]]'' ("Flight"). ''Berihah'' was also responsible for the organized emigration of Jews from [[History of the Jews in Romania#Post-War|Romania]], Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, totalling 250,000 (including Poland) Holocaust survivors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/this-month/june/1945.html|title=Holocaust Survivors in the Bericha Movement and Soldiers from Eretz Israel, Italy, 10 June 1945|website=Yad Vashem|access-date=30 November 2023|archive-date=30 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930172725/https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/this-month/june/1945.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=מכון ז'בוטינסקי {{!}} פריט ארכיון |url=http://www.jabotinsky.org/%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F/%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%A9-%D7%A4%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%98/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%98-%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F/?itemId=118630 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=www.jabotinsky.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= |script-title=he:ראשית 'הבריחה' מרומניה |trans-title=The beginning of the 'escape' from Romania |url=https://www.palyam.org/Hamosad_lealiya_bet/Levi_Argov.pdf |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=palyam.org |language=Hebrew}}</ref><ref name="Karesh-2006a" /> The British imprisoned the Jews trying to enter Palestine in the [[Atlit detainee camp]] and [[Cyprus internment camps]]. Those held were mainly Holocaust survivors, including large numbers of children and orphans. In response to Cypriot fears that the Jews would never leave (since they lacked a state or documentation) and because the 75,000 quota established by the 1939 White Paper had never been filled, the British allowed the refugees to enter Palestine at a rate of 750 per month.<ref>{{Cite web |title=YIVO {{!}} Population and Migration: Migration since World War I |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Population_and_Migration/Migration_since_World_War_I |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=yivoencyclopedia.org |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207072715/https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Population_and_Migration/Migration_since_World_War_I |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Rosenberg-2023" /><ref name="Ushmm-2023" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Bricha Home – Post-War Exodus to Israel {{!}} Alpine Peace Crossing |url=https://alpinepeacecrossing.org/en/the-bricha-home-post-war-exodus-to-israel/ |access-date=2023-11-30 |language=en-US |archive-date=9 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209081115/https://alpinepeacecrossing.org/en/the-bricha-home-post-war-exodus-to-israel/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1949-01-28 |title=Israeli Cover Welcoming Refugees from Detention Camps on Cyprus |url=https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1581 |journal=Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection |archive-date=22 August 2023 |access-date=30 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822125010/https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1581/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Karesh-2006a" />

By 1947 the Labour Government in Britain was ready to refer the Palestine problem to the newly created United Nations.<ref name="YV-archive3">{{cite web |url=http://collections1.yadvashem.org/notebook_ext.asp?item=51009 |title=Cracow, Poland, Postwar, Yosef Hillpshtein and his friends of the Bericha movement |publisher=Yad Vashem |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=29 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829000343/https://collections1.yadvashem.org/notebook_ext.asp?item=51009 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dpr 3 |title=History of the Question of Palestine |url=https://www.un.org/unispal/history/ |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Question of Palestine |language=en-US |archive-date=30 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130205526/https://www.un.org/unispal/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===United Nations Partition Plan===
{{Main|United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine}}
[[File:UN Partition Plan For Palestine 1947.png|thumb|upright|[[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]], 1947]]
On 2 April 1947, the United Kingdom requested that the question of Palestine be handled by the [[General Assembly of the United Nations|General Assembly]].<ref>[http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/07175de9fa2de563852568d3006e10f3?OpenDocument UNITED NATIONS: General Assembly: A/364 3 September 1947: Chapter I: The Origin and Activities of UNSCOP: A. Creation of the Special Committee: Its Terms of Reference and Composition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603150222/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/07175de9fa2de563852568d3006e10f3?OpenDocument |date=3 June 2012 }}</ref> The General Assembly created a committee, [[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine]] (UNSCOP), to report on "the question of Palestine".<ref>[https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F5A49E57095C35B685256BCF0075D9C2 A/RES/106 (S-1)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806072438/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F5A49E57095C35B685256BCF0075D9C2 |date=6 August 2012 }} of 15 May 1947 General Assembly Resolution 106 Constituting the UNSCOP: Retrieved 30 May 2012</ref>  In July 1947 the UNSCOP visited Palestine and met with Jewish and Zionist delegations. The [[Arab Higher Committee]] boycotted the meetings. During the visit the British Foreign Secretary [[Ernest Bevin]] ordered that passengers from an [[Aliyah Bet]] ship, [[SS Exodus|SS ''Exodus'']] ''1947'', to be sent back to Europe. The Holocaust surviving migrants on the ship were forcibly removed by British troops at Hamburg, Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UNSCOP Committee - הארכיון הציוני |url=http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/Pages/UNSCOP.aspx |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=www.zionistarchives.org.il |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114010239/http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/Pages/UNSCOP.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1947v05/d783 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714110856/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1947v05/d783 |date=14 July 2024 }}

US STATE DEPARTMENT, ''The Consul General at Jerusalem'' ( ''Macatee'' ) ''to the Secretary of State, '''Jerusalem''', July 14, 1947''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="Exodus 1947" |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/exodus-1947 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en |archive-date=9 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209140550/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/exodus-1947 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The principal non-Zionist Orthodox Jewish (or [[Haredi]]) party, [[Agudat Israel]], recommended to UNSCOP that a Jewish state be set up after reaching a religious [[Status quo (Israel)|status quo agreement]] with Ben-Gurion regarding the future Jewish state. The agreement granted an exemption from military service to a quota of [[yeshiva]] (religious seminary) students and to all Orthodox women, made the Sabbath the national weekend, guaranteed [[kosher]] food in government institutions and allowed Orthodox Jews to maintain a separate education system.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.news1.co.il/uploadFiles/781353175640107.doc |script-title=he:מכתב הסטטוס קוו |date=19 June 1947 |language=he |access-date=5 December 2012 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060234/http://www.news1.co.il/uploadFiles/781353175640107.doc |url-status=live }}</ref>

The majority report of UNSCOP proposed<ref>[http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/07175de9fa2de563852568d3006e10f3?OpenDocument United Nations: General Assembly: A/364: 3 September 1947: Official Records of the Second Session of the General Assembly: Supplement No. 11: United Nations Special Committee on Palestine: Report to the General Assembly Volume 1: Lake Success, New York 1947: Retrieved 30 May 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603150222/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/07175de9fa2de563852568d3006e10f3?OpenDocument |date=3 June 2012 }}</ref> "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem", the last to be under "an International Trusteeship System".<ref>{{Cite report |publisher=United Nations |date=20 April 1949 |access-date=31 July 2007 |title=Palestine |id=Background Paper No. 47 (ST/DPI/SER.A/47) |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2248AF9A92B498718525694B007239C6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103014616/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2248AF9A92B498718525694B007239C6 |archive-date=3 January 2011}}</ref> On 29 November 1947, in [[Resolution 181]] (II), the General Assembly adopted the majority report of UNSCOP, but with slight modifications.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7f0af2bd897689b785256c330061d253 |title=A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 |publisher=United Nations |year=1947 |access-date=30 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524094913/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7f0af2bd897689b785256c330061d253 |archive-date=24 May 2012}}</ref> The Plan also called for the British to allow "substantial" Jewish migration by 1 February 1948.<ref>Part I paragraph 2 UN resolution 181(II), {{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 |title=A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 |access-date=7 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906162506/http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 |archive-date=6 September 2015}}</ref>

Neither Britain nor the UN Security Council took any action to implement the recommendation made by the resolution and Britain continued detaining Jews attempting to enter Palestine. Concerned that partition would severely damage Anglo-Arab relations, Britain denied UN representatives access to Palestine during the period between the adoption of Resolution 181 (II) and the termination of the British Mandate.<ref>[[Trygve Lie]], In the Cause of Peace, Seven Years with the United Nations (New York: MacMillan 1954) p. 163</ref> The British withdrawal was finally completed in May 1948. However, Britain continued to hold (formerly illegal) Jewish immigrants of "fighting age" and their families on  [[Cyprus internment camps|Cyprus]] until March 1949.<ref>Morris Laub, ''Last barrier to freedom: internment of Jewish holocaust survivors on Cyprus 1946–1949'', Berkeley 1985</ref>

===Civil War===
{{Main|1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine}}
[[File:Jerusalem convoy.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Supply convoy on its way to [[Battle for Jerusalem (1948)|besieged]] [[Jerusalem]], April 1948]]
The General Assembly's vote caused joy in the Jewish community and anger in the Arab community. Violence broke out between the sides, escalating into [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|civil war]]. From January 1948, operations became increasingly militarized, with the intervention of a number of [[Arab Liberation Army]] regiments inside Palestine, each active in a variety of distinct sectors around the different coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in [[Galilee]] and [[Samaria]].{{sfn|Gelber|2006|pp=51–56}} [[Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni]] came from Egypt with several hundred men of the [[Army of the Holy War]]. Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, he organized the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.{{sfn|Lapierre|Collins|1971|loc=chap. 7|pp=131–153}} The [[Yishuv]] tried to supply the city using convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but largely failed. By March, almost all [[Haganah]]'s armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed.{{sfn|Morris|2004|p=163}}

Up to 100,000 Arabs, from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres eastwards.{{sfn|Morris|2004|p=67}} This situation caused the US to withdraw their support for the Partition plan, thus encouraging the [[Arab League]] to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could put an end to the plan for partition. The British, on the other hand, decided on 7 February 1948 to support the annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by [[Jordan|Transjordan]].{{sfn|Laurens|2005|p=83}} The [[Arab Legion|Jordanian army]] was commanded by the British.

[[File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948.jpg|thumb|[[David Ben-Gurion]] proclaiming the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]] in 1948]]
[[David Ben-Gurion]] reorganized the Haganah and made conscription obligatory. Every Jewish man and woman in the country had to receive military training. Thanks to funds raised by [[Golda Meir]] from sympathisers in the United States, and Stalin's decision to support the [[Zionism|Zionist cause]], the Jewish representatives of Palestine were able to [[arms shipments from Czechoslovakia to Israel 1947–1949|purchase important arms in Eastern Europe]].

Ben-Gurion gave [[Yigael Yadin]] the responsibility to plan for the announced intervention of the Arab states. The result of his analysis was [[Plan Dalet]], in which Haganah passed from the defensive to the offensive. The plan sought to establish Jewish territorial continuity by conquering mixed zones. [[Tiberias]], [[Haifa]], [[Safed]], [[Beisan]], [[Jaffa]] and [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] fell, resulting in the flight of more than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs.{{sfn|Laurens|2005|pp=85–86}} The situation was one of the catalysts for the intervention of neighbouring Arab states.

On 14 May 1948, on the day the last British forces left from Haifa, the [[Jewish People's Council]] gathered at the [[Tel Aviv Museum]] and proclaimed [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|the establishment]] of a [[Jewish state]] in [[Eretz Israel]], to be known as the [[State of Israel]].<ref>[http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Declaration+of+Establishment+of+State+of+Israel.htm Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel: 14 May 1948: Retrieved 2 June 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321213130/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Declaration%20of%20Establishment%20of%20State%20of%20Israel.htm |date=21 March 2012 }}</ref>
{{clear}}