Editing History of Israel (section)

===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>