Editing History of Israel (section)

===1948–1955: Ben-Gurion I; Sharett===
{{Further|Austerity in Israel|Lavon Affair|Reprisal operations}}
{{See also-text|[[Provisional government of Israel|Provisional]]|[[First government of Israel|First]]|[[Second government of Israel|Second]]|[[Third government of Israel|Third]]|[[Fourth government of Israel|Fourth]]|[[Fifth government of Israel|Fifth]]|[[Sixth government of Israel|Sixth]] governments of Israel}}
A 120-seat parliament, the [[Knesset]], met first in [[Tel Aviv]] then moved to [[Jerusalem]] after the 1949 ceasefire. In January 1949, Israel held its [[1949 Israeli legislative election|first elections]]. The Socialist-Zionist parties [[Mapai]] and [[Mapam]] won the most seats (46 and 19 respectively). Mapai's leader, [[David Ben-Gurion]], was appointed [[Prime Minister of Israel|Prime Minister]], he formed a coalition which did not include Mapam who were [[Stalinist]] and loyal to the USSR (another Stalinist party, non-Zionist [[Maki (historical political party)|Maki]] won 4 seats). This was a significant decision, as it signaled that Israel would not be in the Soviet bloc. The Knesset elected [[Chaim Weizmann]] as the first (largely ceremonial) [[President of Israel]]. [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Arabic]] were made the official languages of the new state. All governments have been [[coalitions]]—no party has ever won a majority in the Knesset. From 1948 until 1977 all governments were led by [[Mapai]] and the [[Alignment (political party)|Alignment]], predecessors of the [[Labor Party (Israel)|Labour Party]]. In those years [[Labor Zionism|Labour Zionists]], initially led by [[David Ben-Gurion]], dominated Israeli politics and the economy was run on primarily [[Socialism|socialist lines]].

Within three years (1948 to 1951), immigration doubled the Jewish population of Israel and left an indelible imprint on Israeli society.<ref>''Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After'' Dvora Hacohen, Syracuse University Press, 2003</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_01&CYear=2006 |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |access-date=7 August 2007 |year=2006 |title=Population, by Religion and Population Group |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033403/http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_01&CYear=2006 |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref> Overall, 700,000 Jews settled in Israel during this period.<ref>Benny Morris, ''Righteous Victims'', chap.VI.{{full citation needed|date=September 2022}}</ref> Some 300,000 arrived from Asian and North African nations as part of the [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries]].{{sfn|Sachar|1976|pp=395–403}} Among them, the largest group (over 100,000) was from Iraq. The rest of the immigrants were from Europe, including more than 270,000 who came from Eastern Europe,<ref>Tom Segev, ''1949. The First Israelis'', Owl Books, 1986, p.96.</ref> mainly Romania and Poland (over 100,000 each). Nearly all the Jewish immigrants could be described as [[refugee]]s, however only 136,000 who immigrated to Israel from Central Europe, had international certification because they belonged to the 250,000 Jews registered by the allies as displaced after World War II and living in [[Displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe|displaced persons camp]]s in Germany, Austria and Italy.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005462 |title=Displaced Persons |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=5 December 2012 |archive-date=7 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121207180354/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005462 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1950 the Knesset passed the [[Law of Return]], which granted to all Jews and those of Jewish ancestry (Jewish grandparent), and their spouses, the right to settle in Israel and gain citizenship. That year, 50,000 Yemenite Jews (99%) were secretly flown to Israel in [[Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)|Operation Magic Carpet]]. In 1951 Iraqi Jews were granted temporary permission to leave the country and 120,000 (over 90%) opted to move to Israel as part of [[Operation Ezra and Nehemiah]]. Jews also fled from Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. By the late sixties, about 500,000 Jews had left Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Over the course of twenty years, some 850,000 Jews from Arab countries (99%) relocated to Israel (680,000), France and the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117094828/http://mfa.gov.il/|url-status=dead|title=VI- The Arab Refugees – Introduction|archivedate=17 January 2009|accessdate=31 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Group seeks justice for 'forgotten' Jews |first=Warren |last=Hoge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/americas/04iht-nations.4.8182206.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 November 2007 |access-date=3 December 2012 |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411211005/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/world/americas/04iht-nations.4.8182206.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The land and property left behind by the Jews (much of it in Arab city centres) is still a matter of some dispute. Today there are about 9,000 Jews living in Arab states, of whom 75% live in Morocco and 15% in Tunisia. Vast assets, approximately $150 billion worth of goods and property (before inflation) were left behind in these countries.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Dan Lavie |date=2019-12-16 |title=Lost Jewish property in Arab countries estimated at $150 billion |website=Israel Hayom |url=https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/12/16/lost-jewish-property-in-arab-countries-estimated-at-150-billion/ |access-date=2020-05-20 |url-status=live |archive-date=23 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423032255/https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/12/16/lost-jewish-property-in-arab-countries-estimated-at-150-billion/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Jewish refugees left roughly $150 billion worth of goods, property in Arab nations|url=https://www.jns.org/jewish-refugees-left-roughly-150-billion-worth-of-goods-property-in-arab-nations/|date=2019-12-17|website=JNS.org|access-date=2020-05-20 |archive-date=2020-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707235937/https://www.jns.org/jewish-refugees-left-roughly-150-billion-worth-of-goods-property-in-arab-nations/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Menachem Begin při projevu na demonstraci proti německým reparacím v Tel Avivu v únoru 1952.jpg|thumb|left|[[Menachem Begin]] addressing a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv against [[Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany|negotiations with Germany]] in 1952]]
Between 1948 and 1958, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million. During this period, food, clothes and furniture had to be rationed in what became known as the [[Austerity in Israel|Austerity Period]] (''Tkufat haTsena''). Immigrants were mostly refugees with no money or possessions and many were housed in temporary camps known as [[ma'abarot]]. By 1952, over 200,000 immigrants were living in tents or prefabricated shacks built by the government. Israel received financial aid from private donations from [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee|outside the country]] (mainly the United States).<ref>''Mishtar HaTsena'' (in Hebrew), Dr Avigail Cohen & Haya Oren, Tel Aviv 1995</ref> The pressure on the new state's finances led Ben-Gurion to sign a controversial [[Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany|reparations agreement]] with [[West Germany]]. During the Knesset debate some 5,000 demonstrators gathered and riot police had to cordon the building.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-3306796,00.html |script-title=he:היום שבו נכבשה הכנסת (כמעט) |language=he |work=[[Ynet]] |date=24 September 2006 |access-date=12 January 2013 |archive-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222201953/http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/1,7340,L-3306796,00.html |url-status=live |last1=רויכמן |first1=ינון }}</ref> Israel received several billion marks and in return agreed to open diplomatic relations with Germany.

In 1949, education was made free and compulsory for all citizens until the age of 14. The state now funded the party-affiliated Zionist education system and a new body created by the Haredi [[Agudat Israel]] party. A separate body was created to provide education for the remaining Palestinian-Arab population. The major political parties now competed for immigrants to join their education systems. The government banned the existing educational bodies from the transit camps and tried to mandate a unitary secular socialist education<ref>The melting pot in Israel: the commission of inquiry concerning education in the early years of the state by Tzvi Tzameret, Albany 2002 chapter 7</ref> under the control of "camp managers" who also had to provide work, food and housing for the immigrants. There were attempts to force orthodox Yemenite children to adopt a secular life style by teachers, including many instances of Yemenite children having their [[Payot|side-curls]] cut by teachers. The [[Yemenite Children Affair]] led to the first Israeli public inquiry (the Fromkin Inquiry),<ref>For more information see ''The melting pot in Israel'' by Tzvi Tzameret, Albany 2002</ref> the collapse of the coalition, and an [[1951 Israeli legislative election|election]] in 1951.

In its early years Israel sought to maintain a non-aligned position between the super-powers. However, in 1952, an antisemitic public trial was staged in Moscow in which a group of Jewish doctors were accused of trying to poison Stalin (the [[Doctors' plot]]), followed by a similar trial in Czechoslovakia ([[Slánský trial]]). This, and the failure of Israel to be included in the [[Bandung Conference]] of 1955 (of [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned states]]), effectively ended Israel's pursuit of non-alignment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Israel between East and West, 1948-56 |url=https://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/Israel%20between%20East%20and%20West%201948-56.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526053950/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/Israel%20between%20East%20and%20West%201948-56.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 May 2006 |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=users.ox.ac.uk }}</ref><ref>Uri Bialer, Between East and West: Israel's foreign policy orientation, 1948-1956 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1955-04-22 |title=BANDUNG AND ISRAEL |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/04/22/archives/bandung-and-israel.html |access-date=2023-11-30 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=9 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241209083805/https://www.nytimes.com/1955/04/22/archives/bandung-and-israel.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=Anti-israel Resolution Adopted at Bandung; Red China Supports Arabs |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/anti-israel-resolution-adopted-at-bandung-red-china-supports-arabs |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129033222/https://www.jta.org/archive/anti-israel-resolution-adopted-at-bandung-red-china-supports-arabs |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 19 May 1950, in contravention of international law, Egypt announced that the [[Suez Canal]] was closed to Israeli ships and commerce. In 1952 a [[Egyptian Revolution of 1952|military coup]] in Egypt brought [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Abdel Nasser]] to power. The United States pursued close relations with the new Arab states, particularly the Nasser-led Egyptian [[Free Officers Movement (Egypt)|Free Officers Movement]] and [[Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia]]. Israel's solution to diplomatic isolation was to establish good relations with newly independent states in [[Africa]]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Israel's Military Aid to Africa, 1960–66 |author=Abel Jacob |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |date=August 1971 |pages=165–187|doi=10.1017/S0022278X00024885 |s2cid=155032306 }}</ref> and with France, which was engaged in the [[Algerian War]].

In the [[1955 Israeli legislative election|January 1955 elections]] Mapai won 40 seats and the Labour Party 10, [[Moshe Sharett]] became prime minister of Israel at the head of a left-wing coalition. Between 1953 and 1956, there were intermittent clashes along all of Israel's borders as Arab [[List of attacks against Israeli civilians before 1967|terrorism]] and breaches of the ceasefire resulting in Israeli [[Retribution operations|counter-raids]]. [[Palestinian fedayeen]] attacks, often organized and sponsored by the Egyptians, were made from [[Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt|(Egyptian) occupied Gaza]]. Fedayeen attacks led to a growing cycle of violence as Israel launched [[Unit 101|reprisal attacks]] against Gaza.<ref>Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts (eds.). ''The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History''. [[ABC-CLIO]]. p. 229. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-842-2}}</ref> In 1954 the [[Uzi]] submachine gun first entered use by the Israel Defense Forces. In 1955 the Egyptian government began recruiting former Nazi rocket scientists for a missile program.<ref>{{cite web |date=9 March 2009 |url=http://www.nti.org/media/pdfs/egypt_missile.pdf?_=1316466791 |title=Egypt Missile Chronology |publisher=Nuclear Threat Initiative |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=27 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927151149/http://www.nti.org/media/pdfs/egypt_missile.pdf?_=1316466791 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''Nasser and the Missile Age in the Middle East'' (Contemporary Security Studies) by Owen Sirrs, Routledge 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-37003-5}}. The Germans involved had worked on the [[V-1 (flying bomb)|V-1]] and [[V-2 rocket|V-2]] programs.</ref>

Sharett's government was brought down by the [[Lavon Affair]], a crude plan to disrupt US–Egyptian relations, involving Israeli agents planting bombs at American sites in Egypt.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/lavon_eng.htm |title=Lavon Affair |work=Lexicon of Terms |publisher=Knesset |access-date=5 December 2012 |archive-date=20 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720120925/http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/lavon_eng.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The plan failed when eleven agents were arrested. Defense Minister [[Pinhas Lavon|Lavon]] was blamed despite his denial of responsibility. The Lavon affair led to Sharett's resignation and Ben-Gurion returned to the post of prime minister.