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Founding of the State of Israel
May 14, 1948· Event· Judaism, Christianity & Islam
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, as Britain's mandate over Palestine ended.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
The UN voted in November 1947 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states; Jewish leaders accepted, Arab leaders rejected the plan. Fighting began at once, and neighboring Arab armies invaded after independence. By the 1949 armistices Israel held more land than the plan had allotted. About 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled, which Palestinians call the Nakba ('catastrophe'); Israelis call the war their War of Independence. The 1950 Law of Return gave any Jew the right to immigrate.
Why it matters
It created the first Jewish state in about two thousand years, now home to nearly half the world's roughly 15 to 16 million Jews, and deepened a conflict still unresolved.
Sources and history
The Declaration of Independence, UN resolutions, the 1949 armistice agreements, military and refugee records, and archives opened since the 1980s and used by Israeli and Arab historians.
Questions and debates
Historians still debate why Palestinians left (flight from war, expulsion or both), and the answer shapes today's arguments over refugees' right of return.
Inside this (1)
Connections (4)
▸Jerusalem has been contested since the Founding of the State of IsraelHistorical record
The connection
The 1947 UN plan proposed Jerusalem as an international city. Instead the 1948–49 war split it: Israel held the west, Jordan the east, including the Old City and Western Wall. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and declared the whole city its capital; most countries do not recognize that, and Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as their capital.
When and where
Jerusalem, 1947–49, 1967 Six-Day War, Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law; the US moved its embassy there in 2018.
Historical evidence
UN Resolution 181, the 1949 armistice lines, Israel's 1980 law and UN Security Council Resolution 478 rejecting it are all public documents.
Questions and debates
Final status is among the hardest issues in peace talks; the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, holy to Jews and Muslims, remains the most sensitive flashpoint.
▸Zionism and Theodor Herzl led to Founding of the State of IsraelHistorical record
The connection
Herzl's movement built the institutions of a future state: land purchases through the Jewish National Fund, waves of immigration, the Jewish Agency and the revival of Hebrew. Britain's 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1922 League of Nations mandate backed a Jewish 'national home'. By 1947 Jews were about a third of Palestine's population.
When and where
Basel, 1897; Balfour Declaration, November 2, 1917; UN partition vote, November 29, 1947; Ben-Gurion's declaration in Tel Aviv, 1948.
Historical evidence
Zionist Congress records, the Balfour Declaration and mandate texts, and Israel's Declaration of Independence, which names Herzl.
Questions and debates
Whether Zionism was national liberation or colonial settlement is the core dispute between Israeli and Palestinian narratives; British motives are also debated.
▸The Holocaust increased support for Founding of the State of IsraelMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
The murder of six million Jews convinced many Jews and much of world opinion that Jews needed their own state. Many of some 250,000 Jewish survivors in displaced-persons camps sought to reach Palestine, where Britain limited entry. US pressure and public sympathy fed into the UN partition vote, and survivors made up a large share of Israel's early immigrants.
When and where
Displaced-persons camps in Germany, Austria and Italy, 1945–48; the Exodus ship affair, 1947; the UN vote, November 1947; President Truman.
How do we know?
UN debate records, surveys of displaced persons, Truman's papers, and Israeli immigration records.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how decisive the Holocaust was compared with decades of Zionist state-building and Cold War politics; Palestinians ask why they bore the cost of Europe's crime.
▸Founding of the State of Israel became a focus of Islamic revival and political IslamMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Arab defeats in 1948 and especially 1967, when Israel took East Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque, discredited secular Arab nationalism. Many turned to Islam as the answer, and Islamist movements framed the conflict as religious, with Jerusalem, Islam's third-holiest city, at its center. Hamas, founded in 1987, grew from the Muslim Brotherhood.
When and where
Middle East, 1948 and 1967; an arson attack on al-Aqsa in 1969 prompted the founding of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; Hamas in Gaza, 1987.
How do we know?
Islamist writings and charters, such as Hamas's 1988 charter; the OIC's founding records; and studies by scholars like Gilles Kepel.
Questions and debates
How much the conflict drives Islamism versus local repression and economic failure is debated; many Palestinians and Arab states frame it in national, not religious, terms.