View source for History of Israel

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{{About|the history of Israel from pre-historic times to the present|the history of the modern-day state|History of Israel (1948–present)}}
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{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{History of Israel}}

The '''history of Israel''' spans the [[Southern Levant]], from prehistoric African migrations and the [[Natufian culture]] (c. 10,000 BCE) to the emergence of [[Canaan#Canaanites|Canaanite]] civilization. During the [[Iron Age]], the kingdoms of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|Israel and Judah]] formed, serving as the foundation for [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Islam]].{{sfn|Shen|Lavi|Kivisild|Chou|2004|pp=825–826, 828–829, 826–857}}<ref name="Scheindlin1998">{{cite book |author=Raymond P. Scheindlin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfsuicMmrE0C&pg=PA1 |title=A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-513941-9 |pages=1–}}</ref><ref name="Incorporated2009">{{cite book |author=Facts On File, Incorporated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stl97FdyRswC&pg=PA337 |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4381-2676-0 |pages=337–}}</ref><ref name="MD2012">{{cite book |author=Harry Ostrer MD |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RayZR3V1SFwC&pg=PT26 |title=Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-997638-6 |pages=26–}}</ref>

The region was subsequently conquered by successive empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks. Following a century of independence under the [[Hasmonean dynasty]], the area fell to the [[Roman Republic]].<ref name="Ben-Eliyahu-2019" /> The [[Jewish–Roman wars]] led to massive Jewish casualties and displacement,<ref name="Taylor2" /><ref name="M-1984">M. Avi-Yonah, ''The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule'', Jerusalem 1984 pp. 12–14</ref><ref name="Mor, M. 2016. P471">Mor, M. ''The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132–136 CE''. Brill, 2016. P471/</ref><ref name="Mor-2016">{{Cite book |last=Mor |first=Menahem |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004314634 |title=The Second Jewish Revolt |date=2016-04-18 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-0-385-52170-3 |pages=483–484 |doi=10.1163/9789004314634 |quote=Land confiscation in Judaea... |archive-date=4 June 2024 |access-date=23 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604155426/https://dx.doi.org/10.1163%2F9789004314634 |url-status=live }}</ref> after which a Christian majority emerged under Byzantine rule. The 7th-century [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]] introduced various Islamic caliphates, followed by the [[Crusades]], [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] rule, and four centuries of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] administration.

In the 19th century, [[Zionism]] drove increased Jewish immigration (''[[aliyah]]''). After World War I, Britain assumed control under the [[Mandate for Palestine]], committing to a Jewish homeland via the [[Balfour Declaration]]. Rising tensions between Arabs and Jews led to the 1947 [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|UN Partition Plan]] and a subsequent [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|civil war]]. Israel's [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|1948 independence]] sparked the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], repelling neighboring armies but resulting in significant regional displacement. Despite peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), and the [[Oslo I Accord]] (1993) establishing the [[Palestinian Authority]], the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]] remains unresolved.

==Prehistory==
{{Further|Prehistory of the Levant}}
[[File:Skhul Cave.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Skhul Cave]]]]

The oldest evidence of [[early humans]] in the territory of modern Israel, dating to 1.5 million years ago, was found in [[Ubeidiya prehistoric site|Ubeidiya]] near the [[Sea of Galilee]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tchernov |first1=Eitan |title=The Age of 'Ubeidiya Formation (Jordan Valley, Israel) and the Earliest Hominids in the Levant |journal=Paléorient |date=1988 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=63–65 |doi=10.3406/paleo.1988.4455 | issn=0153-9345 }}</ref> Flint tool artefacts have been discovered at [[Yiron]], the oldest stone tools found anywhere outside Africa.{{dubious |Not accepted anymore, as far as I know. Source? |date= June 2024}} The [[Daughters of Jacob Bridge]] over the [[Jordan River]] provides evidence of the [[control of fire by early humans]] around 780,000 years ago, one of the oldest known examples.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kuta |first=Sarah |date=16 November 2022 |title=Early Humans May Have Cooked Fish 780,000 Years Ago |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/early-humans-may-have-cooked-fish-780000-years-ago-study-suggests-180981134/ |publisher=Smithsonian |access-date=3 November 2025}}</ref>

[[Neanderthal]] and [[early modern human]] remains from the caves of [[Tabun Cave|Tabun]] and [[Skhul Cave|Skhul]] in the [[Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve]] provide the region's longest [[Stratigraphy|stratigraphic]] record, spanning roughly 600,000 years of [[human evolution]] since the [[Lower Paleolithic]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.athenapub.com/8timelin.htm|title=Timeline in the Understanding of Neanderthals|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231557/http://www.athenapub.com/8timelin.htm|archive-date=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html |title=From 'small, dark and alive' to 'cripplingly shy': Dorothy Garrod as the first woman Professor at Cambridge |access-date=13 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228172528/http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html |archive-date=28 February 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://arch.haifa.ac.il/excav.php |title=Excavations and Surveys (University of Haifa) |access-date=13 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313142646/http://arch.haifa.ac.il/excav.php |archive-date=13 March 2013}}</ref> Other significant [[Paleolithic]] sites include [[Qesem cave]]. A 200,000-year-old fossil from [[Misliya Cave]] is the second-oldest evidence of [[anatomically modern human]]s found [[Recent African origin of modern humans|outside Africa]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Wade |first=Lizzie |date=10 July 2019 |title=Skull fragment from Greek cave suggests modern humans were in Europe more than 200,000 years ago |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/skull-fragment-greek-cave-suggests-modern-humans-were-europe-more-200000-years-ago |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |doi=10.1126/science.aay6927 |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Other notable finds include the [[Skhul and Qafzeh hominins]], as well as [[Manot 1]]. Around 10th millennium BCE, the [[Natufian culture]] existed in the area.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bar-Yosef |first1=Ofer |title=The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=1998 |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=159–177 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7 |s2cid=35814375 }}</ref> The [[Origins of agriculture in West Asia|beginning of agriculture in the region]] during the [[Neolithic Revolution]] is evidenced by sites such as [[ʿAin Mallaha]], [[Nahal Oren (archaeological site)|Nahal Oren]] and [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hershkovitz |first1=Israel |author-link1=Israel Hershkovitz |last2=Gopher |first2=Avi |author-link2=Avi Gopher |date=30 September 2008 |chapter=Demographic, Biological and Cultural Aspects of the Neolithic Revolution: A View from the Southern Levant |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225258426 |title=The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences |location= |editor-last1=Bocquet-Appel |editor-first1=Jean-Pierre |editor-last2=Bar-Yosef |editor-first2=Ofer |editor-link2=Ofer Bar-Yosef |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |page=465 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8539-0_17 |isbn= 978-1-4020-8538-3|access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref>

===Periodisation===
Here is one of the more common periodisations.
* [[Stone Age]] (pre-4500 BCE): hunter-gatherer societies, slowly evolving into farming and herding societies
** Palaeolithic
*** Epipalaeolithic
*** {{main|Epipalaeolithic Near East}}
**** Early
**** Middle
**** Late. See [[Natufian culture]] (15,000-11,500 BP)<ref>{{Cite book |last= Grosman |first= Leore |title= Natufian Foragers in the Levant: Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia |publisher= [[Berghahn Books]] |year= 2013 |isbn= 978-1-879621-45-9 |editor1= [[Ofer Bar-Yosef]] |editor2= François R. Valla |edition= 1 |location= New York |pages= 622–627 |chapter= The Natufian Chronological Scheme – New Insights and their Implications |doi= 10.2307/j.ctv8bt33h |jstor= j.ctv8bt33h |chapter-url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8bt33h |archive-date= 30 January 2022 |access-date= 20 June 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220130095803/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8bt33h |url-status= live }}</ref>
** Neolithic
*** Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic C]] (PPNC)
*** Late Neolithic
**** Pottery Neolithic A (PNA)
***** [[Yarmukian culture]]
***** [[Lodian culture|Lodian (Jericho IX) culture]]
**** Pottery Neolithic B (PNB)
***** [[Wadi Rabah culture]]
***** [[Timnian culture]] in southern&nbsp;Negev&nbsp;(and&nbsp;Sinai); pastoralist, persists through to the Bronze Age
* [[Levantine Chalcolithic]] (4500–3500 BCE): early metal-working and farming; see [[Timna Valley]]

==Bronze Age Canaan==
{{Main|Canaan|Djahy}}{{multiple image
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| image1            = Canaanite relief in basat depicting a lion and a lioness at play, 14th century BC, from Beit She'an, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (27523165515).jpg
| alt1              = Lion and lioness at play
| image2            = Tel Dan Canaanite Gate 1.jpg
| alt2              = Tel Dan gate
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| caption1          = Canaanite sculpture showing a lion and a lioness at play. [[Beit She'an]], 14th century BCE. Today in the [[Israel Museum]]
| caption2          = Canaanite-period gate, [[Tel Dan]]
| alt3              =
}}

The [[Canaan]]ites are archaeologically attested in the [[Middle Bronze Age]] (2100–1550 BCE).<ref name="Golden2">Jonathan M Golden,[https://books.google.com/books?id=EResmS5wOnkC&pg=PA3 ''Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction,''] OUP, 2009, pp. 3–4.</ref> There were probably independent or semi-independent city-states. Cities were often surrounded by massive earthworks, resulting in the [[Tell (archaeology)|archaeological mounds, or 'tells']] common in the region today. In the late Middle Bronze Age, the [[Nile Delta]] in Egypt was settled by Canaanites who maintained close connections with Canaan. During that period, the [[Hyksos]], dynasties of Canaanite/Asiatic origin, ruled much of [[Lower Egypt]] before being overthrown in the 16th century BCE.<ref name="Avraham-2018">{{Cite book |last=Avraham |first=Faust |title=The Oxford illustrated history of the Holy Land |date=2018 |others=Robert G. Hoyland, H. G. M. Williamson |isbn=978-0-19-872439-1 |edition=1st |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |pages=9–11 |chapter=The Birth of Israel |oclc=1017604304 }}</ref>

During the [[Late Bronze Age]] (1550–1200 BCE), there were Canaanite [[vassal state]]s paying tribute to the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]], which governed from [[Gaza city|Gaza]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Braunstein |first1=Susan L. |year=2011 |title=The Meaning of Egyptian-Style Objects in the Late Bronze Cemeteries of Tell el-Farʿah (South) |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=364 |issue=364 |pages=1–36 |doi=10.5615/bullamerschoorie.364.0001 |jstor=10.5615/bullamerschoorie.364.0001 |s2cid=164054005}}</ref> In 1457 BCE, Egyptian forces under the command of Pharaoh [[Thutmose III]] defeated a rebellious coalition of Canaanite vassal states led by [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]]'s king at the [[Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC)|Battle of Megiddo]].

In the [[Late Bronze Age collapse|Late Bronze Age]] there was a period of civilizational collapse in the Middle East,<ref>1177 B.C. : The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric CLine, Princeton University Press</ref> Canaan fell into chaos, and Egyptian control ended.<ref>Dever, William G. ''Beyond the Texts'', Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2017, pp. 89–93</ref><ref>S. Richard, "Archaeological sources for the history of Palestine: The Early Bronze Age: The rise and collapse of urbanism", ''The Biblical Archaeologist'' (1987)</ref> There is evidence that urban centers such as [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], [[Beit She'an]], [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]], [[Ekron]], [[Isdud]] and [[Ascalon]] were damaged or destroyed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Knapp |first1=A. Bernard |last2=Manning |first2=Sturt W. |date=2016-01-01 |title=Crisis in Context: The End of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.3764/aja.120.1.0099 |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=120 |issue=1 |pages=130 |doi=10.3764/aja.120.1.0099 |issn=0002-9114 |s2cid=191385013 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |access-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922150840/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.3764/aja.120.1.0099 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Two groups appear at this time, and are associated with the transition to the Iron Age (they used iron weapons/tools which were better than earlier bronze): the [[Sea Peoples]], particularly the [[Philistines]], who migrated from the [[Aegean civilization|Aegean world]] and settled on the southern coast, and the [[Israelites]], whose settlements dotted the highlands.<ref name="Avraham-2018" />

Some 2nd millennium inscriptions about the semi-nomadic [[Habiru]] people are believed to be connected to the [[Hebrews]],<ref name="entry in britannica.com">{{cite web |title=Hebrew - people |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew |access-date=March 3, 2019 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |archive-date=9 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809102541/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew |url-status=live }}</ref> who were generally synonymous with the Biblical Israelites.<ref>William David. Reyburn, Euan McG. Fry. ''A Handbook on Genesis''. New York: United Bible Societies. 1997.</ref> Many scholars regard this connection to be plausible since the two ethnonyms have similar etymologies,<ref>See above the discussion of the Akkadian and Aramaic expressions ''eber nari'' and ''avar nahara'' respectively, corresponding to Hebrew ''ever nahar'', being widely used in the ancient Near-East.</ref> although others argue that Habiru refers to a [[social class]] found in every Near Eastern society, including Hebrew societies.<ref name="DFriedberg-2017">{{Cite web |last=D. Friedberg |first=Albert |date=22 February 2017 |title=Who Were the Hebrews? |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-were-the-hebrews#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Hebrew%2C%E2%80%9D%20a%20member,the%20original%20language%20of%20man. |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128014216/https://www.thetorah.com/article/who-were-the-hebrews |archive-date=28 November 2023 |website=The Torah.com}}</ref>

==Ancient Israel and Judah: Iron Age to Babylonian period==
{{Main|History of ancient Israel and Judah|History of Palestine}}

===Early Israelites (Iron Age I)===
{{Main|Hebrews|Israelites|Biblical judges}}
{{See also|Origins of Judaism|Biblical archaeology|The Bible and history}}
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel (as ''{{lang|egy-Latn|ysrỉꜣr}}'') occurs in the Egyptian [[Merneptah Stele]], erected for Pharaoh [[Merneptah]] c. 1209 BCE.{{sfn|Stager|1998|p=91}}[[File:Kairo Museum Merenptah-Stele 01.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Merneptah Stele]], dated {{Circa|1209 BCE}}, is the earliest textual reference to Israel]] Archeological evidence indicates that during the early Iron Age I, hundreds of small villages [[Israelite highland settlement|were established on the highlands]] of Canaan on both sides of the [[Jordan River]], primarily in [[Samaria]], north of Jerusalem. These villages had populations of up to 400, were largely self-sufficient{{sfn|McNutt|1999|p=70}}{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=98}} and lived from herding, grain cultivation, and growing vines and olives with some economic interchange.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=99}} The pottery was plain and undecorated.<ref name="Avraham-2018" /> Writing was known and available for recording, even in small sites.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=105}} [[William G. Dever]] sees this "Israel" in the central highlands as a cultural and probably political entity, more an ethnic group rather than an organized state.{{sfn|Dever|2003|p=206}}

Modern scholars believe that the Israelites and their culture branched out of the [[Canaan|Canaanite peoples]] and their cultures through the development of a distinct [[Monolatry|monolatristic]]—and later [[Monotheism|monotheistic]]—religion centred on a national god [[Yahweh]].<ref>Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000&nbsp;BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 6–7). Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's)</ref><ref>Rendsberg, Gary (2008). "Israel without the Bible". In Frederick E. Greenspahn. The Hebrew Bible: New Insights and Scholarship. NYU Press, pp. 3–5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gnuse |first1=Robert Karl |title=No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel |date=1997 |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press Ltd |isbn=1-85075-657-0 |location=England |pages=28, 31}}</ref> According to McNutt, "It is probably safe to assume that sometime during [[Iron Age]] I a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'", differentiating itself from the Canaanites through such markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.{{sfn|McNutt|1999|p=35}}

Philistine cooking tools and the prevalence of [[pork]] in their diets, and locally made [[Mycenaean pottery]]—which later evolved into [[Philistine Bichrome ware|bichrome Philistine pottery]]—all support their foreign origin. Their cities were large and elaborate, which—together with the findings—point to a complex, hierarchical society.<ref name="Avraham-2018" />{{sfn|Killebrew|2005|p=230}}

[[Israel Finkelstein]] believes that the oldest Abraham traditions originated in the Iron Age, which focus on the themes of land and offspring and possibly, his altars in [[Hebron]]. Abraham's [[Mesopotamia]]n heritage is not discussed.<ref name="Finkelstein-2014">{{cite journal |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |last2=Römer |first2=Thomas |year=2014 |title=Comments on the Historical Background of the Abraham Narrative: Between "Realia" and "Exegetica" |url=https://www.academia.edu/29972948 |journal=Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=3–23 |doi=10.1628/219222714x13994465496820 |archive-date=29 February 2024 |access-date=16 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229190528/https://www.academia.edu/29972948 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Israel and Judah (Iron Age II)===
{{Main|Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Judah}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| width             = 200
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| image1            = JRSLM 300116 Tel Dan Stele 01.jpg
| alt1              = The Tel Dan stele
| image2            = חירבת קייאפה(מבצר האלה) - זאב שטיין.jpg
| alt2              = Khirbet Qeiyafa
| footer            =
| image3            = The 10th century Stepped Stone Structure-ViewC (3782447127).jpg
| total_width       = 400
| caption3          = The [[Stepped Stone Structure]], [[City of David (archaeological site)|City of David]], Jerusalem
| caption1          = The [[Tel Dan stele]] contains the earliest reference to the House of David
| caption2          = [[Khirbet Qeiyafa]], an early 10th century fortified city overlooking the [[Elah Valley]], associated by scholars with the kingdom of [[David]]
| alt3              = City of David
}}
In the 10th century BCE, the Israelite kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] and [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]] emerged. The [[Hebrew Bible]] states that these were preceded by a [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|single kingdom]] ruled by [[Saul]], [[David]] and [[Solomon]], who is said to have built the [[Solomon's Temple|First Temple]]. Archaeologists have debated whether the united monarchy ever existed,<ref name="United Monarchy debated" group="Notes">The debate is described in Amihai Mazar, "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy" (see bibliography), p.29 fn.2: "For conservative approaches defining the United Monarchy as a state "from Dan to Beer Sheba" including "conquered kingdoms" (Ammon, Moab, Edom) and "spheres of influence" in Geshur and Hamath cf. e.g. Ahlström (1993), 455–542; Meyers (1998); Lemaire (1999); Masters (2001); Stager (2003); Rainey (2006), 159–168; Kitchen (1997); Millard (1997; 2008). For a total denial of the historicity of the United Monarchy cf. e.g. Davies (1992), 67–68; others suggested a 'chiefdom' comprising a small region around Jerusalem, cf. Knauf (1997), 81–85; Niemann (1997), 252–299 and Finkelstein (1999). For a 'middle of the road' approach suggesting a United Monarchy of larger territorial scope though smaller than the biblical description cf.e.g. Miller (1997); Halpern (2001), 229–262; Liverani (2005), 92–101. The latter recently suggested a state comprising the territories of Judah and Ephraim during the time of David, that was subsequently enlarged to include areas of northern Samaria and influence areas in the Galilee and Transjordan. Na'aman (1992; 1996) once accepted the basic biography of David as authentic and later rejected the United Monarchy as a state, cf. id. (2007), 401–402".</ref><ref name="garfinkel2012">{{cite web |last1=Garfinkel |first1=Yossi |last2=Ganor |first2=Sa'ar |last3=Hasel |first3=Michael |date=19 April 2012 |title=Journal 124: Khirbat Qeiyafa preliminary report |url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623021750/http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1989 |archive-date=23 June 2012 |access-date=12 June 2018 |website=Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel |publisher=Israel Antiquities Authority |ref=garfinkel2012}}</ref><ref name="fink2012">{{cite journal |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |last2=Fantalkin |first2=Alexander |date=May 2012 |title=Khirbet Qeiyafa: an unsensational archaeological and historical interpretation |url=http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Qeiyafa_Unsensational_Interpretation.pdf |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=39 |pages=38–63 |doi=10.1179/033443512x13226621280507 |access-date=12 June 2018 |ref=finkelsteinfantalkin2012 |s2cid=161627736 |archive-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213094447/http://archaeology.tau.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Qeiyafa_Unsensational_Interpretation.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> with those in favor of such a polity existing further divided between maximalists who support the Biblical accounts,<ref>{{cite book |last=Dever |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-VxwC5rQtwC |title=What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It? |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2001 |isbn=9780802821263}}</ref> and minimalists who argue that any such polity was likely smaller than suggested.<ref name="Zachary">{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Zachary |date=2016-04-22 |title=Debating the United Monarchy: Let's See How Far We've Come |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146107916639208 |journal=Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=59–69 |doi=10.1177/0146107916639208 |issn=0146-1079 |s2cid=147053561|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Crying King David: Are the ruins found in Israel really his palace? |language=en |newspaper=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2013-08-26/ty-article/.premium/crying-king-david-not-his-palace/0000017f-f7d8-d887-a7ff-fffcbde60000 |access-date=2021-07-18 |quote=Not all agree that the ruins found in Khirbet Qeiyafa are of the biblical town Sha'arayim, let alone the palace of ancient Israel's most famous king |archive-date=24 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524232935/https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-crying-king-david-not-his-palace-1.5324620 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Historians and archaeologists agree that the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|northern Kingdom of Israel]] existed by {{Abbr|ca.|circa}} 900 BCE<ref name="Finkelstein2">{{cite book |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |title=The Bible unearthed : archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its stories |last2=Silberman |first2=Neil Asher |date=2001 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-86912-4 |edition=1st Touchstone |location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Wright">{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Jacob L. |date=July 2014 |title=David, King of Judah (Not Israel) |url=http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/07/wri388001.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301164250/http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/07/wri388001.shtml |archive-date=1 March 2021 |access-date=15 May 2021 |website=The Bible and Interpretation}}</ref> and the [[Kingdom of Judah]] existed by {{Abbr|ca.|circa}} 850 BCE.<ref name="Pitcher2">[https://books.google.com/books?id=tu02muKUVJ0C&pg=PA229 The Pitcher Is Broken: Memorial Essays for Gosta W. Ahlstrom, Steven W. Holloway, Lowell K. Handy, Continuum, 1 May 1995] Quote: "For Israel, the description of the battle of Qarqar in the Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III (mid-ninth century) and for Judah, a Tiglath-pileser III text mentioning (Jeho-) Ahaz of Judah (IIR67 = K. 3751), dated 734–733, are the earliest published to date."</ref><ref name="Finkelstein, Israel, (2020)">Finkelstein, Israel, (2020). [https://books.google.com/books?id=wH3-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 "Saul and Highlands of Benjamin Update: The Role of Jerusalem"], in Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart (eds.), ''Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives'', SBL Press, Atlanta, GA, p. 48, footnote 57: "...They became territorial kingdoms later, Israel in the first half of the ninth century BCE and Judah in its second half..."</ref> The Kingdom of Israel was the more prosperous of the two kingdoms and soon developed into a regional power;{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2002|pp=146-7|ps=:Put simply, while Judah was still economically marginal and backward, Israel was booming. ... In the next chapter we will see how the northern kingdom suddenly appeared on the ancient Near Eastern stage as a major regional power}} during the days of the [[Omride Dynasty|Omride dynasty]], it controlled [[Samaria]], [[Galilee]], the upper [[Jordan Valley]], the [[Sharon plain|Sharon]] and large parts of the [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]].<ref name="Finkelstein-2013a">{{Cite book |first=Israel |last=Finkelstein |title=The forgotten kingdom : the archaeology and history of Northern Israel |isbn=978-1-58983-910-6 |pages=74 |oclc=949151323 }}</ref> [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]], the capital, was home to one of the largest Iron Age structures in the Levant.<ref name="Finkelstein-2013b">{{Cite book |last=Finkelstein |first=Israel |title=The Forgotten Kingdom: the archaeology and history of Northern Israel |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-58983-911-3 |pages=65–66; 73; 78; 87–94 |oclc=880456140}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Finkelstein |first=Israel |date=2011-11-01 |title=Observations on the Layout of Iron Age Samaria |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/033443511x13099584885303 |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=194–207 |doi=10.1179/033443511x13099584885303 |issn=0334-4355 |s2cid=128814117|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Kingdom of Israel's capital moved between [[Shechem]], [[Penuel]] and [[Tirzah (ancient city)|Tirzah]] before Omri settled it in Samaria, and the royal succession was often settled by a military coup d'état. The Kingdom of Judah was smaller but more stable; the Davidic dynasty ruled the kingdom for the four centuries of its existence, with the capital always in Jerusalem, controlling the [[Judaean Mountains]], most of the [[Shephelah]] and the [[Beersheba valley]] in the northern [[Negev]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lemaire |first=André |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Holy Land |date=2018 |others=Robert G. Hoyland, H. G. M. Williamson |isbn=978-0-19-872439-1 |edition=1st |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |pages=61–85 |chapter=Israel and Judah |oclc=1017604304 }}</ref>

In 854 BCE, according to the [[Kurkh Monoliths]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=367117&partId=1|title=The Kurkh Stela|website=British Museum|access-date=15 June 2017|archive-date=21 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021005408/https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=367117&partId=1|url-status=live}}</ref> an alliance between [[Ahab]] of Israel and [[Ben-Hadad II|Ben Hadad II]] of [[Aram-Damascus]] managed to repulse the incursions of the [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], with a victory at the [[Battle of Qarqar]]. Another important discovery of the period is the [[Mesha Stele]], a [[Moab]]ite stele found in [[Dhiban, Jordan|Dhiban]] when [[Sattam Al-Fayez|Emir Sattam Al-Fayez]] led [[Henry Tristram]] to it as they toured the lands of the vassals of the [[Bani Sakher]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walsh |first=William |title=The Moabite Stone |publisher=PORTEOUS AND GIBBS, PRINTERS 16 WICKLOW STREET. |year=1872 |location=LONDON : HAMILTON AND CO.; J. NISBET AND CO. |pages=8, 12}}</ref> The stele is now in the [[Louvre]]. In the stele, [[Mesha]], king of Moab, tells how [[Chemosh]], the god of Moab, had been angry with his people and had allowed them to be subjugated to the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]], but at length, Chemosh returned and assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab. It refers to Omri, king of Israel,<ref name="Niehr1995">{{cite book |last=Niehr |first=Herbert |title=The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms |publisher=[[Peeters Publishers]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-9053565032 |editor-last=Edelman |editor-first=Diana Vikander |location=[[Leuven]] |page=57 |chapter=The Rise of YHWH in Judahite and Israelite Religion: Methodological and Religio-Historical Aspects |oclc=33819403 |quote=The Meša inscription (ca. 850 BCE) clearly states that YHWH was the supreme god of Israel and of the Transjordanian territory occupied by Israel under the Omrides. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bua2dMa9fJ4C&pg=PA57}}</ref> to the god Yahweh,<ref name="Lemaire1994">{{cite journal |author-link=André Lemaire |date=May–June 1994 |title="House of David" Restored in Moabite Inscription |url=http://www.cojs.org/pdf/house_of_david.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Biblical Archaeology Review]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |publisher=[[Biblical Archaeology Society]] |volume=20 |issn=0098-9444 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331134523/http://www.cojs.org/pdf/house_of_david.pdf |archive-date=31 March 2012 |author-last=Lemaire |author-first=André |number=3 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Niehr1995" /> and may contain another early reference to the House of David.<ref name="Lemaire1994" />

====Assyrian invasions====
{{further|Samerina}}
{{See also|Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III|Sennacherib's Annals|Resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire}}
[[File:Map of Assyria.png|thumb|[[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] at its greatest territorial extent]]
The Kingdom of Israel fell to the [[Assyria]]ns following a long siege of the capital [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]] around 720 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schipper |first=Bernd U. |title=A Concise History of Ancient Israel |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781646020294-007/html |chapter=Chapter 3 Israel and Judah from 926/925 to the Conquest of Samaria in 722/720 BCE |date=2021-05-25 |pages=34–54 |publisher=Penn State University Press |isbn=978-1-64602-029-4 |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781646020294-007}}</ref> The records of [[Sargon II]] indicate that he captured Samaria and deported 27,290 inhabitants to Mesopotamia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Younger |first=K. Lawson |date=1998 |title=The Deportations of the Israelites |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3266980 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=117 |issue=2 |pages=201–227 |doi=10.2307/3266980 |jstor=3266980 |issn=0021-9231|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is likely that Shalmaneser captured the city since both the Babylonian Chronicles and the Hebrew Bible viewed the fall of Israel as the signature event of his reign.{{Sfn|Yamada|Yamada|2017|p=|pp=408–409}} The [[Resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrian deportations]] became the basis for the [[Jews|Jewish]] idea of the [[Ten Lost Tribes]]. Foreign groups were settled by the Assyrians in the territories of the fallen kingdom.<ref name="Israel-2013">{{Cite book |last=Israel |first=Finkelstein |title=The forgotten kingdom : the archaeology and history of Northern Israel |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-58983-910-6 |pages=158 |oclc=949151323 }}</ref> The [[Samaritans]] claim to be descended from [[Israelites]] of ancient Samaria who were not expelled by the Assyrians.
[[File:IMJ_view_20130115_202742.jpg|thumb|Detail of the [[Siloam inscription]]]]
It is believed that refugees from the destruction of Israel moved to Judah, massively expanding Jerusalem and leading to construction of the [[Siloam Tunnel]] during the rule of King [[Hezekiah]] (ruled 715–686 BCE).<ref>{{cite book |last=Broshi |first=Maguen |title=Bread, Wine, Walls and Scrolls |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etTUEorS1zMC&pg=PA174 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2001 |page=174 |isbn=1841272019 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=9 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109101759/https://books.google.com/books?id=etTUEorS1zMC&pg=PA174 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Siloam inscription]], a plaque written in Hebrew left by the construction team, was discovered in the tunnel in 1880s, and is today held by the [[Istanbul Archaeology Museum]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |title=Siloam Inscription |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13662-siloam-inscription |year=1906 |access-date=21 January 2021 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123090052/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13662-siloam-inscription |url-status=live }}</ref>

During Hezekiah's rule, [[Sennacherib]], the son of Sargon, [[Sennacherib's campaign in the Levant|attempted but failed to capture Judah]]. [[Taylor prism|Assyrian records]] say that Sennacherib levelled 46 walled cities and [[Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem|besieged Jerusalem]], leaving after receiving extensive [[tribute]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/372815|title=Sennacherib recounts his triumphs |website=The Israel Museum|date=17 February 2021|access-date=23 January 2021|archive-date=28 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128061658/https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/372815 |url-status=live}}</ref> Sennacherib erected the [[Lachish reliefs]] in [[Nineveh]] to commemorate a second victory at [[Lachish]].
[[File:LMLK,_Ezekiah_seals.jpg|thumb|"[[Hezekiah]] ... king of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]" – [[Seal (emblem)|Royal seal]] written in the [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet]], unearthed in Jerusalem]]
The writings of four different "[[prophet]]s" are believed to date from this period: [[Hosea]] and [[Amos (prophet)|Amos]] in Israel and [[Micah (prophet)|Micah]] and [[Isaiah]] of Judah. These men were mostly social critics who warned of the Assyrian threat and acted as religious spokesmen. They exercised some form of [[free speech]] and may have played a significant social and political role in Israel and Judah.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Holladay |first=John S. |date=1970 |title=Assyrian Statecraft and the Prophets of Israel |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=29–51 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000004016 |jstor=1508994 |s2cid=162713432 |issn=0017-8160}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Edelman |first1=Diana Vikander |last2=Zvi |first2=Ehud Ben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWTfBQAAQBAJ&dq=The+Concept+of+Prophetic+Books+and+Its+Historical+Setting&pg=PA73 |title=The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud |date=2014-12-18 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-49031-9 |pages=73 |language=en}}</ref> They urged rulers and the general populace to adhere to [[Ethical monotheism|god-conscious ethical ideals]], seeing the Assyrian invasions as a divine punishment of the collective resulting from ethical failures.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Robert P. |title="The place is too small for us": the Israelite prophets in recent scholarship |date=1995 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=1-57506-000-0 |pages=15–26 |oclc=1203457109}}</ref>

Under King [[Josiah]] (ruler from 641 to 619 BCE), the [[Book of Deuteronomy]] was either rediscovered or written. The [[Book of Joshua]] and the accounts of the kingship of David and Solomon in the [[Books of Kings|Book of Kings]] are believed to have the same author. The books are known as [[Deuteronomist]] and considered to be a key step in the emergence of [[monotheism]] in Judah. They emerged at a time that Assyria was weakened by the emergence of Babylon and may be a committing to text of pre-writing verbal traditions.<ref>The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism by Stephen Cook, SBL 2004, p. 58</ref>

===Babylonian period (587–538 BCE)===
{{Main|Judah's revolts against Babylon|Babylonian captivity|Yehud (Babylonian province)}}

====First revolt, 597 defeat====
During the late 7th century BCE, Judah became a [[vassal state]] of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]]. In 601 BCE, [[Jehoiakim]] of Judah allied with Babylon's principal rival, Egypt, despite the strong remonstrances of the prophet [[Jeremiah]].<ref name="Bickerman-2007">{{Cite book |last=Bickerman |first=E. J. |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047420729/Bej.9789004152946.i-1242_044.xml |title=Nebuchadnezzar And Jerusalem |publisher=Brill |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-474-2072-9 |language=en |archive-date=29 September 2022 |access-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929010536/https://brill.com/view/book/9789047420729/Bej.9789004152946.i-1242_044.xml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Malamat, A. (1975, January). The twilight of Judah: in the Egyptian-Babylonian maelstrom. In ''Congress Volume Edinburgh 1974'' (pp. 123–145). Brill.</ref> As a punishment, the Babylonians [[Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC)|besieged Jerusalem]] in 597 BCE, and the city surrendered.<ref name="Bickerman-2007" /><ref>Geoffrey Wigoder, ''The Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible'' Pub. by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (2006)</ref> The defeat was [[Babylonian Chronicles|recorded by the Babylonians]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuneiform tablet with part of the Babylonian Chronicle (605-594 BC) |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/c/cuneiform_nebuchadnezzar_ii.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030154541/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/c/cuneiform_nebuchadnezzar_ii.aspx |archive-date=30 October 2014 |access-date=30 October 2014 |website=[[British Museum]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II |url=https://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc5/jerusalem.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505195611/https://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc5/jerusalem.html |archive-date=5 May 2019 |access-date=20 January 2019 |website=www.livius.org}}</ref> Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and deported king Jechoiachin ([[Jeconiah]]), along with other prominent citizens, to Babylon; [[Zedekiah]], his uncle, was installed as king.<ref name="Bickerman-2007" /><ref>''The Oxford History of the Biblical World'', ed. by Michael D Coogan. Published by Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 350</ref>

A few years later, Zedekiah launched another revolt against Babylon, and an army was sent to conquer Jerusalem.<ref name="Bickerman-2007" />

====Second revolt, 587/86 defeat====
[[File:מסע גולי בבל.jpg|thumb|The route of the exiles to [[Babylon]]]]

In 587 or 586 BCE, King [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] of Babylon [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|conquered Jerusalem]], destroyed the First Temple and razed the city.<ref name="Bickerman-2007" /><ref name="Lipschits-1999">{{Cite journal |last=Lipschits |first=Oded |date=1999 |title=The History of the Benjamin Region under Babylonian Rule |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/tav.1999.1999.2.155 |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=155–190 |doi=10.1179/tav.1999.1999.2.155 |issn=0334-4355 |quote=The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 B.C.E.) is the most traumatic event described in biblical historiography, and in its shadow the history of the people of Israel was reshaped. The harsh impression of the destruction left its mark on the prophetic literature also, and particular force is retained in the laments over the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in its midst. [...] most of Judah's inhabitants remained there after the destruction of Jerusalem. They concentrated chiefly in the Benjamin region and the northern Judean hill country. This area was hardly affected by the destruction, and became the centre of the Babylonian province with its capital at Mizpah. [...] The archaeological data reinforce the biblical account, and they indicate that Jerusalem and its close environs suffered a severe blow. Most of the small settlements near the city were destroyed, the city wall was demolished, and the buildings within were put to the torch. Excavation and survey data show that the western border of the kingdom also sustained a grave onslaught, seemingly at the time when the Babylonians went to besiege Jerusalem. |archive-date=29 January 2023 |access-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129114640/https://dx.doi.org/10.1179%2Ftav.1999.1999.2.155 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Finkelstein-2002">{{Cite book |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Israel |title=The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts |last2=Silberman |first2=Neil Asher |publisher=Free Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-684-86912-8 |location=New York |pages=307 |oclc=44509358 |quote=Intensive excavations throughout Jerusalem have shown that the city was indeed systematically destroyed by the Babylonians. The conflagration seems to have been general. When activity on the ridge of the City of David resumed in the Persian period, the-new suburbs on the western hill that had flourished since at least the time of Hezekiah were not reoccupied. }}</ref> The Kingdom of Judah was abolished, and many of its citizens were [[Babylonian captivity|exiled to Babylon]]. The former territory of Judah became a Babylonian province called [[Yehud (Babylonian province)|Yehud]] with its center in [[Mizpah in Benjamin|Mizpah]], north of the destroyed Jerusalem.<ref name="Lipschits-1999" />

====Babylonian diaspora after 587/86 BCE====
[[Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets|Tablets that describe King Jehoiachin's rations]] were found in the ruins of Babylon. He was eventually released by the Babylonians. According to both the Bible and the Talmud, the [[Davidic line|Davidic dynasty]] continued as head of [[History of the Jews in Iraq|Babylonian Jewry]], called the [[Exilarch|"Rosh Galut"]] (exilarch or head of exile). Arab and Jewish sources show that the ''Rosh Galut'' continued to exist for another 1,500 years in what is now Iraq, ending in the eleventh century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Exilarchs |url=http://www.peerage.org/genealogy/exilarch.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916005541/http://www.peerage.org/genealogy/exilarch.htm |archive-date=16 September 2009 |access-date=23 September 2018}}</ref>

==Second Temple period==
{{Main|Second Temple period}}

===Achaemenid period (538–332 BCE)===
{{See also|Return to Zion|Yehud (Persian province)|Cyrus Cylinder}}
[[File:YehudObverse 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Obverse of [[Yehud coinage|Yehud silver coin]]]]
[[File:JUDAEA,_Persian_Period._Anonymous._Circa_375-332_BCE.jpg|thumb|upright|Silver coin (''[[gerah]]'') minted in the Persian province of Yehud, dated <abbr>c.</abbr> 375–332 BCE. ''Obv'': Bearded head wearing crown, possibly representing the Persian Great King. ''Rev'': Falcon facing, head right, with wings spread; [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet|Paleo-Hebrew]] ''YHD'' to right.]]
In 538 BCE, [[Cyrus the Great]] of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] conquered Babylon and took over its empire. [[Edict of Cyrus|Cyrus issued a proclamation]] granting religious freedom to all peoples subjugated by the Babylonians (see the [[Cyrus Cylinder]]). According to the Bible, Jewish exiles in Babylon, including 50,000 Judeans led by [[Zerubabel]], returned to Judah to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The [[Second Temple]] was subsequently completed c. 515 BCE.<ref>Nodet 1999, p. 25.</ref> A second group of 5,000, led by [[Ezra]] and [[Nehemiah]], returned to Judah in 456 BCE. The first was empowered by the Persian king to enforce [[Torah|religious rules]], the second had the status of governor and a royal mission to restore the walls of the city.<ref>Soggin 1998, p. 311.</ref> The country remained a province of the Achaemenid empire called [[Yehud (Persian province)|Yehud]] until 332 BCE.

The final text of the [[Torah]] is thought to have been written during the Persian period (probably 450–350 BCE). The text was formed by editing and unifying earlier texts.{{Sfn|Frei|2001|p=6}} The returning [[Israelites]] adopted an [[Aramaic script]] (also known as the [[Ktav Ashuri|Ashuri alphabet]]), which they brought back from Babylon; this is the current Hebrew script. The [[Hebrew calendar]] closely resembles the [[Babylonian calendar]] and probably dates from this period.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish religious year |website=Encyclopedia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303554/Jewish-religious-year/34907/Origin-and-development |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226044744/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/303554/Jewish-religious-year/34907/Origin-and-development |archive-date=26 December 2014 |access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref>

The Bible describes tension between the returnees, the elite of the First Temple period,<ref name="Pastor" /> and those who had remained in Judah.<ref>Miller 1986, p. 458.</ref> It is possible that the returnees, supported by the Persian monarchy, became large landholders at the expense of the people who had remained to work the land in Judah, whose opposition to the Second Temple would have reflected a fear that exclusion from the cult would deprive them of land rights.<ref name="Pastor" >Jack Pastor [https://books.google.com/books?id=AGeHDna_9dwC&pg=PT28 ''Land and Economy in Ancient Palestine,''] [[Routledge]] (1997) 2nd.ed 2013 {{isbn|978-1-134-72264-8}} p.14.</ref> Judah had become in practice a [[theocracy]], ruled by hereditary [[High Priest (Judaism)|High Priests]]<ref>Wylen 1996, p. 25.</ref> and a Persian-appointed governor, frequently Jewish, charged with keeping order and seeing that tribute was paid.<ref>Grabbe 2004, pp. 154–5.</ref>

A Judean military garrison was placed by the Persians on [[Elephantine Island]] near Aswan in Egypt. In the early 20th century, [[Elephantine papyri|175 papyrus documents]] recording activity in this community were discovered, including the "Passover Papyrus", a letter instructing the garrison on how to correctly conduct the [[Passover]] feast.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 3259988|title = The Passover Papyrus from Elephantine|journal = Journal of Biblical Literature|volume = 31|issue = 1|pages = 1–33|last1 = Arnold|first1 = William R.|year = 1912| doi=10.2307/3259988 }}</ref>

===Hellenistic period (333–64 BCE)===
{{Main|Hasmonean Judea|Hellenistic Palestine}}
{{Further|Maccabean Revolt|Maccabees|Hasmonean dynasty}}

In 332 BCE, [[Alexander the Great]] of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedon]] conquered the region as part of his [[Wars of Alexander the Great|campaign against the Achaemenid Empire]]. After his death in 322 BCE, his generals [[Alexander the Great#Division of the Macedonian Empire|divided the empire]] and [[Judea]] became a frontier region between the [[Seleucid Empire]] and [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] in Egypt.<ref>Green, p. 499.</ref> Following a century of Ptolemaic rule, Judea was conquered by the Seleucid Empire in 200 BCE at the [[battle of Panium]]. Hellenistic rulers generally respected Jewish culture and protected Jewish institutions.<ref name="Hengel">{{cite book |last=Hengel |first=Martin |title=Judaism and Hellenism : Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine During the Early Hellenistic Period |date=1974 |publisher=SCM Press |isbn=0334007887 |edition=1st English |location=London |orig-date=1973 |authorlink=Martin Hengel}}</ref><ref>Tchrikover, Victor. ''Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews''.</ref> Judea was ruled by the hereditary office of the [[High Priest of Israel]] as a Hellenistic vassal.<ref name="Green">Green, p. 501.</ref> Nevertheless, the region underwent a process of [[Hellenization]], which heightened tensions between Greeks, Hellenized Jews, and observant Jews. These tensions escalated into clashes involving a power struggle for the position of high priest and the character of the holy city of Jerusalem.<ref>Ginzberg, Lewis. {{cite web|title=The Tobiads and Oniads|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1589&letter=A|access-date=6 March 2023|archive-date=14 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514142533/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1589&letter=A|url-status=live}} Jewish Encyclopedia.</ref>

When [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] consecrated the temple, forbade Jewish practices, and forcibly imposed Hellenistic norms on the Jews, several centuries of religious tolerance under Hellenistic control came to an end. In 167 BCE, the [[Maccabean Revolt|Maccabean revolt]] erupted after [[Mattathias]], a Jewish priest of the [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean]] lineage, killed a Hellenized Jew and a Seleucid official who participated in sacrifice to the [[Greek Gods|Greek gods]] in [[Modi'in (ancient city)|Modi'in]]. His son [[Judas Maccabeus]] defeated the Seleucids in several battles, and in 164 BCE, he captured Jerusalem and restored temple worship, an event commemorated by the Jewish festival of [[Hanukkah|Hannukah]].<ref>Jan Assmann: ''Martyrium, Gewalt, Unsterblichkeit. Die Ursprünge eines religiösen Syndroms.'' In: Jan-Heiner Tück (Hrsg.): ''Sterben für Gott – Töten für Gott? Religion, Martyrium und Gewalt.'' [Deutsch]. Herder Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 2015, 122–147, hier: S. 136.</ref>{{sfn|Morkholm|2008|p=290}}

After Judas' death, his brothers [[Jonathan Apphus]] and [[Simon Thassi]] were able to establish and consolidate a vassal Hasmonean state in Judea, capitalizing on the Seleucid Empire's decline as a result of internal instability and [[Seleucid–Parthian Wars|wars]] with the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]], and by forging ties with the rising [[Roman Republic]]. Hasmonean leader [[John Hyrcanus]] was able to gain independence, doubling Judea's territories. He took control of [[Idumaea]], where he converted the Edomites to Judaism, and invaded [[Beit She'an|Scythopolis]] and [[Samaria]], where he demolished the Samaritan Temple.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HYRCANUS, JOHN (JOHANAN) I. - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7972-hyrcanus-john-johanan-i |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com |access-date=1 September 2022 |archive-date=4 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304213029/https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7972-hyrcanus-john-johanan-i |url-status=live }}</ref> Hyrcanus was also the first Hasmonean leader to [[Hasmonean coinage|mint coins]]. Under his sons, kings [[Aristobulus I]] and [[Alexander Jannaeus]], Hasmonean Judea became a kingdom, and its territories continued to expand, now also covering the [[Israeli coastal plain|coastal plain]], [[Galilee]] and parts of the [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Helyer |first1=Larry R. |title=The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts |last2=McDonald |first2=Lee Martin |publisher=Baker Academic |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8010-9861-1 |editor-last=Green |editor-first=Joel B. |pages=45–47 |chapter=The Hasmoneans and the Hasmonean Era |oclc=961153992 |editor-last2=McDonald |editor-first2=Lee Martin }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ben-Sasson |first=H.H. |title=A History of the Jewish People |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1976 |isbn=0-674-39731-2 |pages=226 |quote=The expansion of Hasmonean Judea took place gradually. Under Jonathan, Judea annexed southern Samaria and began to expand in the direction of the coast plain... The main ethnic changes were the work of John Hyrcanus... it was in his days and those of his son Aristobulus that the annexation of Idumea, Samaria and Galilee and the consolidation of Jewish settlement in Trans-Jordan was completed. Alexander Jannai, continuing the work of his predecessors, expanded Judean rule to the entire coastal plain, from the Carmel to the Egyptian border... and to additional areas in Trans-Jordan, including some of the Greek cities there.}}</ref><ref name="Ben-Eliyahu-2019">{{Cite book |last=Ben-Eliyahu |first=Eyal |title=Identity and Territory: Jewish Perceptions of Space in Antiquity |date=30 April 2019 |isbn=978-0-520-29360-1 |pages=13 |publisher=Univ of California Press |oclc=1103519319 |quote=From the beginning of the Second Temple period until the Muslim conquest—the land was part of imperial space. This was true from the early Persian period, as well as the time of Ptolemy and the Seleucids. The only exception was the Hasmonean Kingdom, with its sovereign Jewish rule—first over Judah and later, in Alexander Jannaeus's prime, extending to the coast, the north, and the eastern banks of the Jordan. }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=Morton |title=The Gentiles in Judaism 125 BCE – 66 CE |date=1999 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-judaism/gentiles-in-judaism-125-bcece-66/1AC78E99125BFE8E215AC8137DD8FE32 |work=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 3: The Early Roman Period |volume=3 |pages=192–249 |editor-last=Sturdy |editor-first=John |access-date=2023-03-20 |series=The Cambridge History of Judaism |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/chol9780521243773.008 |isbn=978-0-521-24377-3 |quote=These changes accompanied and were partially caused by the great extension of the Judaeans' contacts with the peoples around them. Many historians have chronicled the Hasmonaeans' territorial acquisitions. In sum, it took them twenty-five years to win control of the tiny territory of Judaea and get rid of the Seleucid colony of royalist Jews (with, presumably, gentile officials and garrison) in Jerusalem. [...] However, in the last years before its fall, the Hasmonaeans were already strong enough to acquire, partly by negotiation, partly by conquest, a little territory north and south of Judaea and a corridor on the west to the coast at Jaffa/Joppa. This was briefly taken from them by Antiochus Sidetes, but soon regained, and in the half century from Sidetes' death in 129 to Alexander Jannaeus' death in 76 they overran most of Palestine and much of western and northern Transjordan. First John Hyrcanus took over the hills of southern and central Palestine (Idumaea and the territories of Shechem, Samaria and Scythopolis) in 128–104; then his son, Aristobulus I, took Galilee in 104–103, and Aristobulus' brother and successor, Jannaeus, in about eighteen years of warfare (103–96, 86–76) conquered and reconquered the coastal plain, the northern Negev, and western edge of Transjordan. |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=W. D. |editor3-last=Horbury |editor3-first=William |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612214626/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-judaism/gentiles-in-judaism-125-bcece-66/1AC78E99125BFE8E215AC8137DD8FE32 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some scholars argue that the Hasmonean dynasty also institutionalized the final [[Development of the Hebrew Bible canon|Jewish biblical canon]].<ref>Philip R. Davies in ''The Canon Debate'', p. 50: "With many other scholars, I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty."</ref>

Under Hasmonean rule, the [[Pharisees]], [[Sadducees]] and the mystic [[Essenes]] emerged as the principal Jewish social movements. The Pharisee sage [[Simeon ben Shetach]] is credited with establishing the first schools based around [[synagogue|meeting houses]].<ref>[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], ''History of the Jews'', p. 106, Harper 1988</ref> This was a key step in the emergence of [[Rabbinical Judaism]]. After Jannaeus' widow, queen [[Salome Alexandra]], died in 67 BCE, her sons [[Hyrcanus II]] and [[Aristobulus II]] engaged in a civil war over succession. The conflicting parties requested [[Pompey]]'s assistance on their behalf, which paved the way for a Roman takeover of the kingdom.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Hyrcanus II |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hyrcanus-II |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=6 March 2023 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205122753/https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Hyrcanus-II |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Early Roman period (64 BCE–2nd century CE)===
{{Main|Herodian dynasty|Herodian kingdom|Herodian Tetrarchy|Judea (Roman province)}}
[[File:Temple Scroll.png|thumb|upright=0.8|Portion of the [[Temple Scroll]], one of the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] written by the Essenes]]
[[File:Monnaie - Prutah, bronze, Jérusalem, Judée, Mattathias Antigonos - btv1b8480202s (1 of 2).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Hasmonean coinage|Hasmonean coin]] of [[Antigonus II Mattathias]], depicting the [[Temple menorah]]]]
In 63 BCE, the [[Roman Republic]] conquered Judaea, ending Jewish independence under the Hasmoneans.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Goodman |first=Martin |title=The Ruling Class of Judaea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66–70 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |isbn=9780511552656 |pages=1–3, 9, 122 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511552656}}</ref> Roman general [[Pompey]] intervened in a [[Hasmonean civil war|dynastic civil war]] and, after [[Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC)|capturing Jerusalem]], reinstated [[Hyrcanus II]] as high priest but denied him the title of king.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Gabba |first=Emilio |title=The Early Roman Period |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139053662 |editor1-last=Horbury |editor1-first=William |series=The Cambridge History of Judaism |volume=3 |pages=94–98, 130, 133, 152 |chapter=The Social, Economic and Political History of Palestine 63 BCE–CE 70 |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=W. D. |editor3-last=Sturdy |editor3-first=John}}</ref> Rome soon installed the [[Herodian dynasty]]—of [[Idumean]] descent but Jewish by conversion—as a loyal replacement for the nationalist Hasmoneans.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Shaye J. D. |title=From Maccabees to Mishnah |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-664-23904-6 |edition=3rd |location=Louisville, Kentucky |pages=3–4}}</ref> In 37 BCE, [[Herod the Great]], the first [[Client kingdoms in ancient Rome|client king]] of this line, took power after defeating the restored Hasmonean king [[Antigonus II Mattathias]].<ref name=":3">{{cite book |title=The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History, and Ideology |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-62024-6 |editor1-last=Berlin |editor1-first=Andrea M. |pages=1–3 |chapter=Introduction |editor2-last=Overman |editor2-first=J. Andrew}}</ref> Herod imposed heavy taxes, suppressed opposition, and centralized authority, which fostered widespread resentment.<ref name=":0" /> Herod also carried out major monumental construction projects throughout his kingdom, and significantly expanded the [[Second Temple]], which he transformed into one of the largest religious structures in the ancient world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Feissel |first=Denis |title=Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: Volume 1 1/1: Jerusalem, Part 1: 1–704 |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-11-174100-0 |editor1-last=Cotton |editor1-first=Hannah M. |location=Berlin |page=41 |oclc=840438627 |editor2-last=Eck |editor2-first=Werner |editor3-last=Heimbach |editor3-first=Marfa |editor4-last=Isaac |editor4-first=Benjamin |editor5-last=Kushnir-Stein |editor5-first=Alla |editor6-last=Misgav |editor6-first=Haggai}}</ref> After his death in 4 BCE, his kingdom was divided among his sons into a [[Herodian tetrarchy|tetrarchy]] under continued Roman oversight.<ref name=":3" />

In 6 CE, Roman emperor [[Augustus]] transformed [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]] into a [[Roman province]], deposing its last Jewish ruler, [[Herod Archelaus]], and appointing a Roman governor in his place.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> That same year, a [[Census of Quirinius|census]] triggered a small uprising by [[Judas of Galilee]], the founder of a movement that rejected foreign authority and recognized only God as king.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Over the next six decades, with the brief exception of a short period of Jewish autonomy under the client king [[Herod Agrippa|Herod Agrippa I]],<ref name=":0" /> the province remained under direct Roman administration. Some governors ruled with brutality and showed little regard for Jewish religious sensitivities, deepening resentment among the local population.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Freyne |first=Sean |title=The First Jewish Revolt: Archaeology, History and Ideology |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-62024-6 |editor1-last=Berlin |editor1-first=Andrea M. |location=London and New York |pages=45–47 |chapter=The Revolt from a Regional Perspective |editor2-last=Overman |editor2-first=J. Andrew}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> This discontent was also fueled by poor governance, corruption, and growing economic inequality, along with rising tensions between Jews and neighboring populations over ethnic, religious, and territorial disputes.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> At the same time, collective memory of the Maccabean revolt and the period of Hasmonean independence continued to inspire hopes for national liberation from Roman control.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Mendels |first=Doron |title=The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism: Jewish and Christian Ethnicity in Ancient Palestine |publisher=Doubleday |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-385-26126-5 |series=Anchor Bible Reference Library |pages=26}}</ref>

In 64 CE, the Temple High Priest [[Joshua ben Gamla]] introduced a religious requirement for Jewish boys to learn to read from the age of six. Over the next few hundred years this requirement became steadily more ingrained in Jewish tradition.<ref>The Chosen Few: How education shaped Jewish History, Botticini and Eckstein, Princeton 2012, page 71 and chapters 4 and 5</ref>

===Jewish–Roman wars===
{{Main|Jewish–Roman wars|First Jewish-Roman War|Kitos War|Bar Kokhba revolt}}
[[File:Arch of Titus Menorah.png|thumb|The [[Arch of Titus]] in [[Rome]] depicts the [[Roman triumph]] celebrating the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|fall of Jerusalem]] in 70 CE]]
[[File:Israel-2013-Aerial 21-Masada.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Masada]] fortress overlooking the [[Dead Sea]], the location of a [[Siege of Masada|1st-century Roman siege]]]]
The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale [[Rebellion|revolts]] by [[Jews|Jewish]] subjects against the [[Roman Empire]] between 66 and 135 CE.<ref>Bloom, J.J. 2010  ''The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66–135: A Military Analysis''. McFarland.</ref> The term primarily applies to the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] (66–73 CE) and the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] (132–136 CE), both nationalist rebellions aimed at restoring Jewish independence in Judea.<ref>{{Citation |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |title=A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 4: The Jews under the Roman Shadow (4 BCE–150 CE) |date=2021 |issue=99 |pages=16 |series=Library of Second Temple studies |place=London |publisher=T&T Clark |isbn=978-0-567-70070-4 |quote=With the relatively recent memory of Judah as an independent state under Jewish rule, there would no doubt come a time when the Jews of Palestine would attempt to regain this position. Revolt against Roman rule was just a matter of time.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mendels |first=Doron |title=The rise and fall of Jewish nationalism |date=1992 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-26126-5 |series=The Anchor Bible reference library |location=New York |pages=26 |quote=The Jews, [...] were the only examples of an indigenous population successfully creating a national state. [...] This short-lived independent Jewish state sowed the seeds for a stronger nationalistic awareness, which was to come to the fore after 63 BCE. But at the same time it led to the catastrophes of the two subsequent centuries, when certain groups of Jews persistently sought to reestablish this independent state.}}</ref> Some sources also include the [[Diaspora Revolt]] (115–117 CE), an ethno-religious conflict fought across the [[Eastern Mediterranean]] and including the [[Kitos War]] in Judaea.

The Jewish–Roman wars had a devastating impact on the Jewish people, transforming them from a major population in the Eastern Mediterranean into a dispersed and persecuted minority.<ref name="Hitti, P. K">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hDQqzz-tLgUC&q=rebellion&pg=PR3 |title=Hitti, P. K. |isbn=9781931956604 |last1=Hitti |first1=Philip K. |year=2002 |publisher=Gorgias Press |access-date=28 July 2022 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415203325/https://books.google.com/books?id=hDQqzz-tLgUC&lr=&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=history+of+syria&ots=ZZhrXOtKxl&sig=db_jqtYJyNwYJJ4SKem8G0NzOv0&redir_esc=y |url-status=dead }}</ref> The First Jewish-Roman War culminated in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction of Jerusalem]] and other towns and villages in Judaea, resulting in significant loss of life and a considerable segment of the population being uprooted or displaced.<ref name="Schwartz-2014">{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Seth |title=The ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-107-04127-1 |location=Cambridge |pages=85–86 |oclc=863044259}}</ref> Those who remained were stripped of any form of political autonomy.<ref name="AHJ-GM3">{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Martin |title=A History of Judaism |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-18127-1 |location=Princeton Oxford |pages=21, 232}}</ref> Subsequently, the brutal suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in even more severe consequences. Judea witnessed a significant depopulation, as many Jews were killed, expelled, or sold into slavery.<ref name="Taylor2">{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=J. E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XWIMFY4VnI4C&pg=PA243 |title=The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea |date=15 November 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199554485 |quote=These texts, combined with the relics of those who hid in caves along the western side of the Dead Sea, tells us a great deal. What is clear from the evidence of both skeletal remains and artefacts is that the Roman assault on the Jewish population of the Dead Sea was so severe and comprehensive that no one came to retrieve precious legal documents, or bury the dead. Up until this date the Bar Kokhba documents indicate that towns, villages and ports where Jews lived were busy with industry and activity. Afterwards there is an eerie silence, and the archaeological record testifies to little Jewish presence until the Byzantine era, in En Gedi. This picture coheres with what we have already determined in Part I of this study, that the crucial date for what can only be described as genocide, and the devastation of Jews and Judaism within central Judea, was 135 CE and not, as usually assumed, 70 CE, despite the siege of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mor|2016|pp=483–484}}</ref> The outcome of the conflict marked the termination of efforts to reestablish a Jewish state until the modern era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |title=An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism: History And Religion Of The Jews In The Time Of Nehemiah, The Maccabees, Hillel, And Jesus |date=2010 |publisher=T&T Clark |isbn=978-0-567-55248-8 |location=Edinburgh |pages=78 |quote=It was the total defeat and the massive destruction of the 132–35 war which put paid to any hopes of a revived Jewish state for another 1800 years.}}</ref> Jews were banned from residing in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which the Romans rebuilt into the pagan colony of [[Aelia Capitolina]], and the province of Judaea was renamed [[Syria Palaestina]]. Collectively, these events enhanced the role of [[Jewish diaspora]], relocating the Jewish demographic and cultural center to [[Galilee]] and eventually to [[Asoristan|Babylonia]], with smaller communities across the Mediterranean, the [[Middle East]], and beyond.

The Jewish–Roman wars also had a major impact on [[Judaism]], after the central worship site of [[Second Temple Judaism]], the [[Second Temple]] in Jerusalem, was destroyed by [[Titus]]'s troops in 70 CE.<ref name="Karesh-2006a">{{Cite book |last=Karesh |first=Sara E. |title=Encyclopedia of Judaism |year=2006 |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=1-78785-171-0 |oclc=1162305378 |quote=Until the modern period, the destruction of the Temple was the most cataclysmic moment in the history of the Jewish people. Without the Temple, the Sadducees no longer had any claim to authority, and they faded away. The sage Yochanan ben Zakkai, with permission from Rome, set up the outpost of Yavneh to continue develop of Pharisaic, or rabbinic, Judaism. }}</ref> The destruction of the Temple led to a transformation in Jewish religious practices, emphasizing [[Jewish prayer|prayer]], [[Torah study]], and communal gatherings in [[synagogue]]s. This pivotal shift laid the foundation for the emergence of [[Rabbinic Judaism]], which has been the dominant form of Judaism since [[late antiquity]], after the codification of the [[Talmud|Babylonian Talmud]].<ref name="Karesh-2006b">{{Cite book |last=Karesh |first=Sara E. |title=Encyclopedia of Judaism |year=2006 |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=978-1-78785-171-9 |oclc=1162305378 |quote=Until the modern period, the destruction of the Temple was the most cataclysmic moment in the history of the Jewish people. Without the Temple, the Sadducees no longer had any claim to authority, and they faded away. The sage Yochanan ben Zakkai, with permission from Rome, set up the outpost of Yavneh to continue develop of Pharisaic, or rabbinic, Judaism. }}</ref>

=={{anchor|Late Roman and Byzantine periods}}Late Roman and Byzantine periods==

===Late Roman period (136–390)===
{{Further|Syria Palaestina|Rabbinic literature|Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire}}

As a result of the disastrous effects of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled.<ref>Oppenheimer, A'haron and Oppenheimer, Nili. ''Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society''. Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 2.</ref>  Over the next centuries, more Jews left to communities in the [[Jewish diaspora|Diaspora]], especially the large, speedily growing Jewish communities in [[Babylonia]] and [[History of the Jews in Saudi Arabia|Arabia]].<ref name="Translation 1981, pg. 95">מרדכי וורמברנד ובצלאל ס רותת "עם ישראל – תולדות 4000 שנה – מימי האבות ועד חוזה השלום", ע"מ 95. (Translation: Mordechai Vermebrand and Betzalel S. Ruth – "The People of Israel&nbsp;– the history of 4000 years&nbsp;– from the days of the Forefathers to the Peace Treaty", 1981, p. 95)</ref> Others remained in the Land of Israel, where the spiritual and demographic center shifted from the depopulated Judea to [[Galilee]].<ref name="Ehrlich-2022">{{Cite book |last=Ehrlich |first=Michael |title=The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634-1800 |publisher=Arc Humanities Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-64189-222-3 |location=Leeds, UK |pages=3–4, 38 |oclc=1302180905 |quote= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cohn-Sherbok |first=Dan |title=Atlas of Jewish History |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-415-08800-8 |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lehmann |first=Clayton Miles |date=18 January 2007 |title=Palestine |url=http://sunburst.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/palestin.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130407005423/http://sunburst.usd.edu/~clehmann/erp/Palestine/palestin.htm |archive-date=7 April 2013 |access-date=9 February 2013 |website=Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces |publisher=University of South Dakota}}</ref> Jewish presence also continued in the southern [[Hebron Hills]], in [[Ein Gedi (archaeological site)|Ein Gedi]], and on the coastal plain.<ref name="Mor-2016" /><ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /> The [[Mishnah]] and the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], huge compendiums of Rabbinical discussions, were compiled during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in [[Tiberias]] and [[Jerusalem]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Morçöl|2006|p=304}}</ref>

Following the revolt, Judea's countryside was penetrated by [[Paganism|pagan]] populations,<ref name="Bar-2005">{{Cite journal |last=Bar |first=Doron |date=2005 |title=Rural Monasticism as a Key Element in the Christianization of Byzantine Palestine |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4125284 |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=49–65 |doi=10.1017/S0017816005000854 |jstor=4125284 |s2cid=162644246 |issn=0017-8160 |quote=The phenomenon was most prominent in Judea, and can be explained by the demographic changes that this region underwent after the second Jewish revolt of 132-135 C.E. The expulsion of Jews from the area of Jerusalem following the suppression of the revolt, in combination with the penetration of pagan populations into the same region, created the conditions for the diffusion of Christians into that area during the fifth and sixth centuries. [...] This regional population, originally pagan and during the Byzantine period gradually adopting Christianity, was one of the main reasons that the monks chose to settle there. They erected their monasteries near local villages that during this period reached their climax in size and wealth, thus providing fertile ground for the planting of new ideas. |archive-date=14 October 2023 |access-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014000604/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4125284 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> including migrants from the nearby provinces of [[Roman Syria|Syria]], [[Phoenicia under Roman rule|Phoenicia]], and [[Arabia Petraea|Arabia]],<ref>קליין, א' (2011). ''היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת'' ''(135–324 לסה"נ)''. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew)</ref><ref>שדמן, ע' (2016). ''בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים''. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Hebrew)</ref> whereas Aelia Capitolina, its immediate vicinity, and administrative centers were now inhabited by Roman veterans and settlers from the western parts of the empire.<ref>Klein, E, 2010, "The Origins of the Rural Settlers in Judean Mountains and Foothills during the Late Roman Period", In: E. Baruch., A. Levy-Reifer and A. Faust (eds.), New Studies on Jerusalem, vol. 16, Ramat-Gan, pp. 321–350 (Hebrew).</ref>

The Romans permitted a hereditary Rabbinical Patriarch from the [[House of Hillel]], called the "[[Nasi (Hebrew title)|Nasi]]", to represent the Jews in dealings with the Romans. One prominent figure was [[Judah ha-Nasi]], credited with compiling the final version of the [[Mishnah]], a vast collection of [[Oral Torah|Jewish oral traditions]]. He also emphasized the importance of education in Judaism, leading to requirements that illiterate Jews be treated as outcasts. This might have contributed to some illiterate Jews converting to Christianity.<ref>The Chosen Few: How education shaped Jewish History, Botticini and Eckstein, Princeton 2012, page 116</ref> Jewish seminaries, such as those at [[Shefaram]] and [[Bet Shearim]], continued to produce scholars. The best of these became members of the [[Sanhedrin]],<ref>M. Avi-Yonah, ''The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule'', Jerusalem 1984 sections II to V</ref> which was located first at [[Sepphoris]] and later at Tiberias.<ref>Vailhé Siméon, [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04798b.htm "Diocaesarea" in The Catholic Encyclopedia.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626210432/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04798b.htm|date=26 June 2018}}. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 November 2013.</ref> In the Galillee, many synagogues have been found dating from this period,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Charlesworth |first1=James |date=2010 |title=Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee |journal=Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=281–284 |doi=10.1163/174551911X573542}}</ref> and the [[Beit She'arim necropolis|burial site]] of the Sanhedrin leaders was discovered in [[Beit She'arim necropolis|Beit She'arim]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Necropolis of Bet She'arim: A Landmark of Jewish Renewal |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1471/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117130712/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1471 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |access-date=22 March 2020}}</ref><ref>History of the Jews, Volume II by Simon Dubnow (Barnes 1968), chapter 4 the Patriarchate in the Galillee (pages 96–117)</ref>  In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire faced an [[Crisis of the Third Century|economic crisis]] and imposed heavy taxation to fund wars of imperial succession. This situation prompted additional Jewish migration from Syria Palaestina to the [[Sasanian Empire]], known for its more tolerant environment; there, a flourishing Jewish community with important [[Talmudic academies in Babylonia|Talmudic academies]] thrived in [[Asoristan|Babylonia]], engaging in a notable rivalry with the [[Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina|Talmudic academies]] of Palaestina.<ref name="CherryRobert">Cherry, Robert: [https://books.google.com/books?id=dZRyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148 Jewish and Christian Views on Bodily Pleasure: Their Origins and Relevance in the Twentieth-Century] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030181443/https://books.google.co.il/books?id=dZRyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148|date=30 October 2020}}, p. 148 (2018), Wipf and Stock Publishers</ref>

Early in the 4th century, the Emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] made [[Constantinople]] the capital of the [[East Roman Empire]] and made [[Christianity]] an accepted religion. His mother [[Helena (empress)|Helena]] made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (326–328) and led the construction of the [[Church of the Nativity]] (birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem), the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] (burial site of Jesus in Jerusalem) and other key churches that still exist. The name Jerusalem was restored to Aelia Capitolina and became a Christian city. Jews were still banned from living in Jerusalem, but were allowed to visit and worship at the site of the ruined temple.<ref>{{cite book | author = Arthur Hertzberg | editor = Jacob Neusner | year = 2001 | chapter = Judaism and the Land of Israel | title = Understanding Jewish Theology | publisher = Global Academic Publishing | page = 79}}</ref> Over the course of the next century Christians worked to eradicate "[[paganism]]", leading to the destruction of classical Roman traditions and eradication of their temples.<ref>The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey 2018</ref> In 351–2, another [[Jewish revolt against Gallus|Jewish revolt]] in the Galilee erupted against a corrupt Roman governor.<ref>''[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/lazare-anti.asp Antisemitism: Its History and Causes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901162617/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/lazare-anti.asp |date=1 September 2012 }}'' by [[Bernard Lazare]], 1894. Accessed January 2009</ref>

===Byzantine period (390–634)===
{{Main|Byzantine Palestine|}}
{{Further|Jewish revolt against Heraclius|Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem|Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem}}
[[File:Bernat, Martin Saint Helena & Heraclius taking the Holy Cross to Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|upright |Heraclius returning the True Cross to Jerusalem, 15th-century painting by Miguel Ximénez]]
The Roman Empire split in 390 CE and the region became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Under Byzantine rule, much of the region and its non-Jewish population were won over by [[Christianity]], which eventually became the dominant religion in the region. The presence of holy sites drew [[Christian pilgrimage|Christian pilgrims]], some of whom chose to settle, contributing to the rise of a Christian majority. Christian authorities encouraged this pilgrimage movement and appropriated lands, constructing magnificent [[Church (building)|churches]] at locations linked to biblical narratives.<ref name="Irshai-2005">{{Cite book |last=Irshai |first=Oded |title=Israel: People, Land, State |publisher=Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi |year=2005 |isbn=9652172391 |editor-last=Shinan |editor-first=Avigdor |location=Jerusalem |pages=95–129 |chapter=The Byzantine period}}</ref> Additionally, monks established monasteries near pagan settlements, encouraging the conversion of local pagans.<ref name="Bar-2005" />

During the Byzantine period, the Jewish presence in the region declined, and it is believed that Jews lost their majority status in Palestine in the fourth century.<ref name="Kessler20102">{{cite book |author=Edward Kessler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87Woe7kkPM4C&pg=PA72 |title=An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-70562-2 |page=72 |quote=Jews probably remained in the majority in Palestine until some time after the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century. [...] In Babylonia, there had been for many centuries a Jewish community which would have been further strengthened by those fleeing the aftermath of the Roman revolts.}}</ref> While Judaism remained the sole non-Christian religion tolerated, restrictions on Jews gradually increased, prohibiting the construction of new places of worship, holding public office, or owning Christian slaves.<ref name="Limor-2022">{{Cite book |last=הר |first=משה דוד |title=ארץ-ישראל בשלהי העת העתיקה: מבואות ומחקרים |publisher=יד יצחק בן-צבי |year=2022 |isbn=978-965-217-444-4 |editor-link=Moshe David Herr |volume=1 |publication-place=ירושלים |pages=210–212 |language=he |trans-title=Eretz Israel in Late Antiquity: Introductions and Studies |chapter=היהודים בארץ-ישראל בימי האימפריה הרומית הנוצרית |trans-chapter=The Jews in the Land of Israel in the Days of the Christian Roman Empire}}</ref> In 425, after the death of the last [[Nasi (Hebrew title)|''Nasi'']], [[Gamaliel VI|Gamliel VI]], the ''Nasi'' office and the [[Sanhedrin]] were officially abolished, and the standing of yeshivot weakened. The leadership void was gradually filled by the Jewish center in [[Asoristan|Babylonia]], which would assume a leading role in the Jewish world for generations after the Byzantine period.<ref name="Irshai-2005" />

During the 5th and 6th centuries CE, the region witnessed a series of [[Samaritan revolts]] against Byzantine rule. Their suppression resulted in the decline of Samaritan presence and influence, and further consolidated Christian domination.<ref>M. Avi-Yonah, ''The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule'', Jerusalem 1984 chapters XI–XII</ref> Though it is acknowledged that some Jews and Samaritans converted to Christianity during the Byzantine period, the reliable historical records are limited, and they pertain to individual conversions rather than entire communities.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /><ref>Safrai 1998: 73–75</ref>

In 611, [[Khosrow II]], ruler of [[Sassanid Persia]], [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|invaded]] the Byzantine Empire. He was [[Revolt against Heraclius|helped by Jewish fighters]] recruited by [[Benjamin of Tiberias]] and [[Siege of Jerusalem (614)|captured Jerusalem]] in 614.<ref>History of the Byzantine Jews: A Microcosmos in the Thousand Year Empire By Elli Kohen, University Press of America 2007, Chapter 5</ref> The "[[True Cross]]" was captured by the Persians. The Jewish [[Himyarite Kingdom]] in Yemen may also have provided support. [[Nehemiah ben Hushiel]] was made governor of Jerusalem. Christian historians of the period claimed the Jews massacred Christians in the city, but there is no archeological evidence of destruction, leading modern historians to question their accounts.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Loewenberg |first1=Meir |title=When Iran Ruled Jerusalem |magazine=Segula |date=January 2013 |pages=30–38 |url=https://www.academia.edu/9448222 |access-date=22 October 2019 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030012/https://www.academia.edu/9448222 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Archaeology Versus Written Sources: the Case of the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614 by Yuri Stoyanov in ACTA MUSEI VARNAENSIS VIII-1, pp. 351–358</ref><ref>The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (614 c.e.)—An Archaeological Assessment by Gideon Avni in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No. 357 (February 2010), pp. 35–48</ref> In 628, Kavad II (son of Kosrow) returned Palestine and the True Cross to the Byzantines and signed a peace treaty with them. Following the Byzantine re-entry, [[Heraclius]] massacred the Jewish population of Galilee and Jerusalem, while renewing the ban on Jews entering the latter.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schäfer |first=Peter |title=The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBarWAR2qVkC |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2003 |page=198 |isbn=9780415305877 |quote=He had promised the Jews ... amnesty ..., but was unable to hold to this. At the insistence of the leaders of the Christians, who had not forgotten the period of Jewish rule from 614 to 617, he once more expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and had to allow large numbers of them to be executed.}}</ref>

==Early Muslim period==
{{Main|Medina#Early history and Jewish control|Dhimmi|Jund Filastin|Jund al-Urdunn}}
[[File:Jerusalem-2013(2)-Aerial-Temple Mount-(south exposure).jpg|thumb|Aerial view of the Temple Mount showing the [[Dome of the Rock]] in the center and the [[Qibli Mosque|al-Aqsa mosque]] to the south]]
The [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|Levant was conquered]] by an Arab army under the command of [[Umar|ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb]] in 635, and became the province of [[Bilad al-Sham]] of the [[Rashidun Caliphate]]. Two military districts—[[Jund Filastin]] and [[Jund al-Urdunn]]—were established in Palestine. A new city called [[Ramlah]] was built as the Muslim capital of Jund Filastin,<ref>[[Moshe Gil]], ''A History of Palestine, 634–1099,'' [[Cambridge University Press]] 1997 page 105 – 107</ref> while [[Tiberias]] served as the capital of Jund al-Urdunn. The Byzantine ban on Jews living in Jerusalem came to an end.

In 661, [[Mu'awiya I]] was crowned Caliph in Jerusalem, becoming the first of the (Damascus-based) [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad dynasty]]. In 691, Umayyad Caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]] (685–705) constructed the [[Dome of the Rock]] shrine on the Temple Mount, where the two Jewish temples had been located. A second building, the [[Qibli Mosque|Al-Aqsa Mosque]], was also erected on the Temple Mount in 705. Both buildings were rebuilt in the 10th century following a series of earthquakes.<ref name="Pruitt2017">{{cite journal |last1=Pruitt |first1=Jennifer |title=The Fatimid Holy City: Rebuilding Jerusalem in the Eleventh Century |journal=The Medieval Globe |date=2017 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=35–56 |doi=10.17302/TMG.3-2.3 |s2cid=165391034 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758485 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |access-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709085240/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758485 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 750, Arab discrimination against non-Arab Muslims led to the [[Abbasid Revolution]] and the Umayyads were replaced by the [[Abbasid Caliphs]] who built a new city, [[History of Baghdad|Baghdad]], to be their capital. This period is known as the [[Islamic Golden Age]], the Arab Empire was the largest in the world and Baghdad the largest and richest city. Both Arabs and minorities prospered across the region and much scientific progress was made. There were however setbacks: During the 8th century, the Caliph [[Umar II]] introduced a law requiring Jews and Christians to wear identifying clothing. Jews were required to wear [[Yellow badge|yellow stars]] round their neck and on their hats, Christians had to wear Blue. Clothing regulations arose during repressive periods of Arab rule and were more designed to humiliate then persecute non-Muslims. [[Jizya|A poll tax was imposed on all non-Muslims]] by Islamic rulers and failure to pay could result in imprisonment or worse.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goitein |first1=S. D. |title=The Cairo Geniza as a Source for the History of Muslim Civilisation |journal=Studia Islamica |date=1955 |issue=3 |pages=75–91 |doi=10.2307/1595103 |jstor=1595103 }}</ref>

In 982, Caliph [[Al-Aziz Billah]] of the Cairo-based [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid dynasty]] conquered the region. The Fatimids were followers of [[Isma'ilism]], a branch of [[Shia Islam]] and claimed descent from [[Fatimah|Fatima]], Mohammed's daughter. Around the year 1010, the [[Church of Holy Sepulchre]] (believed to be Jesus burial site), was destroyed by Fatimid [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah|Caliph al-Hakim]], who relented ten years later and paid for it to be rebuilt. In 1020 al-Hakim claimed divine status and the newly formed [[Druze]] religion gave him the status of a messiah.<ref name="Pruitt2017" />

===Demographic changes===
Although the Arab conquest was relatively peaceful and did not cause widespread destruction, it did alter the country's demographics significantly.<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006">{{Cite journal |last1=לוי-רובין |first1=מילכה |last2=Levy-Rubin |first2=Milka |date=2006 |title=The Influence of the Muslim Conquest on the Settlement Pattern of Palestine during the Early Muslim Period / הכיבוש כמעצב מפת היישוב של ארץ-ישראל בתקופה המוסלמית הקדומה |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23407269 |journal=Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv / קתדרה: לתולדות ארץ ישראל ויישובה |issue=121 |pages=53–78 |jstor=23407269 |issn=0334-4657 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205140101/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23407269 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over the ensuing several centuries, the region experienced a drastic decline in its population, from an estimated 1 million during Roman and Byzantine times to some 300,000 by the early Ottoman period. This demographic collapse was accompanied by a slow process of [[Islamization]], that resulted from the flight of non-Muslim populations, immigration of Muslims, and local [[Conversion to Islam|conversion]]. The majority of the remaining populace belonged to the lowest classes. While the Arab conquerors themselves left the area after the conquest and moved on to other places, the settlement of Arab tribes in the area both before and after the conquest also contributed to the Islamization.<ref name=":Ellenblum2010">{{Cite book |last=Ellenblum |first=Ronnie |title=Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-58534-0 |oclc=958547332 |quote=From the data given above it can be concluded that the Muslim population of Central Samaria, during the early Muslim period, was not an autochthonous population which had converted to Christianity. They arrived there either by way of migration or as a result of a process of sedentarization of the nomads who had filled the vacuum created by the departing Samaritans at the end of the Byzantine period [...] To sum up: in the only rural region in Palestine in which, according to all the written and archeological sources, the process of Islamization was completed already in the twelfth century, there occurred events consistent with the model propounded by Levtzion and Vryonis: the region was abandoned by its original sedentary population and the subsequent vacuum was apparently filled by nomads who, at a later stage, gradually became sedentarized }}</ref>{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}}<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006" /> As a result, the Muslim population steadily grew and the area became gradually dominated by Muslims on a political and social level.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /><ref>Christopher MacEvitt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh6RNqI0uikC&pg=PA97 ''The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance,'' ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109094826/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh6RNqI0uikC&pg=PA97|date=9 January 2020}} [[University of Pennsylvania Press]], 2010, p.97 {{isbn|978-0-812-20269-4}}</ref>

During the early Islamic period, many [[Christians]] and [[Samaritans]], belonging to the Byzantine upper class, migrated from the coastal cities to northern Syria and Cyprus, which were still under Byzantine control, while others fled to the central highlands and the Transjordan. As a result, the coastal towns, formerly important economic centers connected with the rest of the Byzantine world, were emptied of most of their residents. Some of these cities—namely [[Ashkelon]], [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], [[Apollonia–Arsuf|Arsuf]], and [[Gaza City|Gaza]]—now fortified border towns, were resettled by Muslim populations, who developed them into significant Muslim centers. The region of [[Samaria]] also underwent a process of Islamization as a result of waves of conversion among the Samaritan population and the influx of Muslims into the area.<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006" />{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}} The predominantly [[Monophysitism|Jacobite Monophysitic]] Christian population had been hostile to Byzantium orthodoxy, and at times for that reason welcomed Muslim rule. There is no strong evidence for forced conversion, or that the jizya tax significantly affected such changes.<ref>M. M. Silver, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lQQ_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 ''The History of Galilee, 47 BCE to 1260 CE: From Josephus and Jesus to the Crusades,''] [[Rowman & Littlefield]] 2021 {{isbn|978-1-793-64946-1}} p.231.</ref>

The demographic situation in Palestine was further altered by urban decline under the Abbasids, and it is thought that the [[749 Galilee earthquake|749 earthquake]] hastened this process by causing an increase in the number of Jews, Christians, and Samaritans who emigrated to diaspora communities while also leaving behind others who remained in the devastated cities and poor villages until they converted to Islam.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /> Historical records and archeological evidence suggest that many Samaritans converted under Abbasid and Tulunid rule, after suffering through severe difficulties such droughts, earthquakes, religious persecution, heavy taxes and anarchy.{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}} The same region also saw the settlement of Arabs. Over the period, the Samaritan population drastically decreased, with the rural Samaritan population converting to Islam, and small urban communities remaining in Nablus and Caesarea, as well as in Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo and Sarepta.<ref name="Nathan-2006">{{Cite book |last=שור |first=נתן |title=ספר השומרונים |publisher=יד יצחק בן-צבי; רשות העתיקות |year=2006 |isbn=965-217-202-2 |editor-last=שטרן |editor-first=אפרים |edition=2 |location=ירושלים |pages=587–590 |language=Hebrew |trans-title=Book of the Samaritans |chapter=רדיפות השומרונים בידי העבאסים והיעלמות היישוב השומרוני החקלאי |editor-last2=אשל |editor-first2=חנן}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Muslim population remained a minority in a predominantly Christian area, and it is likely that this status persisted until the Crusader period.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" />

==Crusades and Mongols==
{{main|Kingdom of Jerusalem|Maimonides}}
[[File:1099jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Painting of the [[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)|siege of Jerusalem]] during the [[First Crusade]] (1099)]]
In 1095, [[Pope Urban II]] called upon Christians to wage a holy war and recapture Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Responding to this call, Christians launched the [[First Crusade]] in the same year, a military campaign aimed at retaking the [[Holy Land]], ultimately resulting in the successful [[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)|siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 1099]].<ref>[http://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_9.html Jerusalem in the Crusader Period] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706075703/https://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_9.html/|date=6 July 2020}} Jerusalem: Life throughout the ages in a holy city, David Eisenstadt, March 1997</ref> In the same year, the Crusaders conquered [[Beit She'an]] and [[Tiberias]], and in the following decade, they captured coastal cities with the support of [[Italian city-states|Italian city-state]] fleets, establishing these coastal ports as crucial strongholds for Crusader rule in the region.<ref name="Grossman-2005">{{Cite book |last=Grossman |first=Avraham |title=Israel: People, Land, State |publisher=Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi |year=2005 |editor-last=Shinan |editor-first=Avigdor |location=Jerusalem |pages=177–197 |chapter=The Crusader Period}}</ref>

Following the First Crusade, several [[Crusader states]] were established in the Levant, with the [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] (''Regnum Hierosolymitanum'') assuming a preeminent position and enjoying special status among them. The population consisted predominantly of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Samaritans, while the Crusaders remained a minority and relied on the local population who worked the soil. The region saw the construction of numerous [[List of Crusader castles|robust castles and fortresses]], yet efforts to establish permanent European villages proved unsuccessful.<ref name="Grossman-2005" />

Around 1180, [[Raynald of Châtillon]], ruler of [[Oultrejordain|Transjordan]], caused increasing conflict with the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] Sultan [[Saladin]] (Salah-al-Din), leading to the defeat of the Crusaders in the 1187 [[Battle of Hattin]] (above [[Tiberias]]). Saladin was able to peacefully take Jerusalem and conquered most of the former Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin's court physician was [[Maimonides]], a refugee from [[Almohad]] (Muslim) persecution in [[Córdoba, Spain]], where all non-Muslim religions had been banned.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Maimonides | title=Moses Maimonides &#124; Jewish philosopher, scholar, and physician | website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=21 May 2019 | archive-date=20 December 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220233251/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Maimonides | url-status=live }}</ref>

The Christian world's response to the loss of Jerusalem came in the [[Third Crusade]] of 1190. After lengthy battles and negotiations, [[Richard the Lionheart]] and Saladin concluded the [[Treaty of Jaffa (1192)|Treaty of Jaffa]] in 1192 whereby Christians were granted free passage to make pilgrimages to the holy sites, while Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer C. |title=Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dm6pDwAAQBAJ&q=treaty+of+jaffa+Saladin+and+the+Fall+of+the+Kingdom+of+Jerusalem&pg=PA654 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2019 |page=654 |isbn=9781440853524 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=31 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231030004/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dm6pDwAAQBAJ&q=treaty+of+jaffa+Saladin+and+the+Fall+of+the+Kingdom+of+Jerusalem&pg=PA654 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1229, Jerusalem peacefully reverted into Christian control as part of a treaty between Holy Roman Emperor [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] and Ayyubid sultan [[al-Kamil]] that ended the [[Sixth Crusade]].<ref>{{cite book |url={{Google books |id=4CBEesvW2okC |page=59 |plainurl=yes}} |title=The Patterns of War Through the Eighteenth Century|series=Midland book|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|author=Larry H. Addington|page=59 |date=1990 |isbn=9780253205513 |quote= in the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II ...concluded a treaty with the Saracens in 1229 that placed Jerusalem under Christian control but allowed Muslim and Christian alike freedom of access to the religious shrines of the city. ... Within fifteen years of Frederick's departure from the Holy Land, the Khwarisimian Turks, successors to the Seljuks, rampaged through Syria and Palestine, capturing Jerusalem in 1244. (Jerusalem would not be ruled again by Christians until the British occupied it in December 1917, during World War I).|author-link=Larry H. Addington}}</ref> In 1244, Jerusalem was sacked by the [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarezmian]] [[Tatars]] who decimated the city's Christian population, drove out the Jews and razed the city.<ref>''Jerusalem: Illustrated History Atlas'' Martin Gilbert, Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1978, p. 25.</ref> The Khwarezmians were driven out by the Ayyubids in 1247.

==Mamluk period==
{{Further|Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)}}
{{See also|Kingdom of Semien|History of the Jews in India}}
[[File:Bahri Dynasty 1250 - 1382 (AD).PNG|thumb|The Bahri Mamluk dynasty 1250–1382]]
Between 1258 and 1291, the area was the [[Mongol raids into Palestine|frontier between Mongol invaders]] ([[Franco-Mongol alliance|occasional Crusader allies]]) and the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] of Egypt. The conflict impoverished the country and severely reduced the population.
In Egypt a caste of warrior slaves, known as the [[Mamluk]]s, gradually took control of the kingdom. The Mamluks were mostly of [[Turkic peoples|Turkish origin]], and were bought as children and then trained in warfare. They were highly prized warriors, who gave rulers independence of the native aristocracy. In Egypt they took control of the kingdom following a failed invasion by the Crusaders ([[Seventh Crusade]]). The first Mamluk Sultan, [[Qutuz]] of Egypt, defeated the Mongols in the [[Battle of Ain Jalut]] ("Goliath's spring" near [[Ein Harod]]), ending the Mongol advances. He was assassinated by one of his Generals, [[Baibars]], who went on to eliminate most of the Crusader outposts. The [[Mamluk]]s ruled Palestine until 1516, regarding it as part of [[Bilad a-Sham|Syria]]. In [[Hebron]], Jews were banned from worshipping at the [[Cave of the Patriarchs]] (the second-holiest site in Judaism); they were only allowed to enter 7 steps inside the site<ref>Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim Word, by Martin Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania 2014, page 101: "Subterranean Hebron: Religious Access Rights"</ref> and the ban remained in place until Israel assumed control of the West Bank in the [[Six-Day War]].<ref>''International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa'' by Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda, pp. 336–339</ref>{{undue weight inline|date=April 2023|reason=Editorializing segue from the history at hand.}} The Egyptian Mamluk sultan [[Al-Ashraf Khalil]] conquered the last outpost of Crusader rule in [[Siege of Acre (1291)|1291]].

The Mamluks, continuing the policy of the Ayyubids, made the strategic decision to destroy the coastal area and to bring desolation to many of its cities, from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] in the north to Gaza in the south. Ports were destroyed and various materials were dumped to make them inoperable. The goal was to prevent attacks from the sea, given the fear of the return of the Crusaders. This had a long-term effect on those areas, which remained sparsely populated for centuries. The activity in that time concentrated more inland.<ref>Myriam Rosen-Ayalon, ''Between Cairo and Damascus: Rural Life and Urban Economics in the Holy Land During the Ayyuid, Maluk and Ottoman Periods'' in ''The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land'' edited Thomas Evan Levy, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998</ref>

With the 1492 [[expulsion of Jews from Spain]] and 1497 [[persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal]], many Jews moved eastward, with some deciding to settle in the Mamluk Palestine. As a consequence, the local Jewish community underwent significant rejuvenation. The influx of [[Sephardic Jews]] began under Mamluk rule in the 15th century, and continued throughout the 16th century and especially after the Ottoman conquest. As city-dwellers, the majority of Sephardic Jews preferred to settle in urban areas, mainly in [[Safed]] but also in [[Jerusalem]], while the [[Musta'arabi Jews|Musta'arbi community]] comprised the majority of the villagers' Jews.<ref name="Abraham-1999">{{Cite book |last=Abraham |first=David |url= |title=To Come to the Land : Immigration and Settlement in 16th-Century Eretz-Israel. |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8173-5643-9 |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |pages=1–5 |oclc=847471027}}</ref>

==Ottoman period==
{{Further|History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Palestine}}
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}}
[[File:Kerem Avraham, Jewish workers.jpg|thumb|Jewish workers in [[Kerem Avraham]] neighbourhood of Jerusalem (c. 1850s)]]
{{Yishuv haYashan}}
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]] and other Jewish religious studies, culminating with [[Joseph Karo]]'s writing of the ''[[Shulchan Aruch]]'' – published in 1565 in Venice – which became the near-universal standard of Jewish religious law. 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>

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, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, 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>

The Zionist movement began in earnest in 1882 with [[Leon Pinsker]]'s pamphlet ''[[Auto-Emancipation]]'', which argued for the creation of a Jewish national homeland as a means to avoid the violence plaguing Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. At the 1884 [[Katowice Conference]], 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 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 | last1=Kalman | first1=Matthew | 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]] | date=16 November 2019 | 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.

==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=https://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 (May 1921)|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.{{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 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 encyclopedia | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference | title=The Evian Conference | encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia | 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 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

With millions of Jews trying to leave Europe and every country 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=https://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=dead }}</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. 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=https://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. 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 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 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" />

===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'', 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. 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 completed in May 1948. However, Britain continued to hold 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}} 

On 14 May 1948, on the day the last British forces left Haifa, the [[Jewish People's Council]] gathered at the [[Tel Aviv Museum]] and proclaimed [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|the establishment]] of a [[Jewish state]], 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}}

==State of Israel==
{{Main|History of Israel (1948–present)}}
In 1948, following the [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|1947–1948 war in Mandatory Palestine]], the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]] sparked the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]. This resulted in the [[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight]] from the land that the State of Israel came to control, and led to waves of [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries|Jewish immigration from other parts of the Middle East]].

The latter half of the 20th century saw further conflicts between Israel and its neighbouring Arab nations. In 1967, the [[Six-Day War]] erupted; in its aftermath, Israel captured and occupied the [[Golan Heights]] from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and the [[Sinai Peninsula]] from Egypt. In 1973, the [[Yom Kippur War]] began with an attack by Egypt on the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula.

In 1979, the [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty]] was signed, based on the [[Camp David Accords]]. In 1993, Israel signed the [[Oslo I Accord]] with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]], which was followed by the establishment of the [[Palestinian National Authority]]. In 1994, the [[Israel–Jordan peace treaty]] was signed. Despite [[Israeli–Palestinian peace process|efforts to finalize a peace agreement]], the conflict has continued.

==Demographics==
{{main|Demographic history of Palestine}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;float:center;"
|+ Population of the Land of Israel 65–650<ref>''The Chosen Few'' by Botticini and Eckstein Princeton 2012, p. 17</ref>
|-
!
! 65
! 100
! 150
! 300
! 550
! 650
|-
| align=left | Estimated Jewish Population (thousands)
| 2,500
| 1,800
| 1,200
| 500
| 200
| 100
|-
| align=left | Estimated Total Population
| 3,000
| 2,300
| 1,800
| 1,100
| 1,500
| 1,500
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;float:center;"
|+ Development of Israel by decade<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_01&CYear=2012 |title=Population, by Population Group |date=11 September 2012 |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |access-date=1 May 2013 |archive-date=4 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204045116/http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_01&CYear=2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_27&CYear=2012 |title=Jewish Population in the World and in Israel |date=11 September 2012 |publisher=Israel Central Bureau of Statistics |access-date=1 May 2013 |archive-date=13 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113201032/http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_27&CYear=2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:ISR |title=GDP per capita (current US$) |date=30 April 2013 |work=Google Public Data Explorer |publisher=World Bank |access-date=1 May 2013 |archive-date=29 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429185419/https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:ISR |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
!
! 1950
! 1960
! 1970
! 1980
! 1990
! 2000
! 2010
! 2020
|-
| align=left | [[Demographics of Israel|Population]] (thousands)
| 1,370.1
| 2,150.4
| 3,022.1
| 3,921.7
| 4,821.7
| 6,369.3
| 7,695.1
| 9,097.0
|-
| align=left | [[Historical Jewish population comparisons|World Jewry percentage]]
| 6%
| 15%
| 20%
| 25%
| 30%
| 38%
| 42%
| 44%
|-
| align=left | [[List of countries by past and future GDP (nominal) per capita|GDP per capita]] (current US$)
|
| 1,366
| 1,806
| 5,617
| 11,264
| 19,859
| 28,522
| 34,788
|}

==See also==
{{portal|Israel|History}}
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
* [[Archaeology of Israel]]
* [[Hebrew calendar]]
* [[History of the Arab–Israeli conflict]]
* [[History of the Israel Defense Forces]]
* [[History of Jerusalem]]
* [[History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel]]
* [[History of the Middle East]]
* [[History of Palestine]]
* [[History of Zionism]]
* [[Jewish history]]
* [[Jewish military history]]
* [[Levantine archaeology]]
* [[LGBT history in Israel]]
* [[List of Israeli museums]]
* [[List of Jewish leaders in the Land of Israel]]
* [[List of years in Israel]]
* [[Time periods in the Palestine region]]
* [[Timeline of Israeli history]]
* [[Timeline of the Palestine region]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Notes}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|30em}}
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* {{cite book |last1=Gelber |first1=Yoʾav |title=Palestine 1948: war, escape and the emergence of the Palestinian refugee problem |date=2006 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |location=Brighton Portland Toronto |isbn=978-1-84519-075-0}}
* {{cite journal |last=Jacobson |first=David |title=When Palestine Meant Israel |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |volume=27 |issue=3 |year=2001 |url=https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/when-palestine-meant-israel/#:~:text=As%20early%20as%20the%20Histories,words%2C%20the%20Land%20of%20Israel.}}
* {{cite book |last1=Killebrew |first1=Ann E. |title=Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanite |date=2005 |publisher=Society of Biblical Lit |isbn=978-1-58983-097-4 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Lapierre |first1=Dominique |last2=Collins |first2=Larry |title=O Jerusalem |date=1971 |publisher=Laffont |isbn=978-2-253-00754-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Laurens |first1=Henry |title=Paix et guerre au Moyen-Orient: l'Orient arabe et le monde de 1945 à nos jours |date=2005 |publisher=Armand Colin |isbn=978-2-200-26977-7 |language=fr}}
* {{Cite book |last=McNutt |first=Paula |title=Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-664-22265-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Robert D. |title=Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C. |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8028-0988-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Morçöl |first=Göktuğ |title=Handbook of Decision Making |isbn=978-1-57444-548-0 |publisher=CRC Press |year=2006}}
* {{cite book |last=Morkholm |first=Otto |editor1=William David Davies |editor2=Louis Finkelstein |title=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 2, The Hellenistic Age |chapter=Antiochus IV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pa75TjBSRkwC |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-21929-7 |pages=278–291 }}
* {{cite book |last=Morris |first=Benny |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-00967-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725022247/https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |archive-date=25 July 2020}}
* {{cite book |last=Sachar |first=Howard M. |title=A History of Israel |location=New York |publisher=Knopf |year=1976 |isbn=0-394-48564-5}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Shen |first1=P. |last2=Lavi |first2=T. |last3=Kivisild |first3=T. |last4=Chou |first4=V. |last5=Sengun |first5=D. |last6=Gefel |first6=D. |last7=Shpirer |first7=I. |last8=Woolf |first8=E. |last9=Hillel |first9=J. |last10=Feldman |first10=M.W. |last11=Oefner |first11=P.J. |title=Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation |journal=[[Human Mutation]] |year=2004 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=248–260 |doi=10.1002/humu.20077 |pmid=15300852 |s2cid=1571356 }}
* {{harvc |last=Stager |first=Lawrence |c=Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel |in=Coogan |year=1998}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Yamada |first1=Keiko |last2=Yamada |first2=Shiego |title="Now It Happened in Those Days": Studies in Biblical, Assyrian, and Other Ancient Near Eastern Historiography Presented to Mordechai Cogan on His 75th Birthday |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=2017 |isbn=978-1575067612 |editor-last=Baruchi-Unna |editor-first=Amitai |volume=2 |location=Winona Lake, Indiana |pages= |chapter=Shalmaneser V and His Era, Revisited |editor-last2=Forti |editor-first2=Tova |editor-last3=Aḥituv |editor-first3=Shmuel |editor-last4=Ephʿal |editor-first4=Israel |editor-last5=Tigay |editor-first5=Jeffrey H. |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/35496181 }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Berger, Earl ''The Covenant and the Sword: Arab–Israeli Relations, 1948–56'', London, Routledge K. Paul, 1965.
* Bregman, Ahron ''A History of Israel'', Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002 {{ISBN|0-333-67632-7}}.
* {{Cite book|last=Bright|first=John|title=A History of Israel|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VG67yLs-LAC|isbn=978-0-664-22068-6|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=2 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102053720/https://books.google.com/books?id=0VG67yLs-LAC|url-status=live}}
* Butler, L. J. ''Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World'' I.B. Tauris 2002 {{ISBN|1-86064-449-X}}
* Caspit, Ben. ''The Netanyahu Years'' (2017) [https://www.amazon.com/Netanyahu-Years-Ben-Caspit/dp/1250087058/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903023127/https://www.amazon.com/Netanyahu-Years-Ben-Caspit/dp/1250087058 |date=3 September 2021 }}
* Darwin, John ''Britain and Decolonisation: The Retreat from Empire in the Post-War World'' Palgrave Macmillan 1988 {{ISBN|0-333-29258-8}}
* Davis, John, ''The Evasive Peace: a Study of the Zionist-Arab Problem'', London: J. Murray, 1968.
* [[Walter Eytan|Eytan, Walter]] ''The First Ten Years: a Diplomatic History of Israel'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1958
* [[Herbert Feis|Feis, Herbert.]] ''The birth of Israel: the tousled diplomatic bed'' (1969) [https://archive.org/details/birthofisrael00feis online]
* {{Cite book|author=Christian Frevel|title=History of Ancient Israel|location=Atlanta|publisher=SBL Press|year=2023}}
* [[Martin Gilbert|Gilbert, Martin]] ''Israel: A History'', New York: Morrow, 1998 {{ISBN|0-688-12362-7}}.
* Horrox, James ''A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement'', Oakland: AK Press, 2009
* [[Chaim Herzog|Herzog, Chaim]] ''The Arab–Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East from the War of Independence to Lebanon'', London: Arms and Armour; Tel Aviv, Israel: Steimatzky, 1984 {{ISBN|0-85368-613-0}}.
* Israel Office of Information ''Israel's Struggle for Peace'', New York, 1960.
* Klagsbrun, Francine. ''Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel'' (Schocken, 2017) [https://www.amazon.com/Lioness-Golda-Meir-Nation-Israel/dp/0805211934/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231025957/https://www.amazon.com/Lioness-Golda-Meir-Nation-Israel/dp/0805211934/ |date=31 December 2021 }}.
* [[Walter Laqueur|Laqueur, Walter]] ''Confrontation: the Middle-East War and World Politics'', London: Wildwood House, 1974, {{ISBN|0-7045-0096-5}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Lehmann |first1=Gunnar |chapter=The United Monarchy in the Countryside: Jerusalem, Juday, and the Shephelah during the Tenth Century B.C.E. |pages=117–162 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C&pg=PA156 |editor1-last=Vaughn |editor1-first=Andrew G. |editor2-last=Killebrew |editor2-first=Ann E. |title=Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period |date=2003 |publisher=Society of Biblical Lit |isbn=978-1-58983-066-0 |access-date=4 January 2021 |archive-date=20 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820035421/https://books.google.com/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C&pg=PA156 |url-status=live }}
* Lucas, Noah ''The Modern History of Israel'', New York: Praeger, 1975.
* {{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=James Maxwell |last2=Hayes |first2=John Haralson |title=A History of Ancient Israel and Judah |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-664-21262-X }}
* Morris, Benny ''1948: A History of the First Arab–Israeli War'', Yale University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-300-12696-9}}.
* [[Conor Cruise O'Brien|O'Brian, Conor Cruise]] ''The Siege: the Saga of Israel and Zionism'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986 {{ISBN|0-671-60044-3}}.
* [[Michael Oren|Oren, Michael]] ''Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 {{ISBN|0-19-515174-7}}.
* [[Anshel Pfeffer|Pfeffer, Anshel]]. ''Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu'' (2018).
* Rabinovich, Itamar. ''Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman'' (Yale UP, 2017). [https://www.amazon.com/Yitzhak-Rabin-Soldier-Leader-Statesman/dp/0300212291/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903053031/https://www.amazon.com/Yitzhak-Rabin-Soldier-Leader-Statesman/dp/0300212291 |date=3 September 2021 }}
* Rubinstein, Alvin Z. (editor) ''The Arab–Israeli Conflict: Perspectives'', New York: Praeger, 1984 {{ISBN|0-03-068778-0}}.
* Lord Russell of Liverpool, ''If I Forget Thee; the Story of a Nation's Rebirth'', London, Cassell 1960.
* Samuel, Rinna ''A History of Israel: the Birth, Growth and Development of Today's Jewish State'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989 {{ISBN|0-297-79329-2}}.
* Schultz, Joseph & Klausner, Carla ''From Destruction to Rebirth: The Holocaust and the State of Israel'', Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1978 {{ISBN|0-8191-0574-0}}.
* [[Tom Segev|Segev, Tom]] ''The Seventh Million: the Israelis and the Holocaust'', New York: Hill and Wang, 1993 {{ISBN|0-8090-8563-1}}.
* Shapira Anita. ''Israel: A History'' (Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England; 2012) 502 pages;
* Sharon, Assaf, "The Long Paralysis of the Israeli Left" (review of Dan Ephron, ''Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel'', Norton, 290 pp.; and [[Itamar Rabinovich]], ''Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman'', Yale University Press, 272 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVI, no. 17 (7 November 2019), pp.&nbsp;32–34.
* Shatz, Adam, "We Are Conquerors" (review of [[Tom Segev]], ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion'', Head of Zeus, 2019, 804 pp., {{ISBN|978 1 78954 462 6}}), ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 41, no. 20 (24 October 2019), pp.&nbsp;37–38, 40–42. "Segev's biography... shows how central exclusionary [[nationalism]], [[war]] and [[racism]] were to [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]]'s vision of the [[Jewish homeland]] in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and how contemptuous he was not only of the [[Arabs]] but of Jewish life outside [[Zion]]. [Liberal Jews] may look at the state that Ben-Gurion built, and ask if the cost has been worth it." (p.&nbsp;42 of Shatz's review.)
* [[Avi Shlaim|Shlaim, Avi]], ''The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World ''(2001)
* [[Jacob Talmon|Talmon, Jacob L.]] ''Israel Among the Nations'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1970 {{ISBN|0-297-00227-9}}.
* [[Michael Wolffsohn|Wolffsohn, Michael]] ''Eternal Guilt?: Forty years of German-Jewish-Israeli Relations'', New York: Columbia University Press, 1993 {{ISBN|0-231-08274-6}}.
{{refend}}

===Primary sources===
* Laqueur, Walter, and Dan Schueftan, eds. ''The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict'' (8th ed. Penguin, 2016). [https://archive.org/details/israelarabreader00walt online 2001 edition]

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=2008-03-30|Wikipedia - History of the State of Israel - Historical background.ogg |Wikipedia - History of the State of Israel - History of Israel.ogg}}
* [https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Pages/Facts%20about%20Israel-%20History.aspx Facts About Israel: History] at the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel)|Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]]
* [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29123668 Israel profile – Timeline] at the [[BBC News Online]]
* [https://www.knesset.gov.il/review/main.aspx?lng=3 History of Israel] at the [[Knesset]] website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160415155840/http://www.archives.gov.il/en/ Official website] of the [[Israel State Archives]]
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