1. The Land and Its Peoples before Political Zionism

1.1 Under the Ottoman Empire

From 1517 until the First World War, Palestine formed part of the Ottoman Empire’s southern Syrian districts. The area was thinly populated: Ottoman tax registers and European surveys show perhaps half a million inhabitants by the mid-nineteenth century, living mainly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Gaza, and scattered rural villages. The population included Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs of several denominations, and small Jewish communities whose continuous presence stretched back millennia. Ottoman rule was distant and often corrupt, with limited investment in infrastructure; most people lived from subsistence agriculture, small trade, or pilgrimage services.

1.2 Early Jewish Resurgence before Political Zionism

Long before Theodor Herzl or organised Zionism, small groups of Jews from Eastern Europe and North Africa had already begun to resettle in the Holy Land for religious reasons. By 1840 Jews made up a majority in Jerusalem’s Old City, supported by charitable networks abroad. These early immigrants—known as the Old Yishuv—sought spiritual renewal, not sovereignty, but they laid demographic foundations later nationalists would build upon.

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2. The Birth of Modern Zionism

2.1 European Context

Nineteenth-century Europe combined emancipation and persecution: Jews were integrating into modern societies even as antisemitism revived in new racial and nationalist forms. Pogroms in Russia after 1881 and the Dreyfus Affair in France convinced many thinkers that assimilation alone could not secure Jewish survival.

2.2 Theodor Herzl and the First Zionist Congress

In 1896 Herzl published Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”), arguing that Jews were a nation entitled to self-determination like any other. A year later the First Zionist Congress in Basel created the World Zionist Organization to pursue “a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine for the Jewish people.” Zionism’s genius was its fusion of ancient attachment to the land with modern nationalism and diplomatic strategy.

2.3 Early Immigration Waves (Aliyot)

The First and Second Aliyah (1882–1914) brought about 100 000 Jews—mainly from Russia and Eastern Europe—who founded agricultural cooperatives and revived Hebrew as a spoken language. Land purchases were legal, often made through Ottoman or private Arab intermediaries. Tensions arose as local Arab tenants feared displacement, yet records show many sales were voluntary, driven by economic hardship rather than coercion.

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3. The British Mandate and the Competing National Movements

3.1 World War I and the Balfour Declaration

In 1917 Britain captured Palestine from the Ottomans. The same year, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a declaration supporting “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” while stating that nothing should prejudice the rights of existing non-Jewish communities. The League of Nations incorporated this into the 1922 Mandate for Palestine, giving Britain administrative control and an explicit duty to facilitate Jewish immigration and settlement.

3.2 Arab Reaction and the Rise of Rejectionism

Arab elites—led increasingly by Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini—opposed the Balfour Declaration from the outset. Rather than seeking coexistence or power-sharing, the Mufti framed Zionism as a foreign invasion. The more pragmatic Nashashibi faction favoured cooperation but was marginalised by the Mufti’s intimidation and later by Nazi collaboration. Anti-Jewish riots in 1920, 1921, and 1929, incited by false rumours of Jewish threats to Muslim holy sites, left hundreds dead and shattered early prospects for partnership. 3.3 British Balancing and the White Papers

Britain, facing conflicting promises to Arabs and Jews, repeatedly shifted policy. The 1930 Passfield White Paper tried to limit immigration; Jewish lobbying reversed it. After massive Arab violence in 1936–39, Britain issued the 1939 White Paper restricting Jewish immigration to 75 000 over five years—just as Europe’s Jews faced annihilation. This betrayal deepened Jewish distrust and doomed many who might have escaped the Holocaust.

3.4 Arab Revolt (1936–39)

The Arab Revolt, directed by al-Husseini, combined strikes and guerrilla attacks not only on British forces and Jews but also on rival Arabs. British suppression was brutal; around 5 000 Arabs died, mostly victims of inter-Arab violence. The revolt destroyed the moderate leadership that might later have negotiated peace.

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4. The Road to Statehood

4.1 World War II and the Holocaust

During the war, Jewish underground forces in Palestine formed the Haganah (defence), Irgun, and Lehi groups. The Yishuv contributed soldiers to the British army while also organising illegal immigration (Aliyah Bet) to rescue European Jews. The Holocaust—six million murdered for being Jewish—confirmed the necessity of a sovereign refuge.

4.2 The UN Partition Plan

Post-war Britain, exhausted and facing international pressure, referred the Palestine question to the United Nations. In November 1947 the UN General Assembly voted 33–13 for Resolution 181, partitioning the land into Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem internationalised. The Jewish Agency accepted the plan despite difficult borders; the Arab Higher Committee and all Arab states rejected it outright, vowing to destroy any Jewish state by force.

4.3 Civil War (1947–48)

Following the UN vote, Arab militias attacked Jewish communities and supply routes. The Haganah, initially defensive, gradually gained the upper hand. As the British withdrew, Jewish leaders proclaimed independence on 14 May 1948.

4.4 Arab Invasion and Israel’s Birth

Within hours, five Arab armies invaded. Despite inferior numbers and weaponry, the new State of Israel survived. Approximately 6 000 Israelis—1 percent of the population—were killed. Around 700 000 Arabs fled or were expelled during the fighting, while 850 000 Jews were driven from Arab lands over the next few years. Israel absorbed its refugees; Arab states, apart from Jordan, kept theirs stateless to preserve a grievance.

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5. Summary of the Foundational Period

By 1948 Israel’s creation represented not colonial conquest but national self-determination after millennia of exile and persecution. Its legitimacy rested on international law (the Mandate, UN Resolution 181) and the moral authority born from Jewish survival. Early conflicts stemmed less from anything Israel did than from Arab refusal to coexist with a non-Arab, non-Muslim polity in the region.

The young state inherited no natural resources, was surrounded by enemies, and yet established democratic institutions within days of independence. The frameworks of self-defence, legal restraint, and humanitarian concern that define the IDF and Israeli society today trace back to this formative era—when survival and ethics had to coexist from the outset.