Israel

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Iran

Israel

West Bank

Gaza Strip

Golan Heights

Capital of Israel: Jerusalem

Jerusalem:

Wailing Wall or Western Wall

Dead Sea

Israel is the holy land for three of the world’s religions

• Judaism

• Islam

• Christianity

Mandate of Palestine (1920-1948)After WW I, the League of Nations granted

authority over Palestine to Britain

In 1947, British renounced the Mandate.

United Nations partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states

Jerusalem is put under international control

1948-1949

• Despite Arab rejection, Israel declares its independence, May 14, 1948

• 1948 Arab-Israeli War (the partition is never implemented)

• The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

• The agreements ended the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and established armistice lines between Israel and the West Bank

• The Arab governments at this point refused to set up a State of Palestine.

1949 Armistice Agreements

Population Movements, After 1948

• Jews from Arab lands: 856,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Approximately 600,000 resettled in Israel.

• Palestinians from Jewish lands: between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel but could not settle in the neighboring Arab states and became what is known today as the Palestinian refugees.

Israel captured:• West Bank (including

East Jerusalem) from Jordan

• Gaza and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt

• Golan Heights from Syria

June 1967:Six Day War

Palestine

• 1988: the State of Palestine was formally recognized by 117 United Nations member states.

• 2005: Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip