Wikimedia Commons public domain Wikimedia Commons – public domain CIA World Factbook – public domain.Īfter the Arabs lost the first war against the Jewish State of Israel, the Palestinians’ problems increased. With support and aid from Britain and the United States, the Jewish State of Israel defeated the attacking Arab armies and took control of a larger portion of the land, including some of the land designated by the UN as a portion of the Arab half. The war did not end favorably for the Arabs. Palestine’s Arab neighbors-Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt-sided with the Arab Palestinians and declared war on Israel. These Palestinians became refugees in the Palestinian portion or in neighboring countries. One of the consequences of the territorial partition was that thousands of Palestinian Arabs were forced off the land that was allocated to the Jewish state. The Palestinians, who were a majority of Israel’s total population at the time and who owned about 90 percent of the land, denounced the agreement as unacceptable (Knowledgerush). The Jewish State of Israel was officially recognized in 1948. The city of Jerusalem was to remain under the administrative control of the UN as an international city. The country of Jordan was created out of the region east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. Approximately 56 percent of the territory was allocated to the minority Jewish population, who only consisted of about 33 percent of the population. About 44 percent of the territory was allocated to the Palestinians, who consisted of about 67 percent of the population, which was mainly Arab. To address the Palestine region, UNSCOP recommended that Palestine be divided into an Arab state, a Jewish state, and an international territory that included Jerusalem. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created by the UN in 1947. Palestine was turned over to the control of the newly created United Nations (UN) in 1945 at the end of World War II. Jewish people from other countries-including primarily Jews escaping German oppression in the 1930s-migrated to the Israeli settlements. The Jewish settlements were mainly along the west coast and in the north. In 1922, Jews made up less than 20 percent of the population. The British Mandate included Palestine and Transjordan, the area east of the Jordan River, which includes the current country of Jordan.īetween 19, during British control, most of the population of Palestine was ethnically Arab and followed Islam. Britain supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored a Jewish homeland. The British government was granted control of Palestine by the mandate of the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 at the end of World War I. Britain defeated Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Palestine for the remainder of the war. ![]() ![]() Palestine was a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire before the end of World War I. Most Jewish people were dispersed throughout the world, with the majority in Europe and the United States. Before 1948, most people in Palestine were called Palestinians and consisted primarily of Arab Muslims, Samaritans, Bedouins, and Jews. The region went through a series of tumultuous transitions before it became the nation of Israel. Before that time, the country was called Palestine. Though most of the population in the Middle East is Islamic, there are exceptions, such as in Israel, which has a Jewish majority. Israel does not have substantial oil resources but has a potential for natural gas in offshore locations along the Mediterranean Sea. South of the Negev Desert is the Gulf of Aqaba, which provides access to the Red Sea for both Israel and Jordan. Over time, salts and minerals have built up, creating an environment that does not support fish or aquatic life. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level, so it has no outlet. The Jordan River flows from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Kinneret or the Sea of Tiberias, is a major fresh water supply. The coastal region, which has a moderate type C climate, receives more rainfall than the dry interior and the Negev Desert in the south, both of which have arid type B climates. Covering an area of only 8,522 square miles, Israel is smaller than the US state of Massachusetts and only one-fifth the size of the state of Kentucky. ![]() Israel is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria and Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the south. At the center of the Middle East, on the shores of the Mediterranean in the Levant (the area bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea), lies the country of Israel.
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