As Israel declares war on terror, here's history of how it was created

Israel was created as a state after the signing of the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, after Britain publicly pledged to establish 'A national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine. Considered as one of the most controversial documents in the Arab world, the Balfour Declaration, came into effect as the Israeli forces inflicted the defeat on the Palestinian militias and Arab armies in a bloody conflict that turned an estimated 700,000 Palestinian civilians into refugees.

A United Nations partition led to the establishment of 56 per cent of British Palestine as a Jewish state. As the fiery war concluded, Israel possessed 77 per cent of the territory, that excluded the West Bank and the eastern parts of Jerusalem then controlled by Jordan. At the time, the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt. While the war that was won by Israel led to the creation of the Israeli state, it did not give away the land to the Palestinians. After the British mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, for the proclamation of the State of Israel.

In a historic declaration on 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independence of the new State of Israel, a land for the Jews who suffered racism, and prejudice for decades in Europe during World War II. After the state was proclaimed, several Arab states launched an offensive to evict the Jews from the territory that they viewed as Palestinian. Israel’s military, however, won and emerged victorious claiming their land. Many Arab inhabitants fled in a mass exodus from the country, while approximately 600,000 Jews left Europe for Israel. Some Arabs stayed back.

The first Congress convened in the newly established Israeli state in 5657 (1897) on the summons of the then spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl. He proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national birth in their state. This right is recognised in the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on November 29, 1947, adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel. This very recognition of the UN recognising the rights of the Jewish people and their statehood is ‘irrevocable’.

Here are the contents of the UN Resolution that recognised Israeli state as sovereign:

“ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.

WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (May 15, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State following the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than October 1, 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called ‘Israel’.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”