Early history
The first residents of Palestine, the Canaanites, already lived in the 3rd millennium BC. in this region. Their religion had a significant influence on the Jewish faith and thus on both Christianity and Islam. When Egyptian domination in Palestine in the 14th century BC. came to an end, Israelite tribes immigrated in several waves, Moses united them in the belief in Yahweh. A religious-political protection association of the twelve tribes was created and the Canaanites were founded around 1125 BC. defeated. The first state was formed in 1000 BC. by Saul, who united the Israelite tribes from Galilee, Central Palestine and the East Bank and defeated the neighboring Philistine and Ammonite tribes. A mighty empire with the capital Jerusalem came into being and reached under King Solomon, son of David, its climax. After his death, the empire fell into southern and northern domains. In 772 the Assyrians destroyed the northern empire and deported the Israelites living there. In 586, under Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the capital of the southern empire, and abducted a large part of the population to Babylon. However, these were allowed to preserve their national and religious identity and so some of the most important theological writings and many historical books of the Old Testament were written during this exile.and dragged a large part of the population to Babylon. However, these were allowed to preserve their national and religious identity and so some of the most important theological writings and many historical books of the Old Testament were written during this exile.and dragged a large part of the population to Babylon. However, 539 BC Cyrus conquered Babylonia and the Jews could return to Palestine. Jerusalem was rebuilt, and the Torah emerged as a written set of rules for questions of social and religious coexistence. Persian domination broke in 333 BC, but the Jews refused to adopt Hellenistic culture and religion. Eventually Pompeius conquered Palestine and made it a Roman province ruled by Jewish kings.
- COUNTRYAAH: See current national flag of Israel. Download high definition image, and learn flag meanings as well as the history of Israel flags.
Turn of the times
During the time of King Herod, around 3 BC. Jesus born.
AD 313 The Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity and Christianization began. According to AbbreviationFinder, Roman domination in Palestine ends in 638 when it was conquered by the Arabs. A 1,300 year Muslim domination began, with Jerusalem as a sacred place for both the Jewish, Muslim and Christian world religions. The Jews had extensive freedom of belief and in the ensuing period under Muslim rule, a golden age for science, art, philosophy and literature dawned, in which the knowledge that rediscovered Europe in the Renaissance was preserved.
19th and first half of the 20th century
With the advent of increased nationalism in 19th century Europe, the immediate prehistory of the State of Israel began. The widespread anti-Semitism in the 1980s caused the first European Jews to flow into the “promised land” of Palestine. Theodor Herzl founded the World Association of Zionists in 1897 and Jewish immigration increased significantly. In 1880, the Arab Palestinians made up 95 percent of the population and the immigration movement was observed with skepticism or even disapproval. The conquest of Palestine by the British in 1917 brought about a fundamental change in political conditions. A mandate from the League of Nations conferred on them rule, which from 1922 to 1948 consisted of a balancing act between the increasingly irreconcilable Jewish and Palestinian communities. The Zionists demanded large-scale Jewish immigration and their own state, while the Palestinians denied Britain the right to promise their country to third parties and feared expropriation by the Zionists. There were anti-Zionist attacks in Palestine, but the Nazi regime in Germany intensified the immigration pressure. In 1935 alone, more than 62,000 Jews came to Palestine. Arab fear of beginning Jewish domination led to revolts in the 1930s that prompted Britain to restrict Jewish immigration and land purchases. This only changedwhen after the war the gruesome mass extermination of Jews became known and sympathy for the concerns of European Jews and Zionists increased worldwide. However, various British proposals on what a solution to the Palestine problem could look like were rejected. As a result, Great Britain returned its mandate to the UN in 1947. A test of strength seemed inevitable. 1.3 million Palestinians faced 600,000 Jews. The semi-autonomous government under David Ben-Gurion had trained a disciplined and powerful militia, the Haganah. The Palestinians, on the other hand, were poorly organized. When the United Nations proposed a concrete division of Palestine in November 1947, the Jews accepted it, but the Palestinians rejected it, which resulted in a war, that went out to the disadvantage of the Palestinians.
State establishment
The state of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. Immediately afterwards came the 1st Israeli-Arab War, in which Israel asserted itself against five attacking Arab countries. The result was the flight and displacement of an estimated 850,000 Palestinians, and large refugee camps were set up in neighboring Arab countries. Tensions did not diminish, followed by the Suez War in 1956 and the Six Day War in 1967, which resulted in the occupation of the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights by Israel. In October 1973, the Yom Kippur was fought with Egypt and Syria brought Israel into distress, a strip on the Suez Canal went to Egypt after negotiations, and Syria regained the Kuneitra region on the Golan Heights.A guerrilla was with the Palestinian Liberation Organization under Arafat began, which was carried out with extreme severity on both sides. With his trip to Jerusalem, the Egyptian President Sadat initiated a peace initiative in 1977, which led to the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty of 1979 at Camp David and the withdrawal of the Israelis from the Sinai Peninsula (April 1982). It was agreed to start negotiations on the autonomy of the Palestinian Arabs. At the end of July 1980, the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) declared all of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. At the same time, troops marched into southern Lebanon to stop the continued Palestinian attacks from there.
- HomoSociety: introduces social conditions of Israel, including labor market, insurance, healthcare, gender equality and population information.
Development since 1990
The first Israeli-Arab peace negotiations finally started in 1991. Although Israel continued its active settlement policy in the occupied territories, the Rabin center-left coalition together with President Weizman sought solutions under the motto “Land for Peace”. The negotiations resulted in agreements between Israel and the PLO that, in two stages in 1993 and 1995, resulted in almost all Palestinian cities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip being transferred to Palestinian administration. The murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 by an Israeli extremist stalled the process. With the victory of the Likud block under Netanyahu, a center-right coalition came to power, which tried to modify the Israeli-Palestinian agreements and thereby came into strong conflict with the PLO. Construction projects in the Palestinian area of Jerusalem exacerbated the situation and it was not until the agreement between Arafat and Netanyahu signed in Wye, Maryland at the end of 1998, that there was a prospect of a comprehensive peace agreement, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from another 13% of the West Bank. By the end of 1998, only 2% of the area had been cleared. On September 8, 1999, Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s newly elected government approved the start of troop withdrawals from other parts of the occupied West Bank; in a first stage, a further 7% of this area was handed over to the Palestinian Authority. the withdrawal of Israeli troops from a further 11% of the West Bank should take place in three phases by January 2000. Delays, however, triggered further unrest in the Palestinian Territories,
After the visit of the Israeli conservative Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in August 2000, there were bloody clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, which expanded to a second intifada (Al-Aksa-Intifada) on the Palestinian side. The second intifada was characterized by a much higher level of violence, which was shown, for example, in grenade attacks on Jewish settlements and in numerous suicide bombings. With the election of Likud Chairman Sharon in January 2001 as Israel’s new head of government, the peace process suffered a further setback. Violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories escalated again. Sharon no longer accepted Arafat as a negotiating partner because he made him responsible for the escalation of violence. Israel intensified attacks on the Palestinian Authority, especially in the Gaza Strip. These attacks were justified as retaliatory or preventive measures for Palestinian grenade attacks on Israeli settlements and the increasing suicide bombings by Palestinians against Israelis. From July 2001, Israel launched targeted attacks on organizations such as Hamas and Al Fatah, as well as suspected Palestinian activists and terrorists. Subsequently, periods of violence and short periods of rest alternated. From July 2001, Israel launched targeted attacks on organizations such as Hamas and Al Fatah, as well as suspected Palestinian activists and terrorists. Subsequently, periods of violence and short periods of rest alternated. From July 2001, Israel launched targeted attacks on organizations such as Hamas and Al Fatah, as well as suspected Palestinian activists and terrorists. Subsequently,
In June 2002, Israel began building a 100-kilometer protective fence in the West Bank to prevent the intrusion of Palestinian terrorists. The course of the fence injured Palestinian territory. The infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority was destroyed by the Israeli army and Arafat was arrested in Ramallah. The international community tried to resolve the conflict. In May 2003, for the first time in its history, Israel approved an international peace plan (“Road Map”) that would allow the Palestinians to have their own independent state. According to the EU, Russia, USA and the United Nations (so-called
Nevertheless, there was no tearing of the attacks on both sides in sight: in addition to numerous civilian casualties, the founder and religious leader of the Islamic-Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Jassin, also died in a missile attack in March 2004. In April 2004, Sharon announced that he was only planning to partially withdraw from the Occupied Territories; the Middle East conflict intensified again. President Bush’s support for Sharon’s plan has been widely criticized worldwide. In February 2005, Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the successor to the late Arafat, signed an armistice.In August 2005, the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were finally cleared, while plans for expanding the settlements in the West Bank were announced. In fact, there are currently two Palestinian territories: Gaza is controlled by Hamas and the West Bank is in the hands of Al Fatah. Despite various ceasefires, the Israeli and Palestinian sides repeatedly carry out air strikes.
In early 2006, Ehud Olmert, chairman of the Kadima, succeeded Sharon in the office of the Israeli head of government. In the summer of the same year, the Lebanon was broke out: Lebanese Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in July, which led to a military operation by Israel with air strikes on Hezbollah positions in Beirut and southern Lebanon, and ultimately a ground offensive. Hundreds, including numerous civilians, were killed on both sides; mass exodus started in Lebanon. The ceasefire required by UN Resolution 1701 entered into force in mid-August. After the Lebanon was, Olmert was accused, among other things, of a lack of leadership and failures in civil protection. He was also investigated for corruption and illegal party donations. In September 2008, he finally resigned as Prime Minister; until the early elections in February 2009, he stayed in office. After the elections, Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) formed a government. In the summer of 2011, hundreds of thousands protested against rising living costs and the lack of affordable housing.