What was Israel before its declaration of independence in 1948?

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Pragun

If you are interested in tracing the origin of Israel as the land of Jews, you will have to start looking from the time Romans occupied Israel. After Romans, the land was occupied by Turks who captured many countries and lands in middle east, north africa and Europe.

Most of the states that you see in the Middle East and North Africa were part of the Ottoman Empire prior to World War I. After allies had won the war against Ottoman Empire, it was broken up and territories were divided between France and Britain. The present day Israel fell under the British Mandate of Palestine.

John E

My dear Willamette, before the British the Turks and the Romans the place was called Παλαιστίνη (transl. Palestine) and it belonged to the Arab people that used to live on that land.
Originally was a Greek Commercial Port station according to the philosopher Herodotus
Greetings

Local Machine

I believe it was called "The holy Land"
Not anymore, I am afraid.
Land for Peace is not the name too.
Any other guesses?

Bahira

For the previous twenty years it was a part of the British Mandate for Palestine,before that a province of the Ottoman Empire. But Palestine's history is documentable from non-biblical sources as far back as 500 B.C. and the region now calling itself "Israel" was for at least 2500 years known as Palestine,a region of Greater Syria,with the rgional capital in Damascus. There is no evidence for any ancient "Israel". It did not exist until Andrie Gromyko as the Soviet ambassador to the UN recommended partition of Palestine to create a so-called "Jewish" state on May 14,1947. It is the epitome of an artifical state. Very much like the U.S.S.R. which lasted 70 years,and we may expect this one to last as long.

Maya

It consisted of the Jewish Agency,which was organized during the Mandate to represent to British Mandate authorities the Jewish immigrants,most of them very recent arrivals in the region. The present government is formally regarded by the UN as the legal predessesor of the Jewish Agency. It is rather as though the American Hebrew Immigration Aid Society just up and declared itself the government of America.

zion no more

It was nothing; it didn't exist; it was just a made up name.

It was chosen as part of the zionist script. Apart of their role play. They took the name of the ancient kingdom Israel; which was founded and built by the ancestors of the Palestinians; and populated it with people of European ethnicity.

naserq22

here is one site that you may find few answers to questions you have
http://palestinecause.com/the-case/

Bob Joke

British Mandate of Palestine

Galahad

The current government was until then merely a self-help group known as the Jewish Agency.

αησηумσυѕ ωιтн тнє тяυтн فلسطين

It was, always has been, always will be Palestine.

we have had some invaders, from the greeks, to the english, and now the zionist jews.

momw

Israel was Palestine before it was given to the Jews by countries trying to atone for what the germans did to them.

Kitkat

Great Britain was occupying Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, since about 1917. After the turks lost world war 1.

Jack Jones

Ok. Israel has always been Israel. When the Greeks invaded Israel they called it Palestine to remove any Jewish culture from it. So for some time it was called Palestine (and still sometimes is).

The thing is, it was always been Israel. It has never been a land who has interested anybody but the Jews until 1948. In fact, the german academy defined before the Jewish migration as "desolate and roamed through by Arab bands of robbers." and now it is what it is, a great nation. Look, I'm not Jewish, but I admit, they are truly admirable

The angels have the Arc Light.

When Tequila says 'many years', she means several hundred. :-)

Throughout the Ottoman era (which began circa 1299), the region was sparsely populated with few fixed settlements. There were Jews, Bedouin, Druze and Arabs. Contrary to the current claims, there isn't a distinct 'Palestinian' ethnicity. The Arabs living in the region that later became the Mandate of Palestine were ethnically a sort of pan-Arabic common through much of the larger region. The 'Palestinian Arab' designation only means that the person is Arabic and either lived in the region between 1922 and 1947 or their parents or grandparents did. The Jews who lived there were referred to as 'Palestinian Jews'.

The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of WWI and its vast territory was carved up by the UK and France. The UK region was named the Mandate of Palestine, referencing the UK's mandate to govern it.

They promptly relinquished 7/8ths of the Mandate, which became Transjordan, an Arab state.

Thirty years later, they decide to leave the region altogether. The UN proposed a partition, making 1/2 of the remaining land a Jewish state and the other 1/2 a second Arab state.

Read that over again, it's a very important point that often gets overlooked.

It was the League of Arab Nations who refused the 2nd state. They invaded Israel the day after it was created and lost. Many of the Arabs listened to their instructions to flee and were put into refugee camps in Egypt (Gaza) and Transjordan (West Bank). Those who didn't became full Israeli citizens.

If you want to understand the history, reading up on the Ottoman Empire is a good place to start because it will give you a sense of what the region was like. Just keep in mind that the Empire was centred in Turkey and Israel was a remote backwater.

If you're interested in the origins of the name 'Palestine', read up on the Bar Kochba Revolt (circa 134 CE). The new name that the irrate Romans imposed on Judea wasn't Arabic or Semitic at all, the Philistines were an ancient Aegean/Cypriot people.

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was approved at a festive session of the People’s Council, comprised of representatives of the yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) and the Zionist movement, on Friday, May 14, 1948, several hours before the British Mandate for Palestine came to an end.

The Declaration consists of seven sections, and stipulates six matters:

It asserts the natural right of the Jewish people to be like all other peoples, exercising self-determination in its sovereign state.

It proclaims the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, named "the State of Israel."

It establishes provisional institutions of state governance: the Provisional Council of State and the Provisional Government.

It states that an elected constituent assembly will formulate a constitution within several months.

It sets forth the principles of the political rule of the newly formed state.

It calls for peace and cooperation with the Arabs of Israel, the neighboring countries and their peoples, the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora, and the United Nations Organization.

Fascimile of the Declaration of Independence (Hebrew) - 283 KB

......... further reading pl go to the link below

Ringo

it was a smelly middle eastern country. Israel is the only piece of land that is worth anything in the middle east. Those countries hate the jews cause they are jealous. They just don't have the style and pazzaz. They lack the social graces that normal human beings have

Tequila

Israel's history goes back thousands of years. http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_68_-_Timeline_From_Abraham_to_the_Founding_of_the_State_of_Israel.asp
During the period of the Roman emperors, the majority of the Jews were taken captive and exiled from Jerusalem and the Land. Some Jews managed to flee within the country and established farming communities which survived until recently. (To this day, there are Jewish families that can trace an unbroken chain of generations back in time to before the Roman exile. ) The Romans called the country "Palaestina" in order to insult the Jews, as this name denoted the Philistines, a group of invaders (now extinct) in the region.
For many years until 1920, the Land of Israel was ruled by the Ottoman Turkish empire. (Under the Turks, Jews began to return and established certain communities, such as the city of Tzfat.)
After the Ottomans were conquered and their empire collapsed, the League of Nations granted the British a Mandate over the region, calling it "Palestine". http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_overview.php
(This mandate is the "leverage" to which you refer. ) The same region was alternately known as southern Syria. http://www.danielpipes.org/article/174
Aside from the Jews, no nation ever settled exclusively in the country of Israel. No state existed there, but rather, foreign conquerors came and went. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate.php
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence.php
Despite the mandate under which the region was held for the future establishment of a Jewish state, the British actually divided up the land. Two states were created. The larger parcel of land was given over to the Arabs to create TransJordan (today, the Kingdom Jordan). The remaining smaller subdivision was given to the Jews for the creation of the State of Israel.

Addendum: "The Angels ...Phonebox" provided an excellent response below.

Shay p

Israel was always Israel, it was occupied by others for a long time, now it's our land again.

The History of Israel can be traced back using the Old Testament. In the Old Testament Israel is called Judea and the ‘Promised Land’ a land of the Jews for the Jews, the predecessors of Abraham.

OK
Evidence of a Jewish presence in Israel dates back 3,400 years, to the formation of the religion. The name "Jews" derives from their origin in Judah. Over the course of this long history, the Jews have several times been dispersed and then returned from exile, buttressed by the power and influence of their holy book, The Tanakh (the Old Testament).

In 66 CE the Jews broke free of Rome (The Jewish-Roman wars), naming their new kingdom, Israel (to distinguish it from Roman-controlled Judah). The revolt was defeated and Jerusalem destroyed by Titus in the year 70 CE. A second Jewish revolt in 135 CE also renamed the country "Israel," and its defeat led to the renaming of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. Jews were barred from living there and the Roman province, Judah, became known as Palaestina; no other revolt led to a province being renamed. The names "Palestine" (in English) and "Filistin" (in Arabic) derive from this Latin name. Despite persecution key religious texts were compiled in Israel between 200 CE and 500 CE, including the Mishnah (200 CE), the Gemara (400 CE) and the Talmud (500 CE).

Jews always regarded the Land of Israel as their spiritual home and Promised Land and maintained a constant presence in the country.

The name Palestine fell out of use under the Crusaders, who called the kingdoms they established there "Outremer" (overseas). During the Crusades, Jews in Israel were massacred, burnt alive or sold into slavery. The murder of Jews began during the Crusaders' travels across Europe and continued in the Holy Land. From 1260 - 1300 Israel became the frontier between Mongol invaders (who were Crusader allies) and the Mamluks of Egypt. The conflict impoverished the area and severely reduced its population. Sultan Baybars of Egypt eventually expelled the Crusaders and Mongols.

The collapse of the Crusades was followed by the expulsion of Jews from England (1290) and later France (1391). Muslim defeats led to expulsions from Austria (1421), Spain (the Alhambra decree 1492) and Portugal (1497). Each expulsion and wave of religious persecution led to movement of Jews to Israel.

Under the Ottomans (1517—1917) and the other Muslim states, the area was part of the province of Syria.

When the British conquered the area in 1917, they named it "Palestine" and defined the boundaries.

By the 19th century, the Land of Israel was a part of the Ottoman Empire populated mostly by Muslim and Christian Arabs, as well as Jews, Greeks, Druze, Bedouins and other minorities. In 1844, Jews constituted the largest population group in Jerusalem and by 1890 an absolute majority in the city, although as a whole the Jewish population made up far less than 10% of the total.

Zion no more (what a silly name)
You are venting your personal frustrations

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