Editing Homeland for the Jewish people

{{Short description|Idea rooted in Jewish history, religion and culture}}
{{For|the ongoing debate as to the nature of the State of Israel|Jewish state}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
[[File:ExodusSh2.jpg|thumb|350px|Jews, largely [[Holocaust survivors]], on their way from France to [[Mandatory Palestine]], aboard the [[SS Exodus|SS ''Exodus'']]]]
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar|politics}}
{{Aliyah}}
The Jewish aspiration to [[return to Zion]], generally associated with divine redemption, has suffused Jewish religious thought since the [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)#Aftermath|destruction of the First Temple]] and the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian exile]].<ref name=Berlin2011>{{cite book |last=Berlin |first=Adele |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKAaJXvUaUoC&pg=PA813 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |page=813 |isbn=978-0-19-973004-9}}</ref>

==History (1881–1916)==
{{Further|Zionism|Israel#Modern period and the emergence of Zionism}}
[[File:DE Herzl Judenstaat 01.jpg|thumb|150px|The book ''Der Judenstaat'' (''The Jewish State'', 1896) by [[Theodor Herzl]]]]

The first wave of modern Jewish migration to [[Southern Syria|Ottoman-ruled Palestine]], known as the [[First Aliyah]], began in 1881, as Jews fled [[Pogrom#Pogroms against Jews|pogroms]] in Eastern Europe.<ref name=Halpern1998>{{Cite book |last=Halpern |first=Ben |title=Zionism and the creation of a new society |url=https://archive.org/details/zionismcreationn00halp |url-access=limited |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Reinharz, Jehuda |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-585-18273-5 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/zionismcreationn00halp/page/n61 53]–54 |oclc=44960036}}</ref> Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice, [[Austro-Hungarian]] journalist [[Theodor Herzl]] is credited with founding political [[Zionism]],<ref name=Kornberg1993>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Kornberg|1993}} "How did Theodor Herzl, an assimilated German nationalist in the 1880s, suddenly in the 1890s become the founder of Zionism?"</ref> a movement that sought to establish a [[Jewish state]] in Palestine, thus offering a solution to the so-called [[Jewish question]] of the European states, in conformity with the goals and achievements of other national projects of the time.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Herzl|1946|p=11}}</ref>

In 1896, Theodor Herzl set out his vision of a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people in his book {{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}} (''The Jewish State'').<ref name=Herzl1896>{{cite book |last1=Herzl |first1=Theodor |author-link1=Theodor Herzl |others=transl. Sylvie d'Avigdor |title=Der Judenstaat |trans-title=The Jewish state |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3f4RFWkMeWoC |access-date=28 September 2010 |edition=republication |year=1988 |orig-year=1896 |publisher=Courier Dover |location=New York |isbn=978-0-486-25849-2 |page=40 |chapter=Biography, by Alex Bein |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3f4RFWkMeWoC&pg=PA40}}</ref><ref name=jewishagency>{{cite web |title=Chapter One |url=http://www.jewishagency.org/israel/content/23396 |website=The Jewish Agency for Israel1 |access-date=21 September 2015 |date=21 July 2005 |archive-date=10 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210124104/http://www.jewishagency.org/israel/content/23396}}</ref> The following year he presided over the [[First Zionist Congress]] in [[Basel]], at which the [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]] was founded.<ref name=knesset>[https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/wzo_eng.htm The World Zionist Organization]</ref>

The draft of the objective of the modern Zionist movement submitted to the First Zionist Congress of the Zionist Organization in 1897 read: "Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine<!-- DO NOT MODIFY, The quote says 'Palestine'. --> secured by law." One delegate sought to replace "by law" with "by international law",<ref name=Jubilee>{{cite book |url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072101/00001/70j |title=The Jubilee of the first Zionist Congress, 1897–1947 |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Executive of the Zionist Organization |year=1947 |pages=108 pages, 2 leaves of plates |author=Jubilee Publication}} Published simultaneously in Hebrew, French, Spanish and Yiddish.</ref> which was opposed by others. A compromise formula was adopted, which came to be known as the [[Basel Program]], and read:
:Zionism seeks to establish a home in Palestine for the Jewish people, secured under public law.<ref>"Der Zionismus erstrebt für das jüdische Volk die Schaffung einer öffentlich-rechtlich gesicherten Heimstätte in Palästina." The original proposal had "rechtlich" rather than "öffentlich-rechtlich" but was altered during the Congress.</ref>

The [[Second Aliyah]] (1904–14) began after the [[Kishinev pogrom]]; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them left eventually. Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly [[Orthodox Jews]],<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Stein|2003|p=88}}. "As with the First Aliyah, most Second Aliyah migrants were non-Zionist orthodox Jews&nbsp;..."</ref> although the Second Aliyah included [[Labor Zionism|socialist]] groups who established the ''[[kibbutz]]'' movement.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Romano|2003|p=30}}</ref> Though the immigrants of the Second Aliyah largely sought to create communal agricultural settlements, the period saw the establishment of [[Tel Aviv]] as the first planned Jewish town in 1909. This period also saw the emergence of Jewish armed militias, the first being [[Bar-Giora (organization)|Bar-Giora]], a guard founded in 1907. Two years later, the larger [[Hashomer]] organization was founded as its replacement.

The [[Sykes–Picot Agreement]] of 16 May 1916 set aside the region of Palestine for "international administration" under British control.<ref name=SPA1916>{{cite web |url=http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement |title=Sykes-Picot Agreement |access-date=21 May 2016}}</ref> The first official use of the phrase "national home for the Jewish people" was in the [[Balfour Declaration]].<ref name="BarzilayYegar">{{cite book |last=Barzilay-Yegar |first=Dvorah |author-link=Dvorah Barzilay-Yegar |title=A National Home for the Jewish People: The Concept in British Political Thinking and Policy Making 1917-1923 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z232MAAACAAJ |date=4 May 2017 |publisher=Vallentine Mitchell |isbn=978-1-910383-32-2}}</ref> The phrase "national home" was intentionally used instead of "state" because of opposition to the Zionist program within the British Cabinet. The initial draft of the declaration referred to the principle ''"that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish people."''<ref name=Stein1961>{{cite book |last=Stein |first=Leonard |title=The Balfour Declaration |year=1961 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |pages=470}}</ref>

==History (1917–1948)==
{{Further|Israel#British Mandate}}
{{external media 
| width  = 210px
| video1 = [http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/PALESTINE-OUTBURST-FOLLOWS-UN-VOTE/988cabe6467a465a938ccc36076f574f "Palestine Outburst Follows UN Vote"], [[British Movietone News]], December 8, 1947. [https://conifer.rhizome.org/Germinal/wikipedia/20180529032011/https://www.aparchive.com/metadata/PALESTINE-OUTBURST-FOLLOWS-UN-VOTE/988cabe6467a465a938ccc36076f574f]{{cbignore}}
}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2023}}
With the 1917 [[Balfour Declaration]], the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] became the first world power to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a "national home for the Jewish people."

In 1919 [[Harry Sacher]] wrote "A Jewish Palestine the Jewish case for a British trusteeship. In 1919 the general secretary (and future President) of the Zionist Organization, [[Nahum Sokolow]], published a ''History of Zionism (1600–1918)''. In this book, he explained:
<blockquote>"... It has been said, and is still being obstinately repeated by anti-Zionists again and again, that Zionism aims at the creation of an independent "Jewish State". But this is wholly fallacious. The "Jewish State" was never part of the Zionist programme. The "Jewish State" was the title of Herzl's first pamphlet, which had the supreme merit of forcing people to think. This pamphlet was followed by the first Zionist Congress, which accepted the Basle programme—the only programme in existence."<ref name=Sokolow1919>{{cite book|last1=Sokolow|first1=Nahum|author-link1=Nahum Sokolow|title=History of Zionism (1600–1918)|volume=I|pages=xxiv-xxv|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company|location=London|year=1919|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofzionism02sokouoft}}</ref></blockquote>

At the [[San Remo conference]] of 19–26 April 1920, the principal [[Allies of World War I|Allied and Associated Powers]] mandated the creation of a Jewish homeland.<ref name=Gauthier2007>Sovereignty over the old city of Jerusalem: a study of the historical, religious, political and legal aspects of the question of the old city: Gauthier, Jacques Paul – Genève : Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, 2007. 1142 pp.</ref> Britain officially committed itself to the objective set out in the Balfour Declaration by insisting on its forming the basis of the [[Mandate for Palestine]], which was formally approved by the [[League of Nations]] in June 1922. The preamble of the Mandate declared:
<blockquote>Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country....<ref name=Avalon>{{cite web|author=The Council of the League of Nations|title=The Palestine Mandate|website=The Avalon Project|publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library|location=New Haven, Connecticut|year=2008|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp|access-date=24 October 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

A statement on "British Policy in Palestine," issued on 3 June 1922 by the Colonial Office, placed a restrictive construction upon the Balfour Declaration. The statement excluded "the disappearance or subordination of the Arabic population, language or customs in Palestine" or "the imposition of Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole", and made it clear that in the eyes of the mandatory Power, the Jewish National Home was to be founded in Palestine and not that Palestine as a whole was to be converted into a Jewish National Home. The Committee noted that the construction, which restricted considerably the scope of the National Home, was made prior to the confirmation of the Mandate by the Council of the League of Nations and was formally accepted at the time by the Executive of the Zionist Organization.<ref>See the report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, UN Document A/364, 3 September 1947</ref> The Partition Resolution of the UN General Assembly died at birth when rejected by the Arabs. The UNGA has only the power to recommend.

On 29 September 1923, the British government became responsible for the administration of [[Mandatory Palestine]]. Along with its longstanding control of the [[Persian Gulf Residency]] and the [[Aden Protectorate]], and its recently-acquired control of the [[Emirate of Transjordan]] and of [[Mandatory Iraq]], the British now controlled all of the territories in the Middle East except the [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon]].

In 1942, the [[Biltmore Conference|Biltmore Program]] was adopted as the platform of the Zionist Organization, with an explicit call "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." In 1946, the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]], also known as the [[Grady-Morrison Committee]], noted that the demand for a Jewish State went beyond the obligations of either the Balfour Declaration or the Mandate and had been expressly disowned by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency as recently as 1932.<ref>See Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry – Chapter V, the Jewish Attitude, [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angch05.asp]</ref>

The period of the British Mandate was characterized by a great deal of [[Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine|political and social unrest]] among the Jews, the Palestinian Arabs, and the British (for example, the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|1936–1939 Arab revolt]], the [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|1944–1948 Jewish insurgency]], and the [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine]]).

The [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]] was passed on 29 November 1947. The plan was accepted by the [[Jewish_Agency_for_Israel#Jewish_Agency_for_Palestine_1929–1948|Jewish Agency for Palestine]] but was rejected by the [[Arab Higher Committee]] and by most of the Arab population. The [[Arab League]] then adopted a series of resolutions endorsing a military solution to the conflict.

==Founding of the State of Israel==
The State of Israel was finally established on 14 May 1948 with the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]].<ref name=IDOI>{{Cite web |title=The Declaration Scroll |publisher=[[Independence Hall (Israel)|Independence Hall of Israel]] |location=Tel Aviv |year=2013 |url=http://eng.ihi.org.il/history/the-declaration-scroll.aspx |access-date=2023-10-19}}</ref>

The concept of a national homeland for the Jewish people in the British Mandate of Palestine was enshrined in Israeli national policy and reflected in many of Israel's public and national [[institutions]]. The concept was expressed in the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 and given concrete expression in the [[Law of Return]], passed by the [[Knesset]] on 5 July 1950, which declared: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an [[aliyah|oleh]]."<ref name=jewishvirtuallibrary>{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israel-s-law-of-return |title=Israel's Law of Return |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>{{bsn|date=July 2024}}

===Character of the State of Israel===
{{see also|Jewish state}}
According to a 11 January 2019 article in ''[[Haaretz]]'', Justice [[Esther Hayut]], the President of the [[Supreme Court of Israel|High Court of Justice]], announced that eleven justices would be debating the "legality" of the July 2018 [[Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People]], also known as the Nation-state law, including its "historical stipulations".<ref group="Notes">Israel's [[Justice Ministry (Israel)|Minister of Justice]], [[Ayelet Shaked]], was the advocate and architect of the [[Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People]] which defines the [[State of Israel]] as the [[nation-state]] of the [[Jews|Jewish people]].</ref><ref name="timesofisrael_Wootliff_20180719">{{cite news |last=Wootliff |first=Raoul |title=Israel passes Jewish state law, enshrining 'national home of the Jewish people' |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-votes-contentious-jewish-nation-state-bill-into-law/ |access-date=19 July 2018 |work=The Times of Israel}}</ref><ref name=Kershner2018>{{cite news |last1=Kershner |first1=Isabel |title=Israel Passes Law Anchoring Itself as Nation-State of the Jewish People |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/middleeast/israel-law-jews-arabic.html |work=The New York Times |date=19 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719102342/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/middleeast/israel-law-jews-arabic.html |archive-date=19 July 2018 |access-date=11 January 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="haaretz_20190111">{{Cite news |title=The High Court of Justice Against the Israeli People |work=Haaretz |access-date=11 January 2019 |date=11 January 2019 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-high-court-of-justice-against-the-israeli-people-1.6828933}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group="Notes"}}

==See also==
* [[Proposals for a Jewish state]]
* [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]]
*[[Jewish and democratic state]]
*[[Jewish state]]
* [[Land of Israel]]/ [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]
* [[History of Israel]]/ [[History of the Palestinian people]]
* [[Binational solution]]
* [[Jewish Agency for Israel]]
* [[1947 UN Partition Plan]]
* [[Christian Zionism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book |last=Herzl |first=Theodor |title=The Jewish State |author-link=Theodor Herzl |publisher=American Zionist Emergency Council |year=1946 |isbn=978-0-486-25849-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Kornberg |first=Jacques |title=Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism |isbn=978-0-253-33203-5 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1993}}
* {{cite book |last=Romano |first=Amy |title=A Historical Atlas of Israel |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8239-3978-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalatlaso0000roma_r5h5}}
* {{cite book |last=Stein |first=Leslie |title=The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel |year=2003 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-275-97141-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/hopefulfilledris00lesl}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Shatz, Adam, "We Are Conquerors" (review of [[Tom Segev]], ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion'', Head of Zeus, 2019, 804 pp., {{ISBN|978 1 78954 462 6}}), ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 41, no. 20 (24 October 2019), pp.&nbsp;37–38, 40–42. "Segev's biography... shows how central exclusionary [[nationalism]], [[war]] and [[racism]] were to [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]]'s vision of the [[Jewish homeland]] in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], and how contemptuous he was not only of the [[Arabs]] but of Jewish life outside [[Zion]]. [Liberal Jews] may look at the state that Ben-Gurion built, and ask if the cost has been worth it." (p.&nbsp;42 of Shatz's review.)

==External links==
* [http://www.JewishState.com/ Jewish State.com] Zionism, News, Links
* [http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3443,00.html Israeli Jewish scene] from [[ynetnews]]
* [http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/isrjewstate.htm Israel as a Jewish state] from the [[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]]
* [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3407148,00.html 'Israel a Jewish state first'], says former High Court Justice Dalia Dorner
{{Zionism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homeland for the Jewish People}}
[[Category:Zionism]]
[[Category:Land of Israel]]
[[Category:Jewish nationalism]]
[[Category:Jewish Agency for Israel]]
[[Category:Jewish settlement schemes]]
[[Category:Phrases related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]]