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| Theodor Herzl on an Israeli stamp. |
Although he was not the first man to dream of a Jewish homeland, the birth of Zionism as a recognized movement is often credited to Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) who established the World Zionist Organization. A lawyer by training, Herzl devoted his time to playwriting and journalism. He used his writing skills to persuade Jewish leaders of the viability of his dream of a Jewish nation-state. Two works in particular presented Herzl's vision of a united people and a blueprint of life in the new state: "The Jewish Sate: Attempt at a Modern Solution of the Jewish Questions" (1896) and his utopian novel, "Altneuland" (Old New Land). Herzl established the First Zionist Congress convening two hundred attendees in Basel, Switzerland. Zionism is said to have been born at this conference in 1897. Herzl's lasting legacy is the establishment of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
Before World War I, idealistic Zionist pioneers arrived in Palestine with the dream of living as part of a landowning majority in a Jewish homeland. European thinkers understood that Jews needed to migrate to the Land of Palestine in order to improve their economic status and to remove themselves from being a minority people in a country where their national allegiance was questioned. Many of the early pioneers were socialist, from Russia. Many agricultural collectives, called kibbutzim, were established.
Prior to becoming a British Mandate in 1917, the land of Palestine was under the control of the Ottoman Empire (1500-1917). The early Zionist pioneer settlers purchased land from the Ottomans. After invading and taking over Ottoman Palestine, the British ruled over Palestine in accordance with the Balfour Declaration and by international agreement, facilitating immigration of Jews into Palestine and encouraging autonomous rule. To satisfy military needs, the ruling British authority built Palestine's transportation and communication infrastructure (roads, railways, telephone and telegraph lines) and also built the port of Haifa.
While ostensibly promoting independence of Jewish residents of Palestine, the British authority obstructed the process of Jewish immigration into Palestine. The most notorious obstructionist incident involved the ship called Exodus which in July of 1947 left France to bring 4,500 Holocaust survivors to Palestine. The British Navy boarded the Exodus and transferred the passengers onto British ships and returned to France. The passengers refused to disembark, choosing to go on a hunger strike instead. In a failed attempt to avoid negative publicity, the British Navy took the Exodus passengers to Hamburg where they were placed in a Displaced Persons camp. This incident resulted in garnering worldwide sympathy for Holocaust survivors.
In response to British obstructionist policies and in response to the Holocaust, in 1945 and 1946, Jewish military groups (Etzel, Haganah, and Lehi) launched attacks against the British military. During this time in history, the British Empire was in decline especially after World War II which left Britain economically impoverished and unable to maintain political authority over other mandates, colonies and territories such as India and Pakistan. Battles continued between the British and the Jewish military groups until the British authorities agreed to hand over jurisdiction of Palestine over to the United Nations.
The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine reiterated their desire to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states as delineated in the British Peel Commission drafted in 1937. David Ben-Gurion agreed to the Partition Plan but the Arab High Committee was opposed. In order to resolve the disagreement, the UN General Assembly put the matter to a vote on November 29, 1947. The vote passed at 33 to 13, and the resolution took effect in May 1948.
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