Modern History

400 years of Ottoman rule ended in 1917, with the British conquest during the World War I. The British Foreign Minister, Sir Balfour, announced the establishment of “a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine”.
British rule in Israel: 1918 - 1948. During this period, the first institutions of the state of Israel were established, another wave of immigration began, universities were founded, the first Moshavim were established, as well as cities, all under constant threat posed by Arab gangs and murders and massacres by the British. When World War II broke out in 1939, the Jewish Brigade was established as part of the British army, despite the struggle against the British in Israel.
During this same period, the Holocaust took place, with the Nazis and their allies murdering the vast majority of European Jews and bringing severe destruction to European Jewry.

In 1947, the UN voted for the establishment of 2 states, an Arab and a Jewish state. With the ratification of this decision, the British mandate to Israel ended on the 14th of May 1948 and the establishment of the State of Israel was declared. The Arab countries refused to accept this decision and on the very same day, Arab armies from five neighboring Arab countries invaded Israel. At the end of a war that lasted more than a year, cease-fire agreements were signed with Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

Democratic government institutions were established, the first Knesset (Israeli parliament) was elected, Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations, and a large wave of immigrants from Europe and Arab countries swept the country. In 1956, the Sinai war broke out in collaboration with the French and English against Egypt. The Six Day War occurred in 1967, and ended with the unification of Jerusalem. The West bank, Golan heights and Sinai were conquered.

In 1973 Israel was attacked by Syria and Egypt in the Yom Kippur War.
In 1975 Israel was accepted into the Common European market.
In 1977, the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, paid an historic visit to Jerusalem, which led to the signing of the first peace agreement with an Arab country.
In 1991 Israel was attacked with missiles by Iraq, as part of the first Gulf War.
In 1993 the first peace accords with the Palestinians were signed, and a year later Palestinian autonomy was established in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
In 1994 a second peace agreement was signed with an Arab country – Jordan -- and diplomatic offices were opened in Morocco and Tunisia and later in Oman and Qatar. The peace agreements led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish assassin in 1995.
In 1998 Israel celebrated the jubilee anniversary to its founding.
In 2002, Pope Paul II visited Israel. In the same year Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon and the El Aksa Intifada began, with a wave of brutal terror sweeping Israel.
In 2002, the Homat Magen campaign was launched throughout the Palestinian territory in response to terror.
In 2003, the second Gulf War caused strategic changes in the region.

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the country has remained the only free democracy in the Middle East, and the only country in the region with a Western, liberal and free orientation. The Israeli branch of IPA is the only branch in the region, although efforts were made to add Arab countries to the organization.