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“What Were the Major Reasons for the Creation of the State of Israel?

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SOUTH WEST ASIA

ASSIGNMENT 1

“WHAT WERE THE MAJOR REASONS FOR THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL?

WAS THE BALFOUR DECLARATION THE TURNING POINT IN THE ZIONIST QUEST FOR ISRAEL?”

Lecturer: Ms S. Chappell
Student: Mark Walker-Roberts
Lecture / Tutorial Group: Wednesday 9 - 12 p.m.
Due Date: 04 September, 1996

INTRODUCTION

The state of Israel emerged on May 15, 1948. It was the first Jewish state to be established in nearly 2,000 years and was the culmination of efforts by the Jews to secure a homeland for themselves.

This paper will explore the major reasons for its creation. It will be shown to be a long enduring quest that has biblical origins. Subsequently both biblical history and geography will be worthy of …show more content…

Palestine is the Holy Land of three of the world’s major religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They all have significant historical and religious sites in this region. (Harper, 1986, p.17)

The biblical claim, supported by the historical claim by the Jews, is at the heart of the major reasons for the creation of the state of Israel. Its creation was based on the belief by Jews that the land was promised to them by God. Even though there has been a series of ‘take overs’ and occupations by others in this area and the occurrence of numerous ‘persecutions’ of Jews (which will be commented on later
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in greater detail) worldwide since, causing other reasons for Jews to seek refuge in a homeland of their own, the Biblical reasons should not be underestimated as a major factor for the state of Israel being realised in the first place.

It was after Jewish exile and disaspora thereafter worldwide and the subsequent ramifications of this that caused renewed motivation for the creation of the Jewish state. One such example came in the form of Zionism.

ZIONISM

Since the abovementioned exile, the Jews experienced a broad disaspora and settled in numerous parts of the world, notably Europe and the United States. There had been many persecutions of the Jews during this period. In particular, this occurred during the nineteenth century in Russia and eastern Europe, where there were many

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