Palestine had been the historical homeland of the Jews people but most of the Jews had moved out of Palestine and settled in various parts of the World. Thus in the beginning of nineteenth century there were very few Jews living there. Motivated by a desire to live in their holy ancient land, some Jews started to migrate to Palestine in mid nineteenth century. Thus in 1880 number of Jews there increased to about 24,000. In 1914 this number was about 85,000.
After World War I, Palestine became a mandated territory under the control of UK. According to the mandate UK was to help the Palestinian Jews build a national home for the Jews. However there were stiff opposition to this from the original Arab population. The UK adopted a soft approach neither officially insisting on creation of a separate state nor effectively controlling Jewish immigration into Palestine.
Due to the mass killing of Jews during World War II, the demand for a separate Jewish nation in Palestine intensified. However because of the local opposition, UK was unable to take any decisive action and submitted this problem to the UN in 1947.
The decision of UN General Assembly adopted on November 29, 1947 was to divide Palestine in two territories - Arab state and Jewish state - and place Jerusalem under international control. Jews in Palestine accepted the decision of UN, but Arabs refused to accept it. In spite of Arab opposition Israel came into official existence on May 14, 1948.
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