What to understand first
- The Jewish leadership accepted the UN partition compromise in 1947.
- Arab leaders rejected it and launched attacks months before statehood.
- Five Arab armies invaded on 15 May 1948, the day after independence.
- Israel survived and offered its Arab inhabitants full and equal citizenship.
1948: what happened first?
Arab attacks begin
Arab forces and foreign volunteers attacked Jewish communities and roads while Britain still governed. 38
Israel declares independence
The declaration came as the British Mandate ended. 12
Five Arab armies invade
Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon sent their armies into the former Mandate. 38
Armistice agreements
Israel signed armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. 38
Acceptance of compromise
A declaration offering peace
Declaration of the State of Israel
“We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness.” The declaration also called on Arab inhabitants to take part in building the state “on the basis of full and equal citizenship.”
A small state survives
What happened to the proposed Arab state?
1948 is not the Yom Kippur War
Sources for this article
- S12Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel
Knesset archive. Statehood, equality language and appeal to Arab inhabitants.
- S30General Assembly Resolution 181 (II)
United Nations. Recommendation for Arab and Jewish states and an international Jerusalem.
- S38The Arab-Israeli War of 1948
US Department of State, Office of the Historian. Intercommunal fighting, Israeli independence and the entry of neighbouring Arab armies.
- S41Nationality Law, 5712–1952
Knesset archive. Citizenship by return, residence, birth and naturalisation.
- S51The 1973 Arab-Israeli War
US Department of State, Office of the Historian. Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack and the war’s 1967 territorial context.