Israel

The State of Israel is the national homeland of the Jews which was created in 1948 by the United Nations by partition of Palestine. Creation of Israel was unsuccessfully contested by surrounding Arab states and by the Palestinian people. Subsequent conflicts have resulted in military occupation of the remainder of Palestine. Despite efforts by both parties, attempts to negotiate a peace treaty remain unsuccessful.

Zionism
Establishment of the Israel was preceded by a long history of yearning by the Jewish diaspora to return to "Zion", their lost homeland from which they were displaced by the Roman Empire and the Islamic conquest of Palestine. The Zionist movement was initiated by Theodor Herzl in 1897. Efforts were made by the movement to purchase land and create settlements in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. By 1941 the Jewish population of Palestine had increased from less than 100,000 in the 1920s to about 500,000 out of a total population of about 1,500,000.

The Holocaust
Nazi Germany and its allies attempted to exterminate the Jews during World War II. Millions of Jews were confined in concentration camps and killed, but several million survived. Many of the survivors sought to emigrate to Palestine, which was under British control, and a successful campaign was mounted to create a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. This effort had wide spread support in the United Nations, including the support of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union.

Demographics
Haredim, ultra-orthodox Jews, who often devote their lives to full-time study of Torah, are a substantial, and rapidly growing, portion of the Israeli population. As of 2013 substantial efforts were being made to integrate the Haredim into Israeli economic and military life. Educated in private Haredi schools, many Haredim have, at most, the equivalent of a 4th grade education. English is not taught in the schools. Their large families have been supported by welfare payments: few of the men work; women are more likely to work in order to support their husbands' full-time study of Torah. Higher education is frowned on, but a few, with the aid of special college-preparatory programs, have been able to attend college.

Government
Israel is a capitalist and right-wing theocracy. Its government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, is practicing Anti-Muslim politics. Since its declaration of independence from Palestine in 1948, the state has been involved in many wars.

Its government's ideology is Zionism. A term for Jewish "self-determination". Israel's politics are totalitarian. Some Israeli people have criticized their government, but some of them have been arrested for doing such.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israel is built over another nation, Palestine. Today, they only own 20 % of their country. The number of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Israel following Israel's creation was estimated at 711,000 in 1949. Though the UN had decided that the Israelites should have only 56% of the land of the former Mandate of Palestine, they occupied as much as 78% of their land,, sometimes during wars fought against surrounding Arab countries. Israel has established illegal settlements in Palestine.

It's currently one half million settlers in the West Bank in Palestine, and it becomes more and more. Israel itself got a population of around 6,7 millions.

Resistance
Israel's illegal acts in the Occupied territories depend on external support and internal cooperation by both Jews and Palestinians. A Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign initiated by Palestinians with international support seeks to build power on the part of Palestinians leading to productive negotiations resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

External links and further reading

 * http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
 * Colin Shindler, Israel and the European Left: Between Solidarity and Delegitimization, Continuum (December 22, 2011), trade paperback, 336 pages,