"During the Sixteenth Century, the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel increased. Tiberias was rebuilt and the Jewish population of Safed reached 15,000. Safed, the capital of Northern Galilee, became the spiritual centre of Judaism, influenc ing the entire Jewish world.
The Jewish mystical doctrine (Kabala) emerged there, and it was there that Rabbi Joseph Caro codified the Oral Law in his "Shulchan Aruch". In that century, the Jews made up 15% of the total population in the country. In moder n times, the Return to Zion began during the Eighteenth Century as a consequence of positive factors as well as negative ones such as anti-Semitism. Ever since, the process of return of the Jewish people to its land has continued and has become ever stron ger.
Jewish immigration to Palestine in modern times began in the late Nineteenth Century. In 1850, there were 20,000 Jews in Palestine; in 1915, there were approximately 100,000.....
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a dedicated scientist and Zionist leader, who later became the first President of the State of Israel, signed in 1919 a pact of co-operation between the Zionist Movement and the Arab National Movement, represented by Emir Feis al, chief Arab delegate at the Paris Peace Conference, who, three months after the signing of the Agreement, wrote to Professor Frankfurter:
"....We understood that Arabs and Jews are blood cousins and that both suffered similar oppression at the hand of stronger powers and that now, due to a happy coincidence, they are able to take their first step together towards their nation al ideals. We, Arabs, view the Zionist Movement with deep sympathy. The Jewish movement is nationalist, not imperialist. Along with my people, I foresee and look forward to a future in which we shall help you and you shall help us."
...British government statistics show that in May, 1948, when the State of Israel was established, 8.6 percent of the land was owned by Jews and 3.35 percent by Arab Israelis, while 16.9 percent had been abandoned by Arab owners who fled the country . More than seventy percent of the land was vested in the Mandatory Power and so reverted to Israel as its legal heir."
Well that worked out well.
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