Some Useful Info

Jews living in the Diaspora have sought to emigrate into Israel throughout the centuries. For example, in 1141 Yehuda Halevi issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to Eretz Israel and eventually died in Jerusalem. In 1267, Nahmanides settled in Jerusalem and since then a continual Jewish presence in Jerusalem has been maintained. Yosef Karo immigrated to the large Jewish community in Safed in 1535. Waves of immigration also occurred, for example in the years 1209-1211, the "aliyah of the Rabbis of France and England" to Acre became famous as in 1258 and 1266. In 1260, Yechiel of Paris emigrated to Acre along with his son and a large group of followers. Small waves of immigration occurred during the 18th century out of religious motives, famously Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and 300 of his followers, Judah he-Hasid and over 1000 disciples, and over five hundred disciples (and their families) of the Vilna Gaon known as Perushim. Waves of rabbinical students immigrated in 1808-1809, settling in Tiberias, Safed and then in Jerusalem.^[10]

In 1860, the old Jewish community in Jerusalem started building neighborhoods outside the walls of the Old City (the first one being Mishkenot Sha’ananim). In 1878, the first modern agricultural settlement was founded in the form of Petah Tikva.

The first big wave of modern immigration to Israel, or Aliyah (עלייה) started in 1881 as Jews fled growing persecution, or followed the Socialist Zionist ideas of Moses Hess and others of "redemption of the soil." Jews bought land from Ottoman and individual Arab landholders. After Jews established agricultural settlements, tensions erupted^{[citation needed]} between the Jews and Arabs.

Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), an Austro-Hungarian Jew, founded the Zionist movement. In 1896, he published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in which he called for the establishment of a national Jewish state. The following year he helped convene the first World Zionist Congress.

The establishment of Zionism led to the Second Aliyah (1904–1914) with the influx of around forty thousand Jews. In 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration that "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1920, Palestine became a League of Nations mandate administered by Britain.

Jewish immigration resumed in third (1919–1923) and fourth (1924–1929) waves after World War I. A massacre of Jews by Arabs in 1929 killed 133 Jews, including 67 in Hebron.

The rise of Nazism in 1933 led to a fifth wave of Aliyah. The Jews in the region increased from 11% of the population in 1922 to 30% by 1940.^{[citation needed]} 28% of the land was already bought and owned by Zionist organizations plus additional private land owned by Jews.^{[citation needed]} The southern half of the country is the barren and mostly empty Negev desert. The subsequent Holocaust in Europe led to additional immigration from other parts of Europe. By the end of World War II, the number of Jews in Palestine was approximately 600,000.

In 1939, the British introduced a White Paper of 1939, which limited Jewish immigration over the course of the war to 75,000 and restricted purchase of land by Jews, perhaps in response to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The White Paper was seen as a betrayal by the Jewish community and Zionists, who perceived it as being in conflict with the Balfour Declaration. The Arabs were not entirely satisfied either, as they wanted Jewish immigration halted completely. However, the White Paper guided British policy until the end of the term of their Mandate. As a result, many Jews fleeing to Palestine to avoid Nazi persecution and the Holocaust were intercepted and returned to Europe. Two specific examples of this policy involved the ships Struma and Exodus (carrying Holocaust survivors in 1947).^[11]

Attempts by Jews to circumvent the blockade and flee Europe became known as Aliya Beth.