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Building Israel

Dramatic Pictures From The Early Days Of Israel

Michael Kelley

Business Insider

Jul 3, 2013

The notion of the "Land of Israel" ("Eretz Yisrael" known in Hebrew) has been sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. Modern Jewish migration to the area (at the time Ottoman-ruled Palestine) began in 1881, and the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel formally began with the birth of the World Zionist Organization in 1887.

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Jewish pioneering settlers and members of the pre-state Haganah defense movement in their guard post November 3, 1938 in Kibbutz Givat Brenner.


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New Jewish immigrants bring their infants outside to the warming sun at the immigrants' camp December 1, 1947 in Rana'ana, during the British Mandate of Palestine.


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Jewish pioneering settlers work in a potato field near their cooperative farming community September 30, 1946 of Kibbutz Urim in the Negev Desert, during the British Mandate of Palestine.


GPO via Getty

Jewish children play July 1, 1946 outside their newly-constructed community of Holon near Tel Aviv, during the British Mandate of Palestine.