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With over 7 million inhabitants and a member in the world's leading economies it is hardly possible to imagine what kind of place Israel was in 1948, the year that it was founded. The people, the landscape, the aspirations, and the national spirit were very different than they are today. This unique photo album, with over 100 photos, evokes that Israel of sixty six years ago - the place where it all started the time when it all began.

Research: Chen Haklai
Editor: Heidi J. Gleit
Published: May 2008
Photography:
Israel Government
Press Office
 

The Landscape
Less than 2 million people lived between the Mediterranean and the Jordan in 1948. Roads were scarce and many areas, especially in the south, were still uncharted. Most of the forests had not been planted yet, large tracts of land were uninhabited, houses were mainly one-storey, and settlements were few and far between..

Settlement
From the 1930s Jewish and Arab settlement in the Land of Israel had been expanding. Arab settlement revolved around the expansion of existing villages, as hundreds of thousands of Arabs flowed into the country, Jewish settlement involved the expansion of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the creation of new kibbutzim

Agriculture and Kibbutz
The settlers in the Land of Israel developed new methods of agriculture for a semi-arid land and introduced the idea of communal farming communities to the land. the kibbutz and the moshav were the main form of Jewish agricultural village in 1948. But far more than that they played an important role in the formation of the new state. 

The War
The War of Independence lasted for nearly two years. 600 thousand Jews pitted themselves against 7 regular Arab armies and local irregulars. While the Arabs had numbers the Jews had organization and perseverance. 6,000 Israelis, 1% of the population lost their lives in the war. Israel was born from their sacrifice.

Aliyah
Following the Declaration of Independence Israel through open its gates to Jewish immigration. The first to arrive were the detainees in the camps in Cyprus, followed by the holocaust survivors throughout Europe. In the first three years after independence 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, doubling its population.

Culture
The new state had its own unique culture - a mix of all the different communities flocking into the country, under the amalgam of a new language - Hebrew. The language developed with the country, the culture slowly shed its European veneer and managed, not without a struggle to accommodate  the different ethnic groups.

City Life
Tel Aviv became the focal center of the country. It was called the first Hebrew city, and in it the new Hebrew culture flourished. Theater, dance, music and literature came out of Tel Aviv - as did coffee houses, beaches and night clubs. The Hebrew newspapers were based in Tel Aviv as was the army and the political establishment.