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Evidence of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, found during archaeological digs on the Jordan River, date to 9000 BC. Canaanites and Amorites moved in around 3000 BC, followed by the armies of Sargon, king of Sumer and Akkad. Later, David moved in on Jerusalem and claimed it as his capital. The Roman Empire descended on Israel in 63 BC, giving the likes of Herod the Great and Pontius Pilate control of it. Jesus is believed to have preached in and around Jerusalem around this time. The Empire soon grew unsteady under Caligula, which triggered a series of Jewish uprisings over many years. But the Jewish people were defeated with the razing of their city. The province of Palestine was decreed. And the great Diaspora, the scattering of the Jewish people, began.
In AD 331, Christianity became legal after Emperor Constantine converted to the religion. 300 years later, Jerusalem fell to Caliph Omar, who declared Jerusalem a Holy City of Islam. Over the next 500 years, power changed hands regularly. Eventually, it landed in the Ottoman hands of Suleyman the Magnificent, who rebuilt Jerusalem’s city walls.
During World War I, Britain promised to recognize an Arab state, and to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine. At war’s end, Britain gained control of the country, and as atrocities leading up to World War II escalated, it halted all migration to Israel. But illegal immigrants flocked there still, only to be met with violence from the Arab population. In 1947 the situation reached an impasse. Britain relinquished its control, the country was divided between Arabs and Jews, and Israel came into being on May 14, 1948. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon invaded immediately thereafter—but all were defeated. By the time a ceasefire was declared in May 1949, Israel had extended its territory into Palestine.
On June 5, 1967, Israel attacked Arab troops that had uncomfortably gathered along its borders with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In the “Six-Day War” that followed, Israel extended its territory into the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula. But it was not to be an easy acquisition for Israel; Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), claiming to solely represent all Palestinians, vowed to get their land back and annihilate the Israeli state.
A popular 1987 Palestinian uprising, the Intifada, intended to end the advance of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza via guerrilla warfare against Israeli forces. The 1993 Oslo Peace Accord set their sights on mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, along with limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. When the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, bets were off for success, especially since his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, took a hard line in negotiations. Under his watch, Israeli settlements spread in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to increased terrorist activity. In the early 21st century, fighting continues to occasionally erupt, but peace talks with the Palestinians and neighboring Arab nations continue as well.