Known in Israel as the War of Independence, and in the Arab World as the Nakba (Catastrophe). The war began on 30 November 1947 as a civil conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, immediately following the adoption of UNGA Resolution 181 that approved the Partition Plan for Palestine. Following the termination of the Mandate for Palestine and the Israeli Declaration of Independence, military forces from seven Arab countries invaded Palestine and began fighting the newly-created Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The war ended in 1949 with Israel signing separate armistice agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, leaving it in control of the entire territory allocated to the Jewish state in the Partition Plan, as well as more than half of the territory allocated to the Arab state. Following the 1967 Six Day War, the armistice lines became collectively known as the (4 June) 1967 Lines or the Green Line. The war resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.
Credit: ECF - Economic Cooperation Foundation. Last update at 1970-01-18 03:06.
