Until 1948, Palestine was the eastern Mediterranean area that now consists of Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and small parts of modern Jordan and Egypt. Palestine was the site of the Jewish state proposed by the Zionist movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a home and refuge for the world's Jews.
During World War II, Palestine was a colony of Great Britain. Fearful of antagonizing the local Arab population, the British government severely restricted Jewish immigration. By doing this, they blocked Jews from the last place that had welcomed Jewish settlement. After the war, world criticism of British immigration policy, as well as Jewish and Arab dissatisfaction with Great Britain's administration, prompted Great Britain to turn the region over to the United Nations. The United Nations recommended the establishment of separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, and, in May 1948, the modern State of Israel was established.
