IEC Lexicon

Welcome to The Lexicon. This resource is designed to clarify the vocabulary around Israel on campus. Like all subjects, Israel is complex and understanding the language in the context of campus is a key step toward meaningful, authentic conversation.

Entries include definitions and commentary, which is in italics. Each entry includes cross-references listed as "See: X, Y, Z." Beneath the cross-reference you'll find citations. Within each section of The Lexicon, entries are listed alphabetically and the entire database is searchable. 

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Another name for the Yom Kippur War.
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al-Nakba (Arabic) means "the catastrophe" and is the common name ascribed by many Palestinians and their supporters to the 1948 War of Independence. The establishment of Israel in May 1948 represented a significant loss for those who opposed Jewish sovereignty in the region, and it led to the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians.  Palestinians and Arabs commemorate Nakba Day annually on May 15th through demonstrations, strikes, and rallies.



This term is frequently used on campus to dismiss the legitimacy of the State of Israel, by referring to its creation as a “catastrophe.” The term is an emotionally charged representation of the clash of narratives at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Balfour Declaration was a letter written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Zionist leader Baron Walter Rothschild on November 2, 1917. The letter declared Britain's commitment to establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine provided that the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine did not lose their civil or religious rights, and that Jews living outside of Palestine maintained their status in their home countries.  Subsequent British actions did not always align with the declaration's support of a Jewish homeland.



After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was abolished and Turkey was forced to relinquish its claims in the Middle East and North Africa. The League of Nations awarded Britain control over Palestine, which the British retained until May 1948. The British made conflicting promises to the Arab people and the Jewish people, Jewish immigration continued and increased - especially as the Nazi threat in Europe became more ominous.

 

Throughout the Mandate, the Arab population in Palestine grew increasingly opposed to Jewish immigration and land sales by Arab people to Jewish people, launching several revolts. In an effort to mitigate the unrest amongst Arab communities, the British issued the 1939 White Paper which limited Jewish immigration to Palestine.

 

During World War Two, despite strict British limits on immigration, Jews continued to try to enter Palestine. Many Jews in Palestine enlisted in the British war effort against the Axis. Ben-Gurion famously explained this by saying, "We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war."

 

On November 29, 1947, after Britain had announced it would relinquish the Mandate for Palestine, the UN General Assembly voted to establish two states, Jewish and Arab, in the territory.



In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty, named for the US Presidential retreat where the details were hammered out. It was the first time an Arab country had established diplomatic relations with Israel, and the Arab world promptly punished Egypt by expelling it from the Arab League and moving the organization's headquarters from Cairo.

 

In November, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat announced in the Egyptian parliament that it was time to end the state of war with Israel, and he expressed his willingness to travel to Israel to advance the cause. A few days later, his jet landed in Israel, where he was greeted by hundreds of thousands of Israelis lining the streets waving Egyptian flags. He addressed the Israeli parliament, offering peace and reconciliation, and negotiations between representatives of the two countries, with active involvement by US President Jimmy Carter, yielded a treaty that was signed in March, 1979.


Under the terms of the Camp David Accords, Israel withdrew entirely, including strategic military outposts, from the Sinai Peninsula, which it had conquered in the 1967 Six Day War, leading the two countries established full diplomatic relations on the promise of peace. Though the agreement has led to a ʺcold peace,ʺ the two countries have enjoyed quiet borders and the deal has been lauded as a blueprint for future Arab-Israeli peace deals. President Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by four Egyptian military officers who hoped to reverse the treaty, but Sadat's successors all have maintained it.

The Arabic word for "uprising" (literally: "shaking off"), the First Intifada began in November, 1987, as a spontaneous street protest by Palestinians in Gaza who were enraged when an Israeli truck driver struck and killed a Palestinian child. The crowd responded by pelting stones at Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the uprising quickly spread to the West Bank and became more organized. Between 1987 and 1990, the Intifada became an increasingly violent protest against Israel's continued rule in the West Bank and Gaza. In addition to stones, Molotov cocktails, axes, hand grenades, and small firearms were used. While dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, and hundreds were wounded, the Palestinian casualty figures were much higher. 

In 2004, Israel decided unilaterally (meaning, not as a result of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but solely as a decision by the Israeli government) to end its civilian and military presence in Gaza. First proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2003, the Gaza disengagement, as it came to be known, was believed to be a significant step toward peace with the Palestinians while minimizing terrorism and maximizing security for Israeli citizens. In August 2005, the State of Israel officially removed its military installations and 21 settlements from Gaza, along with four small, remote settlements in the northern part of the West Bank. While 8,000 Israeli civilians lost their homes and had to be relocated into Israel, the majority of Israeli citizens supported the disengagement and expressed hope that it would open the door for future peace negotiations.  



The disengagement was an Israeli effort towards peace but shortly after the withdrawal, Hamas was elected in Gaza and began a terror campaign of rocket fire into Israel that has lasted over ten years.

Auto-Emancipation, published in 1881 by Dr. Yehuda Leib Pinsker, called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in response to frequent pogroms and profound antisemitism in Europe.  Pinsker's work sparked a public debate over the feasibility and necessity of Jewish salvation through a Jewish homeland. Although Pinsker offered several locations for the proposed homeland, an important Jewish ideal of settling in the Land of Israel was present from the moment Zionism took form. Regardless of this religious aspect, Zionism was a secular movement at its core with the ultimate goal of Jewish self-determination.  

 

Theodor Herzl expanded on Pinsker's work and concluded that antisemitism was a deeply rooted, illogical hatred for the Jewish people that could not be overcome. As such, Jewish survival would be predicated on the formation and success of a Jewish state. Achieving such a thing would necessitate widespread diplomatic support which Herzl garnered through identification of what he called, "the Jewish question." By defining Zionism is such a way, Herzl reasoned with the international community that the only way to rid themselves of the Jewish problem would be to establish a Jewish state.

 

In 1897, Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, where the future of the Jewish state began to be fleshed out. Convening every one or two years, the Congress formed the initial organizational and political foundations of the Jewish state. Proposed sites included Argentina, Uganda, and Palestine. Ultimately, the religious ties to the Land of Israel, then known as Palestine, surpassed any political or economic pull towards other lands.


Zionism is the continuation of a 2,000 year intent to return to the Jewish homeland of Israel. Pinsker, Herzl, and others played seminal roles in moving the Jewish people from dreams to action.

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored killing of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941 to 1945. Nazi Germany also murdered an additional 5 million people, including Catholic, LGBTQ, Roma, and mentally and physically disabled people. 

Hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel in the years following World War II, and there are nearly 200,000 survivors currently living in the Jewish state.



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1991- Madrid Conference

 

The Madrid Conference was a joint effort between the United States and Soviet Union to produce peace agreements between Israel and her Arab neighbors. The Palestinians were part of a joint delegation with the Jordanians. The Madrid Conference resulted in a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, and the Palestinian track of the conference paved the way for the Oslo Agreement.

 

1993- Oslo Agreement

 

The Oslo Agreements represented the first direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization-the official representative of the Palestinian people at the time-publically recognized one another for the first time. The agreement was signed on the White House lawn on September 13 1993. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with PLO leader Yasser Arafat in a historic moment overseen by President Bill Clinton.

 

The Oslo Agreement represented the first tangible steps towards peace for the Israelis and Palestinians. The agreement included staged timelines for Israeli withdrawal from sections of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and implementation of Palestinian self-governance. Unfortunately, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November 1995, which halted the progress of the peace agreement.

 

2000- Camp David

 

The Oslo Accords did not address 'final status' issues, such as water, refugees, borders, and Jerusalem. The Camp David talks, initiated by President Bill Clinton, attempted to address these final status issues. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Palestine Liberation Organization for the most comprehensive and detailed negotiations to date. The Israeli delegation offered the Palestinian leadership the entire Gaza Strip, a large part of the West Bank, and additional land from the Negev desert, while maintaining the major settlement blocks and unified Jerusalem. The Israeli delegation additionally proposed Islamic guardianship of key religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, and financial contributions for Palestinian refugees. These talks ultimately failed, as it is said that "the maximum Israel offered was less than the minimum the Palestinians could accept." The failure of these talks led to the deadly Second Intifada.

 

2001- Taba

 

The peace talks split between Washington, DC and Taba, Egypt were not peace talks at the highest level, but represented an attempt to resolve differences on issues such as territory and Jerusalem. EU observers reported that the Israeli negotiation team accepted the idea of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state; regardless, the parties failed to make any lasting agreements or progress.

 

2002- Arab Peace Initiative

 

The Arab Peace Initiative was a Saudi peace plan presented at an Arab Summit in Beirut and represented a return to a multi-lateral strategy for peace talks. This plan stated that Israel would withdraw to the 1967 borders, and a Palestinian state would be created in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In return, Arab countries would recognize Israel. This plan didn't make much progress beyond the Arab summit.

 

2003-Roadmap

 

The Roadmap was an effort by the United States, Russia, The European Union, and the United Nations, to reignite the peace process. This plan was created after George W. Bush became the first US president to call for a Palestinian state. This plan established a phased timetable that led towards final status negotiations. Security and mutual confidence were considered prerequisites to a peace agreement, rather than the other way around. Neither the Israeli government nor the Palestinian leadership were directly involved, and the road map was never implemented.

 

2003-Geneva Accord

 

The Geneva Accord was an informal agreement crafted by Israeli and Palestinian figures, some of whom were involved in drafting the Oslo Peace Agreements. This agreement strays from the Roadmap and puts a peace agreement as a prerequisite to security, peace, and mutual confidence.

 

2007- Annapolis, MD

 

President George W. Bush attempted to re-launch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and hosted a conference at the US Naval Academy. Attendees included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as representatives from the United States, United Nations, European Union, and Russia. Additionally, more than a dozen Arab countries were represented, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, who to this day do not officially recognize Israel.

 

The Israeli and Palestinian leadership in attendance issued a joint understanding to initiate negotiations with the goal of achieving a full peace deal by the end of 2008. Ehud Olmert's offer of international supervision of Jerusalem's holy sites, the return of a few thousand Palestinian refugees, Israeli withdrawal from 93.7% of the West Bank and a 5.8% land swap to Mahmoud Abbas is often considered the most far reaching offer to date. Regardless, the two parties were unable to reach an agreement. 

 

2010- Washington, DC

 

 President Barack Obama made it a high priority to restart the peace process. After a 19 month break in contact between Israeli and Palestinian leadership, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell successfully employed "proximity talks" to restart communications between the two parties in May 2009. The talks in Washington, DC, which began in September 2010, were attended by Israeli and Palestinian delegations, as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan. Prior to the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction, but Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would not move forward without a guarantee of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. The talks reached a stalemate within weeks, and the parties were unable to reach an agreement. 

 

The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 fundamentally challenged the status of Jews living in Arab countries throughout the Middle East. Entire Jewish populations faced persecution and mass expulsion as their home countries either declared war against Israel or supported the effort to eliminate the Jewish state.

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, 850,000 Jews resided in Arab lands throughout the Middle East. These populations dated back to Biblical times.  Today, only 8,500 remain. In the aftermath of Israel's victory in the War of Independence, Arab countries launched an aggressive campaign against their domestic Jewish populations. Over 40,000 square miles of land were seized from Jews living in Arab countries--- this is about five times the size of Israel's entire land mass.  Jews were stripped of citizenship and forced to leave their homes, leaving all property and assets behind.

Egypt

The history of Jewish communities in Egypt dates back to Biblical times. There is a Jewish cemetery in Cairo from the 9 th century, and Maimonides' synagogue from the 12 th century still stands today. In the 1940s, the Jewish population in Egypt numbered 80,000, and Jews held prominent positions in business, politics, journalism, and the film industry.

 

Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and a strong surge of Egyptian nationalism in the early '50s, then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser initiated a mass expulsion of Egyptian Jews. Jews were stripped of citizenship, property, and businesses, and became the target of anti-Jewish violence. Bombs were set off in the Jewish quarter of Cairo, and arsonists burned the Jewish section of Alexandria. Jews were arrested arbitrarily and killed in attacks on Jewish synagogues and businesses. Half of Egypt's Jewish population left in 1948, and the remainder were expelled during the 1956 Sinai War between Egpyt and Israel. Jews who were expelled from Egypt were not allowed to take any property with them, nor were they allowed to sell their property before they left. As of 2014, only 12 Jews remained in Egypt.

 

 

Yemen

The Jewish community in Yemen dates back to the times of King Solomon. Prior to 1948, Yemen was home to 45,000 Jews. Today, only 200 remain.

 

 

Libya

Anti-Jewish violence in Libya began in full-scale following World War II. Rioters burned Jewish businesses and synagogues, and hundreds of Jews were killed in the violence. In 1948, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, there were about 40,000 Jews living in Libya. 31,000 Jews left between 1948-1951, and today, no Jews remain in Libya.

 

 

Morocco

In June 1948, following the establishment of the State of Israel, anti-Jewish riots broke out throughout Morocco. More than 40 Jews were killed, and in the following year more than 18,000 Moroccan Jews fled the country. Anti-Jewish riots continued throughout the 1950s, and 60,000 Jews fled Morocco between 1955 and 1956. The Moroccan government outlawed Jewish emigration to Israel from 1956-1961. In 1948, there were 300,000 Jews living in Morocco, constituting the largest Jewish population in the Arab world; today, only 2,500 remain.

 

 

Algeria

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, Algeria was home to 135,000 Jews. Today, no Jews remain in Algeria, following expulsion and riots.

 

 

Iraq

In 1941, 150 Jews were killed over the course of a three day pogrom against the Iraqi Jewish community. In a domestic response to Israel's independence, Iraq implemented martial law which led to a strong wave of anti-Jewish persecutions. Jews were arrested, and handed large fines, jail time, or death sentences, and they were forbidden to leave the country. In the Spring of 1950, the Iraqi government allowed Jews to leave, but they were forced to relinquish their citizenship and all property. 90% of the 150,000 Jews living in Iraq left in 1950 alone, leaving all property and assets behind.

 

 

Syria

The Syrian Jewish community numbered 27,000 prior to 1948. Today, less than 100 Jews remain in Syria. 

 

On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accord in a ceremony hosted by President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn in Washington, DC. In the Accord, the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist, and Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

The Declaration of Principles (DOP), termed Oslo I, initiated a five-year "interim period" during which a new Palestinian Authority would be established to govern over autonomous Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The interim period was to be used to build confidence that would enable the sides to reach a final status agreement by the end of the five-year period. In the first stage of implementation, Israel handed control of civilian affairs in Gaza and part of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. Over time, the DOP called for Israel to cede more territory to PA control. In return, the PA agreed to combat terror and engage in joint security patrols with IDF forces.


A second agreement, termed Oslo II, was signed on September 28, 1995, in Taba, Egypt. It created a detailed framework for governing the autonomous Palestinian areas of Gaza and the West Bank and set a timetable for final status negotiations, which were to address tough issues including the status of Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, and more. The Oslo Accords made no mention of a sovereign Palestinian state, leaving the ultimate nature of an agreement to be negotiated in final status talks. The final status talks have not progressed beyond preliminary stages.

The Second Intifada was a violent Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, resulting in over 1,000 Israeli deaths and thousands more injured. it began with a spate of protests and terror attacks in the Old City of Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Palestinians engaged in suicide bombings, drive-by-shootings, rocket launches, and attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. In 2003, Israel began construction of a security barrier separating Israeli and Palestinian areas in an effort to thwart Palestinians' abilities to carry out attacks.

The violence of the Second Intifada led to the construction of the security barrier around the West Bank. Construction of the security barrier led a 98% reduction in Palestinian terror attacks on Israel. Approximately 95% of the barrier is constructed chainlink fencing, while less than 5% of the barrier around major population centers is built of concrete.

In May, 1967, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt took two steps that put Israel on a war footing: He closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, essentially shutting the port of Eilat; and he expelled UN troops from the Sinai Peninsula, which had been a non-militarized zone for the past decade. Both of these moves were in violation of signed agreements, and they signaled that Nasser was preparing for war.

 

At the same time, calls for the destruction of Israel reached a fever pitch in Egypt and other countries in the region. After three weeks of high military alert, on June 5, the IDF launched a preemptive strike, capturing the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. For the first time since Israel gained independence, Jews could pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. Although Israel was triumphant, the war resulted in one million Palestinian Arabs coming under Israeli military rule.

 

The land acquired during this war is referred to as 'the territories" and a variety of variations including "the occupied territories." Israel's role often is referred to as the "Israeli occupation." The issues of territories and occupation serve as the basis for many discussions about the Arab-Israeli conflict and have been central to peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.



Established in 1945, the United Nations replaced the League of Nations as an international organization charged with restoring global cooperation in the aftermath of World War II.  One such task given to the United Nations was to find a solution to the Palestine problem facing the Mandatory government. Britain, which had been granted the Mandate for Palestine after World War I, had come to the conclusion that it was unable to manage growing tensions between Jews and Arabs in the area, so it announced its intention to leave. In 1947, the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) devised a Partition Plan which would divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem as UN-controlled "international city."

 

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly approved the Partition Plan, known as UN Resolution 181, by a vote of 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions. Although they had hoped to get a larger share of the land, and there were legitimate concerns about the defensibility of the Jewish state within the proposed borders, the Zionist leadership accepted the plan. The Arabs of Palestine and the surrounding states rejected the Partition Plan, declaring their refusal to accept a Jewish state in the Middle East.



Under the authority of the League of Nations (which became the United Nations on October 24, 1945) Britain had a mandate over Palestine (also referred to as Eretz Yisrael, or the Land of Israel) after the collapse of the Ottoman Turkish Empire during World War One. During the 1920s, 1930's, and 1940s, the British faced rising tensions between the Arab and Jewish residents of the territory. On November 29, 1947, after Britain announced its intention to return the Mandate the following year, the United Nations General Assembly voted to divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state with Jerusalem as an "international city." The leadership of the Jewish community in Palestine accepted the Partition Plan, while the  leadership of the Arab community in Palestine and surrounding Arab countries rejected it. Although the British would not actually leave the region until May 15, 1948, the War of Independence began the following day.

 

The date set for the British withdrawal, May 15, was a Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath, so the leadership of the pre-State Jewish community decided to declare independence on Friday afternoon, May 14. Jerusalem, which was declared the capital of the new state, was under siege and largely cut off from the rest of the new country, so the ceremony was held in Tel Aviv. Immediately after the declaration, the armies of neighboring countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq) joined the war with the stated goal of preventing the new State of Israel from surviving. Although vastly outnumbered and undersupplied, Israel was triumphant in securing territorial borders.  

 

Between January and July 1949, Israel signed armistice agreements with the surrounding Arab countries, setting borders that would be internationally recognized. Transjordan controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Egypt held the Gaza Strip. As a result of the war, approximately 700,000 Palestinians had been displaced. Neighboring Arab countries refused to resettle them, resulting in the creation of refugee camps and villages in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.


The total of Israeli Jewish casualties during the War for Independence is over 21,000 individuals. That number represents roughly 3% of the total Jewish population of the State of Israel in 1948.

Issued on May 17, 1939, in response to intensive Arab lobbying, the British White Paper limited Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine to 75,000 over a five-year period. The White Paper also restricted land sales to Jews in most areas of the country. The White Paper had grave consequences for Jews seeking refuge from the Holocaust. The Jews of Palestine were outraged by it and felt that by turning Jewish refugees away, Britain was passively engaged in the murder of Jewish people.

 

On October 6, 1973, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria jointly attacked Israel. They were able to surprise the Israeli military and cause substantial losses. However, with the help of the United States, Israel reversed the course of the war before  a cease-fire ended the fighting on October 22, 1973. The war was a watershed moment for both Israel and the Arab world. Unable to destroy Israel through conventional warfare, Israel's enemies turned to diplomatic and economic warfare; they urged African and developing countries to sever diplomatic relations with Israel (many, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Senegal, abided), imposed an oil embargo on the West, and championed a United Nations General Assembly resolution equating Zionism and racism. 

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