Israel was founded as an independent sovereign state on May 14, 1948. On that day, David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, declared the establishment of the state of Israel, just before the British Mandate for Palestine expired. The following day, neighboring Arab countries invaded, starting the 1948 Arab- Israeli War.
This founding followed decades of Zionist movement efforts beginning in the late 19th century, aiming to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which was historically the land of the Jewish people.
