The Holocaust and the Global Consensus for a Jewish State

The formation of the State of Israel in 1948 garnered widespread international support largely due to the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of six million Jews (plus millions of Roma, disabled individuals, LGBTQ+ people, and others) by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.

The sheer scale of the tragedy, the failure of the international community to provide refuge during the 1930s and 1940s, and the desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of displaced Jewish survivors in post-war Europe created a powerful moral imperative. A sovereign Jewish state was seen as the only guarantee of a permanent safe haven and self-determination for a people who had been stateless and persecuted for millennia.

This consensus was reflected in the 1947 UN Partition Plan (Resolution 181) and the subsequent recognition of Israel by a majority of UN member states.