But just 130 years ago, Jews were practically non-existent in their historical homelands, having been purged from present-day Palestine for nearly a millennium.
At the time, the Jewish Diaspora saw enclaves of Jews as far flung as New York, London, Russia, and even right here in Mumbai. But the collective yearning for a homeland took shape and gained political weight thanks to the foresight of Herzl, who in 1897 presided over the first World Zionist Congress, which sought to establish a Jewish state in the land of Israel.
From there, Palestine saw the first of an eventual five Aliyahs, or waves of mass immigration from Jews in Diaspora. All told, these Aliyahs saw the Jewish population in Palestine increase from virtually nill to 33% by 1945, the end of World War II. As institutionalized discrimination against Jews increased in Europe, culminating in the Jewish Holocaust, the world hung its head in shame at the plight of the 'Wandering Jew'.
It was at point that the clamoring for a Jewish State could no longer be ignored, and the UN Partition Plan, which called for the establishment of Jewish and Arab states in Palestine, was presented by the United Nations in November 1947. Jewish leaders promptly accepted the plan, but the Arab League resoundingly rejected the plan, saying the UN had made too many concessions to the Jews. The plan went ahead anyway, giving birth to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that continues today.
Image: A Palestinian student paints an illustration of the 'Nakba' (Catastrophe) in Gaza City on May 14, 2008. 'Nakba' refers to the expulsion or flight of an estimated 760,000 Arabs following the creation of the state of Israel in May 1948.
Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
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