Israel Birth of a Nation - Part 1 (Partition)

Israel Birth of a Nation - Part 2 (Gush Etzion, Tirat Tzvi, Ben Yehuda Street bombing, Jewish Agency bombing, the war of the roads, Bab el Wad, Ha'apalah,)

Israel Birth of a Nation - Part 3 (April 1948 - Operation Nachshon, Dir Yassin, Hadassah Hospital convoy massacre, Safed, Tiberias, Haifa) - Note - details of the battle dates are incorrect in the film.

Israel Birth of a Nation - Part 4 (Battle of Gesher, Jaffa, San Simon, Declaration of the State and the Arab invasion, Battle of Degania)

Israel Birth of a Nation - Part 5 (Battle of Yad Mordechai, Fall of the Old city of Jerusalem and Esther Cailingold's story)

1949: UN General Assembly Resolution 302 - created the United Nations Relief Works Agency for assisting Palestinian Arab refugees.

1949: UN General Assembly Resolution 212 - This resolution provided interim aid to Arab refugees from Palestine.

1949: Armistice Agreements - Under the aegis of UN Mediator Ralph Bunche, negotiations were conducted between Israel and the four neighboring states that were at war with it. The agreements incorporated lands that had been allocated to the Palestinian state into Israel, Jordan and Syria, and left the Gaza Strip under Egyptian administration Armistice between Israel and Egypt - February 24, 1949   Armistice between Israel and Lebanon - March 23, 1949   Armistice  between Israel and Jordan - April 3, 1949 Armistice  between Israel and Syria- June 20, 1949

1948: UN General Assembly Resolution 194- This resolution, adopted near the close of the Israel War of Independence (1948 War), calls for repatriation of any Palestinian refugees who are "willing to live in peace with their neighbors," and compensation for loss of property as a result of the war.

Second plan of Count Bernadotte for settlement of the Arab-Israeli war of 1948  - The second plan of Count Bernadotte called for tiny Jewish state and internationalization of Jerusalem.

First Plan of Count Bernadotte for settling the Arab-Israel war of 1948.- This plan of the UN mediator ignored  General Assembly Resolution 181  and called for annexation of the Jewish areas of Palestine as an enclave within Transjordan, with limitations of Jewish immigration.

1948: UN Security Council Resolution 62 - This resolution called on the parties in the Arab-Israeli war to conclude armistice agreements that would lead to a lasting peace.

1948: Arab League Statement- Immediately following the Israeli declaration of independence, the Arab League states declared war on Israel and issued a statement announcing their intentions to restore the state of affairs prevailing prior to partition - in other words, to eliminate the State of Israel.

1948: Jews in Grave Danger in All Moslem Lands - A news report outlining the steps taken by Arab and Muslim countries against Jews just prior to the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence. Arab countries planned not only ethnic cleansing of Jews in Israel, but also draconic steps against their own Jewish citizens. Eventually, most Jews in these countries had to flee, many leaving behind extensive properties. A report on the danger had been submitted to the UN, but the UN never acted to protect Jews in Muslim countries and never recognized these Jews as refugees or provided them with any relief or legal rights.

1948: Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel - Issued May 14 1948, as the British were departing Palestine, the declaration of independence promised equality to all citizens of Israel in a "Jewish State."

1948:Situation in Jerusalem and Palestine, April 1948 - These assessments by Jewish officials leave no doubt at all that they perceived the defense situation to be perilous and the outcome of the civil war to be very much in doubt.

1948: Haganah Intelligence Report Regarding the Situation in Jerusalem - Following the decision of the UN to partition Palestine , Arabs tried to put into effect a blockade of Jerusalem that would force the surrender of the Jewish community there. As this Haganah report shows, the situation had become desperate, belying the claim that the Jews had clear military superiority over the Arabs.

1948: British Police Report Regarding Arab Evacuation of Haifa- In the chaos that ensued following the decision of the UN to partition Palestine , Palestinian Arabs began fleeing from major towns, including Haifa. Part of the flight was directed from above, by the Arab higher command, part was due to fear following the attack of Jewish dissidents on Deir Yassin, in which over a hundred civilians were killed. In Haifa, Jewish attacks by the Haganah and Irgun as well as Arab attacks and Jewish counter-attacks, turned the city into a battle field. Some Jewish authorities intervened to try to convince Arabs to stay, but the leadership explained that Arab higher committee members had left, the community was disintegrating as they talked, and there was nothing they could do.

1948: Truman Statement on Trusteeship for Palestine- Issued March 25, 1948, it was Truman's way of defusing the trusteeship plan that had been backed by the State Department and advanced at the UN without his approval. The purpose of the trusteeship plan was to prevent Israeli statehood. Truman's statement turned trusteeship into a prelude to statehood. In fact, the idea was never implemented. Support of the Truman administration for Israeli statehood is discussed here.

1948: Plan Dalet (Plan D)- The general plan developed over several years by the Haganah for defense in case of Arab attack on the Jewish state. 

1947: The Silver Platter - Poem by Hebrew poet Natan Alterman, written in 1947 in anticipation of the coming bloody struggle.

1947: Draft Arab League Law Against Jews (Excerpts) - Following the partition resolution of the United Nations, the Arab League drafted a proposed law that would force all Jewish citizens of member countries to register, and that would lead to freezing and confiscation of their assets, reminiscent of draconic Nazi-era legislation,

1947: Haifa Refinery Riots- Following the announcement of the partition plan, violence erupted sporadically throughout Palestine. Here is one account of a major incident in Haifa.

1947: UN Partition Plan for Palestine: General Assembly Resolution 181 - Plan to partition Palestine into two states after the British Mandate ended.

1947: The Consequences of Partition of Palestine - CIA Report - The CIA estimated that the Arab states would not dare to attack Israel and defy the UN, but that Israel would lose a guerrilla war against the Palestinian Arabs and their supporters. The opposition of the Arab states was based on their claim that Palestine was part of the Arab world, and not on fears of dispossession by Jews or the issue of self-determination for Palestinian Arabs.

1947: UN Debate on Palestine Partition- November, 26, 1947 - The USSR favored the partition plan.

1947: UN Debate on Palestine - US Position -The US supported the partition plan.

1947: Report of UNSCOP - The UN Special Commission on Palestine- On September 1, 1947, the UN Special Commission on Palestine submitted this report, recommending partition of Palestine.

1947: UN Debate on Palestine - Remarks of Soviet Representative Andrei Gromyko, May 14, 1947 - The USSR supported a one-state solution at this time, but would support partition if the one-state solution was unworkable.

1946: Report of the Anglo American Committee of Inquiry - The Committee rejected partition and recommended allowing 100,000 Jewish immigrants to enter Palestine. Palestine would remain a cultural "Jewish Homeland" but Jews and Arabs would work together. The report of the commission provides an excellent detailed summary of the history of Palestine under the mandate and of security conditions, as well as appalling documentation of the Holocaust and its effects on European Jewry. 

1946: Arab Office Report to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry - The Arab Office in Jerusalem rejected any partition plan or binational state, and called instead for the establishment of an Arab state in the whole of Palestine, that would safeguard the rights of the Jewish minority as well.

1945- American Council for Judaism Proposal for Palestine - The anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism proposed in effect, a trusteeship for Palestine that would limit immigration to absorptive capacity, without discriminating among immigrants of different origin, and without a realistic solution for Jewish displaced persons.

1945: Rabbi Milton Steinberg Creed of An American Zionist - An historic article outlining the case for Zionism and a democratic Jewish state just after World War II.

Maps:

Israel War of Independence - Map of the Arab Invasion 
Israel War of Independence - Map of Battles of October 1948.
Israel War of Independence Map of operation Ayin (uvda) (conquest of Gaza and Eilat).

Map of Jerusalem - UN 'Corpus Separatum' and Divided Jerusalem