When was the State of Israel founded?

In November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted for a plan to partition Mandatory Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. On 14 May 1948, the day before the British Mandate expired, Ben-Gurion read Israel's Declaration of Independence. The United States recognised the new state within minutes, and the Soviet Union followed days later. Neighbouring Arab states invaded the next day, beginning the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. For Palestinians, the displacement of around 700,000 people during this period is remembered as the Nakba, meaning 'catastrophe'.