Today in History: Arabs Surrounded Jerusalem after the UN Voted for Israel's Establishement

On this date in 1947, after the UN voted for Israel’s establishment in Palestine, Arabs surrounded Jerusalem and isolated its 100,000 Jews from the rest of the Israeli population. By March 1948 the city was under full siege, and in May, Jordan invaded and occupied Jewish settlements in Jerusalem, driving thousands of Jews into exile. The Arabs proceeded to destroy all 58 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter and used Jewish gravestones on Har Hazeisim to build roads and latrines. The Western Wall would be off-limits to Jews, restored again with Israel's victory in the 1967 war. 

Photo: Alamy