Young Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres (Hebrew: שמעון פרס‎, born Szymon Perski on August 2, 1923) is the ninth and current President of the State of Israel.

Peres has long been a popular and important politician in Israel - he previously served two times as Prime Minister of Israel, one time as Acting Prime Minister, and has served in 12 cabinets over a political career lasting over 66 years.

Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.

Born in Poland in 1923, Peres moved with his family to Mandate Palestine in 1934. He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the War for Independence in Israel. His first high level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General in 1953 through 1959.

During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labour and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labour.

Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks which he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.

Peres was nominated in early 2007 by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election, being elected by the Knesset for the presidency on June 13, 2007 and sworn into office on July 15, 2007 for a seven-year term.

Early years - short movie

After 1945 the United Kingdom became embroiled in an increasingly violent conflict with the Jews.

In 1947, the British government withdrew from commitment to the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews.

The newly created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing the country into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.

Jerusalem was to be designated an international city a corpus separatum administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status.

The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it.

On December 1, 1947 the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets.

Civil war began with the Jews initially on the defensive but gradually moving into offence.
The Palestinian-Arab economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.

On May 14, 1948, the day before the end of the British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed independence, naming the country Israel.

The following day the armies of five Arab countries Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Morocco, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia also sent troops to assist the invaders.
After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established.

Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949.

During the conflict 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, or about 80% of the previous Arab population, fled the country.

The fate of the Palestinian refugees today is a major point of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

War of Independence

Ben Gurion's Independence Speech