Correct answer: B) The population of the newly created Israeli state grew rapidly.
Context/details:
Jewish settlers had been coming into Palestine since the late 1800s. During the years following World War I, that population stream continued to grow.
After World War II ended, the United Nations (UN) adopted a plan for the partition of Palestine that would create a portion of that territory as the state of Israel. Arabs in the region and surrounding Arab nations were not in favor of this. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish leaders in the land proclaimed their independence as a nation, and a war with Arab peoples and nations in the region followed. Israel won that war and established itself as a nation. The new state of Israel was granted membership in the UN in 1949.
In 1950, the Israeli government passed the "Law of Return," which said that "every Jew has the right to come to this country." In their minds, they were returning to the land of their ancestors. Many people of Jewish ancestry did go to become citizens of Israel. At the time that Israel declared its independence in May, 1948, the Israeli population was 806,000. By 1960, a decade after the Law of Return had passed, the population had more than doubled, to 2.2 million. By the end of the 20th century a few decades later, Israel's population grew to nearly 6½ million.
