Dance in Israel includes folk dances such as the Hora and dances that incorporate the Yemenite step. Israeli folk dance also includes Dabke which is a Middle Eastern dance of the Levant region (Israel, Lebanon, Syria) and is a common dance done by mainly the Arab population of Israel however is a most popular dance among Israeli youth. In Hebrew Dabke is known as דבקה "Dabka" which comes from the Arabic term meaning "stomping of feet". The Dance is well suited for bringing Israel-Arab culture together. One of the pioneers of modern dance in Israel was Gertrud Kraus, who immigrated to Mandate Palestine
History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel On 14 May 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate, the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine led by the future prime minister David Ben-Gurion, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel". The armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq marched into the territory of what had just ceased to be the British Mandate, thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The nascent Israel Defense Forces repulsed the Arab armies, and extended Israel's borders beyond the original Resolution 181(II) boundaries for the proposed Jewish state. By