Movement formed to establish a Jewish state in Palestine (Eretz Israel). Theodor Herzl (1869-1904) is regarded as the father of Zionism (he published his Der Judenstaat in 1896). Tel Aviv was founded in 1909; the first kibbutz was built at Degania on the Jordan River in 1910. The British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, favored a Jewish homeland in Palestine (Balfour Declaration, 1917) but a British proposal for partition was rejected by the Arabs in 1936. The United Nations partition plan of 1947 led to Arab-Israeli conflict and the British withdrew from Palestine. Israeli independence was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, and Israeli settlers, especially Orthodox Jews, have continued to use Zionism to justify their expansion onto Arab-held land.