On July 11, 1947, more than 4.500 Holocaust survivors boarded an old passenger ship, the Exodus 1947, in order to break the naval embargo that the British had imposed on what was then British Mandate Palestine, and to rebuild their lives there. Although this operation - organized by the Haganah - could be one of dozens of failed similar attempts to immigrate Jews to Palestine during the decades of the British Mandate, this particular ship was to become an international symbol of the need to create a Jewish state. See the relevant video here.
The British authorities intercepted the ship Exodus 1947, after a week's journey and took it to the port of Haifa, where they tried to forcibly disembark the passengers. During the clashes, two passengers were killed and dozens were injured. The remaining passengers were taken by the British back to France, where they were ordered to disembark. In the refusal of the passengers to comply, the British authorities chose to wait as long as necessary until the voluntary disembarkation of the passengers, in order to avoid public outcry in Britain. Instead of giving in, the passengers went on hunger strike, raising international interest and forcing the British to look for another solution.
The British authorities decided to send the survivors to Germany, specifically to the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany. There they were locked up in camps. The event sparked an international outcry against Britain. An American newspaper characteristically wrote: "Back to the Reich." The Yugoslav representative to the United Nations said of the situation: "It is the best possible argument for allowing Jews to enter Palestine." Internationally, solidarity initiatives, public protests and hunger strikes by displaced survivors spread across Europe.
A few months later, on 29.11.1947, the UN voted to create the State of Israel, prompting journalist Ruth Gruber to write her book "Exodus 1947 - The Ship that Launched a Nation", characterizing the EXODUS as the "ship that raised a nation."
Source: WJC website, 9.7.2020