Palestine-Israel Timeline
Ottoman Rule to 1918
1516-1918 Ottoman (Turkish) Empire controls most of the Middle East.
1880s Beginning of Arab movement for independence from the Ottoman Empire.
1881-1903 Russian pogroms against Jews; first wave (aliyah) of Jewish immigration to Palestine; Dreyfus affair in France reflects widespread European anti-Semitism.
1896-1897 Publication of Theodor Herzl's The State of the Jews sets the stage for political Zionism; first Zionist Congress meets at Basel, Switzerland, discusses establishment of a Jewish state.
1904-1928 Second and third aliyot (predominantly Soviet and Polish Jews) reflect a socialist-political form of Zionism.
1914-1918 World War I; Britain makes conflicting commitments regarding future of Palestine in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence (1915-1916), Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916), and Balfour Declaration (1917); end of the Ottoman Empire.
British Mandate 1918-1948
1919-1923 U.S.-sponsored King-Crane Commission tells Paris Peace Conference of Arab desires for independence; Newly created League of Nations ignores King-Crane and gives Britain mandatory control of Palestine.
1924-1928 Fourth aliyah includes fewer socialists, more middle-class eastern European and Soviet Jews.
1929 Western Wall riots between Palestinians and Zionists; Palestinians kill dozens of Jews from Hebron's historic Jewish community, survivors evacuate town.
1933-1935 Hitler comes to power in Germany; Germany's Nuremberg Laws formalize discrimination against Jews; fifth aliyah peaks as Jews escape from Germany and German-controlled areas.
1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine; Britain crushes rebellion, expels or executes its leaders; ever-increasing persecution of Jews in Germany.
1937 British Peel Commission report recommends partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab areas, angering the majority Palestinian Arab population.
1939 British MacDonald White Paper recommends restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases; calls for establishment within ten years of independent, binational state in Palestine, angering Jews who comprise 31 percent of Palestine's inhabitants.
1939-1945 World War II in Europe; Holocaust: Nazi regime responsible for death of approximately six million Jews (the Shoah) and millions of homosexuals, Roma, Slavs, and other "undesirables."
1945 U.N. established; World War II ends, leaving 100,000 eastern and central European Jews in "displaced persons" camps.
1946 Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry recommends U.N. trusteeship over Palestine; Palestinian and Jewish violence against British and each other; Jewish Holocaust survivors begin to flee to Palestine through clandestine land and sea routes.
1947 Britain requests that the U.N. deal with the question of Palestine; U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 calls for Palestine to be divided into a Jewish state (57% of Palestine), an Arab state (43% of Palestine), and an internationally controlled corpus separatum for Bethlehem and Jerusalem. At the time, Jewish land ownership was less than 7%.
U.N. Partition of Historic Palestine 1948-1967
1948 Civil war in Palestine; Britain ends its mandate, Israel declares independence, Arab states declare war against Israel; Israel gains control of 77% of British Mandatory Palestine, including some areas designated for Palestinian Arab state; Jordan and Egypt hold the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively, Jerusalem divided;
April 4th massacre of the Palestinian village Deir Yassin spurred fear and threat; 85% of the
Palestinians were displaced before, during, and after the fighting are not allowed to return, and over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed; U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 supports right of Palestinian refugees to regain their homes if they so desire or to receive compensation if they choose not to return.
1948-1958 Large-scale Jewish immigration to Israel from Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
1950 Israeli Law of Return and Absentee Property Law enacted, stating that any Palestinian not present at the time of the national census would be determined an "absentee" and the rights to their land would be transferred to the Israeli Knesset; extensive confiscation of Arab property.
1956-1957 Suez War begins when Israel, supported by Britain and France, attacks Egypt; Israel conquers, later withdraws from, Sinai and Gaza Strip.
1964 Egypt and other Arab states establish Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to preserve the Palestinian entity.
1965 Fateh (founded in 1959 by Yasser Arafat and others) conducts first guerrilla action against Israel.
Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank 1967-Present
1967 June (Six Day) War begins when Israel attacks Egypt, claiming it is acting preemptively; Israel occupies West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai, and Syrian Golan Heights, expands Jerusalem boundaries and extends Israeli law over East Jerusalem; U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 calls for withdrawal of Israeli troops from territories newly occupied; 500,000 more Palestinians are displaced.
1968-1970 Israel begins to establish Jewish settlements in newly occupied territories; PLO adopts goal of a democratic secular state in all of Mandate Palestine; Arafat named chairman of PLO; War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt, Israel and Syria.
1970 Civil war between Jordanian army and Palestinians following airplane hijackings by a Palestinian guerilla group; PLO expelled from Jordan, moves to Lebanon.
1973 October (Yom Kippur/Ramadan) War begins when Egypt seeks to regain by force Egyptian land that Israel captured in 1967; U.N. Security Council Resolution 338 calls for cease-fire and comprehensive peace conference; oil embargo by Arab petroleum exporting countries.
1974 Arab League declares PLO the sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people; Arafat addresses United Nations which grants PLO observer status in 1975.
1975 U.S. promises Israel it will not to talk officially with PLO until, inter alia, PLO accepts U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338.
1976 Pro-PLO candidates sweep Palestinian municipal elections in the West Bank.
1977 Likud wins Israeli elections, Menachem Begin becomes prime minister; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem and addresses the Israeli Knesset; negotiations begin between Israel and Egypt.
1978 Temporary Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon; Begin, Sadat, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter sign the Camp David Accords.
1979 Begin and Sadat sign Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.
1980 Israel's Basic Law on Jerusalem annexes East Jerusalem; U.N. Security Council condemns action.
1981 Israel attacks Iraqi nuclear reactor; U.S. sponsors cease-fire between Israel and the PLO that lasts until June 1982; Israel annexes Syria's Golan region.
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; over 18,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilian casualties; PLO evacuated from Beirut to Tunisia; three-day massacre at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps near Beirut; 400,000 Israelis demonstrate, call for investigation of Israel's role in massacre.
1985 Israel withdraws from most of Lebanon, leaving an Israeli-allied Lebanese force in control of the southern areas; Israel bombs Tunisian headquarters of the PLO.
The First Intifada 1987-1993
1987-1993 Predominantly nonviolent (demonstrations, strikes) First Palestinian intifada.
1988 Jordanian disengagement from West Bank; emergence of Hamas; declaration of the State of Palestine at the Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers; Arafat condemns terrorism, accepts U.N., Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and recognizes the State of Israel; U.S. opens direct discussions with PLO.
1989 U.S. State Department publishes highly critical report on Israeli human rights practices; massive international peace demonstration in Jerusalem.
1990 Israeli coalition government collapses over proposed negotiations with Palestinians; influx of Jews from former Soviet Union to Israel begins; Yitzhak Shamir forms a narrow, right-wing government headed by Likud; U.S. suspends dialogue with PLO; Iraq invades Kuwait.
1991 U.S.-led coalition defeats Iraq; international Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid includes Palestinians in joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
1992 Ongoing bilateral and multilateral peace talks; Labor party wins Israeli elections, Yitzhak Rabin becomes prime minister; Bush administration attempts to limit Israeli settlement by delaying U.S. loan guarantees.
1993 Israel drastically restricts Palestinian movement between Occupied Palestinian Territories (except East Jerusalem) and Israel, marking the beginning of the Israeli policy of closures and restriction of Palestinian movement; Israel and the PLO sign Declaration of Principles (the "Oslo Accords") on interim self-government arrangements.
1994 Massacre of Palestinians praying in Hebron mosque by Israeli settler; first Palestinian suicide bombing against Israeli civilians carried out in response to Hebron massacre; Cairo Agreement on implementation of the Oslo Accords; Arafat establishes Palestinian Authority headquarters in Gaza; Israel and Jordan sign peace treaty.
1995 Oslo II Accords establish three types of control in the West Bank (Area A: direct Palestinian control, Area B: Palestinian civilian control and Israeli security control, Area C: Israeli control); Rabin assassinated in Tel Aviv by Jewish Israeli male.
1996 First Palestinian elections for president and parliament result in Arafat victory; Palestinian suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; Israeli "Grapes of Wrath" operation against Lebanon, notable for bombing the UN compound in Qana which killed 102 civilians; Binyamin Netanyahu elected Israeli prime minister.
1997 Hebron Protocol divides West Bank city of Hebron into Israeli and Palestinian areas; Israel begins building Har Homa settlement between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
1998 Wye River Memorandum; PLO renounces anti-Israel clauses in PLO charter.
1999 Ehud Barak elected Israeli prime minister; Sharm el Sheik memorandum.
The Second Intifada 2000-Present
2000 Clinton-led Camp David II summit and negotiations end in failure; new Palestinian uprising (Second Intifada) begins, sparked by Ariel Sharon's visit to el-Haram el-Sharif/Temple Mount.
2001 Taba negotiations fail; Palestinian hard-liners continue suicide bombings against Israeli military and civilians; Israeli forces increase "targeted killings" (assassinations) of Palestinians and armed incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas; Sharon elected Israeli prime minister; U.S. Mitchell Report calls for immediate cease-fire and complete freeze on building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2002 Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli "targeted killings" continue; Israel forcefully reoccupies nearly all Palestinian areas evacuated as part of Oslo process; Arafat under house arrest in Ramallah; Arab League endorses plan to recognize Israel in exchange for end of occupation; Israel begins construction of "security fence" (The Wall) within the West Bank, confiscating additional Palestinian lands; "The Quartet" (U.S., U.N., Britain, European Union) proposes Roadmap to Peace.
2003 Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli "targeted killings" continue; U.S.-led war against Iraq overthrows Saddam Hussein; Israel bombs alleged guerilla training camp in Syria; Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) chosen as Palestinian prime minister; Israel completes first stage of "The Wall"; Abu Mazen resigns, replaced by Ahmed Qrei'a (Abu Ala'); Israel bombs alleged guerilla training camp in Syria.
2004 Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin killed by Israel as part of "targeted killing" campaign in response to attacks against Israelis within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories; the International Court of Justice finds the Separation Wall "contrary to international law"; Yassir Arafat dies in Paris and is buried in Ramallah.
2005 Mahmoud Abbas is elected President of the Palestinian Authority; Israel increases settlement activity in and around Jerusalem; Israel unilaterally evacuates all Israeli settlements in Gaza and four from the northern West Bank.
2006 Hamas wins a majority in Palestinian Parliamentary Elections in January; Ehud Olmert elected Israeli Prime Minister as a member of the Kadima Party; after militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June demanding the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Gaza Strip killing 400 and injuring 1,000 Palestinians; after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in July demanding the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, Israel launched air and sea attacks on Lebanon, and fighting persisted for 34 days; over 1,000 Lebanese and 159 Israelis are killed and over 100,000 Lebanese people are left displaced; the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party joins the Israeli government; Israel announces the building of a new Jewish settlement in the Occupied West Bank.
*Viewers have permission to reproduce, distribute, or use this information for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given to the American Friends Service Committee. An earlier version of this timeline appeared in When the Rain Returns: Towards Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel by an International Working Party. Published by the American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, 2004. For information on ordering the book >
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