Israel and the Middle East: Key Events
1881
Start of the first great aliya, or mass immigration of Jews to the Holy Land. There had always been a Jewish population - much smaller than the Palestinian one - and over the centuries there had been sporadic immigration of Jews from the diaspora.
But 1881 marked the first organised movement back to Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. The first olim (literally, the ascenders) came from Russia and Yemen. The movement greatly accelerated during and after vicious pogroms against the Jews of Russia and Romania.
In 1881, the Jewish population of what is now Israel numbered around 24,000. In the following 20 years, it is estimated that 30-40,000 Jewish immigrants arrived. During the period, the land was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, who called it Palestine and regarded it as part of southern Syria. It was administratively divided into three parts.
1896
Publication of Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl, the founding father of the Zionist movement. The book was received with derision by leading European Jews, but struck an immediate chord with those who were regularly persecuted and vilified.
1897
First Zionist congress, in Basle. Jewish delegates from across Europe accept the notion of a national homeland, though they are less clear about where it should be and how it can be achieved. The seeds are sown for the World Zionist Organisation.
1916
The Sykes-Picot agreement. In the midst of the first world war, with millions dying on the western front, the imperially-minded French and British governments reach an understanding on how the Middle East should be carved, post war, into zones of influence.
1917
The Balfour declaration. A masterpiece of political obfuscation, in which the British foreign minister ArthurBalfour, writing to Lord Rothschild of the World Zionist Organisation, promises all things to all men: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
1920
Under the terms of the Versailles peace conference, Britain is mandated to govern what is now Israel, the occupied territories and Jordan.
Herbert Samuel, a former Liberal cabinet minister and prominent British Jew, becomes first High Commissioner. The mandate requires Britain to implement the Balfour declaration, and stipulates that the civil power should "facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage close settlement by Jews on the land".
The Jewish population of the Holy Land had shrunk to some 60,000 during the last years of Turkish rule. The postwar years saw renewed immigration, with some 35,000 people arriving from Europe and America in the years 1919-23. To the alarm of the existing Arab population, the Zionist movement was now acquiring teeth:
1920 saw the foundation of the armed Jewish protection movement, the Haganah.
1922
The first British white paper on Palestine. The territory is divided into two administrative districts. The larger, eastern, part of the mandated territory is to be known as Transjordan. It is given a measure of autonomy under its new Hashemite emir, Abdullah, who had been expelled from Saudi Arabia. To the rage of militant Zionists, the British dictate that Jews will be permitted to settle only to the west of the Jordan rift valley.
1929
Alarmed by the rapid expansion of Jewish settlement, Arabs riot in many areas. More than 130 Jews are killed. The riots are a precursor to a more bloody Arab uprising in 1936, in which Palestinian and Jewish paramilitary groups clash for the first time. The latter are aided to victory by a young , fanatically Christian and Zionist army officer, Orde Wingate .
1937
In the midst of the Palestinian uprising, the Peel commission suggests that the Holy Land be partitioned into Jewish and Arab zones.
1938
Any lingering doubts about Nazi intentions in Germany is removed by the vicious savagery of Kristallnacht.
1939
The British set out well meaning but hopelessly impractical proposals for an independent Palestine, within 10 years, in which power will be shared by Jews and Arabs.
1939
Outbreak of the second world war, and the dawning, sickening, realisation that Hitler is intent on a final solution of the Jewish issue - that is, genocide.
1944
The militant Jewish underground group Irgun Zva'i Le'umi, under future prime minister Menachim Begin, tires of collaboration in the war effort, and declares war on the British rulers of Palestine.
1946
Britain grants independence to Transjordan, which becomes the kingdom of Jordan. The British continue to administer the area west of the Jordan river, still known as Palestine. The militant Jewish campaign for independence grows more vicious, culminating in the bombing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem.
1947
In November 1947 the general assembly of the United Nations votes to partition Palestine, dividing it into Jewish and Arab controlled parts. The Jews accept the UN plan, but the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab nations indignantly reject it.
1948
With Arab armies closing in on all sides, David BenGurion declares Israeli independence. The infant nation is already fighting for its life.
1949
In spite of overwhelming numerical superiority, the Arab armies are soundly defeated by Israel's fledgling army. A series of armistice agreements are signed with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria . At least 700,000 Palestinians are now refugees.
1956
Egyptian nationalist hero Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez canal, provoking a disastrous military response by Britain and France. Israel, with the clandestine approval of London and Paris, invades and conquers the Sinai peninsula. Washington, appalled by the imperialist adventure, compels Britain, France and Israel to withdraw.
1961
Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of Hitler's final solution, is captured in a daring Mossad operation in Argentina, and smuggled back to Israel. He faces a dramatic trial - the first ever to be televised - and is sentenced to death for genocide. He is the first and only man to be judicially executed in Israel.
1967
Egged on by Nasser, Arab armies mass on Israel's borders. In an audacious and brilliant pre-emptive strike, Israeli forces hurl themselves at Egypt, Jordan and Syria, capturing Sinai and the Gaza Srip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. The war lasts just six days, and results in the abject defeat of the Arabs. The United Nations security council passes resolution 242, demanding Israeli withdrawal from the conquered territories. It is still waiting.
1968
The nascent Palestine Liberation Organisation adopts its national charter, insisting that Palestinians everywhere have a right to their own homeland.
1969
Yasser Arafat is elected chairman of the PLO.
1971
Black September. Three passenger airliners are hijacked by PLO militants and flown to Jordan. Responding to western outrage, Jordan's King Hussein orders his army to destroy the PLO. After bloody fighting, the Palestinian leadership is driven out, and re-bases in Lebanon.
1972
Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympics. Israel vows to track down and eliminate all those responsible. All but two of the 11 identified killers or planners of the operation have since been assassinated .
1973
Yom Kippur war. In October on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian forces launch surprise attacks across the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights. After initial reverses, the Israelis strike back hard, regaining all and more of the ground initially lost. For the first time, Israel is shown to be vulnerable. The shockwaves of the war undermine and ultimately destroy the remarkable career of Israel's first and only woman prime minister, Golda Meir.
1976
Israel's military pride is restored with the remarkable raid on Entebbe, in Uganda, in which a plane load of hijacked hostages are rescued.
1977
To the astonishment of the world, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat flies to Israel and addresses the Knesset (parliament), as a prelude to an utterly unexpected peace agreement.
1978
The Israeli-Egyptian peace is consolidated in the Camp David accords, brokered by US president Jimmy Carter.
1981
Acting on fears that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is developing nuclear weapons, Israeli warplanes destroy the nuclear reactor at Osirak.
1987
Outbreak of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the occupied territories.
1993
The world is yet again astonished by the revelation of secret peace talks, in Norway, between Israel and the PLO. The deal is made flesh when Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands at the White House.
1994
Baruch Goldstein, a demented Jewish zealot in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron, goes beserk in the town's most historic mosque, killing 29 Arabs with his assault rifle.
1995
Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli general turned peacemaker prime minister, is shot dead after a peace rally in Tel Aviv, by a young Jewish fanatic, Yigal Amir.
1996
A series of ghastly suicide bombings on crowded buses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, undermines the peace process and the government headed by veteran peacemaker Shimon Peres. In general elections he is comprehensively defeated by rightwing opponent Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu.
1999
The scandal-prone government of Binyamin Netanyahu is replaced in general elections by a Labour-led coalition headed by former army chief Ehud Barak, who promises to deliver a final peace settlement with the Palestinians.
2000
Peace negotiations come tantalisingly close to a final settlement at the so-called Camp David II talks, but break down over the future status of Jerusalem. In the wake of the failure, Palestinian anger erupts when rightwing leader Ariel Sharon visits the main Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. Within days, scores are dead. Bill Clinton, in his final months in the White House, tries to revive the peace process, but without success.
2001
The death toll mounts inexorably. By the end of the year more than 1000 are dead, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians. Successive US attempts to secure a ceasefire, initiated by Sen George Mitchell and CIA director George Tenet, come to nothing. America's new president, George Bush, endorses the idea of a Palestinian state, but cools towards Yasser Arafat in the wake of the September 11 atrocities in New York and Washington. Israel, now led by Ariel Sharon, mounts ferocious assaults on the Palestinian territories, and describes Arafat as an "irrelevance".
Start of the first great aliya, or mass immigration of Jews to the Holy Land. There had always been a Jewish population - much smaller than the Palestinian one - and over the centuries there had been sporadic immigration of Jews from the diaspora.
But 1881 marked the first organised movement back to Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. The first olim (literally, the ascenders) came from Russia and Yemen. The movement greatly accelerated during and after vicious pogroms against the Jews of Russia and Romania.
In 1881, the Jewish population of what is now Israel numbered around 24,000. In the following 20 years, it is estimated that 30-40,000 Jewish immigrants arrived. During the period, the land was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, who called it Palestine and regarded it as part of southern Syria. It was administratively divided into three parts.
1896
Publication of Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl, the founding father of the Zionist movement. The book was received with derision by leading European Jews, but struck an immediate chord with those who were regularly persecuted and vilified.
1897
First Zionist congress, in Basle. Jewish delegates from across Europe accept the notion of a national homeland, though they are less clear about where it should be and how it can be achieved. The seeds are sown for the World Zionist Organisation.
1916
The Sykes-Picot agreement. In the midst of the first world war, with millions dying on the western front, the imperially-minded French and British governments reach an understanding on how the Middle East should be carved, post war, into zones of influence.
1917
The Balfour declaration. A masterpiece of political obfuscation, in which the British foreign minister ArthurBalfour, writing to Lord Rothschild of the World Zionist Organisation, promises all things to all men: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
1920
Under the terms of the Versailles peace conference, Britain is mandated to govern what is now Israel, the occupied territories and Jordan.
Herbert Samuel, a former Liberal cabinet minister and prominent British Jew, becomes first High Commissioner. The mandate requires Britain to implement the Balfour declaration, and stipulates that the civil power should "facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage close settlement by Jews on the land".
The Jewish population of the Holy Land had shrunk to some 60,000 during the last years of Turkish rule. The postwar years saw renewed immigration, with some 35,000 people arriving from Europe and America in the years 1919-23. To the alarm of the existing Arab population, the Zionist movement was now acquiring teeth:
1920 saw the foundation of the armed Jewish protection movement, the Haganah.
1922
The first British white paper on Palestine. The territory is divided into two administrative districts. The larger, eastern, part of the mandated territory is to be known as Transjordan. It is given a measure of autonomy under its new Hashemite emir, Abdullah, who had been expelled from Saudi Arabia. To the rage of militant Zionists, the British dictate that Jews will be permitted to settle only to the west of the Jordan rift valley.
1929
Alarmed by the rapid expansion of Jewish settlement, Arabs riot in many areas. More than 130 Jews are killed. The riots are a precursor to a more bloody Arab uprising in 1936, in which Palestinian and Jewish paramilitary groups clash for the first time. The latter are aided to victory by a young , fanatically Christian and Zionist army officer, Orde Wingate .
1937
In the midst of the Palestinian uprising, the Peel commission suggests that the Holy Land be partitioned into Jewish and Arab zones.
1938
Any lingering doubts about Nazi intentions in Germany is removed by the vicious savagery of Kristallnacht.
1939
The British set out well meaning but hopelessly impractical proposals for an independent Palestine, within 10 years, in which power will be shared by Jews and Arabs.
1939
Outbreak of the second world war, and the dawning, sickening, realisation that Hitler is intent on a final solution of the Jewish issue - that is, genocide.
1944
The militant Jewish underground group Irgun Zva'i Le'umi, under future prime minister Menachim Begin, tires of collaboration in the war effort, and declares war on the British rulers of Palestine.
1946
Britain grants independence to Transjordan, which becomes the kingdom of Jordan. The British continue to administer the area west of the Jordan river, still known as Palestine. The militant Jewish campaign for independence grows more vicious, culminating in the bombing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem.
1947
In November 1947 the general assembly of the United Nations votes to partition Palestine, dividing it into Jewish and Arab controlled parts. The Jews accept the UN plan, but the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab nations indignantly reject it.
1948
With Arab armies closing in on all sides, David BenGurion declares Israeli independence. The infant nation is already fighting for its life.
1949
In spite of overwhelming numerical superiority, the Arab armies are soundly defeated by Israel's fledgling army. A series of armistice agreements are signed with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria . At least 700,000 Palestinians are now refugees.
1956
Egyptian nationalist hero Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez canal, provoking a disastrous military response by Britain and France. Israel, with the clandestine approval of London and Paris, invades and conquers the Sinai peninsula. Washington, appalled by the imperialist adventure, compels Britain, France and Israel to withdraw.
1961
Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of Hitler's final solution, is captured in a daring Mossad operation in Argentina, and smuggled back to Israel. He faces a dramatic trial - the first ever to be televised - and is sentenced to death for genocide. He is the first and only man to be judicially executed in Israel.
1967
Egged on by Nasser, Arab armies mass on Israel's borders. In an audacious and brilliant pre-emptive strike, Israeli forces hurl themselves at Egypt, Jordan and Syria, capturing Sinai and the Gaza Srip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. The war lasts just six days, and results in the abject defeat of the Arabs. The United Nations security council passes resolution 242, demanding Israeli withdrawal from the conquered territories. It is still waiting.
1968
The nascent Palestine Liberation Organisation adopts its national charter, insisting that Palestinians everywhere have a right to their own homeland.
1969
Yasser Arafat is elected chairman of the PLO.
1971
Black September. Three passenger airliners are hijacked by PLO militants and flown to Jordan. Responding to western outrage, Jordan's King Hussein orders his army to destroy the PLO. After bloody fighting, the Palestinian leadership is driven out, and re-bases in Lebanon.
1972
Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympics. Israel vows to track down and eliminate all those responsible. All but two of the 11 identified killers or planners of the operation have since been assassinated .
1973
Yom Kippur war. In October on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian forces launch surprise attacks across the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights. After initial reverses, the Israelis strike back hard, regaining all and more of the ground initially lost. For the first time, Israel is shown to be vulnerable. The shockwaves of the war undermine and ultimately destroy the remarkable career of Israel's first and only woman prime minister, Golda Meir.
1976
Israel's military pride is restored with the remarkable raid on Entebbe, in Uganda, in which a plane load of hijacked hostages are rescued.
1977
To the astonishment of the world, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat flies to Israel and addresses the Knesset (parliament), as a prelude to an utterly unexpected peace agreement.
1978
The Israeli-Egyptian peace is consolidated in the Camp David accords, brokered by US president Jimmy Carter.
1981
Acting on fears that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is developing nuclear weapons, Israeli warplanes destroy the nuclear reactor at Osirak.
1987
Outbreak of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the occupied territories.
1993
The world is yet again astonished by the revelation of secret peace talks, in Norway, between Israel and the PLO. The deal is made flesh when Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands at the White House.
1994
Baruch Goldstein, a demented Jewish zealot in the flashpoint West Bank town of Hebron, goes beserk in the town's most historic mosque, killing 29 Arabs with his assault rifle.
1995
Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli general turned peacemaker prime minister, is shot dead after a peace rally in Tel Aviv, by a young Jewish fanatic, Yigal Amir.
1996
A series of ghastly suicide bombings on crowded buses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, undermines the peace process and the government headed by veteran peacemaker Shimon Peres. In general elections he is comprehensively defeated by rightwing opponent Binyamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu.
1999
The scandal-prone government of Binyamin Netanyahu is replaced in general elections by a Labour-led coalition headed by former army chief Ehud Barak, who promises to deliver a final peace settlement with the Palestinians.
2000
Peace negotiations come tantalisingly close to a final settlement at the so-called Camp David II talks, but break down over the future status of Jerusalem. In the wake of the failure, Palestinian anger erupts when rightwing leader Ariel Sharon visits the main Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. Within days, scores are dead. Bill Clinton, in his final months in the White House, tries to revive the peace process, but without success.
2001
The death toll mounts inexorably. By the end of the year more than 1000 are dead, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians. Successive US attempts to secure a ceasefire, initiated by Sen George Mitchell and CIA director George Tenet, come to nothing. America's new president, George Bush, endorses the idea of a Palestinian state, but cools towards Yasser Arafat in the wake of the September 11 atrocities in New York and Washington. Israel, now led by Ariel Sharon, mounts ferocious assaults on the Palestinian territories, and describes Arafat as an "irrelevance".
posted by R7 | 9/12/2004 03:31:00 AM
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