PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: THE BEGINNING
NOTE: THIS IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. THE COMPLETED TIMELINE WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A PDF AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SERIES.
The Palestine-Israel Conflict has been in the news again and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Peace negotiations have been at an impasse since 2008.
Today (November 29, 2012), the Palestinians, frustrated by slow or no progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, are taking their case to the United Nations General Assembly. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state would accord it the same status as the Vatican. This would be a largely symbolic step, but Israel and the US oppose the idea, saying it’s an attempt to bypass negotiations.
According to The Washington Post, passage of the resolution is a move
that will strengthen Palestinians’ legal basis for pursuing possible war-crimes prosecutions against Israeli troops and set up a showdown with the United States and Israel.
Although the vote would not confer the status of a full-fledged member, it could pave the way for admission in other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court, that do not require parties to be full-fledged members of the United Nations.
Still, the resolution wouldn’t get the Palestinians any closer to statehood. US officials say a negotiated settlement with Israel is the only way to establish a Palestinian state. Also, a country’s vote in favor of the status change doesn’t automatically imply its recognition of a Palestinian state. This is something that must be done bilaterally.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders are at odds over the ramifications of the vote. Earlier this month, Israel warned that, if the resolution passed, it could cancel the 1993 Oslo accords and dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said
the recognition of an independent state of Palestine in the UN General Assembly will not advance the Palestinians’ quest for a homeland. . . Palestinians will not win a state until they recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, declare an end to their conflict with the Jewish state and agree to security arrangements that protect Israel.
Palestinian leaders, on the other hand, say
we need U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967, to be able to resume negotiations with Israel. . . global recognition of the 1967 lines as the borders of Palestine is meant to salvage a peace deal, not sabotage it, as Israel claims.
We will have to listen to what President Abbas says at the UN to know for sure, but the Huffington Post is reporting that
the recognition request presented to the world body in fact calls for a quick resumption of negotiations on all core issues of the conflict, including borders.
It goes on to say that
Netanyahu’s predecessors accepted the 1967 lines as a basis for border talks. Netanyahu has rejected the idea, while pressing ahead with Jewish settlement building on war-won land, giving Abbas little incentive to negotiate.
The vote has been timed to occur on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and also coincides with the 65th anniversary of the General Assembly resolution that called for the division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Most impartial observers believe that it’s long past time to make progress toward a negotiated two-state solution. Skeptics note, however, that a two-state solution seems farther away than ever.
How did things get to the place they are today, and can either side claim the moral high ground?
I’m not going to even attempt to answer this question, but I do want to do the best I can to provide you with an objective timeline. Today we’ll start with the emergence of Political Zionism and continue through the Balfour Declaration
NOTE: THIS IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. THE COMPLETED TIMELINE WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A PDF AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SERIES.
The Palestine-Israel Conflict has been in the news again and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Peace negotiations have been at an impasse since 2008.
Today (November 29, 2012), the Palestinians, frustrated by slow or no progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, are taking their case to the United Nations General Assembly. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is determined to seek recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state would accord it the same status as the Vatican. This would be a largely symbolic step, but Israel and the US oppose the idea, saying it’s an attempt to bypass negotiations.
According to The Washington Post, passage of the resolution is a move
that will strengthen Palestinians’ legal basis for pursuing possible war-crimes prosecutions against Israeli troops and set up a showdown with the United States and Israel.Although the vote would not confer the status of a full-fledged member, it could pave the way for admission in other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court, that do not require parties to be full-fledged members of the United Nations.
Still, the resolution wouldn’t get the Palestinians any closer to statehood. US officials say a negotiated settlement with Israel is the only way to establish a Palestinian state. Also, a country’s vote in favor of the status change doesn’t automatically imply its recognition of a Palestinian state. This is something that must be done bilaterally.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders are at odds over the ramifications of the vote. Earlier this month, Israel warned that, if the resolution passed, it could cancel the 1993 Oslo accords and dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said
the recognition of an independent state of Palestine in the UN General Assembly will not advance the Palestinians’ quest for a homeland. . . Palestinians will not win a state until they recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, declare an end to their conflict with the Jewish state and agree to security arrangements that protect Israel.
Palestinian leaders, on the other hand, say
we need U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967, to be able to resume negotiations with Israel. . . global recognition of the 1967 lines as the borders of Palestine is meant to salvage a peace deal, not sabotage it, as Israel claims.
We will have to listen to what President Abbas says at the UN to know for sure, but the Huffington Post is reporting that
the recognition request presented to the world body in fact calls for a quick resumption of negotiations on all core issues of the conflict, including borders.
It goes on to say that
Netanyahu’s predecessors accepted the 1967 lines as a basis for border talks. Netanyahu has rejected the idea, while pressing ahead with Jewish settlement building on war-won land, giving Abbas little incentive to negotiate.
The vote has been timed to occur on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and also coincides with the 65th anniversary of the General Assembly resolution that called for the division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Most impartial observers believe that it’s long past time to make progress toward a negotiated two-state solution. Skeptics note, however, that a two-state solution seems farther away than ever.
How did things get to the place they are today, and can either side claim the moral high ground?
I’m not going to even attempt to answer this question, but I do want to do the best I can to provide you with an objective timeline. Today we’ll start with the emergence of Political Zionism and continue through the Balfour Declaration
TIMELINE: POLITICAL ZIONISM AND THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
65 BC: Jews are dispersed from Palestine by the Roman Conquest.
Last decades of 19th century: In Russia and Poland, active persecution of Jewish Communities intensifies.
Millions of East European Jews migrate to the United States.
Modern political Zionism – Jewish nationalism focusing on Palestine– originates in Russia. Jewish groups form to expedite Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1882: Leo Pinsker writes Autoemancipation calling for the establishment of an independent Jewish state. National identity is more important to Pinsker than religion, and he doesn’t insist that the Jewish state be in Palestine.
1884: Scattered Jewish Groups, organized under a central coordinating agency, take the name the Lovers of Zion.
1880s and 1890s: The Lovers of Zion sponsor small, relatively unsuccessful, agricultural settlements in Palestine.
1890s: A variety of Zionist organizations emerge, each with its own solution to the problems of Jewish identity and persecution. Still, Zionism remains an uncoordinated movement without direction.
1896: Theodore Herzl forges Zionism into a coherent international movement. He writes The Jewish State—as much a treatise on nationalism as religion. This provides the ideological basis for political Zionism; Herzl (like Pinsker) does not specify Palestine as the location of the future Jewish state.
1897: The first Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, attracting over 200 delegates. The Congress resolves that the objective of Zionism is to secure a legally recognized home in Palestine for the Jewish people. It also agrees to establish the World Zionist Organization as the central administrative organ of the Zionist movement. The Zionist Congress meets yearly after 1897.
1904: Theodore Herzl dies without obtaining external Great Power support for a legally recognized home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
1904: Russian born Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist spokesman in London, keeps the question of Zionism before the British cabinet and cultivates ties with well-placed officials and public figures. The British cabinet recognizes that British support for Zionism has the potential to serve British imperial interests.
November 2, 1917: The British issue the Balfour Declaration, declaring their support for Zionist objectives in Palestine. The Declaration states:
His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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 the Jews in any other country.
65 BC: Jews are dispersed from Palestine by the Roman Conquest.
Last decades of 19th century: In Russia and Poland, active persecution of Jewish Communities intensifies.
Millions of East European Jews migrate to the United States.
Modern political Zionism – Jewish nationalism focusing on Palestine– originates in Russia. Jewish groups form to expedite Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1882: Leo Pinsker writes Autoemancipation calling for the establishment of an independent Jewish state. National identity is more important to Pinsker than religion, and he doesn’t insist that the Jewish state be in Palestine.
1884: Scattered Jewish Groups, organized under a central coordinating agency, take the name the Lovers of Zion.
1880s and 1890s: The Lovers of Zion sponsor small, relatively unsuccessful, agricultural settlements in Palestine.
1890s: A variety of Zionist organizations emerge, each with its own solution to the problems of Jewish identity and persecution. Still, Zionism remains an uncoordinated movement without direction.
1896: Theodore Herzl forges Zionism into a coherent international movement. He writes The Jewish State—as much a treatise on nationalism as religion. This provides the ideological basis for political Zionism; Herzl (like Pinsker) does not specify Palestine as the location of the future Jewish state.
1897: The first Zionist Congress convenes in Basel, attracting over 200 delegates. The Congress resolves that the objective of Zionism is to secure a legally recognized home in Palestine for the Jewish people. It also agrees to establish the World Zionist Organization as the central administrative organ of the Zionist movement. The Zionist Congress meets yearly after 1897.
1904: Theodore Herzl dies without obtaining external Great Power support for a legally recognized home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
1904: Russian born Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist spokesman in London, keeps the question of Zionism before the British cabinet and cultivates ties with well-placed officials and public figures. The British cabinet recognizes that British support for Zionism has the potential to serve British imperial interests.
November 2, 1917: The British issue the Balfour Declaration, declaring their support for Zionist objectives in Palestine. The Declaration states:
His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors 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 the Jews in any other country.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1917-1929
Photograph from the League of Nations of prayers at the Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in 1929. This image is from the collections of The British National Archives.
NOTE: THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. THE COMPLETED TIMELINE WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A PDF AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SERIES.
With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the British government established a mandate giving them power over the (Palestinian) territory for a period of 28 years (1920-1948). In essence:
A small territory that had been inhabited by an Arab majority for some 1,200 years was promised by a third party (Great Britain) as a national home to another people (the international Jewish community), the majority of whom lived in Eastern Europe.
The territory that became the Palestine mandate was not a distinctive administrative entity during the Ottoman era. It was regarded as part of southern Syria and was divided between the provinces of Beirut and Damascus and the special administrative unit of Jerusalem.
The territory was only slightly larger than the US State of Massachusetts. Still, since the inception of the mandate, it has generated 5 wars, created over 1 million refugees, and created misunderstanding and bitterness among almost everyone involved.
The last post (Palestine-Israel Timeline: The Beginning) ended with Britain’s issuance of the Balfour Declaration, declaring support for Zionist objectives in Palestine. Today we’ll pick up where we left off in 1917.
Photograph from the League of Nations of prayers at the Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in 1929. This image is from the collections of The British National Archives.
NOTE: THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. THE COMPLETED TIMELINE WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A PDF AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SERIES.
With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the British government established a mandate giving them power over the (Palestinian) territory for a period of 28 years (1920-1948). In essence:
A small territory that had been inhabited by an Arab majority for some 1,200 years was promised by a third party (Great Britain) as a national home to another people (the international Jewish community), the majority of whom lived in Eastern Europe.
The territory that became the Palestine mandate was not a distinctive administrative entity during the Ottoman era. It was regarded as part of southern Syria and was divided between the provinces of Beirut and Damascus and the special administrative unit of Jerusalem.
The territory was only slightly larger than the US State of Massachusetts. Still, since the inception of the mandate, it has generated 5 wars, created over 1 million refugees, and created misunderstanding and bitterness among almost everyone involved.
The last post (Palestine-Israel Timeline: The Beginning) ended with Britain’s issuance of the Balfour Declaration, declaring support for Zionist objectives in Palestine. Today we’ll pick up where we left off in 1917.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE:1917-1929
1917: The Zionist Organization of America is founded under the leadership of Louis Brandeis.
December 1917: The British capture Jerusalem and detach Palestine from Ottoman rule. The area is placed under British military occupation from 1917 to 1920.
1918-1919: Local branches of Muslim-Christian organizations form in large Palestinian towns. January 3, 1919. Arab King Faisal representing the Arabs, signs an Agreement with Weizmann representing the Jews, that Palestine is Jewish territory.
1919: Thirty or so delegates from local Muslim-Christian organizations gather in Jerusalem and constitute themselves as the first Palestinian Congress. The congress agrees to meet annually and adopts resolutions affecting relationships among the Arab community, the Zionists, and the British.
January 1919: Chaim Weizmann pledges that the Jewish community will cooperate with the Arabs in the economic development of Palestine. In return, Faisal of Syria – the leading Arab personality of the time — recognizes the Balfour Declaration. He consents to Jewish immigration so long as the rights of Palestinian Arabs are protected and Arab demands for the independence of Greater Syria are recognized. Faisal does agree to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. When the French occupy Syria in 1920, the provisions of the Faisal-Weizmann agreement are violated by the french and the document is not enforced.
1919-1923: The 3rd aliyah brings about 30,000 immigrants to Palestine, mainly from Eastern Europe. (Note: Jewish immigration to Palestine occurred in a series of waves called aliyahs. The first two aliyahs took place before World War I.)
1920: The San Remo Conference awards Britain the mandate for Palestine, and military government is replaced by a civilian administration. The British were a trustee and is obligated to encourage and promote Jewish immigration and the reconstituting of the Jewish State in its ancestral land, which was renamed Palestine by the Romans.
1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and an ardent Zionist, is appointed civilian high commissioner. Offering further encouragement to the Zionists, Samuel follows the terms of the Mandate and interprets his task as facilitating the establishment of the Jewish national home. The Zionists interpret the term national home to mean a Jewish state in Palestine. At this time, Arab and other inhabitants constitute over 80% of the population, numbering 668,258 individuals.
1920: The Third Palestinian Congress establishes a standing executive under the presidency of Kazim al-Husayni, a former mayor of Jerusalem. Called the Arab Executive, the group claims to represent all Palestinians, but the British refuse to accept it and it fails to secure either mass support or formal access to the high commissioner’s office.
1920: A Jewish national assembly is constituted and is composed of some 300 delegates who select from among themselves the members of the national council or Va ad Leumi. The council is empowered to make administrative decisions on behalf of the Jewish community and is treated by the mandate government as the legitimate representative of Palestinian Jewry.
1920: Histadrut, the Federation of Jewish Labor, is founded to promote Jewish trade unionism, exerting a decisive influence on the ideology and politics of both the Yishuv (the name of the Jewish community in Palestine before 1948) and the future state of Israel. It institutes a boycott of Arab workers and Arab products.
1920: Haganah, a Jewish defense force, forms in response to Arab riots.
1920: The World Zionist Organization transfers its headquarters to London and Chaim Weizmann becomes its president.
1921: Samuel creates the Supreme Muslim Council as an autonomous body charged with the management of all Islamic institutions within the mandate.
1921: The World Zionist Organization creates the Palestine Zionist Executive.
1922: Hajj Amin, the mufti of Jerusalem and the most prestigious religious figure in Palestine, is elected president of the Supreme Muslim Council. He acquires control of a vast patronage network and transforms his religious authority into the most extensive Arab political organization in Palestine. The mufti urges restraint on his followers and demonstrates a willingness to cooperate with the British in seeking a negotiated solution to the question of Jewish immigration.
1922: The newly created League of Nations gives formal sanction to the British Mandate and adds provisions that raise Zionist expectations and alarm Arab inhabitants. The terms of the League mandate incorporate the Balfour Declaration and recognize Hebrew as the official language in Palestine.
1922: Samuel proposes a constitution that calls for the creation of a legislative council composed of elected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish representatives plus 11 members nominated by the high commissioner. Arab leaders reject the plan, refusing to serve in any constitutional government that doesn’t annul the Balfour Declaration.
1922: The British government issues a White Paper that serves as the basis for a policy of dual obligation. The ‘paper’ says that the development of a ‘national home’ doesn’t mean the imposition of Jewish nationality on the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole. But it also says that the Jewish people have a right to be in Palestine and that Palestine should “become a center in which the Jewish people as a whole could take pride on the grounds of religion and race.”
1923: Samuel’s constitutional plan is shelved. He attempts to form an advisory council consisting of 10 Arab and 2 Jewish representatives nominated by the high commissioner. Arab nominees refuse to serve.
1924-1926: The fourth aliyah brings 50,000 immigrants to Palestine, primarily from Poland.
1929: The Palestine Zionist Executive is reorganized as the Jewish Agency, a quasi-government of the Jewish community in Palestine. The Chairman of the Jewish Agency is provided regular access to the high commissioner and other British officials.
August 1929: A disturbance erupts over Jewish right of access to the remains of the Western, or Wailing, Wall. Jews regard the wall as a holy site, but Muslims also have deep religious attachments to the wall and its immediate surroundings. At the time of the mandate, the wall was placed under Muslim jurisdiction, but Jewish activists constantly challenge regulations governing its use. Violent confrontations occur when Arab mobs, provoked by Jewish demonstrators, attack two Jewish quarters in Jerusalem and kill Jews. By the time British forces bring the violence under control, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are dead.
September 1929: London sends the first of many royal investigative commissions, the (Walter) Shaw Commission, to Palestine. The commission concludes that the main source of tension is the creation of a landless class of discontented Arabs along with widespread Arab fear that continued Jewish immigration will result in a Jewish dominated Palestine. Instead of dealing with the Commission’s report, the British decide to send another commission of inquiry to Palestine.
1917: The Zionist Organization of America is founded under the leadership of Louis Brandeis.
December 1917: The British capture Jerusalem and detach Palestine from Ottoman rule. The area is placed under British military occupation from 1917 to 1920.
1918-1919: Local branches of Muslim-Christian organizations form in large Palestinian towns. January 3, 1919. Arab King Faisal representing the Arabs, signs an Agreement with Weizmann representing the Jews, that Palestine is Jewish territory.
1919: Thirty or so delegates from local Muslim-Christian organizations gather in Jerusalem and constitute themselves as the first Palestinian Congress. The congress agrees to meet annually and adopts resolutions affecting relationships among the Arab community, the Zionists, and the British.
January 1919: Chaim Weizmann pledges that the Jewish community will cooperate with the Arabs in the economic development of Palestine. In return, Faisal of Syria – the leading Arab personality of the time — recognizes the Balfour Declaration. He consents to Jewish immigration so long as the rights of Palestinian Arabs are protected and Arab demands for the independence of Greater Syria are recognized. Faisal does agree to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. When the French occupy Syria in 1920, the provisions of the Faisal-Weizmann agreement are violated by the french and the document is not enforced.
1919-1923: The 3rd aliyah brings about 30,000 immigrants to Palestine, mainly from Eastern Europe. (Note: Jewish immigration to Palestine occurred in a series of waves called aliyahs. The first two aliyahs took place before World War I.)
1920: The San Remo Conference awards Britain the mandate for Palestine, and military government is replaced by a civilian administration. The British were a trustee and is obligated to encourage and promote Jewish immigration and the reconstituting of the Jewish State in its ancestral land, which was renamed Palestine by the Romans.
1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and an ardent Zionist, is appointed civilian high commissioner. Offering further encouragement to the Zionists, Samuel follows the terms of the Mandate and interprets his task as facilitating the establishment of the Jewish national home. The Zionists interpret the term national home to mean a Jewish state in Palestine. At this time, Arab and other inhabitants constitute over 80% of the population, numbering 668,258 individuals.
1920: The Third Palestinian Congress establishes a standing executive under the presidency of Kazim al-Husayni, a former mayor of Jerusalem. Called the Arab Executive, the group claims to represent all Palestinians, but the British refuse to accept it and it fails to secure either mass support or formal access to the high commissioner’s office.
1920: A Jewish national assembly is constituted and is composed of some 300 delegates who select from among themselves the members of the national council or Va ad Leumi. The council is empowered to make administrative decisions on behalf of the Jewish community and is treated by the mandate government as the legitimate representative of Palestinian Jewry.
1920: Histadrut, the Federation of Jewish Labor, is founded to promote Jewish trade unionism, exerting a decisive influence on the ideology and politics of both the Yishuv (the name of the Jewish community in Palestine before 1948) and the future state of Israel. It institutes a boycott of Arab workers and Arab products.
1920: Haganah, a Jewish defense force, forms in response to Arab riots.
1920: The World Zionist Organization transfers its headquarters to London and Chaim Weizmann becomes its president.
1921: Samuel creates the Supreme Muslim Council as an autonomous body charged with the management of all Islamic institutions within the mandate.
1921: The World Zionist Organization creates the Palestine Zionist Executive.
1922: Hajj Amin, the mufti of Jerusalem and the most prestigious religious figure in Palestine, is elected president of the Supreme Muslim Council. He acquires control of a vast patronage network and transforms his religious authority into the most extensive Arab political organization in Palestine. The mufti urges restraint on his followers and demonstrates a willingness to cooperate with the British in seeking a negotiated solution to the question of Jewish immigration.
1922: The newly created League of Nations gives formal sanction to the British Mandate and adds provisions that raise Zionist expectations and alarm Arab inhabitants. The terms of the League mandate incorporate the Balfour Declaration and recognize Hebrew as the official language in Palestine.
1922: Samuel proposes a constitution that calls for the creation of a legislative council composed of elected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish representatives plus 11 members nominated by the high commissioner. Arab leaders reject the plan, refusing to serve in any constitutional government that doesn’t annul the Balfour Declaration.
1922: The British government issues a White Paper that serves as the basis for a policy of dual obligation. The ‘paper’ says that the development of a ‘national home’ doesn’t mean the imposition of Jewish nationality on the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole. But it also says that the Jewish people have a right to be in Palestine and that Palestine should “become a center in which the Jewish people as a whole could take pride on the grounds of religion and race.”
1923: Samuel’s constitutional plan is shelved. He attempts to form an advisory council consisting of 10 Arab and 2 Jewish representatives nominated by the high commissioner. Arab nominees refuse to serve.
1924-1926: The fourth aliyah brings 50,000 immigrants to Palestine, primarily from Poland.
1929: The Palestine Zionist Executive is reorganized as the Jewish Agency, a quasi-government of the Jewish community in Palestine. The Chairman of the Jewish Agency is provided regular access to the high commissioner and other British officials.
August 1929: A disturbance erupts over Jewish right of access to the remains of the Western, or Wailing, Wall. Jews regard the wall as a holy site, but Muslims also have deep religious attachments to the wall and its immediate surroundings. At the time of the mandate, the wall was placed under Muslim jurisdiction, but Jewish activists constantly challenge regulations governing its use. Violent confrontations occur when Arab mobs, provoked by Jewish demonstrators, attack two Jewish quarters in Jerusalem and kill Jews. By the time British forces bring the violence under control, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are dead.
September 1929: London sends the first of many royal investigative commissions, the (Walter) Shaw Commission, to Palestine. The commission concludes that the main source of tension is the creation of a landless class of discontented Arabs along with widespread Arab fear that continued Jewish immigration will result in a Jewish dominated Palestine. Instead of dealing with the Commission’s report, the British decide to send another commission of inquiry to Palestine.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1930-1939
NOTE: THIS IS THE THIRD IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. THE COMPLETED TIMELINE WILL BE AVAILABLE AS A PDF AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SERIES.
The last post (Palestine-Israel Timeline: 1917-1929) ended as Britain was sending another commission of inquiry to Palestine. Today we’ll pick up where we left off at the end of 1929.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE:1930-1939
1930: The Hope-Simpson Commission conducts its investigation and publishes a statement of policy known as the Passfield White Paper. The Commission declares that Palestine has a limited absorptive capacity and proposes restrictions on further Jewish immigration. Zionists mount a concerted effort to have the entire document withdrawn.
1930: Two labor groups merge to form the Mapai Party, a group that dominates the political life of the Yishuv and the state of Israel until 1977. The party represents the socialist egalitarian ideal, holding the view that the interests of labor and of Zionism are identical. David Ben-Gurion becomes the party’s leader.
February 1931: Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald repudiates the Passfield White Paper, known to Arabs as the Black Letter.
1933: The Revisionists form a separate movement within Zionism and set up their own military force in Palestine, the Irgun, a fiercely nationalistic organization. The group calls for massive Jewish immigration into Palestine and the immediate proclamation of a Jewish commonwealth.
1933-1936: The fifth aliyah brings about 170,000 Jews to Palestine, doubling the size of the Yishuv and creating widespread alarm within the Arab community.
1935: David Ben-Gurion is elected chairman of the Jewish Agency. In conjunction with his leadership of the Mapai Party, he is the acknowledged leader of the Yishuv.
1936: The Jewish community in Palestine numbers about 382,000, up from 93,000 in 1922; the Arab population grows from 700,000 to 983,000 in the same timeframe. The ownership of arable land becomes contentious as the population of Palestine increases by more than 400,000 in 15 years.
April 19, 1936: Local Arab resistance committees declare a general strike in protest against Britain and the Zionists.
April 25, 1936: Arab leaders form a national organization, the Arab Higher Committee, under the presidency of the mufti. In an effort to unify the factions within the Palestinian elite, the committee attempts to coordinate the general strike.
October 1936: After the deaths of 1,000 Arabs and 80 Jews, the general strike is terminated by order of the Arab Higher Committee.
1936: Violence (the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939) sweeps through Palestine as a spontaneous popular reaction against Zionism, British imperialism, and entrenched Arab leadership.
July 1937: The (Lord) Peel Commission issues a report recognizing that the premise of the mandate is untenable. The report recommends that the mandate be terminated and that Palestine be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish states. The Arab Higher Committee opposes partition as a violation of the rights of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine.
1937: The World Zionist Congress favors the idea of partition but regards the territory allocated to the Jewish state as inadequate. This amounts to a rejection of the Peel Commission report, and the idea of partition is allowed to fade away.
July 1937: Renewal of spontaneous and locally led violence.
September 1937: The Arab Higher Committee is banned by the Mandate administration.
October 1937: The British district commissioner for Galilee is murdered. Britain dissolves the Arab Higher Committee, arresting and deporting its members. Arab rebel bands – no more than 5,000 strong – are supported by the bulk of the rural population.
Summer 1938: Much of the countryside and several major towns are in rebel hands. Britain adopts harsh measures and pours 20,000 troops into Palestine; Jewish forces also engage in military action.
1939: Some 5% of the total land in the British mandate, making up about 10% of total cultivable land, is Jewish owned. Transfer of cultivated land from Arab to Jewish ownership has had a devastating effect on the Palestinian peasantry which still make up 2/3 of the Arab population of the mandate.
February 1939: The Colonial Office convenes an Anglo-Arab-Jewish conference in London, but the conference fails to break the deadlock. A Subsequent White Paper states that:
His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state.
The document declares that Jewish immigration is to be limited, that land transfers to Jews are to be restricted, in violation of the terms of the Mandate for Palestine, and that in 10 years Palestine will be granted independence.
March 1939: The British manage to restore order. More than 3,000 Arabs, 2,000 Jews, and 600 British have been killed; the economy of Palestine is in chaos, and the Arab leaders are in exile or under arrest.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1942-1948
NOTE: THIS IS THE FOURTH IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE.
World War II
British wartime policy in Palestine was intended to keep the mandate tranquil. The British administration placed restrictions on Arab political activity and refused to allow exiled Arab leaders to return.
The Yishuv committed itself to the British war effort against Hitler; it also attempted to subvert the White Paper of 1939 (see our previous post) and prepared for armed confrontation with Britain once Germany was defeated.
In support of the Allied cause, thousands of Jewish volunteers joined the British forces, eventually forming a Jewish Brigade. These troops provided the Haganah (a Jewish defense force) with a cadre of trained veterans for fighting against Britain after 1945.
The Haganah, although technically illegal in Palestine, was allowed by the British administration to acquire weapons openly. When the Axis threat subsided after 1942, Haganah members retained their arms along with their intimate knowledge of the British military network in Palestine.
Leaders of the Yishuv continued to regard the British presence in Palestine as the primary obstacle to their dream of establishing a Jewish national home.
The Jewish Agency mounted a concerted effort to rescue European Jews and bring them into Palestine illegally.
PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1942-1948
1942: A meeting of US Zionists adopts a set of resolutions titled the Biltmore Program, calling for open immigration to Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth there.
1944: Jewish irregular armed units — Irgun and Lehi (the Stern Gang) — operating independently of Jewish Agency control (but at times with its tacit approval) launch a campaign of terror against British personnel and Arab civilians.
1945: The Jewish Agency joins the conflict.
1945-1947: Yishuv mounts a campaign of sabotage against the British administration in Palestine designed to achieve the immediate establishment of a Jewish state.
1945-1948: US President Harry Truman publicly endorses and promotes the Biltmore Program, demonstrating not only humanitarian concerns but also an awareness of the growing power of the Zionist lobby within the Democratic Party.
1946: Irgun blows up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
February 1947: British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, recognizing that Britain has lost control of the situation in Palestine, refers the matter to the United Nations. The General Assembly creates a UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and charges it with investigating conditions in Palestine and submitting recommendations.
September 1947: Britain announces that the Palestine mandate will be terminated on May 15, 1948. Palestine is plunged into intercommunal war. Irgun massacres the 250 civilian inhabitants of the village of Dayr Yassin near Jerusalem. In retaliation, an Arab unit ambushes a Jewish medical relief convoy on the outskirts of Jerusalem and kills a number of doctors.
November 29, 1947: The UN General Assembly approves the partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states and accords international status to Jerusalem. The Arab League and its member states (especially Egypt, Syria, and Iraq) adopt a hard-line stance on the Palestinian issue as a means of demonstrating their anti-imperialism and asserting their newfound independence in foreign policy. They reject all attempts at compromise, including the UN partition plan. Britain refuses to assist in the implementation of the UN partition plan.
Spring 1948: Major centers of Arab population falling into the proposed Jewish state are in Jewish control. About 400,000 Palestinians have fled.
April 1948: Haganah authorizes a campaign – called Plan D — against potentially hostile Arab villages.
May 14, 1948: The last British high commissioner, General Alan Cunningham, quietly leaves Haifa. The Union Jack is lowered and British rule in Palestine comes to an end. Palestine is without a government and without political institutions.
May 14, 1948: David Ben-Gurion proclaims the independence of the state of Israel. The new state is immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union.
June 1948: Units of Haganah are reorganized as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and are placed under the authority of the civilian minister of defense. Two dissident military organizations, the Irgun (led by Menachem Begin) and the smaller Lehi, refuse to give up their autonomy and continue to conduct independent military operations. Eventually, though, all remaining autonomous military units are absorbed into the IDF, ensuring that the central state exercises control of all military forces.
June 1948: The ship Altalena arrives off the Israeli coast with a shipment of arms destined for the Irgun. Ben-Gurion orders the IDF to prevent the arms from being unloaded. An armed struggle ensues, the Altalena sinks, and several members of the Irgun are killed or wounded. Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin (the leader of Irgun) become deep-seated enemies.
May 15, 1948: Units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq invade Israel.
May 15-June 11, 1948: First round of fighting.
June 1948: First UN armistice.
July 9-18, 1948: Second round of combat.
July 1948: Second armistice.
December 1948: Arab forces are defeated, there is an enlargement of Israeli territory, and the UN proposal for a Palestinian Arab state collapses.
1948-1949: Incidents of forced expulsion of Arabs continue.
1948-1949: Over a 12 month period, each of the belligerent Arab states concludes an armistice agreement with Israel. They do not recognize Israel or accept cease-fire borders as final. Palestine is basically partitioned among Israel,Egypt (which remains in occupation of the Gaza Strip), and Transjordan (which has taken the old city of Jerusalem). There is no Palestinian Arab state and over 700,000 people are now refugees.
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