Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Timeline
British Era
November 2, 1917
British foreign affairs minister Arthur James Balfour sends a letter to
Lord Rothschild, President of the Zionist Federation, declaring his
government's intent to establish "a national home for the Jewish people"
in Palestine.
December 9, 1917
British forces occupy Jerusalem.
January 18, 1919
1919 Arab-Jewish agreement at Paris Peace Conference, 1919.
April-June, 1920
Jerusalem pogrom of 1920 April 4-7 prompts the establishment of Haganah
on June 15, 1920.
May 1-7, 1921
Jaffa riots
June 3, 1922
The Churchill White Paper, 1922 clarifies the British position regarding
Palestine.
July 24, 1922
The League of Nations grants Britain a mandate to administer Palestine.
1928-1935
The activities of Black Hand (group), led by Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
August 23, 1929
Hebron massacre of 1929
May 7, 1936 — March 1939
The Great Uprising: the Arab leadership, led by Haj Amin al-Husayni,
declares a general strike which rapidly deteriorates into a violent
rebellion that lasts for three years. The mainstream Jewish defense
organization, the Haganah, maintains a policy of restraint, but the
smaller Irgun (also called Etzel) group adopts a policy of retaliation
and revenge.
July 1937
The Peel Commission proposes a partition plan (map), rejected by the
Arab leadership, the Jewish opinion remains divided; limits Jewish
immigration to Palestine to 12,000 per year.
April — August 1938
The Woodhead Commission reverses the Peel Commission's findings,
considers two alternative partition plans, known as Plan B (map) and
Plan C (map), and reports in November that partition was impracticable.
([1])
February — March 17, 1939
St. James Conference ends without making any progress as the Arab
delegation refuses to recognize or meet with its Jewish counterpart.
May 17, 1939
The White Paper of 1939 calls for the creation of a unified Palestinian
state. Even though the White Paper states its commitment to the Balfour
Declaration, it imposed very substantial limits to both Jewish
immigration and their ability to purchase land.
1940-1949
Activities of Lehi (group) led by Avraham Stern, after 1942 - by a
triumvirate, including Yitzhak Shamir
UN Resolution
November 29, 1947
The UN General Assembly passes a Partition Plan dividing the British
Mandate of Palestine into two states.
Creation of Israel
May 14, 1948
Israel declares Independence from British rule.
After Creation
May 15, 1948
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan and local Arabs attack the new
Jewish state. The resulting 1948 Arab-Israeli War lasts for 13 months.
June 1948
Violent confrontation between the Israeli Defense Forces and the
paramilitary Jewish group Etzel known as The Altalena Affair results in
dismantlement of all Jewish extremist groups.
April 1949
Israel concludes Armistice Agreements with neighbouring countries. The
territory of the British Mandate of Palestine is divided between the
State of Israel, the Kingdom of the Jordan, changed from Transjordan,
and Egypt.
1953
Qibya massacre
October 29, 1956
Israel invades Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in secret alliance with France
and Britain. The Kafr Qasim massacre took place on the same day.
March 1957
Israel withdraws its forces from the Sinai Peninsula, ending the Suez
Crisis.
February 3, 1964
The Palestine Liberation Organization is founded in Cairo with Ahmad
Shuqeiri as its leader. Even though Ahmad Shuqeiri is the official
leader, the organization is more or less controlled by the Egyptian
government.
Six-Day War
June 1967
The Six-Day War. Israel launches what it describes as a pre-emptive
strike against the Egyptian Air Force on suspicion that Egypt and Syria
are planning to invade. Israel defeats the combined forces of Egypt,
Syria and Jordan and captures the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip
from Egypt, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan
Heights from Syria.
Post Six-Day War
1968-1970
Egypt wages the War of Attrition against Israel.
May 8, 1970
Avivim school bus massacre
September, 1970
After Black September in Jordan, the PLO was driven out to Lebanon.
May 8, 1972
Sabena airplane hijacked and liberated in Lod Airport
May 30, 1972
Lod Airport Massacre
September 5, 1972
Munich Massacre of Israeli Olympic team by Black September (group)
April 9, 1973
Israeli commando raid against PLO targets in Beirut, Lebanon (Operation
Spring of Youth)
Yom Kippur War
October 1973
The Yom Kippur War. Syria and Egypt attack Israeli forces in the Golan
Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
Post Yom Kippur War
April 11, 1974
Kiryat Shmona massacre
May 15, 1974
Ma'alot massacre
March 4, 1975
Savoy Operation
July 4, 1976
Operation Entebbe
May 1977
Menachem Begin of the Likud Party is elected Prime Minister, ending
nearly 30 years of rule by the Labour Party.
March, 1978
Following the Coastal Road Massacre terrorist attack, Israel launches a
limited-scope invasion of Lebanon (Operation Litani).
September 17, 1978
Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and sign the Camp
David Accord, with Israel agreeing to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula
and to a framework for future negotiation over the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
Lebanon
June 6, 1982
Israel enters southern Lebanon. Israel claims the invasion was in order
to remove PLO forces. See 1982 Invasion of Lebanon.
August 1983
The Israeli Army withdraws from most of Lebanon, maintaining a
self-proclaimed "Security Zone" in the south.
First Intifada
October 1987
The First Intifada begins.
November 15, 1988
An independent State of Palestine was proclaimed by the Palestinian
National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46.
Gulf War
January 1991
Tel Aviv is hit by 40 Scud missiles launched by Iraq during the Persian
Gulf War.
After Gulf War
June 1992
Yitzhak Rabin of the Labour Party elected Prime Minister.
August 20, 1993
Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin sign the Declaration of Principles on
Interim Self-Government in Oslo.
Peace Process
May 18, 1994
Israeli forces withdraw from Jericho and Gaza City in compliance with
the Oslo accords.
October 26, 1994
Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
December 10, 1994
Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat are awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize.
September 28, 1995
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in
Washington, DC.
November 4, 1995
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv by Jewish
extremist Yigal Amir. Shimon Peres assumes the position of acting Prime
Minister.
May 1996
Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party is elected Prime Minister.
October 23, 1998
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat sign the Wye River Memorandum at a
summit in Maryland hosted by Bill Clinton.
May 17, 1999
Ehud Barak of the Labour Party is elected Prime Minister.
May 24, 2000
The Israeli Army withdraws from southern Lebanon, in compliance with
U.N. Resolution 425. Syria and Lebanon insist that the withdrawal is
incomplete, claiming the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese and still under
occupation. The UN certifies full Israeli withdrawal.
July 2000
The Camp David Summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat collapses after Arafat
turns down a peace offer made by Barak without giving a counter-offer.
Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capitol
in East Jerusalem, over 95% of the West Bank and financial reparations
for Palestinian refugees for peace.
November 22, 2000
Two Israeli women killed and 60 civilians were wounded in a car bomb
attack in Hadera.
Second Intifada begins
September 28, 2000
Right wing Israeli Opposition Leader Ariel Sharon visits the Temple
Mount which is administered by a Muslim organization. The day after the
visit violent confrontations erupt between Muslims and Israeli Police.
The Sharon visit is the reason why the second intifada is also known as
the Al-Aqsa Intifada, after the Al Aqsa Mosque contained within the
Noble Sanctuary (Temple Mount). This event is not considered to be the
only cause of the second intifada.
December 10, 2000
Prime Minister Ehud Barak resigns.
February 6, 2001
Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party is elected Prime Minister.
October 17, 2001
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi is assassinated in Jerusalem by the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
December 4, 2001
A charity known as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
is shut down. Its Richardson, Texas headquarters and its offices in San
Diego, California, Bridgeview, Illinois, and Paterson, New Jersey are
searched. The charity is accused of funding Hamas.
March 13, 2002
The U.S. pushes through the passage of U.N. Resolution 1397 by the
Security Council, demanding an "immediate cessation of all acts of
violence" and "affirming a vision of a region where two states, Israel
and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders".
March 14, 2002
Israeli forces continue the raid on Ramallah and other West Bank towns.
A helicopter attack near Tulkarm kills Mutasen Hammad and two
bystanders. A bomb in Gaza destroys an Israeli tank which was escorting
settlers, killing 3 soldiers and wounding 2. A taxi in Tulkarm explodes,
killing 4 Palestinians. Palestinians execute two accused collaborators
in Bethlehem, planning to hang one of the corpses near the Church of the
Nativity until Palestinian police stop them.
March 29, 2002
Israeli forces begin Operation Defensive Shield, an incursion into the
West Bank.
March 30, 2002
A suicide bomber explodes in My Coffee Shop, a Tel Aviv café at around
9:30 PM local time, wounding 32 people. President George W. Bush and
Secretary of State Colin Powell (USA) call on Yasir Arafat to condemn
the wave of suicide bombings in Arabic, to his own people. Israeli
spokespeople make similar demands. Arafat goes on television and swears
in Arabic that he will "die a martyr, a martyr, a martyr". Members of
Arafat's personal Al-Aqsa brigade state that they will refuse any form
of cease-fire, and that they will continue suicide bombings of civilians
in Israel.
March 31, 2002
Israeli troops exchange gunfire with guards of Yasir Arafat in Ramallah.
In the past 18 months, according to the Associated Press, 1262 people
have been killed on the Palestinian side and on 401 on the Israeli side;
in March, 259 Palestinians and 130 Israelis were killed.
April 2, 2002
Israeli troops occupy Bethlehem. Dozens of armed Palestinian gunmen,
many of whom Israel has identified as terrorists, occupy the Church of
the Nativity and hold the church and its clergy hostage.
May 9, 2002
Muhammad al-Madani, governor of Bethlehem, leaves the Church of the
Nativity.
Israel calls up additional reserve forces and moves tanks into position
for an expected incursion into the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the
most recent suicide bombing.
April 12, 2002
The Battle of Jenin 2002
May 18, 2002
Shin Bet officials announces they have arrested six Israelis for
conspiring to bomb Palestinian schools in April, including Noam
Federman, a leader of the Kach movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane,
and Menashe Levenger, son of Rabbi Moshe Levenger, a founder of the
Hebron settlement.
Recent Developments
June 24, 2002
US President George W. Bush calls for an independent Palestinian state
living in peace with Israel.
July 22, 2002
IDF kills Salah Shehade, the leader of Hamas's "military wing", the Izz
ad-Din el-Qasam Brigades
August 14, 2002
Marwan Barghouti, captured April 15, was indicted by a civilian Israeli
court for murdering civilians and membership in a terrorist
organisation.
March 16, 2003
Rachel Corrie, an American member of the International Solidarity
Movement is crushed by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer, becoming the
first ISM member to die in the conflict. Eyewitnesses allege murder,
while Israel calls it a "regrettable accident".
March 19, 2003
Mahmoud Abbas appointed Prime Minister.
March 24, 2003
Hilltop 26, an illegal Israeli settlement near the city of Hebron, is
peacefully dismantled by the Israel Defence Force.
April 30, 2003
The details of the Road map for peace are released.
May 27, 2003
Ariel Sharon states that the "occupation" of Palestinian territories
"can't continue endlessly."
June 2, 2003
A two-day summit is held in Egypt. Arab leaders announce their support
for the road map and promised to work on cutting off funding to
terrorist groups.
June 29, 2003
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah agree to a three-month cease-fire.
August 19, 2003
Islamic Jihad and Hamas claim joint responsibility for a suicide bombing
that kills twenty Israelis. Mahmoud Abbas pledges a crackdown on
militants.
September 6, 2003
Mahmoud Abbas resigns from the post of Prime Minister.
October 16, 2004
Israel officially ended a 17-day military operation, named Operation
Days of Penitence, in the northern Gaza Strip. The operation was
launched in response to a Qassam rocket that killed two children in
Sderot. About 108-133 Palestinians were killed during the operation, of
whom one third were civilians. Among the dead was 13 year old Iman
al-Hams who was shot repeatedly by an IDF soldier.
November 11, 2004
Yasser Arafat dies at the age of 75 in a hospital near Paris, after
undergoing urgent medical treatment (since October 29, 2004).
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli-Palestinian_conflict_timeline
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