A History of Palestinian-Israeli Relations

    15th-19th Century: Palestine is a part of southern Greater Syria under Ottoman rule.

    1882: The first wave of Zionist mass immigration to Palestine begins. Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris provides financial support for Jewish colonization in Palestine.

    1896: Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Zionist leader, publishes “Der Judenstaat,” advocating the creation of a Jewish state. As to its location, Herzl wrote, “We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by public opinion."

    1897: The first Zionist Congress meets in Basel, Switzerland and establishes the World Zionist Organization (WZO).

    August 1, 1914: World War I breaks out. The Ottoman Empire joins the war on Germany’s side.

    1916: Correspondence between Sherif Hussein of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, concludes with the Arab understanding that postwar independence and the unity of Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine, are ensured.  The British and French governments sign the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divides Arab provinces under the Ottoman Empire into British and French governed areas.

    1917: The Balfour Declaration, a letter sent by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron de Rothschild, pledges British support for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

    1920: The San Remo Conference gives France control of the former Turkish territories of Syria and Lebanon and awards administration of Palestine, Transjordan and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Great Britain.

    1922: The British government issues a white paper on Palestine to reaffirm the Balfour Declaration, but it limits Jewish immigration and excludes Transjordan from the scope of the declaration. The U.S. Congress endorses the Balfour Declaration.

    The League of Nations approves the British Mandate of Palestine without the consent of Palestinians. The WZO succeeds in having the terms “historical connection” and “reconstitution” of the “national home” included in the final text of the mandate.

    The first British census of Palestine reports a population of 757,182 (11% Jewish).

    1931: A second British census of Palestine reports a total population of 1,035,154 (16.9% Jewish).

    1937: The Peel Commission Report is published, recommending the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

    1939: The “MacDonald” white paper proposes a limitation on Jewish immigration and land purchases, disclaims any intention of creating a Zionist state and limits power-sharing and independent Palestinian rule. There is strong opposition from both Jews and Palestinians.

    September 1: World War II breaks out.

    1942: WZO President Dr. Chaim Weizmann urges the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine after the war.

    The Zionist Biltmore Conference is held in New York. Delegates formulate a new policy, called the “Biltmore Program,” to create a “Jewish Commonwealth” in Palestine and to organize a Jewish army.

    1945: The Covenant of the League of Arab States, formed for the purpose of securing Arab unity and emphasizing the Arab character of Palestine, is signed in Cairo by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan and Yemen.

    The United Nations (UN) is established.

    U.S. President Truman asks British Prime Minister (PM) Clement Attlee to grant immigration certificates to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine, but Attlee rejects the request.

    The British government issues Defense (Emergency) Regulations, authorizing military rule in Palestine.

    1947: Great Britain submits the Palestinian problem to the UN, which appoints a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). The committee submits its report, recommending an agreement to terminate the mandate, but it provides no solution to the Palestine Question. A majority favors partitioning the land into two states with special international status for Jerusalem, but the minority proposes a federal state comprising of an Arab state and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem as the capital of the federation. The U.S. and Soviet Union endorse the partition plan, but the Arab League rejects it.

    UN Partition Res. 181 is approved. It provides for the establishment of a Jewish and Arab state and recommends that Jaffa be a part of the proposed Palestinian state and that Jerusalem and Bethlehem be a corpus separatum under a special international regime administered by the Trusteeship Council on behalf of the UN. This map displays the boundaries of this UN Partition.

    April 1948: On the 9th, Irgun and Stern Gangs, led by Menahem Begin and Yitzhag Shamir, massacre 245 Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin, a western suburb of Jerusalem. Two days later, the Haganah destroy the village of Kalonia, and after driving out the Palestinians, they occupy all Palestinian quarters of west Jerusalem on April 30.  David Ben-Gurion, leader of the struggle to establish a Jewish State, orders the Jerusalem Haganah to conquer Arab districts around the city and resettle them with Jews.

    The State of Israel is proclaimed on May 14, ending British Mandate.

    The All-Palestine Government is formed at the Palestinian National Conference in Gaza.

The UN General Assembly Res. 194 supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return. During the Jewish invasion of Palestine, 737,166 Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homes and land. Under this resolution the refugees and their descendants have a right to compensation and repatriation to their original homes and land, because they have suffered “loss of or damage to property, which, under principles of international law or in equity should be made good by the government or authorities responsible."