What the Jews had to endure in Europe is a tragedy no humane person can deny, but it's  even a bigger tragedy when the victim of an intolerant raciest ideology, exercises the same bigoted principles on innocent people.

1880

The total number of residents in Palestine is approximately 480,000, of which around 24,000 (approximately 5 per cent of the population) are Jewish and the remainder Muslim and Christian.

Jewish people in Eastern Europe flee to Western Europe and America after massacres in their home countries, and some settle in Palestine. After the first wave of immigration into Palestine in 1881, the number of Jewish settlers in Palestine gradually increases.

1897

After the Tsars Government in Russia organises massacres against its Jewish citizens, Theodore Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, organises the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland. The Congress concludes that the only way Jewish people will be safe from anti-semitic persecution across Europe and Russia is if they have a land and state of their own. After much debate, Palestine is chosen as the location for a Jewish homeland.

1917

The British capture Palestine from the Ottomans during the First World War. The British Government promises to establish a national home for Jewish people in Palestine, in what was known as the Balfour declaration. The Declaration also promises to safeguard the civil and religious rights of the existing "non-Jewish" communities in Palestine.

1918

The Jewish residents of Palestine own two per cent of the land. Initially, Palestinians welcome Jewish settlers, but as more arrive, pressure on the land increases.

1922

The League of Nations (forerunner to the United Nations) gives Britain a mandate to administer Palestine (previously ruled by the defunct Ottoman empire), with the intention of making it an independent Palestinian state and a national home for Jewish people. When Britain takes control of Palestine, 93 per cent of the population are Muslim and Christians, and 7 per cent Jewish (that is, Palestinian Jews and settler Jews including Zionists).

1920s and 1930s

A series of violent clashes occurs between some Palestinian communities and the more recently arrived Jewish settlers. Jewish underground guerrilla groups such as Irgun and Stern are formed to fight for an independent Jewish state.

1935

Jewish people own about 5.5 per cent of the land (equivalent to 12 per cent of the cultivable land). They acquire it by buying land titles for land that has been farmed by Palestinians for centuries from large, predominantly absentee landlords.

1936

Palestinian resistance to the changes to population and land ownership brought about by the continued Jewish immigration in Palestine erupts into an open rebellion between Palestinian Arabs and the British forces. The latter crush the revolt, killing many Palestinians, and the British Government sets up a Royal Commission, under Lord Peel, to investigate the problem. It concludes that the British Mandate is no longer workable, and recommends that Palestine be partitioned into three zones: a Jewish state, an Arab state and a neutral territory containing the Holy Places.

1930s and 1940s

Jewish immigration into Palestine increases following Nazi persecution in Europe. At the end of the Second World War, many Jewish survivors try to come to Palestine. But under pressure from Palestinians, the British Mandate blocks their route. Jewish underground guerrilla organisations attack the British in response.

1947

Jewish people own six per cent of the land. The British Government announces that it intends to give up the Mandate, and to hand the problem of Palestine over to the United Nations. A UN special commission recommends that the land is divided as follows:

A Jewish state, which includes 52 per cent of the land. The population of this state would be 497,000 Palestinian Arabs and 498,000 Palestinian and settler Jews.

An Arab state, which includes 48 per cent of the land. The population of this state would be 98.7 per cent Palestinian Arab (725,000 Arabs and 10,000 Palestinian and settler Jews).

Jerusalem and the area surrounding it would become an "international zone".

The General Assembly approves the Partition Plan by a two to three majority, largely through the influence of the USA. Palestinian Jews and settlers, who make up less than a third of the population, accept the Plan, and all the Arab nations reject it. A civil war starts.

1948

The British Mandate in Palestine ends on 14 May and the new state of Israel is proclaimed. Within hours, the armies of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq attack Israel. They are defeated and by the time of the ceasefire in January 1949, Israel occupies 77 per cent of the territory of Mandate Palestine. Jordan annexes the West Bank including East Jerusalem. During the conflict, more than 725,000 Palestinians (a large proportion of the population) become refugees internally within the West Bank, Gaza and land now controlled by Israel, and externally in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

The UN General Assembly passes Resolution 194, which declares that Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homes and that Israel should facilitate this at the earliest practicable date.

The United Nations Palestine Conciliation Committee (UNPCC) is established under Resolution 194 to facilitate the return or resettlement and compensation of Palestinian refugees based on their individual choices. However, after several years, the UNPCC cease to provide protection to Palestinian refugees. This is due, in large part, to Israels opposition to the return of refugees and also to the lack of international will to uphold basic principles of international law applicable to Palestinian refugees.

1949

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is established under Resolution 302 to provide essential relief services (education, medical, etc) to Palestinian refugees until they are able to exercise their right to return to their homes. It has remained in operation ever since. Unlike the UNPCC, UNRWA has no mandate to guarantee the safety, security or legal and human rights of the refugees.

In the same year, the UN General Assembly votes to accept Israel as a member of the UN. As a UN member, Israel declares that it unreservedly accepts the obligations of the UN charter.

19471970

Jewish settlers arrive from Europe, North and South America. Jewish people are also forced to leave some Middle Eastern countries such as Morocco, Yemen and Iraq.

1951

The United Nations adopts the Refugee Convention, giving human rights protection to all refugees. However, Article 1D states that the Convention should not apply to those persons who, at the time, are receiving protection or assistance from UN agencies other than the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Since the Palestinian refugees have an agency devoted to their needs (UNRWA), they are not afforded the protection offered to all other refugees.

1952

The Law of Citizenship is passed in Israel, giving automatic citizenship to any Jewish immigrant. The Entrance to Israel Law is also passed, which grants citizenship to non-Jews on a discretionary basis.


1956

The second Arab-Israeli war breaks out when Egypt nationalises the Suez canal. Britain and France, whose interests are threatened, lend Israel military support to attack Egypt. Israel captures the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, but hands them back after international pressure.


1964

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation [PLO] is established by Arab Heads of State and becomes the national liberation movement of the Palestinian people.

1967

Tension between Israel and its neighbours erupts into the Six-Day War. The armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria lose the war. Israel occupies east Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights (belonging to Syria) and the Sinai Peninsula (belonging to Egypt). A further 200,000 Palestinians flee to camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and another 335,000 people are internally displaced within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In November, the UN Security Council passes Resolution 242 that calls on Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 war, and states that that there should be a just settlement of the refugee problem.

19701971

PLO groups try to take control of Jordan, sparking a civil war. The Jordanian Government drives them out by military force. The PLO starts to build a new base in southern Lebanon.


1973

Egypt and Syria attempt to win back the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights respectively. Egypt partially succeeds and gradually relations between Israel and Egypt improve, leading to the Camp David Accords of 1978.


1978

Israel invades southern Lebanon in an attempt to crush the Palestinian forces who are using it as a base. The Israelis withdraw, under pressure from the UN, and establish a buffer zone along the border.


1982

Israel launches a full-scale attack of Lebanon, destroying many of the Palestinian refugee camps in the south and displacing many thousands of refugees again. Israel enters west Beirut and allows Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia to massacre 1,300 or more Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps. UNRWA launches an emergency relief programme. The PLO withdraws from Beirut and, no longer having a base in Lebanon, relocates to Tunis. Under these new circumstances, the PLO starts looking for diplomatic solutions.

1987

The Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, spontaneously erupts when an Israeli settlers truck crushes a car, killing four Palestinians in Gaza. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza begin to resist Israeli occupation of their land through mass public demonstrations that are televised around the world. The Israeli army responds with curfews and closures, killing some civilians.


1988

The PLO accepts UN Resolution 242. In a move towards diplomacy, it renounces violence and recognises the right of Israel to exist. The Palestine National Council declares an independent State of Palestine.
1991 The PLO authorises Palestinian involvement in US-sponsored peace talks in Madrid.


1993

The PLO and Israel recognise each other and sign the Declaration of Principles. Under the Oslo Peace Accords the Palestinian Authority is established and Israel withdraws from most of the Gaza Strip and from the town of Jericho in the West Bank. However, many of the most difficult issues, including how to share the city of Jerusalem, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the borders of Palestine, and the building of Jewish settlements, are left to be resolved at a later date.

1994

Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.


1995

The Oslo II Interim Agreement (28 September) divides the West Bank into three areas A, B and C (follow this link to see a map showing the areas). The Palestinian Authority is given partial control over Area A only, which amounts to less than 18 per cent of the land in the West Bank. Israel still retains control of most of the land and roads as well as all the water under the ground.

1996

The first ever Palestinian elections are held in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. Yasser Arafat is elected as President. The right-wing Likud party under Binyamin Netanyahu wins the Israeli general election. The peace process is virtually suspended as Israel steps up building programmes of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, withdraws residency rights for Palestinians in Jerusalem, and imposes entry permits for West Bankers and Gazans. Widespread protests from Palestinians lead to Israel implementing many road closures in the Palestinian Territories. This has a serious impact on Palestinian economic development and most Palestinians start to get poorer.


1997

UNRWA launches an international emergency appeal for funds to meet worsening economic and social conditions faced by Palestinian refugees.

Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon.


2000 July

Camp David negotiations end inconclusively as President Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak fail to reach agreement on the future of Jerusalem, and the nature and shape of the state that the Oslo process will give the Palestinians.


2000 September

President Arafat defers the unilateral declaration of Statehood (that is: declaring the existence of an independent Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and Gaza) under international pressure.

Seven years of peace negotiations and interim solutions have left the Palestinians economically poorer, with less freedom of movement and with their basic, inalienable rights denied. Frustration increases and a second Intifada begins in the West Bank and Gaza, following a provocative visit by Israeli hard-liner Ariel Sharon on 28 September al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, a site sacred to Muslims.

2000 December

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak resigns.


2001 February

Ariel Sharon, former Defence Minister, is elected Prime Minister of Israel.