Brief Timeline of Modern Israeli and Palestinian Political History
With a focus on the relationship between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians
1840 Ottoman Empire rules Palestine.
1850 Palestine had about 350,000 inhabitants, roughly 85% were Muslims, 11% were Christians and 4% Jews.
1882 – 1903 First wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine.
1897 First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. Theodor Herzl named leader.
1901 Jewish National Fund (JNF) founded, aim of purchasing land for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1903 – 1914 Second wave of Jewish Immigration.
1914 – 1918 World War I Destruction of the Ottoman Empire, in exchange for Arab support Britain agrees to create an independent Arab state in historic Palestine.
1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain & France to divide control of the Middle East.
1917 Balfour Declaration promises Jewish homeland in Historic Palestine.
1918 – 1920 British military rule in Palestine.
1922 British Mandate in Palestine, Egypt gains independence, British & French diplomats divide up Arab portion of defeated Ottoman Empire.
1930s-1940s Major Jewish immigration to Palestine from Germany and Central Europe in response to antisemitism.
1933 Hitler comes to power.
1937 Peel Commission, first to promote partition plan of Palestine as a solution.
1939 British White Paper restricts Jewish immigration and land purchase.
1941 – 1945 Jewish genocide in Europe, known as the Holocaust.
1947 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) decides fate of Palestine, 600,000 Jews and 1.3 million Palestinians. Jews own 7% of the land, most of the cultivated land owned by Palestinians.
UN Resolution 181 proposes partition into Jewish state on 56% of land and a Palestinian state on 44%. Palestinians and surrounding Arabs reject the partition, civil war breaks out between Jewish forces, Palestinians, and British troops.
1948 Three months before Arab armies invade, Jewish military forces begin ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from homes and land.
Israel proclaims independence; Declaration of Independence guarantees equal rights for all citizens regardless of religion or race. Arab armies enter Palestine.
Deir Yassin Massacre, over 100 Palestinians killed by Jewish forces, inspires many Palestinian villagers to flee as Jewish forces advance. Other massacres occur as well, such as in Lydda, Ramle, &Tantura.
Emergency Regulations adopted by the Knesset, (Israeli Parliament), the state can declare any part of the country a closed military area, make administrative arrests without trial, expel or execute citizens, expel Palestinians attempting to return after the war.
Custodian of Absentee Property: careful documentation of extensive Israeli state appropriation of many Palestinian possessions and property.
UN General Assembly Resolution 194 calls for the right of return for refugees, free access to Jerusalem and access to holy places.
1949 Armistice signed between Israel and Arab states. Armistice line or functional border of Israel established along the “Green Line.”
Israeli forces uproot 750,000 Palestinian refugees, (Al Nakba). Israel victorious over Arab forces. In Israeli cities 160,000 Palestinians remain, many confined to “ghettos”, in Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle and Lydda. 100 intact Palestinian villages remain. Palestinian homes settled by Jewish immigrants mostly from Europe.
Israel claims 78% of Historic Palestine, Palestinians within Israel put under military rule; military governors have executive, legislative and judicial power over Palestinians in Israel.
Palestinians within Israel designated “Palestinian minority in Israel.” ID cards state nationality as Christian or Moslem, many are designated as displaced, internal refugees or “present absentees”.
1950 The West Bank annexed to Jordan, Gaza Strip under Egyptian control
Israeli Absentee Property Law allows the state to take over property and lands of all Palestinians not residing in Israel and all internal refugees, later amended to allow Custodian of Absentee Property to sell lands and property to the Israeli state or Jewish citizens.
1950 – 1960 Discriminatory laws passed in the Knesset:
(1) Jewish immigrants to Israel given precedence over indigenous Palestinians in almost every sphere.
(2) Law of Return gives Jews automatic citizenship in Israel.
(3) Law of the Jewish National Fund defines most of land for sale in Israel, the exclusive and perpetual property of the Jewish people, almost all Palestinian land taken by the government and turned into state land now sold or leased only to Jews.
1953 Israeli law: only those inhabitants present at the census in November 1948 are automatically recognized as full citizens. Although the Law of Return gives full citizenship to all Jews, the 100,000 Palestinians present but not registered are required to apply for citizenship. This requires taking an Oath of Allegiance to the Jewish State, and a “reasonable” knowledge of Hebrew (a requirement not applied to Jews). Many Palestinians appeal through the courts.
1956 Kafr Qassem Massacre, part of an attempt to expel Palestinians from the Triangle, an area northeast of Tel Aviv/Jaffa, near the West Bank.
Egypt nationalizes Suez Canal, Suez or Israeli-Franco-British War against Egypt. Israeli occupation of the Sinai.
1957 Israel retreats from the Sinai Peninsula and British forces leave Suez area.
Late 1950s Fatah established by Palestinian student refugees in the Arab world as the first national liberation movement after 1948.
1964 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded, militant nationalist organization opposed to Israel.
1965 Fatah operated first military action.
Law for Population Registry establishes Israeli citizenship for Jews and non-Jews but nationality only for Jews.
1966 Military rule over Palestinians with Israeli citizenship ends. Palestinians allowed to travel to Jewish areas and attend Jewish educational institutions but school systems remain segregated and unequally funded up to university level.
1967 Egypt blocks the Straits of Tiran for Israeli vessels and deploys its armed forces in Sinai, other Arab forces appear threatening, Israel launches attacks on Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Israeli-Arab or Six Day War. Israel occupies the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syrian Golan Heights, Egypt Sinai Peninsula, creating 200,000 to 400,000 new Palestinian refugees (Al Naksa).
UN Security Council Resolution 242 passes in the wake of the Six Day War, affirms inadmissibility of taking land by force, calls for Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the war, the right of all to live in secure and recognizable borders and a just resolution to the refugee problem.
Late 1960’s Germans make reparations to Israel for the Holocaust.
1970 – 1979 Several laws define privileges in relation to Israeli Army service thus solely benefitting Jews, includes welfare benefits, scholarships, grants, loans.
PLO guerrilla and terrorist activities against Israeli Army and civilians, airplane hijackings, bombings. Increased Palestinian arrests and expulsions, home demolitions by Israel.
1970 – 1973 Mass immigration from the Soviet Union to Israel.
1973 East Jerusalem land belonging to Palestinian refugees from 1948 and 1967 taken over by the State of Israel.
Yom Kippur War - Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israeli forces in the Sinai and Golan Heights.
UN Security Council Resolution 338 confirms Resolution 242 and calls for peace talks between the parties.
1974 PLO recognized as legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by the UN.
Settlement movement of Jews, Gush Emunim, starts claiming the occupied Palestinian territories, (OPT).
1976 Land Day, massive Israeli land confiscation in the Galilee. General strike provokes violent confrontation with army, six Palestinians killed, commemorated annually thereafter.
1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt signed.
Peace Now founded in Israel.
1979 Peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt, Sinai Peninsula is returned to Egypt.
1980 – 1989 Birth of political Islam in Israel and the OPT, includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad.
1982 Massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in southern Lebanon by Lebanese Christian militia under protection of the Israeli military.
Militant Lebanese organization, Hezbollah established.
1987 – 1991 First Intifada or Palestinian uprising against the Israei occupation.
1988 Palestinian National Council in Tunis publishes Palestinian Declaration of Independence with recognition of two state approach, ie, UN Resolution 242.
Arab Association for Human Rights founded in Israel.
1989 – 1990 Mass migration of Jews and non-Jews from the former Soviet Union.
1989 Israeli group B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories founded.
1993 Oslo Declaration of Principles, “Oslo Accords,” signed in Washington. First Intifada ends, mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO.
1994 Peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
Palestinian National Authority (PA) established to run the West Bank and Gaza.
1995 Baruch Goldstein, West Bank Jewish settler in Hebron, massacres Moslems praying at a mosque.
Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel. Israeli Association for Civil Rights documents that discrimination against Palestinians is Israel’s greatest civil rights problem.
1996 Adalah, (Justice) Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights founded in Israel, becomes leading NGO taking cases to the Israeli Supreme Court.
Peacemaker’s summit in Sharm al-Sheikh. Balad, new political party in Israel, advocates for democracy for all citizens, two states, right of return to Israel for Palestinian refugees. Headed by Azmi Bishara, first openly non-Zionist party accepted into the Knesset.
Operation Grapes of Wrath, massive Israeli attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon, retaliation for ongoing war of attrition in southern Lebanon, Israelis bomb refugee camp in al-Kana killing more than 100 civilians.
Suicide bombing campaign in Israeli shopping malls and on public transportation.
1998 Wye River Memorandum agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
First Nakba Day commemoration, beginning of more assertive Palestinian cultural, religious, and political expression in Israel.
2000 Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon.
Second Intifada begins after Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount.
Coalition of Women for Peace is founded in Israel.
10% of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live in unrecognized villages with no government services. Orr Commission, created to investigate causes of the Second Intifada, reports “natural rights and needs of Palestinian population” unmet. By the end of 2000, more than 50 NGO’s in Israel address civil society issues, discrimination, empowerment and cultural autonomy.
2001 Series of discriminatory laws including:
(1) Nation and Admittance to the Country Law: bans reunion of couples or families on different sides of the Green Line (the armistice line from 1948)
(2) Right of Secret Service to undermine employment of teachers and principals.
(3) Objection to the inherent Jewishness of the state of Israel considered treason.
2002 Major Israeli military incursions into the OPT and reoccupation of Palestinian cities.
UN Security Council Resolution 1397 calls for end of violence, two state solution.
Saudi Peace Initiative adopted unanimously by the Arab League.
Israel begins construction of the Separation Wall, a concrete and barbed wire wall that winds deep into the OPT to include Jewish settlements along the Green Line on the “Israeli side”.
Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel.
2003 Road Map adopted by the Quartet, representing the US, EU, Russian Federation and UN. Aqaba Summit (George Bush, Ariel Sharon, Mahmoud Abbas).
Beginning of expulsion of spouses who are from the OPT and living with partners in Israel back to the OPT.
Geneva Initiative signed.
2004 International Court of Justice declares the Separation Wall illegal.
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel launched in Ramallah.
2005 Israel unilaterally removes settlements from Gaza but maintains control over borders, movement in and out of the Strip, and the economy.
Call by Palestinian civil society for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS), as a means to end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and gain civil, political and human rights.
2006 Hamas wins majority of seats in the Legislative Council in the OPT.
Israel, provoked by Hamas and Hezbollah activity, invades Gaza, Lebanon, as well as a tiny area in the West Bank, in Operation Defensive Shield. Severe economic blockade of Gaza begins. Non-violent protests in Israel.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 implements a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
2007 Civil war in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah leaves Hamas in control, US provides military supports to Fatah.
Annapolis peace treaty, towards a two state solution along the lines of the Road Map.
A wave of legislation passed in Israel:
(1) Law of Loyalty: citizens required to express full recognition of Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state.
(2) Banning of Nakba commemoration in public events, schools and textbooks.
(3) Right of Jewish suburbs not to accept Palestinian residents.
(4) Right of the state to discriminate by law against Arabs in the privatization of land – Jewish National Fund (JNF) Law.
Ehud Olmert states Israel risks apartheid-like struggle if two-state solution fails, comparing Israel to South Africa
2008 Six month truce broken by Israel and militant Palestinian factions shelling Sderot and Ashkelon. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launch massive three week attack on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, creating a devastating humanitarian catastrophe documented by a host of human rights organizations.
2010 Gaza Flotilla attempts to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, nine activists killed by Israeli authorities.
50 Palestinian NGO’s in Israel convene an emergency meeting re: systematic and continuous violation of basic human and civil rights of Palestinians in Israel, including rights to organize and protest.
“Arab Spring” uprisings across the Arab world inspire many Palestinians within historic Palestine.
2011 Separation Wall dismantled and rerouted in Palestinian village of Bil’in due to pressure of non-violent resistance.
2012 Palestinian factions in Gaza react to assassination of top Hamas military leaders with rocket attacks which leads to extensive Israeli air assault on Gaza, Operation Pillar of Defense.
UN General Assembly votes in favor of recognizing Palestinian statehood after Palestinians ask to be recognized as a non-member State of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Netanyahu retaliates by increasing Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
2014 Three Israeli teenagers are kidnapped and killed while hitchhiking home in the West Bank. Hamas is accused, but Hamas leadership denies prior involvement. This triggers Operation Brother's Keeper, a massive assault on the West Bank with five killed and several hundred Palestinians arrested, almost all of the Hamas leadership in the West Bank. Protests occur across the OPT and three weeks later a Palestinian teenager is murdered in what is described as a revenge killing.
Israeli air launches strikes on Gaza, which lead to the firing of Hamas rockets at Israel, and a massive Israeli assault, Operation Protective Edge.
2018 Nation State Bill passed by Israeli Knesset establishes that the Jewish people “have an exclusive right to national self-determination” in Israel. There is no mention of democracy or minority rights.
In a highly controversial move, Trump moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
2018 – 2019 Great March of Return, thousands of Gazans march and demonstrate every week to the boundaries of the Strip, demanding an end to the crippling siege and recognition of their right of return to the villages from which they were expelled in 1948. They are met by Israeli snipers, killing 266 people and injuring almost 30,000 over the course of the year.
2020 Mediated by the US, the Abraham Accords signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, (later Sudan and Morocco) normalizing relations and opening up economic opportunities in areas such as agriculture and water, and massive amounts of Israeli military supplies.
2021 After rising tensions around the planned forced expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, an aggressive series of provocations by Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, and the launching of Hamas rockets, Israeli forces unleash an intense assault on Gaza.
2022 Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza after a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant is arrested in the West Bank
Palestinian youth and resistance fighters are attacked, killed, or arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank as Israel tries to control rising resistance to occupation, Operation Break the Wave
Shireen Abu Akleh, a popular Palestinian-American journalist, while wearing a blue vest with PRESS written on it, was killed by an Israeli sniper in Jenin, West Bank.
This provokes protests called the Unity Intifada throughout Palestine and within Palestinian communities in Israel
Israeli forces raid, ransack and shutter the offices of seven leading Palestinian human rights organizations.
With Israel’s fifth election in three years, Netanyahu takes power with a coalition of the most far-right, ultra-nationalistic, racist parties in the history of the country, cementing the death of the “two state solution.”
2023 Netanyahu’s coalition government moves further towards a rightwing, nationalistic agenda, promoting aggressive attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers on Palestinians, especially in East Jerusalem and Area C, the 65% of the West Bank under total civil and military Israeli control.
Netanyahu promotes a “judicial reform” designed to give the Israeli Supreme Court less power to rule against the legislature and the executive, and to give lawmakers more power over appointing judges. This provokes massive protests involving hundreds of thousands of Israelis concerned that a weakened court will be unable to control the government and will threaten citizen rights and liberties, and impact the economy and relationships with the West. The lack of an independent court could also hurt Israel’s defenses against an international court. The opposition also fears Netanyahu is attempting to avoid his upcoming trial for graft.
On October 7, Hamas and other militants launch a surprise attack in Israel, overwhelming several military installations, border communities, and a music festival. This results in the killing of approximately 1200 people and the taking of approximately 240 hostages. The Israeli public is deeply traumatized by the attacks, hostage taking, and the end of a sense of security. The government and military are both shocked and humiliated.
The Israeli military responds with a massive military campaign that kills (as of mid December) approximately 20,000 people, 70% women and children, 90% civilians, injures over 52,000 and destroys much of the housing and infrastructure of the Gaza Strip, including hospitals, clinics, and schools. An aggressive ground invasion is launched on October 27. The siege denies the population of electricity, food, water, and fuel, and creates a massive unrelenting humanitarian catastrophe with immense numbers of untreated injuries, a health care system in ruins, growing hunger, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. 85% of the population is now internally displaced; there is no safe place in Gaza. During a brief ceasefire, 102 hostages are exchanged for over 200 Palestinian prisoners and a small amount of aid is allowed into the region.
In summary: As of 2023: There are 58 Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza. One third of all Palestinian refugees live in camps.
Over 750,000 Jewish settlers live in more than 200 settlements in the occupied territories. This amounts to 10% of the total Jewish population of Israel.
Roughly 5.5 million Palestinians live in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967: about 3.5 million in the West Bank (including roughly 350,000 in East Jerusalem) and some 2 million in the Gaza Strip. None of them are allowed to vote or run for Knesset, and they have no representation in the Israeli institutions that control their land, sea, and air spaces and much of their geopolitical realities.
Hamas “governs” Gaza but Israel has complete control of the movement of people and goods in and out of this 26 x 6 mile stretch of impoverished land. With the war on Gaza that began after the October attack in 2023, the Israeli military is engaged in the total destruction of the infrastructure of the Strip and has created a massive humanitarian catastrophe without a clear-cut end goal. The Israeli government states that it will “destroy Hamas,” but there is international consensus that the indiscriminate bombing, the level of destruction of civilian structures and extreme numbers of deaths will unlikely produce the goal the Israeli government seeks.
The Palestinian Authority “governs” the West Bank, but in actuality has some limited control in urban centers and is totally beholden to Israel. Israel controls the use of force, prison and justice systems, planning and building, freedom of movement (to and from Israel, Jordan and Gaza, as well as within the West Bank), resources, the population registry and much more.
Roughly 15 million people, about half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, under a single rule. Many scholars and activists have called the current realities a system of apartheid.
In annexed East Jerusalem, Israel gave Palestinians permanent residency status. This status does not confer a right to run or vote for Knesset. Residents pay the same taxes as West Jerusalemites, but receive a small fraction of municipal services.
Roughly 1.7 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (20% of the Israeli population) can take part in the general elections. They can vote for their candidates, start their own parties or join existing ones. However, their political participation has been cast as illegitimate since the very inception of the state and there have been repeated attempts to restrict or deny them true political representation.
Palestinians have a large diaspora community across the globe, numbering over nine million people.
The United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion annual for military funding, as well as extensive political cover and other financial supports.
Summary data is from Btselem, an Israeli human rights organization.
excellent curriculum resources:
www.project48.com launching May 2023
https://palestinett.org/ for teachers in western Washington