Settlements
Chronology


This timeline is offered by Palestinians for Peace and Democracy
to put issues concerning Israeli settlements into a historical context.
1516-1923In 1516 the Mamluks, who ended the Crusader rule in 1291, were defeated by the Ottoman Turks. In 1831, Muhammad Ali, the Egyptian viceroy nominally subject to the Ottoman sultan, occupied Palestine; Ottoman control was reasserted in 1840.
1840Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai suggested the creation of a fund based on tithe (ma'aser) to acquire and retain ownership of land in Palestine and to settle Jews on this land. He further proposed formation of an Assembly of Jewish Notables to serve as a representative body of Jewry, to negotiate on their behalf and to organize colonization in Palestine.
1858The Ottoman Empire instituted a land registration system that led to wealthy absentees gaining legal title to land, often by questionable means. After this occurred, the family farmers continued in possession—as tenants—and considered themselves to retain their customary right to the land, although that was no longer legally the case. The Land Registration Law of 1858, ostensibly passed to determine title to land, was actually a means of identifying properties for the purpose of taxation and of disclosing the existence of persons subject to military conscription. For these reasons only a small proportion of transactions was recorded, and these chiefly concerned elderly persons, females, foreigners and those sufficiently influential to be able to avoid military service. See: The Alienation of a Homeland: How Palestine Became Israel.
1862Nearly two decades before the emergence of Zionism, socialist Moses Hess, a collaborator with Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, wrote the influential book "Rome and Jerusalem: the Last National Question." Following the unification of Italy, the rise of nationalism in that country and the emergence of German antisemitism, Hess determined that the freeing and uniting of humanity was the mission of the Jewish people and urged the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. This book is now recognized as an early Zionist classic; Theodor Herzl called it a full-fledged anticipation of his ideas.
1870The agricultural school Mikve Israel (Heb. Hope of Israel) was founded in 1870 by the Alliance Israelite Universelle to train Jewish emigrants from urban areas in Europe in agricultural work. The sultan in Constantinople issued a royal decree, a firman, allocating 2,600 dunams of prime agricultural land for the school. In 1948 it became the last Jewish outpost for convoys on their way to Jerusalem, which was under siege. Its workshops became factories for arms; it was here that David Leibowitz developed the weapon that was to become known as the Davidka. A cave on the grounds was used by the Palmach to store explosives.
1878The first modern Zionist agricultural settlement, was established in Palestine, seven miles easy of Tel Aviv. Twenty-six families built mud huts to live in and called the farming community Petach Tikvah — Gateway of Hope.
1881Ottoman government announces permission for foreign Jews to settle throughout the Ottoman Empire, excluding Palestine.
1882As a result of the persecution of Jews in Russia and Romania a year earlier, the first large-scale immigration of Jewish settlers to Palestine begins. In Israel this is known as the "first Aliyah." Aliyah is a Hebrew word meaning ascent that refers to those Jews who ascend or go up to the land of Israel.
1882Rishon LeZion was founded by Russian Zionists. It is considered (along with Petah Tikva) as the first Zionist settlement in Israel; it is now the 4th largest Israeli city. Zikhron Ya'akov was founded by a Romanian Zionists. In the following year, the village came under the patronage of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who renamed it Zikhron Ya'akov - "Memory of Jacob" - after his father.
1882Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris begins financial backing of Jewish colonization of Palestine. When early settlements faced financial ruin, Rothschild was approached by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever and the leaders of Rishon LeZion. He lent his assistance to both Rishon LeZion and Zikhron Ya'akov and then helped found Ekron. He became known as the Father of the Yishuv (Palestine's Jewish community) because of his involvement in so many young settlements.
1882Ottoman government adopts policy allowing Jewish pilgrims and businessmen to visit Palestine but not to settle there and informs Jewish leadership in Constantinople that it views Zionist colonization in Palestine as a political problem.
1891Arab notables in Jerusalem petition the Ottoman government in Constantinople to prohibit immigration and land purchases by Jews.
1891German Jewish millionaire, Baron Maurice de Hirsh, founds Jewish Colonization Association (ICA). Most of the colonization efforts of the ICA were directed to the Americas — Argentina, Brazil and Canada — in which large tracts of land were acquired and a number of Jewish agricultural colonies established. In 1900 ICA took charge of the administration of the colonies set up by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, while establishing a few settlements of its own. By 1921 the population of the settlements in Palestine administered by ICA had risen to about 11,000.
1891Ahad Ha'am visited Palestine and related his experiences in an essay called "Truth from Palestine":
"We abroad are used to believing that Palestine is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed, and that anyone who wishes to purchase land there may come and do so to his heart's content. But in truth this is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed. . . . Both the farmers and the large landholders are reluctant to sell good, productive land. Many of our brothers who came to Palestine to buy land wait for months, have criss-crossed the land and have not yet found what they seek."
1892Ottoman government forbids sale of state land to Foreign Jews in Palestine.
1893European powers pressure Ottoman government to permit Jews legally residents in Palestine to buy land provided they establish no colonies on it.
1896Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, publishes his pamphlet The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat), which argues that the "Jewish Problem" can be solved only by setting up a Jewish State in Palestine, or somewhere else, so that Jews can live freely without fear of persecution.
1897Herzl organizes the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine. At it he said, "We shall try to spirit the penniless (Arab) population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country . . . Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly."
1900Ottoman government sends commission of inquiry to Palestine to study implications of Zionist mass immigration and land acquisition.
1901Pressured by European powers, the Ottoman government allows foreign Jews to buy land in Northern Palestine. Palestinian farmers in the Tiberias region express alarm at extent of Zionist land acquisition.
1901Under the guidance of Theodor Herzl, the Jewish National Fund (JNF, Keren Kayemet L'Israel) is established to purchase land in Palestine. The JNF makes its first purchase in 1903, 50 acres in Hadera given as a gift philanthropist Isaac (Yitzhak Leib) Goldberg.
1904-1914Second wave (Second Aliyah) of about 40,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to about 6% of total.
1905Attendees at the Seventh Zionist Congress decide that Palestine is the only suitable place for a Jewish state. At the Sixth Zionist Congress two years earlier, delegates had agreed to consider the establishment of a Jewish settlement in East Africa. But after considering a site in Uganda (now Kenya), attendees at the Seventh Congress (held in Basel, Switzerland), conclude that an East African site would be inappropriate for a mass Jewish settlement.
1907First kibbutz established. Known as the "Mother of the Kevutzot" (collective settlements), Degania was established six kilometers south of Tiberias, on land which was purchased by the Jewish National Fund, from the Arab village of Umm Juni.The village of Umm Juni belonged to a Persian effendi family, Majid-A-Din, who farmed their land with the help of share croppers and hired laborers. Some twenty Palestinian families lived in the village, which was built on the western edge of the plateau.
1907-1914Jacob H. Schiff established the Galveston Immigration Plan, coordinating the Industrial Removal Office (IRO) in New York City, and the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) in Great Britain, to send Jewish immigrants to the port of Galveston, Texas. The Jewish Immigrant Information Bureau (JIIB) was formed in 1907 as the branch of the IRO to receive these immigrants in Galveston and send them to communities throughout the United States. Some 9,300 Jews arrived in that area between 1907-1914.
1909A group of 66 Jewish families, intent on founding an alternative city to the crowded, predominantly Arab port city of Jaffa, bought uninhabited sand dunes to the north and created a garden suburb. They named it Tel Aviv, "Hill of Spring." Tel Aviv became the first modern Jewish city, with a population of 35,000 by 1921 and 200,000 by 1948. The prospectus for the proposed town read, in part, "We must occupy a decent stretch of land on which to build ourselves houses. It should be situated near Jaffa, and will constitute the first Hebrew town, which will be one hundred percent Jewish-populated, where Hebrew will be spoken, and purity and cleanliness maintained."
1911First major debate in the Ottoman Parliament on the dangers of Zionism, in the aftermath of al-Fula incident (1910-11) in which Zionists purchased a large tract of land containing a Crusader castle (at ‘Afula) made famous by Salah al-Din’s capture of it. Deputies for Jerusalem (Ruhi al-Khatib and Hafiz Sa‘id) and Damascus (Shukri al-‘Asali) speak on the threat of Zionism.
1912Leo Motzkin, in a speech at the annual conference of German Zionists, suggested that those Arabs who sold their land to the Jews should be resettled on uncultivated land in neighboring Arab states. During this period it was the British author Israel Zangwill who did most to popularize the idea of an 'Arab trek' by the Palestinians to a new state, which would be created for them in Arabia. In 1906, Zangwill coined the phrase, "A land without a people for a people without a land."
1912Baron Rothschild founded the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA) headed by his son James, to continue settlement activity, particularly in northern Palestine. The first settlement, Binyamina, bore the elder Rothschild's name (Avraham Binyamin.)
1915Britain gains the support of Arabs in World War I after promising independence for Arab states. While the Ottoman Empire enters the war on Germany's side, the Arabs (led by Sherif Hussein of Mecca, (also known as Sharif Husayn ibn ‘Ali) agree to side with the Allies (Britain, France, and Russia.) They do so because of an agreement known as the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence in which Britain promises independence to what is now Syria, Palestine (Israel), Jordan, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula should the Allies win the war. See MAP
1916British and French negotiate the Sykes-Picot Agreement. A secret understanding negotiated during World War I between Great Britain and France (with Russian consent), the Sykes-Picot agreement outlines the division of Ottoman-controlled lands into various French- and British-administered areas. The agreement is named after its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France. It contradicts the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence the year before. See MAP
June 1917The Cambon Declaration was a letter of support for Zionist aims sent to Nahum Sokolow, a prominent Polish Zionist then living in London, from Jules Cambon, Secretary General of the French Foreign Ministry. In an attempt to undermine the Sykes-Picot agreement, Sokolow was sent to Paris to meet with Cambon. This was the first recognition of Zionism by a major world power. The critical sentences are:
"... it would be a deed of justice and reparation to assist, by the protection of the Allied Powers, in the renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago. The French Government, which entered this present war to defend a people wrongly attacked, and which continues the struggle to assure victory of right over might, cannot but feel sympathy for your cause, the triumph of which is bound up with that of the Allies. I am happy to give you herewith such assurance."
November 1917The Balfour Declaration is issued by British Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour, endorsing the idea of establishing a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine. It said, in part:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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 Jews in any other country."
December 1917British General Sir Edmund Allenby, commander of the Egyptian expeditionary force, captures Jerusalem from Ottomans for the British. Colonel Reginald Storrs is appointed military governor. Remainder of Palestine conquered by Allenby by 1918, with the decisive victory at Megiddo. (Sept 18)
June 1918The Declaration to the Seven: Several Arab organizations worried about the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement elected a committee of seven to negotiate with Britain which issued a Declaration containing two assurances: (1) that Britain will continue to work for the liberation of those countries still under Turkish rule and (2) that no regime will be set up in any of them that was not acceptable to their populations.
November 1918The The Anglo-French Declaration: To allay Husayn's fear from Balfour Declaration and Sykes-Picot Agreement, a more specific declaration was issued: "The object aimed by France and Great Britain ... is the complete and definite emancipation of the [Arab] peoples and the establishment of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the initiative and free choice of the indigenous populations."
January 1919The Faysal-Weizmann Agreement: "...to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale" on the condition that "the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights" (Article IV). In a postscript, Faysal [also: Faisal] made his consent to sign the Agreement conditional on the fulfillment of the pledges made to the Arabs: "Provided that the Arabs obtain their independence as demanded ... I shall concur in the above articles. But if the slightest modification or departure were to be made I shall not be bound by a single word of the present Agreement."
1919-1923Third wave of over 35,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to 12% of total. Registered Jewish landownership (1923) totals 3% of area of country.
March 1919 Julius Kahn (R.-Ca.), a member of the United States House of Representatives, presented to President Woodrow Wilson, at the Paris Peace Conference in Versailles, a petition opposing Zionism. This document was signed by two hundred and ninety-nine prominent American Jews from all over the U.S. The committee directly responsible for the document consisted of thirty one prominent Jews of the period, including Henry Morgenthau, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Adolph S. Ochs, Publisher of The New York Times. The petition read in part:
". . . we protest against the political segregation of the Jews and the re-establishment in Palestine of a distinctively Jewish State as utterly opposed to the principles of democracy which it is the avowed purpose of the World's Peace Conference to establish. Whether the Jews be regarded as a "race" or as a "religion," it is contrary to the democratic principles for which the world war was waged to found a nation on either or both of these bases."
1920Hahistadrut Haklalit Shel Ha-Ovdim Ha-Ivriyyim Be-Eretz Israel, the General Federation of Jewish Workers in the Land of Israel (Histadrut) is founded, headed by David Ben-Gurion. George Mansur, a Palestinian labor leader, described its policies in 1937: "The Histadrut's fundamental aim is 'the conquest of labor' ...No matter how many Arab workers are unemployed, they have no right to take any job which a possible immigrant might occupy. No Arab has the right to work in Jewish undertakings." Arab workers were admitted into Histadrut starting in 1953.
April 1920At the post-World War I San Remo Conference in Italy, former Ottoman-controlled territories are allotted as "mandates" among the victorious Allies.
August 1920The government of the Ottoman sultan signed the Treaty of Sèvres, renouncing all claims to non-Turkish territory. Syria became a mandate of France; Mesopotamia and Palestine became British mandates. The Treaty of Sèvres was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
August 1920Henry King and Charles Crane, the US members of the Inter-Allied Commission, established by the Versailles Peace Conference, present their report based on their visit to the region in June-July; they make recommendations to Allies on the status of Syria, Iraq and Palestine; proposes limited Jewish emigration and giving up the idea of a distinct Jewish commonwealth in the region. Their report was kept secret until 1922, and was not fully published until 1947.
1920British appoints Palin Commission of Inquiry; Commission report attributes troubles to non-fulfillment of promises of Arab independence and fear of political and economic consequences of Zionism.
1921Outbreak of disturbances in Jaffa protesting large-scale Zionist immigration; 46 Jews killed and 146 wounded. British Haycraft Commission of Inquiry attributes disturbances to fears of Zionist mass immigration.
1921Nahalal, the first moshav, established in Marj Ibn Amer (called by the Israelis the Jezreel Valley, Plain of Akko or Plain of Megiddo.)
1922First British census of Palestine shows population of 757,182, with 78% Muslim, 11% Jewish and 9.6% Christian.
1922Britain offers Palestinians a legislative council, with British+Zionist majority (Palestinians comprise 89% of population according to British census) as long as they recognise the Balfour Declaration. This is rejected by Palestinians, who announce boycott of elections, which thus never happen.
June 1922British colonial secretary Winston Churchill issues White Paper excluding Transjordan from scope of Balfour Declaration. Ignoring political criteria, White Paper authorizes Jewish immigration according to "economic absorptive capacity" of the country.
July 1922The League of Nations issues a mandate to Britain to temporarily administer Palestine on behalf of both the Jews and Arabs living there. According to the mandate, Britain "shall be responsible for placing the country [Palestine] under such political, administrative, and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home ... and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race or religion."
August 1922Fifth Palestinian National Congress, meeting in Nablus, agrees to economic boycott of Zionists.
1923Britain cedes the Golan Heights from Palestine to French-run Syria. Britain’s official mandate over Palestine, from the League of Nations, comes into effect.
1924-1928Fourth wave of 67,000 Zionist immigrants, over 50% from Poland, increases Jewish population of Palestine to 16% of total. Registered Jewish land ownership (1928) totals 4.2% of area of country.
1925Polish Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky forms Revisionist Party with aim of revising the British Mandate to include colonization of Transjordan. In a letter to U.S. Senator O. O. Grusenberg, Jabotinsky proposed that the establishment of a Jewish majority in Palestine would 'have to be achieved against the will of the country's Arab majority. An "iron wall" of a Jewish armed force would have to protect the process of achieving a majority.'
1925New York Reform Rabbi Judah Magnes founded B'rit Shalom (Covenant of Peace) to advocate for a binational state with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. B'rit Shalom was primarily a movement of intellectuals and lacked a mass following.
March 1925Palestinian general strike to protest the visit by Lord Balfour, who was invited by Zionist leader Chaim Weizman to attend the opening of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Balfour spent two weeks in Palestine amidst strikes and protests by Palestinians.
August 1929Zionist-Arab antagonism boiled over into violent clashes in August 1929 when 133 Jews were killed by Palestinians and 110 Palestinians died at the hands of the British police.
October 1930British Hope-Simpson report on land settlement, immigration and development in Palestine concludes that there is not sufficient agricultural land for substantially increased number of Jewish settlers. John Hope-Simpson was chairman of the League of Nations Refugee Settlement Commission in Greece and an expert in agricultural economics.
October 1930White Paper by Sidney Webb (as Lord Passfield), the new Colonial Secretary, in the wake of the 1929 riots: decides to restrict Jewish emigration and restrict their land purchases.
October 1931Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization), Irgun or IZL for short, founded by Revisionist groups and dissidents from Haganah, advocates a more militant policy against Palestinians. Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky is commander-in-chief.
1931Second British census of Palestine shows total population of 1,035,154 with 73.4% Muslim, 16.9% Jewish and 8.6% Christian. Civil unrest, followed by World War II, made it impossible for the British to take another census.
1931Lewis French, British Director of Development for Palestine, publishes report on "Landless Arabs", caused by Zionist colonization.
1933Arab Executive Committee declares Zionist mass immigration "has terrified the country" and calls for general strike to protest British pro-Zionist policies, especially sponsorship of Zionist mass immigration; disturbances break out in main towns. British Secretary of State issues statement on resettlement of Palestinian farmers displaced from land acquired by Zionists.
1936-1939Palestinians protest British support of the Zionist movement in Palestine with a strike and three years of unrest. By 1936, the increase in Jewish immigration and land acquisition, as well as general Arab frustration at the continuation of European rule, mobilizes increasing numbers of Palestinian Arabs. The revolt lasts until 1939, when the British, in part to obtain Arab support for the recently erupted war with Germany, ban most land sales to Jews. By this time, the militant Zionist group Irgun Zvai Leumi was orchestrating attacks on Palestinian and British targets with the aim of "liberating" Palestine and Transjordan (modern-day Jordan) by force.
1936-1947The Arab revolt of 1936-39 inspired the "Stockade and Watchtower" method of establishing new settlements. Convoys of hundreds of Zionist volunteers, prefabricated huts and fortifications would arrive at the designated site at daybreak. By nightfall the settlement was complete, surrounded by a protective fence and dominated by a watchtower from which to scan the surrounding area for signs of hostility. Between 1936 and 1947, over one hundred settlements were established in this manner.
1937The Peel Commission, a royal commission headed by Lord Peel, is appointed to examine the Palestine problem. In response to the Arab Revolt against British rule in Palestine, the Peel Commission hears testimony from more than 130 Jews, Zionists, Palestinian Arabs, and other Arab nationalists before issuing its report. The commission's report, published in July 1937, calls for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a British-controlled corridor from Jerusalem to the coast at Jaffa. It also recommends relocating people to deal with the delicate population balance between Jews and Arabs in the proposed Jewish state. The partition plan was accepted as a pragmatically valid principle for settling the Arab-Jewish dispute by the majority of the offical leadership of the Zionist movement who urged further examination of the Bristish proposals. The Arab side rejected the compromise, with the exception of Abdullah of Transjordan.
November 1937Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund, who served on the Population Transfer Committee of the Jewish Agency, wrote in a report that the transfer of the Arab population from the Jewish areas: "does not serve only one aim - to diminish the Arab population. It also serves a second purpose by no means less important, which is to evacuate land now cultivated by Arabs and thus release it for Jewish settlement." Weitz believed that the transfer of the rural Arab population should be given preference over the removal of the city Arabs. In all, he calculated that 87,000 Arabs could be removed from the rural areas along with 10-15,000 Bedouins. Most would go to TransJordan while the remainder would go to Gaza and Syria. Weitz realized that the British would not remove the Arabs by force, so he hoped to persuade the Arabs to leave by economic inducements.
June 1938"There is no hope that this new Jewish state will survive, to say nothing of develop, if the Arabs are as numerous as they are today."
"The worst is not that the Arabs would comprise 45 or 50 per cent of the population of the new state but that 75 per cent of the land is owned by Arabs." -- Zionist leader Menahem Ussishkin
November, 1938The Woodhead Commission, created to examine the recommendation of the Peel Commission that Palestine be partitioned, issues its report. After Palestinian Arabs reject the 1937 Peel Commission's partition plan (dividing Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state), the British government assembles a team to devise a new plan. The written report includes a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable, but suggests that Arab-Jewish agreement might still be possible.
May, 1939Britain publishes the MacDonald White Paper, effectively ending its commitment to a Jewish state. The White Paper, named for the British colonial secretary, marks the end of Britain's commitment to the Jews and a Jewish state under the Balfour Declaration. The White Paper calls for the establishment of a Palestinian (Arab) state within 10 years. It limits the number of Jews to be admitted to Palestine over the next five years to 75,000 and places severe restrictions on land purchases by Jews. The White Paper receives a mixed Arab reception, and the Jewish Agency rejects it emphatically, calling it a total repudiation of Balfour and mandate obligations. David Ben-Gurion, then chairman of the Jewish Agency, declares, "We shall fight the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and we shall fight the White Paper as if there were no war."
1939-1945Some six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust during World War II.
1939Stern Gang is formed under Avraham Stern by dissident Irgunists, in protest against McDonald White Paper policy and calls for alliance with Axis powers in war against British.
October 1939Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization and Moshe Shertok, Political Secretary of the Jewish Agency, conferred with H. St John Philby, a British friend of King Ibn Saud who said that the King would agree to the creation of a Jewish state in all of Palestine and the transfer of "considerable numbers" of Palestinians to Arabia in exchange for Zionist help in the unification of the Arab world under Ibn Saud and a subsidy of twenty million pounds.
1940-1945Arrival of over 60,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to 31% of total. Registered Jewish land ownership rises to 6% of area of country.
1940Land Transfers Regulations, suggested by 1939 White Paper to protect Palestinian land rights against Zionist acquisition, enter into force.
May 1942Zionist movement makes clearest call for statehood in ‘the Biltmore Programme’, decided upon in Emergency Zionist Conference in New York; pressed for mass immigration and the setting up of a sovereign Jewish commonwealth in all parts of Palestine.
1943First codified by the British Mandatory government, and later adopted by Israel, the Land Ordinance of 1943 sanctioned the confiscation of private lands for "public purposes."
1944British Labor Party passes resolution recommending that Palestinians be "encouraged" to move out of Palestine to make way for Jewish immigrants.
1945President Truman asks British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to grant immigration certificates allowing 100,000 Jews into Palestine.
1945British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin issues White Paper announcing continued Jewish immigration into Palestine after exhaustion of 1939 White Paper quota.
January 1946Albert Einstein made a presentation to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, which was examining the Palestine issue, and argued against the creation of a Jewish state. In 1950 Einstein published the following statement on the question of Zionism.
"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from the practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight without a Jewish state."
January 1946 The Anglo-American Enquiry Committee began work in January 1946 with a 120-day time-limit and finalized its report in April. It surveyed the history of Palestine since the Balfour Declaration, but concluded with a set of recommendations that virtually negated those by the British Commission. The Palestinian Arab view was summed up as follows:
"... Stripped to the bare essentials, the Arab case is based upon the fact that Palestine is a country which the Arabs have occupied for more than a thousand years, and a denial of the Jewish historical claims to Palestine. In issuing the Balfour Declaration, the Arabs maintain, the British Government were giving away something that did not belong to Britain, and they have consistently argued that the Mandate conflicted with the Covenant of the League of Nations from which it derived its authority. The Arabs deny that the part played by the British in freeing them from the Turks gave Great Britain a right to dispose of their country. Indeed, they assert that Turkish was preferable to British rule, if the latter involves their eventual subjection to the Jews. They consider the Mandate a violation of their right of self-determination since it is forcing upon them an immigration which they do not desire and will not tolerate - an invasion of Palestine by the Jews ...

"The suggestion that self-government should be withheld from Palestine until the Jews have acquired a majority seems outrageous to the Arabs. They wish to be masters in their own house. The Arabs were opposed to the idea of a Jewish national home even before the Biltmore Programme and the demand for a Jewish State. Needless to say, however, their opposition has become more intense and more bitter since that programme was adopted ..."
February 1946Palestinians strike in protest against British decision to allow Zionist mass immigration to continue at rate of 1939 quota.
March 1946The Arab League establishes fund to protect Palestinian farmers from Zionist land acquisition.
September 1946Delegates from Arab States to Round Table Conference in London proposes unitary state of Palestine, preserving current Arab majority in which Jews would have full civil rights.
April 1947U.N. General Assembly special session on the "Palestine problem" leads to appointment of eleven-member Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). The purpose of the Committee was to investigate the Palestine problem, including the question of the Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs.) The Arabs were unsuccessful in divorcing the DP issue from the Palestine problem, believing that consideration of the Jewish refugees in connection with Palestine practically assured a UNSCOP report favourable to the Zionists. The Arabs declined to give testimony before the UN Committee.
1947The United Nations votes to partition Palestine into two states, one for the Jews and one for the Palestinian Arabs, with Jerusalem to become an international enclave.
August 1947The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommends the creation of independent Jewish and Arab states. The plan divides Palestine into roughly equal halves, with Jerusalem and religiously significant surrounding sites under the control of a separate international authority. The report also calls for the Arab and Jewish states to form a united economic bloc. The Jews accept this plan, but the Palestinian Arabs do not.
September - October 1947British Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones announces Britain's decision to end Palestine Mandate. Arab Higher Committee for Palestine rejects partition. Jewish Agency announces acceptance of partition. US endorses partition. Britain says it will leave Palestine in six months if no settlement is reached.
November 1947The partition plan is approved by majority vote of the UN General Assembly on November 29. Arab representatives walk out of assembly.
March 1948Transjordanian prime minister Tawfiq Abu al-Huda secretly meets British foreign secretary Bevin. They agree that Transjordanian forces will enter Palestine at end of Mandate but will restrict themselves to area of Arab state outlined in Partition Plan.
April 1948Irgun and Lehi massacred scores of inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem on 9 April. Word of the massacre spread terror among Palestinians and hundreds of thousands fled to Lebanon, Egypt and the area now known as the West Bank.
May 1948By May 3, between 175,000 and 200,000 Palestinian refugees are reported to have fled from areas taken by Zionists.
May 1948 On May 14, the State of Israel is declared, with David Ben-Gurion as its first prime minister. In the Arab world this day is known as Al-Naqba, the catastrophe. Both the United States and the USSR immediately recognize the new state. In support of the Palestinian Arabs, however, neighboring Arab nations — Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Syria — declare war on Israel the next day. The Israelis repel the Arab attack. The 1948 War, also known as the Israeli War of Independence, ends in July 1949. Israel signs separate cease-fire agreements with Transjordan, Syria, and Egypt and now controls about 70 percent of what had been Mandatory Palestine. Egypt holds the Gaza Strip, Jordan annexes the West Bank, and Syria retains the Golan Heights.
May 1948 In support of the Palestinians neighboring Arab nations — Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Syria — declare war on Israel on May 15. The Israelis repel the Arab attack.
1948 The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 incorporated two-thirds of mandate Gaza into Israel, and the remaining third came under the control of the Egyptian military administration. These events produced a massive exodus of approximately 250,000 Palestinian refugees into the Egyptian sector of Gaza. The huge influx of refugees in 1948 increased the Gaza Strip's population by more than 300%.
May 1948 The U.N. Security Council appoints Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte as its mediator in Palestine.
June 1948 Count Bernadotte suggests economic, military and political union of Transjordan and Palestine containing Arab and Jewish states: Negev and central Palestine to go to Arabs, Western Galilee to Jews, Jerusalem to be part of Arab state with administrative autonomy to Jews, Haifa and Jaffa to be free ports and Lydda free airport. Rejected by both sides.
September 1948 Report by UN mediator Count Bernadotte proposed new partition of Palestine: Arab state to be annexed to Transjordan and to include Negev, al-Ramla and Lydda; Jewish state in all of Galilee; internationalization of Jerusalem; return or compensation of refugees. Rejected by Arab League and Israel. The next day Count Bernadotte murdered in Jerusalem by the Stern Gang. He is replaced by his American Ralph Bunche. Mainstream Jewish leaders were horrified by the assassination.
September 1948 U.N. Resolution 194 "Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."
July 1949 The 1948 War, also known as the Israeli War of Independence, ends in July 1949. Israel signs separate cease-fire agreements with Transjordan, Syria, and Egypt and now controls about 70 percent of what had been Mandatory Palestine. Egypt holds the Gaza Strip, Jordan annexes the West Bank, and Syria retains the Golan Heights.
1950 Though the U.S. still favored keeping Jerusalem an international zone as per the 1947 UN partition plan, Israel proclaims Jerusalem its capital.
1950s-1960s From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, 27 "development towns" and another 56 villages were built and populated mainly by North African Mizrahi (Jews from Arab and Muslims Lands and the East) immigrants. During the same period, large groups of Mizrahis were also housed in "frontier" urban neighborhoods, which were either previously Palestinian or adjacent to Palestinian areas. Given the low socioeconomic resources of most Mizrahis, their mainly Arab culture and their lack of ties to Israeli elites, the development towns and the frontier neighborhoods quickly became, and have remained, distinct concentrations of segregated, poor and deprived Mizrahi populations.
March 1950 Absentee Property Law (‘Qanoon Elhader/Gayeb in Arabic) is passed authorizing expropriation of of all lands belonging to Palestinians who were citizens or residents on 29 November, 1947 but had left his place of residence, even to take refuge within Palestine. The internally displaced became "present absentees" and lost their land. Absentee property was vested in the Custodian of Absentee Property who then ‘sold’ it to the Development Authority.
July 1950 Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law is adopted. Most Palestinians view this as a legal ploy to shield Israel's government from the accusation that it has confiscated abandoned property. The Development Authority is an independent body empowered to sell, buy, lease, exchange, repair, build, develop and cultivate Palestinian property. None of these transactions could take place except with a Jew or a Jewish entity.
July 1950 Law of Return is passed, permitting any Jew to take Israeli nationality.
1951 A bomb exploded in a Baghdad synagogue causing two deaths and dozens of wounded; 100,000 Iraqi Jews decided to emigrate to Israel.
1952 Arabs in Israel who were formally registered under the Registration of Residents Act 1949 are granted Israeli citizenship.
January 1952 Dispute between Revisionists and the government in Israel over W. Germany’s offer to pay reparations to Israel for property confiscated by Nazis. Whilst Ben-Gurion was willing to accept reparations, Begin attempted to storm the Knesset with a mob.
October 1953 Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister; Moshe Sharett becomes Prime Minister in January, 1954.
1954All West Bank residents given Jordanian citizenship, providing they had Palestinian citizenship prior to 1948.
1956 Israel, Britain, and France attack Egypt after the Egyptian president Nassar nationalizes the Suez Canal. (October 31-November 7.) Britain and France conspire to recapture the canal they once owned, with Israeli assistance. Israel invades Sinai, and Britain and France "intervene" and occupy the canal zone. They withdraw under U.S. and Soviet pressure, unsuccessful in their attempt.
1959 Report of U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld to the U.N. General Assembly proposing that Palestinian refugees should be absorbed into Middle East States; supported by U.S. offer of assistance of May, 1961.
November 1959 Israel begins work on the National Water Carrier Project, a program to divert the waters of the River Jordan from Lake Tiberias (also known as Sea of Galilee, Arabic: Buhayrat Tabariya) to the Negev. Heightens Arab opposition to Israel.
February 1960 in In response to calls for a Palestinian state, Jordan grants citizenship to any Palestinian who so wishes, as part of its attempt to equate Jordan and Palestine.
1960 Israel's Knesset adopted a Basic Land Law based on the Jewish National Fund's principle of national land, which stated that land owned by the Jewish People cannot be sold, but only leased for periods of 49 years at a time. Of the total land in Israel, 79.5% is owned by the government, 14% is privately owned by the JNF, and the rest, around 6.5%, is evenly divided between private Arab and Jewish owners.
1963Israel begins to divert 75% of River Jordan waters onto its land. Syria sends troops, but U.N. negotiates ceasefire.
1964Arab leaders create the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to campaign for an independent Palestinian state.
1964 Conflict over access to fresh water from the Jordan River pits Israel against its Arab neighbors. The countries sharing the basin of the Jordan River have extremely limited sources of fresh water, and water rights have been one of the leading sources of conflict. In 1964, Israel's National Water Carrier system, a complex of canals, pipelines, and tunnels built to convey water to the coastal plain of Israel and the Negev Desert, began diverting water from the Jordan River Basin. This diversion led to the Arab Summit of 1964, where a plan was developed to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River into Syria and Jordan — preventing Jordan River water from reaching Israel. As the activities of the Headwater Diversion Plan began to take shape from 1965-67, Israel attacked construction sites. These incidents regarding water issues led up to the outbreak of war in June 1967.
June 1967In al-Naksah, or "the Setback," called the Six Day War in the West, Israel captured Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, East Jerusalem and West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel more than tripled the size of the area it controlled, from 8,000 to 26,000 square miles. According ot the UN, the conflict displaced another 500,000 Palestinians who fled to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
June 1967Israel confiscates the keys to the Magharbeh Gate (western gate of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound) and has not yet returned them to the Islamic Waqf.
1967 Immediately after the war, the Israeli government annexed extensive areas to the north, east and south of West Jerusalem to the Municipality of Jerusalem and began a rapid process to build settlements in these areas. Its goal was to prevent any challenge to Israel's sovereignty over them and to impede initiatives leading to an Israeli withdrawal from these areas.
1967 Israel annexed a strip of land parallel to the Green Line along a few kilometers north and south of the Latrun area. This strip of land had been known as "no man's land," because in 1948-1967 it was not subject to the control of either the Israeli or the Jordanian side. Under international law this area is not considered occupied territory.
1967 Agricultural Settlement (Restrictions on the Use of Agricultural Land and Water) Law (1967) passed, preventing Jewish leaseholders of State lands from subleasing them back to Palestinian Arabs.
September 1967 Kfar Etzion became the first settlement to be established in the West Bank. It was established due to the pressure of a group of settlers, some of whom were relatives of the residents of the original community of Kfar Etzion, founded in 1943 between Jerusalem and Hebron, which was abandoned and destroyed during the 1948 war. Today, Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc) contains 14 settlements and about 6,800 Jewish settlers, with another 4,000 in the city of Efrat.
November 1967United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which established a formula for Arab-Israeli peace whereby Israel would withdraw from territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace with its neighbors. This resolution has served as the basis for peace negotiations from that time on.
Late 1967Alon Plan. As early as the end of 1967, Yigal Alon - who served at the time as the head of the Ministerial Committee on Settlements - began to prepare a strategic plan for the establishment of settlements in certain parts of the West Bank. This plan was reformulated several times over the coming years. Although never formally approved by the Israeli government, the plan provided the basis for the layout of the settlements established in the West Bank on the initiative of the governments led by the Ma'arach (the precursor of the modern Labor Party) through 1977, and as the foundation for the "territorial compromise" advocated by the Ma'arach in its platform through the 1988 elections.

The initial objective of the Alon Plan was to redraw the borders of the State of Israel to include the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert within the territory of the state, which the plan's proponents argued was necessary to ensure state security. Within these areas, the plan advocated the establishment of a string of Israeli settlements ensuring a "Jewish presence" and constituting a preliminary step leading to formal annexation. The Alon Plan also recommended that, as far as possible, the annexation of areas densely populated by Palestinians should be avoided.

1968Number of settlements in West Bank: 3 | population: unknown
1968The Israeli occupational military command ordered the freezing or suspension of the land registration process in the West Bank when they issued Military Order 291.
1968 Jews from the USSR, who were persecuted, discriminated against and barred from openly practicing their faith, start arriving in Israel in 1968. About 100,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel in the 1970s; since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1989, more than 850,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union have settled in Israel.
April 1968On the eve of the Jewish feast of Passover, a group of Orthodox Jewish families, lead by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, went to Hebron posing as tourists. They rented, then occupied, a small Palestinian-owned hotel, refusing to move out. Eventually they were allowed to stay in a military camp by the then Labour government and later to build a Jewish settlement nearby called Kiryat Arba, which served as a base for their subsequent entry to the heart of Hebron.
1969Number of settlements in West Bank: 8 | population: unknown
1969First Israeli families move into Ramat Eshkol, Israel's new Jewish settlement in annexed East Jerusalem.
June 1969"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist." -- Mrs. Golda Meir. Statement to "The Sunday Times", 15 June, 1969.
1969America launches the Rogers Plan, named after the U.S. Secretary of State, which proposes that Israel withdraw to pre-1967 borders. Both sides reject it. This was the first U.S.-authored plan.
March 1969Golda Meir becomes Israeli PM after Eshkol’s death from a heart attack in February.
July 1969U.N. Security Council Resolution 267 is passed unanimously: §3 “censures in the strongest terms all measures taken to change the status of the City of Jerusalem”; §4 “confirms that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel which purport to alter the status of Jerusalem, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, are invalid and cannot change that status."
1970Number of settlements in West Bank: 10 | population: unknown
1970The Joint Settlement Committee of the Israeli Government and the World Zionist Organization (known as the Ministerial Committee for Settlement) was organized and empowered to decide on the establishment of new settlements. The committee is composed of equal numbers of government ministers and representitives from the WZO. Since 1996, decisions of the committee relating to settlements in the occupied territories must be brought to the government for discussion and approval.
October 1970The first civilian settlement on the Gaza Strip was founded; named Kfar Darom, after a kibbutz founded in 1946 and destroyed by the Egyptians during the 1948 War.
1971Number of settlements in West Bank: 12 | population: unknown
1971Israel's Attorney General, Meir Shamgar, wrote that international humanitarian law does not apply to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip because their annexation by Jordan and Egypt never received international recognition. Therefore, he argued, Israel was not obliged to compy with the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to Civilian Persons in Time of War.
1972Number of settlements in West Bank: 14 | population: unknown
1973Number of settlements in West Bank: 14 | population: unknown
October 1973 The Ramadan War (also known as the October War and Yom Kippur War), was fought from October 6 to October 22/24, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Egypt and Syria. U.S. President Richard M. Nixon charged his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, with the task of negotiating agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Kissinger managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights during 1974.
1974Number of settlements in West Bank: 14 | population: unknown
March 1974Certain religious right-wing circles who interpreted Israel's victory in the 1967 war in theological terms offering an opportunity "to realize the vision of the Whole Land of Israel" established Gush Emunim [Bloc of the Faithful], under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. The immediate goal of the movement was to force the government to establish as many settlements as possible throughout the "Land of Israel." Gush Emunim aimed to disperse the settlements it established over as wide an area as possible.
1974-1975Between July 1974 and December 1975 members of Gush Emunim made seven unsuccessful attempts to establish a settlement at various sites in the Nablus area, without government permission. The eighth attempt led to a compromise between the settlers and then-Minister of Defense Shimon Peres. The settlers were allowed to stay at an IDF base, Qadum, to the west of Nablus. Two years later the base was officially made into the settlement of Qedumum.
April 1974Golda Meir resigns as Prime Minister; Yitzhak Rabin beats Shimon Peres in Labour election for the next leader on 3 June.
1975Number of settlements in West Bank: 19 | population: unknown
October 1975Israeli Defence Minister Peres unveils a “civil administration” plan for the Occupied Territories: limited autonomy, with Israel in control of defense, finance & foreign affairs.
November 1975General uprising in the Occupied Territories in response to Israeli settlement near Nablus (30 Nov.) and against the civil administration plan. Through May, 1976.
November 1975The U.N. General Assembly “determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination” (GAR3379; establishes the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people (GAR3376). The determination in 3379 is repealed by GAR 46/86 on 16 December, 1991, at the urging of the United States, who makes payment of its U.N. dues dependent on its revocation.
1976Number of settlements in West Bank: 20 | population: 3,200
1976In what has become an annual event, the first "Land Day" (‘Youm al-Ard’ in Arabic) protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel erupt to protest Government confiscations of 5,500 acres of Palestinian land in the Galilee, which was classified as "closed military zones." It commemorates the Israeli army's March 30, 1976 killing of six Palestinians and the injuring of 96 during protests.
September 1976Official report of Israeli government, by Israel Koenig (Interior ministry official) on Israeli Arabs leaked: claims that they are a security threat in W. Galilee, and calls for establishing Jewish settlement there, suppressing Arab political activity, encouraging Arab emigration.
October 1976The Koenig Report on Handling the Arabs of Israel, Israel Koenig, Ministry of Interior; Section 1: The Demographic Problem recommends, "Expand and deepen Jewish settlement in areas where the continuity of the Arab population is prominent, and where they number considerably more than the Jewish population; examine the possibility of diluting existing Arab population concentrations… Concurrently, the state law has to be enforced so as to limit "breaking of new ground" by Arab settlements in various areas of the country."
1977Number of settlements in West Bank: 31 | population: 4,400
June 1977The Likud Party, with Menachem Begin as Prime Minister, came to power. Their party platform stated, "Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." Also, "Settlement, both urban and rural, in all parts of the Land of Israel is the focal point of the Zionist effort to redeem the country, to maintain vital security areas and serves as a reservoir of strength and inspiration for the renewal of the pioneering spirit. The Likud government will call on the younger generation in Israel and the dispersions to settle and help every group and individual in the task of inhabiting and cultivating the wasteland, while taking care not to dispossess anyone." The election of the Lukud party signalled a shift in settlement policy from one that was mainly concerned with safety and defense to a settlement policy that also considered ideological/religious motivations.
1977Drobless Plan. Matitiyahou Drobless, head of the World Zionist Organization Settlement Division, prepared his first comprehensive plan for the establishment of colonies throughout the West Bank. Most of the colonies that were established as part of the Drobless plan were constructed on the central mountain ridge around Palestinian population centers. Drobless proposed new high volume traffic arteries to connect Israel to the West Bank and beyond. For their security, new settlements would be placed on the hilltops along the route, on the summits surrounding the large Palestinian cities, and around the roads connecting them to each other. Describing the intent of this plan, then economics editor of the Jerusalem Post Meir Merhav told Time magazine in March 1980 that the West Bank "is to be carved up by a grid of roads, settlements and strongholds into a score of little bantustans so that [the Palestinians] shall never coalesce again into a contiguous area that can support autonomous, let alone independent, existence." See MAP
1977Sharon Plan: "A vision of Israel at Century's End." Minister of Agriculture Ariel Sharon (1977-1981) modified and expanded the Drobless Plan and Gush Emunim by intensifying colonization along the Green Line in order to secure the borders between the West Bank and Israel. Sharon’s plan also called for the increased colonization along the central mountain ridge. According the Sharon Plan only a small number of high density Palestinian communities were not to be under Israeli sovereignty in the future. The Sharon Plan relied on removal and transfer of the Palestinian population out of the Occupied Territories. The ultimate aim of Sharon’s plan was the annexation of the West Bank, excluding several densely populated Palestinian enclaves.
1978Number of settlements in West Bank: 39 | population: 7,400
1978The Gaza Coast regional council was established in the Gaza Strip in 1978, initiating a chain of new settlements from the southern suburbs of Deir al-Balah down to the southern border of the strip. This created the Katif Bloc, designed in part to prevent Khan Yunis from expanding westward to the sea.
1978Dayan-Weizmann Plan. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann submitted a "catonment" plan as an alternative to the more radical plans for the West Bank being proposed by Gush Emunim and the WZO. Along the Jordan Valley they proposed a string of 21 settlements. The Western part of the West Bank would be divided into six cantons (Efrat, Mayaleh Aduum, Givon Nebi Saleh, Ariel, Korel Shomron and Reihan), each consisting of a military base and a civilian settlement. The cantons would be connected by an infrastructure (i.e., roads.) Dayan argued that these concentrated, urban settlements would be more attractive for the secular Israelis and that they would be easier to defend than many small, scattered settlements. Also, they suggested, the international community would be more accepting of these cities rather than many smaller settlements in the midst of the Palestinian area. See MAP
April 1978In the April 21, 1978 the Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State during the Carter administration, Herbert Hansell, concluded that: "Israeli civilian settlements thus appear to constitute a “transfer of parts of its own civilian population into the territories it occupies” within the scope of paragraph 6 [of Article 49, Fourth Geneva Convention]….[T]he establishment of the civilian settlements in those [Palestinian] territories is inconsistent with international law.."
September 1978Israel and Egypt negotiate peace accords at Camp David. Just five years after the October War, U.S. president Jimmy Carter hosts Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat at Camp David. This historic meeting will result in the first peace accord to be signed by Israel and one of its Arab neighbors.
1979Number of settlements in West Bank: 43 | population: 10,000
Number of settlements in East Jerusalem: 7 | population: 50,000
1979The wife of Rabbi Levinger, who started the original Jewish settlement in Hebron in 1968, led 30 Jewish women to take over the Daboya Hospital (Beit Hadassah) in central Hebron. This quickly received Israeli government approval and further Jewish enclaves in the city were established with army assistance.
March 1979Camp David Accord. Under the treaty's terms, control of the Sinai returns to Egypt, while Israel retains the Gaza Strip. In exchange for the Sinai's return, Egypt recognizes Israel and establishes full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
March 1979 U.N. Security Council Resolution 446, March 22. "Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."
July 1979 U.N. Security Council Resolution 452, July 20. "Calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem."
September 1979 Israeli cabinet lifts restrictions on Jews making private land purchases in the West Bank.
October 1979 Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli cabinet in opposition to settlement approvals and argues that greater autonomy should be granted to Palestinians in negotiations. (21 October)
October 1979 Israeli High Court of Justice unanimously decides that the Elon Moreh, the first Gush Emunim settlement near Nablus, is unlawful, as confiscation of private Palestinian land is permitted only for military, not political, functions. The settlement moves to Jebel Kabir nearby.
1980Number of settlements in West Bank: 53 | population: 12,500
March 1980U.N. Resolution 465. "Determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East; Strongly deplores the continuation and persistence of Israel in pursuing those policies and practices and calls upon the Government and people of Israel to rescind those measures, to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem; Calls upon all States not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used specifically in connexion with settlements in the occupied territories . . "
June 1980Mayors Bassam al-Shak‘a (Nablus) & Karim Khalaf (Ramallah) are maimed by bombs, later attributed to Israeli settlers. Ibrahim Tawil (al-Bira) narrowly escapes.
June 1980European Economic Community (EEC) adopts the Venice Declaration: recognises Palestinian self-determination, calls for multilateral negotiations and criticises Israeli occupation & settlement policies.
July 1980Israel confirms in its Basic Law that the "complete and unified Jerusalem is the capital of Israel" (s.1), confirming its annexation; U.N. Security Council Resolution SCR478 (20 Aug.) condemns this move.
1981Number of settlements in West Bank: 68 | population: 16,200
June / July 1981Prime Minister Menachem Begin launches his ‘Iron Fist’ policies in the Occupied Teritories; heavy restrictions on Palestinian universities, newspapers & expressions of cultural or national identity; all contact with PLO banned. Indefinite postponement of municipal elections, and Israeli military orders given the same status as preexisting laws.
1982Number of settlements in West Bank: 73 | population: 21,000
June 1982Israel invades Lebanon. Israel invades Lebanon to drive out Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, which had been using the country as a base for anti-Israeli operations, and to protect Israel’s 63 Galilee settlements by creating a 40km zone N of the border under IDF control. The United States sends Marines to oversee the peaceful withdrawal of the PLO from the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
1983Number of settlements in West Bank: 76 | population: 22,800
May 1983The U.S. mediates a peace and withdrawal agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Israeli forces begin to leave Lebanon, but maintain control over a 12-mile-wide "security zone" in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border. The Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel's presence in Lebanon, continues to attack military posts in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. Israeli forces will continue to combat these forces for another 22 years, until Israel leaves southern Lebanon entirely in January of 2000.
1983The Hundred Thousand Plan. At the beginning of 1983, the Ministry of Agriculture and the World Zionist Organization published a "master plan" for settlements in the West Bank through the year 2010, including an operative development plan for the period 1983-1986. This plan was also known as The Hundred Thousand Plan, due to its aspiration to attract 80,000 new Israeli citizens by 1986, so that the Jewish population (excluding East Jerusalem) would number 100,000. According to the plan, twenty-three new communal and rural communities were to be established, as well as twenty NAHAL army settlement sites. In addition, 300-450 kilometers of new roads were to be paved. While the original emphasis of the plan called for settlements in the central mountain ridge and on the western slopes of the ridge, the establishment of the national-unity government in 1984 meant that a considerable part of the resources was actually diverted to promote settlements in the Jordan Valley, constituting a compromise between supporters of the Drobless-Sharon approach and exponents of the Alon Plan. During the period of the plan, the government achieved the objective in terms of the number of new settlements, but failed to meet the population forecast; the actual population by the end of 1986 was just 51,000.
1984Number of settlements in West Bank: 102 | population: 35,300
1985Number of settlements in West Bank: 105 | population: 45,200
1986Number of settlements in West Bank: 110 | population: 51,100
1987Number of settlements in West Bank: 110 | population: 57,900
December 1987The Palestinian intifada, an uprising against Israeli occupation, begins in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The intifada marks the first time that Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza became significantly involved in the movement against Israeli occupation. Until then, most of the opposition was organized from outside the occupied territories by the PLO. The Israeli military responds with rubber bullets and live ammunition, consistent with its "iron-fist policy." Curfews are imposed on Palestinians, and arrests and deportations follow. More than 20,000 people, both Israelis and Palestinians, are killed or injured between 1987 and 1993.
1988Number of settlements in West Bank: 110 | population: 63,600
July 1988King Hussain announces that Jordan is giving up its administration of the West Bank, and stops paying salaries to civil servants and school teachers there. PLO announces that it is taking over responsibility for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on 3 August.
November 1988On November 15, a Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers proclaims the State of Palestine. Citing UN Partition Plan 181 from 1947 to support its claim, the PLO's legislative body, the Palestine National Council (PNC), declares a Palestinian state that includes land under Israeli occupation since 1967 (the Gaza Strip and West Bank). A flag and a national anthem for the new state are also adopted. 60 countries recognize the State of Palestine by the end of the month.
December 1988On December 14, the PLO recognizes the State of Israel and calls for negotiations. A U.S.-PLO dialogue begins shortly thereafter; these talks ultimately lead to the 1991 Madrid Conference.
December 1988Un Resolution 53/196 "Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the population of the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources, including land and water; Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, not to exploit, to cause loss or depletion of or to endanger the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan; Recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to claim restitution as a result of any exploitation, loss or depletion of, or danger to, their natural resources, and expresses the hope that this issue will be dealt with in the framework of the final status negotiation between the Palestinian and Israeli sides."
1988Beginning of the migration of Jews from the former Soviet republics to Israel. Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika and the subsequent breakdown of communism triggered a mass emigration among Jews. Because such large number of Jews sought to emigrate, they were no longer regarded as refugees, but merely as migrants by the United States and Western Europe and restrictions were placed on the numbers permitted to enter those countries. The mass movement was redirected towards Israel, which automatically grants them citizenship.
1989Number of settlements in West Bank: 115 | population: 69,800
1989Israeli Prime Minister Shamir endorses the Likud ministers Sharon, Levy and Moda'i’s demands, that "there will be no participation of East Jerusalem Arabs in elections... There will be no negotiations as long as violence continues... There will be no foreign sovereignty in any part of the Land of Israel... and settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza will continue... There will be no negotiation with the PLO and no Palestinian State in the land of Israel."
1990Number of settlements in West Bank: 118 | population: 76,800
Population of settlements in East Jerusalem: 120,000
April 1990 Church of the Holy Sepulchre locks its doors for first time in 800 years, and all other Christian Shrines in the country also close in protest over presence of Jewish settlers in St. John's Hospice in Jerusalem. Islamic Waqf close Haram al-Sharif in solidarity.
July 1990 U.S. Secretary of State James Baker informs Palestinian leaders that the American initiative envisions the creation of “less than a state, and more than autonomy.”
October 1990 At inauguration of new East Jerusalem Jewish religious school, Prime Minister Shamir announces plans for major new housing project for Orthodox Jews on undeveloped ridge between Mt.Scopus and Mt.of Olives.
October 1990At Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces kill 18 Palestinians and injure 150 more as Palestinians protest against the attempt of extremist Gershon Solomon's "Temple Mount Faithful" to enter the compound and place a cornerstone for the building of "a Jewish third temple". The same day, Housing Minister Ariel Sharon announces a plan to increase the pace of construction in East Jerusalem from 2,000 to 5,000 units annually.
1991Number of settlements in West Bank: 119 | population: 90,300
1991The “Seven Stars Plan, superseded the Drobles plan in 1991. Instigated by the then housing Minister Ariel Sharon, it called for new towns on the green line separating the West Bank and Israel.
March 1991Israeli authorities reveal plans, approved by Religious Affairs Ministry and government, to build a Jewish cemetery in the West Bank. Plan violates international rules governing use of occupied territory, and reflects attempt to make Israel's hold on West Bank irreversible.
May 1991Operation Solomon, an airlift, brings 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to live in Israel. Airlifts to Israel of Ethiopian Jews suffering from famine and oppression had begun in the 1980s, prior to Operation Solomon.
September 1991The U.S. delayed a $10 billion subsidized loan to pressure Israel not to proceed with the establishment of settlements.
October 1991In a U.S. Letter of Assurances to the Palestinians The Bush administration said that: "…The United States is opposed and will continue to oppose settlement activity in the territories occupied in 1967, which remains an obstacle to peace."
October 1991Hundreds of Jewish settlers invade Silwan, outisde the Old City, occupy eight Palestinian homes. (They are evicted, by court order, in December.) Two weeks later, members of Jewish Ateret Cohanim group move into a house in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem.
October 1991The United States and the Soviet Union convene the Madrid peace conference, which brings Israel into the first-ever simultaneous face-to-face talks with Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians.
November 1991Israeli forces raid Islamic court offices in East Jerusalem, seizing documents, including court records documenting Palestinian land and property rights.
November 1991 Menachem Milson, appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as civilian administrator of the West Bank, established village leagues consisting of pro-Jordanian Palestinians to counter the PLO's growing strength there and to quell the growing nationalist movement.
1992Number of settlements in West Bank: 120 | population: 100,500
Population of settlements in East Jerusalem: 141,000
February 1992Israel Interior Ministry expands Jerusalem municipal area by annexing 3,750 acres of land south and west of the city.
April 1992Housing Minister Sharon confirms that the Israeli government is buying land to build new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, including Silwan, Wadi Joz, Mt. of Olives, Old City.
July 1992The establishment of a new government headed by Yitzhak Rabin seemed to offer the possibility of a real change in Israel's settlement policy. The Labor Party had fought the election on a promise to "change national priorities," including a substantial reduction in the allocation of resources for the settlements.
August 1992Settlements in occupied Jerusalem area — Ma'ale Adumim, Giv'at Ze'ev, Etzion Bloc, Efrat, Betar, Kfor Adumim and Adam — organize "Greater Jerusalem" forum to safeguard their interests, encourage government to annex the greater Jerusalem area.
1993Number of settlements in West Bank: 120 | population: 110,900
Population of settlements in East Jerusalem: 146,800
March 1993Jerusalem Post reports that Israel in 1973 set quota for Palestinian Jerusalem population, enforced through housing plans. (1967: Palestinians= 26% of total population, today 27%).
September 1993Mutual recognition of Israel and the PLO took place a year after the victory of the Labour party in the Israeli elections. Yasir Arafat recognised the State of Israel's right to exist, and Yitzhak Rabin accepted the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people. This mutual recognition took place a few days before the signing of the Declaration of Principles (Oslo I) in Washington.
September 1993"Declaration of Principles On Interim Self-Government Arrangements," the official name of the Oslo Accords, signed at a Washington ceremony hosted by US President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1993, during which Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands, ending decades as sworn enemies. Annex II of the 400-page pact states, "It is understood that, subsequent to the Israeli withdrawal, Israel will continue to be responsible for external security, and for internal security and public order of settlements and Israelis." The trade-offs made became known as "land for peace."
October 1993The The West Jerusalem Municipality filed or prepared 14,000 lawsuits against East Jerusalem Palestinians who have not paid arnona (municipal) tax. The WJM has launched a campaign to seize stores and confiscate goods from businesses and houses to hold until payment.
November 1993Ehud Olmert (Likud) wins Jerusalem mayoral elections, defeating Teddy Kollek who has he