Timeline of the Middle-East Conflict

1880’s

  • European Jews buy Palestinian land from Arab land speculators for Jewish settlers
  • 8,000 Arabs in 22 villages are forced off the land between 1891 and 1920.

1887

  • First Zionist congress held in Switzerland and the declaration is made to set up a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

1916

  • British Commissioner in Egypt promises the Arabs their independence in return for their loyalty and support against the Ottoman Empire.

1916

  • Britain and France sign a secret agreement to divide the region between them after the war, called the Sykes Picot agreement.

1917

  • The Balflour Declaration.
  • Foreign Secretary Arthur J Balflour sent a letter to Lord Rothschild on November 2nd claiming the British Government favoured the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Arabs felt that Britain did not have the right to promise their land to anyone. In 1922 the Churchill White paper wanted to clarify the Balflour Declaration. It stated that Jews had the right to a national homeland but not the whole of Palestine. Non-Jewish interests had to be safeguarded.

1922-47

  • British Mandate of Palestine. Britain rejected Arab demands for a national government.

1920’s-1930s

  • Anti-Jewish rioting stemming from the increased rise of Jewish immigration, land ownership, increasing landlessness of Arab peasants and Jewish only labour policies in Jewish settlements. In 1920 there were 9 Arabs for every Jew in 1948 it was 2:1.

1930’s

  • Both sides reject British proposals for a settlement. Jews and Arabs use violence to continue their own interests.

1947

  • Britain, losing money and control pull out and hand over the problem to the UN. The Holocaust at the end of WWII left thousands displaced, the majority of whom were Jews, and this made the question of a Jewish homeland essential.
  • The UN creates a plan and splits Palestine into two states, one for the Arabs (45.53%) and one for the Jews (56.47%). Jerusalem under resolution 181 (11 of 1947) remained under International control.
  • 33 countries voted in favour, 13 against and 10 abstained. Both sides, especially the Palestinians, rejected the plan as it was considered unjust that they loose over half of their homeland. The dispute then broke out into a full-scale war. Britain quickly announced that it would end its mandate on 15th May 1948.

1948.

  • Jewish forces with strong military capability started forcing the populations out of Arab villages and towns, making room for new Jewish immigrants. In April Jewish forces massacre the population of Der Yassin. Many Palestinians flee in terror.
  • 14th May Israel declares its independence. Arab states do not recognise the State of Israel. A Palestinian state is not proclaimed, but on the 15th May Arab states declare war on Israel, and Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Arab Liberation forces invade.
  • Israeli forces are better equipped and prepared and during the war expand their territory to occupy 77% of the original Palestinian homeland.
  • Egypt occupies the Gaza strip and Jordan the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

1949

  • A ceasefire is called but Israel refuses to give up Arab land or allow Palestinian refugees to return home. By the end of 1949 only 160,000 Arabs remain in Israel.

1950-1995

  • An estimated 2.5 million Jews immigrate to Israel under the law f return allowing Jews automatic right of citizenship in Israel.

1950

  • Border clashes between Israel and Arabs.

1967

  • Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is established to overthrow Israel and its illegal occupation. Carries out terrorist acts, guerrilla raids and border incursions.

1967

  • Six-day war.
  • June 5 Israel attacks Arab states. By the 10th June Israel captured the remaining Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza strip and Sinai Peninsula.
  • Half a million Palestinians became homeless.
  • 22nd November the UN called for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories under resolution 242 (1967).
  • Arab states will not recognise Israel and engage in peace talks while Israel occupied Arab land.
  • Illegal Jewish settlements are created in Gaza strip, West Bank and Golan Heights. These continue heavily throughout the 70’s.

1973

  • Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria attack Israel to regain lost land, but Israel retains control, and expands its territory even more beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines.

1974

  • The United Nations General Assembly reaffirms the inalienable right of Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, and Return.

1975

  • The General Assembly give the PLO observer status in the Assembly and at other international conferences under UN auspices.

1977

  • Sadat, Egypt’s President is the first Arab leader to recognise Israel.

1982

  • Israel invades Lebanon to wipe out PLO guerrilla bases. They surround Beirut. Palestinian refugee camps are unprotected and a large-scale massacre of children, women and the elderly takes place at the Sabra and Shatila camps by the Israeli allies the Phalangists. Israel armies do nothing shocking the Israeli population causing a protest of over 400,000. Ariel Sharon is forced to resign after an inquest finds that he failed to act to prevent the killings.

1987-1993

  • Intifada, Arab uprising against the Israeli occupations takes place in the West Bank. This uprising consists of civil disobedience, general strikes, and boycott of Israeli goods, graffiti, stone throwing, and demonstrations. Two Islamic groups emerge from the uprising, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. According to the UN, the Israeli Defence Force retaliates with a violent nature resulting in mass injuries and heavy loss of life mongst Palestinian civilians. More than 1200 Palestinians are killed.

1993

  • Oslo accords signed in Washington on 13th September.

1995

  • Religious Jew assassinates Rabin.

1996

  • Palestinians elections held and Arafat voted in as President.

1999

  • Ehud Barak, Former Army chief and Labour party leader defeats Netanyahu in a national Election in Israel.

2000

  • Camp David talks between Arafat and Barak end in disagreement.
  • Ariel Sharon visits a holy site to both Muslims and Jews in defiance of Palestinian control of the states sparking clashes between Palestinian protests and Israeli security forces.
  • 29th September 2nd Intifada begins.

2001

  • Sharon wins elections in Israel

2002

  • March 12th
  • UN Security Council endorses concept of a Palestinian state. UN Security General calls Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories illegal.

March 29th

  • Palestinian suicide bombing kills 22 people during a religious pass over feast. Israel responded by sending troops and tanks into Ramallah.
  • December 2nd
  • Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismisses statement by Israel’s ambassador to UN accepting Palestinians should have their own state.

2007

  • March 29th
  • Endorsement for a land-for-peace deal that would require Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders.
  • "If Israel refuses that means it doesn't want peace," said the Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal.
  • "Then the conflict goes back into the hands of the lords of war," he warned, as the two-day summit opened in Riyadh.
  • The Arab offer of recognition and peace was first made in 2002 but was ignored by the west and Israel at the height of the second Intifada and was then overshadowed by the Iraq war. Israel has welcomed aspects of the plan but is unhappy with what it says about Palestinian refugees - a central if largely symbolic issue - as well as the unambiguous call for the surrender of all occupied territories. Existing UN resolutions are ambiguous on that point and land swaps have been mooted before.