The 1967 Six-Day War, a pivotal event in Middle Eastern history, began on June 5, 1967, when Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt. This action marked Israel’s assertive entry into the conflict, driven by mounting tensions and threats from surrounding Arab nations, particularly Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Israel’s government, perceiving a looming threat from […]
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1897: First Zionist Congress
First Zionist Congress held in Basel Switzerland
First Zionist Congress held in Basel Switzerland. Lead by Theodr Hrzl, founder of the modern Zionist movement. The Basel program declared “Zionism aims at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine.” […]
Click to Read from 1897: First Zionist Congress
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1901: Jewish National Fund starts buying land
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The Jewish Agency Buys Land, Evicts Palestinian Farmers, and Prepares For Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
The Jewish National Fund was the principal Zionist tool for the colonialism of Palestine. Jews started buying Arab land and evicting the Palestinian tenant farmers. Much of the land was held by the JNF as ‘custodian’ on behalf of the Jewish people. The land was then used to settle Jewish immigrants.
During the Mandatory years through the Nakba, Yossef Weitz headed the settlement department. The Jewish Agency bought most of their land from absentee landlords who who registered the land out from under peasant farmers and then sold that land to the Jewish Agency, who would promptly evict the farmers who had lived on that land for hundred if not thousands of years.
Sometimes, these evictions were forcible. Forced to abandon their traditional way of life, displaced peasant farmers moved to urban areas, where economic opportunities were limited. This influx of dispossessed farmers into cities created a sense of anger and frustration among them, contributing to social and political tensions that played a significant role in the Arab-Israeli “conflict”. […]
Click to Read from 1901: Jewish National Fund starts buying land
Resources
- Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006), 20 - 23
- Ron David, Arabs and Israel for Beginners (For Beginners, 2001), 98-99
1914: World War One Begins
World War One begins between the Central Powers of Germany and Austria/Hungary, and the Allies – France, Russia, Great Britain, Serbia, and Belgium. […]
1914: Ottoman empire enters WWI
War
The Ottoman Empire entered World War I on October 29, 1914. This followed a series of events including a secret alliance with Germany and the naval bombardment of Russian ports in the Black Sea by Ottoman warships, which was a decisive act leading to the Ottoman Empire’s full entry into the war on the side […]
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1915: Hussein McMahon Correspondence
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Britain Promises Palestine to the Arabs in Exchange for Arabs Entering WWI to Fight the Ottomans
The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence took place between July 1915 and March 1916, between Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, and Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt.
The correspondence centered on the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire and British support for it, with discussions about the post-war recognition and independence of an Arab state in exchange for Arab support against the Ottomans. Part of the promised homeland included Palestine.
The British would later claim that they intended to exclude Palestine from the land promised to the Arabs.
The United Nations does not see there being much controversy. Palestine was part of the land promised by Britain to the Arabs. […]
1916 – Sykes-Picot Agreement
The French and the British Make a Secret Agreement Dividing up the Land Promised to the Arabs
The Sykes–Picot Agreement was a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual partition of the Ottoman Empire. France and British representative signed the agreement a year after the Hussein-McMahon […]
1916: Arab Revolt Against Ottoman Empire
Lawrence of Arabia: Enticed by the British With a Promise of an Arab Homeland, Arabs Join WWI Against the Ottoman Empire
On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence, exchanged between Henry McMahon of the United Kingdom and Hussein bin Ali of the Kingdom of Hejaz, the rebellion against the ruling Turks was officially initiated at Mecca on 10 June 1916. The primary goal of the Arabs was to establish an independent and unified Arab state stretching […]
1917: Balfour Declaration
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Britain Pledges a Zionist Homeland in Palestine
The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 announcing British support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, […]
1918: Ottoman Empire Surrenders
Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies on October 30, 1918, which ended its hostilities in the war. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire was a gradual process, but the armistice marked the Empire’s official exit from World War I and set the stage for its eventual dissolution in the following years. […]
1918: Partition of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire is Divided up Between the French and the British, and Promises Made to the Arabs Are Ignored.
The partition of the Ottoman Empire (30 October 1918 – 1 November 1922) was a geopolitical event that occurred after World War I and the occupation of Istanbul by British, French, and Italian troops in November 1918. The partitioning was planned in several agreements made by the Allied Powers early in the course of World […]
1919: Paris Peace Conference:
The League of Nations creates mandates and recognizes Jewish "title" over the land in Palestine
The Paris Peace Conference was a set of formal and informal diplomatic meetings in 1919 and 1920 after the end of World War I, in which the victorious Allies set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Dominated by the leaders of Britain, France, the United States and Italy, the talks resulted in five […]
1920: League of Nations is Formed
The League of Nations officially came into existence on 10 January 1920. On 15 November 1920, 41 members states gathered in Geneva for the opening of the first session of the Assembly. This represented a large portion of existing states and corresponded to more than 70% of the world’s population. The League of Nations was the […]
1929: Arab Revolt
Following illegal Jewish provocations at the Al Asqa Mosque/Western Wall, Palestinians in Jerusalem riot.
The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising (Arabic: ثورة البراق, Thawrat al-Burāq), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence. On August 15, 1929, group of 300 Revisionist Zionist youth, who were militant […]
Click to Read from 1929: Arab Revolt
Resources
- 1929 Palestinian riots - wikipedia
- Pro Wailing Wall Committee - wikipedia
- Shaw Commission on Cause of Riots - wikipedia
- Revisionist Zionism
- Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006), 44.
- Naomi Wiener Cohen, The year after the riots: American responses to the Palestine crisis of 1929-39, Wayne State University Press, 1988 p. 34
1936 – Arab General Strike & Revolt
On April 21 1936, Arab workers and local committees organized a strike of all Arabs engaged in labour, transport and shopkeeping in Palestine. This was a spontaneous popular resistance. Religious leaders, influential families and political leaders became involved to help with co-ordination, leading to the formation on 25 April 1936 of the Arab Higher Committee, […]