A Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Posted on Aug 10, 2024 in Religion

A Brief History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

13th Century BC

  • Jews escaped captivity in Egypt and settled in Canaan.
  • Jews formed the Kingdom of Judea.
  • People called Peleshet populated Philistia.

70 AD

  • Jews were forced to disperse (the diaspora) throughout the Roman Empire.
  • The emperor Hadrian renamed the area Palestine after expelling the Romans.

Following Centuries

  • Few Jews and Christians lived among Muslim majorities.

7th Century

  • Muslim-Palestine connection strengthened after the area was invaded by a caliph.

1516

  • Palestine came under the control of the Ottoman Turks.

Late 19th Century

  • Jews in the diaspora and the first Zionist settlers began arriving in Palestine.

1917

  • The British captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks during World War I.
  • The Balfour Declaration was issued, expressing British support for establishing a Jewish national homeland in Palestine.

1922

  • The League of Nations approved the British Mandate for Palestine, which included the creation of a Jewish territory in Palestine.
  • Violent confrontations between Jews and Palestinian Arabs occurred.

1933

  • A large number of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe arrived in Palestine.
  • An exodus of Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries began.

1936

  • 500,000 Jews were living in Palestine.

1947

  • The United Nations approved a plan to partition Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international control. The plan gave Jews more than half the territory, despite being only a third of the population.
  • The Arab states rejected the UN resolution.

May 14, 1948

  • The State of Israel was declared.
  • The United States recognized Israel immediately.

May 15, 1948

  • Neighboring Arab countries sent troops into the former British Mandate territory, beginning the first Arab-Israeli War.
  • 720,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced from their homes and moved to neighboring countries as Israel gained control of nearly all of Palestine.

1964

  • The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded with the goal of creating an independent Palestinian state.

1967

  • The Six-Day War, the third Arab-Israeli war, broke out.
  • Over half a million Palestinians fled their homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, becoming refugees.

1979

  • A peace agreement between Egypt and Israel was signed, which included a framework for limited autonomy for Gaza and the West Bank.

1987

  • The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, began in Gaza and the West Bank.

1988

  • The PLO declared an independent Palestinian state in exile.

1989

  • Yasser Arafat became president of the Palestinian state declared by the PLO.

1993

  • Under the auspices of the United States, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords, which granted limited autonomy to the Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

1994

  • The Oslo I Accord, formally the Israeli–Palestinian Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, was signed.
  • Yasser Arafat returned from exile.

1995

  • Palestinian self-government was extended to the West Bank.

1996

  • Elections were held in the autonomous Palestinian territories, with Yasser Arafat elected as president.
  • Some Palestinian groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, considered the autonomy granted by the Oslo Accords insufficient.
  • Right-wing Israelis were unwilling to concede further to the Palestinians.
  • Violent disturbances, including suicide bombings by Palestinian groups and retaliatory missions by the Israeli military, continued.

2004

  • Yasser Arafat died.
  • His death led to increased conflict between Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political factions.

2009

  • The Israeli military launched a major offensive in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 Palestinians.