610–632—The religion of Islam is established in the Arabian Peninsula under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad. By the time of his death in 632, Prophet Muhammad has established Islam as the accepted belief of many Arabic-speaking peoples in the region.
634—Two years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, Islamic Arabs defeat the armies of the Byzantine and Persian empires and take control of Palestine. In subsequent years, Arabic-speaking peoples move into Syria, west into Egypt and Africa, and east into Mesopotamia.
634–1516—During the Middle Ages, Palestine is ruled by a number of dynasties and Sultanates. Power struggles open the way for Crusaders, or Christian armies from Europe, to invade parts of Palestine. In 1187, a Muslim leader from Kurdistan named Salah Ad-Din conquers the first Crusader kingdom in Jerusalem. During the next century, Palestine is controlled by numerous rulers—including Crusaders—until an Egyptian military aristocracy known as the Mamluks takes control in 1250. Two centuries of relative peace follow. In 1453, Constantinople falls to the Ottomans, a Turkic people from central Asia. After renaming the city Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire begins expanding. By 1516, the Ottomans have conquered Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Western Arabia.
1516–1918—Palestine is ruled by the Ottomans for over four hundred years.
1800—By this year, there are as many as 250,000 people living in Palestine. Though the majority population is Muslim, there may be as many as 7,000 Jews living in the region and 20,000 Christians.
1850s—The roots of the modern Zionist movement first appear in Europe and Russia in the context of growing anti-Jewish sentiment and secular nationalism. In the following decades, 1.5 million Jews emigrate from Europe and Russia—many move to the United States, but some begin purchasing land in Palestine.
1900—Jewish leaders in Europe sympathetic to the Zionist movement fund expanded land purchases in Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. Jewish colonies are established. By 1900, the population of Palestine is between 500,000 and 600,000, with as many as 50,000 Jews and 60,000 Christians living approximately 400,000 Muslims.
1914—World War I begins. The Ottoman Empire joins Germany and the Central Powers against Britain, France, and Russia.
1915—Britain’s high commissioner in Egypt writes letters to Arab leader Sharif Hussein bin Ali and promises British support for Arab independence if Hussein revolts against the Ottomans. Hussein plans for a unified Arab state that stretches from Palestine and Syria to Yemen.
1917—Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, promising support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.
1918—World War I ends. The British army defeats the Ottoman army in Syria, and British forces occupy Palestine, Transjordan, and most of Iraq while French forces occupy Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Turkey and Iraq.
1921—Palestinians protest the loss of land through frequent demonstrations. Serious conflict between Jewish and non-Jewish Arab communities over land rights erupts in May. Dozens are killed near the neighboring cities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
1922—Through the League of Nations, Britain receives a mandate to administer Palestine. Transjordan is established as a semi-autonomous kingdom called Jordan, while Britain and the League of Nations agree to work toward a Palestine divided between a Jewish nation and an Arab one. The British Mandate is formally implemented in 1923. Arab protests over land loss continue through the decade.
1924—European and American philanthropists establish the Palestinian Jewish Colonization Association, an organization that helps fund the construction and maintenance of new Jewish colonies in the region.
1929—Increasing tensions between the British, Arabs, and Jews leads to violence. In August, sixty-seven Jews are killed by Arabs in the city of Hebron. Zionist settlers develop the Haganah, a paramilitary group established to protect Jewish interests.
1931—A paramilitary group called the Irgun splits off from the Haganah and begins to organize military strikes against the British and Arabs.
1936–1939—In the years before World War II, thousands of European Jews immigrate to Palestine, despite restrictions imposed by the British. Many Arabs angered by British authority, Jewish immigration, and loss of land rights adopt a general strike and call for acts of civil disobedience, including a boycott of British institutions. British authorities respond to these acts of rebellion with mass arrests, housing demolitions, school closures, and other methods. In 1937, the first partition plan for Israel and Palestine is created by the British Peel Commission.
1939—World War II begins. Britain bans land sales to Jews in Palestine in an effort to obtain Arab support against Germany.
1946—The Irgun orchestrates the bombing of the King David Hotel, then the British mandate headquarters.
1947—The General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations recommends partitioning Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab one. Under the proposal, Jerusalem will be shared by the two states under a United Nations peacekeeping force. The vote represents international community approval of the Zionist aspiration to an independent state and lays the groundwork for the state’s establishment. However, many Christian and Muslim residents of Palestine resist the planned partition. Many believe that the land granted to the Jewish State doesn’t reflect the demographic distribution of Palestine. At this time, the population of Palestine is approximately one-third Jewish.
—Beginning soon after the UN vote, paramilitary groups such as the Irgun begin expelling Palestinians from their homes and demolishing their villages. The forced migration of Palestinians that begins in 1947 during the emergent civil war comes to be known as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Over the next two years, 750,000 Palestinians are displaced from their homes and pushed toward the coastal land around Gaza City, Egypt, the lands east and west of the Jordan River, Syria, and Lebanon.
1948—Forced migration of Arabs continues. On May 14, David Ben-Gurion declares statehood for Israel, with borders largely following the UN plan, and becomes its first prime minister. The next day, U.S. President Harry Truman instructs a member of the American delegation to the UN to recognize Israeli statehood. The same day, military units from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia declare war on the new state of Israel.
—May–June: Coordinated Arab forces battle the Israeli military until both sides accept a truce proposed by UN peacekeeping forces. The truce does not last.
—July: After further battles with Syria and Egypt, Israel expands the territory under its control to include parts of western Galilee, the Negev desert, and access to the Red Sea.
—December: After capturing part of the West Bank of the Jordan River, King Abdullah I declares the union of Arab Palestine and Jordan.
1949—The UN mediates armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, ending the conflict. The armistice establishes new boundaries between Israel and bordering nations, though no formal border. The UN boundaries come to be known as the “Green Line” and are used as a point of departure when Israel and Palestinian representatives discuss borders in future peace negotiations. Around the time of the armistice, 750,000 non-Jews have been displaced from the land declared to be Israel while as many as 150,000 remain. Many Arabs that remain receive citizenship but are governed by military law until 1966 and many experience continued violence and repression.
—The peace agreement creates the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as distinct political regions. The Gaza Strip comes under Egyptian control. Jordan gains control of part of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Jewish immigration to Israel increases, bringing Israel’s population to one million people by the end of 1949.
1950—Israel passes its Law of Return, allowing any Jewish person (with a few restrictions) to live in Israel and receive Israeli citizenship. From 1949 to 1952, Israel’s Jewish population more than doubles.
—The United Nations formally launches the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which sets up refugee camps and provides aid for 750,000 Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
1964—January: Arab League leaders meet in Cairo and decide to sponsor the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an organization with transnational aims of representing Palestinians and “the liberation of” Palestine.
1965—Syria begins discreetly supporting Fatah, a small organization founded in 1959 by Palestinian refugees living abroad. Fatah seeks military action against Israel and begins raids on Israeli targets in mid-1965. The organization carries out more than three dozen attacks by the end of the year.
1967—Israeli military forces clash with Fatah and Syrian armies. With regional tensions mounting, Egypt sends troops near its border with Israel in May. In response, Israel mobilizes troops to the Sinai border and calls up its reserve soldiers.
—June 5: Israel launches an air strike on Egypt’s airfields in the Sinai, destroying nearly all of the Egyptian air force and beginning what will become known as the Six-Day War.
—June 7: Israel secures East Jerusalem and moves further into the West Bank as fighting continues.
—June 8: Egypt accepts a UN cease-fire.
—June 9: Syria accepts a UN cease-fire, but Israel begins an assault on the Golan Heights.
—June 10: Israel occupies Qunaitra, a key position in the Syrian Golan Heights. The Six-Day War ends. At the war’s end, Israeli military and administrative control begins throughout Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.
—More than 100,000 new Palestinian refugees leave the newly occupied territories for Jordan. Soon after, Arab heads of state attempt to find diplomatic solutions to regain the territory Israel occupied in the war. Fatah continues attacks in the West Bank as well as in land within Israel’s pre-1967 borders, and new factions organized around Palestinian liberation emerge. Still, the aims for many Palestinian activists shift from cultivating pan-Arab unity to a narrower Palestinian sense of nationalism.
—Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are issued ID cards by Israeli military authorities. Palestinians living outside Gaza or West Bank at the time IDs are issued lose permission to reside in the occupied territories.
—The first Israeli settlement is established in the West Bank at Kfar Etzion.
