Timeline

Arab-Israeli Conflict Timeline

 * **__1917__**-Sir Arthur Balfour made a declaration, promising to give land within the British Palestinian Mandate to the Jewish people. This was the first idea of giving the Holy Land to the Jews. At this time though, Palestine was small, with a population of only a mere 1,000,000 residents. Less than 10% of their people were Jewish. So why would the mighty British Empire give land that Arabs have lived in for over a thousand years to Jews? To appeal to the large Jewish population within the empire, many in high positions of power, such as the Baron Rothschild.

__1937__- The Peel Commision, a British authority attempting to establish peace in the Middle East, decides to partition Palestine into two seperate states, one Jewish one Arab.

__1945__- The Arab League is founded. Their purpose is to defend their lands from European colonial interests and Zionism in Palestine, a movement that has millions of European Jews entering Palestine.

__1947__- After constant disagreements over the former British mandate, the United Nations institutes another partition. This drives the local Arabs furious, as the majority of the land is given to the Jews.

__1950__- The Israeli government passes the Law of Return, allowing Jews to settle in their land as citizens.

__1956__- Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, closes the Suez Canal. This causes Israel, funded and supplied by NATO members, to occupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The Soviet Union quickly supported Egypt Through constant conflict, the Israelis occupied the mountainous Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptians were defeated. After many proposals for peace, the Israelis completely withdrew from Sinai thirty years later 1983.

__1964__- The Palestinian Liberation Organization is Founded. Supported by Egypt, they constantly clash diplomatically with the Israelis with their Anti-Zionist views.

__1970__- The Palestinian Liberation Organization attempts to overthrow to Hashemite Monarch in the Transjordan. An estimated one-third to fifty percent of Jordan's population was Palestinian. More were constantly being displaced by the war in Palestine.

**<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: medium;">__1972-__ **<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> At the Munich Olympics, Palestinian insurgents capture and kill Israeli Athletes wanting independence and a flight back to their home.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__**1973**__- The Arab-Israeli wars begin when Egypt and Syria, later the United Arab Republic, launched a surprise attack in the middle of the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan, also on the date of Yom Kippur. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Lebanon also joined the war. Sadly, the real losers of the war were the Palestinians. The Egyptians quickly reoccupied Sinai and pushed up into the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The Jordanians Pushed across the river and took the West Bank. The neighboring Arab countries closed all negotiations with Israel and the United Nations.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1978__- The Israelis invade Lebanon to protect themselves from Palestinian raids on their northern border.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1981__- The Israelis occupy the Golan Heights in Syria

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1982__- Israelis occupy Beirut, Lebanon.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1987__- Hamas, an Islamic Fundamentalist group is founded in Palestine.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1988__- The Palestinian Liberation Organization gains the Jordanian's land claims on the West Bank.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1993__- The Israelis begin bombarding southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah, a Shia Islamic fundamentalist group. One-hundred twenty civilians died.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1994__- PLO Leader Yasser Arafat returns from his exile to Gaza.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1995__- Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assasinated by a Jewish extremist after Oslo Peace accord.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__1996__- Prime Minister Shimon Peres issues orders to bombard Lebanon. Hezbollah militants respond by firing missiles into northern Israel.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2000__- Negotiations at Camp David executed. Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Bill Clinton in the USA for intense negotiation. The negotiations in 1998 implemented by Netanyahu reinstated the pre-1967 borders.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2002__- After a Hamas suicide bombing, Israel occupies the West Bank. Yasser Arafat's compound is besieged.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2004__- Yasser Arafat dies.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2005__- Israelis completely withdraw from Gaza moving more than 9,000 Jewish Citizens out of their homes.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2006__ - Hamas gain control of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2006__ - Hamas and Hezbollah attack Israel. Israeli Army invades Lebanon and Gaza strip.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">__2009__ - Hamas fires missiles into Israel. Gaza Strip bombing begins. ||