|
 |
||||
|
|
|||||
|
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE ZIONIST COLONIAL PROJECT1862: Moses Hess called for the creation of a Jewish national state in Palestine . 1870: Mikve Israel , a Jewish agricultural school, was established north of Jaffa . 1878: Colony of Petach Tiqva, financed by Lord Rothschild, was established. 1881: Czarist pogroms in Russia sparked Jewish migration and settlement in Palestine . 1882: Leo Pinsker urged the Jews to settle in Palestine and founded the society of Hovevi Zion, which sponsored emigration of Jews to Palestine . 1882 – 1903 : First wave of 35,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1891: German Jewish millionaire Baron Maurice de Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), which began its operations in Palestine in 1896. 1896: Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and writer, published a pamphlet ca lling for the creation of a ‘Jewish State'. Ottoman Sultan Abd-al Hamid II rejected Theodor Herzl's proposal that Palestine be granted to the Jews. 1897: The first Zionist Congress (ZC) met in Basle, created the Zionist Organization (ZO) and adopted the Basle Program, which ca lled for Jewish colonization in Palestine . 1901: The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was founded to buy lands in Palestine for the exclusive ownership and use of the ‘Jewish people'. 1901-1902: Herzl tried in Constantinople to obtain a Charter for rights, duties and privileges of a Jewish-Ottoman Colonization Association for the Settlement of Palestine and Syria and grant the Jews with the right to deport the native population. 1903: The Anglo-Palestine Bank (later renamed as Bank Leumi) was established as the principal financial institution of the Jewish community in Palestine . 1903, December: The Anglo-Palestine Company, a subsidiary of the JCA, was established in Palestine to finance Zionist colonization. 1904 – 1914: A 2 nd wave of 40,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1908: The ZO opened an office in Jaffa . 1909: - The Palestine Land Development Co. was founded to coordinate land purchases. - 1 st kibbutz, based exclusively on Jewish labour, was established in Palestine . - Tel Aviv was founded north of Jaffa . - Hashomer was founded as a countrywide organization that would assume responsibility for the security of as many Jewish settlements as possible. 1911, May: In a memorandum to the Zionist Executive, Arthur Ruppin, the director of Zionist settlement in Palestine , proposed a limited population transfer by purchasing land near Aleppo and Homs in Syria to resettle dispossessed Arabs. 1912, July 12: Leo Motzkin suggested that the Arab-Jewish problem was soluble if the Arabs would be willing to resettle in the uncultivated lands around Palestine . 1914: Another security organization, ca lled the Jaffa Group, ca me into being during WWI providing security services for Tel Aviv and the Jewish community in Jaffa . 1914, 12 November: Chaim Weizman wrote a letter to C. P. Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian , stating “Should Palestine fall within the British sphere of influence, and should Britain encourage a Jewish settlement there, as a British dependency, we could have in twenty to thirty years a million Jews out there, perhaps more. They would develop the country, bring back civilization to it and form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal ”. 1917, 2 November: The Balfour Declaration, promising support for a ‘Jewish National Home in Palestine ', was issued by the British Secretary of State Balfour. The declaration was endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1922 and was incorporated into the British Mandate in Palestine . 1919: The Zionists asked the Paris Peace Conference to provide them with the territory outlined within a line running east from Sidon in Lebanon to a point South-East of Damascus . The line then goes south along a line parallel to the Hijaz railway and ends in Aqaba in Jordan . From there, the line goes northwest to Al Arish in Egypt . This area included all of Mandate Palestine, the Golan Heights, both sides of the Jordan River, and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River . 1919 – 1923: A 3 rd wave of 40,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1921, March: The Haganah, a Zionist underground military organization was founded. 1923: Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky published two articles ca lling for the erection of an iron wall of Jewish military force in order to impose ‘peaceful' coexistence between Arabs and Jews. 1924 – 1929: A 4 th wave of 82,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1925: Jabotinsky formed the World Union of Zionist Revisionists and the youth movement Betar. He later on seceded from the official Zionist movement, established the New Zionist Organization, and took over the leadership of the military organization, the Irgun. 1931: A group of Haganah members seceded from the organization and established the Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) advo ca ting a more militant policy against Palestinian Arabs. 1935: - Ben-Gurion was elected chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive (JAExec) and held this post until 1948. 1929 – 1939: A 5 th wave of 250,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1937, August: The 20 th ZC decided to accept the British Peel Commission proposal for partition of Palestine as a basis for negotiation with the British government. A ‘Population Transfer Committee' was appointed by the Jewish Agency (JA) to come up with plans to rid the ‘Jewish State' of its Palestinian Arabs. Yosef Weitz, director of the JNF, who served on the Population Transfer Committee, developed a plan for this purpose. 1938: The report of the British Woodhead Commission concluded that a voluntary ‘transfer' is not going to happen and compulsory transfer of population was ruled out. The Zionist leadership believed that the Zionists had to exert pressure to force the British to act. But if necessary, David Ben Gurion wrote in his diary, “We must ourselves prepare to ca rry out the removal of the Palestinians”. In a report to the JAExec on 12 June 1938, Ben-Gurion stated “I am for a compulsory transfer; I don't see anything immoral in it...” 1938, June: British officer Orde Wingate organized Special Night Squads of British and Haganah personnel for operation against Palestinian villages. 1939, October: Differences of opinion emerged in the Irgun and led to a split in the organization and the establishment of the new organization Irgun Zvai Leumi Beisrael , which be ca me to be known as the Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Lehi) . 1939 – 1948: A 6 th wave of 150,000 Jewish émigrés arrived in Palestine . 1940: Yossef Weitz, head of the settlement department of the JNF, wrote the following: “Transfer does not serve only one aim – to reduce the Arab population – it also serves a second purpose by no means less important, which is to evict land now cultivated by Arabs and to free it for Jewish settlement”. Therefore, he concluded, “The solution is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighbouring countries. Not a single village or a single tribe must be let off”. 1940, Dec. 20: Yosef Weitz wrote in his diary: “It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both peoples…If the Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for us…The only solution is a Land of Israel , at least a western Land of Israel without Arabs. There is no room here for compromises…There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Arabs of] Bethlehem , Nazareth and old Jerusalem . Not one village must be left, not one [bedouin] tribe. The transfer must be directed at Iraq , Syria and even Transjordan . For this goal funds will be found…And only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist…” 1941: Palmach , the Haganah's strike force, was formed. 1942, 9-11 May: The first national conference of Ameri ca n Zionists was held at the Biltmore Hotel in New York . The conference adopted the ‘Biltmore Program', which ca lled for the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine . 1944, 16 October: A confidential report was submitted by Roberto Bachi, an expert in demography, to the Haganah and the JA. In this report, Bachi proposed Arab ‘transfer' to ensure ‘Jewish majority'. 1945, September: Large-s ca le illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine resumed under Haganah control. 1946, 22 July: A wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem , which housed the Government Secretariat and part of the military headquarters, was blown up by the IZL killing and wounding about 150 Government officials. 1946, August: The JAExec agreed to consider the establishment of a Jewish state on an adequate part of Palestine . 1947, November: Passage of UNGA 181 - Partition Plan. It was to take effect 2 months after the withdrawal of Britain which was scheduled for May 15, 1948. 1947, December - 1948, May: Beginning immediately after passage of the Partition Plan, Jewish forces had seized large portions of the proposed Arab state and expelled about 350,000 Palestinians from both the proposed Jewish state and the proposed Arab state. 1948, 20 May: Count Folke Bernadotte was appointed as UN mediator in Palestine. 1948, 22 May: UN Security Council called for a ceasefire and a truce was held between 11 June and 8 July. 1948, 26 May: At the meeting of the Mapam's Political Committee, Eliezer Prai, editor of the party's daily newspaper, Al Hamishmar, charged that there were elements in the Yishuv ca rrying out a ‘transfer policy' by ‘blood and fire', aimed at emptying the Jewish state of its Arab inhabitants. “It has already been said that Weitz gave an order to expel the Arabs from Western Galilee …This is the policy and thinking behind [the destruction of the Arab villages in the area]”, he said. 1948, 28 May: Yosef Weitz met with Moshe Shertok (Sharrett), the newly appointed Foreign Minister, and proposed that the Cabinet appoint himself, Elias Sasson, head of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Affairs Department, and Ezra Danin “to hammer out a plan of action designed [to achieve] the goal of transfer”. According to Weitz, Shertok congratulated him on his initiative. Shertok's “view also is that this momentum [of Arab flight] must be exploited and turned into an accomplished fact,” but the Foreign Minister wanted first to consult with Ben-Gurion and Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan. 1948, 30 May: Weitz, Danin, and Sasson met to outline the ‘Transfer' committee's prospective work in spite of the fact that there was no official Cabinet appointment. 1948, 4 June: “The [transfer] committee that had appointed itself”, as Weitz referred to it in his diary, met in Tel Aviv to discuss ‘the miracle' of the Arab exodus “and how to make it permanent”. The committee concluded, “The return of the Arabs must be prevented”. Weitz agreed to “allo ca te £ 5,000 to Ezra [Danin] in order to begin destruction and renovation activities in the Beit Shean Valley and in the Sharon [the Coastal Plain]”. Destruction of Arab villages meant that the refugees would have nowhere to return to; renovation meant readying the sites for Jewish settlement. 1948, 5 June: Weitz met with Ben-Gurion and submitted to him a memorandum entitled “Retroactive Transfer, A Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Question in the State of Israel”. The memorandum outlined proposals for action aiming at preventing the Arabs from returning to their towns and homes. According to Weitz, “Ben-Gurion agreed to the whole line”, but thought there was an order of priority. According to Weitz, Ben-Gurion wanted destruction of villages, settlement on abandoned sites, and prevention of Arab cultivation. Weitz told the Prime Minister that he had already given orders to begin destroying villages. Ben-Gurion proposed that a committee of three – composed of representatives of the JNF, the JA settlement department, and the Agency's treasury department – be set up to oversee “the cleaning up of the [Arab] settlements, cultivation of their [fields] and their settlement [by Jews], and the creation of a labour battalion to ca rry out this work”. Ben-Gurion, like Weitz, stressed that it would not be the government ca rrying out these activities, but they would be ca rried out by the ‘National Institutions'. 1948, 6 June: Weitz sent Ben-Gurion a detailed list of the abandoned villages and towns, with the appropriate population figures. In a covering note, he confirmed the meeting held in the previous day as well as Ben-Gurion's approval that the destruction of Arab villages and prevention of cultivation of Arab fields will begin immediately. Weitz continued: “In line with this, I have given an order to begin [these operations] in different parts of the Galilee, in the Beit Shean Valley , in the Hills of Ephraim and in Samaria [meaning the Hefer Valley ].” 1948, 7 June: Weitz spent the day talking with Danin about how to go about destroying the abandoned villages – where would the money come from, the tractors, the dynamite, the manpower?... 1948, 17 June: Bernadotte met with the Israeli Foreign Minister to discuss the situation of the refugees. Sharett was evasive with regard to the return of the refugees. 1948, 7-18 July: The IDF ca ptured the towns of Lydda and Ramle. Dozens of Palestinians were massacred in the Dahmash Mosque in Lydda. Most of the inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle marched under the sun after being ordered to go to King Abdullah. Three hundred fifty lost their lives on the way through dehydration and sunstroke. 1948, 16 July: The town of Nazareth fell into Israeli hands. A delegation of Christian clerics ca me out to meet the conquerors. Their request that the civilian population should not be forced to evacuate was granted. When Abraham Yaffe, an Israeli officer, entered Nazareth , he met a man whom he had driven out of another town in the Galilee . “Have you come to turn us away again?” the Arab inquired. “No, not in Nazareth ,” Yaffe answered, “ Nazareth is a holy place, a holy town. The world is watching us. You are not going to be a victim here.” Israeli behavior in Nazareth was different from their behavior in the other Palestinian towns and villages. They realized that expulsion of Christian Arabs in one of the holiest Christian lo ca tions would produce unfavorable headlines all over the Western world. And so the 14,000 people of the town were allowed to remain. There were clear orders to the Israeli forces to restraint in the hometown of Jesus. Chaim Laskov, the Israeli commander, re ca lled, “We had specific instructions not to harm anything, which meant that we had to take Nazareth by stratagem”. Indeed, Ben-Gurion ordered that when the town was taken unauthorized soldiers should not be allowed into Nazareth and that the army should avoid 'any possibility of looting and desecration of churches and monasteries.' “ Nazareth was the exception that proved the rule”. 1948, 20 July: Stolen Palestinian lands were distributed among Jewish settlements. Arabs who did not leave the country were placed under Military Government, and their freedom to move freely outside their villages was severely curtailed. The Military Government and lo ca l IDF units found it simplest to forbid in toto Arab cultivation of fields. At the same time, Jewish settlements began to cultivate fields of Arabs who had remained in the State. 1948, 24 July: Ignoring the cease-fire ordered by UN Security Council Resolution # 54, Operation Policeman ( mivtza shoter) was launched against the ‘little triangle' of the three villages of Jaba, Ijzim and Ein Ghazal about 20 kilometers south of Haifa. Small units of the Golani, Carmeli and Alexandroni brigades ca ptured the three villages on 26 July, with almost all the inhabitants being forced to leave. 1948, 16 August – early October: Negev and Yiftach brigades attacked and expelled Bedouins and inhabitants of villages in the Negev . 1948, 24-28 August: Giv'ati brigade launched Operation Nikayon (cleansing) and occupied coastal area west of Yibna and North of Isdud. 1948, 15 September: Bernadotte submitted his report to the UN Security Council. 1948, 17 September: Bernadotte was assassinated by the Stern Gang. The triumvirate that ordered the assassination of the UN mediator included Yitzhak Shamir, the future Prime Minister of Israel. Bernadotte was replaced by his deputy Ralph Bunche. 1948, 20 September: Bernadotte's proposals to end the conflict were published. He made it clear that “no settlement ca n be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the Arab refugee to return to his home”. 1948, 15 October: Israel broke the cease-fire and launched an attack on the Egyptian forces in the south, which ended with Israel in control of the entire Negev . 1948, 29 October: Operation Hiram was launched to occupy the remaining parts of upper Galilee and drive out its inhabitants. A massacre was committed in the Palestinian village of Safsaf were 70 civilians were killed in cold blood one after the other. The Israeli forces conducted looting, rape, and forcible expulsion of women, children and the elderly. 1948, 30 October: The Israeli forces entered Eilaboun. Its 750 people, all of whom were Christian, took refuge in the two lo ca l churches where yellow and white flags of submission were flown. Marcos Daoud, the Greek Catholic priest, approached the Israelis saying “I put my village under the protection of the State of Israel”. The Israeli answer was as follows: Thirteen young men were murdered, the surviving young men were taken as prisoners, the women and children were marched off to the Lebanese border under severe conditions that resulted in many ca sualties, and looting and desecration of the churches followed the evacuation of the village. 1948, 16 November: The Security Council resolution # 62 ca lled upon the parties directly involved in the conflict in Palestine to seek agreement for an armistice. 1948, 11 December: UN General Assembly resolution # 194 was adopted, which resolved that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return”. Moreover, the resolution established a Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC) to assume the functions given to Bernadotte. On 1 April 1949, the PCC set up a Techni ca l Committee on Refugees to workout measures for implementation of the provisions of UN resolution # 194 and ca lled for an international conference at Lausanne where, under the PCC chairmanship, the parties could discuss the whole range of issues – refugees, Jerusalem, borders, recognition – and hammer out a comprehensive peace settlement. 1948, 22 December: Operation Horev was launched to drive the Egyptian forces out of Palestine and to compel the Egyptian government to negotiate an armistice. The Israeli troops surged forward, expelled the Egyptians from the southeastern flank of the Negev , brought strong pressure to bear on the Gaza Strip, but failed to liquidate the Egyptian enclave in Faluja. Mass murder and flight of the civilians was repeated in this operation. A massacre was committed in Dawayma where 100 - 150 people, including women and children, were slaughtered without mercy in the mosque of the village. 1949, 4 January: Egypt announced her readiness to begin armistice negotiations. The UN-decreed cease-fire went into effect on 7 January, marking the formal end of the war. Armistice negotiations between Israel and the neighboring Arab states got under way with the help of the UN acting mediator, Dr Ralph Bunche, at the Roses Hotel in Rhodes . Armistice Agreements were signed with Egypt on 24 February, with Lebanon on 25 March, with Transjordan on 3 April, and with Syria on 20 July1949. As a result of the war, 530 villages were bulldozed, 11 urban neighbourhoods were destroyed, about 10,000 Palestinian Arabs were killed, about 30,000 were wounded, and over 750,000 were ethni ca lly cleansed and be ca me refugees. 1949, 5 March: One day after the start of the official armistice negotiations with Jordan , Israel launched Operation Uvda (Fait Accompli) to extend its control of the southern Negev down to Eilat. 1949, 26 April: The PCC conference was opened in Lausanne , Switzerland . 1949, 11 May: Israel was admitted to UN membership. 1949, 12 May: The Arab states and Israel signed a protocol stating that the UN Partition Resolution and the partition map included in it constituted the basis for negotiations. 1949, 29 May: Ben-Gurion explained to his ca binet members that time had worked to Israel 's advantage with respect to borders, refugees and Jerusalem . He stated that, with the passage of time, the world would get used to Israel 's existing borders and to Israel 's position with respect to the Palestinian refugees. He added that the same was true for Jerusalem and people are beginning to see the absurdity of establishing an international regime over the city. 1949, 6 July: Israeli Consul General in New York , Arthur Lourie, transmitted a copy of a letter from Ameri ca n journalist Drew Pearson, whom Lourie said, “expressed anxieties characteristic of a large section of Ameri ca n opinion on whose support we have hitherto been able to count.” Pearson had written that “in preventing Arab refugees from returning to their native land, the Jews may be subject to the same kind of criticism for which I and others have criticized intolerant Gentiles… Now we have a situation in which the Jews have done to others what Hitler, in a sense, did to them!” 1949, 14 July: Ben-Gurion recorded in his war diary that Abba Eban, Israel 's ambassador to the UN, “sees no need to run after peace. The armistice is sufficient for us; if we run after peace, the Arabs will demand a price of us – borders or refugees or both. Let us wait a few years.” 1949, 18 July: In an interview with Kenneth Bilby, the correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune , Ben Gurion stated, “I am prepared to get up in the middle of the night in order to sign a peace agreement-but I am not in a hurry and I ca n wait ten years. We are under no pressure whatsoever.” 1949, 12 September: The PCC Lausanne conference ended without any results. 1949, December: UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that ca lled for treating Jerusalem as a separate entity and placing it under UN rule. In response, Ben-Gurion decided to move the Knesset and the government offices from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem . 1950: Israeli Knesset passed the ‘Law of Return' according to which every Jew “has the right to immigrate to the country”. It also passed the Absentees Property Law, according to which any Palestinian Arab who was not present directly before, during or after the war - regardless of the reason - was defined as absentee and his land as surrendered. About 20 percent of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel were internally displaced in the 1948 war – in other words, while remaining in Israel, have been prevented from returning to their homes and villages. These displaced persons were considered ‘absentees' and be ca me refugees in their own country. The ‘Land Requisition Law' was passed in 1953, which ‘legitimized' theft of Arab lands. 1953, October: Unit 101 of the IDF under the command of Ariel Sharon converged on Qibya and stormed the village demolishing about forty-five houses. After withdrawal of the unit, seventy corpses were found in the rubble. 1956, 21 October: Following Nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian President Nasser, Ben-Gurion participated in a secret conference with the British and French at Sévres , France and agreed to a combined military operation. In a round table meeting with the French at the Sévres Conference, Ben-Gurion proposed a plan for settling all the issues in the Middle East : 1. Eliminating Nasser in Egypt . 2. Partition of Jordan , with the West Bank going to Israel and the East Bank to Iraq . In exchange, Iraq would sign a peace treaty with Israel and undertake to absorb the Palestinian refugees. 3. Israel would annex southern Lebanon up to the Litani River , with a Christian state established in the rest of the country. 4. Being placed under a pro-Western ruler would stabilize the Syrian regime. 5. The Suez Canal would enjoy international status and the Straits of Tiran would be under Israeli control. 1956, 29 October: Israeli forces over-ran Gaza on their way across Sinai to the Suez Canal . The ca nal was not taken, but the greater part of Sinai Peninsula as well as the islands of Tiran and Snapir was ca ptured by Israel . 1956, 7 November: In his address to the Knesset, a victorious Ben-Gurion stated, “The revelation of Sinai has been renewed in our time by our army's thrust of heroism... Our army did not infringe on Egyptian territory... Our operations were restricted to the Sinai Peninsula alone... The Armistice Agreement with Egypt is dead and buried...the armistice lines between us and Egypt have also given up the ghost...we are prepared for negotiations for a firm peace... We are prepared for similar negotiations with each of the other Arab states...” On the other hand, Ben-Gurion sent a message to the victory parade held at Sharm el-Sheik: “Yotvat [the island of Tiran ] will once more become a part of the Third Kingdom of Israel!” The following day, Ben-Gurion addressed the nation on the radio after midnight. He read out letters received from Bulganin and Eisenhower and his replies. From his note to Eisenhower, his listeners grasped the decision: the army was going to withdraw from Sinai. 1956, 16 November: Moshe Sharett wrote in his diary: “I have learned that the state of Israel ca nnot be ruled in our generation without deceit and adventurism…” 1963, June 16: Ben-Gurion resigned Israeli premiership and was succeeded by Levi Eshkol. Later in the month, he was joined by Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan to set up an independent slate. The outcome of the election showed a victory for the Labor Alignment and Ben-Gurion's battle ended in a shameful defeat and heralded his final decline. 1967, Late May and early June: UN Secretary General, U Thant, visited Cairo to mediate the es ca lating crisis in the Straits of Tiran in an effort to solve the crisis. Egypt agreed and Israel rejected U Thant proposals. The U.S. also tried to mediate. Nasser indi ca ted he was open to World Court arbitration of the dispute over the Straits of Tiran and agreed to send his vice-president to Washington to explore a diplomatic settlement. The meeting, however, did not happen be ca use Israel struck before it could take place. U.S. Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, stated, “We were shocked...and angry as hell when the Israelis launched the surprise offensive. They attacked on a Monday, knowing that on Wednesday the Egyptian vice president would arrive in Washington to talk about re-opening the Strait of Tiran ...” 1967, 1 June: An Israeli Government of national unity was formed in Jerusalem . 1967, 5-10 June: Israel attacked and occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Sinai, and the Golan Heights . 1967, 27 June: Israel annexed East Jerusalem . 1967, 26 July: Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Yigal Allon, proposed a plan ca lling for annexation of about one third of the Palestinian areas occupied in the June 1967 war and for an Israeli security belt of 10 - 15 kilometers wide running the length of the Jordan Rift. Israel would keep the lush citrus-growing area of Gaza , which would be settled by Jews. Only the urban center of Gaza City and its port might be made available for Arab use. Palestinian refugees living in the Gaza Strip areas to be annexed by Israel ‘should be settled in the West Bank or al-Arish district'. Allon was supportive of the religious settlers in the occupied territories. When they complained about his plan, Allon told them: “Jews have to be smart. No Arab will ever accept this plan”. With Allon's help the settlement of religious Jews at Kiryat Arba near Hebron and other settlements were established. 1967, 22 November: Security Council resolution # 242, which was adopted following the 1967 war, emphasized “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and ca lled for a UN special representative to proceed to the Middle East to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement. Gunnar Jarring was appointed as the UN special representative. His efforts led to nowhere. Israel wants peace, but Israel wants to keep all the conquered territories and rejects return of the refugees to their homes and lands. 1968, 17 April: Speaking at a Kibbutz meeting, Allon, announced: “We must settle wherever possible in accordance with Israel 's defence and security needs and the future of its borders... The Jordan valley and the range of mountains are needed for our security. We ca nnot yield on this point even if there is no peace”. 1970, 19 June: The U.S. government proposed a cease-fire in the war of attrition along the Suez Canal . Egypt and Israel agreed to a ninety-day cease-fire. 1970: Gush Emunim built Kiryat Arba near Hebron and pressured every Israeli Prime Minister to finance many new settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Ever since, more settlements and bypass roads connecting these settlements with Israel proper continued to be built on stolen Arab lands. 1972, 14 July: In an article in Yedi'ot Aharonot, a leading Israeli journalist and publicist, Yesha'ayahu Ben-Porat, wrote that “it is the duty of the [Israeli] leadership to explain to the public a number of truths. One truth is that there is no Zionism, no settlement, and no Jewish State without evacuating Arabs and without expropriating lands and their fencing off”. 1973: Israeli foreign minister, Abba Eban, identified anti-Zionism as ‘the new anti-Semitism'. 1973, April: Israeli commandos led by Ehud Barak disguising as a blond woman, raided PLO headquarters in Beirut killing several PLO leaders in their homes. 1973, 6 October: Egypt and Syria launched an offensive against Israel in order to regain the Sinai desert and the Golan Heights , which were lost in the 1967 war. Following the war, a peace conference was arranged in Geneva , which was attended by Egypt , Jordan , Israel , the U.S. and the USSR . The conference adjourned after a few meetings with the understanding that Egypt and Israel would engage in negotiations for the disengagement of their forces in Sinai. 1973, 22 October: Security Council resolution # 338 was adopted, which ca lled upon all parties to the fighting to cease-fire and start implementation of Resolution # 242 of 1967. 1973, 11 November: Israel and Egypt formally signed a truce ending the hostilities. 1973, 10 December: By midnight on the day of the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Israeli soldiers dashed into the homes of 8 Palestinian leaders in the West Bank . The Palestinian leaders were humiliated and dragged into an armored ca r which dumped them in a stretch of the desert between Palestine and Jordan . 1974, 10 April: Golda Meir resigned and was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin. 1974, 31 May: The Israeli-Syrian disengagement agreement was signed. 1974, 13 November: Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly offering Israel a ‘branch of an olive tree' in one hand and a ‘gun' in the other and expressed his hope that the olive branch will not be dropped. In response, Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, announced: “The government has worked to increase the population of settlements in the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley and, should war break out, this is the line which will determine the results”. Gush Emunim, advo ca ting Jewish settlements in the OPT be ca me active and pressured every Israeli Prime Minister to finance many new settlements. 1975, 1 September: Kissinger supervised the signing of an agreement between Israel and Egypt according to which both sides agreed that “the conflict between them…shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means.” 1976, 30 March: Palestinian Arabs under occupation since 1948 and holding Israeli citizenship held a general strike and demonstrated peacefully against a wave of land confis ca tions. Six young Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli army and the Israeli government refused to set up a commission to investigate the killings. Ever since, March 30 is commemorated by the Palestinians as the Land Day. 1977, 17 May: The Likud won the elections for the 9 th Knesset in Israel and Menachem Begin be ca me Prime Minister. In a press conference, Begin announced that he would invite Sadat, Assad and King Hussein to come and start negotiations to sign peace treaties with Israel . When asked about the OPT, he snapped at a journalist: “What occupied territories? If you mean Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, they are liberated territories. They are part, an integral part, of the Land of Israel ”. 1977, 1 October: In his efforts to reconvene the Geneva peace conference, Carter met with the Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, who indi ca ted that the Soviets wished to be brought into the Geneva negotiations. Reference to the Palestinian people in the communiqué and an implied role for the USSR provoked opposition from the U.S.-Israel lobby. Israel 's foreign minister, Moshe Dayan, who was conducting negotiations in the U.S. , threatened Carter with a public Israeli disavowal of the superpower communiqué that would have created a firestorm of protest in the Ameri ca n Jewish community. Carter was forced to issue a statement indi ca ting that the communiqué was “not a prerequisite for the reconvening and conduct of the Geneva Conference”. This brought about the virtual nullifi ca tion of the communiqué and was a fatal blow to the Geneva Conference. 1977, 19 November: Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, made a surprise visit to Israel . 1977, 16 December: Begin unveiled a Palestinian autonomy plan in Washington , which was integrated into the Camp David Accords. 1978, 14 March: Israel launched Operation Litani and occupied southern Lebanon up to the Litani River . 1978, 5-17 September: A Camp David summit was held between Carter, Sadat, and Begin, which produced the ‘Camp David Accords'. 1979, 26 March: A Peace Treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel at the White House. 1980: The Israeli government formally ca lled for the re-establishment of a Jewish quarter in Hebron . Within a few years, Jewish settlers with active official backing occupied several more lo ca tions. 1980, 26 May: Ha'aretz ca rried a warning by the former chief of military intelligence, General Ahron Yariv, that there was a widely held opinion in the IDF that any future war should be exploited to expel up to eight hundred thousand Palestinians from the territories. General Yariv noted that the plans for the ‘forced transfer' already existed and the means of implementation had been prepared. Ariel Sharon warned Palestinians that they “should not forget the lessons of 1948”. 1980, 30 July: A Basic Law was passed in the Israeli Knesset unilaterally declaring Jerusalem , ‘complete and united', as the ‘eternal and undivided capital' of Israel . 1981, 7 June: Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad . 1981, August: Ariel Sharon was appointed as Defence Minister and Menachem Milson was appointed as head of a new ‘civilian administration' in the military government. Milson assumed office on 1 November 1981 and believed that a class of collaborators in the ‘territories' could be developed who would participate in the autonomy talks planned at Camp David . He approached Mustafa Dudin of Hebron to organize the rural population in ‘Village Leagues' who would accept de facto annexation of the West Bank under the cover of civil administration and autonomy. 1981, 14 December: Israel annexed the Golan Heights . 1982, February: Oded Yinon, a journalist and analyst of Middle Eastern affairs and former senior Foreign Ministry official, wrote an article, which appeared in the WZO's periodi ca l Kivunim , which ca lled for the dissolution and fragmentation of the Arab states. 1982, 26 April: Israeli withdrawal from Sinai was completed. 1982, 3 June: Israeli ambassador Argov was criti ca lly wounded in London and Israel used the incident as an excuse to invade Lebanon . 1982, 14 August: Special U.S. envoy Philip Habib concluded an agreement for safe departure of PLO fighters from Beirut . The first group of Palestinian fighters sailed for Cyprus on 21 August and Yassir Arafat left Beirut on 28 August. 1982, 1 September: - In a speech from the oval office in the White House, President Reagan ca lled, among other things, for peace negotiations using the Camp David accords as a convenient framework and for a Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank in association with Jordan. Reagan also proposed a transitional period of 5 years after which a final solution based on UN Security Council resolution # 242 may be negotiated. Arab response to Reagan's initiative was positive. Israel rejected the proposals. 1982, 14 September: Bashir Gemayel, who was expected to be sworn as the new Lebanese President, was assassinated in Lebanon following his refusal to sign a Peace Treaty with Israel . In the following day, Israeli forces entered Beirut where the Christian militiamen committed a major massacre in the Palestinian ca mp of Sabra/Shatila, under IDF sponsorship. Later on, Israel began withdrawing from Lebanon , leaving a residual force in the border area to support the South Lebanese Army (SLA). 1982, 10 October: At the opening of a new settlement, the Minister of Energy, Mordechai Sippori, indi ca ted why the Israeli government supported colonization of the OPT. He said, “The continuation of settlement is the backbone of the Zionist movement in the West Bank and it is the only means to defeat any peace initiative which is intended to bring foreign rule to Judea and Samaria ”. 1989: Mass emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union began. Emigrants were channeled to Israel though most of them preferred to go to the USA . 1989, 16 November: Benjamin Netanyahu told Bar-Ilan University students that the government had failed to exploit internationally favorable situations, such as the Tianamen Square massacre in June 1989 when world attention and the media were focused on China, to ca rry out ‘large-s ca le' expulsions at a time when “the damage [to Israel's public relations] would have been relatively small... I still believe that there are opportunities to expel many people”. Netanyahu later denied making the remarks but the Jerusalem Post presented a tape recording of his speech. 1991, 30 October: The “Middle East Peace Conference” was convened in Madrid to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israeli PM Shamir later declared that he wanted the negotiations in Washington (following the Madrid conference) to continue for 10 years, if need be, so that he had enough time to keep on going with planned Israeli settlement in the OPT and leave nothing for the negotiations to talk about. 1992, 14 May: Shamir told The Jerusalem Post that the “term ‘right of return' is an empty phrase that is utterly meaningless… It will never happen, in any way, shape or form. There is only a Jewish ‘right of return' to the land of Israel . 1993, 9 September: Arafat addressed a letter to Rabin recognizing the right of Israel to exist in peace and security and renouncing acts of violence. In response, Rabin signed a letter to Arafat recognizing the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. These letters followed the Oslo agreement, which was secretly negotiated between Israel and a group from the Fatah leadership, lead by Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmad Curei. 1993, 13 September: The Declaration of Principles (DOP) was signed between Israel and the PLO at the White House in Washington . 1994, 25 February: Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslim worshippers at Haram al-Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron , killing 29 and wounding dozens more. 1996: Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, was elected as Israel 's Prime Minister. On 17 June, his office released a statement outlining his government's guidelines with regard to the peace process. It said no to withdrawal from the OPT, no to a Palestinian State, no to an official Palestinian presence in Jerusalem, and no to the refugees' right of return ‘to any part of the Land of Israel west of the Jordan River'. 1996, 8 July: Richard Perle, a former head of the Defense Policy Board in the Pentagon, delivered a document to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Perle, and a team of Ameri ca n neo-cons, had been tasked by Netanyahu to draft a new Israeli strategy that would abrogate the Oslo Accords and overturn the entire concept of ‘comprehensive land for peace' in favor of a policy of military conquest and occupation. This document, ‘A Clean Break', be ca me the guiding strategic doctrine of the U.S. and Israel . 1996, 25 September: Netanyahu made an order to open a second entrance to an archaeologi ca l tunnel close to the al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem . The action set off a massive outburst of Palestinian anger and led to a violent and bloody confrontation. 1998, 31 October: A Memorandum of Agreement was signed by Ameri ca n President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to which the U.S. would enhance Israel 's defensive and deterrent ca pabilities, and upgrading the framework of the U.S.-Israeli strategic and military relationships, as well as the technologi ca l cooperation between them. 1999, 15 March: Netanyahu toured the Jordan Valley , territory occupied in 1967, and vowed Israel would stay there forever. “Without the Jordan Valley , without this protective wall, we ca nnot protect the state of Israel and therefore we will remain here forever,” he added. 1999, 16 March: Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon appeared before foreign ambassadors and told them that, “Resolution 181, which speaks about Jerusalem not being part of Israel , is null and void... We have a very wide national consensus about this issue”. He reaffirmed Israel 's hold over all of Jerusalem , vowing that “ Israel will never make any concessions on Jerusalem -- never.” 2000, 24 May: Israeli forces withdrew from areas in Southern Lebanon occupied since 1978. 2000, 28 September: Ariel Sharon and six other Likud leaders made a provo ca tive visit into the Al-Aqsa Compound in Jerusalem . The visit led to clashes that sparked the second Palestinian Intifada. 2001, 7 February: Ariel Sharon won the elections for a new Prime Minister in Israel . 2001, 12 April: In an interview published by Ari Shavit in Ha'aretz, Sharon made it clear that he has no plans for a peace agreement. In the interview, Sharon described the main points of his plan: Jerusalem , the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights are ours. Not even one of the settlements will be evacuated. 2001, May: The Mitchell Committee (headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell) concluded that Jewish settlements are a barrier to peace. Israeli Prime Minister, Sharon, vowed to continue expanding the settlements. 2001, 10 August: Israeli forces raided the Orient House, the headquarters of the Palestinian team to the Peace talks. The Palestinian flag was pulled down and the Israeli flag was hoisted in its place. All files related to the negotiations, along with other classified documents were confis ca ted. The Arab Chamber of Commerce, Prisoners Society, and The Higher Council of Tourism were among the other Palestinian institutions sealed off by an order from the Israeli Minister of Internal Security Uzi Landau. 2001, December: The first of a series of annual conferences was held in the Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center – Herzliya in a systemic effort to discuss and confront the ‘demographic threat' that ca me back to haunt the Zionist leadership as a ‘strategic threat' to the ‘Jewish State'. 2002, 28 March: The Arab League summit held in Beirut-Lebanon promised Israel peace, security and normal relations in return for a full withdrawal from Arab lands occupied since 1967, the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its ca pital and a fair solution for the Palestinian refugees. The following day, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield against the West Bank . This was the first stage of what Ariel Sharon said would be a “long and compli ca ted war that knows no borders”. The ensuing international outcry led U.S. President George W. Bush to order Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw his forces from Palestinian areas. Bush sent a strong message to Sharon at an April 2 news conference: “Withdraw! Withdraw your troops immediately!” 2002, June: Israel launched Operation Determined Path to reoccupy the West Bank areas handed to the PA following the Oslo accords. 2002, 20 June: The Moledet party held its ‘Transfer Now' conference at the Jerusalem Theater. Israeli PM Sharon and President Katsav spoke at the conference. 2003, 30 April: A Road Map for ‘peace' was proposed by the U.S. , European Union , Russia and the UN. The principles of the plan were first outlined by U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on 24 June 2002 that ca lled for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. The road map included three phases: Phase I (May 2003): End to Palestinian ‘violence' and Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion. Phase II (June-Dec. 2003): International Conference leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with ‘provisional borders. Phase III (2004-2005): Permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders and clarifi ca tion of the fate of Jerusalem , refugees and settlements. 2003, May: The Mitchell Committee (headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell) concluded that Jewish settlements are a barrier to peace. Israeli PM Sharon vowed to continue expanding the settlements. 2003, June: Israel began building an apartheid wall aimed at ca ging Palestinian Arabs into densely populated Bantustan-like areas. 2004, 22 March: Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was assassinated by Israel . 2004, 17 April: An Israeli missile strike killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi as he rode in his ca r. Rantisi's son Mohammed and a bodyguard were also killed in the attack. 2005, 4 August: Eden Natan-Zada, an Israeli resident of the West Bank settlement of Tapuah, shot and killed four Palestinian Arabs in the town of Shefa'amr in the areas of Palestine that were occupied in 1948 . While attempting to reload his gun, Natan-Zada was subdued by other passengers and eventually beaten to death. 2006, 14 March: Israeli forces stormed a prison in Jericho and seized five Palestinians accused of assassinating former Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Israel used helicopters and tanks to fire at the prison before smashing through its walls with armed bulldozers. Two Palestinians were killed during the assault and a third has since died of his injuries. 2006, 28 June – 8 July: Israel launched Operation Summer Rains against the Gaza Strip demolishing homes, bulldozing land, blowing 3 bridges, and conducting air strikes on Gaza 's only electricity plant. 2006, 12 July: Israel started an ‘open war' against Lebanon using Hezbollah's kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers as a pretext. After 33 days of destruction and killing of innocent civilians, they had to withdraw without achieving their goal to dismantle Hezbollah. 2007, 16 August: Israel and the U.S. signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a new Ameri ca n defense package for Israel according to which the U.S. will transfer $30 billion to Israel over 10 years, compared with $24 billion over the past de ca de. 2007, 27 November: The U.S. sponsored a one-day peace conference in Annapolis , which launched a new Israeli-Palestinian peace process. ************************************** Nizar Sakhnini was born in Acre in 1932. His paternal grandparents came from Sakhnin, which explains the origin of his family name, Sakhnini. He was forced to become a refugee in 1948. He now lives in Canada. |