1.
2nd Intifada: Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu toured the al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on 28 September 2000 and claims it as a place for Jews. Sharon's critics saw it as a highly provocative move because the site was holy to both faiths. Palestinian demonstrations followed, quickly developing into what became known as the al-Aqsa intifada, or uprising.
5500 Palestinians and 1100 Jews die in the second intifada.
Sharon becomes the next prime minister and turns violent.
2.
Arafat dies: Yasser Arafat, the champion of Palestinian statehood, died on Thursday 11th November, at age 75 in a military hospital in France.
The life of Arafat was full of controversy. While his own people in Palestine have responded to his death with deep sorrow and grief, world leaders and religious bodies around the world express their new hope for peace to be brought to war-torn Palestine.
3.
Arafat returns to Palestine: Many critics of the peace process were silenced on 1 July as jubilant crowds lined the streets of Gaza to cheer Yasser Arafat on his triumphal return to Palestinian territory.
The returning Palestinian Liberation Army deployed in areas vacated by Israeli troops and Arafat became head of the new Palestinian National Authority (PA) in the autonomous areas. He was elected president of the Authority in January 1996.
4.
Establishment of Israel: The State of Israel, the first Jewish state for nearly 2,000 years, was proclaimed on May 14, 1948 in Tel Aviv. The declaration came into effect the following day as the last British troops withdrew.
The day after the state of Israel was declared five Arab armies from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq immediately invaded Israel but were repulsed, and the Israeli army crushed pockets of resistance. Armistices established Israel's borders on the frontier of most of the earlier British Mandate of Palestine.
5.
Formation of the PLO: In January 1964, the Palestinians created a genuinely independent organization when Yasser Arafat took over the chairmanship of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1969. His organization was gaining notoriety with its armed operations against Israel.
6.
Jordan - Israeli peace: In July 1994 Prime Minister Mr. Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace agreement ending 46 years of war and strained relations.
The agreement, which was signed at the White House in the presence of U.S. President Bill Clinton, laid the groundwork for a full peace treaty
7.
Palestinian statehood?: Palestine has requested that the UN vote on whether it can be recognized by the World as a legitimate nation. The vote, which should occur any day, will likely be a "No" but the fact that they are pursuing such a vote is a measure of their strong resolve
8.
Rabin assassinated: The OSLO agreements was seen as not going far enough by Palestinians.
Some extremists on the Jewish side say the agreements as giving too much to the Palestinians. As a result, a Jewish extremist assassinated Rabin.
Shimon Peres, the man who initiated the faltering peace process, became prime minister
9.
Sadat assassinated: Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamist elements in the Egyptian army, who opposed peace with Israel and say the treaty as a recognition of the state of Israel. He was assasinated during national celebrations to mark the anniversary of the October war.
10.
The 1st Intifada: A mass uprising - or intifada against the Israeli occupation began in Gaza and quickly spread to the West Bank.
Protest took the form of civil disobedience, general strikes, boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti, and barricades, but it was the stone-throwing demonstrations against the heavily-armed occupation troops that captured international attention. The Palestinians had stones, the Israelis had guns.
The Israeli Defense Forces responded and there was heavy loss of life among Palestinian civilians.
More than 1,000 died in clashes which lasted until 1993.
11.
The Balfour Declaration: Then in 1917, the British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour committed Britain to work towards "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," in a letter to leading Zionist Lord Rothschild.
12.
The Camp David Accords, 1979: In 1979, after intensive negotiations conducted by the U.S., Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David accords. A peace treaty was concluded and Israel returned the Sinai desert to the Egyptians. President Sadat of Egypt became the first Arab leader to visit the Jewish state and in a sign of the new relations between the two countries, he addressed the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
13.
The Oslo Peace Accords: The election of the Labour government in Israel in June 1992, led by Yitzhak Rabin, triggered a period of frenetic Israeli-Arab peacemaking in the mid-1990s
The PLO, meanwhile, wanted to make peace talks work because of the weakness of its position due to the Gulf War in 1991.
The Palestinians consented to recognize Israel in return for the beginning of phased dismantling of Israel's occupation.
Negotiations culminated in the Declaration of Principles, signed on the White House lawn and sealed with a historic first handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat watched by 400 million people around the world
14.
The Six Day War: In June 1967:
Egypt blockaded Israeli shipping lanes in the Red Sea, expelled UN peacekeeping troops from the border of the Sinai and built up its own troops in the area.
Syria amassed large numbers of troops on the Golan Heights
Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt. Later, Syria and Jordan joined the fight.
The war lasted only six days. Israel captured the Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan including East Jerusalem.
15.
The Suez Campaign 1956: In 1956 Israel, France and Britain went to war against Egypt because
- Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and closed it to Israel and Western Europe
- Concern about Egypt's growing military purchases from the Russians
- Raids on Israel by Egyptian units.
During the war, Israel captured the Sinai desert, but eventually withdrew in response to U.S. pressure and returned the territory it had gained to Egypt.
16.
The Yom Kippur War: In 1973, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attacked Israel.
After initial Arab military successes, the Israelis managed to push back the attack. The U.S. convinced Israel to withdraw from the territories it had taken.
17.
The Zionist Movement: In 1896 following the appearance of anti-Semitism in Europe, Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, tried to find a political solution for the problem in his book, 'The Jewish State'. He advocated the creation of a Jewish state in Argentina or Palestine.
18.
UN partition plan: The UN recommended splitting the territory into separate Jewish and Palestinian states.
The partition plan gave:
56.47% of Palestine to the Jewish state
43.53% to the Arab state
An international enclave around Jerusalem.
On 29 November 1947, 33 countries of the UN General Assembly voted for partition, 13 voted against and 10 abstained.
