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Timeline of Palestinian History and Politics

661-750

Palestine becomes a province under the Arab-Islamic Umayyad Dynasty that was based in Damascus.


685-691

The Ummayad Caliph Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan (685-705) builds the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.


705 Al-Walid Ibn Abdul Malik (705-715) of the Umayyads builds Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.


750-1258

Palestine becomes a province under the Arab-Islamic Abbasid Dynasty based in Baghdad.


1099-1187 The Crusaders invade Palestine and establish the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.


1187 The Battle of Hittin in Palestine.  Saladin of Egypt defeats the Crusaders and liberates Palestine from European Crusader control.  Palestine is re-Arabized and re-Islamized.


1517 Ottoman conquest of most of the Arab world including Palestine.


1517-1918 Palestine under Ottoman rule.


1882-1904 First wave of immigration of Jewish settlers to Palestine.


1897
 First Zionist Congress meets in Basel, Switzerland.  The Basel Program is launched to settle Jews in Palestine and the World Zionist Organization is established.


1904-1914
 Second wave of immigration of Jewish settlers to Palestine.


1911 Filistine newspaper is founded in Jaffa by Issa al-Issa.  The newspaper addresses Arabs in Palestine as Palestinians, warning them of the consequences of the Zionist colonization of Palestine.


1915-16 Sharif Hussein and Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Egypt, exchange correspondence guaranteeing Arab independence in return for the Arab revolt against the Ottomans.


1916 16 May Britain and France sign the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divides the Ottoman Middle East provinces among them.


1917 2 November

Lord Arthur James Balfour, British foreign secretary, sends a letter (later known as the Balfour Declaration) to Lord Edmund de Rothschild supporting the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.


1918 9 December British forces occupy Palestine.


1919 First National Conference-Palestine; King-Crane Commission.


1920 24 April San Remo Conference grants Great Britain mandate over Palestine.


1922 24 July Council of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.


1936-39 Arab revolt erupts in Palestine.


1937 7 July The Peel Commission Report recommends turning Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State incorporated into Transjordan, with Jerusalem and Bethlehem placed under the British Mandate.


1939 17 May The British government issues the MacDonald White Paper to limit and restrict Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine.


1942 11 May The Zionists attending the Biltmore Conference in New York advocate the establishment of a “Jewish Commonwealth” in Palestine.


1946-48 Jewish-Palestinian-British war breaks out.


1947 29 November The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommends the Partition of Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) into an Arab state and a Jewish state, and that Jerusalem and its environs be internationalized without consultation with Palestinians.


1948 9 April

Jewish underground forces, the Irgun and Stern Gang, massacre 254 Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem.
14 May The Mandate over Palestine officially ends and the Zionists proclaim the establishment of the state of Israel. The U.S. extends full diplomatic recognition to Israel.

1 September The Palestinian National Conference meets in Gaza and the All-Palestine Government is established under the leadership of Hajj Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini heads the meeting of the Palestinian National Council in Gaza.
1 December

Palestinian notables from the east central Palestine, the area that remained under Jordanian military control (and later called the West Bank), meet in Jericho and advocate a temporary union with Transjordan.

11 December The United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 194, which recognizes the right of Palestinians who were expelled by the Israeli army or who fled during the 1948 war to return to their homes.


1949 At the end of the 1948 war, Israel extends its holdings of Palestine, and now controls 78 percent of it rather than the 56 percent allocated by the UN Partition Plan of 1947 by conquering areas allotted by the UN to the Palestinian state.
12 August Geneva Convention provides protection of civilians in time of war (Fourth Geneva Convention).
8 December The UN announces the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to assist Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
The West Bank comes under Jordanian control, while Egypt asserts authority over Gaza.


1950 24 April The West Bank officially becomes part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.


1953 28 February Israel launches a large scale assault on the Gaza Strip.


1956 28-29 October The Suez war (the second Arab-Israeli war).  Israel invades and occupies the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for a British-French invasion of Egypt to reinstate western control of the Suez.


1957

In Kuwait, Yasser Arafat, among others, founds the Palestine Liberation Movement, whose name becomes Fateh, which means “opening.”


1964 28 May Ahmed Shuqeiri, the Palestinian representative to the Arab League, heads the Palestinian National Council (PNC) meeting in Jerusalem, where the First Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) National Covenant is drafted.  At the PNC meeting, he is appointed the first chairman of the PLO.
2 June The PLO is officially founded.


1967 5 June

Israel launches an attack that starts the June War, which lasts six days and is referred to as the Six Day War in Israel and the West; Israel captures East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
11 December George Habash establishes the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Israel annexes East Jerusalem and begins construction of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
22 November

The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 242, which states that Israel must withdraw from the territories occupied during the Six Day War of 1967 in return for peace and secure borders.


1968 21 March The Battle of al-Karameh takes place in the village Karameh, east of the Jordan River, where Palestinian guerilla movements joined the Jordanian army to block Israel from entering the East Bank.
17-18 July The Palestinian National Council moves its head quarters to Cairo and modifies the PLO’s National Charter.


1970 September

PLO-Jordanian power struggle and civil war in Jordan. During this year, an attack by the Jordanian army is launched against Palestinian camps and guerillas on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital, Amman. The incredible Palestinian death toll in the attack is labeled “Black September” by the Palestinian movement.


1971 9 July The Jordanian army evicts the PLO from Jordan and dismantles its infrastructure.
28 November Black September, a Palestinian organization formed after the civil war between the PLO and Jordan in September 1970, claims responsibility for the assassination of Wasfi al-Tal, Jordan’s Prime Minister.


1973 6 October The October war breaks out when Syria and Egypt launch a coordinated attack on Israeli forces occupying the Golan Heights and the Sinai desert.
22 October The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 338, recommending negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.


1974 19 February

The Palestinian National Council accepts the establishment of a Palestinian state in any liberated part of Palestine and discards the option of establishing a secular democratic state in all of Palestine.
14 October

The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3326, which accepts the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and grants them permanent observer status. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat addresses the General Assembly.
28 October The Seventh Arab League Summit in Rabat recognizes the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
19 November Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Israel and addresses the Israeli Knesset.


1978 14 March The Israeli army invades southern Lebanon, demolishes a number of villages, and kills some 700 Lebanese and Palestinians.
17 September U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords. Israel agrees to withdraw from the Sinai in exchange for peace with Egypt and to grant the Palestinians “full autonomy” in the Occupied Territories after a transitional period of five years.


1979 22 March The United Nations Security Council adopts resolution 446, which demands that Israel dismantle the settlements in the Occupied Territories.


1980 The Israeli Knesset officially adopts the Jerusalem Law, which annexes East Jerusalem to Israel.


1982 4 June The Israeli army invades Lebanon to destroy the military, political, and institutional infrastructure of the PLO.  Israel besieges Beirut for three months. Palestinian and Lebanese casualties were estimated at tens of thousands of people killed.
16-18 September Members of the Phalange militia massacre up to 2,000 Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut.


1983 14-21 February

The Palestinian National Council meets in Algiers and approves the concept of a confederation between an independent Palestine and Jordan.
20 December PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and 4,000 PLO commandos leave north Lebanon on Greek ships.


1984 28 February Palestinians from the Occupied Territories meet PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Amman, Jordan to urge him to accept a joint PLO and Jordanian strategy based on United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.


1985-87 The “war of the camps” in which Lebanese Amal (Shia) militias vent their hostility against PLO loyalists and Palestinian civilians, killing many refugees and destroying camps in Lebanon. The Syrian army, the deterrent force in the Lebanese civil war, looks the other way.


1985 11 February PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Jordan’s King Hussein agree on a formula for a joint Jordanian-Palestinian peace strategy.
19 November The PLO Executive Committee meets in Baghdad and reaffirms the PLO’s rejection of UN resolutions 242 and 338.


1986 19 February King Hussein ends joint peace efforts with the PLO.


1987 9 December The Palestinian intifada (uprising) begins in Gaza and spreads to the West Bank.


1988 16 April Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), a PLO military leader, is assassinated in his home in Tunis.
31 July King Hussein officially breaks administrative and legal ties with the West Bank and announces that he is relinquishing control to the PLO.
3 August The PLO declares full responsibility for the affairs of the West Bank and Gaza.
24 November The Palestinian National Council proclaims an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; 55 countries including China and the Soviet Union recognize the Palestinian state.
7 December PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat declares in Stockholm that the PLO accepts Israel’s right to exist and denounces terrorism.  The United States rejects the term “denounce” and insists that he “renounces” terrorism.
14 December The United States authorizes its ambassador to Tunis, Robert Pelletreau, to open a diplomatic dialogue with the PLO.


1989 12 January The UN Security Council grants the PLO the right to speak directly to the Council as “Palestine” with the same status as any UN member nation.
2 April The PLO Central Council appoints the organization’s Chairman Yasser Arafat the first President of Palestine.
20 April The UN General Assembly condemns Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories and calls on the UN Security Council to protect Palestinian civilians.


1990 9 April PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat rejects Hamas’ conditions to join the PLO.  Hamas requests 40 percent of the Palestinian National Council’s seats, but Arafat rejects the request.
25 May After the United States refuses to grant Yasser Arafat a visa to enter New York to address the UN General Assembly, the General Assembly moves to Geneva where Arafat calls for deployment of UN forces into the West Bank and Gaza.


1990 17 January The United States and its allies attack Iraq, forcing Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.  In its wake, the U.S. emerges as the sole power broker in the region and plans to launch a new peace initiative in the region labeled the “peace process.”
21 July U.S. Secretary of State James Baker informs Palestinian leaders that the American initiative envisions the creation of “less than a state, and more than autonomy.”
28 August The PLO agrees, with provisions, to participate in the Middle East Peace Conference (August 28). 
16 October The PLO and Jordan agree to form a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to attend the forthcoming Conference in Madrid.
30 October The Madrid peace conference begins with representatives from Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.


1993 30 August The Norwegian government confirms that 14 secret rounds of talks were held in Norway between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
13 September Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), spokesperson for the PLO Foreign Affairs Department and member of the PLO Executive Committee, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres initial the Declaration of Principles (DOP).  PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the accords and shake hands on the lawn of the White House.
19 September The United States promises $250 million to the Palestinians to support the agreement.  The Israeli Knesset approves the DOP 61 to 50.
12 October The PLO establishes the Palestinian Authority (PA) and appoints Arafat its head.


1994 4 May PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the Gaza-Jericho Self-Rule Accord (Cairo Agreement).
11 May The Knesset approves the Gaza-Jericho Agreement by a 52-0 vote.
26 June The PA holds its first meeting in Gaza City.
1 July Arafat, followed by a large part of the PLO bureaucracy, returns to Gaza triumphantly.
26 October Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.
10 December Arafat, Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres accept the Nobel Peace Prize.


1995 13 January PA Minister of Planning and International Coordination Nabil Sha’ath announces that the PA has committed itself to peaceful resistance.
28 September PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the Palestinian-Israeli Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Oslo II) at the White House.
9 November

Rabin is assassinated by Israeli law student Yigal Amir.


1996 20 January Elections are held for the PA presidency and the Palestinian Legislative Council. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat wins the presidency with 88.1 percent of the vote.
4 May Arafat and the Palestine National Council amend the PLO National Charter, removing the call for the destruction of Israel.
2 June Binyamin Netanyahu becomes Israel’s Prime Minister.


1997 15 January Israel and the PLO sign the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron (Hebron Agreement).
21 October

Israel’s former Prime Minister Shimon Peres calls for a Palestinian state.


1998 23 October Israel and the PLO sign the Wye River Memorandum.


1999 7 February King Hussein of Jordan dies.
12 May

Ehud Barak is elected Prime Minister of Israel.
4 September Israel and the PLO sign the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum (known as Wye II).
10 November Israel opens one of the “safe passage routes” along existing roads that connect the West Bank and Gaza


2000 11 July Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David begin (July 11).
28 September Extreme right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visits the Haram el-Sharif in Jerusalem, setting off the worst violent clashes (known as the “Al-Aqsa Intifada”) in Israel and the Occupied Territories since Israel was founded.


2001 6 February Sharon is elected prime minister of Israel.