The first World Zionist Congress convened under Theodor Benjamin Zeev Herzl in Basel, Switzerland and was the first organized claim of Jews to Palestine. Their objective was to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine by public law, meaning that they regarded the land of Palestine to be the Jewish homeland and their God-given right. 

This was the beginning of the Zionist Movement: establishment and development of the state of Israel as a Jewish national homeland and soveriegnity in Palestine

• Palestine and the Levant were under control of the Ottoman Empire.

• European Jews began to immigrate to Palestine because of anti-semitism and WWl tensions.

• Britian sympathized with the Jewish immigrants and their desire for a national homeland in Palestine.

While Palestine is still under Ottoman control, Britain makes three different agreements with the Arabs, Zionist Organization, and France:

1) Balfour Declaration - stated Imperial Britain will use its resources to support the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, but "...nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights on existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..." Britain established a military presence in Palestine.

Discussion between the United States, Britain, and the Zionist Organization were made. Palestinian opinion was never consulted. The declaration was met with strong criticism from both anti-Zionist Jews and Arabs.

2) Husain-McMahon Correspondence - Letters between Sir Henry McMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt, and Sherif Husain, Emir of Mecca and acting representative of Arabs. Britain promised the Arab people complete independence of all Arab territories after WWl, including Palestine, if they revolted against the Ottoman Empire (who posed a threat to British control).

3) Sykes-Picot Agreement - Britain and France allocate the Arab territories under the Ottoman Empire and decide which countries to mandate after WWl

• The British Mandate established Palestine under their temporary control

• The Zionist Commission is dispatched in Palestine:

“...the object of the Commission is to carry out… any steps required to give effect to government declaration in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people …

“It is most important that everything should be done to obtain authority from the Commission in the eyes of the Jewish world, and at the same time allay Arab suspicions regarding the true aims of Zionism.…” 

• 100,000 European Jews immigrated to Palestine, increasing the Jewish population to 17%.

• Zionist Commission begins to divide Palestine based on cultivable land, in which Jewish settlers received 1/6 of the total land. 

• Zionist Commission enforced policies that only Jewish can be employed on or buy from Jewish farmland.

• 232,000 European Jews immigrated to Palestine, increasing the Jewish population to 30%.

• Palestinian resistance increased to fight for the rights they were denied, Zionist enforcement increased to maintain a Jewish National Home as refuge in Palestine after the Holocaust

• British Royal Commission deemed the Mandate no longer effective and released the 1939 White Paper: 

  • • • Envisioned Palestine as an independent state with a majority population after a 10 year period

      • Limited Jewish immigration to Palestine 

•  "Features of the response by some Zionist groups were illegal immigration, terrorism and an attempt to obtain support from the United States."-- United Nations Report

• Anglo-American Inquiry Committee surveyed the history of Palestine in the years after the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

• The independence of Palestine was rejected, in anticipation that the tensions would dissipate, with no reasoning or explanation as to how.

• Complete repeal of the 1939 White Paper

• Britain places the question of Palestine to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine.

• Plan of Partition- split Palestine into independent Palestinian Arab State, Jewish State, and Jerusalem (under UN administration).

• Zionist forces invade Palestinian territory and capture much more land than was allocated to them by the Plan of Partition.

  • • Palestine was left with the Gaza Strip, which was held by Egypt, and the West Bank, which was held by Jordan.

• 15,000 Palestinians were killed, 750,000 were exiled and not allowed back to their homes, and 530 villages were destroyed. 

• Most displaced Palestinians are refugees in the West Bank or surrounding Arab nations to this day.

• The State of Israel was established and immediately supported by the United States.

• Fought between Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

• An additional 500,000 Palestinians were forced to flee.

• Israel captured the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

• United Nations recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Chairman Yasser Arafat as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

• Israel invaded Lebanon

•  In coordination with Israeli military, Right-wing Christian Phalange militia stormed the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut.

• They massacred around 3,500 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.

After 20 years of military occupation and settler colonialism, Palestine launches an uprising against Israel.

• Boycotts, demonstrations, tax resistance, strikes, and largely unarmed protests ensue.

• Palestinian deaths by shooting, beating, and tear gas rose to approximately 1,240 by August 1993, and the total number injured to an estimated 130,000.  

• One fourth of the fatalities were children under the age of 16 years.

• Attempted to mediate conflict after First Intifada.

• Set up framework for Palestinians to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

• Intended mutual recognition between Palestinian Authority and Israeli government with Palestinian government oversight in West Bank and Gaza.

• Added provisions that mandated complete withdrawal of Israel from 6 cities and 450 towns in the West Bank.

• Israel does not withdraw, but continues to forcefully expand settlements in the West Bank, breaking the peace treaty.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem with over 1,000 Israeli troops.

• Palestinian resistance responds with demonstrations and protests.

• Israeli military intelligence director Amos Malka said IDF soldiers fired about 1.3 rounds of ammunition during the first few days.

• Israeli government constructs a barrier wall around the West Bank in 2002, despite oppositions from the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. This is a direct violation of international law.

• Hamas: political and militant movement for Palestinian liberation

•  Hamas wins Palestinian Authority preliminary elections and assumes control of the Gaza Strip

• Israel imposes an air, land, and sea blockade with the wall around Gaza in campaign for economic warfare.

• "By 2015, the Israeli blockade and restrictions on entry and exit of goods and people had halved the GDP of Gaza and reduced it to a humanitarian case of profound aid dependency, with the world’s highest unemployment rate (54 per cent overall, with 70 percent youth unemployment) and 68 per cent of the population rendered food insecure. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have both found that the blockade constitutes collective punishment." --UN

• Increased Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and occupied territories caused Hamas to fire 3,000 rockets at Israel.

• Israel immediately retaliates with a major offensive in Gaza.

• After weeks, a cease-fire was agreed upon by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, brokered by the Egyptian government.

• 2,251 Palestinians, including 500 children, and 73 Israelis were killed, 64 of which were IDF soldiers.

• 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza were displaced.

• Schools, hospitals, homes, and Mosques were hit. Reconstruction was estimated to take 10 years. However, Gaza does not have the resources to rebuild.

• The cease-fire agreement did not address Hamas' demands for rights to an airport and seaport in Gaza, the release of Israel-taken Palestinian prisoners, 

• Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip begin weekly unarmed protests and demonstrations between Gaza and the Israeli border, demanding removal of the blockade around Gaza and the allowed return of Palestinian refugees.

• During these protests called, "the Great March of the Return," Israeli snipers positioned on the border shot over 6,106 demonstrators Palestinians, killing 183.

• President Donald Trump canceled funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories.

• The United States has continually provided over $3 billion dollars in military aid to Israel every year.

• On October 7th, as the civilians in Gaza continue to be bombarded by Israeli attacks in the "open-air prison" enclosing them, Hamas launched an organized airstrike against Israel.

• Hamas sets 25 interspersed explosions to break out of the Gaza blockade that has denied them movement, access to schools, social services, fertile farmland, and hospitals since 2002.

• Israel immediately retaliates with their own air and ground attacks, formally declaring war. They have received adamant support from the Biden Administration.

• More than 187,000 Palestinians have had their homes destroyed in Gaza.

• Israeli airstrikes razed 790 houses, severely damaged 5,330.

• UNRWA is hosting more than 137,000 Palestinian refugees across the standing schools and buildings Gaza.

• 1.1 million Palestinian civilians were given 48 hours by the Israeli government to evacuate out of Gaza using two evacuation routes. Roads in Gaza have been reduced to rubble. Motor transportation is significantly limited.

• Israel has been launching targeted airstrikes on all evacuation routes taken by Palestinian civilians, as well as the Israel-Egypt and Israel-Lebanon borders, leaving them with nowhere to go.

• Israel cut off access to food, water, and electricity to more than 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Hospitals do not have access to these resources either.

• Over 1.1 million Palestinians have been displaced since then.