ISRAEL - PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

History of a conflict

Thursday 01 May 2008

One of the world's most intractable conflicts, the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is rooted in twin, conflicting claims to the land straddling the eastern Mediterranean shores and the Jordan River Valley. (Report: C. Norris-Trent)

1947:  Thousands of European Jewish emigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, board a ship – which came to be called Exodus 1947 – bound for then British-controlled Palestine. Heading for the “promised land,” they are intercepted by British naval ships and sent back to Europe. Widely covered by the media, the incident sparks international outrage and plays a critical role in convincing the UK that a UN-brokered solution is necessary to solve the Palestine crisis. 

A UN special committee proposes a partition plan giving 56.47% of Palestine to a Jewish state and 43.53% for an Arab state. Palestinian representatives reject the plan, their Jewish counterparts accept it.

On Nov. 29, the UN General Assembly approves the plan, with 33 countries voting for partition, 13 voting against it and 10 abstentions.

1948: On May 14, David Ben Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, publicly reads the Proclamation of Independence. The declaration, which would go into effect the next day, comes a day ahead of the expiration of the British Mandate on Palestine.

For Palestinians, this date marks the “Nakba,” the catastrophe that heralds their subsequent displacement and dispossession.

As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, hearing word of massacres in villages such as Dir Yassin, flee toward Egypt, Lebanon and Jordanian territory, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq attack Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The Arab armies are repelled, a ceasefire is declared and Jordan takes control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem while Egypt controls the Gaza Strip.

1956: After Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal, Israel, the United Kingdom and France form an alliance. Israel occupies the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. The Israeli army would later withdraw its troops, under pressure from the US and the USSR.

1964: The Palestinian Liberation Organization is created.

1967: The Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel and its Arab neighbours results in a dramatic redrawing of the Mideast map. Israel seizes the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

1973: On Oct. 6, the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian armies launch offensives against Israel, marking the start of the Yom Kippur War. The war ends weeks later with Israel repelling the armies, but all sides suffering heavy casualties.

1979: Following the Camp David Accords signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin the previous year, Sadat and Begin sign the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Under the accord, the Sinai Peninsula, seized by Israel in the 1967 War, is returned to Egypt. Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to recognize the state of Israel.

1982: Under Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli troops storm into neighbouring Lebanon in a controversial military mission called “Operation Peace of Galilee.” The aim of the operation is to wipe out Palestinian guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon. But Israeli troops push all the way to the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The subsequent routing of the PLO under Yasser Arafat leaves the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon essentially defenseless. From Sept. 16 to 18, Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen – with ties to Israel – enter the camps of Sabra and Shatilla in Beirut, unleashing a brutal massacre that shocks the international community. The massacres, the subject of an Israeli inquiry popularly called the Kahane Commission, would subsequently cost Sharon his job as defense minister.

1987: Uprisings in Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza spread across the Strip to the West Bank marking the start of the First Palestinian Intifada. The uprising lasts until 1993, costing more than 1,000 Palestinian lives. The image of the stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrator pitched against Israel’s military might comes to symbolize the Palestinian struggle.

1993: After months of frenetic secret negotiations, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the Oslo Accords. The accords see the creation of the Palestinian Authority, which gets administrative control of the West Bank and Gaza. On September 13 on the White House lawn, Arafat and Rabin exchange a historic handshake in the presence of US President Bill Clinton. The event is watched by over 400 million TV viewers across the world.

1995: On Nov. 4, Yitzhak Rabin is assasinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

2000: On Sept. 28, Ariel Sharon, now leader of the right-wing Likud party, makes a provocative tour of Jerusalem’s al Aqsa/Temple Mount site, sparking the Second Intifada, also known as the al-Aqsa Intifada. The uprising has not officially ended.

2001: Ariel Sharon is elected Prime Minister of Israel and breaks off contact with Yasser Arafat, who is subsequently confined to his army compound in Ramallah.

2002: The Israeli government begins the construction of a wall to separate Israel from the West Bank. The UN Security Council speaks for the first time of a coexistence between the two states of Israel and Palestine. The Israeli army lifts the seige on Ramallah.

2004: On March 22, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the paraplegic co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, is killed in an Israeli helicopter strike. Eight months later, on Nov. 11, Yasser Arafat dies at a Paris hospital following a prolonged illness.  Arafat's successor is Mahmoud Abbas, appointed as PLO chairman.

2005: Mahmoud Abbas is elected President of the Palestinian Authority. After a 38-year occupation, Israel pulls out of Gaza.

2006: On Jan. 4, Prime Minister Sharon suffers a massive stroke and falls into a coma. As of May 2008, is condition remains unchanged. Ehud Olmert takes over as Prime Minister and head of Sharon’s newly founded Kadima party.

Hamas sweeps the legislative elections in the Palestinian territories. The US and EU freeze direct aid to the Palestinian government.

Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah launches rocket attacks on Israel and takes two Israeli soldiers captive. Israel retaliates with force and many civilians, mainly Lebanese, are killed. The might of the Israeli army fails to bring the small group of 5,000 guerillas to its knees. Israel suffers its worst military and strategic defeat since its founding in 1948.

2007: Following months of internecine fighting between Hamas and Fatah forces, Hamas seizes control of Gaza. From its bases in the Strip, Palestinian militants continue to launch rocket attacks into Israel, which are invariably followed by Israeli reprisal strikes. The violence in the Middle East continues.