Timeline: Israel-Palestine Conflict

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In the early 1900s, present-day Israel consisted of a mix of Arabs and Jews who lived in relative peace with one another in a land where Arabs constituted the majority of the population (70% of about 2 million people) and owned 90% of the private land. The area was controlled by the British and was called "Palestine Mandate." 

From March to October, 1948, a war transformed Palestine, leading to the forced expulsion of over half (~750,000) of the country's Arab majority in what marked the official formation of the State of Israel. About 150,000 Arabs remained within Israel's borders upon the formation of the state, resulting in newly-formed Jewish majority that quickly continued to increase with mass migration of Jews out of Europe in the 1930s and 40s surrounding the rise of Hitler and World War II. The territory allotted to Israel by the United Nations under the 1947 partition equated to 55% of Palestine. Despite this plan, Israel marked its borders along an area encompassing 78% of the land. Of the displaced Palestinians, most became dispossessed of their property and were left scattered as refuges in Lebanon and Syria, or lived in the remaining 22% of former-Palestine that Arab armies managed to hang onto following the war. 

The rapid transition of Palestine from a majority Arab to a majority Israeli state was marked by a period of violence and aggression that is remembered by Palestinians as "al-Nakaba," or "the catastrophe." Over just a few weeks in spring 1948, Jaffa and Haifa, the cities with the largest Arab populations in Palestine (also the most dynamic centers of Arab economic and cultural life) were conquered by Zionist militias (which later became the core of the Israeli army), with most Arabs dispersing and losing their property. A similar fate befell the smaller cities of Lydda, Ramleh, Acre, Safad, Tiberias, Beisan and Bir Sabe, resulting in a significant share of urban Arabs (the wealthiest and most educated Arabs) becoming homeless refugees. Rural areas, where 1 million Arabs previously lived in 500 Arab villages, experienced an even greater force, with over 400 villages being conquered by the end of 1948 by pre-state Zionist militias and the Israeli army, with thousands of civilians being killed including many women and children. This resulted in rural Palestinians being either forcefully driven out of their homes or fleeing, with their property being confiscated and their return forbidden. The Israeli army subsequently destroyed nearly all of these empty villages. Those Palestinians who remained within Israel were subjected to martial law for nearly two decades. In the years that followed, the newly formed Israeli government rejected this historical account of the Nakba, ascribing Palestinian expulsion to the Arab armies and absolving itself from any responsibility for the flight of refugees. However, Israel's new historians, using Israeli and Western archives opened since the 1980s, have shown this account of the Nakba to be correct.

Palestinians residing in Israel after 1948 were kept under tight Israeli control, with many political restrictions placed on Palestinians. Those living in the 22% remaining Palestinian territory fell under control by Jordanian authorities, viewing any independent Palestinian organization as subversive and a threat to the unity of the kingdom. Meanwhile, those living in the Gaza Strip were controlled by Egyptian authorities, with similar restrictions placed on Palestinian political organizing in order to ensure adherence to Egypt's new truce with Israel. As such, any political organizing for an independent Palestine took place outside of, rather than with, Palestine's borders, accompanied by the rise of a new generation of refugee activists. 

A movement by Palestinians displaced to Cairo, Beirut and Kuwait, who went on to receive educations, ultimately helped revive Palestinian identity and a Palestinian national movement.  Before long, this movement grew at odds with Arab governments and the restrains these governments placed on activism. 

The Egyptian-dominated Arab League created the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 in an effort to control Palestinians and stifle activism. However, it was largely unsuccessful as momentum behind Palestinian activism had already grown into a substantial movement. Ultimately, the PLO was taken over by popular groups and leaders who had interests more favorable to Palestinians, replacing greater Arab government control. 

For decades, state policy within Israel has explicitly privileged Jewish Israelis while discriminating against Palestinians, including restricting Palestinian travel within the state. In the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and particularly at Israel's heavily militarized border, conditions are much harsher, with the Israel Defense Force (IDF) regularly assaulting and killing civilians for minor offenses. The year 2023 (prior to Oct. 7 Hamas attack) was considered the bloodiest year in recent history for Palestinians, with an average of one civilian killed per day by Israeli forces in the occupied territories. Israel's harsh treatment of Palestinians both inside Israel and the occupied territories has been regularly condemned by the international community, including the United Nations (UN) and the world's leading human rights organizations such as  Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.In characterizing the situation, Human Rights Watch has describes Israeli authorities as having "dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity," noting that in some cases "these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity." Combined with Israel's economic blockade and tight restrictions on the inflow of resources to the occupied territories, the result has been severe poverty for the majority of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. Such conditions are considered a primary driver of Palestinian resistance today.

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This section (and others) are still under construction. Please check back soon!

This section (and others) are still under construction. Please check back soon!