Timeline of Events

My interest in the timeline below is to focus on the background to the events discussed in such works as Chomsky’s “Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians.” It is, therefore, primarily focused on those three players, and is not meant to be comprehensive.

To date, this timeline reflects some initial reading but is drawn primarily from Wikipedia sources

• 1881-1903: First Aliyah - A major wave of Jewish immigration (aliyah), largely from Eastern Europe and Yemen

• 1915-1918: Sinai and Palestine Campaign. A front in World War I with fighting centered in the eponymous regions, culminating in the (partial) British defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the occupation of Palestine by the British.

• November, 1917: Balfour Declaration was “a public statement issued by the British Government … announcing its support for the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine.”

• 1948 Nakba Arabic for “catastrophe”, this term refers to the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through displacement and dispossession of land and property. This was a consequence of the British withdrawal from “Mandatory Palestine”