1880s – European Zionists begin arriving in Palestine
Jews begin moving to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Most were fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. They wanted a political and spiritual home in the land of their biblical ancestors – known as Zionists ¬ – and begin moving to the land that is now Israel. The immigration gave Palestine a Jewish minority. Theodor Herzl, a correspondent in Paris for a Vienna newspaper, wrote that “there was no room or hope for the Jews of Europe, that the Jews must acquire a territory on which to build a nation.” The book he wrote, which was called The Jewish State, became the Zionist manifesto.
1914 – First World War begins
Britain and France went to war with Germany and its ally, Turkey. The Turkish (Ottoman) Empire included much of the Middle East, and the Allies saw value in encouraging rebellion among Turkey’s Arab subjects. The promise – at least as the courted Arab leaders saw it – was that Britain and France would support Arab independence after the war. Much of the promise of independence was delivered by British adventurer T.E. Lawrence, the famous “Lawrence of Arabia.” Also, acting on behalf of the British government, Sir Henry McMahon promised Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, Arab control over land previously held by the Turks.
But under the terms of the secret France-Britain-Russia document known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement of April-May, 1916, Arab independence was to be realized on only a tiny part of Middle East land. The real import of the document was to divide the region between the French and the British.
Nov. 2, 1917 – Britain supports creation of Jewish national homeland
On this date, British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a short note to Lord Rothschild, a leader of England’s Jewish community. Writing that 68-word note, which came to be known as the “Balfour Declaration,” was tantamount to creating the embryo from which the state of Israel would grow – though its gestation period was to be more than 30 years. Balfour said Britain supported the creation of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. It was a signal event for the Jews of Europe. Arabs, however, believed London had made different promises about the future of Palestine.
1922 – Britain assumes control of large portions of the Middle East
The British Mandate, authorized by the League of Nations, gave Britain control over portions of the Middle East, including Palestine. Arabs made up 92 per cent of the population and owned 98 per cent of the land, hardly a situation that was going to help Zionism. There began a period of intense Jewish immigration.
1922 to 1939 – Continued Zionist immigration increases Arab-Jewish tensions
Jews began to build the footings of the modern Israel, reviving the Hebrew language, cultivating land and settling new urban areas. Arabs today scoff at the boast of Israelis that Jews came to a barren and inhospitable land and “made the desert bloom.” They point to ancient vineyards and olive groves that were thriving for centuries before the Jewish immigration of the 20th century.
In the years before the Second World War, there had been a series of attempts to resolve the issues of who would live on the contested land of Palestine. By the late 1930s, Britain had toyed with and rejected the idea of dividing the area into two states. It then proposed surrendering the mandate in a way that would leave Palestinians in a majority and limit future Jewish immigration, but also protect the rights of the Jewish minority there. None of its proposals left Britain any closer to resolving its dilemma.
1939 – Second World War begins
The war in Europe began. By the end of the war six years later, nearly six million Jews had been killed by the Germans in the Holocaust.
1945 – Postwar Jewish immigration to Palestine increases
The Jews who survived the Holocaust took their fight for a homeland to a new level. Although official postwar British policy was to continue limiting Jewish immigration, about 200,000 Jews went to Palestine. There were acts of Jewish terrorism against the British, as well as Jewish-Palestinian fighting. In 1946, Jewish militants blew up part of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, which was being used as a headquarters for the British military. That event pushed Britain toward abandoning the question of what to do with Palestine.
