Canadians for Equality and Peace for Palestinians
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A Brief History of Palestine




























Palestine-net.com History Page (very detailed)

Palestine - Home of History

Research Guide to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (launched April 23,2002) *added April 25, 2002*






 

1897 -The first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland, which issued the Basle programme on the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The total population of Palestine was 500,000 of whom were 47,000 were Jews who owned 0.5% of the land.

 1914 - With the outbreak of World War I, Britain promised the independence of Arab lands under Ottoman rule, including Palestine, in return for Arab support against Turkey which had entered the war on the side of Palestine.

 1916 - Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned to France, Jordan and Iraq to Britain and Palestine was to be internationalized.

 1917 - Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary sent a letter the Zionist leader Lord Rothschild that later became known as "The Balfour declaration". He stated that Britain would use its best endeavors to facilitate the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. At that time the population of Palestine was 700,000 of which 574,000 were Muslims, 74,000 were Christians and 56,000 were Jews.

 1919 - The Palestinians convened their first National Conference and expressed their opposition to the Balfour Declaration.

 1920 - The San Remo Conference granted Britain a mandate over Palestine and two years later Palestine was effectively under British administration, and Sir Herbert Samuel, a declared Zionist, was sent as Britain's first High Commissioner to Palestine.

 1922 - The Council of the League of Nations issued a Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate was in favor of the establishment for the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine.

 1936 - The Palestinians held a six-month General Strike to protest against the confiscation of the land and Jewish immigration.

 1947 - The United Nations approved the partition under which the Palestinian Arabs, who accounted for 70% of the population and owned 92% of the land, were allocated 47% of he country (UN resolution 181).

1948 - British forces withdrew from Palestine in May and the Zionists proclaimed the state of Israel without defining its borders. Arab armies moved to defend the Palestinians.

1967 - Israel launched a new war against the Arabs and seized the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

1973 - The October War between Israel and the Arab stated broke out. Egypt managed to retrieve the West Bank of Sues canal.

1982 - Invasion of Israel to Lebanon. Sabra and Shatela massacres took place where about 5000 Palestinians and Lebanese were killed in cold blood.

1987-1993 The first Palestinian Intifada was initiated when an Israeli Truck driver drove through 7 Palestinians killing them all. About 1000 martyr and 14,000 injured during that Intifada.

2000 - The second Palestinian Intifada started.

 

 




























When I despair I remember that all throughout history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it... always.
- Gandhi