| Year | Date | Event |
|---|
| 1901 | | TheJewish National Fund is established to buy land and encourage Jewish settlement inPalestine. |
| 1915-1916 | | British diplomats and theSharif of Mecca exchange theMcMahon-Hussein Correspondence, in which Britain promises an independent Arab state, which would includePalestine, in exchange forsupporting the British against the Ottoman Empire in theFirst World War. |
| 1916 | 3 January | Britain, France, Russia, and Italy sign the secretSykes-Picot Agreement which would partition the Ottoman Empire in the event of an Allied victory. |
| 1917 | 2 November | TheBalfour Declaration issued by the British Government called for a national home for the Jewish People in Palestine, which was seen as a contradiction by some. |
| 1917 | 23 November | TheBolsheviks make the terms of theSykes-Picot Agreement public, exposing contradicting promises made in theMcMahon-Hussein Correspondence and theBalfour Declaration. |
| 1919 | 3 January | Chaim Weizmann andEmir Faisal, son of theSharif of Mecca, sign theFaisal-Weizmann agreement, promising Jewish support and development in Palestine. Faisal's approval was contingent on the fulfillment of British promises to him. |
| 1920 | 25 April | TheLeague of Nations assigns Britain the creation ofMandatory Palestine. |
| 1920 | June | Jewish paramilitary organizationHaganah is formed with the purpose of defending Jewish settlements against Arab attacks. |
| 1920 | 4-7 April | 1920 Jerusalem riots were attacks on Jewish lives and property by Arabs, leaving 216 Jewish casualties and 25 Arab casualties. |
| 1920 | 1 July | ThePalin Commission is created to investigate the1920 Jerusalem riots. They report that Arab rioters attacked Jewish lives and property, and that the cause was attributed to the disappointment that stemmed from unfulfilled promises to them by the British. |
| 1921 | 12-30 March | The1921 Cairo Conference convened by Britain aimed to organize the Middle East boundaries and develop a policy of governance. Arab and Jewish delegations were invited to advise or provide input. The conference established the division of Mandatory Palestine intoTransjordan, andPalestine withEmir Abdullah ruling semi-autonomously in the former. His brother,Emir Faisal would be crowned King of Iraq. |
| 1921 | 1-7 May | 1921 Jaffa riots were attacks on Jewish lives and property by Arabs, leaving 193 Jewish casualties and 121 Arab casualties. |
| 1921 | October | TheHaycraft Commission is created to investigate the1921 Jaffa riots. The report blamed Arabs for the violence but notes growing Arab resentment of British policy, seemingly favoring Jewish communities and ambitions at the expense of the Arab population. |
| 1922 | 3 June | Winston Churchill drafts theChurchill White Paper. In it contains Britain's will to maintain their commitment to theBalfour Declaration, calls for restrictions on Jewish immigration, clarification that Palestine would not become a Jewish State. This would be the governoring policy in the region until 1939. |
| 1923 | 29 September | BritishMandate for Palestine comes into effect. |
| 1929 | 23-29 August | 1929 Palestine riots were a series of violent demonstrations and riots involving access over theWestern Wall in Jerusalem. The riots lead to 472 Jewish casualties and 348 Arab casualties. |
| 1930 | March | TheShaw Commission is created to investigate the1929 Palestine riots. The report concludes that riots were caused by Arab fears over Jewish immigration and land acquisition. It recommends restrictions on Jewish land purchases and immigration, an inquiry to support the rapidly growing rural Palestinian population, and clairty regarding British policy. |
| 1930 | October | ThePassfield White Paper is drafted to implement recommendations made by theShaw Commission andHope Simpson Enquiry. The tone of the paper was considered anti-zionist by many. |
| 1931 | 13 February | TheMacDonald letter wrtten by British Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald toChaim Weizmann to clarify the newPassfield White Paper. It is considered to be an informal withdrawal of the Passfield White Paper. |
| 1931 | 10 April | Jewish paramilitary organizationIrgun is founded. Irgun policy was based onRevisionist Zionism |
| 1936-1939 | | The1936-1939 Palestinian Revolt was a movement calling for independence from British colonial rule and the end to British support for Zionism. 5000+ Arabs, 300+ Jews, and 262 Britons were killed, with at least 15,000 Arabs wounded. |
| 1939–1945 | | World War II:Germany invades Poland andThe Holocaust occurred inGerman-occupied Europe killing 6 million Jews. |
| 1946 | July 22 | Jewish terroristsbombed the King David Hotel. The terrorist attack was carried out by the Zionist paramilitary group Irgun. 91 people of various nationalities, including Britons, Arabs and Jews, were killed and 45 people were injured by the militant right-wing group. |
| 1947 | 25 November | United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that proposed a creation of one Arab state and one Jewish state passes with the Jewish leaders accepted and Arab states rejected the move. Amajor civil war between the Arab populations and Jewish populations began shortly after. |
| 1948 | 14 May | On the last day of the British Mandate,David Ben-Gurion, executive head of theZionist Organization and chairman of theJewish Agency for Palestine, issued theIsraeli Declaration of Independence which declared the establishment of aJewish state in theLand of Israel to be known as the State of Israel, which covered part of the territory of what had beenMandatory Palestine.[1] |
| 15 May | 1948 Arab–Israeli War: Hours after the expiration of the British Mandate of Palestine,Iraq,Egypt,Jordan andSyria invaded Israel.[2] |
| 1949 | 25 January | 1949 Israeli legislative election: Elections were held to aconstituent assembly.Ben-Gurion'scenter-leftMapai won a plurality of seats. |
| 24 February | 1948 Arab–Israeli War: The first of the1949 Armistice Agreements ending the war was signed between Israel andEgypt. An armistice line was agreed along the prewar border with the exception that Egypt remained in control of theGaza Strip. |
| 8 March | Thefirst government of Israel, in whichMapai, theJewishUnited Religious Front, the liberalProgressive Party, theSephardim and Oriental Communities and theArabDemocratic List of Nazareth ruled in coalition withBen-Gurion asprime minister, was established. |
| 11 May | TheGeneral Assembly of the United Nations adoptedUnited Nations General Assembly Resolution 273, according to which Israel was admitted to membership.[3] |
| 13 December | Ben-Gurion proclaimedJerusalem the capital of Israel.[4] |
| 1950 | 5 July | The Israeli legislature theKnesset passed theLaw of Return, which granted allJews the right to migrate to and settle in Israel and obtaincitizenship. |
| 1956 | 26 July | Suez Crisis: In a broadcast speech, Egyptian presidentGamal Abdel Nasser gave a codeword order for the occupation and nationalization of theSuez Canal and the closure of theStraits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. |
| 29 October | Suez Crisis: The Israeliair force began bombing Egyptian forces in theSinai Peninsula. |
| 1960 | 11 May | Eight agents of the Israeli internal security serviceShin Bet and its foreign intelligence serviceMossad abductedAdolf Eichmann, theNazi officer primarily responsible for the actual implementation ofthe Holocaust, near his home inSan Fernando, Buenos Aires. |
| 1966 | | Themartial law imposed on IsraeliArabs from the founding of the State of Israel was lifted completely. |
| 1967 | 5 June | Six-Day War: The Israeliair force destroyed the Egyptianair force on the ground over a period of three hours. |
| 11 June | Six-Day War: Israel signed a ceasefire with its enemiesEgypt,Syria,Jordan,Lebanon andIraq. It remained in control of the formerly EgyptianGaza Strip andSinai Peninsula, the SyrianGolan Heights and the JordanianWest Bank andEast Jerusalem. |
| 30 June | MayorTeddy Kollek ofJerusalem announced that the city had been fully reunified.[5] |
| 1973 | 21 February | A Boeing 727-200 serving as Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 fromTripoli toCairo was shot down over theSinai Peninsula by Israeli fighter aircraft, killing over one hundred passengers and crew. |
| 21 July | Lillehammer affair: A team of fifteenMossad agents assassinated a Moroccan waiter inLillehammer in a case of mistaken identity. |
| 6 October | Yom Kippur War: Egyptian and Syrian forces simultaneously attacked Israeli positions in theSinai Peninsula and theGolan Heights, respectively, on theJewish holiday ofYom Kippur. |
| 14 October | Operation Nickel Grass: The United States began an airlift of tanks, artillery, ammunition and supplies to Israel. |
| 25 October | Yom Kippur War: Israel,Egypt andSyria agreed to a ceasefire. Israel remained in control of new territory north of theGolan Heights and west of theSuez Canal in the south. |
| 1976 | 4 July | Operation Entebbe:Sayeret Matkal freed some hundred hostages held atEntebbe International Airport by hijackers belonging to thePalestinian nationalistPopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations and thefar-leftRevolutionary Cells. |
| 1977 | 10 May | 1977 Israeli Air Force Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion crash: AnIsraeli Air Force Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion crashed in theJordan Valley, killing fifty-four soldiers. |
| 1978 | 17 September | Israel andEgypt signed theCamp David Accords at theWhite House. The framework agreement provided for the establishment of an autonomous authority in theWest Bank andGaza Strip and for withdrawal of Israeli forces from theSinai Peninsula in exchange for the establishment of full diplomatic relations with Egypt. |
| 1979 | 26 March | Egypt and Israel signed theEgypt–Israel peace treaty under the framework of theCamp David Accords at theWhite House. |
| 1980 | 24 February | Theold Israeli shekel replaced theIsraeli pound as the currency of Israel. |
| 30 July | TheKnesset passed theJerusalem Law, asserting thatJerusalem was and would remain the undivided capital of Israel. |
| 1981 | 7 June | Operation Opera: Israel carried out a surprise air strike on anIraqi nuclear reactor eleven miles southeast ofBaghdad.[6] |
| 1982 | 23 April | TheIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) forcibly evacuatedYamit per the terms of theEgypt–Israel peace treaty. |
| 3 June | Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, was shot in the head in London in an attempted assassination organized byIraq'sIraqi Intelligence Service and carried out by thePalestinian nationalistAbu Nidal Organization. |
| 6 June | 1982 Lebanon War: TheIDF invadedsouthern Lebanon in response to repeated attacks by thePalestinian nationalistPalestine Liberation Organization (PLO), whose militants were sheltered there, on Israeli civilians. |
| 1984 | 12 April | Bus 300 affair: FourPalestinian nationalists hijacked a bus fromTel Aviv toAshkelon and took its forty passengers hostage. |
| 21 November | Operation Moses: The first of some eight thousandEthiopian Jews were covertly evacuated to Israel from refugee camps inSudan. |
| 1985 | 5 January | Operation Moses: Prime ministerShimon Peres confirmed the existence of the airlift.Sudan immediately halted flights. |
| 1987 | 30 August | TheCabinet voted to cancel development of theIAI Lavi. |
| 9 December | First Intifada: Protests began in theJabalia Camp in response to the death of fourPalestinian civilians in a car crash with anIDF truck. |
| 1989 | 19 September | Mount Carmel Forest Fire: A forest fire began onMount Carmel which would burn over two square miles over the next three days.[7] |
| 1991 | 22 January | Gulf War: AnIraqi Scud missile landed inRamat Gan, killing three and injuring nearly a hundred. |
| 24 May | Operation Solomon: An airlift began which would transport some fourteen thousandEthiopian Jews fromEthiopia to Israel over a thirty-six-hour period. |
| 30 October | Madrid Conference of 1991: A conference opened inMadrid with the goal of reviving the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. |
| 1992 | 17 December | Israel deported some four hundredPalestinians toLebanon. |
| 1993 | 13 September | Israel and thePLO signed theOslo I Accord in Washington, D.C. The accords provided for the withdrawal of someIDF forces from theWest Bank andGaza Strip and for the establishment of a self-governing authority for thePalestinians, thePalestinian National Authority. |
| 1994 | 26 October | Israel andJordan signed theIsrael–Jordan peace treaty in theArabah. The treaty clarified the borders of the two countries and their water rights; each pledged that neither would allow a third country to use its territory to stage an attack on the other. |
| 1995 | 4 November | Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin: The radical nationalistYigal Amir, an opponent of theOslo Accords, shot and killed prime ministerYitzhak Rabin after a rally inTel Aviv. |
| 1997 | 4 February | 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster: Two transport helicoptersen route tosouthern Lebanon collided in midair aboveShe'ar Yashuv, killing all on board. |
| 14 July | Maccabiah bridge collapse: A pedestrian bridge collapsed over theYarkon River inTel Aviv, killing four. |
| 2000 | 24 May | Israel withdrew the last of its forces fromsouthern Lebanon. |
| 1 October | October 2000 events: The first of a series of riots began in which thirteenArabs and oneJew would be killed over nine days.[8] |
| 7 October | 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid: The LebaneseShia Islamist militant group and political partyHezbollah abducted three Israeli soldiers from the Israeli administered side of theBlue Line, the internationally recognized border.[9] |
