Israel/Palestine Timeline (2000 BCE-2025 CE)

Information collected and compiled by Professor Moore, Ph.D.

Introduction

Israel is currently committing a genocide against the Palestinian people and the United States government is supporting and facilitating it. Everyone needs to do their part to seek an end to this obscene violence, and part of this battle requires us to become educated on the history of Israel and Palestine. As a historian I feel that it is my responsibility to help. That’s why I’ve created this Israel/Palestine Timeline. This is a work in progress and will be edited and updated frequently with new information. The goal is to provide activists, academics, and anyone interested in this topic with a comprehensive timeline that can help illuminate the historical context to Israel’s genocidal violence and Palestinian resistance.

Knowledge is power.

Free Palestine.

In solidarity,

Professor Moore, Ph.D.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline (2000 BCE-2024)

NOTE: Dates for Biblical stories are not meant to reflect actual historical events, but to show the timeline according to the Jewish and Christian religious traditions. According to Biblical scholars like Francesca Stavrakopoulou, central Biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, King David, etc., have no historicity and should be seen as mythical characters. Biblical events and figures are included in this timeline to illuminate the religious argument that Israel is the “Promised Land” of the Jews.

● 2000-1900 BCE—Biblical story of Abraham—A man named Terah, a descendant of Noah’s son Shem, takes his son Abraham, Abraham’s wife Sarah, and his grandson Lot, and they leave the Babylonian city of Ur and settle in the city of Haran (Turkey). After Terah dies, Abraham has an encounter with the God Jehovah/Yahweh who tells him: “Leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to.” In this story, God proposes a covenant to the 75-year-old Abraham. If Abraham will follow the commandment of God, then He will make the descendants of Abraham His Chosen People and place them under His protection. At this time, God only stipulates one commandment and makes only one promise. The commandment is that all males of His Chosen People must be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. If they follow this commandment, then God promises them a home in the land of Canaan (modern Israel/Palestine). When Abraham’s wife Sarah dies, he buys land in Hebron, now on the West Bank [According to Biblical scholar William G. Dever: “By the beginning of the 21st century, archaeologists had given up hope of recovering any context that would make Abraham, Isaac or Jacob credible historical figures.”] (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 18-19; Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 11-13)

● 1800 BCE—Biblical story of Joseph—A Hebrew named Joseph, the son of Jacob and the grandson of Abraham, is sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. He becomes a favorite of the Egyptian pharaoh and rises to the position of viceroy. When a famine hits the Hebrew people, Joseph uses his influence with the pharaoh to get permission to bring them from Canaan to Egypt. The Hebrews live in peace until a new pharaoh takes power and enslaves them (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 22-23)

● 1500-1300 BCE—Biblical story of Moses/Exodus narrative—When the Egyptian pharaoh orders all male Hebrew infants to be killed to punish them for rebelling against their slavery and to prevent them multiplying too rapidly, a husband and wife hide their newborn son Moses and protect him for three months. Then they place him in a basket and send him down the Nile River. An Egyptian princess discovers Moses and raises him in the palace as an Egyptian prince. At the age of 30, Moses sees an Egyptian slave driver striking a Hebrew slave. Moses kills the Egyptian and flees to Midian. God speaks to Moses and tells him to go back to Egypt to free his people, the Hebrews/Israelites. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the Sinai desert, a journey that takes 40 years. On Mount Sinai, Moses receives the 10 commandments from God. God makes the same covenant with Moses that he made with Abraham, and promises his Chosen People a homeland in Canaan if they obey his rules. [Note: According to Biblical scholar William G. Dever: “the overwhelming scholarly consensus today is that Moses is a mythical figure. A Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century BCE but archeology can do nothing to prove or confirm either way.” British archaeologist Philip Davies argues that “Moses himself has about as much historic reality as King Arthur.” According to Karen Armstrong: “The final myth of the Exodus, as it has come down to us in the Bible, is clearly not meant to be a literal version of events”]
Exodus, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB

● 1200 BCE—Twelve Tribes of Israel in Cannan

● 1200 BCE—Merneptah Stele—first documented reference to Israel in the historical record—Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah announces his military victories, adding: “Israel is laid waste, his seed is not.” (Source: Fordham University Internet History Sourcebook)

● 1022—Reign of King Saul in Israel

● 1000 BCE—Reign of King David in Israel [Note: There is no archeological evidence that a king named David ever ruled in the Levant, or that his kingdom included the territory of what is now called the West Bank]

● 970-965 BCE—Reign of Solomon—Jewish Temple built in Jerusalem

● 930-31 BCE—Solomon dies

● 930-925 BCE—Division of Israelite Kingdom into ten tribes of Israel in the North and two tribes of Judah in the South

● 869-853 BCE—King Ahab ascends the throne of the northern kingdom of Israel. His wife Jezebel is an ardent pagan who tries to convert the country to the worship of Baal and Asherah. The prophet Elijah summons King Ahab to a contest on Mount Carmel between the gods Yahweh and Baal. After Elijah wins the contest, he slaughters the priests of Baal (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 25-26)

● 750 BCE—Book of Amos written—First of the Hebrew prophets to emphasize the importance of social justice and compassion

● 727-21 BCE—Assyrians under King Sargon II conquer Jerusalem and deport the Jews—10 of 12 Tribes of Israel vanish—Remaining 2 tribes survive as the Kingdom of Judah

● 701 BCE—Assyrian King Sennacherib invades Judah with a vast army, laying siege to 46 of its cities and fortresses, impaling the defenders on poles, deporting 2,000 people, and imprisoning the Jewish king in Jerusalem. The Israelite Prophet Isiah preaches that it is God acting through the Assyrians to punish the Jews for their disobedience (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 43)

● 622 CE—King Josiah of Judah launches a reform to cleanse the Jewish Temple and religion of all pagan influences. All the images, idols, and fertility symbols are taken out of the Temple and burned. All pagan shrines in the country are destroyed and priests are now only allowed to offer sacrifice to the Jewish God (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 52)

● 609 BCE—Egyptian pharaoh crushes Judaeans and kills Josiah at Megiddo

● 597 BCE—Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s first siege of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar takes the 18-year-old King Jehoiachin into captivity and deports 8,000 of the country’s leading Jews (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 51)

● 586-87 BCE—Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Jerusalem and expels the Jews. The Jewish Temple is destroyed and the Ark of the Covenant vanishes. The Torah is written during Babylonian Exile

● 539-38 BCE—The Persians conquer the Babylonians and allow the Jews to go back to Jerusalem. Persian King Cyrus allows the Temple to be rebuilt

● 515 BCE (March)—Second Temple dedicated in Jerusalem

● 458 BCE—With the permission of the Persian King, Ezra leads the second mass exodus of Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah institute one of the world’s first intermarriage bans when they ban marriage between Jews and non-Jews (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 62-63)

● 450-444 BCE—Final fusion of Five Books of Moses, known as the Pentateuch

● 332-331 BCE—After defeating the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great takes over the territory of modern Israel/Palestine

● 285-246 BCE—Egyptian priest Manetho writes his History of Egypt, and offers a different explanation for why the Israelites left Egypt. In contrast to the Biblical Exodus story, he says the Jews were expelled because of their “uncleanness,” and offers the idea that they descended from lepers and carry the disease (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 373-374)

● 168 BCE—Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launches a massive campaign of repression against the Jews. He attempts to Hellenize Judaism and introduce the cult of Zeus into the Jewish Temple (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 67)

● 167 BCE—Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucid empire led by the Maccabees—After a Greek official attempts to force an aged Jewish priest named Mattathias, of the Hasmonean house, to sacrifice to the Greek gods, he kills the official. When King Antiochus orders reprisals, the Jewish population rises up to defend Mattathias and his five sons, who go to war with the Seleucid army. They are called the Maccabees from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they deal many hammer blows to the Greeks in battle (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 80)

● 164 BCE—Judah the Hammer and the Maccabees conquer all of Judah and Jerusalem. The Jewish Temple is purged of all idols and rededicated to God, giving birth to the feast of Hannukah, which commemorates the victory (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 80)

● 143 BCE—Simon, the sole surviving son of Mattathias, signs a peace treaty with the Seleucids (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 81)

● 135 BCE—Jewish priest Hycarnus extends the frontiers of the Jewish kingdom by annexing the pagan territories of the Idumeans and Galileans (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 84)

● 134-132 BCE—Seleucid King Antiochus VII lays siege to Jerusalem

● 63 BCE—Roman general Pompey Magnus enters Jerusalem and even visits the holy of holies in the Temple. The territory is renamed Judea and becomes a Roman province

● 50 BCE—An Alexandrian Jew writes The Wisdom of Solomon, warning Jews to resist the Hellenic culture around them and to remain true to their own traditions. The book argues that the fear of God, not Greek philosophy, constitutes true wisdom (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 68)

● 48 BCE—After Julius Caesar defeats Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar takes over the rule of Judea in the name of Rome. Caesar names Antipater administrator of Judea (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 90)

● 43 BCE—After a family member poisons Antipater, his son Herod becomes the leader of Judea (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 90)

● 37-34 BCE—Antigonus, the last Hasmonean descendant, convinces the Parthians to march under him against Jerusalem’s Roman overlords. Antigonus defeats the Romans and drives them out of Judea. In the year 37, the Idumaean-born Herod and the Romans recapture Jerusalem and execute Antigonus and 45 Sanhedrin members suspected of conspiracy. Herod is restored as King of the Jews

● 8-4 BCE—Jesus born in Nazareth, Judea (Source: Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth)

● 4 BCE—End of Judean independence; establishment of Roman procuratorial system

● 19 CE—Roman emperor Tiberius enacts anti-Jewish decrees. The Roman historian Suetonius wrote that: “He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian and Jewish rites, obliging those who practiced that kind of superstition, to burn their vestments, and all their sacred utensils. He distributed the Jewish youths, under the pretense of military service, among the provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city all the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that religion, under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied.” (Source: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars)

● 30-33 CE—Jesus crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem

● 40-41 CE—Roman emperor Caligula orders a statue of himself as a god to be placed in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, but he is assassinated before the order is carried out

● 41-53 CE—Roman emperor Claudius expels the Jews from Rome. Roman historian Suetonius wrote that he “banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus.” (Source: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars)

● 45-62 CE—After having a religious experience on the road to Damascus, the Jewish persecutor of Christians, Saul, converts to Christianity and renames himself Paul. Paul begins the work of separating Christianity from Judaism. Before, it had been the custom of pagans to first convert to Judaism and then Christianity, but Paul argues for pagans to skip the step of becoming Jews first. Paul also gets rid of the dietary restrictions and other strict rituals from Judaism, making Christianity more appealing to pagans. (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 140-143)

● 50 CE—Pogroms against the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt

● 66 CE—First Roman-Jewish War begins under the reign of emperor Nero with Jewish revolt by the Zealots

● 68 CE—Roman General Vespasian has captured Judea, but not Jerusalem

● 70 CE (July)—Vespasian’s son, Titus, attacks Jerusalem, killing thousands of Jews (Tacitus gives an exaggerated number of 600,000). The Second Temple is destroyed and never rebuilt. The Jews would not rule Jerusalem again for nearly 2,000 years. In 121 CE, the Roman historian Suetonius wrote: “After an obstinate defence by the Jews, that city, so much celebrated in the sacred writings, was finally demolished, and the glorious temple itself, the admiration of the world, reduced to ashes.” In honor of his victory, the Triumphal Arch of Titus is constructed in Rome, featuring a scene of Roman soldiers looting Jerusalem and carrying away a menorah (Source: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars)

● 70 CE—After the Romans destroy the Jewish Temple and turn Judaism into a pariah religion, the author of the Gospel of Mark invents a fictional story surrounding the execution of Jesus to help distance the Christians from the Jews and completely absolve Rome in Jesus’ death by blaming the Jews. According to Mark, it was the custom of the Roman governor during the feast of Passover to release one prisoner to the Jews. The Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, gives the Jews a choice between releasing Jesus or Barabbas. They choose to free Barabbas, condemning Jesus to death. In this story, Pontius Pilate is not responsible for Jesus’ death; it was the Jews who made the final decision. Religious scholar Reza Aslan explains how “a story concocted by Mark strictly for evangelistic purposes to shift the blame for Jesus’s death away from Rome is stretched with the passage of time to the point of absurdity, becoming in the process the basis for two thousand years of Christian anti-Semitism.” (Source: Reza Aslan, Zealot, 148-152)

● 73 CE (April)—Under Eleazar the Galilean, Jews hold out for 3 years at the Masada Fortress in the Judean desert. When the Romans raise a ramp to storm the fortress, Eleazar tells his followers: “We long ago my generous friends resolved never to be servants to the Romans nor to any other than God Himself. We were the first that revolted against them; we are the last that fight against them and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God has granted us that it is still in our power to die bravely and in a state of freedom, in a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends. Let our wives die before they are abused and our children before they have tasted slavery.” Afterwards, each man kills his wife and children. 10 men are chosen to kill the rest until all 960 are dead (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 136-137)

● 75 CE—Jewish historian Josephus writes The Jewish War
The Wars of the Jews by Flavius Josephus (gutenberg.org)

● 80 CE—Amphitheater/Colosseum built in Rome with wealth from Judean conquest

● 81-96 CE—Jews are heavily persecuted under the reign of Roman emperor Domitian. The Roman historian Suetonius wrote: “Besides the exactions from others, the poll-tax on the Jews was levied with extreme rigor, both on those who lived after the manner of Jews in the city, without publicly professing themselves to be such, and on those who, by concealing their origin, avoided paying the tribute imposed upon that people. I remember, when I was a youth, to have been present, when an old man, ninety years of age, had his person exposed to view in a very crowded court, in order that, on inspection, the procurator might satisfy himself whether he was circumcised.” (Source: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars)

● 85 CE—After the end of the First Jewish-Roman War in 70 CE, the Romans institute a new form of self-rule in Judea of Patriarchs. These Patriarchs are rabbis that claim descent from the house of Hillel, who in turn claimed descent from the house of David. The Romans address the Patriarchs as “Prince” and give them official status as though they represent a State. The recognition of these “descendants of David” continues through Gamaliel II in 85 to Gamaliel VI in 425, who dies with no heirs (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 175)

● 98-117 CE—Roman emperor Trajan invades Parthia, expanding Roman power into Iraq, home of the Babylonian Jews. As Trajan advances into Iraq, the Jews of Africa, Egypt and Cyprus, led by rebel kings, massacre thousands of Romans and Greeks. Trajan orders Jews to be killed from Iraq to Egypt, where the historian Appian wrote, “Trajan was destroying totally the Jewish race.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 139)

● 130 CE—Hadrian visits Jerusalem with his young lover Antonius and decides to abolish the city. He orders a new city to be built on the site of the old one, to be named Aelia Capitolina, after his own family and Jupiter Capitolinus. Hadrian builds his Temple of Jupiter with a statue of Aphrodite outside it on the very rock where Jesus was crucified (Golgotha). Hadrian bans circumcision and other Jewish rituals (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 140)

● 132-135 CE—Rebellion breaks out in Judea led by Simon bar Kosiba (Kochba). Roman emperor Hadrian assumes command of soldiers to put down the revolt. In 133, Bar Kosiba held Judea and Samaria, with his capital in Betar. When Hadrian defeats the rebellion he renames Judea, calling it Syria Palestina after the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines. Hadrian banishes the Jews from Jerusalem as a precautionary measure against a future revolt (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, 168; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 143)

● 138-161 CE—Roman emperor Antonius Pius allows the Jews to return to Judea/Syria Palestina (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 175)

● 212 CE—Roman emperor Caracalla confers citizenship upon all the Jews in the Roman Empire (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 106)

● 325 CE—Roman emperor Constantine sends a letter to bishops unable to attend the Council of Nicaea in person. In the letter he calls Jews “wretched men [who] are necessarily blinded” and tells the Christians: “Let us therefore have nothing in common with the Jews who are our enemies, let us studiously avoid all contact with their evil way…for how can they entertain right views on any point having compassed the death of the Lord….[let not] your pure minds share the customs of a senseless people so utterly depraved.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Vol. I, 168)

● 326 CE—Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena, travels to Palestine to locate the exact site of the Gospel’s events. She claims to discover the True Cross that Jesus was crucified on and the Holy Sepulchre where he was buried (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 22)

● 329 CE—Roman emperor Constantine makes Christian conversion to Judaism punishable by death

● 339 CE—Constantine’s sons ban intermarriage between Christians and Jews, whom they call a “savage, abominable disgrace” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 157)

● 362 CE (July 19)—New Roman emperor Julian, nicknamed “the Apostate” for his war against Christianity and attempt to revive Greek paganism, meets with a Jewish delegation in Antioch. He asks, “Why do you not sacrifice?” They reply, “We are not allowed. Restore us to the city, rebuild the Temple and the Altar.” Julian tells them “I shall endeavor with the utmost zeal to set up the Temple of the Most High God.” Julian reverses the previous anti-Jewish decrees of Roman emperors, restores Jerusalem to the Jews, returns their property, and revokes the anti-Jewish taxes. Julian’s plan to rebuild the Jewish Temple is not just a mark of his tolerance, but a nullification of the Chrisitan claim to have inherited the true Israel, and defiance of the Chrisitan belief that God had destroyed the Temple as punishment for the Jew’s errors and it would remain that way as a sign of their sins. Julian also sees no contradiction between his brand of Greek paganism and Jewish monotheism, believing that the Greeks worshipped the Jew’s “Most High God” as Zeus (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 157-158)

● 363 CE (May 27)—Julian the Apostate appoints Alypius to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. However, the building materials are destroyed in an earthquake and when Julian dies the next month in battle against the Persians the project is never completed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 158)

● 386 CE—Commenting on the increasing number of Britons making pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Jerome says: “The Briton no sooner makes progress in religion than he quits his Western sun to go in search of a place of which he knows only through Scripture and common report.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 23)

● 386-87 CE—John Chrysostom launches his eight homilies Against the Jews, which demonize the Jews and turn them into creatures of the Devil. He writes: “The difference between the Jews and us is not a small one, [so] why are you mixing what cannot be mixed?...[Let] no man venerate the synagogue because of the holy books, let him hate and avoid it…Must you share a greeting with them, exchange even a bare word? Must you not turn away from them since they are the common disgrace and infection of the whole world?...Do you not shudder to come into the same place with men possessed who have so many unclean spirits, who have been reared amid slaughter and bloodshed…what manner of lawlessness have they not eclipsed by their blood-guiltiness…they sacrificed their own daughters to demons?” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 214)
John Chrysostom, Against the Jews.  Homily 1 (tertullian.org)

● 388 CE—Epidemic of mob attacks against synagogues all over the eastern Roman empire including Alexandria, but especially fierce in Syria (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 218)

● 391 CE—Roman emperor Theodosius makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire

● 395 CE—Christian New Testament canonized (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 147)

● 414 CE—At Inmestar, not far from Antioch, a riot ensues after rumors spread that Jews kidnapped a Christian child for a sacrificial Purim killing (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 220)

● 425 CE—Theodosius II orders the execution of Gamaliel IV, the last Jewish patriarch, to punish him for building more synagogues, and abolishes the office of patriarch forever four years later (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 162)

● 426 CE—In St. Augustine’s City of God, he argues that all Jewish people will be converted to Christianity at "the end of time,” and claims God had allowed them to survive their dispersion as a warning to Christians to be obedient

● 435-439 CE—Theodosius II issues a series of anti-Jewish decrees. Jews are forbidden to build new synagogues or repair old ones, and they can’t hold public office (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 219)

● 438 CE—Empress Eudocia, wife of Roman emperor Theodosius II, visits Jerusalem and relaxes rules against Jews (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 161)

● 493-526 CE—When the King of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, sets up a kingdom in Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, he invites the Jews to settle in every city in his domain—Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan, and his new capital, Ravenna (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 218)

● 523-525 CE—Jewish King Dhu Nuwas massacres Christians in Yemen and forces neighboring principalities to convert to Judaism—Roman emperor Justinian decides to destroy the Arabian Jewish kingdom of Yemen (Himyar)—King Dhu Nuwas is defeated by the Romans in 525 and legend says he commits suicide by riding into the sea on horseback (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 166)

● 527-532 CE—Byzantine emperor Justinian demotes Judaism from a permitted religion, bans Passover if it falls before Easter, and forcibly baptizes Jews. Jews are now prohibited from appearing as witnesses in court (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 167)

● 535 CE—Byzantine emperor Justinian orders all synagogues in the empire to be converted into churches (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 220)

● 543 CE—Justinian builds the Nea (New) Church of St. Mary Mother of God in Jerusalem

● 570 CE—Muhammed born in the Arabian city of Mecca to the Quraysh tribe who control the business of the pagan shrine called the Kaaba

● 591 CE—Pope Gregory the Great issues edict forbidding the forcible conversion of Jews (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 220)

● 610 CE—Muhammad (40 years old) claims to receive his first revelation from Gabriel/Allah in the Hira cave near Mecca. Muhammad recognizes Allah as the same God of the Christians and Jews, who are called “People of the Book”

● 617 CE—After three years of Jewish rule, the Persian commander Shahrbaraz expels the Jews from Jerusalem. Nehemiah resists and is defeated and executed at Emmaus near Jerusalem. The city is returned to the Christians (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 171)

● 621 CE—Muslims believe that one night as Muhammad slept next to the Kaaba he had a vision. The Archangel Gabriel awoke him and together they embarked on a Night Journey mounted on Buraq, a winged steed with a human face, to the unnamed “Furthest Sanctuary.” There he met Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Jesus. Even though Jerusalem and the Temple are never mentioned, Muslims come to believe that the Furthest Sanctuary is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where they claim Muhammad’s footprint can be found. This becomes a holy site where Muhammad ascended into heaven (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 178)

● 622 CE—After a failed assassination attempt in Mecca, Muhammad makes his hijra to Medina—Beginning of Islamic calendar

● 627 CE—Muhammad expels the Jews from Medina (Yathrib) and makes an example of the Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe, who refused to cooperate with him. Its 700 men are beheaded and its women and children are sold into slavery. Now Muslims no longer pray toward Jerusalem, but toward the Kaaba (qibla) in Mecca (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 179)

● 629-630 CE—After defeating the Persians, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius enters Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. He restores the True Cross, believed to be the cross Jesus died on, to Jerusalem in an elaborate ceremony

● 630 CE—Muhammad and his Muslim troops conquer Mecca and cleanse the Kaaba. This pagan shrine is now adopted into Muslim tradition, which says that Adam first built it, and after it was destroyed in the Great Flood, Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt it, making it the first shrine in the Abrahamic tradition

● 632 CE—Death of the Prophet Muhammad—Abu Bakr, the father of Muhammad’s wife Aisha, becomes Caliph of the Islamic state

● 634-637 CE—Pact of Umar/Omar I—Under Caliph Umar I, Jews are allowed to live in Muslim lands, but as second-class citizens, or dhimmi (the tolerated benighted). Their protection is conditional on the payment of an annual jaliya poll tax—jizya. Synagogues are not allowed to be higher than mosques, Jews are not allowed to ride horses or carry weapons. They aren’t allowed to provide evidence or testify in Muslim courts and Jewish men are not allowed to marry Muslim women. Jews are required to wear distinctive clothing in a honey-mustard color and their hats had to be a particular shape. Jews forced to wear yellow badges in some cases (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 242)

● 636 CE (August 20)—Byzantine emperor Heraclius fights Arabs near Yarmuk river between today’s Jordan, Syria, and the Golan Heights. A dust storm blinds the Byzantines, and the Arabs, led by Khalid bin Walid, massacre the Christians in one of the most decisive battles of ancient history. The emperor’s brother is killed and the Byzantines lose Syria and Palestine to the Arabs (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 181)

● 638 CE—Muslims capture Jerusalem from Greek Christians of Byzantium (Source: Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades, 19)

● 653 CE—Standard version of the Quran established under Caliph Othman
The Noble Quran - Quran.com

● 656 CE (June 16)—Ali, the first male convert to Islam and Muhammad’s son-in-law, becomes fourth Caliph

● 661 CE—Caliph Ali assassinated

● 680 CE (October 10)—Battle of Karbala—Umayyad Caliph Yazid vs. Hussein, the son of Ali and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein is killed in battle. According to Lezley Hazelton, “Hussein’s story [became] the foundation story of Shiism, its sacred touchstone, its Passion story.” The Battle of Karbala and the death of Hussein is commemorated every year by Shiites during the holiday of Ashura (Source: Lezley Hazelton, After the Prophet: The Epic Story of Shia-Sunni Split, 179-193)

● 690 CE—Abbot Andamnan of Iona meets with a French bishop named Arculf, who had just spent 9 months in the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Andamnan records Arculf’s stories and in 698 completes one of the first English travel books on Palestine, De locis sanctis (Concerning sacred places). Venerable Bede helps to spread the book, contributing to the passion for pilgrimage among the Anglo-Saxons (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 26)
The pilgrimage of Arculfus in the Holy Land (about the year A. D. 670) : Arculfus, bp., 7th cent : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 691-692 CE—Al-Aqsa/Dome of the Rock mosque completed in Jerusalem by Caliph Abd al-Malik. This is the first surviving Muslim shrine, inscribed with the earliest quotations from the Quran. The Dome affirms the supremacy of Islam and the Umayyad empire, challenges Christianity, outshines the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and emphasizes the Muslims as successors to the Jews by building on the Rock, the foundation stone of the Jewish Temple, and the place believed to be where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem)

● 700 CE—An unnamed Jewish prophet in Jerusalem declares himself the Messiah of both the Jews and the Muslims and claims to have a message that supersedes the Torah and the Quran. The Christians and Muslims team up to put him on trial and have him executed (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 205)

● 720 CE—After almost a century of freedom to pray at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the new Caliph Umar II bans Jewish worship there and this prohibition stands for the rest of Islamic rule (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 195)

● 732 CE—Under the leadership of Charles Martel, the French stop the invading Muslims at the Battle of Tours

● 740-755 CE—In Persia, a Jewish tailor named Abu Isa declares himself the Messiah and raises an army of 10,000, marching under the banner of their prophet. He declares war on the Persians and Arabs and is killed in battle (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 205)

● 750 CE—Bloody coup brings an end to Umayyad rule of the Islamic Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasid dynasty

● 800 CE (December 25)—Delegation sent to Rome by the Patriarchy of Jerusalem presents Frankish King Charlemagne with the keys of the Holy Sepulchre (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 198)

● 935 CE—An annex to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is forcibly converted into a mosque (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 199)

● 938 CE—Muslims attack Christians celebrating Palm Sunday at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, looting and damaging the Church (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 199)

● 939 CE—Last imam of the “Twelver Shias” goes into hiding and disappears. “Twelver Shias” venerate the twelve descendants of Ali through Hussein and believe that the Twelfth or Hidden Imam will one day return to earth and inaugurate a golden age (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 163)

● 974 CE—Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes captures Damascus and gallops into Galilee, promising his “intent to deliver the Holy Sepulchre of Christ our God from the bondage of the Muslims.” He stops before making it to Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 204)

● 996 CE—Caliph Hakim burns the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and slaughters thousands of unbelievers (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 24)

● 1001 CE—Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou and founder of the Angevin dynasty that later ruled England, makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to redeem his sin of burning his wife alive in her wedding dress after he found her guilty of adultery. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 210)

● 1004 CE—Caliph Hakim starts arresting and executing Christians, closing churches in Jerusalem and converting them into mosques. He bans Easter and the drinking of wine, a measure aimed at Christians and Jews. He orders Jews to wear a wooden cow necklace to remind them of the Golden Calf, and bells to alert Muslims of their approach. Jews are forced to choose between conversion or leaving the country. Synagogues are destroyed in Egypt and in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 207)

● 1009 CE (September)—Caliph Hakim orders the burning of the Jewish quarter in Cairo and the total destruction of synagogues and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Jews and Christians pretend to convert to Islam to save their lives. Later, the burning of the Church will be referred to as the cause of the First Crusade (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 208)

● 1012 CE—Caliph Hakim orders Jews to wear the loose black girdle in public, as opposed to the more dignified and secure belt, and they are restricted to wearing black turbans. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 203-206, 247)

● 1027 CE—Tensions rise between Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem when Muslims throw stones into the compound of the Holy Sepulchre (Source: Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades, 28)

● 1033 CE—Earthquake in Jerusalem devastates the city, damaging Muslim and Jewish sites

● 1033 CE—6,000 Jews are slaughtered in Fez, Morocco (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 192)

● 1048 CE—Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus finishes new Holy Sepulchre Church

● 1063 CE—Reconquista—Pope calls for Christians to raise an army of crusaders and take back Spain from the Muslims

● 1064 CE—A rich caravan of 7,000 German and Dutch pilgrims led by Arnold Bishop of Bamberg are attacked by Bedouin tribesmen outside of Jerusalem. Some of the pilgrims swallow their gold to hide it from the brigands who eviscerate them to retrieve it. 5,000 pilgrims are slaughtered. Barbara Tuchman says this was “typical of the atrocity stories circulating at the time, which helped to arouse the fervor of the First Crusade.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 211; Barabara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 32)

● 1066 CE—Granada Massacre—Muslims in Granada, Spain begin complaining about the misrule of Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and stoke anti-Jewish anger. Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm writes: “You will not find among [the Jews] with rare exceptions anyone but a treacherous villain…Let any prince upon whom God has bestowed his bounty…get away from this dirty stinking crew beset with God’s anger and curse, wretchedness and misfortune, filth and dirt like no other people there has ever been. Let him [the Jew] know that the garments in which God has wrapped him are more contagious than elephantiasis.” Abu Ishaq calls the Jews “the vile infidel ape,” and calls on Muslims to “make haste to kill him, slaughter and sacrifice him and offer him, fate ram that he is.” After this demonization campaign, the Muslims of Granada assassinate Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacre the entire Jewish community, killing up to 4,000. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 276-277)

● 1066—Jews arrive in England at the invitation of William the Conqueror, who needs Jewish capital to forge a strong state (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 231)

● 1071 CE—Sovereignty of Palestine passes from the caliphate of Baghdad to the Seljuk Turks. Seljuk victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert is one of the main causes of the First Crusade (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 34)

● 1095 CE (November 27)—The First Crusade—Byzantine Emperor Alexios I requests help from the Pope to deal with the invading Seljuk Turks. In an effort to heal the divisions in Christianity that resulted from the Great Schism of 1054 that broke the faith into Western Catholicism and Greek Orthodox, the Pope decides to help. Pope Urban II delivers a sermon at Clermont calling on Christian Crusaders to “wrest that land [Jerusalem] from the wicked race [Muslims].” Around 60-100,000 Christians answer the call and embark on the First Crusade to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. Before they leave the pope gives them an indulgence which forgives any sins they may commit before they even commit them, sanctioning a violent form of holy war and divinely sanctioned violence (Source: Thomas Asbridge, The Crusades, 42)

● 1096 CE—People’s Crusade massacres over a thousand Jews in the Rhineland before arriving in Constantinople. Peasants led by men like Emicho of Flonheim incite slaughter of Jews in places like Worms, Cologne, and Mainz. Stories spread of Jewish mothers and fathers killing their entire families rather than be killed by Crusaders or be forced to convert to Christianity. One estimate is that during two hundred years of Crusades, 100,000 Jews were killed (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 300-301; Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 225)

● 1097 CE—German emperor Henry IV issues edict allowing forcibly converted Jews to return to their faith (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 302)

● 1097 CE—Christian Crusaders take over Nicaea (Turkey) and Antioch (Syria)

● 1098-99 CE—Christian Crusaders attack Muslims in Jerusalem, killing 10,000 on the Temple Mount, including 3,000 packed into Al-Aqsa. Raymond d’Aguiliers, a priest serving a crusade leader, describes how “some of our men cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames.” Crusaders kill/burn Jews alive inside their synagogues. After Christian Crusaders capture Jerusalem they begin setting up four Crusader States (Outremer): Principality of Antioch, the Counties of Edessa and Tripi, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 222)

● 1100—German Jews fleeing Crusader violence settle in Poland (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 246)

● 1104—Baldwin makes Al-Aqsa Mosque his royal palace

● 1110—Sigurd, the teenager King of Norway, visits Baldwin in Jerusalem, who gives him a piece of the True Cross and asks him to help storm Sidon

● 1113—Pope Paschal II grants the area south of the Holy Sepulchre to a new order called the Hospitallers. They build their own quarter including a hostel with a thousand beds and a huge Hospital, where four doctors inspect the sick twice a day (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 229)

● 1115—Baldwin conducts raids across the Jordan, building castles there. He invites Syrian and Armenian Christians to live in Jerusalem, the ancestors of today’s Palestinian Christians

● 1120—In Jerusalem, Baldwin the Little lends the Temple of Solomon to a new military order of “God-fearing knights” who take the name Templars from their new home. The Templars “profess the wish to live perpetually in poverty, chastity and obedience.” The Templars start as 9 guardians of the pilgrim route from Jaffa but grow into a military-religious order of 300 knights, wearing the red cross granted to them by the pope. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 229)

● 1140—Rules banning Muslims and Jews from Jerusalem are relaxed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 240)

● 1141—Judah Halevi, a Spanish poet, writes love songs and religious poetry calling for a return of the Jews to Zion (Jerusalem). In his poems and songs he deplores how Islam and Christianity “riot in the Holy City” and calls for “Zion perfect in beauty” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 240)

● 1144—A Jew is blamed for killing a young boy in England, William of Norwich. A local monk writes The Life and Martyrdom of St. William Thomas of Monmouth. According to this account, the Jews carefully prepared at Passover for the horrible ritual slaughter of the boy, whom they had chosen “to be mocked and sacrificed in scorn of the Lord’s passion.” Similar charges are brought against Jews elsewhere in England as well as in France, Spain, and Germany, leading to massacres of the European Jewish population
The life and miracles of St. William of Norwich : Thomas of Monmouth : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1144—Muslim Turkoman Zangi the Bloody captures Edessa, slaughtering Frankish/Christian men, enslaving Frankish women, and destroying the first Crusader state and the cradle of the Jerusalem dynasty. The Muslim world is ecstatic and believes that Jerusalem is next (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 244)

● 1148 (June-July)—After Pope Eugenius III calls the Second Crusade, Melisende and her son Baldwin III choose Damascus as the target. The kings of Jerusalem, France, and Germany fight to Damascus, but the Crusade ultimately falls apart (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 244-245)

● 1169—Nur al-Din, master of Syria, completes the encirclement of Jerusalem when his emir Shirkuh wins the Battle of Egypt (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 251)

● 1170—Sephardic Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (Rambam) begins writing the Mishneh Torah, which is completed in 1180. In the book, Maimonides says that it is better to live in Palestine amid heathens than in a city outside Israel amid many Jews, and that dwelling in Palestine is itself a way to atone for sins and wipe the slate clean

● 1171—After the Jews of Blois France are falsely accused of killing a Christian child for blood libel, 32 Jews are arrested, imprisoned, and then burned on the market square. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 293)

● 1173—Moses Maimonides writes his Epistle to Jews in Yemen, stating: “on account of our vast number of sins, God has thrown us into the midst of this people, the Arabs, who have persecuted us severely and passed baneful humiliating legislation against us…never did a nation molest, degrade, debase and hate us as much as they…We have borne their humiliations and falsehoods and the absurdities that are beyond the powers of humans to bear…” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 337)

● 1174—Baldwin IV named King of Jerusalem

● 1177 (November)—The leper-king Baldwin IV and a few hundred knights attack Saladin’s 26,000 troops at Montgisard, north-west of Jerusalem. Inspired by the presence of the True Cross and sightings of St. George on the battlefield, Baldwin wins a famous victory (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 254)

● 1183 (September)—Muslim leader of Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin, invades Galilee

● 1185 (May 16)—Baldwin IV dies

● 1187 (September 20)—Saladin surrounds Jerusalem and captures it from Franks/Christians

● 1187 (October 2)—Saladin enters Jerusalem and orders the Temple Mount, known to the Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, to be cleansed of the infidel. The Cross over the Dome is thrown down to the cries of “Allahu Akbar,” dragged through the city and smashed, the Jesus paintings torn out, and the cloisters north of the Dome demolished (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 265)

● 1188—Saladin appoints Islamic scholar from Iraq named Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad as first qadi (judge) of the army and then as overseer of Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 262)

● 1189—Pope declares Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem from Saladin

● 1190 (March 16-17)—After a false rumor spread that the English king had ordered a massacre of the Jews, a mob kills a Jewish man named Benedict on his way back home to York. A mob then goes to Benedict’s home and kills his wife and children, before looting their property. To escape similar attacks, the Jews of York gather inside Clifford’s Tower for protection. A mob backed by soldiers forms outside the tower and the Jews inside decide that they would rather kill themselves than be murdered by the mob or forcibly baptized. The father of each family kills his wife and children before killing himself, leading to the death of about 150 people (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 305-306)

● 1190 (July 4)—Richard the Lionheart, King of England, and Philip II Augustus, King of France, set out on Third Crusade to liberate Jerusalem

● 1191—King Richard writes to Saladin: “The Muslims and the Franks are done for. The land is ruined at the hands of both sides. All we have to talk about is Jerusalem, the True Cross and these lands. Jerusalem is the center of our worship which we shall never renounce.” Saladin responds: “Jerusalem [al-Quds] is ours as much as yours. Indeed, for us it is greater than it is for you, for it is where Our Prophet came on his Night Journey and the gathering place of the angels.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 270)

● 1192 (March)—When the French King Philip Augustus hears news that a Christian had been executed for murdering a Jew in the town of Bray, he orders the entire Jewish community killed (Source: Robert Chazan, “The Bray Incident of 1192: Realpolitik and Folk Slander,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 37 [1969]:1-18)

● 1192 (September 2)—Saladin and Richard the Lionheart sign the Treaty of Jaffa, the first partition of Palestine. The Christian kingdom receives Acre as its capital, while Saladin keeps Jerusalem, granting Christians full access to the Sepulchre (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 274)

● 1200—Dome of the Ascension built on the Temple Mount by the Umayyads, seen by Muslims as the site of Muhammad’s Miraj (where he ascended into heaven to meet with past prophets during Night Journey)

● 1204—Fourth Crusaders sack the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, fatally wounding the Greek empire (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 200)

● 1204—Saladin’s second son Muazzam Isa makes Jerusalem his capital. He converts Crusader structures on the Temple Mount into Muslim shrines

● 1209—Muazzam settles 300 Jewish families from France and England in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 276)

● 1215—Pope Innocent III calls the Fourth Lateran Council to regulate all aspects of Christian life. The Fourth Lateran Council seeks to control Jews as well as Christians. It requires all Jews to advertise their religion by some outward sign: “We decree that Jews of either sex in every Christian province at all times shall be distinguished from other people by the character of their dress in public.” Eventually Jews almost everywhere have to wear some sign of their second-class status. In Southern France and in a few places in Spain, they wear round badges. In England, Oxford requires a rectangle, while in Salisbury they have to wear special clothing. In Vienna and Germany, Jews are told to put on pointed hats

● 1225 (November 9)—Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, marries Yolande, 15-year-old Queen of Jerusalem at the cathedral in Brindisi. As soon as the wedding is over, Frederick assumes the title of King of Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 277)

● 1229 (February 11)—In return for ten years of peace, Sultan Kamil cedes Jerusalem and Bethlehem to Frederik II. In Jerusalem the Muslims keep the Temple Mount with freedom of entry and worship under their qadi. Simon Sebag Montefiore notes that “this treaty of shared sovereignty remains the most daring peace deal in Jerusalem’s history.” However, both Christians and Muslims are dissatisfied with the deal. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 279)

● 1238—Sultan Kamil dies, throwing the Saladin dynasty into internecine wars

● 1239—Pope Gregory IX orders all copies of the Jewish Talmud to be confiscated

● 1239 (December 7)—After a new crusade under Count Thibault of Champagne is defeated, Muazzam’s son Nasir Daud, gallops into Jerusalem and besieges the Tower of David for 21 days until it falls (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 281)

● 1240-41—English Crusade under Henry III’s brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, forces the surrender of Jerusalem to the Franks. This time the Templars expel the Muslims and regain the Temple Mount. The Dome and al-Aqsa become churches again (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 281)

● 1242 (June 12)—After a public disputation between Christian and Jewish scholars, 12,000 Talmudic manuscripts are publicly burned in Paris on the orders of King Louis IX (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 350)

● 1244 (July 11)—Tartar horsemen led by Barka Khan ride into Jerusalem, fighting and hacking their way through the streets. They destroy churches and houses, plunder the Holy Sepulchre and set it on fire. Coming upon the priests as they celebrated Mass the Tartars behead and disembowel them at the altar. The bodies of the kings of Jerusalem are disinterred and burned. The stone at the door of Jesus’ tomb is shattered. Tartars massacre 2,000 fleeing Christians. When the Tartars have thoroughly destroyed Jerusalem, they gallop away. Jerusalem will not be Christian again until 1917. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 282)

● 1246—Muslims defeat Tartars. Barka Khan is beheaded in battle

● 1248—King Louis IX leads last effective Crusade that tries to win Jerusalem by conquering Egypt

● 1249—Mamluks defeat Crusader army of French King Louis IX

● 1258—Mongols sack Baghdad, massacring 80,000 people and killing the caliph. They take Damascus and ride as far as Gaza, raiding Jerusalem along the way

● 1260—Mamluk leader Baibars defeats Mongol army at Goliath’s Spring near Nazareth—Mamluks take control of Jerusalem and rule for 300 years. Mamluks see themselves as a Turkish master-caste and their reign is marked by harsh military dictatorship. They force Jews to wear yellow turbans, while the Christians have to wear blue. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 288)

● 1263—Baibars arrives in Jerusalem and begins the Mamluks mission to re-sanctify and embellish the Temple Mount. He orders the Dome and Al-Aqsa to be renovated and in order to compete with the Christian Easter he promotes a new festival by building a dome over the tomb of the Prophet Moses. For the next eight centuries, Jerusalemites celebrate Nebi Musa with a procession from the Dome of the Rock to Baibar’s shrine . (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 288)

● 1267—Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, known as RAMBAN or Nahmanides, makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He believes that Jews should not just mourn Jerusalem, but return, settle and rebuild before the coming of the Messiah (known as religious Zionism) (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 290)

● 1272—When Edward I comes to the throne in England, he ends the 200-year-old arrangement where Jews rendered money-lending services in return for protection and freedom of travel around the kingdom. He also forces Jews to wear the badge of difference in public (tabula). (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 323)

● 1275—When English King Edward I returns from the Crusade, he issues a statute on the Jews forbidding them from moneylending, the essential activity that supported their community (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 323)

● 1276—Pogrom against Jews in Fez, Morocco (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 192)

● 1278-79—Violence erupts against the Jews of England when they are accused of coin-clipping (shaving of silver and gold off coins to adulterate the currency). Jews are arrested across the country and brought to prison in London, where 269 Jews are hanged. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 324)

● 1289 (November)—Edward I decrees that all Jews must leave England within four months, saying: “because of their crimes and the honor of the Crucified Jesus the king has banished the Jews as perfidious men.” Simon Schama argues that the expulsion of the Jews was the “sweetener” for the “otherwise unacceptably bitter pill” of higher taxes, because the expulsion would outright cancel all bonds and debts owed to Jews (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 324)

● 1290 (July)—Edward I expels all Jews from England. Max I. Dimont argues that by this time, English and Italian money lenders had begun to supplant Jewish moneylenders, so the kingdom felt they could do without the Jews and expelled them. Charles D. Smith notes that the Jews were expelled to get rid of the competition of the newly emergent Chrisitan bourgeoisie. Simon Schama says that: “It was about this time that the legend of the Wandering Jew became popularized in the Christian mind.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 326; Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 231; Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 26)

● 1291 (May 18)—Mamluks storm Frankish capital of Acre and slaughter most of its defenders and enslave the rest. This ends the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the last Europeans are driven out of Palestine

● 1298—“King” Rintfleisch massacres Jews in 146 communities in southern Germany

● 1299—Christian King of Armenia, Hethoum II, gallops into Jerusalem with 10,000 Mongols and sacks the city (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 291)

● 1306—Philip IV of France expels all Jews

● 1315—Louis X allows Jews back into France

● 1334—Casimir the Great, King of Poland, grants Jews permission to settle in his country (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 232)

● 1348—Pope Clement VI denounces the allegations of ritual-murder against the Jews (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 245)

● 1349—Rumor that Jews brought the plague to exterminate Christians results in bloody assaults in Toledo. In Strasbourg, France, the Jewish community is blamed for the Black Death and thousands are burned at the stake

● 1371—Book of Sir John Mandeville, most popular of all medieval travelogues on Palestine is released. Barbara Tuchman says: “no other book in that day was so widely read in England or on the Continent…The long-lasting popularity of his book contributed to the sense of familiarity with Palestine.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 38)
The travels of Sir John Mandeville : the version of the Cotton manuscript in modern spelling : with three narratives, in illustration of it, from Hakluyt's "Navigations, voyages & discoveries" : Mandeville, John, Sir : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1378—Spanish archdeacon Ferran Martinez begins anti-Semitic preaching in southern Castile, telling people to attack and kill Jews wherever they are (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 382)

● 1391—Spanish archdeacon Ferran Martinez incites anti-Jewish massacres that kill thousands of Jews in Spain in places like Cordoba, Toledo, and Barcelona. The Jews that aren’t killed are forced to convert to Christianity, becoming conversos (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 384-385)

● 1391—In Jerusalem, Franciscan monks shout in al-Aqsa that “Muhammad [is] a libertine, murderer, glutton" who believed “in whoring!” The qadi offers them the chance to recant. When they refuse, they are tortured and beaten almost to death. A bonfire is built and a mob hacks them to pieces and burns them (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 299)

● 1394—Charles VI issues a decree expelling the Jews from France again

● 1413—Anti-pope Benedict XIII initiates the Disputation of Tortosa, the most prominent Christian-Jewish disputation of the Middle Ages. When the Pope opens the proceedings, he tells the Jews: “I have not sent for you in order to prove which of our two religions is true; for it is a known thing that my religion and faith is true and that your Torah was once true but was abolished.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 388)

● 1413-1415—Spanish preacher Vincent Ferrer goes to the Spanish island of Majorca to preach against the Jews. He promulgates a great segregation of Jews and Christians. Jews are forbidden from money-lending, practicing medicine, being in the presence of Christian women, or eating with Christians. Jews aren’t allowed to wear brightly colored clothes or jewelry, men aren’t allowed to cut their beards, and all Jews have to wear golden wheel on their clothes (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 390)

● 1415—Anti-pope Benedict XIII releases papal bull Etsi doctoribus gentium, one of the most complete collections of anti-Jewish laws that inspired future popes

● 1421—Jews expelled from Linz and Vienna (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1424—Jews expelled from Cologne (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1439—Jews expelled from Augsburg (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1442—Jews expelled from Bavaria (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1452—Jerusalemites launch an anti-Christian pogrom, digging up the bones of Christian monks and tearing down new balustrade in the Sepulchre (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 299)

● 1453—Ottomans conquer Constantinople

● 1454—Jews expelled from Moravia (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1461—Franciscan friar Alonso de Espina writes his Fortalitum Fidei, an exhaustive anthology of all the demonologies of the Jews: well-poisoners, host-desecrators, child abductors, and murderers.

● 1461—Pope Pius III approves plan for an inquisition dedicated to weeding out the heretics from the “true” Christians among the conversos (Jews who converted to Christianity)

● 1465—Pogrom against Jews in Fez, Morocco (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 192)

● 1478—Spanish Inquisition is established to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted to Judaism from Christianity (conversos)

● 1480—Bedouin tribes attack Jerusalem, almost capturing the governor

● 1481—Qaitbay offers fugitive Ottoman prince, Jem Sultan, the Kingdom of Jerusalem

● 1483—Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, begin the great erasure of Jewish life in Spain promoted by Vicente Ferrer and Alonso de Espina. They start with a mass internal expulsion of Jews from their homes, which they are forced to sell at a low rate. They are forced to live in new zones of residence that are most often in the poorest and squalid periphery of the city, set deliberately at a distance from their shops since the plan was to ruin them into conversion. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD, 404)

● 1485—Jews expelled from Perugia (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1486—Jews expelled from Vincenza (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1486—Qaitbay takes control of Mamluks. He bans Jews from approaching the convent on Mount Zion

● 1488—Jews expelled from Parma (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1489—Jews expelled from Lucca and Milan (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1492 (March 31-April 29)—12 days after approving Christopher Columbus’s voyage, the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella seek to deal with their “Jewish Problem.” Many Jews have been forced to convert to Catholicism, but these conversos are distrusted and Catholics fear the Jews might taint the pure bloodstream of Christianity. The Inquisition, backed by the Catholic Majesties, has already convicted 13,000 people and burned 2,000 for secret Jewish deviations. The Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada advises the King and Queen to offer the Jews a choice of conversion or expulsion. Somewhere between 75,000-150,000 Jews are expelled. Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore calls this expulsion from Spain “the most searing Jewish trauma between the fall of the Temple and the Final Solution.” These Sephardic Jews (Sepharad is Hebrew for Spain) flee to the more tolerant Holland, Poland, Lithuania, and the Ottoman Empire, where they are welcomed by Sultan Suleiman to boost his economy. This leads to a new Judaeo-Spanish language called Ladino (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 307)

● 1492—Christians reconquer Spain from the Muslims

● 1494—Jews expelled from Tuscany (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 264)

● 1497—Jews expelled from Portugal—Those who stay are forcibly converted to Christianity (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 43)

● 1501—Shah Ismail declares Shia Islam the official state religion in Iran (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 149)

● 1504—Jewish presses are the only ones operating in Ottoman lands on the condition that they print nothing dangerous in Arabic (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 95)

● 1511—Antonio Montesinos, a Dominican friar from Lima, says that “the Indians of the islands and mainlands of the Indies…are Hebrews, descended from the Ten Lost Tribes.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 209)

● 1516 (March 20)— Ottoman sultan, Selim the Grim, arrives to take possession of Jerusalem. The ulema hands him the keys of al-Aqsa and the Dome at which he prostrates himself and exclaims, “I am the possessor of the first qibla.” Selim confirms the traditional tolerance of the Christians and Jews (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 304)

● 1516 (August 14)—Ottoman sultan, Selim the Grim, defeats Mamluk army near Aleppo in the battle that decides Palestine’s destiny: most of the Middle East will remain Ottoman for the next four centuries. The Ottomans divide Palestine into districts known as sanjaks, incorporated within the province of greater Syria. The sanjaks are Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus, Lajun, and Safad, and they are ruled by the pashas of Sidon and Damascus (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 19)

● 1516—Venice creates the first ghetto for the complete isolation of the Jews (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 231)

● 1519 (February)—Following the death of the protective Emperor Maximilian I, the most ancient Jewish community in Bavaria, Regensburg, is liquidated. The Jews are forced to demolish the interior of their synagogue, and a church is built on its ruins consecrated to the Virgin (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 26)

● 1523—A young Jew, David Reuveni, causes a stir in Jerusalem by declaring himself an Arabian prince leading the Ten Tribes back to Zion. The Islamic qadi declares him a lunatic and ships him off to Rome. In the early 1530s he dies in a Spanish dungeon (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 310)

● 1523—Protestant Martin Luther writes an article titled “That Jesus Was Born a Jew” and says: “For they [the Catholics] have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs and not human beings. They have done nothing for them but curse them and seize their wealth. I would advise and beg everybody to deal kindly with the Jews and to instruct them in Scripture: in such a case we could expect them to come over to us.” When the Jews don’t come rushing to convert, Luther turns on them and begins expressing increasingly anti-Semitic ideas (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 233)

● 1532—A royal edict forbids New Christians (newly converted Jews), on pain of death, from leaving the kingdom of Portugal (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 39)

● 1535—Ottoman Sultan Suleiman grants France trading privileges and recognizes the Franciscans as the custodian of the Christian shrines in Jerusalem. This is the first of the so-called Ottoman “capitulations”—concessions to European powers—that later undermined the Ottoman Empire (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 309)

● 1535—Joseph Karo and Solomon Alkabaz lead a migration of Jews from Greece to Palestine. They settle in Safed in Galilee. They do not envisage a widespread of Jews to Palestine, and instead focus on a mystical revival of the Kabbalah (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 265)

● 1536 (May 23)—Holy Office of the Inquisition formally established in Portugal, mostly to investigate Jews who converted to Christianity (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 42)

● 1538—1,600 Jews living in Jerusalem—10% of total population (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 99)

● 1542—In England, a number of Portuguese merchants are arrested on suspicion of being secret Jews, and although none are executed, their property is confiscated. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 44)

● 1543—German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther publishes the anti-Semitic book On the Jews and Their Lies, where he compares Jews to Satan. Luther says that the Jews “are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury.” He calls for the populace to “eject them forever from this country…away with them!” (Source: Laurence Rees, The Holocaust, 2)

● 1550—Jews expelled from Genoa (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 231)

● 1553 (August)—A Council of Cardinals declare the Talmud blasphemous and order it burned. Other Hebrew books are henceforth subject to inspection and censorship. Confiscations and burnings take place in Bologna, Ravenna, Florence, Mantua, Urbino, Ferrara, and Venice. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 56)

● 1555—Pope Paul IV issues papal bull Cum nimis absurdum, which proclaims that Jews have been condemned to “perpetual servitude” on account of their collective guilt, and calls for extensive anti-Jewish measures. He forbids any Chrisitan to address a Jew as signor or signora. Jews are no longer allowed to sell food to Christians. Jewish doctors are forbidden to treat Christian patients. 4,000 Jews in Rome are confined to a walled-in ghetto. Henceforth the only jobs Jews can have are pawnbroking, moneylending, and rag dealing (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 68, 79-80)

● 1556—25 Marranos (Spanish or Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity) are accused of "Judaizing” and burned alive in the public square in Ancona, Italy (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 80)

● 1557—A Sicilian monk named Brother Juniper invades al-Aqsa twice before he is killed by the qadi (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 312)

● 1560—Portuguese Jewish businesswoman Gracia Mendes Nasi, also known as Dona Gracia, petitions Ottoman Sultan Suleiman’s grand vizier Rustem Pasha for a lease of land and property within the province of Tiberias in Palestine, which he grants (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 102)

● 1561—Joseph Nasi, a Sephardic Jew who rose to the position of vizier under Suleiman the Magnificent, becomes one of the first to settle Jews in the Holy Land. He believes in the return of the Jews to the Promised Land. Suleiman grants him the lordship of Tiberias in Galilee where he settles Italian Jews. Historian Simon Schama calls this “the inauguration of the classic vision of a reborn Jewish home in Palestine—simultaneously an asylum for the oppressed, and a place of moral and social transformation.” Schama also argues that both Dona Gracia and Joseph Nasi could be called “the first of the Zionists.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 308; Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 103, 108)

● 1590—Local Arab rebels break into Jerusalem and seize the city, killing the governor. The rebels are defeated and expelled and Jerusalem falls under the control of two Balkan brothers, Ridwan and Bairam Pasha, Christian slave boys converted to Islam and trained at the court of Suleiman

● 1569—Pope Pius V expels the Jews from every city in the papal territories (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 80)

● 1570—An earthquake hits the Italian city of Ferrara, with thousands of aftershocks that last for months. Duke Alfonso II asks Pope Pius V for help in rebuilding the city, but the pope tells him that the earthquake is punishment from God for Ferrara’s acceptance of Jews. The pope warns that more disasters are in store unless the Duke starts repressing and discriminating against the Jews like they did in Rome (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 81)

● 1593—First Jews arrive in the Netherlands

● 1596-98—Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice depicts Jewish moneylenders as hated figures
The Merchant of Venice - Entire Play | Folger Shakespeare Library

● 1600 (April 22)—77-year-old Judith Franchetta is burned alive as a witch in Mantua before a crowd of thousands. She is accused of casting spells on a formerly Jewish nun in an attempt to make her revert to Judaism. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 85)

● 1602—In Mantua, seven Jews are accused of “mockery” at the expense of Christianity and are tortured and hanged. Their corpses are then shredded to pieces as they are dragged across the cobblestones by horses (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 85)

● 1611—King James Bible completed. Simon Sebag Montefiore says the Bible “placed Jews and Jerusalem at the very heart of British, and, later, American life.” Michael B. Oren adds that “England swiftly appropriated the biblical narrative, from the story of Abraham to the Book of Daniel, as its national epic, wedding what the poet Matthew Arnold called ‘the genius and history of the English to the genius and history of the Hebrew people.’” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 314; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 83-84)

● 1612—Mantua becomes the largest Italian city to herd its yellow-badged wearing Jews into a ghetto (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 85)

● 1615—English clergyman Thomas Brightman publishes Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again? calling for the Jews to return to the Holy Land, saying: “There is nothing more certain: the prophets do everywhere confirm it and beat about it.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 12)

● 1616—Amsterdam allows Jews to apply for, and be granted citizenship, a first in the whole history of Jews in Christian Europe. However, they are not allowed to pass that citizenship automatically to their descendants and are forced to reapply, generation after generation. Jews are not confined to ghettos either. Historian Simon Schama notes that “For the first time in a Christian world the Jews were not a glaringly alien presence, but just another micro-universe amid so many others: Mennonites, Lutherans, Catholics.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 180-183)

● 1620—William Bradford and 101 Puritans arrive at Plymouth Colony. Bradford announces: “Come let us declare in Zion the word of God.” Michael B. Oren notes that: “In their search for a pristine religion unsullied by hierarchies and politics, and for parallels to their own persecution, the Puritans remembered the Jews and their ancient faith. They believed that God had spoken directly to the chosen people, kept His covenant with them, and delivered them from bondage. The Puritans concluded that they were the heirs to that contract, a New Israel embarked on a second Exodus from slavery to freedom, destined for a Promised Land.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 84)

● 1621—Sir Henry Finch writes The World’s Great Restauration or Calling of the Jews and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ, one of the first English projects for the restoration of Israel (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 115)

● 1621—First modern map of the Holy Land created by Abraham Goos and Jacob ben Abraham Zaddik (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 167)

● 1621—Jewish settlement in Virginia (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 374)

● 1630—The Jewish ghetto in Mantua is destroyed by an Austrian army fighting a war over the duchy’s succession. Survivors flee to Venice where they suffer from the worst outbreak of bubonic plague in living memory (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 134)

● 1636-37—Some Jewish criminal gangs are arrested in Venice for selling stolen property and bribing authorities. The entire city and its governing class turns so fiercely on the Jewish ghetto that there are demands to expel all the Jews from the Republic (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 134)

● 1648—As part of the Treaty of Westphalia, France not only gains Alsace from Austria but also a sizeable Jewish ghetto population (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 249, 304)

● 1648—A Jewish man named Mordecai changes his name to Sabbatai Zevi and declares himself the Messiah by uttering the Tetragrammaton, the unspeakable name of God based on the Hebrew letters YHWH, only spoken once a year on the Day of Atonement by the high priest in the Temple itself. He claims that Judgement Day will come in 1666

● 1648—Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky leads a rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine and sparks a massive wave of attacks by Christian peasants against Jews, claiming the lives of tens of thousands (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 46)

● 1648—Norfolk preacher Thomas Thorowgoode publishes Jewes in America! Or Probabilities that Americans Are of that Race (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 214)
Iewes in America, or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that race : with the removall of some contrary reasonings, and earnest desires for effectuall endeavours to make them Christian : Thorowgood, Thomas, d. ca. 1669 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1649—Joanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, two English Puritans living in Amsterdam, present a petition to the British government calling for a return of the Jews to Palestine. The petition declares: “That this Nation of England, with the inhabitants of the Netherlands, shall be the first and the readiest to transport Israel's sons and daughters in their ships to the land promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for an everlasting inheritance.” They suggest the Royal Navy should “transport Izrael’s sons and daughters in their ships to the Land promised by their forefathers for an everlasting Inheritance.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 268; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 315)

● 1649—Jewish settlement in Massachusetts (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 374)

● 1649—Scottish writer Alexander Ross publishes a translation of the Quran called the Alcoran. His goal is to expose the “contradictions, blasphemies, obscene speeches and ridiculous fables” of the Muslims (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 42)
The Alcoran of Mahomet : translated out of Arabique into French : Du Ryer, Andr, ca. 1580-ca. 1660 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1650—Menasseh ben Israel, a rabbi from Amsterdam, writes The Hope of Israel, calling for the extension of the Jewish diaspora to England in order to complete the world-wide dispersion that was necessary for the Second Coming of the Messiah (Source: Barabara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 119)
Menasseh ben Israel's mission to Oliver Cromwell: being a reprint of the pamphlets published by Menasseh ben Israel to promote the re-admission of the Jews to England, 1649-1656; edited with an introd. and notes by Lucien Wolf : Manasseh ben Israel, 1604-1657 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1650—Jews of Europe hold a great council in Hungary to discuss the expected coming of the Messiah (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 118)

● 1650—Thomas Fuller publishes A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, one of the earliest investigative works on the Holy Land
A Pisgah sight of Palestine : Thomas Fuller : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1654—Twenty-three Jews arrive in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (New York) and ask its governor, Peter Stuyvesant, for permission to stay. Their petition is granted and they are made Dutch citizens in 1657 (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 236)

● 1655—Jews allowed back in England by Oliver Cromwell (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 236)

● 1656—Patriarch Nikon builds New Jerusalem Monastery in Istra, near Moscow to promote the universal mission of Russian Orthodoxy and Autocracy. Its centerpiece is a replica of the actual Sepulchre in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 356)

● 1656 (April)—Menasseh ben Israel publishes Vindiciae Judaeorum to combat Judeophobic slanders circulating in England. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 215)

● 1660-1662—Self-declared Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi arrives in Jerusalem

● 1666—When Sabbatai Zevi predicts that Judgement Day has arrived in Istanbul, the Ottoman Sultan gives him a choice: either perform the miracle of surviving a volley of arrows or convert to Islam. He chooses to become a Muslim (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 315-16)

● 1670—Mufti Khayr al-Din al-Ramli refers in legal documents to “our country” of Filastin (Palestine)

● 1671—Jews are allowed to reside in Berlin, but can’t build any places of worship (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 270)

● 1676—When Sabbatai Zevi dies, his fourth and last wife, Jochabed, declares that his spirit has gone into her brother Jacob Querido. Taking the name Jacob Zevi, he founds the sect of Donmeh, which is ostensibly Muslim but focuses on Moses and the Torah (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 445)

● 1683—Ottoman siege of Vienna

● 1684—Jost Liebmann is given license to build Berlin’s first synagogue (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 270)

● 1697—Henry Maundrell publishes Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem and reports that Palestine is “a most miserable, dry, barren place” but it is “obvious for anyone to observe that these rocks and hills must have been anciently covered with earth and cultivated.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 135)
A Journey From Aleppo To Jerusalem At Easter, A. D. 1697 : Maundrell, Henry, 1665-1701; Burghers, M. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1699—Austrians defeat the Ottomans and in the Treaty of Karlowitz are awarded Hungary, Transylvania, and parts of Poland, which are the first territorial losses the Ottomans had ever suffered. Treaty also allows the Great Powers to protect their Chrisitan brothers in Jerusalem, a disastrous concession for the Ottomans that allows the European powers to interfere in their empire (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 319)

● 1700 (October)—One thousand Jews led by Judah Ha-Hasid arrive in Jerusalem, doubling the size of the city’s Jewish population (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 262)

● 1702—Palestinian peasants rebel against repressive Ottoman governors. The new governor of Jerusalem crushes the rebellion and decorates the walls with the heads of his victims (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 319)

● 1704—Popular book on Palestine, Two Journeys to Jerusalem, published by Nathaniel Crouch

● 1708—First English translation of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 44)
The thousand and one nights, or, The Arabian nights' entertainments : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1714—Berlin’s first synagogue opens (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 271)

● 1720—Hurva Synagogue destroyed in Jerusalem

● 1721—By the Treaty of Nystadt, Peter the Great gains a new multitude of Jew residing in the former Swedish territory that is now part of Russia (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 249)

● 1733—Largest group of Jews (42) make their way to America on the William and Sarah. Jewish settlement in Georgia; Jews now represented in all 13 colonies. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 487; Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 374)

● 1734—British orientalist George Sales publishes a translation of the Quran aimed at enabling Protestants to “attack the Koran with success.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 83-84)

● 1740—Zahir al-‘Umar, leader of the Zaydanis Bedouin tribe, emerges as the most powerful leader in northern Palestine, having taken control of Nazareth, and dominating the trade between Palestine and Damascus

● 1740—French-Ottoman treaty grants France the right to protect Roman Catholics in the Ottoman empire (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 41)

● 1743—Richard Pococke publishes Description of the East, one of the most scholarly approaches to Palestine in the 18^th century (Source: Barabara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 136)

● 1744 (December 18)—Austrian Habsburg empress Maria Theresa orders every Jew to be out of Bohemia and Moravia by January. The elders of the Jewish community write a plea to Jews throughout Europe, saying: “What shall we poor souls do?...The children, women, infirm and aged are in no condition to walk especially now in the cold and frosty weather and besides…many have been stripped to their shirts.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 272-274)

● 1744—Salafi preacher Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab allies himself with Saudi family

● 1753—Jewish Naturalization Act, dubbed the “Jew Bill,” which allows Jews living in Britain to become naturalized by application to Parliament, is passed, but then quickly repealed a year later after public outrage. On Guy Fawkes Night, the effigy of the gunpowder plotter is replaced by a mannikin Jew and burned. Many Jews are force-fed pork. After personally witnessing this anti-Jewish hysteria in London, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Aaron Salomon Gumpertz draft the first proposal for granting full civic rights to Jews in Germany (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 290, 318)

● 1754—Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s play Die Juden (“The Jews”) premieres in Germany. The play is notable for its sympathetic view of Jews and message of religious tolerance. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 288)

● 1759—Jacob Frank and a thousand Jews voluntarily and publicly convert to Christianity in Poland (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 464-465)

● 1762—Isaac de Pinto writes Apologie des Juifs, as a public reply to Voltaire’s anti-Jewish views (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 374)

● 1762—Catherine the Great expels the Jews from Russia (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 249)

● 1762—In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes: “Through it alone [the Talmud] that extraordinary nation so often subjugated, so often dispersed and outwardly destroyed, but always idolatrous of its Law, has preserved itself unto our days…Its more and rituals persist and will persist to the end of the world.” (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 251)

● 1764—750,000 Jews in Poland (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 429)

● 1764—Habsburg Emperor Joseph II grants a range of socio-economic rights to the “Jewish nation” (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 44)

● 1768—Ottoman Sultan recognizes Zahir al-‘Umar as the sheikh of Acre, emir of Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed, and sheikh of all of Galilee

● 1769—Abbe Charles-Louis Richer writes: “a Jew is a born and sworn enemy of all Christians. It is a principle of his faith to regard them as blasphemers and idolaters who should be put to death and to whom as much harm as possible should be done.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 379)

● 1770—An Egyptian general named Ali Bey (The Cloud snatcher) teams up with Sheikh Zahir and they rebel against Ottoman rule. The team conquers most of Palestine, with the sultan’s pasha holding out in Jerusalem. Bey and Zahir receive help from Russia, who is at war with the Ottomans.

● 1773—Ali Bey wounded in battle against Muhammad Bey and later dies

● 1774—The Ottomans, defeated on all fronts, sue for peace with the Russians. Catherine the Great and her partner Prince Potemkin force the Ottomans to recognize Russian protection of the Orthodox in their lands

● 1775—Zahir al-‘Umar assassinated, ending the most serious internal challenge to Ottoman rule in its history

● 1775—Pope Pius VI issues a set of anti-Jewish decrees. The yellow-badge is strictly enforced. Jews are once more confined to dealing in old clothes. Ancona bans them from teaching music and dancing. Leaving the ghetto at night is a capital crime. (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 410)

● 1777 (November 19)—Commenting on the expulsion of Dresden’s Jews, Moses Mendelssohn writes to baron von Ferber and says: “Good and beneficent God! Where are these wretched ones to go with their innocent wives and children? Where are they to find shelter and protection after having been thrown out by the country in which they lost their possessions? For a Jew expulsion is the hardest punishment. It is more than mere banishment, it is, as it were, an extirpation, a removal from the face of God’s earth, turned away by force of arms at every frontier. Must human beings suffer this hardest of all punishments even though they are guiltless, merely because they are committed to a different belief and through misfortune have become reduced to poverty?” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 302)

● 1779—Gotthold Ephraim Lessing publishes Nathan the Wise, changing the popular image of the Jew from that of a ghetto dweller to that of the proud Jew of former days

● 1779—In Alsace, an anti-Semitic lawyer named Francois Hell publishes a pamphlet accusing Jews of being biologically fanatical criminals. He accuses them of constituting a “state within a state.” Hell’s solution is physical extermination or mass permanent banishment (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 303)

● 1782—Austrian Emperor Joseph II issues the Edict of Tolerance granting freedom of religion to all citizens regardless of their faith (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 109)

● 1787—Russian Prince Potemkin, a Chrisitan Zionist who wants to liberate Jerusalem, creates the Israelovsky Regiment of Jewish cavalry to take Jerusalem. He dies before the scheme can be put into action (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 324)

● 1786—Jean-Baptiste Aubert-Dubayet, writing under the pseudonym Foissac-Latour, release pamphlet titled The Cry of a Citizen against the Jews of Metz (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 377)

● 1788—French philosopher Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney publishes Travels through Syria and Egypt: Volume 2, which excites the European imagination about Palestine
Travels through Syria and Egypt : in the years 1783, 1784, and 1785. Containing the present natural and political state of those countries, their productions, arts, manufactures, and commerce ; with observations on the manners, customs, and government of the Turks and Arabs. : Volney, C.-F. (Constantin-François), 1757-1820 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1788—John Ledyard becomes first US citizen to visit the Middle East (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 45)

● 1790-1791—Russian laws create a territory called the Pale of Settlement where Jews must live (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 28)

● 1791 (September 28)—French Constituent Assembly decrees citizenship for the Jews, making 70,000 Jews French citizens with equal rights. Berr Isaac Berr writes: “The day has finally come when the veil by which we were kept in a state of humiliation, is rent; finally we have recovered those rights which have been taken from us more than eighteen centuries ago…Now, thanks to the Supreme Being and to the sovereignty of the nation we are not only Men and Citizens but we are Frenchmen! What a happy change thou has worked in us O merciful God. As recently as September 27^th we were the only inhabitants of this vast empire who seemed doomed to remain forever in bondage and abasement…[God] has chosen the generous French nation to reinstate us in our rights and effect our regeneration just as in other times he chose Antiochus and Pompey to humiliate and enslave us…” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 195; : Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 398-399)

● 1793—During the French revolutionary de-Christianization campaign, all places of “superstition” are shut down, including Jewish synagogues. Hebrew speech is banned and Jewish books are publicly burned (Source: : Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 406)

● 1793-95—Richard Brothers, British ex-sailor and radical Calvinist, declares himself a descendant of King David who would be Ruler of the World until the Second Coming of Christ. His book Plan for New Jerusalem revealed that God had “preordained me to be the King and Restorer of the Jews.” Brothers also asserts that the British people are descended from the Lost Tribes and he will lead them back to Jerusalem. Brothers is eventually imprisoned as a lunatic (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 337)

● 1795—After three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, 900,000 Jews are brought into Russian territory (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 248)

● 1797 (July 10)—Jewish ghetto in Venice abolished (Source: : Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 410)

● 1798—First German Jewish ghetto abolished in Bonn (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 316)

● 1799 (February)—Napoleon Bonaparte invades Palestine with 13,000 men and 800 camels

● 1799 (March)—Napoleon attacks Jaffa and is met with resistance from Ahmet Jazzar Pasha, the warlord of Ottoman Palestine known as the “Butcher.” Napoleon’s troops commit horrifying atrocities against the Muslims. One witness reports that his “soldiers hacked to pieces, men and women—the sights were terrible…the sound of shots, shrieks of women and fathers, piles of bodies, a daughter being raped on the cadaver of her mother, the smell of blood, the groans of the wounded, the shouts of victors quarrelling about loot.” Before he marched on Acre, Napoleon orders the slaughter of 4,000 of the Butcher’s troops, killing them in batches of 600 a day (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 330)

● 1799 (April 16)—Napoleon defeats Ahmet Jazzar Pasha and his troops at the Battle of Tabor Mountain.

● 1799 (April 20)—After defeating Ahmet Jazzar Pasha, Napoleon issues a pro-Zionist “Proclamation to the Jews,” with Barbara Tuchman noting that “he was the first head of state to propose the restoration of a Jewish state in Palestine.” Napoleon’s proclamation reads: “Bonaparte, Commander in Chief of the Armies of the French Republic in Africa and Asia, to the rightful heirs of Palestine—the unique nation of Jews who have been deprived of the land of your fathers by thousands of years of lust for conquest and tyranny. Arise then with gladness, ye exiled, and take unto yourselves Israel’s patrimony. The young army has made Jerusalem headquarters and will within a few days transfer to Damascus so you can remain there [in Jerusalem] as ruler.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 331; Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 142)

● 1799 (May 21)—With 1,200 troops dead and 2,300 sick or wounded, Napoleon retreats to Egypt

● 1800—1.25 million Jews living in Poland-Lithuania (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 429)

● 1803—German lawyer Karl Friedrich Grattenauer publishes anti-Semitic pamphlet Against the Jews, claiming that Jews are conspiring to take over the world (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 536)

● 1804—The Palestine Association founded in London with the purpose of promoting exploration and research in the Holy Land (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 146)

● 1804—Edict passed in Russia banning Jews from brewing, distilling, or selling liquor (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 473)

● 1806—French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte enacts anti-Jewish laws. A moratorium is imposed on most debts owed to Jews and there is now state control over rabbis to make sure they are loyal to the empire. Napoleon calls Jews “the most despicable people on earth” and says that “the evil done by Jews does not come from individuals but from the temperament of the people.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 415)

● 1808—The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, known as the Jews Society, founded

● 1808—Massachusetts Presbyterian Asa McFarland says: “When that [Ottoman] empire falls…the Jews will begin to be restored [to Palestine]…and Christ will take to himself his power and reign.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 89)

● 1810—Jewish population of Vienna is 10,000 (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 587)

● 1811—François-René de Chateaubriand publishes Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem, a popular book that sparks the Western imagination of the Holy Land

● 1812—British adventurer Lady Hester Stanhope visits Jerusalem

● 1812—Prussian emancipation edict frees Jews from restrictions of residence and occupation and offers local citizenship (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 536)

● 1814—British Queen Caroline visits Jerusalem

● 1815—Out of the 46 million people living in the Russian Empire, 1.6 million are Jewish (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 471)

● 1816—Baltimore newspaper Niles’ Weekly Register speculates that once the “weak and imbecile” Ottomans are ousted, the Jews will make the deserts of Palestine “blossom like a rose” and Jerusalem will again “rival the cities of the world for beauty, splendor and wealth.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 89)

● 1819—Former US President John Adams writes to Mordechai Manuel Noah: “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” He imagines a scenario where “a hundred thousand Israelites…[as] well disciplined as the French Army” march into Palestine and conquer it. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 353; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 90)

● 1819—Mobs rampage through German towns, killing Jews and destroying their homes and property (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 536)

● 1819—First American missionaries in the Middle East, Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk, promote the Jews return to Palestine. Parsons says: “Admit, there still exists in the breast of every Jew an unconquerable desire to inhabit the land which was given to the Fathers; a desire which even a conversion to Christianity does not eradicate.” Parsons hypothesizes that if the Ottoman Empire falls then “nothing but a miracle would prevent their [the Jews’] immediate return.” The men receive a letter of probity from Secretary of State John Quincy Adams before their departure. Michael B. Oren notes that “Though seemingly small, [Levi and Parsons’] accomplishments had opened venues for the introduction of American faith—religious and civic—to the Middle East.” (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, xviii; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 81, 96)

● 1819—When Damascus trebles the taxes in Palestine, Jerusalemites revolt. Abdullah Pasha, the strongman of Palestine and the Butcher’s grandson, attacks Jerusalem and when it is captured the city governor personally strangles 28 rebels—the rest are beheaded the next day and all the bodies are lined up outside the Jaffa Gate (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 338)

● 1819—Christian Restorationist W. D. Robinson urges the creation of a Jewish territory somewhere on the western frontier of the US, between Missouri and Mississippi (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 500)

● 1820 (July)—In a letter to Dr. Jacob de la Motta, Thomas Jefferson takes pride in America’s role as “Emancipator of the Jews,” and writes: “It excites in him the gratifying reflection that his country has been the first to prove to the world…that religious freedom is the most effectual anodyne against religious dissension…and he is happy in the restoration of the Jews, particularly of their social rights and hopes they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of science as preparatory to their doing the same on the board of government.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 485)

● 1821—3,000 Jews living in Odessa in Russian Empire (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 609)

● 1822—24,000 Jews in Palestine, less than 10% of the overwhelmingly Arab population (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 9)

● 1822—Travels in Syria and the Holy Land by explorer John Lewis Burckhardt is posthumously published. Burckhardt spent years learning to pass as a native Bedouin in order to explore places he couldn’t go as a European, such as Mecca.
Travels in Syria and the Holy Land : Burckhardt, John Lewis, 1784-1817. n 50045595 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1824—The brutality of the Ottoman pasha known as Mustafa the Criminal leads to a peasant’s revolt. Jerusalem achieves independence for a few months until Abdullah Pasha bombards it from the Mount of Olives (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 338)

● 1825—American missionary Pliny Fisk is arrested in Jerusalem for distributing religious tracts. He is put in chains and tortured before he is released after an appeal from the British consul (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 96)

● 1825—Judah Touro, an American tycoon from New Orleans, backs a Jewish homeland on Grand Island in the Niagara River, in upstate New York. The project fails (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 369)

● 1827 (October 20)—French, British, and Russian gunboats destroy the Ottoman sultan’s ships near Navarino bay, emboldening the Greeks in their quest for independence and inaugurating a scramble for Ottoman lands, leading to the “Eastern Question” of what to do with the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 114)

● 1827—American Christian missionaries in Syria (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 122)

● 1827—The American Board and the Boston Female Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews decides to launch another mission to Jerusalem, and to spearhead the mission they choose Josiah Brewer. Brewer fails and returns to Boston in disgrace (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 123)

● 1829—British Jewish banker Moses Montefiore makes his first visit to Palestine

● 1830—French Jews formally emancipated after revolution (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 565)

● 1830—France lands 24,000 troops at Algiers, initiating a 130-year occupation of the country (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 114-116)

● 1830—The United States signs their first treaty with the Ottoman Empire—Treaty of Navigation and Commerce. US attains a legal and commercial status in Ottoman lands equal to Europe and begins selling American weapons to the region (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 115)

● 1831 (December)—Albanian soldier Muhammad Ali conquers present-day Israel, Syria and most of Turkey, defeating every army the Ottoman sultan throws at him. Finally, the sultan recognizes Ali as the ruler of Egypt, Arabia and Crete with his nephew Ibrahim as governor of greater Syria. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 343)

● 1832—Matthew C. Perry becomes the first American commodore to visit Egypt when he arrives on the USS Concord (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 117)

● 1833—Benjamin Disraeli publishes his novel The Wondrous Tale of Alroy, about the 12^th century Jewish Messiah David Alroy. In the novel, Alroy’s advisor declares, “You ask what I wish. My answer is national existence. You ask what I wish. My answer is Jerusalem.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 340)

● 1834—The Palestine Association merges with the Royal Geographic Society in Britain

● 1834—Ibrahim the Red, governor of greater Syria, sets up his headquarters in the palatial compound of the David Tomb in Jerusalem. He eases the repression of Christians and Jews and promises them equality under the law. He ends the fees that had to be paid by all pilgrims to the Church and they no longer had to pay the jizya tax for the first time in centuries

● 1834 (May 3)—Ibrahim presides over Orthodox Easter in Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but during the Holy Fire ritual a stampede breaks out, killing 400 pilgrims (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 344-45)

● 1834 (May 8)—10,000 armed fellahin attack Jerusalem, but are repulsed by Ibrahim’s troops

● 1834 (May 19)—Villagers of Siwan, below the city of David, show rebels a secret tunnel through which they crawl into the city. 20,000 peasants rampage through Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 345)

● 1834 (May 27)—Ibrahim attacks rebels from Mount Zion, killing 300. He is ambushed near the Pools of Solomon, and besieged in David’s Tomb. The rebellion flares up again led by the Husseins and Abu Ghosh family. Muhammad Ali and 15,000 reinforcements help to crush the rebellion and retake Jerusalem. The Husseinis of Jerusalem are exiled to Egypt. Ibrahim slaughters the last rebels outside Nablus and launches a reign of terror in Jerusalem.

● 1835—French author Alphonse de Lamartine publishes Voyage en Orient, detailing his trip to Palestine in 1833. In his analysis of the book, Edward Said says that Lamartine “announced that the territory was not really a country and therefore a marvelous place for an imperial or colonial project to be undertaken by France. What Lamartine does is to cancel and transcend an actual reality—a group of resident Arabs—by means of a future wish—that the land be empty for development by a more deserving power.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 9)

● 1836—Alexander Pushkin writes in his diary: “Is not Jerusalem the cradle of us all?” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 356)

● 1836—Ashkenazi rabbi in Prussia, Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, approaches the Rothschilds and Montefiores to fund the creation of a Jewish nation (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 392)

● 1836—English traveler Edward Lane reports from Palestine that Jews are “held in the utmost contempt and abhorrence by Muslims in general…they scarcely ever dare to utter a word in response to abuse or when they are reviled or beaten unjustly by the nearest Arab or Turk…for many a Jew has been put to death upon a false malicious accusation of uttering disrespectful words against the [Quran] and the Prophet.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 559)

● 1837—Harriet Livermore travels to Jerusalem after years of preaching to Sioux and Cheyenne tribes that they were the Lost Tribes of Israel who should accompany her to Zion. She rents rooms on Mount Zion to prepare her sect, the Pilgrim Strangers, for the Apocalypse that she expects in 1847. When the End Days don’t arrive, Livermore ends up begging on Jerusalem’s streets (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 354)

● 1837—Earthquake in Galilee destroys parts of Jewish Safed and Tiberias (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 560)

● 1837—John Lloyd Stephens publishes Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land
Incidents of travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land : Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805-1852 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1838—Lord Lindsay publishes Letters from Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land. Over the next 40 years, around 40 Holy Land travel books are published each year in Britain (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 166)
Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land, by Lord Lindsay : Crawford, Alexander Crawford Lindsay, 1812-1880 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1838 (June)—Connecticut’s Reverend Thomas Robbins writes in his diary: “There appear to be unusual movements among the Jews, and a looking toward Palestine.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 141)

● 1838 (August 1)—After meeting with Lord Palmerston, English statesmen Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury), writes: “Palmerston had already been chosen by God to be an instrument of good to His ancient people, to do homage to their inheritance, and to recognize their rights without believing their destiny. It seems he will yet do more.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 13-14)

● 1838 (November)—Sir Moses Montefiore visits Palestine, including Jerusalem

● 1838 (December)—Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) reviews Lord Lindsay’s recent Holy Land travel book in the Quarterly Review, and uses the opportunity to publicly present his vision of restoration of the “Jewish nation” under the aegis of the Anglican Church. He says: “the Jews must be encouraged to return [to Palestine] in yet greater numbers and become once more the husbandman of Judea and Galilee…though admittedly a stiff-necked, dark-hearted people, and sunk in moral degradation, obduracy, and ignorance of the Gospel, [they are] not only worthy of salvation but also vital to Christianity’s hope of salvation.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 166; Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 14)

● 1838—The modern exploration of Palestine begins with the journeys of Edward Robinson, an American biblical scholar (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution, 42)

● 1838—At the Balta Liman Convention, the British force the Ottomans to agree to lower protective tariffs, opening Ottoman lands to the products of the Industrial Revolution (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 17)

● 1838-39—British vice-consul William Turner Young arrives in Jerusalem to represent London, but also to convert Jews and accelerate the Second Coming. Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) writes in his diary: “What a wonderful event it is! The ancient City of the people of God is about to resume a place among the nations; and England is the first of the gentile kingdoms that ceases to ‘tread her down.’” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 346; Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 14)

● 1839 (Mary 24)—In his diary Moses Montefiore lays out his plan for Jews to purchase land in Palestine. He says: “I shall apply to Mohammed [Mehemet] Ali for a grant of land for fifty years; some 100 or 200 villages…The grant obtained, I shall, please heaven, on my return to England form a company for the cultivation of the land and the encouragement of our brethren in Europe to return to Palestine…By degrees I hope to induce the return of thousands of our brethren to the land of Israel. I am sure they would be happy in the enjoyment of the observance of our religion in a manner which is impossible in Europe.” At their meeting, Ali promises Montefiore that he can buy any land available in Syria (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 168)

● 1839—Ibrahim invites Europeans to establish consulates in Jerusalem and for the first time since the Crusades permits the ringing of church bells (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 346)

● 1839—Jerusalem branch of the London Jews Society founded

● 1840—American preacher William Miller becomes one of the most popular American prophets when he calculates that Christ will arrive in Jerusalem in 1843. 100,000 Americans become Millerites (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 354)

● 1840—13,000 inhabitants in Jerusalem, including 5,000 Jews. Jewish immigration boosted by Russian immigrants (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 350)

● 1840 (March)—Damascus Blood Libel Scandal—7 Jews in Damascus are accused of killing a Christian monk and his Muslim servant to use their blood for a human sacrifice at Passover (blood libel). 600 Jewish homes are demolished and several Jews are tortured to death. 63 Jewish children are arrested and tortured to force their mothers to reveal the “hiding place of the blood.” Sir Moses Montefiore, backed by the Rothschilds, leads a campaign to rescue the Damascene Jews from this medieval persecution, and eventually persuades the Ottoman sultan to issue a decree that categorically denies the truth of the “blood libel.” The “Damascus Affair” shocks many Jews like Moses Hess, who later described how: “It dawned upon me for the first time in the midst of my socialist activities…that I belong to my unfortunate, slandered, despised and dispersed people…and I wanted to express my Jewish patriotic sentiment in a cry of anguish.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 349; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 93; Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 196; Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 561)

● 1840 (March 9)—Appeal published in the Times (London) calls on the Protestant Monarchs of Europe to help restore the Jews to the Holy Land (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 169)

● 1840 (July 24)—Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) writes in his diary: “Everything seems ripe for their [the Jews] return to Palestine. Could the Five Powers of the West be induced to guarantee the security of life and possessions to the Hebrew race, they would flow back in rapidly augmenting numbers. Then, by the blessing of God, I will prepare a document, fortify it by all the evidence I can accumulate and, confiding to the wisdom and mercy of the Almighty, lay it before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 170)

● 1840 (August-September)—British politician Lord Palmerston sends two letters to his Ambassador in Constantinople, M. Ponsonby, urging him to press the Ottoman Sultan on the issue of Jewish settlement in Palestine. On August 11, he writes: "There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine...It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and settle in Palestine because the wealth which they would bring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions; and the Jewish people, if returning under the sanction and protection and at the invitation of the Sultan would be a check upon any future evil designs of Muhammad Ali or his successor...I have to instruct Your Excellency strongly to recommend the Turkish government to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine.” On September 4 he writes: “don't lose sight of my recommendation to the [Ottoman Sultan] to invite the Jews to return to Palestine. You can have no idea how much such a measure would tend to interest in the Sultan's cause all of the religious party in this country, and their influence is great and their connection extensive. The measure moreover in itself would be highly advantageous to the Sultan, by bringing into his dominion a great number of wealthy capitalists who would employ the people and enrich the Empire.” (Source: Regina Sharif, “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 5, No. 3/4 [Spring - Summer, 1976]: 129-130)

● 1840 (August 17)—Article published in the London Times praises Anthony Ashley-Cooper, (Lord Shaftesbury), for his "practical and statesmanlike plan to plant the Jewish people in the land of their fathers.” (Source: Regina Sharif, “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 5, No. 3/4 [Spring - Summer, 1976]: 130)

● 1840 (September 23)—Bill creating the Bishopric of Jerusalem passes in Britain’s Parliament

● 1840 (September 25)—Anthony Ashley-Cooper, (Lord Shaftesbury), formally presents to Palmerston his document for “recall of the Jews to their ancient land.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 171)

● 1840—Scottish painter David Roberts returns from his trip to Palestine and begins painting popular pictures of the Holy Land, which are compiled in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia and released in the 1840s and 50s
The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. : Roberts, David, 1796-1864 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1840—Archives Israelites, a monthly journal dedicated to the study of Palestine, founded in France

● 1840—The European powers, fearing for the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, force the Egyptian troops out of Syria and Palestine. In return for retrieving his lands, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid pledges to respect the “liberty, property, and honor of every individual subject, without reference to his religious creed.” Foreign nationals are now permitted to reside permanently in Jerusalem and the Ottoman Empire’s Protestants are officially recognized as a legitimate religion (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 128-129)

● 1841—American Biblical scholar Edward Robinson publishes Biblical Researches in Palestine, the first major work of Biblical Geography and Biblical Archaeology, based on his 1838 trips to the Middle East
Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea. A journal of travels in the year 1838 : Robinson, Edward, 1794-1863 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1841—After the creation of the first Anglican bishopric and church in Jerusalem, Prussia and Britain jointly appoint the first Protestant bishop, Michael Solomon Alexander, a Jewish convert. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 350)

● 1841 (June 14)—British Zionist Charles Henry Churchill writes to the President of the Jewish Board of Deputies, and says: “I cannot conceal from you my most anxious desire to see your countrymen endeavor once more to resume their existence as a people. I consider the object to be perfectly obtainable. But two things are indispensably necessary: Firstly that the Jews themselves will take up the matter, universally and unanimously. Secondly that the European powers will aid them in their views.” (Source: Regina Sharif, “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” 132)

● 1841—Jewish Chronicle, weekly Jewish newspaper, founded in Britain (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 564)

● 1841 (October)—Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism and a committed restorationist, sends his personal Apostle, Orson Hyde, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Climbing the Mount of Olives, Hyde erects an altar and beseeches God to “restore the kingdom until Israel—raise up Jerusalem as its capital, and continue her people [as] a distinct nation and government.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 142)

● 1842—Touring Morocco, Elizabeth Cabot Kirkland is stunned by the oppression of the Jews, describing how: “A rich Jew merchant is obliged to pull off his slippers before he passes the threshold of a Moor and [the Muslims] drive them about the streets whenever they cross their path, much as you would a dog.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 154)

● 1842—James Ewing Cooley publishes The American in Egypt, with Rambles through Arabia Petra and the Holy Land
The American in Egypt, with rambles through Arabia Petræa and the Holy Land during the years 1839 and 1840 : Cooley, James Ewing, 1802-1882 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1843—The first English Christ Church opens near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem

● 1843—Christian clergyman Alexander Keith says the Jews are "a people without a country; even as their own land…is in a great measure a country without a people”

● 1843—Russian Jew named Menachem Mendel opens the first hotel in Jerusalem, the Kaminitz, which is soon followed by an English Hotel (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 360)

● 1843—Kurds and Turks attack Nestorian Christians in Mosul killing 800 and banishing thousands more (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 128)

● 1843—The Young Hegelian Bruno Bauer publishes The Jewish Question, and argues that the only solution to the Jewish problem is either emancipation or destruction (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 545)

● 1844—Karl Marx publishes On the Jewish Question, and argues that to be Jewish is to worship the golden calf of capitalism (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 545)
On The Jewish Question by Karl Marx (marxists.org)

● 1844 (October 4)—Warder Cresson, US consul-general of Syria and Jerusalem, arrives in Palestine. Cresson believes that the Second Coming is due in 1847. He converts to restorationism after meeting Mordecai Noah and releases his first manifesto, Jerusalem, the Centre of the Joy of the Whole World (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 352)

● 1844—James Finn, British consul in Jerusalem, reports that “Jerusalem is now a central point of interest to France and Russia” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 357)

● 1844—Irish traveler Elliot Warburton publishes The Crescent and the Cross, which details his travels in Palestine in 1843. In the book, Warburton speaks of a “sort of patriotism for Palestine” among the many pilgrims. (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 182)
The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and realities of Eastern travel : Warburton, Eliot, 1810-1852 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1844—Reverend Samuel A. Bradshaw publishes pamphlet titled A Tract for the Times, being a Plea for the Jews, and argues that the British Parliament should grant 4 million pounds towards the restoration of the Jews to Israel. In the same year, a committee meets in London to form a British and Foreign Society for Promoting the Restoration of the Jewish Nation to Palestine (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 184-185)

● 1844—French socialist and anti-Semite Alphonse Toussenel publishes The Jews, Kings of the Age, rehashing old stereotypes of Jews ruling global finance (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of Jews, Vol. 2, 544)

● 1844—American Biblical scholar George Bush publishes The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived, and calls for “elevating” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by re-creating their state in Palestine. He argues that such a restitution will not only benefit the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a “link of communication” between humanity and God. (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 141)

● 1845—E. L. Mitford, a friend and supporter of Lord Palmerston, appeals to the British government to work for the “the "reestablishment of the Jewish nation in Palestine as a protected state, under the guardianship of Great Britain." He also refers to the "final establishment, as an independent state, whensoever the parent institutions shall have acquired sufficient force and vigor to allow of this tutelage being withdrawn, and the national character shall be sufficiently developed, and the national spirit sufficiently recovered from its depression to allow of their governing themselves." He adds that a Jewish state would "place the management of our steam communication entirely in our hands and would place us in a commanding position in the Levant from whence to check the process of encroachment, to overawe open enemies and, if necessary, to repel their advance." (Source: Regina Sharif, “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” 131)

● 1846 (April 10)—Orthodox and Catholic Easters fall on the same day, and fighting at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre leaves 40 dead

● 1846—Anti-Semitic French journalist Georges Mathieu-Dairnvaell publishes pamphlets against the Rothschilds, helping to pioneer “economic Anti-Semitism.” He writes that “[Jews] have clung to us like leeches…[They are] vampires, scavengers of nature.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 544)

● 1846—A third of all American Christian missionaries who left the US for the Middle East from 1821 to 1846, die while on duty, most of them from disease shortly after arriving. (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 128)

● 1847—French socialist and anti-Semite Alphonse Toussenel publishes The Spirit of the Beasts: French Hunting and Passionate Zoology. In the book, he compares the nature of animals to humans. Parasites and scavengers are described as having Jewish characteristics. In describing vultures, Toussenel writes that: “The long sinuous flexible neck that allows the bird to dig deep into the entrails of dead beasts is the reflection of the conniving and torturous ways of the usurer practices to ruin his victims and extort the last penny of a worker’s purse.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 544)

● 1847—Scottish military commander John Lindsay says: “The soil of Palestine…only awaits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 12-13)

● 1847—In one of Benjamin Disraeli’s most popular novels, Tancred, a duke’s son travels to Jerusalem where a Jew says prophetically: “The English will take this city; they will keep it.” (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 429)

● 1847—First blood libel accusation in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 351)

● 1847—Lionel de Rothschild elected to British Parliament (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 567)

● 1847 (May)—US Navy commander Willaim Francis Lynch receives permission to leave the Mexican War and visit Palestine to become the first Westerner to navigate the entire length of the Jordan River, from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Lynch’s memoirs of his trip become a bestseller. In the book, Lynch is brutal in his portrayal of Arabs, alleging that: “[The Arab’s] ruling passion…is greediness of gold, which he will clutch from the unarmed stranger, or filch from an unsuspecting friend.” He argues that “Fifty well-armed Franks…could revolutionize the whole country” and ends with an impassioned appeal for restoring the Jews to Palestine, claiming that the Jewish people are “destined to be the first agent in the civilization of the Arab.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 137-140)

● 1847 (October 31)—Silver star on the marble floor of the Grotto of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity is cut out and stolen. France and Russia fight over who will replace it (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 358)

● 1848 (February 23)—Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol makes a trip to Jerusalem

● 1848—Sephardic family, the Valeros, open the first European bank room off David Street in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 360)

● 1849—James Finn, British consul in Jerusalem, convinces the Foreign Office to grant him powers to take over protection of all Russian Jews in Palestine (Source: Barabara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 188)

● 1850—First photographs of the Holy Land printed from giant plates, replacing or enhancing lithographs, paintings and steel engravings that had been the conventional means of illustration (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, 61)

● 1850—The Jews Society, dedicated to converting Jews to Christianity, has 78 missionaries employed in 36 branch offices from London to Jerusalem (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 158)

● 1850—German opera composer Richard Wagner writes an antisemitic essay titled Judaism in Music under the pseudonym K. Freigedank. In the essay, Wagner says that “Judaism is the evil conscience of our modern Civilisation” and argues that Jews are biologically/racially inferior and incapable of making true music. He writes: “We want to explain to ourselves the popular dislike of the Jewish nature…With all our speaking and writing in favour of the Jews' emancipation, we always felt instinctively repelled by any actual, operative contact with them…We have to explain to ourselves the involuntary repellence possessed for us by the nature and personality of the Jews…The Jew — who, as everyone knows, has a God all to himself — in ordinary life strikes us primarily by his outward appearance, which, no matter to what European nationality we belong, has something disagreeably foreign to that nationality: instinctively we wish to have nothing in common with a man who looks like that….In particular does the purely physical aspect of the Jewish mode of speech repel us….The first thing that strikes our ear as quite outlandish and unpleasant, in the Jew's production of the voice-sounds, is a creaking, squeaking, buzzing snuffle…Now, if the aforesaid qualities of his dialect make the Jew almost incapable of giving artistic enunciation to his feelings and beholdings through talk, for such an enunciation through song his aptitude must needs be infinitely smaller. Song is just Talk aroused to highest passion.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 541)

● 1850—James Turner Barclay travels to Palestine with the goal of establishing a settlement for educating the Jews in agriculture, but fails due to a lack of funds (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 145)

● 1851—British politician Benjamin Disraeli declares that “restoring the Jews to their land, which could be bought from the Ottomans, [is] both just and feasible.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 340)

● 1851—American woman named Clorinda Minor arrives in Palestine to establish an agricultural school to provide Jews with the skills necessary for statehood. She publishes Meshullahm!; or, Tidings from Jerusalem, in which she foresees “that His time to favor Zion is come and that He will now set his hand a second time to recover Israel.” (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, xviii)
Meshullam! Or, Tidings from Jerusalem: From the Journal of a Believer Recently Returned from the ... : A. B. Wood : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1851—Philadelphia Episcopalian Clorinda Minor travels to Palestine and together with British Jew John Meshullam they purchase a plot of cultivable land at Artas, near Bethlehem, and found the Manual Labor School of Agriculture for Jews in the Holy Land (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 146)

● 1852—American Biblical scholar Edward Robinson discovers one of the monumental arches across the valley into the Temple in Jerusalem, which becomes known as Robinson’s Arch (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 371)

● 1852 (February 8-November)—Holy Places Dispute—Ottoman sultan tries to settle dispute between the French and Russians. He confirms the Orthodox paramountcy in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with some concessions to the Catholics. In November, the sultan flips and grants paramountcy to the Catholics. Nicholas I of Russia is outraged and demands the restoration of Orthodox rights in Jerusalem. When his demands are rejected, he invades Ottoman territories (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 359)

● 1853 (March 28)—French and British declare war on Russia—start of Crimean War—War places Jerusalem at the center of the world stage where it has been ever since

● 1853—Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury and President of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, writes to Prime Minister Aberdeen and says that Greater Syria is "a country without a nation" in need of "a nation without a country... Is there such a thing? To be sure there is, the ancient and rightful lords of the soil, the Jews!” Cooper believes that the return and conversion of the Jews will create an Anglican Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Heaven. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 348)

● 1853—Charles Henry Churchill publishes Mount Lebanon, which details his 15 years living in the Middle East. In the book he says: “if England’s oriental supremacy is to be upheld, Syria and Egypt must be made to fall more or less under her sway of influence.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 182)
Mount Lebanon Vol. 1 : Churchill, Colonel : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1853—British help to engineer the Perpetual Treaty, which outlaws maritime hostilities and piracy between all of the states in the Persian Gulf, which practically becomes a British protectorate (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 176)

● 1854—Karl Marx, writing in the New York Daily Tribune, observes: “None equals the misery and suffering of the Jews at Jerusalem inhabiting the most filthy quarter, constant object of Musulman oppression and intolerance, insulted by the Greeks, persecuted by the Latins (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 362)

● 1854—Judah Touro dies and leaves Sir Moses Montefiore $60,000 in his will to spend in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 369)

● 1854—First Jewish settlement in Palestine, called Motza, established (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 624)

● 1855—Russian monarch Nicholas I is the first to call the Ottoman Empire the “sick man of Europe”

● 1855—Russian Tsar, Alexander II, sues for peace in the Crimean War, surrendering his imperial ambitions for Jerusalem, but winning at least a restoration of the dominant Orthodox rights in the Sepulchre. The victory is bittersweet for the Ottomans who are forced to enact measures known as Tanzimat (reform) that decree absolute equality for all minorities regardless of religion and allow Europeans once-inconceivable liberties (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 364)

● 1855 (March)—Duke of Brabant, the future King Leopold II of Belgium, is first European allowed to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 364)

● 1855 (July 18)—Sir Moses Montefiore becomes the first Jew to visit the Temple Mount. He convinces the sultan to let him rebuild the Hurva Synagogue and to buy land in Jerusalem to resettle Jews (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 366)

● 1855—In Gustav Freytag’s enormously popular novel Soll und Haben (Debit and Credit), the central Jewish character, the businessman Veitel Itzig, is portrayed as a loathsome individual, obsessed with money, who cheats honest Germans (Source: Laurence Rees, The Holocaust, 5)

● 1855—French aristocrat and anthropologist Count Gobineau publishes The Inequality of Human Races, the first systematic theory of white racial supremacy. Gobineau introduces the concept of a single cause behind the fall of all civilizations, the dilution of the superior blood of the Aryan aristocracy by the non-Aryan commoners. (Source: Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 332)
The Inequality of Human Races : Arthur Gobineau : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1856—10,000 Western visitors to Jerusalem a year (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 360)

● 1856—Herman Melville arrives in Jerusalem to restore his health and investigate the nature of God

● 1856—During a visit to Jerusalem, Sir Moses Montefiore creates a Jewish girl’s school

● 1856—Ottomans enact the Hatti Humayoun which unequivocally proclaims the equality of Ottoman dhimmis (Jews and Christians) with Muslims in access to education and the administration of justice, and it guarantees freedom of worship (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 17)

● 1856—After an English missionary accidentally kills a Muslim in Nablus, anti-Christian riots erupt in Palestine (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 18)

● 1857—James Finn, British consul in Jerusalem, forwards a plan to the foreign secretary, the Earl of Clarendon, which details a scheme “to persuade Jews in a large body to settle [in Palestine] as agriculturists on the soil…in partnership with the Arab peasantry.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 188)

● 1857—After a two-year tour of Palestine, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley publishes Sinai and Palestine, and writes that Palestine is “the scene of the most important events in the history of mankind.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 210)
Sinai and Palestine : in connection with their history : Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, 1815-1881 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1857—James Turner Barclay publishes The City of the Great King, which portrays Jerusalem in dazzling terms
The city of the Great King : or, Jerusalem as it was, as it is, and as it is to be : Barclay, James Turner, 1807-1874 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1857—William C. Prime publishes Tent Life in the Holy Land
Tent life in the Holy Land : Prime, William Cowper, 1825-1905 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1858 (January 11)—A party of five Arabs enter the farm of the Americans Walter and Sarah Dickinson in Palestine. They rape and kill everyone they can find. The Dickinson colony never recovers. Washington instructs its consul in Alexandria, Edwin de Leon, to proceed to Jaffa at once and lodge a protest with the governor, who arrests several members of a powerful Bedouin tribe found in possession of Dickinson’s possessions. (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 164-167)

● 1858 (June)—In Bologna a six-year-old Jewish boy is taken from his home by authorities after their Christian servant secretly baptized him. The law states that once a Jewish child is baptized he cannot stay in a Jewish home (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 567)

● 1858— The Jews Relief Act passes in British parliament, getting rid of barriers to Jews serving in Parliament and paving the way for full Jewish emancipation. Lionel de Rothschild becomes the first practicing Jew to sit in the House of Commons, taking the oath on the Old Testament with the words: “So help me Jehovah.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 367; Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 620)

● 1858—Ottoman Land Law privatizes many of the ancient waqfs, which suddenly make the Notable Arab Families into rich landowners. The losers are the Arab fellahin, the peasants, who are now at the mercy of feudal absentee landlords (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 381)

● 1858—Sarah Barclay Johnson publishes Hadji in Syria, or Three Years in Jerusalem
Hadji in Syria : or, Three years in Jerusalem : Johnson, Sarah Barclay, 1837-1885 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1859—American Protestant missionary William Thomson publishes The Land and the Book, encouraging the American obsession with Jerusalem and painting Palestine as a mystical Eden where the Bible is alive
The Land and the Book; : Thomson, William M. 1806-1894 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1859 (April)—Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, brother of Russian emperor Alexander II, is first of the Romanovs to visit Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 370)

● 1859 (October)—USS Macedonian appears off the Syrian coast (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 168)

● 1859—Sir Moses Montefiore begins construction on several projects on the land he purchased from Ahmed Duzhdar Aga outside Jerusalem’s walls between the Zion and Jaffa gates. He builds almshouses for the poor Jewish families that become known as Montefiore Cottages. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 368-69)

● 1859—After a suggestion from the Ottoman ambassador in London, Montefiore discusses the idea of Jews buying Palestine with potential supporters (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 369)

● 1859—Blood-libel story triggers violent pogroms in Odessa (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 610)

● 1859—American traveler Bayard Taylor publishes Lands of the Saracens, or Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
Lands of the Saracen - Wikisource, the free online library

● 1860—Montefiore Quarter opens—Beginning of the new Jewish city outside the walls of Jerusalem

● 1860—Furious at the Ottoman sultan’s laws in favor of Jews and Christians, Muslims and Druze warriors massacre over twelve thousand Maronite, Greek Orthodox, and Catholic Christians in Syria and Lebanon. Napoleon III sends troops to save the Maronite Christians of the Lebanon, refreshing French claims to the area that had originated with Charlemagne, the Crusades, and King Francis in the sixteenth century. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 373)

● 1860—French proto-Zionist Ernest Laharanne publishes The New Eastern Question, and calls for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Laharanne writes: “Your capital will again bring the wide stretches of barren land under cultivation; your labor and industry will once more turn the ancient soil into fruitful valleys, reclaiming it from the encroaching sands of the desert, and the world will again pay its homage to the oldest of peoples.” (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 67)

● 1860—Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer says: “Let no one imagine…that the Redemption of Israel and the Messiah will suddenly appear from heaven and that amid miracles and wonders he will gather the Israelites of the Diaspora to their ancient inheritance. The beginning of the Redemption will take place in a natural way by the desire of the Jews to settle in Palestine and the willingness of the nations to help them in their work.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 196)

● 1860—Alliance Universelle Israelite founded in Paris to help restore Jews to the Holy Land

● 1860—Theodor Herzl born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire

● 1861—150,000 Jews living in the US (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 518)

● 1862—General Ulysses S. Grant issues Order 11, summarily expelling all Jews from his military jurisdiction. The Order states: “The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department…are hereby expelled from the Department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.’ (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 518)

● 1862 (April 1)—Albert Edward, 21-year-old Prince of Wales and future Edward VII, arrives in Jerusalem and gets a Crusader tattoo on his arm (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 370)

● 1862—Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer writes Seeking Zion

● 1862—American George Adams converts to Mormonism and prophesizes that the pre-requisite to the Second Coming is the Jew’s restoration to Palestine. He declares: “The reign of Christ on earth and the return of the Jews to Canaan are even now on the very eve of occurring…Palestine will soon shake herself from the dust of ages and arise in glory, as in the days of old!” Adams begins looking for volunteers to start an American colony in Palestine and claims that if the Jews are taught how to farm that the country could support thousands of colonists (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 220)

● 1862—German-Jewish philosopher Moses Hess publishes Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question. In the book he predicts that nationalism will lead to racial anti-Semitism and he proposes a socialist Jewish society in Palestine. Hess writes: “With the Jews, more than with other nations, which, though oppressed, yet live in their own soil, all political and social progress must necessarily be preceded by national independence. A common native soil is a primary condition…What we have to do at present for the generation of the Jewish nation is, first, to keep alive the hope of the political rebirth of our people, and, next, to reawaken that hope where it slumbers. When political conditions in the Orient shape themselves so as to permit the organization of a beginning of the restoration of the Jewish state, this beginning will express itself in the founding of Jewish colonies in the land of their ancestors, to which enterprise France will undoubtedly lend a hand. France, beloved friend, is the savior who will restore our people to its place in universal history.” Ori Z. Soltes notes that “Hess might be said to have given birth to Jewish nationalism in the modern European sense.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 197)
Rome and Jerusalem (marxists.org)

● 1863—Robert College established in Istanbul—oldest American college outside the US (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 215-216)

● 1863—Pogroms against Jews in Morocco (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 219)

● 1863—In a meeting with Abraham Lincoln, the leading Canadian churchman Henry Wentworth Monk protests the fact that the Jews, unlike Negroes, had yet to be emancipated: “There can be no permanent peace in the world until the civilized nations…atone…for their two thousand years of persecution [of the Jews] by restoring them to their national home in Palestine.” Lincoln responds: “Restoring the Jews to their national home in Palestine…is a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 221)

● 1864—The historian Heinrich Graetz writes that “the Jewish people must be their own Messiah.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 194)

● 1864—British War Office appoints an officer of engineers, Sir Charles Wilson, to begin a survey of Jerusalem and its vicinity (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 212)

● 1865—First telegraph opens between Jerusalem and Istanbul

● 1865—George Adams and 156 Americans travel to Palestine to start a colony. Adams declares: “The great Restitution, as foretold by the Prophets and Apostles, has now commenced.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 220-221)

● 1865 (April 14)—On his way to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln proposes to his wife a “special pilgrimage to Jerusalem.” At the theatre, moments before he is shot, he whispers to her: “How I should like to visit Jerusalem.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 363)

● 1865 (May)—Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) founded in London by George Grove, Earl Russell, and Lady Burdett-Coutt—During the PEF’s first meeting, William Thompson, Archbishop of York, declares: “This country of Palestine belongs to you and me, it is essentially ours. It was given to the Father of Israel in the words: ‘Walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee’. We mean to walk through Palestine in the length and in the breadth of it, because that land has been given unto us. It is the land from which comes news of our Redemption. It is the land towards which we turn as the fountain of all our hopes; it is the land to which we may look with as true a patriotism as we do in this dear old England, which we love so much.” (Source: Eitan Bar-Yosef, The Holy Land in English Culture, 1799-1917: Palestine and the Question of Orientalism, 7-8)

● 1866 (March)—Sir Moses Montefiore makes his sixth visit to Jerusalem. When he finds that the Jews at the Western Wall are exposed not only to rain but to occasional pelting of rocks from the Temple Mount above, he receives permission to set up an awning there. He also tries to buy the Wall, but is unsuccessful (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 374)

● 1866—German Templers found their first colony on Mount Carmel in Haifa (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 17)

● 1866—Neue Synagogue inaugurated in Berlin (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 597)

● 1866—Latter Day Saint, George J. Adams, recruits 166 Americans to form a colony in Palestine, which falls apart by 1869

● 1867—Lieutenant of Royal Engineers Charles Warren, 27 years old, begins the Palestine Exploration Fund’s (PEF) survey of Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 372)

● 1867—Yusuf al-Diya al-Khalidi becomes first mayor of Jerusalem. This post would always be held by one of the Notable Families: 6 Husseinis, 4 Alamis, 2 Khalidis, 3 Dajanis (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 378)

● 1867—Mark Twain visits Palestine and is unimpressed with the Holy Land

● 1867—Ottoman law grants foreigners the right to own land, but only if they agree to pay taxes on it to the Ottoman government (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 20)

● 1867—After returning from a trip to Palestine, Presbyterian Nathaniel Clark Burt of Ohio prays that the Jews “shall yet be brought home to that country once their own by divine promise and gift.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 222)

● 1867—US Vice Consul Hermann Loewenthal secures George Adams’ Palestine Colony ten acres of arable land outside Jaffa. In March, Secretary of State Seward sends his friend Reverend Walter Bidwell to investigate the colony. By the summer the death toll of the colony reaches 60, and the remaining settlers issue a plea to be rescued by the American government. The State Department allocates $3,000 for their evacuation (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 224-226)

● 1868—English Anglican Priest and co-founder of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, publishes Sinai and Palestine: In Connection with their History. Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore notes that this book was “immensely influential” and “convinced a generation of British readers that Jerusalem was ‘a land more dear to us from our childhood even than England.’” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 371)
Sinai and Palestine : in connection with their history : Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, 1815-1881 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1868—Yemeni Jew Judah ben Shalom announces that he is the Messiah and gains a mass following. His prophetic career ends in 1878 when he is imprisoned (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 579, 584)

● 1868—First American attempt to assist the Arabs in achieving independence occurs in Syria when Civil War veterans Charles Lamar, Andrew Romer and Colonel O’Reilly lead 80 Arabs in a revolt against Ottoman rule—The image of Americans as “freedom fighters” proliferates in the Middle East (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 247)

● 1868—Syrian Ibrahim al-Yaziji issues the Arab nationalist call: “Arise, O Arabs, and awake.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 368)

● 1869—Egypt, backed by French capital, opens the Suez Canal

● 1869—Seven Jewish families found the Nahalat Shiva (Quarter of the Seven) outside the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem

● 1869—Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia visits Jerusalem

● 1869—At one of their first conventions, the American [Jewish] Reformists state that: “the messianic aim of Israel [the Jewish people] is not the restoration of a Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a second separation from the nations of earth, but the union of the children of God in the confession of the unity of God, so as to realize the unity of all rational creatures, and their call to moral sanctification.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 26)

● 1869—Richard Wagner republishes his anti-Semitic essay “Judaism and Music” under his own name (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 598)

● 1869—Mark Twain publishes Innocents Abroad, or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress, which launches his career as a writer and cultural critic
Innocents abroad, or, The new pilgrims' progress : Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1870—French Alliance Universelle Israelite establishes an agricultural training school for Jews near Jaffa (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 624)

● 1870—American Palestine Society founded to conduct Biblical archaeology (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,”42)

● 1870—50,000 Jews living in California (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 508)

● 1870—50,000 Jews living in Odessa (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 606)

● 1871—British officer and archaeologist Charles Warren publishes The recovery of Jerusalem: a narrative of exploration and discovery in the city and the Holy Land
The recovery of Jerusalem : a narrative of exploration and discovery in the city and the Holy Land : Wilson, Charles William, Sir, 1836-1905 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1871—The dates of Easter and Passover overlap, leading to violent pogroms in Odessa (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 610)

● 1871-72—Charles Frederick Tyrwhitt-Drake begins publishing material on his 1870 visit to Palestine for the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF). He describes how: “The fear of the [Arab Palestinian] fellahin that we have secret designs of re-conquering the country is a fruitful source of difficulty. This got over, remains the crass stupidity which cannot give a direct answer to a simple question, the exact object of which it does not understand; for why should a Frank wish to know the name of an insignificant wady or hill in their land? The fellahin are all in the worst type of humanity that I have come across in the east…The fellah is totally destitute of all moral sense…” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 79)

● 1872—Two officers of the Royal Engineers, Lieutenant Claude Conder and Lieutenant Kitchener begin their survey of Palestine (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 213)

● 1872—The Ottoman government founds the Sanjak (administrative province) of Jerusalem, creating a cohesive geopolitical space in Palestine (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 9)

● 1872—14-year-old Teddy Roosevelt visits Egypt, Syria, and Palestine with his family (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 310)

● 1873 (November 21)—Norwegian-American woman Anna Spafford is crossing the Atlantic with her four children when it is struck by another ship. All of Spafford’s children die and she decides to go to Jerusalem where she starts a cult called the Overcomers who believe that good works in Jerusalem and the restoration of the Jews to Israel, followed by their conversion, will hasten the imminent Second Coming (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 382)

● 1873—Two Russian Zionists publish works calling for a return of Jews to Palestine: Perez Smolenskin’s The Eternal People and Moses Lilienblum’s Rebirth of the Jewish People in the Land of its Ancestors. (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 198)

● 1873—Jews blamed for the global financial crisis (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 598)

● 1873—Ottomans open the first Middle Eastern embassy in Washington

● 1874—Ultra-Orthodox Jews settle in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem

● 1875—Between 1800 and 1875, about 5,000 books are published in English about Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 361)

● 1875—During a speech to the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), William Thompson says: “Our reason for turning to Palestine is that Palestine is our country. I have used that expression before and I refuse to adopt any other.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 3)

● 1875—British officer and archaeologist Charles Warren publishes The Land of Promise, and proposes that Palestine be developed by the British East India Company with “the avowed intention of gradually introducing the Jews pure and simple who would eventually occupy and govern the country.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 207)

● 1875-76—British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli buys the Suez Canal in Egypt, borrowing 4 million pounds from Lionel de Rothschild (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 379)

● 1876—Charles Warren publishes Underground Jerusalem
Underground Jerusalem: an account of some of the principal difficulties encountered in its exploration and the results obtained. With a narrative of an expedition through the Jordan Valley and a visit to the Samaritans : Warren, Charles, Sir, 1840-1927 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1876—Aaron Aaronsohn born in central Romania

● 1876—Herman Melville publishes the poem Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. At 18,000 lines it is the longest American poem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 361)
Clarel : a poem and pilgrimage in the Holy Land : Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1876—George Eliot releases her last novel Daniel Deronda, which provides a sympathetic view of Jewish proto-Zionist ideas. In the novel, a character named Mordechai gives a speech and says: “the soul of Judaism is not dead. Revive the organic center: let the unity of Israel which has made the growth and form of its religion be an outward reality. Looking towards a land and a polity, our dispersed people in all the ends of the earth may share the dignity of a national life which has a voice among the peoples of the East and the West—which will plant the wisdom and skill of our race so that it may be, as of old, a medium of transmission and understanding. Let that comes to pass, and the living warmth will spread to the weak extremities of Israel, and superstition will vanish, not in the lawlessness of the renegade, but in the illumination of great facts which widen feeling, and make all knowledge alive as the young offspring of beloved memories…[The Jews] have wealth enough to redeem the soil from debauched and paupered conquerors; they have the skill of the statesmen to devise, the tongue of the orator to persuade… There is store of wisdom among us to found a new Jewish polity, grand, simple, just, like the old—a republic where there is equality of protection, an equality which shone like a star on the forehead of our ancient community, and gave it more than the brightness of Western freedom amid the despotisms of the East. Then our race shall have an organic centre, a heart and brain to watch and guide and execute; the outraged Jew shall have a defense in the court of nations, as the outraged Englishmen of America. And the world will gain as Israel gains. For there will be a community in the van of the East which carries the culture and the sympathies of every great nation in its bosom: there will be a land set for a halting-place of enmities, a neutral ground for the East as Belgium is for the West. Difficulties? I know there are difficulties. But let the spirit of sublime achievement move in the great among our people, and the work will begin.”
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot

● 1876—Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley-Cooper) writes: “Syria and Palestine will ere long become most important. The old time will come back…the country wants capital and population. The Jew can give it both. And has not England a special interest in promoting such a restoration?...She must preserve Syria to herself. Does not policy then—if that were all—exhort England to foster the nationality of the Jews and aid them, as opportunity may offer, to return as a leaving power to their old country? England is the great trading and maritime power of the world. To England, then, naturally belongs the role of favoring the settlement of the Jews in Palestine…The nationality of the Jews exists; the spirit is there and has been there three thousand years but the external form, the crowning bond of union, is still wanting. A nation must have a country. The old land, the old people. This is not an artificial experiment; it is nature, it is history.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 216)

● 1878—At the Congress of Berlin, the Ottomans are forced to confirm the rights of Jews and other minorities (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 379)

● 1878—Palestinian Jews found city of Petah Tikvah (Gateway of Hope)

● 1878—According to Ottoman records, the population of Palestine is 462,465—87% Muslim, 10% Christian, and 3% Jewish (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 4)

● 1878—Niagara Conference promotes the Jews return to Palestine

● 1878—American Christian Zionist William Eugene Blackstone publishes Jesus is Coming, arguing that Jews do not need to convert to Christianity to spark the Second Coming of Christ
Jesus is Coming : William E. Blackstone : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1878 (June 4)—The Cyprus Convention commits Britain to a military guarantee of Turkish possessions in Asia, making Palestine a British sphere of influence (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 217)

● 1878—The Deutscher Palistina-Verei is founded in Germany to conduct Biblical archaeology (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,”42)

● 1878—Ulysses S. Grant visits Palestine

● 1879—In his essay “The Victory of Judaism over Germandom,” German political thinker Wilhelm Marr is the first to use the term “Semite” as a derogatory label specifically for Jews. The word “Semite” comes from the Biblical story of Noah. After the Great Flood destroyed humanity, Noah’s three sons were tasked with repopulating the earth. The descendants of Noah’s son Shem became known as Shemites, or Semites. Anthropologists between the 1780s and 1830s adopted the term Semite to refer to a group of languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. Marr, however, uses the term to isolate the Jews as a particularly insidious racial group. Seeking election to the Prussian Reichstag, Marr presents Jews as a separate race and dangerous outsiders, signaling a shift from religious to racial attacks on Jews. Marr writes: “Alien domination has been forced upon us. For 1800 years the fight against Jewish domination has lasted…It has corrupted all society with its views. It has driven out any kind of idealism, possesses the controlling position in commerce, infiltrates increasingly into state offices, rules the theater, constitutes a sociopolitical phalanx…In short, Jewry lords it over you today.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 385; Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 3-4)

● 1879—USS Ticonderoga becomes the first American warship to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and enter the Persian Gulf

● 1880—30,000 Jews in Palestine, compared to 600,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 65)

● 1880—The sheikh of Bahrain signs an agreement that effectively places his foreign relations under British control (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 176)

● 1880—British author Laurence Oliphant publishes The Land of Gilead, proposing Jewish resettlement under Turkish sovereignty and British protection of Palestine
The land of Gilead, with excursions in the Lebanon; : Oliphant, Laurence, 1829-1888 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1880-1881—Herbert Kitchener and Claude Reignier Conder publish The survey of western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. The maps that Conder and Kitchener made are so accurate that British General Allenby uses them to conquer Palestine in 1917 (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 373)
The survey of western Palestine : memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology : Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier), 1848-1910 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1881—Zionism makes its earliest appearance in Eastern Europe, especially Odessa. The Hibbat Zion or ‘Lovers of Zion’ movement is the first organized attempt to sponsor
modern Jewish settlement in Palestine. (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 12)

● 1881—German philosopher Eugen Duhring publishes a pamphlet titled “The Jewish Question as a question of race, morals and culture,” and argues that Jews and Aryans can never live harmoniously together. Reading this work is a major turning point in Theodor Herzl’s political evolution (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 654)

● 1881—Anna Spafford’s Overcomers, made up of 13 adults and 3 children, settle in a house outside the Damascus Gate and become the nucleus of the American Colony in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 382)

● 1881 (April)—French troops cross from Algeria into Tunisia, capturing Tunis and placing the entire country under a permanent trusteeship (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 260)

● 1882—Pogroms in Russia kill thousands of Jews, triggering a vast exodus called the Aliyah. One of the first groups of Russian Jews to go to Palestine call themselves “House of Jacob come, let us go,” known by the acronym BILU. They envisage a Jewish state in Palestine founded on the principle of Jewish agriculture and Jewish labor (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 623)

● 1882—May Laws in Russia effectively make anti-Semitism state policy, enforced by secret police repression. Tsar Alexander III calls Jews “a social cancer” and when he appoints Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to be governor-general of Moscow he immediately expels 20,000 Jews from the city (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 385)

● 1882—In the wake of Russia’s deadly pogroms, Odessan physician Leo Pinsker publishes a treatise called “Auto-Emancipation,” arguing that Jews need to find a safe homeland. He declares that Jews need “a piece of earth where we can live like humans. We are tired of being driven like animals, outcast by society, insulted, robbed and plundered; we are sick of having constantly to fight back the outrage rising inside us…against the abuses and torments inflicted on us by upper and lower sorts of people alike…I tell you with all the power of my soul we want to be a people, to live on our own national land, to make our communal and political institutions…to found a state however small…help to find a territory for us where we persecuted Russian Jews can live as a free people…We must re-establish ourselves as a living nation.” (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 12; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 392; Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 603-604)
Auto-Emancipation : Pinsker, Leo (1821-1891) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1882—Izz al-Din al-Qassam born near Latakia, Syria

● 1882—After the Russo-Turkish war in 1877-78, Romania gains its independence from the Ottoman Empire and under a Christian democracy begins persecuting Romania’s Jews. Aaron Aaronsohn (6 years old) and his family join 250 Romanian Jews who flee to the Palestine region of Ottoman Syria (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 50)

● 1882—British Prince George, later George V, visits the Holy Land

● 1882—British take over Egypt, which remains nominally under the Albanian dynasty. They claim they are taking over the country to ensure that the loans they gave Egypt are repaid

● 1882—Seeking to begin a wider Jewish reclamation of Palestine, 20 Jewish families establish Rishon-le-Zion (First in Zion) on the sand dunes south of Jaffa (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 239)

● 1882—Ottoman governor, Rauf Pasha, bans Jewish immigration to Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 387; Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 629)

● 1882—Austrian emperor Franz Joseph criticizes anti-Semitism and says he will not tolerate the persecution of Jews in his empire (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 597)

● 1882—Selah Merrill begins term as US consul in Jerusalem. Merrill denounces groups like the Spaffordites as “swindlers and heretics.” When the US State Department asks for his opinions on the Blackstone Memorial and the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine, Merrill says it is “one of the wildest schemes that was ever brought before the public” and adds that “the Jew needs to learn his place in the world.” Merrill advises against any US support for Zionism, concluding that the Jews are “a race of weaklings whom neither soldiers, colonists nor enterprising citizens can be made.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 281-283)

● 1882—Emma Lazarus publishes her poetry book, Songs of a Semite, publicly coming out as an ardent Zionist. She believes that a homeland in Palestine is the final, best solution for the exiled Jewish people. In her poem “The Banner of the Jew,” she writes:

Wake, Israel, wake! Recall to-day
The glorious Maccabean rage . . .
О deem not dead that martial fire,
Say not the mystic flame is spent!
With Moses' law and David's lyre,
Your ancient strength remains unbent
Let but a Ezra rise anew.
To life the Banner of the Jew
Songs of a Semite: The dance to death, and other poems : Lazarus, Emma, 1849-1887 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1882 (October)—Vladimir Dubnow, one of the earliest Jewish Russian settlers in Palestine, writes to his brother, Shimon Dubnow, and says: “The ultimate goal…is, in time, to take over the Land of Israel and to restore to the Jews the political independence they have been deprived of for these two thousand years…The Jews will yet arise and, arms in hand (if need be), declare that they are the masters of their ancient homeland!” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 35)

● 1882—Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, an early Jewish settler in Palestine, writes to a friend: “The thing we must do now is to become as strong as we can, to conquer the country, covertly, bit by bit…buy, buy, buy [the land from the Arabs].” In another letter he says: “The goal is to revive our nation on its land…if only we succeed in increasing our numbers here until we are the majority.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 36)

● 1882-83—20-30,000 Jews arrive in Palestine in the first Aliyah of immigration. Most are from Russia (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 393)

● 1882-83—Emma Lazarus writes a series of articles in the American Hebrew magazine under the title “An Epistle to the Hebrews.” She says:

“[T]he most ardent supporter of the scheme does not urge the advisability of an emigration en masse of the whole Jewish people to any particular spot. There is not the slightest necessity for an American Jew, the free citizen of a republic, to rest his hopes upon the foundation of any other nationality soever, or to decide whether he individually would or would not be in favor of residing in Palestine all that would be claimed form him would be a patriotic and unselfish interest in the sufferings of his oppressed brethren of less fortunate countries, sufficient to make him promote by every means in his power the establishment of a secure asylum. From those emancipated countries of Europe and America where the Jew shares all the civil and religious privileges of his compatriots, only a small band of Israelites would be required to sacrifice themselves in order to serve as leaders and counselors.” (Source: David R. Mesher, “Zionism, American Style by Emma Lazarus, 207-208)

● 1883—Leo Pinsker becomes head of the Lovers of Zion in Odessa (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 29)

● 1885—Ottomans announce that they will not permit the formation of another Jewish colony and will enforce the edict against aliens holding or acquiring real estate. Historian Charles D. Smith notes that: “The Ottomans had passed laws forbidding Jews from purchasing land in Palestine, but Zionists evaded them with the aid of foreign consuls and Ottoman Jews sympathetic to their cause.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 32)

● 1885—Members at an American Jewish Reformist conference state: “We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and we therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any laws concerning the Jewish state.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 26)

● 1886—French journalist Edouard Drumont publishes Jewish France, one of the first major pieces of modern anti-Semitic literature. Drumont argues that Jews have already taken power in France. Historian Simon Schama argues: “Long before Mein Kampf, La France Juive was the invitation to an extermination [of Jews].” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 29)

● 1887—The Rothschilds try to buy the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The mufti, Mustafa al-Husseini, agrees, but the deal falls through (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 393)

● 1887—Church of England cleric, George Francis Popham Blyth, founds the St. George College in East Jerusalem (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 16)

● 1887—German anti-Semite Paul Lagarde publishes Jews and Indo-Germans, and says: “We are anti-Semites because in 19^th-century Germany the Jews living among us represent views, customs, and demands that go back to the times of the division into peoples shortly after the Flood…because in the midst of a Christian world the Jews are Asiatic heathens…[The Jews are a] people that has contributed nothing to history over thousands of years.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 5)

● 1888—English adventurer Charles M. Doughty publishes his popular travelogue Travels in Arabia Deserta
Travels in Arabia Deserta : Doughty, Charles Montagu, 1843-1926 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1889 (December)—T. De Witt Talmage, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, visits Palestine and says: “All the fingers of Providence now-a-days are pointing to that resumption of Palestine by the Israelites.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 277)

● 1889—Ottoman sultan decrees that Jews are not allowed to stay in Palestine for more than 3 months (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 387)

● 1889—Lover of Zion group has acquired a total of 76,000 acres scattered over 22 settlements with a population of about 5,000 Jews in Palestine (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 238)

● 1889—From 1883 to 1889, Baron Edmond de Rothschild has given 1.6 million pounds sterling to Jewish settlers in Palestine (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 30)

● 1889—Woodrow Wilson characterizes the Ottoman Empire as “abnormal” and as “a belated example of those crude forms of politics which the rest of Europe has outgrown.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 377)

● 1890—Russian edict enforcing May Laws prohibits Jews from residing in rural districts, owning or farming land, entering the universities, practicing the professions, or holding government jobs (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 244)

● 1890—Russian authorities approve the creation of Leo Pinsker’s Society for Aid to Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Palestine to help fund early Zionist projects and assist Palestine-bound emigrants

● 1890—130,000 Jews living in Odessa (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 606)

● 1890—Russian Jewish immigration begins to change Jerusalem—Jews now make up 25,000 of 40,000 Jerusalemites (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 387)

● 1890—The word “Zionism” first coined to describe the idea of a Jewish state. Max I. Dimont explains: “Zion is the original name for the Jebusite stronghold in Jerusalem. When the city was captured by King David, he made ‘Zion’ a symbol for Jerusalem itself.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 392; Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 413)

● 1890—Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise founded to conduct Biblical archaeology (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,”42)

● 1890—First archaeological fieldwork conducted in Palestine by British archaeologist
Sir William Flinders Petrie (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,”42)

● 1891—20,000 of Moscow’s 30,000 Jews expelled (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 614)

● 1891—Blackstone Memorial—Chrisitan Zionist William Eugene Blackstone writes to President Harrison and argues for US support of a Jewish state in Palestine. He says: “We believe this is an appropriate time for all nations, and especially the Christian nations of Europe, to show kindness to Israel…Not since the days of Cyrus, King of Persia, has there been offered to any mortal such a privilege opportunity to further the purposes of God concerning His ancient people.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 278)

● 1892—Railway reaches Jerusalem, opening up the city to tourism (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 380)

● 1893—Theodor Herzl proposes an idea on how to get rid of anti-Semitism in Austria by having the Pope negotiate the public and wholesale conversion of Austria’s Jews (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 650)

● 1893—Anti-Semitic Dreyfus Affair—When a Jewish French army captain named Alfred Dreyfus is accused of treason, a political scandal consumes the nation over whether the charge was really based on anti-Semitism. Theodor Herzl covers the trial and later writes: “Until that time most of us believed that the solution of the Jewish question was to be patiently waited for as part of the general development of mankind. But when a people, which in every other respect is so progressive and so highly civilized, can take such a turn, what are we to expect from other peoples, which have not even attained the level France attainted a hundred years ago?” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 245)

● 1893—Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith founded. The group considers German Jews as Germans and regards its chief duty as fighting anti-Semitism (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 56)

● 1894—Scottish theologian George Adam publishes Historical Geography of the Holy Land. During World War I, British General Allenby carried this book with him in Palestine
The historical geography of the Holy Land, especially in relation to the history of Israel and of the early church : Smith, George Adam, 1856-1942 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1894—Theodor Herzl writes a play called The New Ghetto. In the play, Herzl represents assimilated Jews as caged in an invisible ghetto both by their own mentality and by the mentality of their secular Christian neighbors. In the play the hero is a Jewish physician who is presented as a secular messiah to his Jewish neighbors (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 47)

● 1894—Mark Twain meets Theodor Herzl in Paris

● 1894—Notable anti-Semite Karl Lueger elected mayor of Vienna (Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 370)

● 1895—In his diary, Theodor Herzl ponders what will happen to the Palestinian Arabs if the Jews try to create a homeland there, writing: “We shall have to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” He goes on to say: “At first, incidentally…people will avoid us. We are in bad odor. By the time the reshaping of world opinion in our favor has been completed, we shall be firmly established in our country, no longer fearing the influx of foreigners, and receiving our visitors with aristocratic benevolence and proud amiability.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 13, 71)
The Complete Diaries Of Theodor Herzl English Volume I-V OCR : Theodor Herzl : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1895—Hibbat Zion (The Lovers of Zion) has 10,000 members in Russia (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 29)

● 1896—Austro-Hungarian Zionist Theodor Herzl publishes a pamphlet titled The Jewish State (or The State of the Jews)—Herzl argues that anti-Semitism proves that assimilation and emancipation have failed, and what is needed to save the Jews is their own state. He suggests Argentina or Palestine as potential sites for this Jewish homeland
Herzl, Theodor - A Jewish State (EN, 1904, 68 S.).pdf (archive.org)

● 1896—Anna Spafford’s Overcomers are joined by farmers of the Swedish Evangelical Church and move to Rabbah Husseini’s mansion in Sheikh Jarrah on the road to Nablus (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 382)

● 1896—Anarchist Jewish writer Bernard Lazare writes an article on the Dreyfus Affair in France and says: “He is a soldier but he is a Jew and it is as a Jew he was prosecuted. Because he was a Jew he was arrested, because he was a Jew he was tried, because he was a Jew the voice of justice and truth could be heard in his favor.” (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 637)

● 1897—First meeting of the World Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. Its goal is “to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” Afterwards, Theodor Herzl writes in his diary: “At Basle, I founded the Jewish state. If I said this out loud today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. Perhaps in five and certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 393; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 154)

● 1897—The Rothschilds try to buy Western Wall in Jerusalem again, but Husseini Sheikh al-Haram blocks it (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 393)

● 1897—A Jewish socialist movement in Russia called the Bund is formed. Its members believe that a socialist revolution is a far better solution for the problems of the Jews than Zionism (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 27-28)

● 1897—Theodor Herzl’s use of the six-pointed star of David on the cover of his publication Die Welt (The World) makes it an internationally recognized Zionist symbol. (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 50)

● 1897—Arab commission formed in Jerusalem, headed by the mufti, to examine the issue of land sales to Jews, and its protests lead to the cessation of such sales for several years (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 37)

● 1897—Reform rabbi Rudolph Grossman warns that Zionism strikes “a fatal blow at the patriotism and loyalty of the Jew to the country under whose protection he lives.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 351)

● 1897—Federation of American Zionists formed to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine for the oppressed Jews living in places like Russia (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 352)

● 1898—French writer Émile Zola publishes a letter titled “I Accuse” on the front page of Clemenceau’s newspaper. Zola accuses the government of conspiring against Dreyfus to cover up its own mistakes

● 1898 (October-November)—Theodor Herzl meets with German Kaiser Wilhelm II in Istanbul to discuss plans of a German-sponsored Jewish homeland. Kaiser Wilhelm makes a state visit to Jerusalem and meets with Herzl again, the only time he ever visited Palestine.

● 1898—Golda Mabovitch born in Kiev, part of Czarist Russia

● 1898—French anti-Semite Edouard Drumont writes an article titled “The Jews against France,” saying: “The Jews formerly had a nationality. They lost it because of their divisions and their absolute lack of any instinct of hierarchy and order. Thanks to their genius as conspirators and traffickers they reconstituted a money power that is formidable, not only though the force that money itself possesses, but because the Jews have diminished or destroyed the other powers so that only theirs remain, because they have modeled, fashioned, molded a society where money is the true master of all. They are preparing to liquidate France the same way they liquidated Spain. If the anti-Semites don’t manage to save France by the means used by Danton this liquidation will be carried out in the blink of an eye.”

● 1899—Palestinian Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi acknowledges to his friend Zadok Kahn, Chief Rabbi of France, “God knows, historically [Palestine] is indeed your country,” but he also pleads to Theodor Herzl: “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone” (Source: Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 398)

● 1899—Out of 45,300 inhabitants in Jerusalem, 28,000 are Jewish (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 398)

● 1899—Georges Melies releases film about the Dreyfus Affair (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 635)

● 1899—Houston Stewart Chamberlain publishes Foundations of the Nineteenth Century and argues that Jews are an “alien Asiatic people” who had “by the vilest means acquired immense wealth.” He argues that Jews and Aryans are locked in a struggle for supremacy
The foundations of the nineteenth century : Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 1855-1927 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1899—World Zionist Organization creates its own bank (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 32)

● 1899—Mark Twain writes an essay titled “Concerning the Jews” and criticizes Christians for their anti-Semitism
Concerning The Jews : Mark Twain : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1900—Yemenite Jews make up 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 632)

● 1900—Jewish Colonization Association opens an office in Beirut (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 37)

● 1900-1901—Jewish National Fund set up to buy land for Jewish settlement in Palestine. Historian Charles D. Smith notes that: “The fund played a major role in the acquisition of land that became inalienably Jewish, never to be sold to or worked by non-Jews as part of the program to establish a dominant Jewish presence in the area.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 97; Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 32)

● 1901—Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II turns down Theodor Herzl’s proposal to purchase Palestine from the Ottoman Empire (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 54)

● 1902—Theodor Herzl holds a meeting with British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. Herzl presents a case for a Jewish national state in either Cyprus or El Arish strip in Sinai (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 273)

● 1902—Theodor Herzl publishes his futuristic utopian novel Altnueland (Old-New Land), which tells the story of a German tourist expedition arriving in the Jewish state long after it had been established
Altneuland = Old-new land : novel : Herzl, Theodor, 1860-1904 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1902—Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf publishes the novel Jerusalem, based on her visit in 1900, which wins her the Nobel Prize in 1909
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jerusalem, by Selma Lagerlöf

● 1902—With the opening of Japan and China to the West, American naval theorist Alfred Mahan coins the phrase “Middle East” to differentiate between the Near East and Far East (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, xix)

● 1902—In his journal, al-Manar, Muslim reformer Rashid Rida argues that Jews entering Palestine are not merely trying to escape persecution, but seeking to set up a Jewish state (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 38)

● 1903—Russian mystic Rasputin makes first visit to Jerusalem

● 1903—David Lloyd George retained as lawyer for Theodor Herzl and the Zionist organization in their dealings with the British government (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 271)

● 1903 (April 6)—Pogrom, backed by tsar’s interior minister Viacheslav von Plehve, breaks out in Kishinev, Russia, a largely Jewish and Rumanian-speaking province of Moldovia—On Easter Sunday, Christians kill 49 Jews, rape hundreds of women, and destroy thousands of houses. This level of violence shocks the world.

● 1903—British Foreign Office says that the government will consider proposals for the creation of a Jewish colony. Historian David Fromkin calls this “the first Balfour declaration” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 274)

● 1903 (June-July)—British government turns down Herzl proposal for Jewish colony in Sinai

● 1903 (August)—Theodor Herzl goes to see the Russian tsar to try to convince him to pressure the Ottomans into handing over Palestine. During his visit, he also meets with Count von Plehve, a man who organized some of the most violent pogroms in Russia’s history (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 27)

● 1903 (August 23)—Sixth Zionist Congress—Herzl drops the bombshell that the deal with the British Empire to establish a Jewish homeland in the El-Arish territory of British controlled Egypt had fallen through. Now the new plan is to create a Jewish state in East Africa as a British protectorate. The territory is in northwest Kenya near Lake Victoria, but it becomes known as the “Uganda Plan.” This is a sensational breakthrough for political Zionism. A mere six years after the movement’s founding it is being granted an opportunity to establish a semi-independent Jewish polity under the aegis of a major European power. The “Uganda Plan” divides the Congress, with some voting in favor of it, and an opposition walking out, convinced that the only homeland for Jews was Palestine. (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 56; David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 273-274)

● 1903—Romanov Prince Nikolai opens the Nikolai Hostel with room for 1,200 pilgrims in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 483)

● 1903—Bishop of Salisbury tells the Palestine Exploration Fund: “Nothing, I think that has been discovered makes us feel any regret at the suppression of Canaanite civilization by Israelite civilization. [The excavations show how] the Bible has not misrepresented at all the abominations of the Canaanite culture which was superseded by the Israelite culture.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 79)

● 1904 (July 3)—Theodor Herzl suddenly dies at 44

● 1904—Wilhem Marr, who coined the term “anti-Semitism,” has a sudden and complete change of heart and publishes his Testament of an Anti-Semite, publicly asking forgiveness from the Jews (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 599)

● 1904—Chaim Weizmann receives his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Geneva (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 64)

● 1905—Tsar Nicholas II blames the 1905 Russian Revolution on a Jewish conspiracy and believes that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is coming true. He writes: “How prophetic! This year 1905 had been truly dominated by the Jewish Elders.” Forced to accept a constitution, he tries to restore his damaged autocracy by encouraging anti-Semitic massacres by nationalists called the Black Hundreds. In the wake of renewed pogroms, such as the 1905 Odessa pogrom that killed 400 Jews and destroyed 1,600 Jewish homes,, there is a Second Aliyah of Jewish immigration. Socialist pioneers head to Palestine and help build up the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. They build the first agricultural communes which developed into the kibbutzim and moshavim. (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 64; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 401)

● 1905—Seventh Zionist Congress—supporters of the Uganda Plan called “Territorialists” formally secede from the Zionist Organization

● 1905—Prime Minister Arthur Balfour introduces and fights for the Aliens Bill which restricts Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to England, because of the "undoubted evils that had fallen upon the country from an immigration which was largely Jewish.” (Source: Regina Sharif, “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” 140)

● 1905—Jewish National Fund makes first land purchases in Palestine (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 97)

● 1905—In The Awakening of the Arab Nation, a Maronite Catholic from Beirut named Naguib Azoury writes: “Two important phenomena, of the same nature but opposed, which have still not drawn anyone’s attention, are emerging at this moment in Asiatic Turkey. They are the awakening of the Arab nation and the latent effort of the Jews to reconstitute on a very large scale the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Both these movements are destined to fight each other continually until one of them wins. The fate of the entire world will depend on the final result of the struggle between these two peoples representing two contrary principles.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 49)

● 1906—Llyod George submits proposal for Jewish state in Sinai to British government, who reject it again (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 274)

● 1906—Romanian Jew Aaron Aaronsohn searches for the original strain of wheat in Israel and finds wild wheat at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the Jewish settlement of Rosh Pina. Aaronsohn’s discovery pushes back against criticism that the land of Palestine is too barren to support Jewish immigration and maintain a Jewish homeland (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 279)

● 1906—David Grun (Ben-Gurion) settles in Palestine as a farmer at the age of 20

● 1906—Golda Mabovitch and her family immigrate to Milwaukee, USA

● 1906—Chaim Weizmann meets with Arthur Balfour in Manchester

● 1906—Boris Schatz opens an art school in Jerusalem named after Bezalel, the ancient Israelite artisan. Schatz helps to develop a unique Jewish national art style known as Bezalel arts and crafts. The use of specific symbols is promoted, such as the rising sun to suggest renascent Jewish nationalism, the Star of David, and the seven-branched candelabrum. (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 50)

● 1907—British Royal Navy switches from coal to oil (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 176)

● 1908—The public celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim provokes scuffles with Arab onlookers in Jaffa (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 368)

● 1908—First major oil reserve discovered in Persian Gulf (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 177)

● 1908—Vladimir Jabotinsky makes first trip to Palestine

● 1908—British aristocrat and army officer Monty Parker is persuaded to join hunt for the lost Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem

● 1908—Chaim Weizmann moves to England to take a post at the University of Manchester. He helps to create the Palestine Land Development Company, chartered to buy up agricultural land in Palestine for Jewish settlement (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 294)

● 1908—26 Jewish settlements and 10,000 Jewish settlers in Palestine (Source: Emanuel Beška, “The Anti-Zionist Attitudes and Activities of Ruhi al-Khalidi,” 191)

● 1908—Young Turks depose Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II

● 1909—Degania founded, first Jewish kibbutz collective farm built by Zionists

● 1909—Jewish settlers in Palestine begin building city of Tel Aviv

● 1909—With the funding of Jewish philanthropists, Aaron Aaronsohn sets up the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station outside the village of Athlit, dedicated to experimenting with plants and trees in hopes of returning the arid Palestinian region of Syria to the verdant garden it had once been (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 15)

● 1909 (November 1)—Ottoman politician Ruhi Khalidi gives an interview to the Hebrew newspaper ha-Zevi and expresses anti-Zionist views. He opposes Jewish land purchases and expresses concern that Zionist colonization will inevitably lead to the expulsion of Arabs from the places they had inhabited for centuries. He predicts that the Jews “will be able to buy many tracts of land, and displace the Arab farmers from their land and their fathers’ heritage. However, we did not conquer this land from you. We conquered it from the Byzantines, who ruled it then. We do not owe anything to the Jews. The Jews were not here when we conquered the country.” (Source: Emanuel Beška, “The Anti-Zionist Attitudes and Activities of Ruhi al-Khalidi,” 183-184)

● 1909—Ottomans draft legislation to stop Jewish settlement in Palestine, but no bills are ultimately passed (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 198)

● 1910—David Grun (Ben-Gurion), 24 years old, moves to Jerusalem to write for a Zionist newspaper. He chooses the nom de plume “Ben-Gurion,” borrowed from one of Simon bar Kochba’s lieutenants (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 401)

● 1910—Jewish population in Vienna is 175,000 (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 587)

● 1910—Jewish socialist Karl Kautsky writes: “It is labor that gives people a right to the land in which it lives, thus Judaism can advance no claim on Palestine. On the basis of the right of labor and of democratic self-determination, today Palestine does not belong to the Jews of Vienna, London, or New York, who claim it for Judaism, but to the Arabs of the same country, the great majority of the population.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 36)

● 1910—Standard Oil Company of New Jersey starts prospecting in Mesopotamia (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 325)

● 1911—Aaron Aaronsohn begins to articulate a scheme whereby a vast swath of Palestine might be wrested away from the Ottoman Empire and reconstituted as a Jewish homeland. Other Zionists had expressed this vision before, but it was Aaronsohn, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the region’s flora and soil conditions and aquifers, who first appreciated how it might practically be accomplished, how the Jewish diaspora might return to its ancestral homeland and prosper by making the desert bloom (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 15)

● 1911 (March)—Rasputin visits Jerusalem

● 1911 (April 17)—British aristocrat Monty Parker and his gang dress in Arab garbs and dig for the Ark of Covenant on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Muslim watchmen see them and chase them off. Rumors spread that Christians are digging up the Dome of the Rock. The mufti turns back the Nebi Musa procession and a mob rushes to defend their sacred sites. Parker escapes and rumors spread that he stole the Ark of the Covenant (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 409-410)

● 1911 (May 16)—Ottoman politician Ruhi Khalidi gives a speech in Parliament on Zionism. He fights back against charges that he is an anti-Semite, saying “Just as I am an anti-Zionist, I am not an anti-Semite.” He warns that “The Zionists aim is to settle numerous Jews in Iraq and Syria to form a Jewish kingdom having Jerusalem as its center.” He called on his colleagues to fight “against this Zionist danger that endangers Palestine in particular.” (Source: Emanuel Beška, “The Anti-Zionist Attitudes and Activities of Ruhi al-Khalidi,” 186-187)

● 1911—Prominent Sephardic Jew from Jerusalem, Albert Antebi, writes to the director of the Jewish Colonization Association, Isaac Starkmeth, and says: “In all eyes the Jew is becoming the anti-patriot, the traitor prepared to plunder his neighbor to take possession of his goods.” (Source: Emanuel Beška, “The Anti-Zionist Attitudes and Activities of Ruhi al-Khalidi,” 187)

● 1911—At a Conference of the English Zionist Federation in Manchester, Chaim Weizmann says: “The English Gentiles are the best Gentiles in the world. England has helped small nations to gain their independence. We should try and get Gentile support for Zionism.” (Source: Meyer W. Weisgal and Joel Carmichael, eds., Chaim Weizmann: A Biography by Several Hands, 92)

● 1911—German economist Werner Sombart publishes The Jews and Modern Capitalism. Just as Max Weber argued that the Protestant work ethic led to the rise of capitalism, Sombart argues that Jews helped developed modern capitalism
The Jews and Modern Capitalism : Werner Sombart : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1911—Founding of Filastin (Palestine) newspaper. The paper refers to Palestine as a distinct entity and calls their readers Palestinians (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 38)

● 1911—American Jewish Zionist Henrietta Szold visits Palestine and concludes: “I think Zionism is a more difficult aim to fulfill than I ever did before. I am more than ever convinced that if not Zionism, then nothing.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 434-435)

● 1912 (February 24)—In New York, Henrietta Szold convenes a meeting of America’s first Zionist women’s group, named after the original Hebrew name of Queen Esther, Hadassah. Its first task is to send two trained nurses to Jerusalem, and by WWI the organization furnishes Palestine with a team of 40 medical professionals and 400 tons of supplies. (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 434-435)

● 1912—Jewish fighting force in Palestine called Bar-Giora reconstituted into larger and more aggressive Hashomer (“The Guard”). They start by defending 14 Jewish settlements in Palestine

● 1912—Leader of the Pan-German League, Heinrich Class, writes If I Were Kaiser, and argues that to “return to health in our national life [the] Jewish influence [must] be completely expunged or screwed back to a bearable, innocuous level.” He calls for Jews to be banned from serving in the military, teaching, or practicing law (Source: Lawerence Rees, The Holocaust, 6)

● 1912—On the campaign trail, Woodrow Wilson says: “If ever I have the occasion to help in the restoration of the Jewish People to Palestine I shall surely do so.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 357)

● 1912—Pogrom against Jews in Fez, Morocco (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 192)

● 1913 (January)—In an essay titled “Marxism and the National Question,” Stalin says that the Jews are not a nation but “mystical, intangible, and otherworldly.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 460)

● 1913 (January 23)—Three Pashas seize power over the Ottoman Empire—Ismail Enver, Mehmet Talaat, and Ahmet Jemal

● 1913 (October)—Kuwait grants British oil concessions (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 177)

● 1913—Only about 1% of the world’s Jews signify support for Zionism (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 294)

● 1913—In an essay titled “On Race,” Vladimir Jabotinsky argues that each race has a specific psychology and each race deserves its own national home. He regards the Arabs as the “complete anti-thesis to European civilization” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 61)

● 1913-1914—The Palestine Exploration Fund appoints Sir Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence to undertake an archeological survey of southern Palestine

● 1913-1914—William Yale conducts clandestine geological survey of Palestine for Standard Oil, who acquires the rights to drill in Syria, Palestine, and parts of Asia Minor (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 107; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 326)

● 1914 (February)—Sherif Hussein, the official guardian of the holy places of Mecca and Medina and a member of the Hashim clan to which the Prophet Muhammad belonged, sends his second son, Abdulllah, to Cairo to request British aid against the Ottoman Turks (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 54)

● 1914 (May 14)—Bahrain grants British oil concessions (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 177)

● 1914 (August 1-2)—Beginning of World War I—Germany declares war on Russia—Ottoman Empire enters into an alliance with Germany

● 1914 (November 2)—World War I—Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire

● 1914 (November 11)—Ottoman sultan Mehmet V Rashid declares war on Britain, France and Russia, and in Jerusalem jihad is proclaimed in al-Aqsa. European capitulations are ended and English is outlawed as an “enemy language.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 327)

● 1914 (November)—World War I—British forces from India arrive in Iraq and capture Basra by the end of the month

● 1914 (November 18)—Ahmet Jemal, dictator of Greater Syria and supreme commander of the Fourth Ottoman Army, sets up his headquarters in Jerusalem

● 1914 (December)—Without consulting the British government back in London, the oriental secretary at the British Agency in Cairo, Ronald Storrs, sends a letter to Abdullah, which is then distributed around the Arab world. In the letter, Storrs addresses “the natives of Arabia, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia” and promises them that Britain has no designs on their territories after the war. He says that if the Arabs rebel against the Ottomans, the British will recognize and help establish Arab independence “without any intervention in your internal affairs.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 55)

● 1914 (December)—Britain declares Egypt a British protectorate and annexes Cyprus

● 1914—Herbert Samuel, a leading Jewish Liberal in British politics, becomes the first member of British government to propose the creation of a British-sponsored Jewish homeland in Palestine

● 1914—When the Ottoman Empire enters World War I, H. G. Wells writes in an open letter, “What is to prevent the Jews having Palestine and restoring a real Judea?”

● 1914—From 1909 to 1914, 40,000 Zionist Jewish immigrants arrive in Palestine (although some left)—52 new Jewish settlements are built on land Jews bought from absentee landlords (about 100,000 acres)—Jewish population in Palestine reaches 85,000, 14% (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 198)

● 1914—Levi Eshkol moves to Degania kibbutz in Palestine

● 1914—15,000 of 3 million American Jews are members of Louis Brandeis’s US Zionist Federation (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 448)

● 1914—A Palestinian candidate for elections to the Ottoman Parliament argues that Jews would be welcome in Palestine if they were willing “to accept Ottoman nationality and [to] learn the language of the country…[B]ut if the foreign subject comes to fight us with the weapons of his foreign nationality and despises our sons and brethren and breaks our statutes and laws, then it is our duty not to pass over this in silence.” Ragheb Nashashibi declares: “If I am elected as a representative I shall devote my strength day and night to doing away with the scourge and threat of…Zionism.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 39; Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 102)

● 1914—Writing from Jerusalem, Palestinian scholar Khalil al-Sakakini says: “The Jews’…right [to Palestine] died with the passage of time; our right is alive and unshakeable…What will the Jews do if the national feeling of the Arab nation is aroused; how will they be able to stand up to [the Arabs]?” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 369)

● 1915 (January)—Sir Herbert Samuel, Postmaster General in Asquith’s Cabinet and one of the leaders of the British Liberal Party, sends a memorandum to the Prime Minister proposing that Palestine should become a British protectorate because it is of strategic importance to the British Empire. He urges encouraging large-scale Jewish settlement in Palestine and says: “There is widespread sympathy with the idea of restoring the Hebrew people to their land” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 269; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 429))

● 1915 (March)—After Mark Sykes’s vocal support for a British Protectorate in Palestine, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey tells him to “obliterate from his memory that the Samuel’s Cabinet memorandum made any mention of a British Protectorate…I told Mr. Samuel at the time that a British Protectorate was quite out of the question and Sir. M. Sykes should never mention the subject without making this clear.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 231)

● 1915 (March)—When the Ottoman Empire enters World War I, they declare that any Jews who still retain citizenship of another country they are at war with, like Russia, are now “belligerent nationals.” They now have a choice: become Ottoman citizens or face deportation. Thousands surrender their Russian passports for Ottoman ones, while thousands more pack into ships at Jaffa harbor in search of a new home. Most of the refugees end up in British Egypt (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 126-127)

● 1915 (April)—British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith convenes a committee to consider postwar scenarios for a defeated Ottoman Empire. Committee is led by Sir Maurice de Bunsen

● 1915 (May 20)—Moshe Dayan born in Kibbutz Degania, the second child born in the first kibbutz in Palestine

● 1915 (May)—Minna Weizmann, Russian Jewish doctor and sister of Chaim Weizmann, begins working for Curt Prufer as a spy for Germany in Egypt (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 128)

● 1915 (June 30)—De Bunsen Committee presents its findings—If Britain defeats the Ottomans, they should take over all of Mesopotamia, including Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 151)

● 1915 (July 5)—Absalom Feinberg helps convince Aaron Aaronsohn that he needs to work against the Ottomans by spying for the British—Aaronsohn had covered the length of Palestine and the scientist had a stack of reports detailing local conditions and resources for the region. The lists of available resources also included the size and location of army camps, supply depots, and gasoline storage facilities, all the information Britain would need to launch an attack on the Ottoman Empire. Aaronsohn gives this information to his brother Alex, who delivers it to the British military intelligence officer in Cairo—Beginning of Aaronsohn’s Palestine spy ring (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 135-136)

● 1915 (July 15)—Sherif Hussein writes a letter to Ronald Storrs in Cairo and demands that in return for leading an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, Britain will recognize the “independence of the Arab countries” whose boundaries encompassed all of Greater Syria, including Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula. (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 57)

● 1915 (August)—A committee representing the 6,000 Jews saved from Ottoman lands by the USS Tennessee presents its captain, Benton Decker, with a silver tablet to award an act that “would long remain in the minds of the Jewish people.” Decker responds by pronouncing Zionism “undoubtedly one of the great movements of the world.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 358)

● 1915 (October 24)—Britain’s high commissioner in Egypt, Henry McMahon, exchanges ten letters with Hussein, the most important of which declared British recognition for Hussein’s claim for Arab Independence, but not in those “portions of Syria lying to the west of districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo.” McMahon also agrees to support an Arab Kingdom to be ruled by the Hashemite dynasty. Later this letter would cause must controversy and debate about what exactly Britain promised and whether Palestine was included (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 11)

● 1915 (November 22)—Military correspondent for the Guardian, Herbet Sidebotham, writes: “There can be no satisfactory defense of Egypt or the Suez Canal so long as Palestine is in the occupation of a hostile or probably hostile Power.” (Source: Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 284)

● 1915 (November 26)—Military correspondent for the Guardian, Herbet Sidebotham, writes: “the whole future of the British Empire as a ‘Sea Empire’ depends upon Palestine becoming a buffer state inhabited ‘by an intensely patriotic race’ (Source: David Fromkin A Peace to End All Peace, 270)

● 1915 (December)—Ahmet Jemal sponsors two meetings between the Husseinis and Zionist leaders including David Ben-Gurion, to rally support for a joint homeland under the Ottomans. However, shortly afterwards Ottoman Turks crack down on Zionist activity, which they perceive to be pro-British, deporting 500 foreign Jews. They arrest and deport David Ben-Gurion and Ben-Tsvi who go to Egypt and then the US (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 416)

● 1915—British army allows the creation of the Zion Mule Corps, a transportation unit of Jewish volunteers used for service in the Gallipoli Campaign

● 1915—Sir Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence publish The Wilderness of Zin describing their geological/archaeological survey of Palestine
The wilderness of Zin : Woolley, Leonard, Sir, 1880-1960 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1915—Leaders in Russia, Great Britain, and France begin to refer to the Ottoman Empire as the “Great Loot,” in anticipation of carving up the empire after the Ottomans lose the war (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 152)

● 1915—Rasputin releases book My Thoughts and Reflections: Brief Descriptions of a Journey to the Holy Places

● 1915—British conclude a treaty with Ibn Saud

● 1915—The Hashomer Hatza’ir Movement is founded by Polish Jews in exile in Vienna. Their goal is to go to Palestine and set up agricultural communities called kibbutzim (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 56)

● 1916 (January)—Sykes-Picot Agreement—secret deal between Britain (Mark Sykes) and France (François Georges-Picot) to a colonial partition of the eastern Arab countries—France claims Syria for itself, while Britain gets Iraq and Jordan. Palestine is to be ruled by an international committee

● 1916 (March)—Mark Sykes sends a cable to the British ambassador to Russia, George Buchanan: “Arab Christians and Moslems alike would fight in the matter to the last man against Jewish Dominion in Palestine.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 231)

● 1916 (March 11)—Lord Crewe instructs the British ambassadors in Paris and Petrograd to discuss with host government representatives the idea of an appeal to world Jewry to support the Entente war effort in return for Britain’s backing of Zionism. He says: “the Zionist idea has in it the most far-reaching political possibilities, for we might hope to use it in such a way as to bring over to our side the Jewish forces in America, the East and elsewhere which are now largely, if not preponderantly hostile to us” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 64-65)

● 1916 (March 25)—In secret negotiations with the Russians initiated by the French Premier, Aristide Briand, the French secure Russian agreement that an international regime for Palestine would be impractical and that instead a French regime ought to be installed there (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 197)

● 1916 (June 5)—Sherif Hussein launches the Arab Revolt—He declares himself “King of All the Arabs,” which the British convince him to downgrade to “King of Hejaz”

● 1916 (August)—Actions taken by the Ottoman Turks lead to malnourishment, disease, and famine in Palestine. The Turks conscript thousands of Arab peasants, confiscate their crops, and cause extensive deforestation because wood is needed as fuel for trains and heating in military encampments. Combined with locust plagues and poor crop yields, whole sectors of the Arab peasantry are impoverished. In August, the general population of Jerusalem has no bread. Zionist agricultural settlements are largely unaffected and continue to prosper with support of American Jewish and Christian charities (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 103)

● 1916 (December)—Newly appointed Lloyd George government in Britain begins to seriously consider a public statement of British policy on Palestine and opens official talks with the Zionists on the question

● 1917 (January)—Upon the death of Absalom Feinberg in the Sinai desert, Sarah Aaronsohn assumes leadership of the spy ring in Palestine (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 298)

● 1917 (February)—Chaim Weizmann is elected President of the British Zionist Federation, enabling him to officially propose that the British government should make a public commitment to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 291)

● 1917 (February)—T. E. Lawrence reveals Sykes-Picot Agreement to Faisal (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 270)

● 1917 (February 7)—Mark Sykes meets with Jewish Zionists in London, including Lord Walter Rothschild, Herbert Samuel, and Chaim Weizmann. Sykes reveals that he was there without the knowledge of either the Foreign Office or the War Cabinet, therefore the discussions had to remain secret. British Jewish leaders tell Sykes that there is no way the international Zionist movement will accept a joint Entente administration in Palestine and they demand sole British control of the region (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 294)

● 1917 (March)—T. E. Lawrence publishes an article in Arab Bulletin titled “Syria: The Raw Material.” Lawrence focuses on the “bitterness which exists in southern Palestine against the Zionists. This bitterness of feeling is shared alike by Moslems and Christians, and recent developments tend only to aggravate the natural hatred of the Palestinians for those Jews who come to Palestine declaring the country to be theirs.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 420-421)

● 1917 (March)—Aaron Aaronsohn’s Athlit spy ring grows to two dozen operatives throughout Palestine, with many holding prominent positions in the local government. The spies give their group a name: Nezah Israel Lo Ieshaker (“the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or relent”) or NILI (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 278)

● 1917 (March-April)—British forces under General Sir Archibald Murray are defeated twice by 16,000 Germans in Gaza (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 289)

● 1917 (April)—Chaim Weizmann enlists US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis to help secure Woodrow Wilson’s support for Jewish homeland in Palestine (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 411)

● 1917 (April 11)—British assistant secretary of the War Cabinet, Leo Amery, argues that German control of Palestine is “the greatest of all dangers which can confront the British Empire in the future.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 277)

● 1917 (April-May)—In April, Djemal Pasha orders the evacuation of Jaffa’s residents. Aaron Aaronsohn and British leaders spread the lie that the Jews in Jaffa are being abused and massacred. This misinformation about anti-Jewish violence was used to show that the Jewish community in Palestine would never be safe under Ottoman/Muslim rule and their only hope was to side with the Entente/British (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 303-305)

● 1917 (May)—Sykes and Picot go to the Hijaz to discuss the Sykes-Picot Agreement with Sherif Hussein

● 1917 (May)—King Hussein writes to his son Faisal: “Never doubt Great Britain’s word. She is wise and trustworthy; have no fear.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 311)

● 1917 (June)—Ottomans put German Field Marshal Erich von Falkenhayn in supreme command of their Army. He arrives in Jerusalem and begins work

● 1917 (June 4)—Jules Cambon, Director-General of the French Foreign Ministry, writes a letter supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, “that land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 292)

● 1917 (June)—Aaron Aaronsohn publishes an anti-Palestinian position paper in which he calls Palestinians “squalid, superstitious, ignorant.” Aaronsohn says if he had his way then more Palestinians would be forced off their land and Jews and Arabs would be separated in Palestine, arguing that: “From national, cultural, educational, technical and more hygienic points of view, this policy has had to be strictly adhered to; otherwise the whole Jewish Renaissance movement would fail.” He complains that the assimilationist Jewish settlement of Rosh Pinah contributes to the “unavoidably degrading effect that continued contact with the uneducated [Palestinian] fellaheen had on the Jewish youth.” Aaronsohn goes on to express more anti-Arab sentiments, writing that “it is doubtful whether [the Jews] will ever trust the Arabs” and, “So far as we know the Arabs, the man among them who will withstand a bribe is still to be born (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 357-358)

● 1917 (July)—Arab conquest of Aqaba

● 1917 (July)—British give go-ahead for Jewish battalion to fight in Palestine

● 1917 (July 18)—In a memorandum, Lord Rothschild states: “Palestine should be re-constituted as the National Home for the Jewish People.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 13)

● 1917 (July)—First draft of the Balfour Declaration says that the British government supports the principle that “Palestine should be reconstituted as the national home of the Jewish people,” which will later be changed to support of “a national home for the Jewish in Palestine.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 94)

● 1917 (August)—British create an infantry battalion of Jewish soldiers called the Jewish Legion led by Vladimir Jabotinsky which is integrated into an existing British Army regiment and grows to 4 units, including 1,720 American Jews, the largest national force in the contingent, volunteer (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 363)

● 1917 (August)—Open secret in Palestine that there is a spy ring operating out of Athlit (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 360)

● 1917 (August)— Djemal Pasha visits Berlin and meets with German Zionists. Ottoman grand vizier Talaat Pasha reluctantly agrees to promote “a Jewish national home.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 432)

● 1917 (August 12)—During meeting of Aaron Aaronsohn and T. E. Lawrence, Aaronsohn says that the ultimate objective in Palestine is not a British protectorate in which a Jewish minority would be protected, but a Jewish nation, and the way to create this nation is to buy up all the land from Gaza to Haifa and force the Palestinian Arabs off of it. Lawrence responds that “the Jews in Palestine had two choices: either co-exist with the Arab majority or see their throats cut.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 358)

● 1917 (September 7)—T. E. Lawrence writes Mark Sykes a scathing letter: “What have you promised the Zionists, and what is their programme? I saw Aaronsohn in Cairo, and he said at once the Jews intended to acquire the land-rights of all Palestine from Gaza to Haifa, and have practical autonomy within. Is this acquisition to be by fair purchase or by forced sale and expropriation?...Do the Jews propose the complete expulsion of the Arab peasantry, or their reduction to a day-labourer class?” Lawrence routes the letter through the office of Gilbert Clayton, and when he reads the message he decides not to send it to Sykes (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 364)

● 1917 (September 13)—Turkish authorities catch their first NILI spy, Naaman Belkind (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 360, 376)

● 1917 (October 2)—NILI spies Joe Lishansky and Sarah Aaronsohn are captured by Ottoman forces

● 1917 (October 5-9)—After Sarah Aaronsohn is tortured by Ottoman forces, she shoots herself in the mouth and dies four days later (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 378-379)

● 1917 (October 17)—British administrator Reginald Wingate floats the idea to an American diplomat that the United States should take over the mandate of Palestinian rule in the postwar world (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 450)

● 1917 (October 31)—During a British war cabinet meeting, Arthur Balfour promotes releasing a Zionist declaration, arguing: “from a purely diplomatic and political point of view, it was desirable that some declaration favorable to the aspirations of the Jewish nationalists should now be made. The vast majority of Jews in Russia and America, as indeed, all over the world, now appeared to be favorable to Zionism. If we could make a declaration favorable to such an ideal, we should be able to carry on extremely useful propaganda both in Russia and in America.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 69)

● 1917 (October 31)—British General Sir Edmund Allenby launches offensive to capture Jerusalem

● 1917 (November 7)—British General Allenby takes over Gaza

● 1917 (November 9)—Balfour Declaration released—British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour writes a letter to Lord Rothschild, officially declaring the British government’s support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Some reasons the government released this document are: 1) British Christian Zionism, 2) Gain the support of Jews in US and Russia to keep their countries in the war, and 3) Provide cover for the real reason British wanted Palestine—to control the Middle East, especially the Suez Canal. Simon Sebag Montefiore argues that “the Declaration was designed to detach Russian Jews from Bolshevism but the very night before it was published, Lenin seized power in St. Petersburg, Had Lenin moved a few days earlier, the Balfour Declaration may never have been issued.” In his analysis of the Declaration, Eugene Rogan states: “The Balfour Declaration was a formula for communal conflict. Given Palestine’s very limited resources, there simply was no way to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine without prejudice to the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 433; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 197)

● 1917 (November 14)—Syrian Committee of Egypt sends a message to the British Foreign Secretary Balfour: “With reference to the recent publication of your Excellency’s declaration…regarding Jews in Palestine, we respectfully take the liberty to invite your Excellency’s attention to the fact that Palestine forms a vital part of Syria—as the heart is to the body—admitting no separation politically or sociologically.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 392)

● 1917 (November)—Lebanese intellectual Ameen Rihani responds to the Balfour Declaration, saying: “The Land of Promise had indeed become a too much promised land.” Instead of Palestine, he suggests Texas as a potential site for a Jewish homeland, where Jews could be resettled “without prejudicing the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 372)

● 1917 (November 16)—British General Allenby takes over Jaffa

● 1917 (November 23)—Newly formed Bolshevik government in Russia publicly releases secret imperialist treaties of the Entente powers, including the Sykes-Picot Agreement dividing up the Middle East between Britain and France (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 404)

● 1917 (November 25)—British General Allenby takes over Nabi Samuel outside Jerusalem

● 1917 (December 7-11)—British army under General Allenby capture Jerusalem from Ottomans/Germans and enter the Holy City at the Jaffa Gate on foot. Allenby reads a proclamation placing the city under martial law (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 312)

● 1917 (December)—British colonial administrator Gilbert Clayton meets with a group of Syrian exile leaders in Cairo and calms their fears that “the Balfour Declaration meant a Jewish state was to be imposed on Palestine.” Instead, Clayton said “all the declaration’s ‘national home’ phrasing meant was that Jews would be allowed to emigrate, and to share politically and economically in the region’s future to the same degree as everyone else.” This assurance from one of the highest-ranking British officials in Egypt had a profoundly calming effect on the Syrian delegation, who even spoke of cooperating with the Zionists (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 420)

● 1917 (December 20)—Sir Ronald Storrs arrives as military governor in Jerusalem

● 1917—Jewish population in Palestine is 6-7%

● 1917—5 million Jews living in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 429)

● 1917—Hundreds of thousands of Jewish Americans are members of Louis Brandeis’s US Zionist Federation (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 448)

● 1918—A single land called Palestine is established by the British military occupation. Within this area of 45,000 square miles lived 1 million people: 750,000 Arabs and 57,000 Jews

● 1918 (January 8)—Woodrow Wilson releases his Fourteen Points, calling for an end to “the day of conquest and aggrandizement” and assuring Arabs “an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development.” Arab world is inspired by the idea of “self-determination”

● 1918 (March 1)—Jewish 38^th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers arrives in Alexandria, Egypt under control of Jabotinsky

● 1918 (March 11)—T. E. Lawrence tells William Yale that “if a Jewish state is to be created in Palestine, it will have to be done by force of arms and maintained by force of arms amid an overwhelmingly hostile population.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 426)

● 1918 (March 14)—Zionist Commission headed by Chaim Weizmann sets sail for Middle East trip to assure the leaders of both the Chrisitan and Muslim Arab communities that they had nothing to fear from a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 431)

● 1918 (April 20)—Chaim Weizmann tells a delegation of Arabs known as the Syrian Committee that “it was his ambition to see Palestine governed by some stable Government like that of Great Britain, that Jewish Government would be fatal to his plans and that it was simply his wish to provide a home of the Jews in the Holy Land where they could live their own national life, sharing equal rights with other inhabitants.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 432-433)

● 1918 (April)—Zionist Commission in Palestine—Historian Charles D. Smith explains that “Granted status as a semi-independent body by the [British] Foreign Office, the commission could either request concessions from British military and civilian authorities in Palestine or intervene in London to countermand decisions made by these authorities. Soon after their arrival, members of the commission asked military officials to grant the Hebrew language equal status with Arabic in all official proclamation, to appoint Jews as government officials…British officials complied with…the Zionist Commission’s request that Jewish government employees be granted higher pay than Arabs because, the commission argued, as Europeans, they needed higher salaries to live on. Zionists were also permitted to fly the Zionist flag, the symbol of their aspiration to sovereignty, but Arabs were prohibited by government order from flying theirs.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 103-104)

● 1918 (April)—Louis Meyer, the only American ‘observer’ delegate to the Zionist Commission Middle East tour, tells American intelligence agent William Yale that even though Weizmann publicly disavowed wanting to create a Jewish state in Palestine, that this was actually his ultimate goal. Meyer explains that “as in the American south the white population would never submit to a domination by the negroes, so a Jewish minority in Palestine would never submit to a domination by an Arab majority.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 434)

● 1918 (May 30)—Chaim Weizmann writes to Balfour and says: “The Arabs, who are superficially clever and quick witted, worship one thing, and one thing only—power and success…He screams as often as he can and blackmails as often as he can. The first scream was heard when your Declaration was announced. All sorts of misrepresentations and misconceptions were put on the declaration. The English, they said, are going to hand over the poor Arabs to the wealthy Jews, who are all waiting in the wake of General Allenby’s army, ready to swoop down like vultures on an easy prey and to oust everybody from the land.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 27-28)

● 1918 (June)—Chaim Weizmann meets with Faisal at his desert encampment near Aqaba and explains that the Jews will help develop Palestine under British protection. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 444)

● 1918 (June)—British officials in Cairo release the “Declaration of the Seven” which promises that in Arab territories independent before the war or liberated by Arab forces, Britain recognizes the “complete and sovereign independence of the Arabs.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 72)

● 1918 (June 16)—T. E. Lawrence reports that “Dr. Weizmann hopes for a completely Jewish Palestine in fifty years, and a Jewish Palestine, under a British façade, for the moment.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 449)

● 1918 (June 28)—After Viscount James Byrce argues that Palestine cannot accommodate more than 300,000 Jewish colonists, Carl Ballod of the University of Berlin delivers a counter-argument to the German Committee for the Promotion of the Jewish Palestine Settlement and offers that Palestine has room for 5-6 million Jews. Ballod argues that “The question of acquirement of the land ought to present no insuperable difficulties. Most of the land is already owned by great Arab land owners, waiting for their price, and the [Palestinian] Fellahin would willingly leave for North Syria or Babylon if they were offered better conditions…” In explaining why he and other non-Jews support Zionism, Ballod says: “It is a movement which must be judged both by its ideal and its practical aspect. In this connection Zionism can be compared only to the movement of the Puritans and the Quakers, who went to America in the seventeenth century and who have left as their heirloom the whole ethical ground-work of modern America, and who also initiated a great economical development.” (Source: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger, 179)

● 1918 (September)—British General Allenby defeats the Ottomans at the Battle of Megiddo

● 1918 (September 6)—Woodrow Wilson endorses the principles in the Balfour Declaration in a letter to Jewish Americans (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 300)

● 1918 (September)—Jewish Legion sees its first action in battle in Jericho (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 363)

● 1918 (October 2)—British and Arab Army take over Damascus

● 1918 (October 30)—Four centuries of Ottoman rule over the Arabs comes to an end when the last Ottoman troops retreat to Anatolia. Michael B. Oren notes: “The defeat of the Turks eliminated the last restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases. Large swaths of territory in Galilee and along the coast were consequently bought by the Jews and rapidly settled.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 420)

● 1918 (November)—Muslim-Christian Association founded in Jerusalem, made up of leading notables among the Christian and Arab communities. The association becomes the leading Palestinian nationalist forum and is encouraged by the British military authorities who wish to balance Zionist activities (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 104)

● 1918 (November 2)—Clashes between Arabs and Jews erupt on the first anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Musa Kazim Husseini, Jerusalem’s newly appointed mayor, writes to the British military administration in the name of 100 Arab dignitaries, declaring: “We Arabs, Muslims, and Christians, always sympathized profoundly with the persecuted Jews and their misfortunes in other countries, but there is a wide difference between this sympathy and the acceptance of such a nation…ruling over us.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 13)

● 1918 (November)—Chaim Weizmann publicly announces what the Zionists envision for the future of Palestine: “The establishment of a National Home for the Jewish people is understood to mean that the country of Palestine should be placed under such political, economic, and moral conditions as will favor the increase of the Jewish population, so that in accordance with the principle of democracy, it may ultimately develop into a Jewish Commonwealth.” (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 487)

● 1918 (November)—Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff, founder of the anti-Semitic Thule Society in Germany, says: “our mortal enemy rules: Judah. We don’t know yet what will arise from this chaos. We can guess. The time of fight will come, of bitter hardships, a time of danger! We, who are in this fight, are all in danger, for the enemy hates us with the infinite hatred of the Jewish race. It is now an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…Now, brothers and sisters, it is no longer the time for contemplative speeches and meetings and feasts! Now it is time to fight, and I want to and will fight! Fight until the swastika ascends triumphantly…Now we need to talk about the German Reich, now we need to say that the Jew is our mortal enemy.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 15)

● 1918 (December 1)—In London, David Lloyd George tells George Clemenceau Britain’s plans for the Middle East: British control of Iraq and Palestine. In exchange, France will get free reign in Syria (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 485)

● 1918—British government releases a public statement to people of Arab lands, stating that their goal is “the complete and definite emancipation of the peoples so long oppressed by the Turks and the establishment of national governments and administrations deriving their authority from the initiative and free choice of the indigenous populations.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 155)

● 1918—In correspondence between Chaim Weizmann and Prince Faisal, Weizmann tells him that the Zionist plan is to avoid encroaching on land being worked by Arab peasantry and to only reclaim unused, uncultivated land, and restore it to fertility (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 522)

● 1918—British name Kamil al-Husayni the first Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, modeled off the Grand Mufti of Egypt

● 1918—Jewish population in Jerusalem drops by 20,000 due to epidemic, starvation, and deportations (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 416)

● 1918—At the Convention of the Galilee Agricultural Workers, Labor Zionist Aaron David Gordon says: “The central point of our settlement [in Palestine] is our striving to create an honest people. Thus far we knew that the individual had to be honest, but the people is an exception: it is allowed to conquer other lands. But this is absurd. All of the falsehoods in the world derive from the fact that the people is allowed to do everything that is forbidden to the individual. The people is forbidden to wage war just as the individual is forbidden to murder. And there is no value in the fact that all peoples waged war. If we strive for a new life, this must be the main thing.” (Source: Avraham Shapira, “Individual Self and National Self in the Thought of Aaron David Gordon,” 282)

● 1919—Membership of the Zionist Federation in American grows to more than 175,000 (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 300)

● 1919 (January)—At the Paris Peace Conference, the Zionist leadership asks Aaron Aaronsohn to help draw the proposed boundary map for Palestine. The map he draws would have extended the borders of Palestine to the outskirts of Damascus, not so much making Palestine an enclave alongside a greater Syria than transforming Syria into a virtual rump state of a greater Palestine. Historian Scott Anderson calls the Aaronsohn map “a Zionist’s dream (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 496)

● 1919 (January)—At the Paris Peace Conference, Faisal presents the Supreme Council with a memorandum setting out Arab aspirations: “the aim of the Arab nationalist movements…is to unite the Arabs eventually into one nation.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 157)

● 1919 (January)—Mark Sykes acknowledges that both Britain and France have been wrong in their approach to Middle East (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 495)

● 1919 (January)—Chaim Weizmann crosses the Jordan River to meet Faisal at his desert camp. They sign an agreement brokered by T. E. Lawrence in which the emir effectively endorsed the Balfour Declaration’s call for significant Jewish immigration to Palestine, which would stay separate from Faisal’s future Arab state in the rest of the Levant. The Fourth Article of the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement states: “All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 14; Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 486-487)

● 1919 (February)—Group of Notables (ruling Arab families) in Jerusalem of the anti-Zionist Moslem-Christian Society convene the first annual Palestine Arab Conference. They denounce imperialism and Zionism and demand Palestine’s inclusion in an Arab Syria (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 16; David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 446)

● 1919 (February)—After a failed Communist uprising in Proskurov, the Ukrainian commander Semesenko gets revenge by ordering his troops to murder the local Jewish population. Semesenko’s men hunt Jews down in the streets, invade homes, and slaughter entire families. In all, they kill 1,500 Jews over 2 days (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 47)

● 1919 (February)—German People’s Protection and Defiance League founded. Their constitution calls for the “removal” of the “pernicious and destructive influence of Jewry.” By 1922, the group has 150,000 members (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 14)

● 1919 (February 19)—Arthur Balfour writes: “Our justification [for the Balfour Declaration] is that we regard Palestine as being absolutely exceptional; that we consider the question of the Jews outside Palestine as one of world importance and that we conceive the Jews to have an historic claim to a home in their ancient land; provided that home can be given them without either dispossessing or oppressing the present inhabitants.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 77)

● 1919 (March)—After Faisal tries to hold the British and French to their wartime promises of Arab independence at the Paris Peace Conference, Woodrow Wilson gives them a helpful way to stall for time and dispose of Arab lands as they see fit. Wilson suggests the creation of a multinational commission of enquiry to determine the wishes of the Arab people. He appoints Oberlin College president Henry Churchill King and Chicago businessman Charles R. Crane to head the commission. King is a scholar of Biblical history and Crane has extensive experience traveling in Ottoman territory going back to 1878. Their instructions are to go and meet with Arab peoples and report back on their aspirations for post-war Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. Michael B. Oren argues that “Crane’s admiration for the Arabs was rivaled only by his antipathy toward Zionism and Jews.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 158; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 374)

● 1919 (May 15)—Aaron Aaronsohn killed in a plane crash

● 1919 (June 10)—King-Crane Commission arrives in Jaffa and spends 6 weeks touring towns and villages in Palestine, Syria, Transjordan, and Lebanon. They hold meetings in 40 towns and meet with 442 delegations. They collect 1,863 petitions with a total of 91,079 signatures. The Jaffa Muslim-Christian Association says: “We will push the Zionists into the sea—or they will send us back into the desert.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 160; Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 106)

● 1919 (June 25)—King-Crane Commission arrives in Damascus

● 1919 (June 28)—Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations introduces the “Mandate” system and states: “certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone.” (Source: Rana Barakat, “Criminals or Martyrs? Let the Courts Decide!-British Colonial Legacy in Palestine and the Criminalization of Resistance,” 86)

● 1919 (July 2)—Syrian Congress presents King-Crane Commission with a 10-point resolution that they claim represents the views of the Syrian people and Faisal. The Syrian delegates express their full willingness to come under a mandate that is restricted to providing technical and economic assistance. They trust the US the most in this role, “believing that the American Nation is the farthest from any thought of colonization and has no political ambition in the country.” Should America refuse, the Syrian people will accept a British mandate, but under no circumstances will they accept a French mandate. The Syrian Congress goes on to state that “the fundamental principles laid down by President Wilson in condemnation of secret treaties impel us to protest most emphatically against any treaty that stipulates the partition of our Syrian country and against any private engagement aiming at the establishment of Zionism in the southern part of Syria; therefore we ask the complete annulment of these conventions and agreements…We oppose the pretensions of the Zionists to create a Jewish commonwealth in the southern part of Syria, known as Palestine, and oppose Zionist migration to any part of our country; for we do not acknowledge their title but consider them a grave peril to our people from the national, economical, and political points of view.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 161)

● 1919 (July)—Revolt breaks out in Britain’s Jewish 38^th Battalion. Soldiers are angry they are not being allowed to serve in Palestine. 50 men go on strike and are court-martialed

● 1919 (August)—King-Crane Commission submits their report to the American delegation in Paris. The Commission concludes that Arabs want independence or to be placed under an American mandate—Most Palestinian and Syrian Arabs want to live in Faisal’s Kingdom of Greater Syria. King-Crane argue that the Balfour Declaration’s promises, both to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine and to respect “the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” cannot be reconciled and Zionism cannot be carried out without military force against Palestinian population. The report notes that “Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, by various forms of purchase.” The report finds that nine-tenths of the non-Jewish population of Palestine are “emphatically against the entire Zionist program” and 72% of the petitions they received from Syria are directed against Zionism. Britain and France have no plans to honor any of these desires and quickly shelve the report, which is only made public three years later (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 489)

● 1919 (August)—In a memorandum to Lord Curzon, Balfour confesses: “in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country, though the American Commission has been going through the forms of asking what they are. The four great powers are committed to Zionism and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desire and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land. In my opinion that is right.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 16-17)

● 1919 (September 16)—After getting out of the German army, Hitler begins promoting the “Stab in the Back Myth” that blames Jews for Germany’s loss in World War I. In the first documented evidence of Hitler’s anti-Semitism, he writes a letter to a soldier named Gemlich, explaining: “Antisemitism as a political movement may not and cannot be defined by emotional impulses, but by recognition of the facts. The facts are these: First, Jewry is absolutely a race and not a religious association… [The Jew’s] power is the power of money, which multiplies in his hands effortlessly and endlessly through interest, and which forces peoples under the most dangerous of yokes. Its golden glitter, so attractive in the beginning, conceals the ultimately tragic consequences. Everything men strive after as a higher goal, be it religion, socialism, democracy, is to the Jew only means to an end, the way to satisfy his lust for gold and domination. In his effects and consequences he is like a racial tuberculosis of the nations. The ultimate objective [of such legislation] must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.”
Letter to Gemlich - Adolf Hitler : Adolf Hitler : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1919 (October 25)—Winston Churchill argues that “the Jews, whom we are pledged to introduce into Palestine…take it for granted that the local population will be cleared out to suit their convenience.” Churchill suggests that: “Instead of dividing up the [Ottoman] Empire into separate territorial spheres of exploitation…we should combine to preserve the integrity of the Turkish Empire as it existed before the war.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 494)

● 1919 (November 1)—British troops, who had occupied Syria until a final settlement was reached, begin to withdraw. On the same day, French troops move in

● 1919—Bedouin tribes attack Jewish settlements in Upper Galilee (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 446)

● 1919—Leopold Greenberg, journalist and editor of the British Jewish Chronicle, writes two articles that connect Bolshevism and Jews, leading notable British Jews, including Lionel de Rothschild, Sir Israel Gollancz, and Claude G. Montefiore, to release their “Letter of Ten” that publicly disassociates themselves and Jews from the “mischievous and misleading doctrine” of Bolshevism. (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 18)

● 1919—British journalist Robert Wilton publishes Russia’s Agony, arguing that Bolshevism is a Jewish plot to destroy Russia
Russia's agony : Wilton, Robert : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1919—Under intense international pressure, Romanian Jews are finally emancipated (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 75)

● 1919—Balfour writes: “Whatever deference should be paid to the views of those living [in Palestine], the Powers in their selection of a mandatory do not propose, as I understand the matter, to consult them. In short, so far as Palestine is concerned, the Powers have made no statement of fact which is not admittedly wrong, and no declaration of policy which, at least in the letter, they have not always intended to violate.” (Source: Michael Adams, “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” 81)

● 1919—Nahum Sokolow publishes History of Zionism, 1600-1918
History of Zionism : 1600-1918 : Sokolow, Nahum, 1859-1936 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1919—Some Jewish newspapers in Palestine call for the forced emigration of Palestinian Arabs to Faisal’s Arab state in Syria (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 104)

● 1919—Louis Brandeis writes: “The Arabs in Palestine…do not present a serious obstacle [to Zionism]. The Arab question, if handled by us, will in my opinion settle itself.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 366)

● 1919—American evangelists establish the American University of Cairo in Egypt (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 396)

● 1920 (February)—Hitler delivers his first public speech, titled “Why Are We Anti-Semites?,” at a German beer hall to an audience of 2,000

● 1920 (February 8)—Churchill writes an article titled “Zionism versus Bolshevism” and argues: “From the days of Spartacus…to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxemburg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing…It becomes, therefore, specially important to foster and develop any strongly marked Jewish movement which leads directly away from these fatal associations. And it is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the whole world at the present time…Should there be created in our lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 29-30)

● 1920 (March 1)—Yosef Trumpeldor, Zionist activist who helped create the Zionist Mule Corps, is killed by Bedouins at Tel-Hai, a Jewish commune. Trumpeldor becomes a Jewish hero. Two Americans, Jakov Tucker and Ze’ev Scharff, both of them WWI veterans, are also killed (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 446; Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 423)

● 1920 (March)—Second Syrian General Congress convenes and passes a resolution proclaiming Syria to be completely independent within her “natural” boundaries, including Lebanon and Palestine, under the kingship of Faisal as constitutional monarch. At the same time an Arab delegation in Palestine confronts the British military governor with a resolution opposing Zionism and petitioning to become part of an independent Syria (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 437)

● 1920 (April 4-5)—During an annual Muslim festival in honor of Moses (Nebi Musa), 60,000 Arabs demonstrate in Jerusalem chanting “Independence!” The demonstration soon turns into a violent riot. Arab nationalist Hajj Amin al-Husseini, soon to become Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, stokes anti-Zionist anger over increasing Jewish immigration to Palestine. He incites the crowd who shout: “Palestine is our land, the Jews are our dogs!” and “Slaughter the Jews!” Arab mobs pour into Jerusalem. An old Jewish man is beaten with sticks and Arab intruders gang-rape some Jewish girls. During the riots, the British army failed to protect Jews, so it was up to self-defense units (Haganah) to protect their own communities. 5 Jews and 4 Arabs killed. 39 Jews and 161 Arabs put on trial for their part in riots. Ronald Storrs, governor of Jerusalem, dismisses Musa Kazim al-Husseini as mayor, and replaces him with Ragheb al-Nashashibi, furthering the rivalry between the Notable Families and ensuring a fragmented Palestinian nationalist movement (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 128; Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 17; David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 197; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 449-450; Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 106)

● 1920 (April)—The British seek to demonstrate their even-handedness by arresting 19 of the Jewish Haganah defenders for their possession of illegal guns and ammunition. Jabotinsky goes to the British police and takes responsibility, demanding to be arrested. He is arrested, charged, and appears in a military court with the others. He is sentenced to 15 years in prison. The prisoners are taken to an old Turkish prison in Acre.

● 1920 (April 25)—At the San Remo Conference in Italy, Britain and France formalize their partition of former Ottoman territories and conclude a secret oil bargain, agreeing to monopolize the whole future output of Middle Eastern oil between them. (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 534)

● 1920 (April)—The League of Nations assigns Iraq to Britain as a formal mandate

● 1920 (April 27)—The Times (London) supports the Balfour Declaration and says it is the only solution for the Jewish people

● 1920 (June 13)—In a letter to Lloyd George, Winston Churchill writes: “Palestine is costing us 6 million a year to hold. The Zionist movement will cause continued friction with Arabs. The French…are opposed to the Zionist movement & will try to cushion the Arabs off on us as the real enemy. The Palestine venture…will never yield any profit of a material kind.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 448)

● 1920 (July)—British military regime in Palestine is disbanded and a civilian administration takes its place. The Lloyd George government appoints pro-Zionist Herbert Samuel as Palestine’s first high commissioner. One of his first acts is to pardon and free the Acre prisoners, including Jabotinsky, who is heralded as a Jewish hero

● 1920 (July)—Poland’s Catholic bishops release an anti-Semitic letter stating: “Bolshevism is striding toward the conquest of the world. The race that has led Bolshevism has already made the world subject to gold and banks, and today, driven by the eternal imperialist desire that flows in its veins, turns to the last campaign of conquest in order to force the nations under the yoke of its regimes…Bolshevism is truly the living embodiment and manifestation of the Antichrist on earth.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 26)

● 1920—Third Palestine Arab Congress calls on the British to establish a government in Palestine “to be chosen by the Arabic-speaking people who had lived in Palestine before the beginning of the [world] war…Palestine is the holy land of the two Christian and Muslim worlds and…its destiny may not pass into other than Muslim and Christian hands.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 88)

● 1920—British journalist Robert Wilton publishes The Last Days of the Romanovs, claiming that Tsar Nicholas II and his family were killed in an act of Jewish ritual murder
The last days of the Romanovs from 15th March, 1917 : Wilton, Robert, correspondent of The Times at Petrograd : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1920—American Jewish population has grown from 250,000 in 1890 to 4 million

● 1920—Israeli fighting force Hashomer changes into Haganah (Defense) with Jabotinsky in charge. British tolerates paramilitary and allows it to grow

● 1920—Ben-Gurion and others create the Hebrew Workers Organization of the Land of Israel, which is not a conventional labor union, but a comprehensive framework of interlocking cooperatives in which city workers would live by the same socialist ideals that guided members of rural communes like Tel-Hai

● 1920—Anti-Semitic pamphlet, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in London for the first time as the Jewish Peril. Translation also appears in France at the same time. Pamphlet argues that there is a Jewish plot to take over the world (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 468)
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion : Nilus, Serg︠i︡eĭ, 1862-1930. Marsden, Victor E. (Victor Emile), 1866-1920. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1920—Nazi’s adopt Hitler’s 25-point program. # 4 states: “Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.”

● 1920—During the Russian Civil War, the Polish Army and Russian White Army release anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik propaganda posters depicting Leon Trotsky as a Jewish devil.

● 1920—At the Prague Convention of Hapoel Hazair and Zeire Zion, Labor Zionist Aaron David Gordon says: “The essential thing for us is to create a people-man, for it is impossible for man to be honest so long as the people is a wild beast. Two peoples have a right to the Land of Israel. We have an historical right, and we need to arrange things so that the Arabs will not suffer. Our ideal is: let no nation lift sword against [another] nation, and we have nothing to be embarrassed about in this.” (Source: Avraham Shapira, “Individual Self and National Self in the Thought of Aaron David Gordon,” 282-283)

● 1920—Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg publishes The Track of the Jew through the Ages
Alfred Rosenberg The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1920—Reform rabbi Judah Leib Magnes writes that the Balfour Declaration “contains the seed of resentment and future conflict. The Jewish people cannot suffer injustice to be done to others even as a compensation for injustice [over the centuries] done to them.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 51)

● 1921—Between 1917 and 1921, 75,000 Jews are murdered in a multitude of massacres in Eastern Europe that dwarfed the Kishinev pogrom. Between 1918 and 1921, there are more than 2,000 pogroms in Ukraine alone (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 47)

● 1921—A total of 18,500 Jewish have arrived in Palestine up until this point. Palestine is now averaging 10,000 Jewish immigrants a year

● 1921 (February)—Churchill is named the British Colonial Secretary. He cuts the cost of administering Palestine from 8 million pounds in 1920 to 4 million pounds in 1921 (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 526)

● 1921 (March)—In an article Hitler says: “The Jewish undermining of our Volk must be prevented…if necessary through confining its instigators in concentration camps. Briefly, our Volk must be cleansed of all the poison at the top and the bottom.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 18)

● 1921 (March 30)—Churchill tells a Palestinian Arab delegation that “it is manifestly right that the scattered Jews should have a national centre and a national home to be re-united and where else but in Palestine with which for 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated? We think it will be good for the world, good for the Jews, good for the British Empire, but also good for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine and we intend it to be so…they shall share in the benefits and progress of Zionism.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 519)

● 1921 (March 31)—Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Kamil al-Husayni, dies. British name Amin al-Husseini as the new Grand Mufti

● 1921 (April 10)—Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith passes an anti-Zionist resolution which states: “If the work for settlement in Palestine were nothing more than a task of aid and assistance, then from the point of view of the [group] nothing would be said against the promotion of this work. However, the settlement in Palestine is in the first place an object of national Jewish policy and hence its promotion and support should be rejected.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 56)

● 1921 (May 1)—Two May Day rallies in Jaffa are held by Labor-Zionists and Jewish Marxists who want a Soviet Palestine. Arabs begin attacking Jews and an Arab mob massacres 14 Jews in an immigrant’s hostel in Jaffa. 35 Jews are killed on first day of rioting. At the end of the rioting, 46 Jews are dead and 146 wounded. Around 50 Arabs killed. These riots are the first mass-casualty event in British-controlled Palestine. High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel responds by temporarily suspending Jewish immigration into Palestine. (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 19; David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 515-516)

● 1921 (June)—Churchill tells House of Commons that: “There is really nothing for the Arabs to be frightened about…No Jew will be brought in [to Palestine] beyond the number who can be provided for by the expanding wealth and development of the resources of the country.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 520)

● 1921 (August)—Churchill tells an Arab delegation in London that the Jews “cannot take any man’s lands. They cannot dispossess any man of his rights or his property…There is room for all…No one has harmed you [Arabs]…The Jews have a far more difficult task than you. You only have to enjoy your own possession; but they have to try to create out of the wilderness, out of the barren places, a livelihood for the people they bring in.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 520)

● 1921 (August 10)—The Times (London) reports that public security is “non-existent” in Palestine and Jewish settlers face daily raids from Transjordan. Paper criticizes British authorities for inability to maintain control

● 1921 (August 23)—Faisal named king of Iraq

● 1921 (August)— The Times (London) exposes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 443)

● 1921 (October 29)—General E. N. Congreve, the commander of British forces in Egypt and Palestine, sends a circular to all troops saying “the Army is officially supposed to have no politics [but in] the case of Palestine these sympathies are rather obviously with the Arabs, who have hitherto appeared to be the disinterested observer to have been the victims of an unjust policy forced upon them by the British Government” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 524)

● 1921—At the Twelfth Zionist Congress, Nahum Sokolow says that Jews are “determined to work in peace with the Arab nation.” He stresses that Jews “were not going to the Holy Land in a spirit of mastery. By industry and peace and modesty they would open up new sources of production which would be a blessing to themselves and to the whole East.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 516)

● 1921—British create protectorate of Transjordan, ruled by Abdullah. Before, the area of Transjordan had been part of Palestine. Historian David Fromkin argues: “If the British were indeed planning to make Palestine into a Jewish country, it was hardly auspicious to begin by forbidding Jews to settle in 75 percent of the country or by handing over local administration, not to a Jew, but to an Arabian.” (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace)

● 1921—Golda (Mabovitch) Meyerson moves to Palestine with her husband, Morris Meyerson, and settles in a kibbutz (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 23)

● 1921—Roman Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica writes up a favorable review of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, declaring: “Bolshevism is at base the old Judaism that tightens, with audacity and with the zeal that comes from having the better cause, the strings of world revolution in order to extend its plutocratic reign and to take advantage of Christian peoples.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 30)

● 1921—French writers Jerome and Jean Tharaud release their book When Israel is King, promoting anti-Semitic ideas and arguing that Jews pose a threat to European civilization
#13 - When Israel is king / by Jerome and Jean Tharaud ; translated ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

● 1921—Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Relief Committee for the Victims of Pogroms, Elias Heifetz, publishes The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919. He argues that attacks on Jews in Ukraine became a form of “political violence” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 49)
The slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919 : Heifetz, Elias : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1921—French Catholic theologian Jacques Martain writes: “An essentially messianic people such as the Jews, from the instant when they reject the true Messiah [they become] the most active ferment of revolution.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 102)

● 1921—A Zionist Organization report concludes that “America was…the one country which…was able to save Palestine from permanently going under.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 358)

● 1921-22—British government appoints the Haycraft Commission, headed by Thomas Haycraft, chief justice of Palestine’s supreme court, to study the causes of the violence in the 1921 riots. The Commission concludes that the Arabs were responsible for the violence, but they sympathized with their grievances and recommended putting an end to unrestricted Jewish immigration. This position is officially adopted by the British government in a White Paper issued by Winston Churchill in 1922, that upheld the Balfour Declaration of supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but also called for the election of a Palestinian Legislature, which would be heavily Arab. (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 135)

● 1922—In response to the Churchill White Paper, an Arab delegate says: “The intention to create the Jewish National Home is to cause the disappearance or subordination of the Arabic population, culture and language.” (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 83)

● 1922 (February 28)—Britain recognizes Egypt as an independent sovereign state, subject to Britain retaining control our four key areas of “vital interest to the British Empire:” security of imperial communications, defense of Egypt against outside aggression, protection of foreign and minority interests (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 169)

● 1922 (March 23)—After attending Cairo Conference, Churchill visits Palestine

● 1922 (11 April)—In The Times (London), Philip Graves argues that Britain can’t afford to rule Palestine

● 1922 (June 17)—Palestinian leaders write to Winston Churchill and argue that “the supposed historic connection of the Jews with Palestine rests upon very slender historic data. The historic rights of the Arabs are far stronger…Palestine had a native population before the Jews even went there and this population has persisted all down the ages and never assimilated with the Jewish tribes…Any religious sentiment which the Jews might cherish for Palestine is exceeded by Christian and Moslem sentiment for the country.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 89)

● 1922 (June 21)—By a vote of 60 to 29, the British House of Lords passes a motion that declares the Palestine Mandate unacceptable. The House of Commons votes in favor of the Palestine Mandate by a vote of 292 to 35

● 1922 (June 30)—Abraham Coralnik, a Ukrainian-born Jewish-American journalist and newspaper editor, publishes an op-ed in the The Day titled “Palestine versus Politics: The Jews, Not the Zionists, Must Build Palestine.” Coralnik writes: “The essence of the Palestine ideal is the dissipation of the diaspora concept. ‘Diaspora’ has two meanings. It is not only objective, but also subjective; not only political, but also psychological. The Jew feels he is an exile, because he always has an unsatisfied longing, an unfulfilled dream. The Jew himself is an exile because he feels a sort of responsibility for the entire Jewish race. He lives in two worlds. The entire Palestine movement, has always been, consciously or unconsciously, an expression of the desire to be freed of the feeling of an exile, of the feeling of a stranger in the world. Each Jew felt enslaved because on him lay a sort of responsibility for the entire Jewish race, because Judaism was an individual, personal experience. But as soon as a self-determined, autonomous, collective organization is formed the onus is thrown from the individual to the mass…The Palestine question is not simply an economic question. It is not simply a way of answering the great need of the hour, but a national self-liberation, the realization of the historic ‘adventure’ of the Jewish people…Zionism is an institution, but Palestinism is a spiritual movement…The movement for Palestine must come under the control of all the Jewish people. It is the last ‘adventure’ of the Jewish soul, and every Jew must take part in it.” (Source: The American Hebrew, 171)

● 1922 (July 22)—League of Nations issues its Mandate for Palestine which formalizes Britain’s governance of the country—The Mandate declares support for “the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” (Source: Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 101)

● 1922 (September)—Hitler says: “We in Germany have come to this: that sixty-million people see its destiny to lie at the will of a few dozen Jewish bankers.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 20)

● 1922 (September)—In support of a joint resolution reiterating Congress’s approval of the Balfour Declaration, US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge says: “It is entirely…commendable that the Jewish people in all portions of the world should desire to have a national home…[in] the country which was the cradle of their race.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 424)

● 1922 (September)—German anti-Semite Julius Streicher accuses Jews of practicing blood libel and argues that Jews kidnap hundreds of German children each year to sacrifice (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 22)

● 1922—Palestine’s population is 11-12% Jewish, and 78% Muslim

● 1922—Churchill approves a concession for hydro-electric schemes in the Auja and Jordan River valleys to Pinhas Rutenberg, a Jewish engineer from Russia. This plan to provide power and irrigation to Palestine is the first giant step on the road toward proving the Zionist claim that Palestine could support a population of millions (Source: David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, 523)

● 1922—New York City-based Yiddish language newspaper Morgen Freheit (Morning Freedom) founded—Jewish paper most aligned with the Communist Party (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 95)

● 1922—The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty formalizes British rule in Iraq

● 1922—Jewish journalist Ahad Ha’Am publishes Ten Essays on Zionism and Judaism. Ha’Am argues that statehood is the wrong goal of a Zionist movement whose purpose should be the spiritual rejuvenation of Judaism, not a physical refuge for Jews (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 114)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ten Essays on Zionism and Judaism, by Achad Ha-am

● 1922—T. E. Lawrence publishes Seven Pillars of Wisdom, chronicling his adventures in the Middle East during the Arab Revolt
seven pillars of wisdom : t.e lawrence : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1922—Haim Arlosoroff, soon to be head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department, argues that there is no alternative to “setting up a common state in Palestine for Jews and Arabs as equal nations in their rights.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 58)

● 1923 (January 17)—Haganah assassinates Arab police officer Tewfik Bey for his role in the killing of 14 Jews in 1921 in Jaffa

● 1923 (May)—In a debate in the House of Lords, former British foreign secretary Lord Grey says: “A Zionist home, my Lords, undoubtedly means or implies a Zionist Government over the district in which the home is placed, and as 93 per cent of the population are Arabs, I do not see how you can establish other than an Arab Government without prejudice to their civil rights. That one sentence alone of the Balfour Declaration seems to involve, without overstating it, exceedingly great difficulty of fulfillment.” (Source: Michael Adams, “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” 73)

● 1923 (July 24)—Treaty of Lausanne—Republic of Turkey founded

● 1923 (August 2)—Szymon Perski (later Shimon Peres) born in Poland

● 1923—In an essay titled “An Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky writes: “Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot—or else I am through with playing at colonization.” He goes on to note that “every native people fights foreign settlers as long as it can hope to get rid of them.” Jabotinsky argues that Israel cannot be created without an Arab-Israeli war. He believes that when the Jewish population reaches 30%, war will break out. (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 138; Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 22)

● 1923—Jabotinsky creates Betar, a Jewish paramilitary movement inspired by Nazism and fascism, to prepare Jews to defend themselves from their enemies in Palestine. Betar’s slogan is: “In blood and fire Judea fell! In blood and fire Judea shall rise!” Betar is the name of the fortress where the Jewish rebel Simon bar Kochba made his last stand against the Romans before he was killed in 135 CE (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 51; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 143)

● 1923—German anti-Semite Julius Streicher launches his newspaper Der Sturmer

● 1923—Palestine Communist Party (PCP) founded

● 1924—When British grant Standard Oil access to oilfields in British-controlled Iraq, Standard Oil drops all of its concessions in Palestine, including the 1914 Kornub concession. British oil company moves in to survey Kornub and finds there is no oil (Source: Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia, 498)

● 1924—Wave of pogroms in Poland send 67,000 Jews fleeing to Palestine (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 422)

● 1924—US Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed) of 1924 drastically cuts quotas for European Jewish immigration. Jews looking to escape the anti-Semitism of Europe are forced to look elsewhere for safety, including Palestine

● 1924—Mystical rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, founds the Mercaz ha-Rav yeshiva (a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature)

● 1924—Maurice Samuels publishes You Gentiles
You Gentiles : Samuel, Maurice, 1895-1972 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1924—Hitler says: “It is quite true that I have changed my view on the way of fighting the Jews. I have realized that I have been far too mild up to now. While working on my book [Mein Kampf], I have come to the realization that in the future, the harshest means of struggle need to be adopted in order to win through. I am convinced that this is a vital issue not only for our people, but for all peoples. For the Jews are the pestilence of the world.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 36)

● 1924—Thomas Lowell publishes With Lawrence in Arabia, adding to the American craze and fascination with the Middle East
With Lawrence in Arabia : Thomas, Lowell, 1892-1981 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1925—Jabotinsky founds the Union of Zionist Revisionists in Paris. Its platform calls for a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine with a Jewish majority and self-rule, control over Jewish immigration to Palestine, and expropriation of Palestinian land for the purpose of Zionist colonization. Revisionists demand the immediate creation of a Jewish state “on both banks of the Jordan.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 422)

● 1925—Jewish immigration to Palestine reaches an all-time high of 34,000 new arrivals (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 160)

● 1925—Hebrew University opens on Mount Scopus—Lord Balfour delivers speech at opening—Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein sit on University board (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 23)

● 1925—Hitler releases racist manifesto Mein Kampf—He writes: “The two main dangers to Germany’s existence are Marxism and Jewry…The Jew is the driving force behind the destruction of Germany…[The Jew’s] whole existence is a denial of the beauty of God’s creation…By standing guard against the Jew, I am defending the work of the Lord.” Hitler says: “If at the beginning of the War and during the War, twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas, as happened to hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers in the field, the sacrifice on the front would have not been in vain. On the contrary: twelve thousand scoundrels eliminated in time might have saved the lives of a million real Germans, valuable for the future.” In the book, Hitler casts doubt on the intentions of Zionism, saying “It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organization for their international world swindle, endowed with its sovereign right and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 32)
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler - (Ralph Manheim Translation) : Adolf Hitler : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1925—Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic newspaper The Dearborn Independent, reaches a weekly circulation of 900,000 in US

● 1925—Arabic translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion released. Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem recommends the book to his congregants (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 443)

● 1925—Jews purchase 44,000 acres in Palestine from the Notable Arab Families (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 457)

● 1925—US Congress ratifies the Anglo-American Treaty on Palestine, providing protection for American business and philanthropic interests in the Holy Land, but otherwise cedes full authority in the area to Great Britain (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 424)

● 1926 (March 9)—Brit Shalom formed by a group of Palestinian Jewish intellectuals

● 1926—Jewish population in Palestine at 18% or 125,000 inhabitants. 35,000 Jews living in Tel Aviv. Jewish immigration drops from 34,000 in 1925 to 14,000 in 1926 (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 160)

● 1926—British archaeologist William F. Albright conducts dig at Tell Beit Mirsim, an obscure mound in southern Judah, and accurately dates Bronze age pottery (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution, 43)

● 1926—Lebanon adopts a constitution under the French mandate that stipulates that the president must be chosen by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly and by unwritten custom to be a Maronite Christian, with the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the parliament a Shia Muslim. (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 92)

● 1927—Jewish immigration to Palestine drops to a low of 3,000. The natural increase in population is normally 1.5% a year, whereas the Jewish population in Palestine increased by 28.7% (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 160; Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 18)

● 1927—Prospectors in Iraq find an oil geyser so powerful it kills two of them (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 411)

● 1928 (March)—Nazi politician Count Reventlow proposes a law that “would prohibit all further Jewish immigration, expel all the Jews who had entered Germany since 1914, and place those remaining under Alien Law, whilst reserving the right to expel them subsequently, and exclude them from all the rights associated with Germany citizenship.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 45)

● 1928 (March)—Muslim Brotherhood founded in Egypt

● 1928—On Kol Nidre, eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement, the Jewish officials at the Western Wall put up a small screen to divide men and women worshippers in accordance with Jewish law. The screen and chairs for the elderly had been allowed in previous years, but now the mufti protests to British officials that the Jews are changing the status quo. The next day, on the holiest day of the Jewish year, the British governor Edward Keith-Roach orders his police to raid the Wall during Yom Kippur service. The policemen beat the praying Jews and pull the chairs from under elderly worshippers. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 457)

● 1928—Stalin approves the creation of a secular Jewish homeland with Yiddish and Russian as official languages. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 460)

● 1928—Arthur Koestler arrives in Jerusalem as a Revisionist Zionist

● 1928—Hitler writes a sequel to Mein Kampf. The unpublished book becomes known as Hitler’s Second Book. In the book, Hitler says: “The ultimate goal of the Jewish struggle for survival is the enslavement of productively active peoples. His ultimate aim is the denationalization and chaotic bastardization of the other peoples, the lowering of the racial level of the highest, and domination over this racial mush.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 44)
Hitler's Second Book : Adolf Hitler, Gerhard L. Weinberg (editor), Krista Smith (translator) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1928—In the Red Line Agreement, Britain secures a 47.5% share in the Turkish (Iraq) Petroleum Company—The French and Americans secure 23.75% (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 191)

● 1928—Right-wing Jew and self-declared fascist Abba Achimeir says: “I am not a democrat, and it is my firm conviction that the only kind of government is an active minority ruling a passive majority.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 106)

● 1928—Brit Shalom declares its goal is to “pave the way for understanding between Hebrews and Arabs for cooperative ways of living in the Land of Israel on the basis of complete equality in the political rights of two nations [each] enjoying wide autonomy and for various types of joint enterprise in the interest of the development of the country.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 46)

● 1929—The British ban the blowing of the shofar (the ram’s horn) during Jewish High Holy Days in Jerusalem

● 1929 (August 15)—Zionist demonstration led by historian Joseph Klausner arrives at the Western Wall to decry “the gross insult of our holy possessions and national and religious feelings.” At this time, the Western Wall is under the control of the Islamic waqf and Jews face restrictions at the site. 300 youths from Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement march to Western Wall where they wave the Zionist flag, sing “Hatikvah” and chant “The wall is ours!” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 25; Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 458)

● 1929 (August 16)— The mufti’s Supreme Muslim Council leads a march of 2,000 to the Western Wall where they attack Jewish worshippers (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 27)

● 1929 (August 17)—A Jewish boy kicks a football into an Arab garden and when he goes to get it he is murdered. At his funeral, Jewish youths try to attack the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 458)

● 1929 (August 17-30)—Zionist demonstrations at the Western Wall set off days of Arab violence across Palestine called the Buraq Uprising. In Hebron, 67 Orthodox Jews are killed and the city’s ancient Jewish community is destroyed. 18 Jews killed in old quarter of Safed. At the end of two weeks of violence, 133 Jewish people had been killed and 339 wounded. 116 Arabs killed (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 165; Rana Barakat, “Criminals or Martyrs? Let the Courts Decide!-British Colonial Legacy in Palestine and the Criminalization of Resistance,” 86)

● 1929 (August)—Yasser Arafat born in Cairo

● 1929 (September 12-14)—A front-page article in the widely circulated Jaffa-based Arabic language newspaper Filastin states that “[British] prisons and trials in Palestine are only intended for Arabs…the real victims of so-called British justice.” In an open, unsigned letter published in the Haifa based newspaper al-Karmil the author states: “There is no government [that truly cares about justice] and would support the criminal policies…of the destruction of a people and a nation.” (Source: Rana Barakat, “Criminals or Martyrs? Let the Courts Decide!-British Colonial Legacy in Palestine and the Criminalization of Resistance,” 90)

● 1929—Arab Women’s Union in Jerusalem established—at the first Congress, two hundred women attend and pass three resolutions: 1) a call for the abrogation of the Balfour Declaration, 2) an assertion of Palestine’s right to a national government, 3) and the development of Palestinian industries (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 200)

● 1929 (October 11)—The Association of Arab Lawyers in Jerusalem issues a critical report of British “riot courts.” The lawyers document a dangerous anti-Arab prejudice that is, in their words, “a huge denial of Arab rights throughout Palestine” (Source: Rana Barakat, “Criminals or Martyrs? Let the Courts Decide!-British Colonial Legacy in Palestine and the Criminalization of Resistance,” 88)

● 1929—Palestine Communist Party (PCP) produces its first Arabic publication (Source: Palestine: A Socialist History, 58)

● 1929—Head of the American Zionist Federation, Judah Leib Magnes, writes: “[A Jew] may have to live in other lands upon the support of bayonets, but…he should not…want a Jewish Home that can be maintained in the long run only against the violent opposition of the Arabs and Moslem peoples…We can establish a Home here only if we are true to ourselves as democrats and internationalists…[T]here is a better chance of averting…bloodshed if we make every possible effort…to work hand in hand—as teachers, helpers, friends—with this awakening Arab world.” Magnes supports a binational solution in Palestine and the creation of “a country of two nations and three religions, all of them having equal rights” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 436-438)

● 1930—King David Hotel opens in Jerusalem

● 1930—Jerusalem Syndrome is defined as “a psychotic decompensation related to religious excitement induced by proximity to the holy places of Jerusalem” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 358)

● 1930 (January)—British government creates Shaw Commission to study the causes of the recent Palestinian anger and violence. Like the Haycraft Commission in 1921, Shaw blames both sides for the violence. They blame the Arabs for starting the violence, but also blame Hebrew newspapers that drummed up the tension. They conclude that the underlying cause to all of these problems is the Arab fear that they will lose their national and political aspirations, and their land, to Jewish colonizers. Vladimir Jabotinsky addresses the Shaw panel in London and after giving an aggressive Zionist response he is banned from Palestine, which he never visits again. Hajj Amin al-Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem, also testifies, and to prove that the Jews want to conquer Palestine and control Islam’s holy places he shows the panel a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 168) (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 30)

● 1930 (March)—Balfour dies

● 1930 (July 17)—Three Palestinian men executed by British authorities: Ata al Zir, Mohammad Jamjoum and Foud Hijazi

● 1930 (October)—Shaw Commission leads to the Hope Simpson report and Passfield White Paper which is openly pro-Arab and amounts to an abandonment of the Balfour Declaration. It calls for Jewish immigration to Palestine to be severely curtailed and for all Jewish land purchases to end. It calls for the new Jewish Agency to be denied any special rights or privileges and for the Zionists to reject the idea that all of Palestine is their national homeland. Some Jews see this as the end of British support for a Jewish state. Many Jews protest and some like Jabotinsky even call for Palestine to be given to another superpower to supervise and sponsor. Chaim Weizmann resigns as World Zionist Organization present and in Warsaw 50,000 march in protest (Source: Hillel Halkin, Jabotinsky, 173) (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 31)

● 1930—Israeli Socialist Mapai party founded

● 1930—Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg publishes Myth of the Twentieth Century, where he argues for a “Positive Christianity” that is founded on the idea that Jesus was of Aryan/Nordic, not Jewish, descent (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 33)
The Myth of the 20th Century.pdf (archive.org)

● 1930—Zionist official Gerhart Holdheim writes: “The Zionist program encompasses the conception of a homogeneous, indivisible Jewry on a national basis. The criterion for Jewry is hence not a confession of religion, but the all-embracing sense of belonging to a racial community that is bound together by ties of blood and history and which is determined to keep its national individuality.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 57)

● 1930—Brit Shalom calls for “the constitution of the Palestine state…composed of two peoples, each free in the administration of their respective domestic affairs, but united in their common political interests, on the basis of complete equality.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 46)

● 1930—Meir Ya’air, founder of the Hashomer Hatza’ir Movement, says: “Our aim is to realize a binational socialist society in Palestine.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 56)

● 1931—American anti-Semite Paquita Louise de Shishmareff, writing under the name Lesley Fry, publishes Waters Flowing Eastward: The War Against the Kingship of Christ. In the book she argues that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is true and Bolshevism and capitalism are Jewish plots to control the world
Waters Flowing Eastward - The War Against The Kingship Of Christ : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1931 (February)—In a typical British flip-flop, the Ramsay MacDonald government tries to heal the damage done by the Passfield White Paper by effectively annulling it and reasserting support for large-scale Jewish immigration to Palestine. Arabs call it the “Black Letter.” MacDonald appoints pro-Zionist General Arthur Wauchope as high commissioner of Palestine. Now the Jews celebrate and the Arabs protest

● 1931 (April)—First world Congress in Danzig of Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Betar, the Revisionists’ youth wing. They resolve “to turn the Land of Israel, on both banks of the Jordan, into a Jewish state, with a Jewish majority.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 44)

● 1931 (December)—Mufti Amin al-Husseini presides over the World Islamic Conference on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

● 1931—Seventeenth Zionist Congress held in Basel—The Revisionists introduce a motion declaring a Jewish state to be Zionism’s goal. Democratic socialist party Mapai joins the General Zionists in rejecting it as an unnecessary provocation of the British and Arabs

● 1931—4,000 Jews arrive in Palestine. Jewish population reaches 174,606 out of a total of 1,033,314 (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 35; Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 11)

● 1931—Izz al-Din al-Qassam founds armed group called the Black Hand, also known as the mashayekh (the sheikhs). They begin launching attacks on Jews in Palestine

● 1931—Chaim Weizmann ousted as head of the World Zionist Organization

● 1932 (October 3)—Iraq admitted to League of Nations as an independent, sovereign state

● 1932—Jewish population in Palestine at 18%—10,000-12,000 Jewish immigrants arrive this year—Between 1920 and 1932, 8-9,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine each year (Source: Michael Adams, “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” 74)

● 1932—Adbul-Aziz ibn Saud proclaims himself King of Saudi Arabia

● 1932—First Palestinian political parties formed, including the Istiqlal (Independence) party and the Congress of Nationalist Youth (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 26)

● 1932—Standard Oil of California discovers oil in Bahrain (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 356)

● 1932—In a speech, Nazi Julius Streicher says: “We National Socialists believe that Adolf Hitler is an emissary for a new Germany. We believe that he has been sent by God to liberate the German people from the blood-sucker almighty Jewry.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 49)

● 1932—During a trial in Jerusalem, a Revisionist Zionist named Cohen says: “Yes, we entertain great respect for Hitler. Hitler has saved Germany. Without him it would have perished four years ago. And we would have gone along with Hitler if he had only given up his anti-Semitism.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 77)

● 1932—Reform rabbi Judah Leib Magnes writes: “Arabs will not sit on any committee with Jews…[Arab] teachers…teach children more and more Jew-hatred.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 52)

● 1933 (January 30)—Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany—Berlin Rabbi, Dr. Joachim Prinz, says: “No hiding place hides us any longer. Instead of assimilation, we wish for the recognition of the Jewish nation and the Jewish race.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 57)

● 1933 (March)—Two months after Hitler comes to power, Hajj Amin al-Husseini meets with Germany’s consul-general—The mufti and other Palestinian notables proclaim their admiration for Hitler and his anti-Jewish measures, with the mufti declaring “Muslims inside Palestine welcome the new regime, hope for the spread of Fascist antidemocratic leadership,” adding that “Muslims hoped for a boycott of the Jews in Germany.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 33; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 460)

● 1933 (March)—The Arab Executive issues a manifesto that warns: “the general tendency of Jews to take possession of the lands of this holy country and their streaming into it by hundreds and thousands through legal and illegal means has terrified the country.” Arab leaders mount a massive anti-immigration campaign that lasts for 6 weeks. 24 civilians are killed (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 28)

● 1933 (March 27)—50,000 attend a mass rally in Madison Square Garden to protest Hitler’s treatment of German Jews (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 59)

● 1933 (April 1)—Nazis launch an official boycott of Jewish owned stores

● 1933 (August 25)—Nazis sign the Haavara Agreement. The idea is that German Jews will use their money to purchase German farming equipment which will then be exported to Palestine. The Jews will then leave Germany and once they arrive in Palestine they will be reimbursed for the cost of the German equipment (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 85)

● 1933 (October)—Arab notables call for a rally and strike in Jerusalem to demonstrate the “wrath of the Palestinian Arab Nation.” Strike lasts for a week and is the first strike in Palestine’s history. (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 36)

● 1933 (November)—Ex-mayor of Jerusalem Musa Kazem Husseini leads demonstration in Jerusalem that sparks riots in which 30 Arabs are killed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 464)

● 1933—First modern port in Palestine opens in Haifa

● 1933—30,000-38,000 Jewish immigrants arrive in Palestine. 22-24,000 more enter illegally (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 35)

● 1933—Democratic Socialist party Mapai wins elections and takes control of the Zionist Organization. For the first time in its history, the Zionist movement is in the undisputed hands of the Left

● 1933—37,000 German Jews leave Germany—7% of the country’s 520,000 Jews (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 63)

● 1933—650 land sales to Jews in Palestine totaling 9,000 acres (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 45)

● 1933—In a speech, Madame Awni Abd al-Hadi says: “The Arab women have seen the extent to which the British have violated their pledges, divided their country and enforced a policy on the people during the last fifteen years, which will inevitably result in the annihilation of the Arabs in their supplantation by the Jews through the admission of immigrants from all parts of the world.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 200)

● 1933—In an article titled “Adolf Hitler, K.K.K” in the Baltimore-based newspaper Afro-American, the author argues that “Germany is doing to its Jewish people what the South does to the negro.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 171)

● 1933—There are 503,000 Jews living in Germany, constituting 0.76 percent of the total population. 31% of all German Jews live in the capital, Berlin, where they make up 4.3% of the city's population. German statistics also indicate that the population of the Jews in Germany decreased in the years between 1871 and 1933 from 1.05 percent to 0.76 percent. (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941” 55)

● 1934—42-45,000 Jewish immigrants arrive in Palestine. The natural increase in population is normally 1.5% a year, whereas the Jewish population in Palestine increased by 25.9% (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 18)

● 1934—Mussolini meets with Chaim Weizmann in Rome twice (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 76)

● 1934 (January 7)—Ahmed Khalidi, the principal of the Government Arab College in Jerusalem, sends Judah Leib Magnes a memorandum titled “Proposals for the Solution of the Arab-Jewish question of Palestine on the Basis of the Cantonization of the Country and the Formation of an Arab and Jewish state.” The plan calls for the creation of Arab “cantons” in Gaza, Haifa, Bisan, and the West Bank, and Jewish cantons in Tel Aviv and the Jezreel Valley and Jordan Valley from Tiberias to the Galilee Panhandle (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 91)

● 1934 (February)—The British government orders investigations and a commission of inquiry headed by Sir William Murison to determine the cause of Arab riots in Palestine. The report finds that Arab anger is the result of "a general feeling of apprehension among the Arabs engendered by the purchase of land by the Jews and by Jewish immigration.” The Commission also states that Zionist behavior is a contributing factor to Arab unrest.” (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 28)

● 1934 (May)—Stalin’s “Zion,” the Jewish Autonomous Region, is inaugurated in Birobidzhan on the Chinese border

● 1934 (July 15)—Nazi Stormtrooper Kurt Bar shoots two Jews at a pub in the German town of Gunzenhausen, killing one. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison, but only serves 4. (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 66)

● 1934 (August)—David Ben-Gurion starts to meet with Musa al-Alami, a lawyer working for the British, and George Antonius, both moderate advisers to the mufti. He proposes either a Jewish-Arab shared government or a Jewish entity within an Arab federation that would include Transjordan and Iraq (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 467)

● 1934—Nazi Germany’s Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question releases its first book, Bolshevism and Jewry by Hermann Fehst

● 1934—Mordecai Kaplan publishes Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life
Judaism as a civilization : toward a reconstruction of American-Jewish life : Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1935—With the rise of Hitler in Germany, 62-66,000 Jews immigrate to Palestine—Yishuv is 27% of Palestine’s population (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 466)

● 1935—Over 1,000 land sales to Jews in Palestine totaling more than 18,000 acres (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 45)

● 1935 (October)—Arab workers at the Jaffa Port discover an arms cache hidden in a cement shipment from Europe and addressed to Jews, sparking protests (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 46)

● 1935 (November 6)—Izz al-Din al-Qassam and two dozen companions sell their belongings to buy weapons. In the hills of Faquah/Gilboa they kill a Jewish police sergeant named Moshe Rosenfeld in the first organized Palestinian attack since the start of the British Mandate (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 46)

● 1935 (November 20)—Izz al-Din al-Qassam and three companions are killed by police in forest near Jenin. He is immediately turned into a martyr and cult hero. Historian Eugene Rogan notes that: “The short-lived revolt of Izz al-Din al-Qassam changed Palestinian politics forever. The urban notables who had led the nationalist movement had lost the confidence of the population at large…The Palestinians wanted men of action who would confront the British and Zionist threats directly.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 203-204)

● 1935—Nuremberg Blood Laws in Nazi Germany ban marriage between Jews and non-Jews

● 1935—Imported capital to Palestine in 1934 amounts to $49,000,000 and $78,000,000 in 1935, with Arabs claiming that the majority went to benefit the Jews (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 28)

● 1935—Country of Persia officially becomes Iran (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 150)

● 1936—Pierre Gemayel creates the Phalange in Lebanon, a Chrisitan militia based on the fascist model of the day

● 1936—There are now six Palestinian political parties, mostly run by the Notable families, including the Arab Party (Husseini family), The National Defence Party (Nashashibi family), and the Arab Reform Party (Khailidi family) (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 26)

● 1936 (March)—British House of Commons debates High Commissioner Wauchope’s proposal for a legislative council for Palestine that would grant the Arab majority a far greater voice in its own administration. The pro-Arab Conservative Anthony Crossley begins his speech by stating “I certainly am not an anti-Semite. I have many Jewish friends, some of whom are Zionists and some of whom…are not Zionists.” He argues that it is impossible to “make a small country a national home for a great world people without, at the same time, prejudicing the rights of the existing inhabitants.” He adds, “most Jews want the whole of Palestine, or else, alternatively, to reduce the existing population to the position of the Hittites in the Bible, namely, ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water.’” Crossley argues that a small land could not become a national home for a scattered population of millions without prejudicing the rights of its existing inhabitants. Tory Douglas Clifton Brown agreed and added: “We are all most sorry for the Jews and their sufferings” but they also had to recognize how deeply “the Arabs fear the invasion of the Jews.” On the other side, Josiah Wedgewood says that British rule in Palestine has been the Arab’s “salvation” and proved that by “the use of civilization we can help natives instead of destroying them.” However, he said that his Labor Party “would be the last body in this House to urge the colonization of Palestine by Jews if that colonization would result in the same destruction of the native races.” Winston Churchill warns against granting Arabs self-government in Palestine, arguing that it would trap Jews in Nazi Germany. (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 48; W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 31)

● 1936 (April 15)—Jewish immigrant named Israel Hazan killed by Palestinians at road block.

● 1936 (April 16)—In Palestine, two armed Jews go to Petah Tikva and murder two Arabs, Hassan Abu Rass and Salim al-Masri.

● 1936 (April 17)—1,500 Jews attend funeral of Israel Hazan, making it the largest Jewish demonstration Palestine had ever seen

● 1936 (April 19)—Days of rioting and violence in Jaffa leave 21 people dead, 16 Jews killed by Arabs and 5 Arabs killed by police. Start of Great Arab Revolt against British occupation and Zionist settlers. British officials pass Emergency Regulations, which historian W. F. Abboushi says gave them “extraordinary powers, which included the occupation of buildings; the requisition and control of food, forage, and stores; the acquisition of local transport vehicles and control of their use; the imposition of curfews; the censorship of parcels, letters, telegrams, and press matter; the control of publications; the control of telephones; the right of the police to arrest without warrant; the right of entry and search of houses and confiscation of goods; the right to search suspected persons and vehicles; and, most disturbing of all, the power given to the administration to deport citizens.” (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 36)

● 1936 (April 20)—Arab notables in Nablus announce the creation of an Arab National Committee and call for workers in Palestine to go on strike. 6-month general strike is longest in British colonial history

● 1936 (April 25)—Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini announces the creation of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC). The AHC declares that the strike will continue until the British put an end to Jewish immigration into Palestine, put a prohibition on land sales, and establish a representative government to reflect the country’s Arab majority

● 1936 (May 11)—Bomb goes off at home of Haifa’s mayor Hassan Shukri because of his support for Jewish immigration (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 59)

● 1936 (May 14)—Two Jews shot in Jewish quarter of Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 468)

● 1936 (May 16)—Arab gunmen kill 3 Jews in Edison Cinema in Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 468)

● 1936 (June)—In Palestine, Arabs kill 9 Jews and British forces kill 22 Arabs. Britain enacts emergency measures such as the demolition of suspect’s homes and detention in internment camps for a year for anyone caught with a weapon. To help deal with Arab Revolt, the British arm and train Jews to defend themselves and create the Jewish Supernumerary Police (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 63)

● 1936 (June)—Under the British Emergency Regulations, entire towns are collectively fined, such as Nablus, Acre, Sadad, and Lydda (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 37)

● 1936 (June 19)—According to the British government’s Annual Report, British forces have demolished 237 Palestinian houses in Jaffa (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 37)

● 1936 (August)—Polish government passes a law that requires all shops to display the owner on their signs so that people will know which shops belong to Jews. The following year Jews are banned from entering the medical profession and restrictions are placed on their ability to practice law (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 132)

● 1936 (September)—Mussolini’s Fascist Italy provides money to Musa Alami and Palestinians to help with their revolt (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 75)

● 1936 (October 4)—In an article in the Observer, Palestinian politician Emile Ghory says: “Prosperity and economic improvement are not everything of worth in life. There are other phases of life which are more dear to the Arabs than money and gold. ‘Man cannot live by bread alone,’ said Jesus Christ. The Arabs appreciate and understand this golden saying. Their case could not and should not be discussed or argued as a case of ‘bread and butter.’ They desire to enjoy the right of every people to live in peace of mind as well as of body, now and in the future, in their own country, as seems best for them. They prefer to be destitute and poor, but independent and free, in their country, than prosperous and rich in a country which will in a few years time be theirs no more.” (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 29)

● 1936 (October 9)—Kings of Saudi Arabia and Iraq join the rulers in Transjordan and Yemen in a joint declaration calling on “our sons the Arabs of Palestine [to] resolve for peace in order to save further shedding of blood.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 204)

● 1936 (October 12)—Arab strike ends in Palestine—After 6 months of disorder, 80 Jews, 28 Britons, and over 1,000 Arabs have been killed

● 1936 (October)—When a ship carrying German Jewish refugees arrives in South Africa’s Cape Town harbor, the Nazi-aligned Greyshirt movement protests at the docks (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 17)

● 1936 (November)—Peel Commission—British Royal Commission led by Lord William Peel charged with investigating the unrest in Palestine

● 1936 (December 20)—Lord Peel writes to Colonial Secretary William Ormsby-Gore: “Though I knew there was ill-feeling between Jews and Arabs, I had not realized the depth and intensity of the hatred with which the Jews are held by the Arabs. [And] I did not realize how deep-seated was the Arab fear of Jewish over-lordship and dominion.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 178)

● 1936—100,000 Jews in Jerusalem, compared to 60,000 Christian and Muslim Arabs. 384,078 Jews in Palestine out of a population of 1,366,692 (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 460; Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 11)

● 1936—After hearing the British Mandate’s radio station refer to Palestine as “eretz Yisrael,” Christian Arab educator Khalil al-Sakakini writes in his diary: “If Palestine is eretz Yisrael, then we, the Arabs, are but passing strangers, and there is nothing for us to do but to emigrate.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 33)

● 1937 (March)—Winston Churchill gives testimony to the Peel Commission: “I insist upon loyalty and upon the good faith of England to the Jews, to which I attach the most enormous importance, because we gained great advantages in the War. We did not adopt Zionism entirely out of altruistic love for starting a Jewish colony; it was a matter of great importance to this country. It was a potent factor on public opinion in America and we are bound by honor, and I think upon the merits, to push this thing as far as we can see.” During David Ben-Gurion’s testimony he waves a Bible and says: “our right to Palestine does not come from the Mandate Charter, the Bible is our Mandate Charter.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 92; Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 40)

● 1937 (May)—Polish government opens discussions with France about the possibility of sending large numbers of Polish Jews to the island of Madagascar. A joint Polish-French task force travels to Madagascar to evaluate the idea and concludes that the island can only accommodate 60,000 Jews at most, a small fraction of the 3 million Polish Jews, so the idea is scrapped (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 133)

● 1937 (June 30)—Tirat Zvi kibbutz founded in Palestine during new “Wall and Tower” settlement campaign, based on an old Ottoman law that held that any roofed structure constructed with in a single day required no permit

● 1937 (July 7)—Peel Commission proposes to partition Palestine, creating a large Arab state (70%) and a small Jewish state in about 20%of the territory, even though they only owned 7%—This is Britain’s first recognition of a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue

● 1937 (July 11)—In reaction to the Peel report, Ragheb Nashashibi says: “Palestine should be an independent Arab state without any Jewish or foreign rule.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 102)

● 1937 (August 7)—During the 20^th Zionist Congress in Zurich, David Ben-Gurion declares: “I say from the point of view of realizing Zionism it is better to have immediately a Jewish state, even if it would only be in a part of the western land of Israel [Palestine west of the river Jordan]. I prefer this to a continuation of the British Mandate…in the whole of the western land of Israel. But before clarifying my reasoning, I have to make a remark about principle. If we were offered a Jewish state in the western land of Israel in return for our relinquishing our historical right over the whole land of Israel, then I would postpone the state. No Jew has the right to relinquish the right of the Jewish people over the whole land of Israel. It is beyond the powers of any Jewish body. It is even beyond the power of the whole of the Jewish people living today to give up any part of the land of Israel.” At the Congress, Chaim Weizman proclaims: “we have the right to build our home in Eretz Israel, harming no one, helping all. When [the Arabs] acknowledge this, we shall reach common ground.” Weizman and Ben-Gurion engineer a compromise to Peel proposal, neither accepting nor refusing the partition plan. During the conference, Berl Katznelson offers his support for the transfer of Palestinians to another territory, stating: “My conscience is completely clear. A distant neighbor is better than a close enemy. They will not lose by their transfer and we certainly will not. In the final analysis this is a political reform of benefit to both sides. For a long time I have been convinced that this is the best solution…and this must happen one of these days (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 259; Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 102; Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 51)

● 1937 (September)—A pan-Arab congress held in Syria with Palestinian participation categorically rejects the Peel partition and declares that all of Palestine is Arab land and not an inch will be surrendered to the Jews

● 1937 (September 26)—British district commissioner of Galilee, Lewis Yelland Andrews, is assassinated by masked Palestinians. This is the first killing of a senior British government official in Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 470)

● 1937 (October)—Arab Revolt that started with general strike turns more militant and violent. Palestinian rebels have about 10,000 fighting against 50,000 British soldiers. British repression is brutal. An 81-year-old tribal leader Shaykh Farhan al-Sa’di is put to death by the British for possession of a single bullet—In other cases British troops execute Palestinians on the spot. In his study of the revolt, W. F. Abboushi notes that “Collective punishment and punishment by association were characteristic, and included blowing up sections of a town or a village, jailing relatives of Arab guerrillas, imposing collective fines, and interning Arabs in ‘concentration camps.’ The imposition of a seven-year jail sentence for the possession of a pistol bullet was not uncommon, nor was the practice of detaining the entire population of a town or a village while the authorities searched their homes. Churches and mosques were used as jails, and in some instances the people of the town were gathered in the open under the blazing sun.” Abboushi points out that British government documents were blunt, speaking of "the establishment of a concentration camp by the Government.” 15,000 Haganah fighters help British fight Palestinians, gaining critical military skills and experience that they will utilize during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 35-36)

● 1937 (October 1)—British strip Hajj Amin al-Husseini of his leadership of the Muslim Council and declare the Arab Higher Committee illegal. He flees to Syria, then Lebanon. Palestine’s Arab leadership is now in exile

● 1937 (October)—British diplomat George Rendel expresses dissent about Britain’s support for Peel partition plan—“The Arabs are not a mere handful of aborigines who can be disregarded by the ‘white colonizer.’ They do not represent a dying civilization. They have a latent force and vitality which is stirring into new activity. They have produced, and are still producing, great leaders, and are capable of patriotism, which it may be unwise to ignore and difficult to suppress…the ultimate importance of Arab patriotism and Moslem religious sentiment should not be underestimated.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 124)

● 1937 (October)—In a letter to his son, David Ben-Gurion says: “The compulsory transfer of the Arabs from the valleys of the proposed Jewish state could give us something we never had, even when we stood on our own during the days of the first and second Temples…We are given an opportunity which we never dared to dream of in our wildest imaginings. This is more than a state, government and sovereignty—this is national consolidation in a free homeland.” He later tells the Zionist assembly: “In many parts of the country it will not be possible to settle without transferring the Arab fellahin…With compulsory transfer we would have a vast areas for settlement…I suggest compulsory transfer. I don’t see anything immoral in it” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 51-52)

● 1937 (November 9)—Arab gunmen kill 5 agricultural workers in kibbutz near Jerusalem (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 116)

● 1937 (November 14)—“Black Sunday”—Members of Jewish terrorist group Irgun (“National Military Organization”) led by David Raziel, murder 10 Arabs near Jerusalem—Acting High Commissioner Battershill orders two dozen Revisionists, including Jabotinsky’s son, to be detained at Acre Prison (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 117)

● 1937 (November 22)—British capture and execute prominent Palestinian guerilla commander Sheikh Farhan es-Saadi (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 41)

● 1937 (November 30)—In his diary, Goebbels writes: “Talked about the Jewish question [with Hitler] for a long time…The Jews must be ejected from Germany, from the whole of Europe. This will take a while, but it will happen and it must happen. The Fuhrer is completely committed to this.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 105)

● 1937—British punish anyone bearing arms in Palestine with death penalty (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 471)

● 1937—Anti-Semitism in Poland rises—7,000 trials brought against Jews for “insulting the Polish nation”—350 anti-Semitic assaults in August alone (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 114)

● 1937—Nazi expert on the Soviet Union, Hermann Greife, publishes Forced Labor in the Soviet Union, claiming to chronicle the unique Jewish barbarity of the Soviet Union. He argues that Jews know they cannot succeed unless they systemically destroy “the most valuable racial elements” in society.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 126)
Slave Labor in Soviet Russia : Herman Greife; B Kitchener, trans.; : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1937—Fritz Fink publishes a book titled The Jewish Question in Education, and instructs teachers in Nazi Germany to teach their students about “the true depravity and danger of the Jew.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 96)

● 1937—Jabotinsky starts newspaper titled The Eleventh Hour in South Africa, which becomes the most widely read Jewish newspaper in the country (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 62)

● 1937—Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg says: “Zionism must be vigorously supported so that a certain number of German Jews is transported annually to Palestine or at least made to leave the country.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 57)

● 1937—Reform rabbi Judah Leib Magnes writes: “The great drawback on the Arab side was the lack of moral courage. If only one man would step out now and brave his people and plead that his leaders should sit down with Jewish leaders, the situation would be saved…[but] not even one Arab stood up.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 52)

● 1937—Ronald Storrs publishes his autobiography, Orientations
Orientations : Ronald Storrs : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1938—Haganah has 25,000 members (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 143)

● 1938 (January 1)—George Antonius publishes The Arab Awakening, a foundational text that introduced the West to Arab Nationalism. The book revealed for the first time the wartime correspondence between Henry McMahon and Hussein, sherif of Mecca, promising the Arabs independence if they rebelled against the Ottomans. The concluding line of the book chillingly reads: “no room can be made in Palestine for a second nation except by dislodging or exterminating the nation in possession.” (Source: George Antonius, The Arab Awakening, 412)
The Arab awakening : the story of the Arab national movement : Antonius, George : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1938 (February)—Tirat Zvi kibbutz (Zvi’s Fortress) in Palestine attacked by Arabs. Jews successfully defend settlement and kill 4 Arabs (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 133)

● 1938 (February)—Jewish policeman and Betar member opens fire at an Arab bus, killing a young boy. His capital punishment is commuted to life in prison, but he only serves 6 years (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 147)

● 1938 (March 21)—Hanita kibbutz established as Jewish spearhead in Upper Galilee. Hanita is protected by new, illegal Haganah unit called the Field Squads, which are Zionism’s first strike force commanded by Yigal Allon (age 19) and Moshe Dayan (age 22). Oren Kessler writes that “Hanita was the central symbol of this new era. For the Zionists, it represented the synthesis of settlement and defense, the fusion of plowshare and sword. Ten settlers died in its first months, but at no point did they consider vacating the site. Hanita exemplified the maxim that a settlement, once created, was not to be abandoned.” (Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 140-143)

● 1938 (March)—Armed Arabs ambush a vehicle on new highway between Acre and Safed, killing 6 people, including a father and his 12-year-old son, and an elderly woman and her daughter (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 143)

● 1938 (April 21)—British government appoints another commission to study Arab Revolt unrest, this time led by former Indian administrator Sir John Woodhead.

● 1938 (May-June)—On the orders of British colonial official Charles Tegart, the Northern Fence (Tegart’s Wall) is built in the Upper Galilee near the northern border of the territory in order to keep militants from infiltrating from French-controlled Mandatory Lebanon and Syria to join the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

● 1938 (June)—British try to show fairness by executing Jewish Irgun member Shlomo Ben-Yosef, who opened fire on an Arab bus. Even though no one was killed, the British had hanged Palestinians for far less, so they decide to hang Yosef. Before his hanging, Yosef shouts “Long live Jabotinsky!” This is the first time the British execute a Jew in Mandatory Palestine and it stuns the world, leading to demonstrations from Tel Aviv to Warsaw, and acts of terrorism, such as when a member of Irgun places a bomb in an Arab vegetable market in Haifa, killing 21 Arabs. The following month another bomb is placed at the same market, this time killing 53-74 Arabs (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 150-153)

● 1938 (June)—British Army officer Orde Wingate creates the Special Night Squads (SNS), a joint British–Jewish counter-insurgency military unit, and declares “We are establishing here the foundations for the army of Zion.” Although the unit was very effective in cutting down Arab attacks and acts of sabotage, such as oil pipeline disruptions, they are also accused of gross abuses of power and violence. Oren Kessler writes that “Wingate believed in collective retribution as a deterrent against villages aiding and abetting rebels, but he also tended to view the entire Arab nation in Palestine as a single recalcitrant village.” Wingate believed that “the whole Arab population is against us.” Wingate not only tolerated his squads committing murder, but he personally engaged in atrocious behavior. In one case, in response to oil pipeline sabotage he ordered his troops to open villagers’ mouths and cram oil and dirt into them. In another case, Wingate ordered 70 homes demolished in one village because someone opened fire on them. (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 177-178)

● 1938 (July)—In this month, 60 Jews and over 100 Arabs killed in Palestine—Oren Kessler writes: “For the first time since the Great Revolt began, for the first time in Palestine’s history, Jews were killing more Arabs than the reverse.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 154)

● 1938 (July 6-15)—US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt organizes the Evian Conference in France to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees fleeing persecution by the Nazis. President of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Stephen Wise, calls on the international community to offer refuge for at least 200,000 to 300,000 German and Austrian Jews over the coming years. However, Myron Talor, head of the American delegation, sets the tone of the conference by refusing to increase the number of refugees allowed into the US from the existing 27,000 a year. In his study of the Holocaust, Lawrence Rees says the conference was “a pitiful response to one of the most terrible human crises of modern times.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 133-134)

● 1938 (August 17)—Nazis decree that if German Jews do not already have a “Jewish” name then they have to take the additional name of “Israel” for men and “Sara” for women (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 119)

● 1938 (September 6)—Near the Christian-Muslim town of Al-Bassa near the Palestine/Lebanon border, a British truck drives over a mine, killing 1 officer and 3 soldiers.

● 1938 (September 7)—After British soldiers are killed by road mine, they burn down the town of Al-Bassa, killing several Arabs.

● 1938 (September)—25,000 British reinforcements arrive in Palestine

● 1938 (October 2)—Tiberias Massacre in Palestine—Armed Arabs storm Tiberias and burn down Jewish homes and slaughter Jewish civilians, including the stabbing deaths of 11 children—19 killed in total. In the following days, hundreds of Arab insurgents enter the Old City of Jerusalem. They burn down the police station, fly the Arab flag, and hold the city for 5 days. (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 180)

● 1938 (October 17-19)—Arab rebels seize Jerusalem and drive out British troops. British storm the city and retake it, killing 19 Arabs (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 473)

● 1938 (October)—Charles Frederick Blair, director of Canada’s Immigration Branch, states in a memo that even though the Jews face potential “extinction” in Europe, they still should not be allowed in large numbers into Canada.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 135)

● 1938 (October 28)—Nazis gather around 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany and take them to the Polish border to push them back onto Polish land (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 138)

● 1938 (November)—Night of Broken Glass—The assassination of Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a 17-year-old Polish Jew is used as an excuse for Germans to go on a rampage against Jews, burning down synagogues, destroying homes and stores, and killing at least 91. Thousands of Jews are sent to concentration camps. In his diary, David Ben-Gurion writes: “The month of November 1938 marks a new era, perhaps one never seen in the history of our people’s torment. This is not merely organized destruction…but a signal for the annihilation of the Jewish people the world over. I hope I am wrong. But I fear this is just the beginning.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 191)

● 1938 (November 9)—Woodhead report released—They conclude that the Peel commission results need to be revised and any Jewish state will have to be much smaller, less than 500 square miles

● 1938 (November 11)—Gandhi releases a major statement on Palestine in an editorial in Harijan, where he states: “My sympathy [with the Jews] does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?...Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs…Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 38)

● 1938—David Ben-Gurion writes: “Let us not delude ourselves: We are facing not terror but war. This is a national war the Arabs have declared upon us. Terror is just one of its means…This is the active resistance of the Arabs of the Land of Israel to the plunder of their homeland by the Jews—that is how the Arabs see things, and that is why they fight…When a nation fights the expropriation of its country it does not get tired so easily.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 160)

● 1938—Prime Minister Chamberlain names Malcolm MacDonald, son of Ramsay MacDonald, as secretary of state for the colonies, making him responsible for Palestine

● 1938—British High Commissioner MacMichael writes that 1938 was “the worst year in the history of the country since the war” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 181)

● 1938—This year, the keffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, becomes a ubiquitous symbol of Palestinian resistance. During the Arab Revolt, rebels rejected the Ottoman fez. As Oren Kessler writes: “to wear [the fez] was to link oneself to the landed (often, land-selling) urban establishment, and not the fighters, overwhelmingly of peasant origin, doing the killing and dying. Over one week in late summer 1938, by order of the insurgents, virtually the entire Arab male population…donned keffiyehs to help them evade detection.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 182)

● 1938—Between 1919 and 1938, the Arab population increased in Palestine by 419,000 and the Jews by 343,000 (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 462)

● 1938—Nazi Julius Streicher’s publishing company releases its anti-Semitic children’s book, The Poisonous Mushroom
The Poisonous Mushroom : Ernst Hiemer : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1938—CalTex finds major oil reserve in Kuwait and Standard Oil of California has its first oil strike in Saudi Arabia (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 356)

● 1938—During a Zionist meeting in Warsaw, Menachem Begin calls for replacing political Zionism with military Zionism and openly calls for a revolt against the British in Palestine. Begin says “we want to fight—to die or to win.” His mentor, Jabotinsky, is skeptical of this brash approach and says “go ahead and commit suicide.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 106)

● 1938—Dr. Walter Clay Lowdermilk visits Palestine to learn more about the Dust Bowl dehydrating the American West (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 439)

● 1938—Adolf Eichmann approves a request to open training camps for Jewish emigrants so that they can be prepared for their work in Palestine. After passing on this request to Berlin, Eichmann grants permission and supplies all the requirements for the establishment of training camps. By the end of 1938, around a thousand young Jews had been trained in these camps. (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 76)

● 1938—Musa Husseini, a representative of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, tells David Ben-Gurion that al-Husseini “insists on seven per cent [as the maximal percentage of Jews in the total population of Palestine], as it was at the end of the [First] World War.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 107)

● 1939 (January 21)—Hitler tells Czech Foreign Minister Chvalkovsky: “This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies and at the end of this year there will not be a Jew left in Germany. The day of reckoning has come.”

● 1939 (January 29)—In a speech to the Reichstag, Hitler says: “In the course of my life I have often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it…I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”

● 1939 (February 7)—London conference held at St. James Palace between British, Jews, and Arabs to discuss Woodhead revisions to Peel plan. MacDonald leans toward a pro-Arab solution that includes ending the British Mandate in favor of an independent Palestine.

● 1939 (February 20)—20,000 people attend a “Pro-American Rally” in New York’s City’s Madison Square Garden. The rally is set up by the German American Bund and the main speaker Gehard Wilhelm Kunze uses his speech to assail the Jews. The rally features a giant painting of George Washington flanked by swastikas
A Night at the Garden

● 1939 (February 27)—Jews attack Arabs throughout Palestine, killing 38 and wounding 44 (Source: W. F. Abboushi, “The Road to Rebellion Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” 45)

● 1939 (March 15)—Jewish and Arab delegation reject British proposals for Palestine solution

● 1939 (March)—A joint-effort between Zionist intelligence and British troops leads to the killing of Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad, one of the Palestinian leaders of the Great Revolt

● 1939 (March 27)—Irgun paramilitary detonates 2 bombs at Haifa market, killing over 20 Arabs, half were women and children (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 220)

● 1939 (April 20)—During a meeting of a cabinet committee on Palestine, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain says: “If we must offend one side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 135)

● 1939 (May 17)—British government releases the MacDonald White Paper which unequivocally states that it is not government policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state. Instead, the British Mandate should be replaced within 10 years with an independent Palestine that is neither exclusively Arab nor Jewish. Paper calls for limit on Jewish immigration to Palestine, with only 75,000 Jews being admitted over a 5-year period, and after that immigration will be restricted to Arab consent. The Paper also calls for the restriction of land sales in order to appease Arab allies—Jews are furious with the Jewish Agency, calling it a “rank betrayal” and surrender to “Arab terrorism”—This is the start of Zionist terrorism against the British in Palestine (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 214)

● 1939 (May 30)—Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and mufti formally reject plan laid out in MacDonald White Paper and declare that “Palestine…shall remain forever Arab.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 219)

● 1939 (June 2)—Irgun bombs market outside Jaffa Gate, killing 9 Arabs

● 1939 (June)—Harvard student John F. Kennedy visits Palestine, and can hear bombs going off from his hotel room

● 1939 (September)—When the Nazis invade Poland they burn down Jewish synagogues (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 424)

● 1939 (October)—Hans Frank, leader of the Polish General Government, says: “What a pleasure, finally to be able to tackle the Jewish race physically. The more that die, the better.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 155)

● 1939 (December 10)—Friedrich Uebelhoer, German governor of Polish city of Lodz, writes: “Of course, the creation of the [Jewish] ghetto is only a transitional arrangement…the ultimate objective must be to completely burn out this plague spot.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 159)

● 1939—Jewish population in Palestine rises to 31%. 450,000 Jews now live in Palestine

● 1939—End of Great Arab Revolt that started in 1936—250 British troops and police killed, 500 Jews killed, 5,000-8,000 Arabs killed, 20,000 wounded. Irgun militias responsible for killing 250 Arabs—During Revolt, 14-17% of the adult male population of Palestine was killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled to Seychelles Island, severely incapacitating the Palestinian national movement. During the Revolt, 1 in 5 Muslim men were detained by police and more than 2,000 Palestinian homes were demolished (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 211)

● 1939—At Halhul near Hebron, British troops search village for weapons and put Arab villagers in open-air cages. They set up two outdoor wire enclosures: one with ample shade, food, and water, and the other exposed to the withering sun. Access to the ‘good’ cage depended on surrendering a firearm. The unfortunates in the bad cage were each given less than a pint of drinking water per day, being forced to drink their own urine. After a week 8 people died. Other British abuses include using Arabs as “human minesweepers.” They would put Arabs in seats on a wheeled platform in front of the car so they would be killed by any potential road bombs. The British also ramp up demolition of the homes of suspected Arab rebels (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 156)

● 1939—In an editorial in a Croatian newspaper, the author writes that “the Jews were not Croats, and they could never become Croatian because by nationality they are Zionists, by race they are Semites, their religion is Israelite…I am asking the peoples of the world, how long are we going to kill each other for the interests of the Jews?...if we are to kill each other, let us first kill the Jews.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 203)

● 1939—J. M. N. Jeffries publishes Palestine: The Reality
Palestine - The Reality.pdf (archive.org)

● 1939—South African politician Eric Louw introduces an anti-Jewish immigration bill in Parliament, calling Jews “unassimilable” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 17)

● 1939—Saudi Arabian wells are producing 5 million barrels of oil per year (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 418)

● 1939—British Lt. Gen. John Glubb takes control of Jordan’s army

● 1939—Haim Margaliyot Kalvarisky founds the League for Arab-Jewish Rapprochement and Cooperation (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 94)

● 1940 (July)—Hillel Kook, aka Peter Bergson, a member of Jabotinsky’s Revisionist movement, travels to America to garner support for a Jewish fighting force to help in Palestine’s defense (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 442)

● 1940 (March-June)—Polish Zionist Dr. Moshe Sneh moves to Palestine and within 3 months becomes the leader of Haganah

● 1940 (December 19)—Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Land Fund, writes in his diary: “It must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country [Palestine]. No ‘development’ will bring us closer to our aim, to be an independent people in this small country. If the Arabs leave the country, it will be broad and wide-open for us. And if the Arabs stay, the country will remain narrow and miserable. When the War is over and the English have won, and when the judges sit on the throne of Law, our people must bring their petitions and their claim before them; and the only solution is Eretz Israel, or at least Western Eretz Israel, without Arabs. There is no room for compromise on this point! The Zionist enterprise so far, in terms of preparing the ground and paving the way for the creation of the Hebrew State in the land of Israel, has been fine and good in its own time, and could do with ‘land-buying’—but this will not bring about the State of Israel; that must come all at once, in the manner of a Salvation (this is the secret of the Messianic idea); and there is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer them all; except maybe for Bethlehem, Nazareth and Old Jerusalem, we must not leave a single village, not a single tribe. And the transfer must be directed to Iraq, to Syria, and even to Transjordan. For that purpose we’ll find money, and a lot of money. And only with such a transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers, and the Jewish question shall be solved, once and for all. There is no other way out.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 99-100)

● 1940—Former German Kaiser Wilhelm II writes that Germany’s real enemy is not the British people as a whole, but the English ruling classes who are “Freemasons thoroughly infected by Juda…The British people must be liberated from the Antichrist Juda…We must drive Juda out of England just as he has been chased out of the Continent.” Wilhelm argues that the Jews had started a war of extermination against Germany in 1914 and 1939 with the goal of establishing an international Jewish empire (Source: John C. G. Rohl, “The Kaiser and His English Relations Revisited,” in Conflict, Catastrophe and Continuity: Essays on Modern Germany History, 151)

● 1940—Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels produces two anti-Semitic films: The Eternal Jew and Jew Süss

● 1940—Nazis create the first Jewish ghetto in Poland’s history (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews, Vol. 2, 430)

● 1940—Abraham Stern breaks away from Irgun and forms the Jewish terrorist group Lehi/Stern Gang. Historian Sasha Polakow-Suransky says “Lehi was…unabashedly racist toward Arabs. Their publications described Jews as a master race and Arabs as a slave race.” Stern sends a representative to meet with German officials in Beirut to argue for a convergence of interests “between the aims of the ‘New Order’ in Europe as interpreted by the Germans and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people.” Through his envoy, Stern offers to use Jewish forces to drive Britain out of Palestine in return for unrestricted Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine and German recognition of Jewish statehood. He argues that such an alliance will resolve the Jewish question in Europe and Jewish national aspirations while dealing their common British enemy a crucial defeat. Stern never receives a response from the Nazis (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 248; Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 107)

● 1940-41—Hitler considers plan to deport Jews to a death-colony in Madagascar (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 400)

● 1941 (January)—Bulgarians enact a Law for the Protection of the Nation, which contains a host of anti-Semitic measures, such as banning marriages between Jews and non-Jews and excluding Jews from jobs in the civil service (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 290)

● 1941 (March)—Vidkun Quisling gives a speech in Frankfurt and calls for all the Jews to be expelled from Norway (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 183)

● 1941 (April 30)—Law Concerning Nationality passes in Croatia, depriving Jews of their citizenship. 3 weeks later, all Jews are ordered to wear yellow patches on their clothing (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 203)

● 1941 (May)—British create the Palmach, a small Jewish commando force to fight the Nazis (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 477)

● 1941 (June)—Range of anti-Semitic measures passed in the Netherlands (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 184)

● 1941 (June)—After Rashid Ali’s government falls in Iraq, the Jews in Baghdad are massacred in one of the worst pogroms in Arab history. 100-300 Jews are killed in what comes to be known as the Farhud (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 208)

● 1941 (June 25)—The day after the Germans arrive in Kaunas, local Lithuanians turn on the Jews in a series of bloody murders outside a garage in the center of the city. Between 40 and 50 Jews are gathered and beaten to death with a crowbar, one by one, to the cheers and applause of a large crowd. After the murders, the killer climbs on top of the dead bodies and plays the Lithuanian national anthem on an accordion (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 207-208)
Massacre_of_Jews_in_Lietūkis_garage.jpeg (1971×1321) (wikimedia.org)

● 1941 (June 26-27)—Nazi soldiers assisted by Ukrainian fascist militias herd 1,500 Jews into the Great Synagogue in Nemyrov and shoot them to death. In the city of Lwow, Ukrainians participate in the murder of around 4,000 Jews (Source: Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews Vol. 2, 424; Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 218)

● 1941 (June 28-29)—In Iasi, Romanians go on a rampage killing 4,000 to 8,000 Jews (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 209-210)

● 1941 (August 1)—Himmler sends a message to a regiment operating in the Soviet Union, saying: “All Jews must be shot. Drive the female Jews into the swamp.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 228)

● 1941 (September)—All Jews over the age of 6 living in Germany and Austria are required to wear a yellow badge in the shape of the Star of David on their clothing (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 231)

● 1941 (September 29-30)—Nazis kill 34,000 Jews in a mass shooting at Babi Yar, Ukraine

● 1941 (October 27)—Hajj Amin al-Husseini meets with Mussolini in Rome. Mussolini backs the creation of a Palestinian state, saying that if the Jews want their own country, “they should establish Tel Aviv in America.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 475)

● 1941 (November)—In his diary, Goebbels writes: “All Jews belong, due to their birth and race, to an international conspiracy against National Socialist Germany.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 237-238)

● 1941 (November 28)—Hajj Amin el-Husseini arrives in Berlin, meeting with Hitler and Himmler

● 1941 (December 7)—Nazis open first fixed-location killing facility built primarily in order to kill Jews in Poland at Chelmno (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 244)

● 1941—After being arrested by Stalin’s NKVD and sentenced to the Gulag as a British spy, Menachem Begin is released after Stalin’s pact with the Polish leader General Sikorski. Begin joins the Polish army which brings him to Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 481)

● 1941—Harry Truman joins the Zionist-minded American Christian Palestine Committee (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 484)

● 1941—Chaim Weizmann tells the Soviet ambassador in London of the need to transfer half a million Arabs out of Palestine as “a first installment” to make room for 2 million Jews fleeing from Hitler (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 68)

● 1942—Biltmore Program announced by Zionists at Biltmore Hotel in New York. First time that Zionists openly call for turning all of Palestine into a Jewish state

● 1942 (January 20)—At the Wannsee Conference in Germany, Nazis discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Problem”

● 1942 (January 23-30)—Hitler gives genocidal predictions about the Jews. On the 23^rd, he says: “One must act radically. When one pulls out a tooth, one does it with a single tug, and the pain quickly goes away. The Jew must clear out of Europe. Otherwise no understanding will be possible between Europeans. It’s the Jew who prevents everything. When I think about it, I realize that I’m extraordinarily humane…I restrict myself to telling them they must go away. If they break their pipes on the journey, I can’t do anything about it. But if they refuse to go voluntarily, I see no other solution by extermination.” On the 27^th he says: “The Jews must pack up, disappear from Europe…Where the Jews are concerned, I’m devoid of all sense of pity.” On the 30^th he declares: “The war will not end as the Jews imagine it will, namely, with the uprooting of the Aryan peoples of Europe. On the contrary, the result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews. Now for the first time they will not bleed other people to death; rather, for the first time the genuine old Jewish law of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ will be applied….And the hour will come when the most evil world-enemy of all times, or at least of the last thousand years, will have played his part to the end.”

● 1942 (February 12)—British kill Lehi leader Abraham Stern

● 1942 (August 11)—Agudat Ihud formed in Jerusalem. Its platform calls for Arab-Jewish cooperation and “the creation in the country of a government based on equal political rights for its two peoples.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 48)

● 1942 (September 30)—In a speech, Hitler says: “The Jews once laughed about my prophecies in Germany. I do not know whether they are still laughing today or whether they no longer feel like laughing. Today, too, I can assure you of one thing: they will soon not feel like laughing anymore anywhere.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 294)

● 1942 (November)—First news of the Holocaust reaches Jerusalem. Palestine Post reports: “Mass Butchery of Polish Jews!” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 479)

● 1942 (December 17)—British, Americans, and Soviets all issue statements expressing outrage at the Nazi’s murderous attacks on Jews (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 284)

● 1942—French fascist Lucien Rebatet publishes a pamphlet titled “The Ruins,” that argues that Jews have caused France’s downfall, and Nazi Germany offers a model to follow (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 151)

● 1942—Zionist Berl Katznelson says: “To the extent that I know Zionist ideology, this [transfer of Palestinians] is part of the realization of Zionism.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 52)

● 1942—Henrietta Szold co-founds the Ihud Party in Palestine that advocates for a bi-national solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of a two-state solution

● 1942—Polish Jewish lawyer Raphaël Lemkin coins the word “genocide,” which he defines as the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

● 1943—Heinrich Himmler tells Hajj Amin al-Husseini that the Nazis have “already exterminated more than 3 million Jews” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 476)

● 1943 (February)—Joseph Goebbels gives a speech in Berlin’s Sportpalast and says: “A Bolshevization of the Reich would mean the liquidation of our entire intelligentsia and leadership, and the descent of our workers into Bolshevist-Jewish slavery…Behind the oncoming Soviet divisions, we see the Jewish liquidation commandos, and behind them, terror, the specter of mass starvation and complete anarchy.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism)

● 1943 (April)—Joseph Goebbels uses news of the Soviet massacre of 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest as evidence of “Jewish liquidation commandos” slaughtering their enemies in the wake of Soviet triumphs (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 154)

● 1943 (May)—Ibn Saud sends an enraged memorandum to US President Roosevelt, saying: “Jews have no right to Palestine…God forbid the Allies should, at the end of their struggle, crown their victory by evicting the Arabs from their home.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 469)

● 1943 (May 13)—Hitler tells Goebbels that there is “nothing else open for modern people to do other than to eradicate the Jews.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 333)

● 1943 (September)—Nazis send 5,000 Jews to Auschwitz Birkenau to live in a “family camp,” to be used to convince Red Cross staff that this is a labor camp, not a death camp. The Jews are told to write their family members postcards to let them know everything is fine. After the postcards are sent, all of the Jews in the “family camp” are gassed to death (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 357)

● 1943 (October)—Menachem Begin orders the blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn) in Jerusalem, which the British banned in 1929. British forces immediately attack the praying Jews. When the shofar is blown again the following year, the British ignore it (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 482)

● 1943 (October)—Ivan Maisky, former Soviet Ambassador to London and now Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs, makes the first official visit of a Soviet dignitary to Palestine. Around the same time a Soviet diplomat tells a Jewish delegation: “Back in the twenties, we could not but consider Zionism as an agency of British imperialism. And we were bound to treat you accordingly. Now, however, the whole situation has changed. Not only do Britain and Zionism seem to be at a constant variance, but our outlook, too, has undergone a serious evolution. Should Soviet Russia be interested in the future in the Middle East, it would be obvious that the advanced and progressive Jews of Palestine hold out much more promise for us than the backward Arabs controlled by feudal cliques of kings and effendis.” (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 109)

● 1943 (October 4)—In a speech to the SS, Himmler says: “Between ourselves it is to be said out loud once, in a perfectly open manner, and thereafter we will never more speak of it in public…I am speaking now of the evacuation of the Jews, the eradication of the Jewish people. It’s a subject people tend to talk about very easily—The Jewish people is to be eradicated,’ says this or that Party member, ‘of course it is, it’s there in our programme, elimination of the Jews, eradication, let’s do it.’ And then they all come, those decent 80 million Germans, and every one has his good Jew. Of course they know the others are swine, but this one is a first-rate Jew. Among those who talk that way, not one has witnessed the actual thing, not one has seen it through. Most of you will know what it means for a hundred corpses to be laid out in front of you, for five hundred to be lying there or a thousand. To have seen that through to the end and—apart from exceptions due to human weakness—to have behaved correctly is what has made us hard. This is an unwritten and never to be written page of glory in our history.”

● 1943 (November)—Hajj Amin al-Husseini gives a speech in Berlin and says Jews “live rather as parasites amongst the peoples, suck their blood, pervert their morals…Germany has very clearly resolved to find a definitive solution for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world.” He claims that the Jews are planning to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 476)

● 1943 (November 3-4)—During Operation Harvest Festival, Himmler orders 43,000 Jews killed at Majdanek, with 18,000 people shot the first day—the largest number ever killed in a death camp in a single day. (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 354)

● 1943—Nazi propagandists produce a poster asking: “Who Runs the Soviet Union? Jews, Jews, and once again Jews!” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 155)

● 1943—Harry Truman, US Senator from Missouri, gives a speech in Chicago at the United Rally to Demand Rescue of Doomed Jews, and says: “The history of America in its fight for freedom and the history of the Jews of America are one and the same…Merely talking about the Four Freedoms (FDR’s 4 Freedoms are freedom of speech and worship, and freedom from fear and want) is not enough…This is the time for action. No one can any longer doubt the horrible intentions of the Nazi beasts. We know that they plan the systematic slaughter throughout all of Europe, not only of the Jews but of vast numbers of other innocent peoples.” (Source: David McCullough, Truman)

● 1943—Palestine Communist Party (PCP) splits. The Jewish members reorganize the party to accept the idea that the Jewish community in Palestine is a national group entitled to self-determination. Some Arab members regroup into the National Liberation League (NLL) (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 58)

● 1944 (January)—Jewish extremists start underground resistance movement against the British Empire, releasing a statement that reads: “There is no longer any armistice between the Jewish people and the British Administration in Eretz Israel…which hands our brothers to Hitler…Our people is at war with this regime—war to the end.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 247)

● 1944 (January 30)—In a speech Hitler says: “every state, once it has devoted itself to Jewry like England, will die from this plague, unless it pulls itself together at the last minute and forcibly removes these bacteria from its body. The view that it is possible to live peacefully together or even reconcile one’s own interests and those of this ferment of the decomposition of peoples, is nothing else than hoping that the human body is able to assimilate plague bacilli.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 366)

● 1944 (May 7)—David Ben-Gurion says: “The transfer of the Arabs [out of Palestine] is easier than any other transfer since there are Arab states in the areas.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 52)

● 1944 (May)—After two Slovakian Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escape Auschwitz, they compile a report on the camp’s mass killings of Jews that spreads around the world (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 399-400)

● 1944 (July 10)—In a speech, David Ben-Gurion asks the international community: “If instead of Jews, thousands of English, American or Russian women, children and aged had been tortured every day, burnt to death, asphyxiated in gas chambers—would you have acted in the same way?” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 404)

● 1944 (July 11)—As news of the Holocaust spreads, Winston Churchill says: “There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world…and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilized men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe…Declarations should be made in public, so that everyone connected with it will be hunted down and put to death.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 403)

● 1944 (August)—Hungarian Jew Rudolph Kastner makes a deal with Adolf Eichmann to save a select group of Hungarian Jews from extermination in a death camp. He personally selects 1,685 Hungarian Jews to put on a “VIP train” to leave Hungary safely, including his family and people from his hometown, paying $1,000 per person. As part of the deal, Kastner agrees not to warn any of Hungary’s Jews that they are going to be gassed, and he even lies to them and says that they are being safely relocated (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 35)

● 1944 (September)—Irgun attacks British police stations in Jerusalem and assassinates a CID officer (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 482)

● 1944 (November 6)—Zionist Stern Gang assassinate Lord Moyne, resident British minister of Egypt, who upheld the 1939 White Paper’s restriction on Jewish immigration to Palestine. Earlier, Moyne had suggested East Prussia as a homeland for the Jews (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 400)

● 1944—Under pressure from the Zionist movement and with support of the British prime minister Winston Churchill, a Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army is formed, providing the already considerable Zionist military forces with training and combat experience, offering a vital advantage in the conflict to come in 1948. Even though 12,000 Palestinians fought for the British in WWII, they are not given a special unit or trained, so no Palestinian para-state could form like it did for the Zionists

● 1944—Menachem Begin is appointed head of Irgun with 600 fighters (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 481)

● 1944—Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine News Service, Eliahu Ben-Horin, states that: "Palestine can boast of better achievements in the field of economic communism than the Soviet Union." (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 109)

● 1944—Dr. Walter Clay Lowdermilk publishes a Zionist manifesto titled Palestine: Land of Promise
Palestine, land of promise : Lowdermilk, W. C. (Walter Clay), 1888-1974 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1944—77 US Senators vote in favor of the creation of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine. Senator Harry Truman is not among them, explaining: “My sympathy is with the Jewish people [but] I don’t want to throw any bricks to upset the applecart.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 484)

● 1944-45—David Ben-Gurion helps the British hunt down Jewish extremist militias and 300 insurgents are arrested—Known as the “Hunting Season” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 482)

● 1945 (February 4-11)—At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt tells Stalin “I’m a Zionist.” Stalin replies, “Me too, in principle,” but also adds that Jews are “profiteers and parasites” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 483)

● 1945 (April 30)—Hitler commits suicide. In his last statement he writes: “I oblige the leadership of the nation and its followers to keep the racial laws scrupulously and to resist mercilessly the world poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.” (Source: Lawrence Rees, The Holocaust, 421)

● 1945 (December 27)—Jewish terrorist group Irgun destroys CID police headquarters in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 483)

● 1945—During the Holocaust from 1941 to 1945, Nazis and their collaborators kill 6 million Jews by mass shootings and gassings at death camps
Watch German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (2014) - Free Movies | Tubi (tubitv.com)

● 1945—Jerusalem has 100,000 Jews, 34,000 Muslims, and 30,000 Christians (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 483)

● 1945—Both the Democrats and Republicans adopt pro-Zionist platforms and both houses of Congress resolve that Palestine must be “opened for the free entry of Jews” and the country “reconstitute[d]…as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 468)

● 1946 (April 20)—Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry created by British and US governments to consider the situation of Jewish Holocaust survivors. The American and Zionist preference is immediate entry into Palestine (neither the US nor UK is willing to accept them), in effect negating the 1939 White Paper to call for a halt to Jewish immigration. One of their recommendations proposes “that 100,000 certificates be authorized immediately for the admission into Palestine of Jews who have been the victims of Nazi and Fascist persecution' and that preference be given to those DPs (displaced persons) in the camps and to those liberated in Germany and Austria who were no longer in the camp.” (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 151)

● 1946 (May 1)—In a speech to Parliament, British prime minister Clement Atlee stresses that until the illegal Zionist armies are disbanded, the Mandatory government cannot absorb the large amount of Jewish immigrants called for in the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 152)

● 1946 (June)—Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, field marshal and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, visits Jerusalem and complains that “British rule existed only in name; the true rulers seemed to me to be the Jews, whose unspoken slogan was—‘You dare not touch us.’” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 485)

● 1946 (June 29)—General Evelyn Barker launches Operation Agatha, an attack on Zionist organizations. He arrests 3,000 Jews. To the Jews, the operation comes to be known as Black Sabbath and Barker becomes a hated symbol of British oppression (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 485)

● 1946 (July 4)—After rumors spread that Jews kidnapped a Christian child in the Polish city of Kielce, a mob backed by police murder 42 Jews (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 173-174)

● 1946 (July 26)—Menachem Begin’s Irgun bomb British headquarters at King David Hotel in Tel Aviv killing 91

● 1946 (July 31)—After the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry releases their report, Truman appoints Henry F. Grady and Hebert Morrison to explore the committee’s recommendations. The Morrison-Grady Plan suggests providing entry for 100,000 Jews into Palestine and envisages the country’s division into three autonomous provinces—a British district, a small Arab enclave, and a Jewish canton in 20% of the country (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 487)

● 1946 (August 7)—British government decides to deport illegal Jewish immigrants coming to Palestine to Cyprus (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 155)

● 1946 (October 31)—Irgun blow up British embassy in Rome

● 1946 (November 18)—Between October 1 and November 18, 99 British soldiers and police officers are killed by Zionist terrorist gangs like Lehi (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 159)

● 1946 (November 25)—Fawzi Darwish al-Husseini is killed by Arab gunmen over his land sales to Jews and his support for a bi-national state for Jews and Arabs in Palestine (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 94-95)

● 1946 (November 28)—The Council of the Arab League argues that the continuation of Jewish immigration to Palestine constitutes a violation of the commitment made by the British government in 1939 and endangers the peace in the Middle East. The group states: “the Arabs see in all kinds of Jewish immigration into Palestine an illegal action. They do not approve of what the British Government calls legal immigration quotas. Consequently, they consider all Jews entering Palestine as illegal immigrants who should be sent back to where they came from.” (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 159)

● 1946—608,225 Jews in Palestine out of a total population of 1,912,112 (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 11)

● 1946—After visiting Palestine, American journalist I. F. Stone publishes Underground Palestine, which details his time spent with Holocaust survivors trying to illegally get into Palestine
Underground to Palestine : Stone, I. F. (Isidor Feinstein), 1907-1989, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1946—Jordan gains its independence from the British Empire

● 1946—War-exhausted French are forced to give up their control of Syria, but carve out a new nation of Lebanon from its territory

● 1947 (February 14)—British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agrees in Cabinet to get out of Palestine

● 1947 (April 2)—Clement Atlee asks newly formed United Nations to create a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to decide its future

● 1947 (May 4)—Irgun break through the walls of the prison in Acre and free 27 of incarcerated Irgun and Lehi members

● 1947 (May 6)—British-Canadian Major Roy Farran of the Special Squads is patrolling Jerusalem when he sees a schoolboy, Alexander Rubowitz, pasting up Lehi posters. Farran kidnaps the boy and drives him into the hills to interrogate him. After torturing him, Farran smashes his skull with a rock, killing him. The body is striped and left to be eaten by jackals (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 486)

● 1947 (July 12)—“The Sergeants Affair”—After the British sentence 3 Jewish Irgun terrorists to death, the Irgun seize two British sergeants, Cliff Martin and Mervyn Paice, and hold them hostage to prevent the British from hanging the Irgun men. When the British carry out the execution, the Irgun hang Martin and Paice in retaliation on July 29. The killers pin a list of charges on the dead men’s bodies, saying that they were condemned for “illegal entry into the Hebrew homeland” and “membership of a British criminal terrorist organization known as the Army of Occupation.” The Irgun also booby-trapped the dead men’s bodies to explode when they were cut down. The hanging makes front-page news across Britain with headlines reading “Hanged Britons: Pictures That Will Shock the World.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 251-252)
Hanged_sergeants.jpg (550×392) (wikimedia.org)

● 1947 (July 18)—Ship Exodus leaves France for Palestine with over 4,000 illegal Jewish immigrant Holocaust survivors. British ship surrounds it and after a struggle 2 Jewish passengers are killed. Passengers are forced to go back to Europe. The ensuing public embarrassment for Britain plays a significant role in the diplomatic swing of sympathy toward the Jews and the eventual recognition of a Jewish state in 1948

● 1947 (August)—In reaction to the hanging of two British sergeants, anti-Jewish riots sweep throughout England and Scotland, with the worst violence taking place in Liverpool where more than 300 Jewish properties are attacked (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 252)

● 1947 (September 26)—British government officially announces its intention to withdraw from Palestine and give mandate to the UN

● 1947 (September)—In response to the United Nation’s Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) report, Jamal al-Husayni writes: “The case of the Arabs of Palestine was based on the principles of international justice; it was that of a people which desired to live in undisturbed possession of the country where Providence and history had placed it. The Arabs of Palestine could not understand why their right to live in freedom and peace, and to develop their country in accordance with their traditions, should be questioned and constantly submitted to investigation.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 253)

● 1947 (October 1)—British Major Roy Farran is court-martialed for the killing of Alexander Rubowitz, but is acquitted for lack of evidence (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 487)

● 1947 (November)—King Abdullah of Transjordan meets with Golda Meyerson (later Meir) and agrees on a basic nonaggression pact where Abdullah agrees not to oppose the creation of a Jewish state and in return Transjordan can annex the Palestinian territory in the West Bank (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 264)

● 1947 (November 21)—American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr signs a letter in the New York Times in support of partitioning Palestine, stating: “Whoever approaches the Middle East with even a minimum of objectivity has to admit that thus far there is only one vanguard of progress and modernization in the Middle East….and that is Jewish Palestine…But for these two islands of Western civilization, Jewish Palestine and Christian Lebanon, the Arab-Moslem Middle East presents a hopeless picture from an American viewpoint.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 29-30)

● 1947 (November 29)—British give control of Palestine to UN—UN General Assembly Resolution 181 calls for dividing Palestine into a large Jewish state (56% compared to 17% of 1937 Peel Commission) and a smaller Arab one, 44%—Zionists approve of plan, Arabs reject it—Now US and USSR, not Britain, are main players in Israeli-Palestinian conflict

● 1947 (November 30)—After the UN approves partition, Arab-Jewish civil war begins—Palestinian guerrillas attack Jewish settlements and blockade roads

● 1947 (December 2)—3 Jews shot in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 489)

● 1947 (December 3)—Arab gunmen attack Montefiore quarter in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 489)

● 1947 (December 7)—Ben-Gurion’s convoy is ambushed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 489)

● 1947 (December 13)—Irgun tosses bombs into bus station outside Damascus Gate, killing 5 Arabs (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 489)

● 1947—Zionist landholding in Palestine is 1,734,000 dunams, 6.59% of the total area. 600,000 Jews, and 1.2 million Arabs in Palestine (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 98; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 253)

● 1947—After revisiting his native Poland under its Communist regime, Dr. Moshe Sneh declares that "the young Jewish state could gain more by orienting itself toward the Soviet Union than it had achieved by attachment to London and Washington.” He breaks with the Jewish Agency and helps to found the broad socialist party Mapam (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 104)

● 1947—Polls show that Americans support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine by a ratio of two to one (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 488)

● 1947—Christians make up 10% of Palestinian Arabs (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 24)

● 1947—Ibn Saud writes to US President Harry Truman: “The Arabs have definitely decided to oppose [the] establishment of a Jewish state…Even if it is supposed that the Jews will succeed in gaining support…by their oppressive and tyrannous means and their money, such a state must perish in a short time. The Arab will isolate such a state from the world and will lay siege until it dies by famine…Its end will be the same as that of [the] Crusader states.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 109)

● 1948—Jews possess 250,000 acres of land in Palestine with 83,000 settlers living in 233 villages (Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 421)

● 1948—The Soviets provide Israelis with weapons through Czechoslovakia with the help of the Palestine Communist Party (PCP) (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 61)

● 1948 (January)—Matiel Mughannam, the Lebanese-born Christian Arab head of the Arab Women’s Organization, which is affiliated with the Arab Higher Committee, tells an interviewer: “[A Jewish state] has no chance to survive now that the ‘Holy War’ has been declared. All the Jews will eventually be massacred.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 109)

● 1948 (January 5)—Haganah attacks Katamon and destroys the Semiramis Hotel, killing 11 Christian Arabs (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 490)

● 1948 (February 1)—Offices of the Palestine Post blown up by Abd al-Kadir Husseini’s militiamen

● 1948 (February 13)—British arrest 4 Haganah fighters and release them unarmed to an Arab mob who murders them (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 490)

● 1948 (February 22)—Abd al-Kadir Husseini sends British deserters to blow up Ben Yehuda Street, an atrocity that kills 52 Jewish civilians. The Irgun shoot 10 British soldiers (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 490)

● 1948 (February)—In six weeks of violence, 1,060 Arabs, 769 Jews, and 123 Britons are killed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 490)

● 1948 (March)—75,000 Arabs flee their homes to escape violence in Palestine (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 493)

● 1948 (April)—Haganah take control of the village of Kastel, which controls the road from the coast to Jerusalem

● 1948 (April 8)—Palestinian nationalist Abd al-Kadir Husseini killed by Jewish forces near Jerusalem

● 1948 (April 9)—Funeral of Abd al-Kadir Husseini

● 1948 (April 9)—100-250 Arab residents in Deir Yassin near Jerusalem are killed by Jewish militias (Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah). 67 of those killed are women, children, and the elderly. The massacre sparks a surge of terrified Palestinians fleeing their homes and becoming refugees. A survivor recounted how: “Among the atrocities they killed…a ninety-year-old-man, and threw his body from the balcony of his home into the street. They did the same to…an old man aged ninety-five, and killed his eighty-year-old wife and their grandchild. They murdered a blind youth…and his wife, who tried to protect him, and her eighteen-month-old child. They murdered a school teacher who was tending to the wounded.” (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 234; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 259)

● 1948 (April 13)—In Palestine, 150 Arab gunmen attack a convoy of Hadassah ambulances and food trucks heading to Mount Scops on the edge of Jerusalem, killing 77 Jews, mainly doctors and nurses. The killers take pictures posing with the bodies, which are then sold in Arab stores in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 493)

● 1948 (April 21-23)—Haganah forces go on the offensive and take over Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa, Safed, and Beisan. Jewish planes bomb Haifa. By May, the civil war for Palestine is over and the Jews emerge victorious

● 1948 (May)—Between November 1947 and May 1948, the British deport 22,284 illegal Jewish immigrants trying to get into Palestine to Cyprus. According to Arieh J. Kochavi: “Britain succeeded in apprehending and deporting to detention camps in Cyprus and Germany most of the illegal immigrants, about 51,000 of the approximately 70,000 Jewish refugees who had embarked for Palestine.” (Source: Arieh J. Kochavi, “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” 163)

● 1948 (May)—390,000 Arabs have fled their homes in Palestine to escape violence (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 493)

● 1948 (May 14)—British leave Palestine—State of Israel declared—Harry Truman unofficially recognizes state of Israel within 11 minutes

● 1948 (May 15)—First Arab-Israeli War begins—Armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt go to war with Israel. Arab armies have a combined force of 165,000 soldiers, but only 25,000 fight, whereas the Israelis field 65,000 soldiers by July and 96,000 by December. Abdullah is named Supreme Commander of Arab League forces. Historian Eugene Rogan notes that “the Arabs entered [the war in] Palestine more at war with each other than with the Jewish state” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 262)

● 1948 (May 15)—Menachem Begin says that Israel’s “flag will yet be raised above David’s Tower [in Jerusalem’s Old City]” and “our plow will yet plow the fields of Gilead [east of the Jordan].” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 78)

● 1948 (May 17)—Soviet Union becomes first state to officially recognize Israel

● 1948 (May 26)—Arab forces under John Bagot Glubb takeover Jerusalem. 22 of the 27 synagogues are demolished. For the first time since 1187, the Jews lose access to the Western Wall

● 1948 (June)—Speaking on the Palestinian refugees who left their homes, David Ben-Gurion says: “We must prevent at all costs their return.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 262)

● 1948 (June 11)—UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte mediates a truce between the Arabs and Israelis that quickly breaks down

● 1948 (June 20)—Menachem Begin agrees to merge his Irgun forces with those of the Israeli state. However, when he attempts to land his own shipment of arms, the Israeli Army sinks the ship. Begin gives up the underground and enters regular politics (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 501)

● 1948—Plan Dalet (Plan D): Israeli plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Arab areas, including two of the largest Arab urban centers, Jaffa and Haifa. Israelis bomb Jaffa and empty the city of its 60,000 Arab residents. In total, Israelis destroy over 400 Palestinian villages (Source: Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, 72-73)

● 1948 (September 17)—Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte, UN mediator of Arab-Israeli conflict, is assassinated in Jerusalem by paramilitary Zionist group Lehi, led by Yitzhak Shamir. Bernadotte is killed for his position on the Palestine problem. In early 1948, Bernadotte had warned the UN Security Council: “It could not be ignored that unrestricted immigration to the Jewish area of Palestine might, over a period of years, give rise to a population pressure and to economic and political disturbances which would justify present Arab fears of ultimate Jewish expansion in the Near East…It can scarcely be ignored that Jewish immigration into the Jewish area of Palestine concerns not only Jewish people and territory but also the neighboring Arab world.” (Source: Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine, 4)

● 1948 (September 26)—David Ben-Gurion dismisses a proposal for a renewed IDF offensive in the West Bank (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 78)

● 1948 (November)—Military commander of Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan, agrees to a ceasefire with the Jordanians

● 1948 (December 11)—UN General Assembly resolution 194 affirms the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and property. Similar resolutions have been passed more than 28 times since 1948 (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 48)

● 1948—35,000 Jews live in Soviet Birobidzhan

● 1948—Lehi tries to assassinate British Major Roy Farran with a parcel bomb, but his brother opens the package and is killed (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 487)

● 1948—David Ben-Gurion sends Golda Meyerson to US on a fundraising trip—she raises $50-75 million for Israel (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 24)

● 1948—Nakba (Catastrophe)—Over 7 months, Israel destroys 531 Palestinian villages and kills 15,000 Palestinians. Over 750,000 Palestinians forced from their homes become refugees, going to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza—80% of the Arab population removed from what would become the state of Israel—Israel now controls 77% of the former territory of Mandatory Palestine and rules over 160,000 Palestinian Arabs that remained. Arab armies are only able to hold on to 22% of Palestine in West Bank and Gaza. Jordan takes control of West Bank, and Egypt takes control of Gaza. 250,000 Palestinians are driven from their homes into Gaza, adding to the 80,000 already living there.

● 1948—Joseph Weitz visits an evacuated Arab village and notes: “I went to visit the village of Mu’ar. Three tractors are completing its destruction. I was surprised; nothing in me moved at the sight of the destruction. No regret and no hate, as though this was the way the world goes. So we want to feel good in this world, and not in some world to come. We simply want to live, and the inhabitants of those mud-houses did not want us to exist here. They not only aspire to dominate us, they also wanted to exterminate us. And what is interesting—this is the opinion of all our boys, from one end to the other.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 102)

● 1948—90,000 native Gazans at this time (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 175)

● 1949 (January)—Britain officially recognizes the state of Israel

● 1949 (January)—Israel signs General Armistice Agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, officially ending the Arab-Israeli War. UN official, Ralph Bunche, receives Nobel Peace Prize for mediating. 6,000 Jews killed in the war (1% of the population) (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 6)

● 1949 (January)—In Israel’s first national election, the Israeli Communist Party does poorly, only winning 15,148 votes or 3.44 per cent of the electorate (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 117)

● 1949 (February 8)—Shin Bet formed to fight Israel’s enemies in the homeland

● 1949 (March)—David Ben-Gurion turns down a proposal by Yigal Allon to conquer the West Bank (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 79)

● 1949 (April)—UN supervises the division of Jerusalem: Israel receives the west with an island of territory on Mount Scopus, while Abdullah gets the Old City, eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. Agreement promises Jews access to the Western Wall, but this is not honored and they are unable to pray at the Wall for 19 years. Jewish cemeteries on Mount of Olives and Kidron Valley are vandalized (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 503)

● 1949 (May)—Israel admitted to the UN

● 1949 (December 11)—Jerusalem declared the capital of Israel

● 1949 (December 13)—Mossad formed to fight Israel’s enemies abroad

● 1949—Flotilla 13 founded as secret Israeli commando unit responsible for clandestine penetration, sabotage, and targeted killings via the sea

● 1949—Beginning of compulsory military service in Israel

● 1949—Chaim Weizmann releases his autobiography, Trial and Error
Trial and error; the autobiography of Chaim Weizmann : Weizmann, Chaim, 1874-1952 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1949-50—50,000 Yemeni Jews immigrate to Israel (Source: Aviva Halamish, “A New Look at Immigration of Jews from Yemen to Mandatory Palestine,” 59)

● 1949-50—US promotes a scheme to settle 100,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq in exchange for Iraqi Jews moving to Israel (Source: Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, “America's Palestine Policy,” 195)

● 1950—Israel chooses neutrality in the Korean War, demonstrating their move away from Soviet Union’s influence and toward the US

● 1950—UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) established to provide relief and other assistance to Palestinians who lost their homes and livelihood during the Nakba (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza's Humanitarianism Problem,” 26)

● 1950 (April)—Transjordan annexes the West Bank, leading to the formal renaming of the entire kingdom to Jordan

● 1950 (July 5)—Israel passes Law of Return which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship

● 1950—Israel passes Absentee’s Property Law, allowing Israelis to seize and confiscate immense lands and property of Palestinians

● 1950—127,600 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 380)

● 1951 (July 20)—In Jerusalem at the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque, Jordanian King Abdullah is assassinated in front of his son by a 21-year-old Palestinian gunman named Mustafa Shukri Ashshu. The Guardian reports that: “During the Arab-Jewish war [the assassin] was a member of the ‘dynamite squad’ attached to the Arab irregular forces which were associated with the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem and became bitter enemies of Abdullah.”

● 1951 (September 30)—In an article in Haaretz, the author states: “strengthening Israel helps the Western powers maintain equilibrium and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to become the watchdog.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 42)

● 1951—British Prime Minister Winston Churchill tells one of his officials, “You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem—it was they who made it famous.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 507)

● 1951—Menachem Begin publishes The Revolt, detailing the rise of the Irgun and his involvement in anti-British terrorism during the Mandate years
The revolt : Begin, Menachem, 1913-1992 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1951—In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt writes: “After the [Second World] war it turned out that the Jewish question, which was considered the only insoluble one, was indeed solved—namely, by means of a colonized and then conquered territory—but this solved neither the problem of minorities nor the stateless. On the contrary, like virtually all other events of our century, the solution of the Jewish question merely produced a new category of refugees, the Arabs, thereby increasing the number of the stateless by another 700,000 to 800,000 people.” (Source: Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 290)

● 1951—James G. MacDonald, first US ambassador to Israel, publishes My Mission in Israel, 1948-1951
My mission in Israel, 1948-1951 : McDonald, James G. (James Grover), 1886-1964 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1951—Israel has taken in over 262,000 Jews from Arab lands (Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 439)

● 1951—UNRWA has confirmed and registered 860,000 Palestinian refugees (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 103)

● 1951—David Ben-Gurion writes: “Let us not fool ourselves in thinking that America ever identified or will ever identify in the future with the state of Israel…there is no identity of interest between a world power…and a small and poor nation in the faraway corner of the Middle East.” (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 80)

● 1952 (July)—British control of Egypt ends when King Farouk is overthrown by Gamal Abdel Nasser and his nationalist Free Officers Movement

● 1952 (November-December)—Czechoslovakian Communist Party arrests party leader Rudolph Slansky and thirteen other communist officials on false charges of conspiracy and puts them on a show trial. Each of the defendants is coerced by interrogators to admit to a variety of treasonous acts that are all linked by their supposedly secret and powerful commitment to Zionism. The Jewish origins of Slansky and most of the other defendants is used as proof of their intention to sabotage Communism in Czechoslovakia. Slansky and his colleagues are found guilty of working for an international Zionist network and 11 of the defendants are executed (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 183-184)

● 1952—Romanian Communists conduct their own anti-Semitic show trial of Jewish party member Ana Pauker. She is accused of being part of a “Zionist conspiracy.” Pauker is expelled from the party and arrested, but her life is spared when Stalin dies (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 190)

● 1952—Reporter Ray Brock publishes Blood, Oil, and Sand, which argues: “Despite the most rigorous screening, the waves of immigrants into Israel contain men and women dedicated to the eventual anarchical overthrow of the Israeli government and the establishment of a desperate Communist state in the heartland of the Middle East. Israel's swelling population is drawn from Central and Eastern European areas where Communism alone afforded the organization and arms enabling limited resistance to the former enemy.” (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 116-117)

● 1952—Israel Institute for Biological Research founded—creates biological warfare agents

● 1952—Israel and West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany/FRG) sign the Luxembourg Agreement. West Germany promises to deliver a total of three billion marks worth of reparations to Israel over 14 years, helping to build the Israeli economy (Source: J. Smith and Andre Moncourt, “Appendix III: The FRG and the State of Israel” in The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1, 550)

● 1952—Yasser Arafat elected president of the Palestinian Student Union in Cairo (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 343)

● 1952—David Ben-Gurion declares: “Israel…has been established in only a portion of the land of Israel. Even those who are dubious as to the restoration of the historical frontiers, as fixed and crystallized from the beginning of time, will hardly deny the anomaly of the boundaries of the new State.” (Source: Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, 4)

● 1952—J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller visit Israel and meets with David Ben-Gurion to discuss atomic energy (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 49)

● 1953—Israel forms secret Unit 101, a group of special forces led by major Ariel Sharon. Tasked with striking preemptively deep inside the Palestinian territories, Sharon first leads his commandos in a raid against the refugee camp of al-Bureij, south of Gaza City, killing at least 20 civilians. (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 53)

● 1953 (January 13)—A group of prominent Moscow doctors, publicly identified as Jews, are accused of plotting together with international Zionist organizations to assassinate top Soviet officials including Stalin himself. The charges are dismissed after Stalin’s death in March (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 186)

● 1953 (February)—Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 185)

● 1953 (August)—Operation Ajax—British Intelligence and CIA, under direction of Kermit Roosevelt Jr., stage a coup in Iran, overthrowing prime minister Muhammad Mosaddeq, who had signaled he would nationalize Iran’s oil (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 150)

● 1953 (October)—Israeli forces led by Ariel Sharon in the West Bank village of Qibya blow up 45 homes and kill 69 Palestinians as revenge for an attack by Palestinian fedayeen (“self-sacrificers) that killed 3 Israelis

● 1953—Moshe Dayan takes command of the Israeli Army

● 1953—Israel passes Land Acquisition Law that allows them to take Palestinian land

● 1953—Noam Chomsky goes to Israel and lives at Ha-Zore’a, a kibbutz associated with Hashomer Hatzair

● 1953—Israel begins siphoning off some of the water resources that are desperately needed in Syria and Lebanon (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel)

● 1953—Shimon Peres becomes director-general of the Defense Ministry and is sent to Paris to coordinate relations with the French military establishment (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 24)

● 1953—Menachem Begin visits South Africa to fundraise for the Herut Party (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 62)

● 1954—United States and Britain promote secret peace initiative code-named Alpha—This plan calls for Israel to concede large chunks of territory in the Negev in return for an Arab pledge of nonbelligerency. Both Israel and Egypt reject the terms of the plan (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 8)

● 1954 (March 17)—Ma'ale Akrabim massacre (Scorpion’s Pass Massacre)—12 Arab terrorists ambush civilian bus in Southern Israel and kill 11 passengers

● 1954 (July)—Churchill evacuates all British troops from Egypt, ending their 70-year occupation

● 1954 (September 28)—When Israel attempts to sail the vessel Bat Galim in the Suez Canal, Egypt seizes it

● 1954 (December 8)—Israeli commando force is captured inside Syria while on a mission to replace the battery in a covert listening device. One of the captured soldiers, Uri Ilan, commits suicide in Damascus’s notorious el-Mazah prison. Ilan becomes a legend when it is revealed that a note was found on his body that read, “I didn’t betray.” The remaining soldiers break under torture and tell all they know. When they return home in a prisoner-swap, they are court martialed by army chief of staff Moshe Dayan for “surrendering” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 185)

● 1954—Lavon Affair—A failed Israeli covert operation conducted in Egypt, codenamed Operation Susannah. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews are recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American, and British-owned civilian targets: cinemas, libraries, and American educational centers. The bombs are timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists, "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists," with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone. The operation causes no casualties among the Egyptian population, but leads to the deaths of four operatives: two cell members commit suicide after being captured, and two other operatives are tried, convicted, and executed by the Egyptian authorities. The operation ultimately becomes known as the Lavon affair after the Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon, who is forced to resign as a consequence of the incident

● 1954—Uzi submachine-gun developed by Uziel “Uzi” Gal is introduced to the IDF

● 1954—Sniper fire kills 9 and wounds 54 in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 504)

● 1954—Over 30% of the Jewish population in Israel lives in formerly Arab property (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 84)

● 1954-55—Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) leads group of 200 Palestinians to commit sabotage and murder operations in Israel

● 1955 (January)—Two Israelis driving tractors are murdered by Jordanians who snuck across the border (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 22)

● 1955 (February)—Israel seeks to provoke Egypt into war by conducting a cross-border raid that kills over 40 Egyptian soldiers (known as the Gaza Raid)

● 1955 (April)—Israel is invited to a conference of independent Asian and African states in Bandung, Indonesia. However, under pressure from Egypt and other Arab states, the Indian premier Jawaharlal Nehru withdraws the invitation (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 22)

● 1955 (August)—Egypt’s intelligence service launches a counter offensive by proxy, overseeing the infiltration into Gaza of trained and armed Palestinian militants called fedayeen. Israel retaliates by killing 72 Egyptians and Palestinians in Gaza, after which an uneasy truce prevails

● 1955—Operating through a Czech supplier of Soviet arms, Nasser purchases more tanks, guns, and jets for Egypt than those amassed by all the Middle East’s armies combined

● 1955—Israel’s foreign minister, Moshe Sharrett, shoots down plan conceived by David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan to “buy” a Maronite officer in Lebanon who would then “invite” Israel intervention in Lebanese affairs and enable Israel to establish its control over Lebanon (Ze’ev Schiff and Ehud Ya’ari, Israel’s Lebanon War)

● 1955—In an article in Ma’ariv, Dr. A. Carlebach argues that Islam opposes Zionism, stating: “These Arab Islamic countries do not suffer from poverty, or disease, or illiteracy, or exploitation; they only suffer from the worst of all plagues: Islam. Wherever Islamic psychology rules, there is the inevitable rule of despotism and criminal aggression. The danger lies in Islamic psychology, which cannot integrate itself into the world of efficiency and progress, that lives in a world of illusion, perturbed by attacks of inferiority complexes and megalomania, lost in dreams of the holy sword. The danger stems from the totalitarian conception of the world, the passion for murder deeply rooted in their blood, from the lack of logic, the easily inflamed brains, the boasting, and above all: the blasphemous disregard for all that is sacred to the civilized world…their reactions—to anything—have nothing to do with good sense. They are all emotional, unbalanced, instantaneous, senseless. It is always the lunatic that speaks from their throat. You can talk ‘business’ with everyone, and even with the devil. But not with Allah….This is what every grain in this country shouts. There were many great cultures here, and invaders of all kinds. All of them—even the Crusaders—left signs of culture and blossoming. But on the path of Islam, even the trees have died… We pile sin upon crime when we distort the picture and reduce the discussion to a conflict of border between Israel and her neighbors. First of all, it is not the truth. The heart of the conflict is not the question of the borders; it is the question of Muslim psychology.” (Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 89-90)

● 1955—First Israeli archeological excavations at Hazor. Biblical archaeologist William G. Devers explains that Israeli Archaeology is about “the concentrated effort to recover a national history, particularly of the Canaanite and Israelite eras.” (Source: William G. Dever, “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,” 45)

● 1955—Jon and David Kimchee publish The Secret Roads: The “Illegal” Migration of a People, 1938-1948
The secret roads; the illegal migration of a people, 1938-1948. With an introduction by David Ben Gurion. : Kimche Jon and David : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1955—Nasser publishes The Philosophy of the Revolution
https://archive.org/details/ThePhilosophyOfTheRevolutionBookI/page/n29/mode/2up

● 1956 (February 28)—John Glubb removed from post in Jordan’s army and British officials and military personnel are asked to leave the country (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers)

● 1956 (April)—Israel bombs Gaza City

● 1956 (April)—France sells Israel fighter jets without informing the US (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 25)

● 1956 (June)—Israelis and French conclude $70 million arms deal (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 25)

● 1956 (July)—Israel assassinates Egyptian intelligence chief with a booby-trapped Quran made by Israeli master bombmaker Natan Rotberg

● 1956 (July 23)—Nasser announces the nationalization of the Suez Canal

● 1956 (October)—Middle East expert Walter Laqueur writes: "Soviet leadership thinks in terms of power politics, not in those of lofty idealism. At the bottom of its Middle Eastern policy, it is neither pro-Arab, nor pro- Israel; it is pro-Soviet.... This is the long and the short of it." (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 119)

● 1956 (October 29)—After Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, the Israelis launch the Suez War against Egypt with Britain and France as allies in the second major Arab-Israeli war—It begins with Israel invading Egypt and engaging Egyptian soldiers in the Suez. France and Britain threaten to intervene militarily unless all troops, Israeli and Egyptian, withdraw from the canal, knowing that Egypt will not comply and give them the excuse to invade. British warplanes bomb Cairo, killing as many as 3,000 Egyptians. Egypt is defeated, but the US forces Israel, France, and Britain to withdraw from Egypt and Gaza. Historian James Vernon says: “Britain not only lost strategic control of the Suez Canal, the very lifeline of the Empire, but international prestige.” The “Suez Crisis” is seen as the moment that it truly became apparent that the British Empire was no longer the dominant world superpower (Source: James Vernon, Modern Britain: 1750 to the Present, 412; Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 53)

● 1956 (October 29)—An Israeli Border Police unit enforcing a curfew in the village of Kafr Qasim round up a group of Palestinians and shoot them, killing 43-49, including 9 women and 17 children. The policemen claim they were obeying orders to shoot curfew breakers, but Judge Benjamin Halevy, in one of Israel’s most important legal rulings, says that soldiers must not obey an order that is clearly illegal. He argues: “the distinguishing mark of a manifestly illegal order is that above such an order should fly, like a black flag, a warning saying: ‘Prohibited!’ Not merely formally illegal…but an illegality that stabs the eye and infuriates the heart, if the eye is not blind and the heart is not obtuse or corrupt.” Israeli historian Ilan Pappe notes that: “Many scholars today now think that the 1956 massacre was a practice run to see if the people in the area could be intimidated to leave…[The] commanders responsible for the area, and the unit itself that committed the crime, were let off very lightly, receiving merely small fines. This was further proof that the army was allowed to get away with murder in the occupied territories.” (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise up and Kill First; Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 86-87)

● 1956 (November 1-3)—Israeli troops kill more than 450 people in Gaza as revenge for previous attacks launched on Israel

● 1956—Cease-fire declared in Suez War

● 1956—Golda Meyerson changes her last name to Meir

● 1956—In his book Black, Red, Blond and Olive, American author Edmund Wilson writes: “the position of the Arabs in Israel…is rather like that fierce but still picturesque, pathetically retarded people, cut off from the main community but presenting a recurrent problem. In a large Arab town like Acre, the squalor of the swarming streets inspires in an Israeli the same distaste that it does in the visiting Westerner. For the Jew, who takes family relations so seriously and who, in Israel, has labored so carefully with the orphans of Poland and Germany, and the children of the illiterate Yemenites, the spectacle of flocks of urchins, dirty, untaught, diseased, bawling and shrieking and begging in the narrow and dirty streets, inspires even moral horror.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 34-35)
Red Black Blond and Olive(1956) : Wilson Edmund : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1956—In Egypt, around 1,000 Egyptian Jews are arrested, and 500 Jewish families are expelled from the country (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 55)

● 1956—France sells Israel the Dimona nuclear reactor

● 1956—US engages in another secret peace initiative code-named Gamma that seeks to purchase Egyptian nonbelligerency with a swath of Israeli land. President Eisenhower sends personal emissary, Robert B. Anderson, to mediate the deal. Neither Israel nor Egypt agree to the terms (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 10)

● 1956—Israel excluded from second Internationalist Socialist Conference in India

● 1957 (January)—The Eisenhower Doctrine pledges military support to governments in the Middle East engaged in fighting communism (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 43)

● 1957 (March)—Israel forced to withdraw from Gaza after US president Dwight Eisenhower exerts heavy diplomatic pressure and threatens economic sanctions. During 4 months of Israeli occupation of Gaza, more than 1000 Gazans killed (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” 53)

● 1957 (March 4)—Rudolph Kastner is assassinated in Tel Aviv for his role in helping the Nazis to exterminate Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust

● 1957—Yad Vashem, “A Place and a Name,” the memorial to the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, is created on Mount Herzl in Israel

● 1957—Arafat and Abu Jihad relocate to Kuwait

● 1957—Menachem Begin visits South Africa to fundraise for the Herut Party (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 62)

● 1958 (January)—American Jewish newspaper aligned with the CPUSA, Jewish Life, changes their name to Jewish Currents. Editor Morris U. Schappes describes the paper’s stance as “pro-Israel, non-Zionist.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 96)

● 1958 (April)—During a CBS “60 Minutes” segment, host Mike Wallace confronts Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban about Israel illegally taking Arab land
Mike Wallace - Abba Eban Interview April 12,1958 (youtube.com)

● 1958 (April 7)—At the Third Pakistan Republic Day conference in Hollywood, California, Malcolm X makes his first comments on the Arab-Israel conflict, saying: “The Arabs, as colored people…should and must make more effort to reach the millions of colored people in America who are related to the Arabs by blood…these millions of colored peoples would be completely in sympathy with the Arab cause.” He blames the US government for “subsidizing” Israel, the “aggressive Zionists,” and warns that “it is asinine to expect fair treatment from the white press since they are all controlled by Zionists.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 11)

● 1958—Faisal II, leader of Iraq, is murdered in a military coup

● 1958—Nationalist Palestinian political group, Usrat al-Ard (Family of the Land), formed. Group seeks to develop an independent Palestinian Arab political presence within Israel (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 129)

● 1958—The first issue of Paul Krassner’s satirical magazine called The Realist features an article titled “Jewish Aryanism in Israel” that condemns a Jewish religious law in Israel that prohibits Jews from marrying non-Jews (meaning Palestinian Arabs) (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 20-21)

● 1958—Polish Marxist writer Isaac Deutscher writes an article titled “Message of the Non-Jewish Jew” and argues that Jews should not put their faith in the nation of Israel, but work to build a new international community. Deutscher writes: “The Jewish heretic who transcends Jewry belongs to a Jewish tradition….They all went beyond the boundaries of Jewry. They all—Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Trotsky, and Freud—found Jewry too narrow, too archaic, and too constricting. They all looked for ideals and fulfilment beyond it, and they represent the sum and substance of much that is greatest in modern thought, the sum and substance of the most profound upheavals that have taken place in philosophy, sociology, economics, and politics in the last three centuries….Most of the great revolutionaries, whose heritage I am discussing, have seen the ultimate solution to the problems of their and our times, not in nation-states but in international society. As Jews they were the natural pioneers of this idea, for who was as well qualified to preach the international society of equals as were Jews free from all Jewish and non-Jewish orthodoxy and nationalism? However, the decay of bourgeois Europe has compelled the Jew to embrace the nation-state. This is the paradoxical consummation of the Jewish tragedy. It is paradoxical; because we live in an age when the nation-state is fast becoming an archaism—not only the nation-state of Israel but the nation-states of Russia, the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and others. They are all anachronisms. Do you not see it yet? Do you not see that when atomic energy daily reduces the globe in size, when man starts out on his own interplanetary journey, when a sputnik flies over the territory of a great nation-state in a minute or in seconds, that at such a time technology renders the nation-state as ridiculous and out-lived as medieval little princedoms were in the age of the steam engine?...I hope, therefore, that, together with other nations, the Jews will ultimately become aware—or regain the awareness—of the inadequacy of the nation-sate and that they will find their way back to the moral and political heritage that the genius of the Jews who have gone beyond Jewry has left us—the message of universal human emancipation.”
Message of the Non-Jewish Jew (marxists.org)

● 1958—Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic

● 1958—Golda Meir makes her first trip to Africa and visits Liberia (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 27)

● 1958—Leon Uris publishes his book Exodus, a historical drama about the founding of Israel
exodus : leon uris : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1959 (March)—Martin Luther King Jr. visits East Jerusalem and the West Bank, marking the first time that a major figure of the American Black freedom struggle visited the Palestinian’s homeland (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 73)

● 1959 (July)—Malcolm X makes his first trip to the Arab world, visiting East Jerusalem and Egypt, where he meets with Anwar al-Sadat (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 12)

● 1959 (November)—Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, visits East Jerusalem (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 12)

● 1959—Palestinian resistance group al-Fatah (The Conquest) is formed by Yasser Arafat and Salah Khalaf—“Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine” is their motto—They publish a magazine called “Our Palestine”

● 1959—West Germany begins secretly supplying Israel with military aid—They send vehicles, aircraft, rockets, guns, and oversee military training of Israeli officers (Source: J. Smith and Andre Moncourt, “Appendix III: The FRG and the State of Israel” in The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1, 550)

● 1959—US begins providing military aid to Israel at $400,000 a year (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 44)

● 1959—Egypt disbands the “All-Palestine Government” that they put in place in Gaza in 1948 (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 114-115)

● 1959—Ben-Hur premieres. The film tells the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a nationalist Jewish prince played by Charleton Heston, who befriends an Arab sheikh named Ilderim to resist their common enemy, the Roman tribune Messala

● 1960—Mossad captures Adolf Eichman in Argentina and he is brought back to Israel to answer for his pivotal role in the Holocaust

● 1960 (September 14)—Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela announce the formation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

● 1960—Israeli Revisionist Zionist philosopher Yisrael Eldad writes that “the Kingdom of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile is not only possible, it is also necessary.” He calls for the “liberation of the whole of the Land of Israel within the borders of the Divine promise.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 74)

● 1960—Premiere of Exodus film, an epic historical drama depicting the founding of the State of Israel—directed by Otto Preminger, screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, based on the 1958 book of the same name by Leon Uris. Arab-American Institute President James Zogby argued that the film shaped American attitudes towards Arabs for years to come, essentially portraying just another story of cowboys and Indians (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 104)

● 1961 (March 31)—Shin Bet arrests Lt. Colonel Israel Beer, a high-ranking member in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Beer is charged with passing Israeli secrets to East Germany’s Wilhelm Zaisser. Beer confesses and on June 2 he is found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 15 years in prison, where he dies in 1966. (Source: Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” 111)

● 1961 (May)—At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, John F. Kennedy tells David Ben-Gurion: “A woman should not only be virtuous, but also have the appearance of virtue…It is to our common interest that no country believe that Israel is contributing to the proliferation of atomic weapons.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 521)

● 1961 (September)—James Baldwin visits Israel, including East Jerusalem

● 1961 (October)—In the UN, Israel votes with African nations to censure South Africa (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 31)

● 1961—France supplies Israel with 72 Mirage III fighter jets (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 26)

● 1961—Yippie Jerry Rubin moves to Israel and is radicalized into anti-Zionism by what he sees. He later said: “Israelis openly described Arabs the way whites talked about blacks in America…I became anti-Israeli and pro-Arab.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 19)

● 1961—In C. Eric Lincoln’s Black Muslims in America, he includes an interview with Malcolm X where he takes a strong anti-Israeli stance. Malcolm X says: “The Jews, with the help of Christians in America and Europe, drove our Muslim brothers [i.e., the Arabs] out of their homeland, where they had settled for centuries, and took over the land for themselves. This every Muslim resents. In America, the Jews sap the very life-blood of the so-called Negroes to maintain the state of Israel, its armies and its continued aggression against our brothers in the East. This every Black Man resents…Israel is just an international poor house which is maintained by money sucked from the poor suckers in America.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 13)

● 1961—South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd tells the UN General Assembly that Israelis “took Israel from the Arabs after they had lived there for a thousand years. In that I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 31)

● 1962 (February)—Mossad spy Eli Cohen arrives in Damascus, Syria and assumes the identity of businessman Kamel Amin Thaabet. He quickly begins his espionage work

● 1962 (May)—Nasser adopts the philosophy of Arab socialism (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 293)

● 1962 (June 1)—Adolf Eichman executed in Israel by hanging for his role in the Holocaust

● 1962—Israeli orientalist Moshe Moaz provides David Ben-Gurion with “evidence” that the Palestinians who fled their homes in 1948 did so because Arab leaders told them to. However, no historian has ever found any such order (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 55)

● 1962—Chaim Weizmann: A Biography by Several Hands is published
CHAM WEIZMANN A BIOGRAPHY BY SEVERAL HANDS : MEYER W. WEISGAL : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1962—Ghassan Kanafani publishes novel titled Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories
Men In The Sun And Other Palestinian Stories ( PDFDrive ) : Ghassan Kanafani : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1962—France withdraws from Algeria

● 1962—US President John F. Kennedy is the first US president to speak of a “special relationship” between the US and Israel. During a meeting with Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, Kennedy says: “I think it is quite clear that in case of an invasion the United States would come to the support of Israel.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 45)

● 1962—South Africa signs a deal with Israel to supply them with yellowcake, a uranium concentrate that can be enriched to make weapons-grade uranium. (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 42)

● 1962—Lawrence of Arabia film premieres, depicting the largely embellished exploits of T. E. Lawrence

● 1962—Egypt goes to war with Yemen, which lasts until 1967—Nasser calls this war “his Vietnam” (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 268)

● 1963 (June)—David Ben-Gurion resigns as Israel’s Prime Minister and is replaced by Levi Eshkol

● 1963 (September 15)—Israel recalls their ambassador from South Africa (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 38)

● 1963—John F. Kennedy demands Israel allow regular US inspections of the Dimona nuclear reactor and warns that failure to present “reliable information” about the nuclear plant will “seriously jeopardize” Washington’s support for Israel. Israel agrees to inspections

● 1963—American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) incorporated after 10 years operating as the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs

● 1963—Jordanian King Hussein opens direct channels with Israel (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 342)

● 1963—Foreign Minister Golda Meir tells the United Nations General Assembly that Israelis “naturally oppose policies of apartheid, colonialism and racial or religious discrimination wherever they exist.” She insists that Israel will prevent their weapons from getting to South Africa (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 5)

● 1963—Hannah Arendt publishes Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

● 1963—Egyptian film Saladin the Victorious premieres

● 1964 (January 14)—Largest gathering of Arab leaders since the First Arab-Israeli War convenes in Cairo where Nasser creates the United Arab Command to prepare for the coming war against Israel. A plan is approved to divert water from the Jordan River to reduce the quantity and quality of Israel’s water. Egypt and Arab League approve the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in order to control the Palestinian movement. (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 512)

● 1964 (January 15)—Jordan and Egypt restore full diplomatic relations, which had been severed since 1961 (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 257)

● 1964 (April-May)—Malcolm X makes his second trip to the Arab world, giving a speech at the American University of Beirut and meeting with Hajj Amin al-Husseini in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 14)

● 1964 (June)—Israel begins pumping water from Sea of Galilee

● 1964 (June)—Levi Eshkol becomes first Israeli Prime Minister to be officially received at the White House. Lyndon B. Johnson approves $52 million in civilian aid to Israel, but refuses to become their main arms supplier. The US sells military weapons to Israel for the first time since Israel’s founding (a few defensive Hawk antiaircraft missile batteries)

● 1964 (October 26)—Newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau breaks the story of West Germany supplying Israel with military aid. Both governments are forced to admit the story is true (Source: J. Smith and Andre Moncourt, “Appendix III: The FRG and the State of Israel” in The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1, 551)

● 1964 (September 4)—During his third trip to the Middle East, Malcolm X visits Gaza. He meets with the Egyptian assistant military governor of Gaza, Colonel Mustafa Khafaja, and visits several Palestinian refugee camps (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 15)

● 1964 (September 15)—In Cairo, Malcolm X attends a press conference given by Ahmad Shuqayri, chair of the PLO, and afterwards takes pictures with him (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 15)

● 1964 (September 17)—Malcolm X publishes an article titled “Zionist Logic” in the Egyptian Gazette, an English-language Egyptian newspaper. In the article, Malcolm says: “These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish god has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their ‘divine’ authority and guidance without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized…Their colonialism appears to be more ‘benevolent,’ more ‘philanthropic,’ a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential ‘victims’ to accept their friendly offers of economic ‘aid,’ and other tempting ‘gifts,’ that they dangle in front of the newly-independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties…The modern, 20^th century weapons of neo-imperialism is Dollarism! The Zionists have mastered the science of dollarism.”

[…]

“Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves? Just [based] on the ‘religious’ claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a ‘new Moroccan nation’…where Spain ‘used to be’…as the Zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?”

[…]

“In short the Zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history…not even in their own religion!” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 15-16)

● 1964 (November)—Syrians and Israelis exchange fire over the diversion of water from the Jordan river

● 1964—The Beatles banned from performing in Israel—The Israeli government declares that the concert would “have a negative influence on the country’s youth”

● 1964—PLO adopts Palestinian National Charter. Zionism is defined as “a colonialist movement, aggressive and expansionist in its goal, racist in its configuration, and fascist in its means and aims…Zionism [is] an illegal movement and [the nations should] outlaw its presence and activities.” Palestine is “an Arab homeland…[and] part of the great Arab homeland…The partitioning of Palestine, which took place in 1947, and the establishment of Israel are illegal and null and void…The Balfour Declaration…[is] null and void.”
1964 Palestinian National Charter (marxists.org)

● 1964—King Hussein regilds the lead of the Dome of the Rock that had been a dull grey for centuries in preparation for the pilgrimage of Pope Paul VI

● 1964—Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish publishes his most famous poem, “Identity Card”

● 1964—Beginning of annual “Salute to Israel” parade in New York

● 1964—Fatah finalizes “The Fatah Constitution”—Article 1: Palestine is part of the Arab world; Article 4: the Palestinian struggle is part of the world-wide struggle against Zionism, colonialism and international imperialism; Article 7: the Zionist movement is racial, colonial, and aggressive; Article 9: liberating Palestine and protecting its holy places is an Arab, religious and human obligation.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 115-116)

● 1965 (January 1)—Fatah calls for direct armed action against Israel and launches an attack to sabotage a water-pumping station in central Israel used to get Galilee water to the Negev desert. Even though authorities discover the bombs and the plan fails, historian Eugene Rogan notes that: “The symbolism of the ultimately unsuccessful attacks was far more significant than Fatah’s military objectives.” Leila Khaled wrote: “On January 1, 1964 Fatah opened a new era in modern Palestinian history.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 345)

● 1965 (January)—The Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, invites James Farmer, leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), on a 5-day visit to Israel. He meets with Israeli leaders like Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Moshe Dayan and visits Jewish farming communities (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 58)

● 1965 (May 12)—West Germany officially recognizes the state of Israel—Nasser leads a boycott against the FRG

● 1965 (May 18)—Israeli spy Eli Cohen exposed and publicly executed in Syria

● 1965 (September)—King Hussein secretly meets with Israeli foreign minister, Golda Meir, who suggests that one day “we could put aside arms and create a monument in Jerusalem that would signify peace between us.” (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 513)

● 1965—Armed wing of al-Fatah, al-‘Asifa (The Storm), launches 39 attacks on Israel (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 24)

● 1965—David Ben-Gurion founds Rafi party

● 1965—Israel Museum opens

● 1965—Moshe Dayan publishes Diary of the Sinai Campaign
Diary of the Sinai Campaign : Dayan, Moshe, 1915-1981 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1965—US military aid to Israel reaches $12.9 million a year (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 45)

● 1965—The General Union of Palestinian women founded

● 1965—US Congress passes a law requiring a report on any firms complying with the Arab League boycott of Israel (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 73)

● 1966 (February 28)—Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan flies his private plane to Egypt and lands in the Egyptian city of Port Said. He delivers a peace petition to Nasser calling for peace between Israel and Egypt. The fact that a plane could easily land on an Egyptian airfield shows the Israelis how weak Egypt’s air defense system is

● 1966 (April 30)—In response to Palestinian guerilla raids, IDF paratroopers blow up 28 houses in the northern West Bank city of Rafat, killing 11 civilians (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 29)

● 1966 (July 12)—Former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, visits US forces in South Vietnam, ostensibly to write a series of articles for Israeli newspapers. Later he said the reason for the trip is because Vietnam was “the best, and only, military ‘laboratory’ at the time.”

● 1966 (August 16)—Iraqi Air Force Captain Munir Rafda defects to Israel with his MiG-21 jet fighter, allowing the Israeli military to learn the secrets of the Soviet made plane that the Arab states use

● 1966 (October)—Egyptian military delegation visits Damascus. Egyptian General Sa’ad ‘Ali ‘Amer declares: “We are confident that we are making fast strides toward the realization of our common goal—the elimination of Israel and full unity” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 31)

● 1966 (November)—Daniel Rubin, a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) central committee member, decries American Jews “upside-down approach to Israel” and their view that the Jewish state is a progressive country threatened by ignorant, reactionary Arab aggressors. Rubin says: “By accepting this picture, Jews in the US, usually unwittingly, find themselves aiding US monopoly in its all too successful attempt to control the economy and the government policies of Israel to the detriment of the Israeli masses…They find themselves on the side of US imperialism in opposition to national liberation movements and on the side of rabid anti-Communist cold warriors…As an American Jewish Communist, I feel ashamed and angry that a Jewish government coming from a people who have known so much oppression should oppress Arabs within Israel and play the US imperialist game of supporting their oppression in neighboring countries.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 2)

● 1966 (November 10)—In the West Bank city of Hebron near the Israeli border, a paramilitary police vehicle hits a mine and 3 Israeli policemen are killed (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 31)

● 1966 (November 13)—Operation Shredder—Largest Israeli strike force (10 tanks, 400 men) assembled since 1956 war crosses West Bank border to conduct an operation aimed at punishing Palestinian villages in the Hebron area that aided and supported al-Fatah guerrillas—The main target of the operation is the village of Samu—Israelis ambush Jordanian soldiers, killing 15; 1 Israeli battalion commander killed and many others are wounded. During operation, 3 Arab civilians are killed and dozens of houses are demolished. Arabs riot from Hebron to Jerusalem to Nablus and call for overthrow of King Hussein. Both the UN and US condemn the attack. UN Security Council censures Israel for violating the General Armistice Agreement with Jordan. For Israel, the operation is seen as a debacle because what was supposed to be a surgical strike turned into a pitched battle and an international scandal (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 34)

● 1966 (November)—Nasser signs a defense alliance with Syria

● 1966 (November)—American diplomat Andrew Young visits East Jerusalem

● 1966 (December)—Two Egyptian MiG fighter jets stray into Israeli territory and are show down by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 37)

● 1966 (December 5)—American journalist I. F. Stone writes in I. F. Stone’s Weekly: “The moral tragedy for world Jewry is that we could not make homes for our postwar refugees without making three quarters of a million kindred people homeless. No solution can be found until we Jews ourselves are willing to face up to the problem in all its three-dimensional human complexity and that means to see it through Arab eyes as well as our own.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 67)

● 1966—During this year al-Fatah launches 40 attacks on Israel—Israelis record 93 border incidents, including shootings, sabotage, and mine explosions

● 1966—Television introduced in Israel

● 1966—US gives Israel $90 million in military aid (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 45)

● 1966—Israeli foreign office states: “The United States has come to the conclusion that it can no longer respond to every incident around the world, that it must rely on a local power, the deterrent of a friendly power as a first line to stave off America’s direct involvement. Israel feels it fits this definition.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 45)

● 1966—10 African countries are receiving military aid from Israel and Israelis are training paramilitary groups in 17 African nations (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 29)

● 1966—Israel has finished building its first nuclear devices (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 49)

● 1966—During a symposium organized by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, the Zionist official Eliezer Livneh states that during World War II: "for the Zionist leadership the rescue of Jews was not an aim in itself, but only a means (i.e., to establishing a Jewish state in Palestine)” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941” 54)

● 1966—Premier of film Cast a Giant Shadow, which tells the story of the Jewish-American military officer, Colonel Mickey Marcus, who commanded an IDF unit during the 1948 Arab-Israel War

● 1967 (January)—Syrian tanks fire 31 shells on Kibbutz Almagor and wound two members of Kibbutz Shamir with machine-gun fire. Fighting continues for a week, killing 1 Israeli and wounding 2 from a Syrian mine at Moshav Dishon. Fatah claims responsibility (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 42)

● 1967 (March 31)—Israel records 270 incidents, mainly sabotage, on the Jordanian border, a 100% increase. In one case, an Israeli train from Kiryat Gat to Kibbutz Lahav is halted by an explosion on the tracks. Leaflets found nearby proclaim “Death to the Zionist invaders—Victory to the heroic Palestinians.” 4 Palestinians with explosives are arrested the next day in the West Bank, and two are killed on March 26 when trying to demolish a water pump east of Arad. IDF exchanges fire with Syrian forces from the Golan Heights. Al-Fatah claims responsibility in communiques (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 45)

● 1967 (April)—Israeli soldiers enter Tel Katzir, on the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, and are fired on by Syrian forces. What begins as a small skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army quickly turns into a mini-war when they start bombing each other. Israel deploys IAF Mirage jet fighters who face off against Soviet-made Syrian MiGs. In a massive dogfight involving as many as 130 planes, several MiG’s are shot down and soon Israel establishes supremacy over Syrian skies. Israeli jets do a victory lap over Damascus, humiliating the Syrians (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 47)

● 1967—(May)—By May Fatah have launched 100 attacks on Israel—on May 5, Palestinian gunmen launch a mortar barrage from Lebanese territory, shelling the Israeli Kibbutz Manara.

● 1967 (May 15)—Jews hold Independence Day parade in West Jerusalem. The presence in the Holy City of 1,600 Israeli troops, though not technically a violation of the Armistice, sparks protests across the Arab world and is condemned by the UN and Western powers, who prohibit their ambassadors from attending (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 53)

● 1967 (May 16)—Egyptian and Syrian rhetoric grows more bellicose—Cairo declares: “If Israel now tries to set the region on fire, then Israel itself will be completely destroyed in this fire, thus bringing the end of this aggressive racist base”—Damascus proclaims: “The war of liberation will not end except by Israel’s abolition.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 63)

● 1967 (May 16)—Pro-Arab rally is held in Sproul Plaza, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. A leaflet titled Zionism, Western Imperialism, and the Liberation of Palestine is distributed that connects the Arab-Israeli conflict with the civil rights movement in the US, stating: “the Zionist settler state was founded on an exclusivist racial basis” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 25)

● 1967 (May 17)—2 MiG-21 jets from the Egyptian Air Force carry out first ever reconnaissance of Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 75)

● 1967 (May 20)—Egyptian President Nasser moves six army divisions into the Sinai

● 1967 (May 23)—Nasser closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships or any ships carrying resources for Israel

● 1967 (May 26)—At the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson repeatedly tells Israeli diplomat Abba Eban: “Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go it alone.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 524)

● 1967 (May 27-28)—Nasser announces: “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight.” The next day he says: “We will not accept any co-existence with Israel…The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.” (Source: Maratha Gellhorn, The Face of War, 417)

● 1967 (May 28)—Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gives a rambling radio address to the nation that intensifies anxiety in Israel that another Holocaust is coming if Arab armies attack

● 1967 (May 30)—King Hussein places 56,000-strong Jordanian army under Egyptian command. Nasser proclaims: “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel…while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arrayed for battle, the critical hour has arrived.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 514; Maratha Gellhorn, The Face of War, 417-418)

● 1967 (May 31)—President of Iraq proclaims: “The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear—to wipe Israel off the map.” (Source: Maratha Gellhorn, The Face of War, 418)

● 1967 (May)—During a convention of Arab trade unionists, Nasser tells them: “If war comes it will be total and the objective will be Israel’s destruction…This is Arab Power.” Nasser also says, “What is Israel? Israel today is the United States.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 93)

● 1967 (June 1)—Moshe Dayan is sworn in as Israeli defense minister. Menachem Begin joins new National Government

● 1967 (June 2)—French President De Gaulle imposes arms embargo on Israel. After the end of France’s conflict with Algeria, De Gaulle sets out to form better relationships with Arab nations and disapproves of Israel’s aggressive stance

● 1967 (June 5)—Article in the Socialist Workers Party newspaper The Militant says that there is “nothing inherently progressive about establishing a tiny all-Jewish state on the Palestinian island of the Arab World.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 82)

● 1967 (June 5-7)—Six Day War begins when Israel responds to Egypt moving troops into the Sinai with preemptive lighting first strike by Israeli air force that destroys most of Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian warplanes on the ground. This gives Israel complete air superiority. Israelis mobilize 275,000 men, 1,100 tanks, and 200 planes to fight. One of the fiercest battles of the entire war takes place at Ammunition Hill, a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian-ruled East Jerusalem and the western slope of Mount Scopus. 71 Jordanians, 35 Israelis killed (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 222)
Six days that changed the Middle East: The '67 Arab-Israeli War | Featured Documentary (youtube.com)

● 1967 (June 5)—General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), Gus Hall, releases a statement that reads: “Whatever may be one’s view on the crisis in the mid-East, there can be only one conclusion regarding the military struggle which has erupted between Israel and the Arab states. It is a wrong war. It is a war that benefits only the American and British oil monopolies and no one else. The problems of the Middle East cannot be solved through armed conflict. In the interests of all the peoples of the Middle East, Arabs and Jews alike, the armed forces of all countries should withdraw into the confines of their borders.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 92)

● 1967 (June 7)—Roy Wilkins releases an official NAACP statement on the Six Day War, saying: “A people persecuted down through the centuries has been returned to its motherland and through sacrifice, industry, knowledge and ingenuity has made a land bloom and has built a bastion of democracy…The hateful and chilling cry that she must be destroyed must never be raised again…Never again must it be possible for 14 nations, united only in a common and fanatic hatred of a people and its religion, to surround, militarily, another nation and announce brazenly to a stunned world that their concerted mission is one of extermination.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 55)

● 1967 (June 7)—James Forman, head of SNCC’s International Affairs Commission, writes to SNCC Executive Secretary Stanley Wise, and expresses concerns about SNCC making a public statement in support of the Palestinians, saying “any black person of national stature who speaks against Israel must expect a certain isolation from the press—all white controlled and so forth…[If] by chance or by design we were to take a position on the Arab-Israeli war such as we took on the war in Vietnam, the reaction would be fantastic against us…I am not personally sure we can take a position at this moment…” He goes on to note that “[The] ‘gut’ reaction in many [black] people is against Israel and for the Arabs, reflecting black-white tension, the hardening of racism, and the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves in this country…Actually Israel represents an extension of United States foreign policy as well as an attempt by the Zionists to create a homeland for the Jews…Is it not sheer opportunism to keep silent for the sake of trying to please the crowd? Is the role of leadership always to think that it is enough to know what people are thinking, and only say those things we know will be acceptable? How are we going to lead people within the United States and relate them to international forces, when we ourselves are afraid to say those things which we know are true?” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 23)

● 1967 (June 8)—Israeli Air Force mistakes the USS Liberty (US spy ship) for an Egyptian ship and opens fire on them off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula. The combined air and sea attack kills 34 Americans. Israel apologizes and ultimately pays $12 million as compensation (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 269)

● 1967 (June 9)—Nasser gives a public statement over the radio: “We cannot conceal from ourselves that we have faced a grave setback in the last few days.” (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 303)

● 1967 (June 9)—30,000 Jews celebrate Israel’s victories in the Six Day War in Washington DC. At UCLA, student Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz notes that: “It was like a carnival on the UCLA campus celebrating the [1967] Israeli victory.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 436; Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 27)

● 1967 (June 9)—The neo-Trotskyist Workers World Party (WWP) publishes an article in their newspaper, Workers World, under the headline “US Is the Real Sponsor of Israel’s Attack on the Arabs.” In the article, the WWP’s editorial staff states: “It’s not ‘little’ Israel against the manifold Arab peoples, but giant imperialism against the struggling Arabs…The state of Israel is itself a tool of imperialism…[The Jewish question] can never be settled by Israel oppressing other nationalities on behalf of imperialism, but only by a struggle of the Jewish nation against the imperialism which subjugates all oppressed nationalities…[The] Palestinian Arabs should be returned to their homeland on a status quo ante basis.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 75)

● 1967 (June 10)—Nasser reverses his resignation over Egypt’s defeat in Six Day War (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 307)

● 1967 (June 10)— Israel wins Six Day War and conquers Gaza, West Bank, Sinai, and Golan Heights Death toll: 800-1000 Israelis, 10-15,000 Egyptians, 700 Jordanians, 450 Syrians. Historian Eugene Rogan notes that “During the 1967 war, U.S. president Lyndon Johnson’s administration abandoned neutrality in the Arab-Israeli conflict and tilted in favor of Israel…It was then that the special relationship between the United States and Israel began.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 305; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 341)

● 1967 (June 10)—In the two-week period between May 22 and June 10, American Jews donate $100 million to the United Jewish Appeal in support of Israel (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 59)

● 1967 (June 10)—Workers World Party youth group, Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), protests outside United Nations in New York, carrying signs reading: “US-Israeli Aggression Against the Arab People” and “US Get Out of the Mideast.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 76-77)

● 1967 (June 10)—United Secretariat of the Fourth International (Trotskyist) issues a statement that denounces Israel as the aggressor in the Six Day War. The statement reads: “The State of Israel, inspired by Zionism, has….played a reactionary role in the Middle East in the service of imperialism and against the freedom movement of the Arab masses.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 81-82)

● 1967 (June 11)—United Jewish Appeal hosts a “Stars for Israel” fundraiser in New York, attended by 20,000, including Senator Robert F. Kennedy (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 130)

● 1967 (June 17)—In an article published in The National Guardian (New York) titled “The Mideast War Solves No Problems,” Irving Beinin argues that Israel has two choices: peace with the Arabs at any cost, or “escalation of the nationalist, anti-Arab sentiment, glorification of the Jewish military and reliance on might to establish Jewish hegemony.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 104)

● 1967 (June 18)—On the ABC television program Issues and Answers, Martin Luther King Jr. says: “I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 82-83)

● 1967 (June 19)—In New Left Notes, the publication of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Roy Dahlberg introduces a motion for adoption at the upcoming national SDS meeting on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Dahlberg notes that the recent war has “brought about strong reaction from American Jews and confusion on the Left in general.” Historian Michael R. Fischbach explains that “Dahlberg urged Jews to stay focused on an anti-imperialist analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Arab stance toward Israel as a colonial settler state was the same stance that black Africans maintained toward such states on their continent.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 10-11)

● 1967 (June 22)—Paul Novick, American communist and editor of the Jewish newspaper Morgen Freiheit, publishes an article titled “The Soviet Union and Israel” which goes against the official anti-Israeli stance of the CPUSA. He states: “We are for the fact that Israel should live…We are for the entirety of the whole state of Israel. We are for the territorial integrity of Israel and for recognition of Israel by her neighbors. The Socialist lands must support the right of Israel to live and must oppose the incitements to anti-Semitism through the attacks against Israel at the United Nations.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 95)

● 1967 (June 24)—In the Workers World Party newspaper Workers World, the editors write that: “The state of Israel is on the side of the oppressors against the oppressed.” Party co-founder and Workers World editor, Vincent Copeland, writes: “every nation, particularly a persecuted and dispersed nation yearns for a homeland. There should be a homeland, yes. But why in the Arabs’ homeland?” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 76)

● 1967 (June 25)—At the annual conference of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Arab students take the initiative to help produce a report that criticizes the American role in the creation of Israel and calls Zionism and anti-Semitism two sides of the same coin (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 13)

● 1967 (June 29)—Barriers dividing Jerusalem removed, allowing Arabs and Jews to commingle for the first time in 19 years

● 1967 (June 29)—Writing in the Village Voice, American socialist David McReynolds says that “Israel is less of a democracy than its defenders insist, less progressive than we like to believe.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 109)

● 1967 (July)—In the leftist journal Ramparts, two Jewish Harvard professors, Michael Walzer and Martin Peretz, denounce the New Left antagonism toward Israel. They argue that leftists can’t treat Israel as a traditional case of imperialism, saying that “Jewish colonization of Palestine…differs from other colonizations in Africa and Asia in that the immigrant community was committed to do its own work…and not exploit the Arab population.” They argue that there will be no resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict until the Arabs recognize Israel’s right to exist. In the same issue, I. F. Stone writes an article titled “The Future of Israel” and argues that “Israel cannot live very long in a hostile Arab sea.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 63, 68)

● 1967 (July)—American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn writes a series of pro-Israel articles on the Six Day War from Israel

● 1967 (July)—In the Challenge, the newspaper of the Maoist Progressive Labor Party (PL), the editors argue that: “The Jews were doing to the Arabs what had been done to them by the Nazis, if not in quantity, certainly in quality…to make the Arab population of Palestine pay for the sins of Hitler is a greater sin than Hitler’s.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 88)

● 1967—The Black Panther, the official paper of the Black Panther Party, publishes its first article on the Arab-Israeli conflict when it reprints an English-language Chinese government denunciation of Israel’s role in the Six Day War that offers “firm support for the Arab people’s fight against US-Israel aggression.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 46)

● 1967 (August 2)—Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) gives an interview in Havana, Cuba and says: “Israel represents an enclave of imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa…Suppose I own a house and someone takes possession of one of its rooms, and then 20 years later comes to discuss the matter. I tell him: First I shall take back my room. We’ll discuss it later. It is true that the Jewish people lost 6 million dead in World War II, but the Africans have been abused everywhere throughout the world. They lost their lands and 100 million persons in the time of slavery, but we do not weep over it. We shall take the land back from the hands of those who stole it. The Zionists must get out of Israel.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 46)

● 1967 (August)—Ethel Minor of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) publishes an article titled “The Palestine Problem: Test Your Knowledge” in the SNCC Newsletter denouncing Israel and hailing the Palestinians. The article causes instant backlash and debate, with one of the most controversial parts being a photograph with the caption: “Gaza Massacre, 1956. Zionists lined up Arab victims and shot them in the back in cold blood. This is the Gaza Strip, Palestine, not Dachau, Germany.”

The SNCC statement reads: “Since we know that the white American press seldom, if ever, gives the true story about world events in which America is involved, then we are taking this opportunity to present the following documented facts on [the Palestine Problem]. These facts not only affect the lives of our brothers in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, but also pertain to our struggle here.”

[…]

“[Do you know] THAT Zionism, which is a worldwide nationalistic Jewish movement, organized, planned and created the ‘State of Israel’ by sending Jewish immigrants from Europe into Palestine (the heart of the Arab world) to take over land and homes belonging to the Arabs?”

[…]

“[Do you know] THAT the Zionist terror gangs (Haganah, Irgun, and Stern gangs) deliberately slaughtered and mutilated women, children and men, thereby causing the unarmed Arabs to panic, flee and leave their homes in the hands of Zionist-Israel forces.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 9)
SNCC Newsletter, July 1967 (crmvet.org)

● 1967 (August 14)—Several groups publicly condemn SNCC’s pro-Palestinian newsletter. Irving Shulman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) accuses SNCC of anti-Semitism and promoting the “pro-Arab, Soviet, and racist lines.” ADL general counsel, Arnold Forster says “it is a tragedy that the civil rights movement is being degraded by the injection of hatred and racism in reverse.” Morris Abram of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) declares “Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism whether it comes from the Ku Klux Klan or from extremist Negro groups, ‘Snick’ included.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 31)

● 1967 (August 14-15)—Ethel Minor and SNCC leaders Ralph Featherstone and Stanley Wise give a press conference to explain the controversial Palestine newsletter to journalists. At the meeting, SNCC leader H. Rap Brown says: “We are not anti-Jewish and we are not anti-Semitic. We just don’t think Zionist leaders in Israel have a right to that land.” The next day SNCC releases a statement titled “The Middle-East Crisis” that reads: “SNCC understands this tragedy of what happened to the Jews and sympathizes with them since we black people possibly face the same fate here in the United States…We recognize Hitler’s massacre of the Jews as one of the worst crimes against humanity…By the same token, we do not see how the Jewish refugees and survivors could ever use this tragedy as an excuse to imitate their Nazi oppressors—to take over Palestine, to commit some of the same atrocities against the native Arab inhabitants, and to completely dispossess the Arabs of their homes, land and livelihood…Gentlemen, the facts are that Israel is and always has been the tool and foot-hold for Americans and British exploitation in the Middle-East and Africa…In the Middle East, America has worked with and used the powerful organized Zionist movement to take over another people’s home and to replace these people with a partner who has well served America’s purpose, a partner that can help the United States and other white western countries to exploit and control the nations of Africa, [and] the Middle East…Our position was clearly anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic. It was a bit disconcerting to us, the reaction from the Jewish community, in that anything that is not pro Jewish is interpreted as anti-Jewish.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 38-39)

● 1967 (August 17)—Roy Wilkins of the NAACP criticizes SNCC’s anti-Israeli newsletter, stating: “S.N.C.C. is openly following the Soviet line in the Arab-Israeli matter. In addition, by its reported attack upon Jews, it is following the age-old hate line.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 56)

● 1967 (August 29)—During an event titled “Vietnam and Black America” at the Village Theater in New York City, H. Rap Brown criticizes the white anti-war movement for protesting the Vietnam war but remaining silent on the Arab-Israeli war, saying: “When the shit hit the fan in the Middle East…you dug into your pockets and supported [Israel].” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 41)

● 1967 (August)—The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) publish pamphlet titled Zionism and the Arab Revolution: The Myth of a Progressive Israel by Peter Buch (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 83)
Zionism and the arab revolution: The myth of progressive Israel (ucf.edu)

● 1967 (August-September)—Arab states convene a summit conference in Khartoum, Sudan. Nasser lays down his “Three No’s:” not to recognize Israel, not to negotiate with Israel, and not to make peace with Israel (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 257)

● 1967 (September 7)—Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) gives an interview to the Algerian Press Service in Algiers and says: “The persecution of the Jews came from the white man. There is no need for the Jews to turn around because the white man persecuted them, and persecute the Africans and especially the Arabs.” Carmichael suggests that the Jews should have created their state in Germany when it was divided during the Allied occupation in 1945 and says: “the only solution to the Palestine question lies in taking up arms.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 47)

● 1967 (September 16-19)—Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) visits Egypt and Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. In correspondence with SNCC, Carmichael sums up his philosophy as “Guns for the Arabs, sneakers for the Jews.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 47)

● 1967 (October 18)—US lifts arms embargo on Israel

● 1967 (October 21)—Egyptian missiles sink Israeli destroyer Eilat off Sinai Peninsula, killing 47 of its crew. This is the first time a warship is sunk using surface-to-surface missiles and causes a complete rethinking of naval strategy around the world. Israel retaliates by shelling Egypt’s principal oil refinery at Suez. Egypt declares October 21 a national holiday honoring the Egyptian navy (Source: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War, 325) (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 9-10)

● 1967 (November 22)—UN Security Council Resolution 242 “Concerning Principles for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East” confirms the inadmissibility of the acquisition of land by force and calls for Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied territories, the right of all states in the region to live in peace within secure and recognized borders, and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem

● 1967 (November 29)—Egypt withdraws from Yemen—On the same day, the British relinquish Aden, a once-prized outpost of the empire first conquered in 1839 (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 286)

● 1967—After the Six Day War, the close relationship with France and Israel ends. De Gaulle is furious about Israel’s actions and gives a speech that many consider to be anti-Semitic, where he calls Jewish people “an elite people, self-assured and domineering.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 460)

● 1967—Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) founded by Dr. George Habash

● 1967—American support for Israel rises from 60% in 1966 to 95% in 1967 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 1)

● 1967—SDS leadership prints Larry Hochman’s Zionism and the Israeli State: An Analysis in the June War. Hochman spent ten years in Israel living in a socialist Zionist kibbutz starting at age 11. In the book Hochman says “the central issue…is the fact that a Jewish state has been established in the midst of the Arab world without the invitation or consent of the indigenous population. The Jewish immigration occurred, and could only have occurred, under the aegis of Western colonial control.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 13-14)
Zionism and the Israeli State. Ann Arbor, MI. (jstor.org)

● 1967—Workers World Party member Rita Freed publishes a pamphlet titled War in the Mideast, June 1967: What Were the Forces Behind It?, and argues that “the real reason for the June war was the multi-billion dollar profits of American oil companies…Israel was created for the sake of oil, not for the sake of the Jewish people.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 78)

● 1967—Socialist Hal Draper publishes Zionism, Israel, & The Arabs, and describes Zionism as “a doctrine about a tribal blood-mystique which makes all Jews a single nation no matter where they live or how.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 89)
Zionism, Israel and the Arabs.pdf (marxists.org)

● 1967—Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) issues a statement titled “Anti-Semitism, Israel, and SCLC: A Statement on Press Distortions,” which states: “Israel’s right to exist as a state in security is incontestable. At the same time, the great powers have the obligation to recognize that the Arab world is in a state of imposed poverty and backwardness that must threaten peace and harmony. Until a concerted and democratic program of assistance is effected, tensions cannot be relieved. Neither Israel nor its neighbors can live in peace without an underlying basis of social and economic development.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 127)

● 1967—Hajj Amin al-Husseini makes his final visit to Jerusalem and prays at al-Aqsa before returning to Lebanese exile (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 513)

● 1967—In his book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, Harold Cruse writes: “The European experience also shows that European imperialism was not exclusively a Christian affair: Witness the international machinations that brought about the State of Israel.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 93)

● 1967—Of the 80,000 Jews who had once lived in Egypt, only 2,500 remain (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 55)

● 1967—Israeli private military company, Elbit Systems, founded

● 1967-68—PLO kills 65 Israeli soldiers, 50 civilians

● 1968—Yitzhak Rabin appointed as Israel’s ambassador to US

● 1968 (January)—Levi Eshkol invited to meet Lyndon B. Johnson at his Texas ranch. Eshkol persuades Johnson to sell Israel F-4 Phantom fighter jets and move up the delivery date from 1970 to 1969. Uri Kaufman argues that: “With these actions, Lyndon Johnson did more to guarantee the security and survival of the Jewish state than any American President before or since.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 12)

● 1968 (February 17)—Stokley Carmichael (Kwame Ture) gives a speech in Oakland, California at a Black Panther Party rally and says: “We must declare on whose side we stand! We can be for no one but the Arabs. There can be no doubt in our mind! No doubt in our mind! No doubt in our mind! We can be for no one but the Arabs because Israel belonged to the Arabs in 1917. The British gave it to a group of Zionists, who went to Israel, ran…the Palestinian Arabs out with terrorist groups…That country belongs to the Palestinians…Not only that: they’re [Zionists] moving to take over Egypt. Egypt is our Motherland—it’s in Africa! Africa! We [blacks] do not understand the concept of love. Here are a group of Zionists who come anywhere they want to and organize love and feeling for a place called Israel, which was created in 1948, where their youth are willing to go and fight for Israel. Egypt belongs to us. Four thousand years ago, and we sit here supporting the Zionists. We got to be for the Arabs. Period! Period!” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 48)

● 1968 (March)—The Israeli army crosses the Jordan River to eliminate Palestinian fighters. In the Battle of Karameh, Palestinian and Jordanian forces hold their own against the Israeli army and inflict a number of casualties before the Israelis withdraw. 28 Israelis, 61 Jordanians, and 116 Palestinians are killed—major PR victory for Palestinians—Edward Said says: “Karameh was the beginning of the phase of the quickest Palestinian growth; volunteers poured in from all parts of the Arab world, and within a year Palestinian fedayeen were the force to be reckoned with in Jordan.” Fatah founder Salah Khalaf claimed that they received 5,000 volunteers within 48 hours of the battle (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 158; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 346-347)

● 1968 (April 4)—On the eve of Passover, a group of Orthodox Jewish families, led by Rabbis Moshe Levinger and Eliezer Waldman, go with their children to Hebron, where they rent the small Arab-owned Park Hotel for the holiday. The visitors take over the hotel and vow not to let anyone evict them from the town where the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried. Labor Party minister Yigal Allon is one of the first Israeli officials to visit the Jewish families and lend them his support. Allon tells them: “There have always been Jews in Hebron, the cradle of the nation, until they were violently uprooted. It is inconceivable that Jews be prohibited from settling in this ancient town of the patriarchs.” The Labor-led government allows them to stay in Hebron and build a Jewish settlement there called Kiryat Arba. (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 260)

● 1968 (May 2)—Israel marks the twentieth anniversary of its founding by holding a military parade in the recently reunited city of Jerusalem. 45,000 watch the parade which features a flyover by 300 planes, including 5 jets that lead the formations trailing blue and white smoke, the national colors. Additional formations included the number 20 and the Star of David. The finale was a flyover of the captured Soviet MiG-21. UN Security Council Resolution 251 denounces the parade, saying it took place against the unanimous decision of the UN Security Council on April 27, 1968 (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 1)

● 1968 (May 26)—During a speech at a synagogue in Portland, Oregon, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, wearing a Jewish skullcap, says: “Our obligations to Israel, unlike our obligations toward other countries, are clear and imperative. Israel is the very opposite of Vietnam.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 130)

● 1968 (June 1)—During a televised debate between Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, McCarthy is asked if he agrees with Kennedy on sending 50 jets to Israel. McCarthy says: “I’ve said we had to maintain the military strength of Israel against the Arab nations and I’ve said that we at least have to rebuild the strength that they lost in the recent war. If that means 50 jets, then it’s 50 jets.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 130)

● 1968 (June 6)—Robert Kennedy is assassinated by a Palestinian man named Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles. In his first televised interview, Sirhan says he killed Kennedy over his support for Israel in the Six Day War. He says: “My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians.” (Source: “Sirhan Felt Betrayed by Kennedy,” New York Times, February 20, 1989)

● 1968 (July 23)—PFLP hijackers divert El Al Flight 426 (Rome-Israel) to Algiers. After 40 days, the longest airplane hijacking incident, all hostages are released in return for the release of 16 Arab prisoners from Israel

● 1968 (September 2)—At the Third National Conference on Black Power, held in Philadelphia, New York CORE activist Omar Abu Ahmed supports a minority report on Zionism, which states: “The Black Power Conference recognizes that the Zionist movement is a threat to the internal and external security of the Black people in America and in Africa. It is further recognized that the Zionist ideology is a force of colonialism, racism, and western imperialism, therefore, a threat to world peace…It is recommended that the Third International Conference on Black Power demand the withdrawal of Zionist forces from occupied lands in Africa and Asia. Finally, it is recommended that the Conference support the Palestinian people in their struggle to liberate their land from Zionist colonialism. Finally, let it be known that the Third International Conference will oppose Zionism with all its strength and resources toward defeat of this racist, imperialist movement.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 103)

● 1968 (September 20)—Barry Sheppard, the editor of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) newspaper, The Militant, secures an interview in Cairo with a spokesperson from al-Fateh’s information center. Historian Michael R. Fischbach notes that this was “the first time that al-Fateh was able to explain its aims directly to the American Left.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 81)

● 1968 (September-October)—Round of artillery battles break out between Israel and Egypt, killing 25 Israeli soldiers and more than 100 Egyptians (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 21)

● 1968 (September-October)—American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) sponsor a tour of the US by Uri Avnery, an Israeli peace activist and member of the Israeli Knesset (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 170-171)

● 1968 (November 16)—The authors of the Black Panther describe the UNRWA Palestinian refugee camps as “concentration camps” and assert that “Israel IS because Palestine’s right to be was canceled.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 113)

● 1968 (November 22)—Terrorist bombing in Jerusalem kills 12 (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 21)

● 1968 (November)—The National Guardian (New York) quotes an Israeli soldier, who says that he hopes that American forces are moved from Vietnam to Israel because “We are protecting their oil interests here; there’s no reason why they shouldn’t shoulder some of the burden.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 105)

● 1968 (December)—Israeli airstrike kills 16 Iraqi soldiers. Iraq’s President Bakr addresses anti-Israeli demonstrations held outside the Presidential Palace, where the bodies of the dead soldiers are paraded through the streets (Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall)

● 1968 (December)—PFLP operatives attack an El Al plane in Athens. Mahmoud Issa is instructed to surrender to Greek authorities, so he can use his trial as a propaganda platform to spread awareness of the Palestinian struggle. However, the Greeks throw Issa in prison and there is no major trial (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 348)

● 1968 (December 28)—In retaliation for the attack on an El Al plane in Athens, Israel launches “Operation Gift.” 66 commandos, including Benjamin Netanyahu, descend by helicopter to the Beirut airport and destroy 12 airliners (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 201)

● 1968—First public television broadcast in Israel

● 1968—An anti-Jewish campaign in Poland in which Jews are purged from the Communist party and fired from their jobs sets off a panic among the remnants of Poland’s Jewish community. 25,000 leave the country. Within 2 years, only 10,000 Jews remain. During the anti-Semitic campaign, Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka gives a televised address and says that Jews who are more attached to Israel than to Poland will probably “sooner or later leave the country. We are ready to give emigration passports to those who consider Israel their Fatherland.” (Source: Paul Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, 188)

● 1968—Menachem Begin defines “the eternal patrimony of our ancestors” as “Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Judea, and Shechem Nablus in the West Bank” (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 123, No. 1 [Spring, 2008]: 15)

● 1968—Noam Chomsky writes an article titled “Nationalism and Conflict in Palestine.” According to historian Michael R. Fischbach, Chomsky “laid out his vision of an alternative to the kind of ethnic nationalism that drove the Arab-Israeli conflict: cooperation among people who share common class interests.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 69)

● 1968—Mossad smuggles 200 tons of yellowcake uranium concentrate into Israel (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 50)

● 1968—Knesset members Shmuel Tamir and Eliezer Shostak found the Israel-South African Friendship League to promote commercial ties between the two countries. Shostak confronts Israel’s foreign minister, Abba Eban, on the Knesset floor, demanding that Eban instruct the Israeli UN delegation not to vote against the South African government (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 53)

● 1968—Months before his death, Martin Luther King Jr. says: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 171)

● 1969 (January)—The Black Panther carries al-Fatah’s first general international communique to the world press. The same issue carries an article titled “Palestine Guerillas vs Israeli Pigs” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 114, 120)

● 1969 (January 23)—Students at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit protest a speech given by Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yitzhak Rabin, at the Sheraton Cadillac Hotel (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 29)

● 1969 (January 27)—Show trial in Iraq ends with the public, televised execution of 14 “Zionist spies,” including 9 Iraqi Jews

● 1969 (January-February 13)—The student newspaper of Wayne State University (WSU), The South End, features a front-page editorial summarizing a recent al-Fatah press release that includes a sketch of a Palestinian guerilla fighter holding a pen that closely resembles a rocket-propelled grenade. There is a swift backlash against the editors John Watson and Nick Medvecky, who are accused of anti-Semitism and supporting Arab terrorism. Members of the Michigan state legislature threaten to cut $100,000 in aid to WSU unless Watson is fired, and other wealthy donors make similar threats. Watson gives a radio interview and says: “We speak for the revolution…The information which we print about the Arab-Israeli conflict…is ignored in the regular establishment press.” On February 4^th, the school issues an official statement to Watson that reads: “Recently, the South End has lent itself to treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict—one of the most volatile issues of our time, upon which the peace of the world may quite literally depend—in a highly irresponsible and inflammatory manner, and it has printed attacks upon Jews, Poles and other ethnic groups that are disturbingly reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany.” Despite the complaints, Watson keeps his job (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 29-31)

● 1969 (February)—Yitzhak Unna is sent to South Africa as Israel’ consul-general, with the express goal of improving relations between the two countries (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 54)

● 1969 (February)—Amina Dhahbour becomes the first Palestinian woman to take part in an airplane hijacking when she commandeers an El Al plane in Zurich (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 348)

● 1969 (February)—In a series of articles in New Left Notes, Jewish SDS member Susan Eanet supports the Palestinians and condemns Israel. Eanet writes that the Zionists “chose to colonize ‘the heathen’ who occupied the Arab lands in order to create a new Jewish homeland…Thus the so-called birth of Israeli ‘socialism’ was founded on the complete relocation of thousands of people of color.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 16)

● 1969 (February)—Public meeting held at Harvard University where Israelis (Shimon Shamir) and American Jews (Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg) meet with Arabs and Edward Said to “try to explore ways of getting beyond hostility toward some sort of mutual recognition and understanding.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 32)

● 1969 (February 26)—Levi Eshkol dies and is unable to be buried in his hometown of Kibbutz Degania as he wanted because of the risk of shelling from Jordan. Instead, he is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Herzl (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 22)

● 1969 (March)—In New Left Notes, Illinois SDS member Peter Pran argues that the SDS needs to come out with more public support for the Palestinian cause. He says: “SDS cannot pretend to be a consistent backer of revolutionary struggles around the world without taking a strong stand on the Middle East war, one of the most important battles in the world today.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 16)

● 1969 (March)—Noam Chomsky becomes publicly engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian issue with a speech given to the Arab Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 69)

● 1969 (March 8)—Egyptian artillery fire kills 4 Israelis (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 26)

● 1969 (March 9)—Israeli tank and artillery fire kill Egyptian Chief of Staff Abdul Munim Riad and several of his staff officers. A million Egyptians attend Riad’s funeral and turned it into a protest, chanting cries for revenge (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 26)

● 1969 (March 17)—Golda Meir assumes office of Prime Minister. Uri Kaufman notes that she is “the first woman in the history of the world to rise to be head of state without being related by blood or marriage to a king or male politician.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 25)

● 1969 (March 20)—In New Left Notes, SDS member Peter Pran declares: “The State of Israel must be abolished. Its Zionist, racist government and its league with imperialism thoroughly exposed and fought, until the day the land is again taken back by the Palestine refugees to whom it belongs—before it was stolen by the Israel Jews.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 16)

● 1969 (March)—Michael Lerner and Mario Sava form a group at Berkeley called the Committee for a Progressive Middle East (CPME). The goal of the group is to get Israelis and Palestinians to work together against their common enemy: capitalism (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 37-38)

● 1969 (April 4)—Moshe Dayan gives an interview to Ha-Aretz and states: “We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country we bought the lands from the Arabs. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gevat—in the place of Jibta, Sarid—in the place of Haneifs and Ketar Yehoshua—in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 14)

● 1969 (April 23)—Demonstrations in support of the Palestinians in Beirut and Sidon turn deadly when Lebanese security forces open fire on the crowds, killing 20 (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 201)

● 1969 (May)—Over 30 US college campuses, including Berkeley, host a “Palestine Week.” On the 13^th, a Berkely Arab student organization invites Marxist scholar Hal Draper and the left-wing writer Paul Jacobs to debate “Zionism and Socialism.” On the 15^th, 100 protesters show up to a “Palestine Week” event at UCLA set up by the Organization of Arab Students (OAS) (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 26)

● 1969 (July)—Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Fawzi announces that Egypt has launched the “War of Bloodletting.” The Israelis call it the “War of Attrition” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 21)

● 1969 (July)—Israeli jets are sent to patrol west of Suez Canal, daring the Egyptian air force to challenge them. The Egyptians take the bait and 20 of their planes are shot down (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 27)

● 1969 (July 13)—Naji al-Ali debuts cartoon character Handala/Hanthala, a symbol of Palestinian resistance
Handala - Handala - Wikipedia

● 1969 (July 22)—In the Algerian capital of Algiers, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver declares that Israel is an American “puppet and pawn” and “al-Fateh will win” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 111)

● 1969 (August)—Deadly clashes break out between Lebanese security forces and Palestinian guerillas in the Nahr al-Bred refugee camps outside Tripoli (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 202)

● 1969 (August 18)—Newsweek carries a story about 140 students, most European, who had attended a 5-week al-Fatah course in Amman, Jordan (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 55)

● 1969 (August 21)—An Australian Christian named David Rohan, suffering from what some call Jerusalem Syndrome, sets fire to al-Aqsa to accelerate the Second Coming. The blaze destroys Nur al-Din’s minbar placed there by Saladin, and sparks rumors of a Jewish conspiracy to seize the Temple Mount, which leads to Arab riots (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 526)

● 1969 (August 29)—TWA 840 hijacked by PFLP operatives, including Leila Khaled. They believed that Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli ambassador to the US, was on the flight from Rome to Israel. Even though Rabin was not on the plane, they force the pilot to land in Syria. The militants evacuate the aircraft and blow up the nose section of the aircraft. The Syrian authorities arrest the hijackers and immediately release the 12 crew members and 95 passengers, at first retaining six Israeli passengers. Of those, four are released on the 30th. The remaining two Israeli passengers are released in December in return for 71 Syrian and Egyptian soldiers released by Israel. The two Palestinian hijackers are released without charges in mid-October.

● 1969 (August)—Black Panther Party minister of education, Raymond “Masai” Hewitt, says: “We recognize that our oppression takes different forms—Zionism in Palestine and fascism here in America—but the cause is the same: it’s US imperialism.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 118)

● 1969 (September)—Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon forcibly evict Lebanese army and police forces (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 202)

● 1969 (November)—Nasser brokers a deal between the Lebanese government and Palestinian factions called the Cairo Agreement that permits Palestinian guerillas to operate from Lebanese territory and gives them control over the 300,000 Palestinians living in Lebanese refugee camps. In exchange, the Palestinians agree to maintain discipline and avoid interfering in Lebanese internal affairs (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 350)

● 1969 (November)—PLO attack on El-Al offices in Athens leave 1 child dead and 30 wounded (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 375)

● 1969 (December 26)—Israelis launch commando raid into Egypt. They dismantle a five-ton Soviet radar, hitch the pieces to helicopters, and fly them back to Israel with all the Russian manuals (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 27)

● 1969 (December 26-28)—Algiers hosts an international gathering called the Congress of Palestine Support Committees. On the 27^th, Yasser Arafat publicly embraces Edridge Cleaver (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 116)

● 1969 (December)—The Black Panther quotes Yasser Arafat as saying: “The Palestinian Liberation Movement considers itself a part of the people’s struggle against international imperialism. We are fighting the same enemy. The mask may differ, but the face remains the same.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 118)

● 1969 (December)—When French President Charles de Gaulle refuses to deliver 5 missile boats that Israel had already purchased from France, the Israeli Navy launches a successful covert operation to smuggle the boats out of Cherbourg harbor, spearheaded by Admiral Mordechai Limon (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 57)

● 1969 (December)—It takes Israel only 1 day to reject US Secretary of State William P. Roger’s latest peace plan. (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 67)

● 1969—US inspections of Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor stop. US concludes that despite Israeli claims to the contrary, they are building nuclear weapons

● 1969—Yasser Arafat elected chairman of the PLO’s executive committee

● 1969—Robert Littell publishes If Israel Lost the War, an alternative history where Israel loses the Six Day War

● 1969—Ariel Sharon is appointed head of the IDF’s Southern Command and begins an aggressive policy to hunt down terrorists in Gaza

● 1969—17% of the Israeli defense budget is spent on building thirty miniature forts called maozim near the Suez Canal (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 28)

● 1969—Sadat’s presidential secretary, Ashraf Marwan, walks into the Israeli embassy in London and offers information to Mossad. Through the 1970s, Israel pays Marwan (Code name: the Angel) $3 million (equivalent to $20 million today) (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 63)

● 1969—First vote on Palestinian self-determination at UN results in General Assembly Resolution 2535B, which expresses grave concern “that the denial of [Palestinian] rights has been aggravated by the reported acts of collective punishment, arbitrary detention, curfews, destruction of houses and property, deportation and other repressive acts against the refugees and other inhabitants of the occupied territories.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 6)

● 1969—By the end of the year, Israel has destroyed 7,554 Palestinian houses, killed 1,350 guerillas, and taken 2,800 prisoner (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 14; Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 348)

● 1969—Israeli anti-Zionist socialists Moshe Machover and Akiva Orr publish “The Class Character of Israel,” and argue that the Israeli working class has a vested economic interest in maintaining the racist divisions with the Palestinians (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 80)

● 1969—Harvard sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset declares: “The considerable support which the intellectual left once gave to Israel is gone. And it is not likely to be revived….Israel is now held to be a strong and rich nation, whereas the Arabs are weak, underdeveloped, poor.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 45, 173)

● 1969—On the occasion of the Sixteenth Convention of the Israeli Communist Party, a paper is submitted at the outset of the conference that states: "After Hitler's taking of power in Germany, when all anti-fascist forces in the world and the great majority of the Jewish organizations proclaimed a boycott against Nazi Germany, contacts and collaboration existed between Zionist leaders and the Hitlerite government.” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 54)

● 1969—At a summit in Rabat, Nasser makes it clear to his fellow Arab heads of state that neither he nor they are in a position to wage war on Israel anytime in the near future (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 262)

● 1970 (January)—French President George Pompidou concludes deal to sell Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi the 100 Mirage fighter jets that were originally earmarked for Israel. Uri Kaufman notes that: “As Libya lacked the pilots to fly advanced aircraft, it was obvious that the planes were destined for Egypt.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 30)

● 1970 (January)—The Black Panther publishes an article titled “Zionism (Kosher Nationalism) + Imperialism = Fascism,” which states: “Victory to the peoples struggle of Palestine! Victory to Al-Fat’h!...The Zionist fascist state of Israel…is a puppet and lackey of the imperialists and must be smashed.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 119)

● 1970 (January)—Berkeley Arab Students’ Association sponsors a lecture featuring the Welsh journalist Colin Edwards, who had just returned from a visit to Palestinian guerilla areas in the Middle East (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 27)

● 1970 (January 7)—Start of 19 Israeli missions (119 sorties) attacking Egyptian military sites (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 28)

● 1970 (February 10)—In an interview, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir says that “there are no such thing as Palestinians…they do not exist. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state?” (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 81)

● 1970 (February 21)—The “General Command,” a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, kills 47 when they bomb a Swissair jetliner taking off from Zurich.

● 1970 (February)—Radical Zionist Alliance (RZA) founded at a conference held in Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts. The RZA upholds the twin ideals of socialist Zionism and mutual Israeli-Palestinian recognition. The RZA slogan is “Be a Revolutionary in Zion, and a Zionist in the Revolution.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 34)

● 1970 (February)—Noam Chomsky participates in a conference on “Israel, America, and the New Left” held by the American Histadrut Cultural Exchange Institute at Arden House in Orange County, New York, and says: “First and most important, it is necessary to stop equating criticism of Israeli government policy with anti-Semitism, to put an end to the silly talk about Jewish self-hatred…and to pay some attention to what people are actually saying and thinking.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 70)

● 1970 (March)—Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East (CONAME), the first American peace group focused solely on the Arab-Israeli conflict, sponsor a US tour of Israeli Matzpen member Arieh Bober. (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 174)

● 1970 (March)—Nixon administration announces that it is holding up Israel’s request for additional American-made aircraft, in part to discourage the Soviet Union from providing more weapons to Egypt (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 64)

● 1970 (March 21)—An article in the Black Panther titled “Al Fath Does Not Intend to Push the Jews into the Sea” features a cartoon by Emory Douglas of America and Israel as pigs (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 120)

● 1970 (March 28)—Out of the 43 issues of the Black Panther from June 1, 1969 to March 28, 1970, the party ran 33 articles in support of the Palestinians or attacking Israel (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 114)

● 1970 (April)—American Friends of Free Palestine (AFFP) founded at the University of Virginia (UVA) (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 28)

● 1970 (May)—IDF suffers worst monthly death toll during War of Attrition when Egypt kills 70 Israelis (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 30-31)

● 1970 (May-June)—FBI writes a report for President Nixon claiming that members of the Black Panthers might be traveling to the Middle East to receive training by al-Fatah guerillas. By June they conclude that no Panthers had actually been trained yet (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 143)

● 1970 (June)—Direct fighting breaks out between Palestinian fedayeen and Jordanian troops in Zarqa. Days later gunmen fire on King Hussein in central Amman, killing one of his guards. Without waiting for orders, army units shell two Palestinian refugee camps in response, sparking 3 days of battles with guerillas (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 260)

● 1970 (June)—PFLP takes the first secretary of the American Embassy in Jordan hostage and seizes the two largest hotels in Amman. King Hussein responds by sending his army to attack Palestinian positions in the refugee camps of Amman. After a week of fighting, a truce is struck and hostages are released (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 350)

● 1970 (June 2)—US Secretary of State William P. Rogers meets with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to seek an end to Israeli-Egyptian fighting. Two weeks later, Rogers releases a plan titled “Stop Shooting and Start Talking.” Nasser endorses the plan and the PLO and other Palestinian guerillas denounce him as a traitor and imperialist agent. A furious Nasser responds by closing down the PLO’s Voice of Palestine radio operating from Cairo, and ceases the funding of militants in Gaza (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 33; Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 259)

● 1970 (June 28)—Bayard Rustin takes out an expensive advertisement in the New York Times and the Washington Post titled “An Appeal by Black Americans for United States to Support Israel.” He writes: “Some Americans, including a small minority of blacks, have expressed the feeling that the Middle East crisis is fundamentally a racial conflict between nonwhite Arabs and white Israelis. We think that this point of view is not only uninformed but dangerously misleading.” Rustin declares: “We…support Israel’s right to exist for the same reasons that we have struggled for freedom and equality in America.” Finally, going against his pacifist background, Rustin says: “For the present this means providing Israel with the full number of jet aircraft it has requested.” Rustin secures 64 signatures to the letter, including Jackie Robinson. Ray Nero of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) criticizes Rustin in an article titled “An Appeal to Reason: A Message to the Negroes Who Support Israel.” Nero writes: “More jets to an already militarily superior people does not seem in line with a policy of non-violence…They say that more jets will…‘guarantee Israel’s right to exist as a nation.’ Do they think more of the right to exist on stolen land than they do of their own right to exist here? (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 66)

● 1970 (June 30)—First 2 Israeli F-4 Phantoms shot down (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 29)

● 1970 (July 15)—Weather Underground members release a statement in the underground New York newspaper Rat: Subterranean News that reads: “Our task is to join the people of the world in destroying US imperialism and building a socialist society…We must learn from the Viet Cong, the Latin American revolutionaries, and the Palestine Liberation Front. We must all begin to think of ourselves as urban guerillas and attack the enemy wherever we can.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 138)

● 1970 (July 30)—Israel sends 4 planes into Egypt in what appears to be a routine reconnaissance mission. The Soviets take the bait and send in their jets, which are ambushed by 12 Israeli fighters known as the “Dream Team” that have 59 recorded kills between them. 5 Soviet jets are shot down and Israel suffers no losses (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 32)

● 1970 (July)—Yippie Jerry Rubin says: “It is the Jew who should always be on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the underdog, the wretched of the earth, because of the Jewish experience…If Moses were alive today, he’d be an Arab guerilla” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 19)

● 1970 (July 28)—Charles Hightower, the director of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), writes an angry letter to some of the signatories of Bayard Rustin’s pro-Israel advertisement. In the letter he says: “Apparently, you are ignorant of the fact that Israel is supported by South Africa, that each of these states keep about 5,000 political prisoners in detention, that in the Arab territories occupied by Israel [in 1967], there is not even the pretense of democracy, and that closer political and economic ties are currently being extended between South Africa and Israel…Your support for Israel and request to the United States Government to supply that aggressive country with American made jet aircraft for use against the Arab population is a criminal and reactionary position of policy which calls into question your fitness to serve as a representative of Afro-America.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 149-151)

● 1970 (August 8)—Israel and Egypt agree to a cease-fire in War of Attrition. From June 11, 1967 to August 8, 1970, the Egyptians killed 440 Israelis (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 34)

● 1970 (August 26)—During a press conference, Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton says: “We have respect for all people, and we have respect for the right of any people to exist. So we want the Palestinian people and the Jewish people to live in harmony together. We support the Palestinians’ just struggle for liberation one hundred percent…As far as the Israeli people are concerned we are not against the Jewish people. We are against the government that will persecute the Palestinian people…Our view is that the people led by the Palestinian people should be led in a struggle, a revolutionary struggle in order to transform the Middle East into truly a people’s republic.” He goes on to say: “Israel was created by Western imperialism and maintained by Western fire power. The Jewish people have a right to exist as long as they solely exist to down the reactionary expansionist Israeli government.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 123)

● 1970 (September)—The Jordanian king’s convoy comes under fire, triggering more clashes between the army and Palestinian fedayeen (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 260)

● 1970 (September 2)—Second World Conference on Palestine held in Amman, Jordan. Three American Jewish delegates, Sharon Rose, Joseph Center, and Marilyn Lowen, issue a statement that reads: “As revolutionaries of Jewish heritage in the United States of America, we take this opportunity to wholeheartedly support the Palestinian liberation movement…We cast our lot with the Palestinian liberation movement which struggles in behalf of our semitic sisters and brothers…As American Jews, we will attempt to combat the Zionist propaganda machine which chokes freedom of thought in the Jewish community and prevents Jewish youth from rejecting Zionism and joining the ranks of anti-imperialist struggle.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 44-45)

● 1970 (September 4)—NBC-TV “Nightly News” carries a televised report from Beirut by American journalist Marc Schleifer. The film footage shows three white Americans, described as being in the New Left, training in a Palestinian refugee camp with a local militia unit organized by the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP). When one of the men named “Huey” is interviewed he says: “We came here because the struggle is international…whether we fight in Oakland, Chicago, New York, or in Jordan, Lebanon, or Palestine, it’s the same struggle.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 54)

● 1970 (September 6)—PFLP operatives Lelia Khaled and Patrick Arguello hijack El Al Flight 219, flying from Amsterdam to New York, one of several planes the PFLP intended to hijack that day and fly to a desert airfield in Jordan. Israeli sky marshals foil the hijacking, arresting Khaled and killing Arguello. Historian Michael R. Fischbach notes that: “In the Middle East, Arguello was eulogized as the most famous American citizen to serve in the Palestinian resistance” and in October Arguello’s mother said: “We are proud that he felt so deeply about the Palestinians that he was prepared to die for them.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 56-57)

● 1970 (September 12)—Radical Palestinian guerillas bring 3 hijacked planes to Dawson’s Field in Jordan and rename it “Revolution Airport.” They prevent the Jordanian army from getting near them or rescuing the passengers, then they blow up the planes

● 1970 (September 15)—Palestinian guerillas occupy the Jordanian city of Irbid, declaring it “liberated” territory (Source: Alex Rowell, We Are Your Soldiers, 260-261)

● 1970 (September 16)—Activists from YAWF and the Committee to Support Middle East Liberation (CSMEL) protest a speech by Nixon in Chicago, chanting “Support black and Arab liberation” and “Israel is a death trap for the Jewish people.” On the 20^th, hundreds of YAWF and CSMEL activists protest outside a hotel in New York, where Golda Meir was giving a speech to the United Jewish Appeal. Protesters chant “Free Leila [Khaled], jail Golda [Meir].” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 79)

● 1970 (September 18)—The international section of the Black Panther Party releases a statement that reads: “The struggle of the Palestinian people for their freedom and liberation from US imperialism and its lackeys is also our struggle. We recognize that if the Palestinian people cannot get their freedom and liberation, neither can we.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 117)

● 1970 (September 16-27)—Black September in Jordan—King Hussein orders his army to launch an attack against Arafat and the Palestinians, who had essentially created their own mini-state with Jordan—65,000 Jordanian troops vs. 15,000 Palestinians—An estimated 3,000 Palestinians are killed—PLO forced to relocate to Beirut, Lebanon

● 1970 (September)—Syrian minister of defense, Hafez al-Assad, refuses to obey his president’s order to support Palestinian militants who were fighting in Jordan against King Hussein. When he is condemned for this action, Assad seizes power a couple of months later in a bloodless coup (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 73)

● 1970 (September 28)—Nasser dies from a massive heart attack

● 1970 (October 1)—Socialist Workers Party (SWP) holds an event under the rubric, “Third World Revolutionaries Speak in Defense of the Palestinian and Arab Revolutions.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 27)

● 1970 (October 7)—Whitney M. Young Jr. of the National Urban League says: “I would continue to favor providing Israel with the weapons she needs to defend herself again those who have sworn to destroy her…If the Arab nations had really been concerned with improving the social, economic and political existences’ of their people, they would long ago have ceased threatening to push Israel into the sea and concentrated their energies on improving the lives of their people.” (58)

● 1970 (October 17)—Writing in The Guardian, Weatherman Eric Mann states that “Israeli embassies, tourist offices, airlines and Zionist fund‐raising and social affairs are important targets for whatever action is decided to be appropriate.” (Source: Seymour Martin Lipset, “The Socialism of Fools,” The New York Times, January 3, 1971)

● 1970 (November)—CPUSA Chairman Harry M. Winston says “The struggle of the Arab people is an inseparable part of the fight of all peoples for liberation from imperialism. And this is indissolubly linked to the struggle of Black people in the US” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 102)

● 1970 (November 1)—As a direct rebuttal to Bayard Rustin’s pro-Israel newspaper advertisement, the Committee of Black Americans for Truth About the Middle East (COBATAME) raise the $4,000 needed for an advertisement and publish “An Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support of the Zionist Government of Israel” in the New York Times. The statement reads: “We, the Black American signatories of this advertisement, are in complete solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who, like us, are struggling for self-determination and an end to racist oppression…We stand with the Palestinian people in their efforts to preserve their revolution, and oppose its attempted destruction by American Imperialism aided by Zionist and Arab reactionaries…We are anti-Zionist and against the Zionist State of Israel, the outpost of American Imperialism in the Middle East. Zionism is a reactionary racist ideology that justifies the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and lands, and attempts to enlist the Jewish masses of Israel and elsewhere in the service of imperialism to hold back the Middle East revolution…WE STATE that the Palestinian Revolution is the vanguard of the Arab Revolution and is part of the anti-colonial revolution…Because of its alliance with imperialism, Zionism opposes that anti-colonial revolution and especially revolutionary change in the Middle East…WE STATE that Israel, Rhodesia, and South Africa are three privileged white settler-states that came into existence by displacing indigenous peoples from their lands…WE DEMAND THAT ALL MILITARY AID OR ASSISTANCE OF ANY KIND TO ISRAEL MUST STOP. IMPERIALISM AND ZIONISM MUST AND WILL GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST. WE CALL FOR AFRO-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION AND TO REGAIN ALL OF THEIR STOLEN LAND.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 107-108)

● 1970—Israel establishes Jewish settlements in Sinai and Gaza—500 terrorist attacks in Gaza, 18 Israelis killed

● 1970—Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal moves to Baghdad

● 1970—Soviets deploy SAM-3 anti-aircraft missile in Egypt, the first time it is seen outside the Warsaw Pact (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 31)

● 1970—UN General Assembly Resolution 2627C recognizes “that the people of Palestine are entitled to equal rights and self-determination, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 7)

● 1970—US President Nixon sends a memorandum to his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, saying that: “[The US] is basically pro-freedom and not just pro-Israel because of the Jewish vote. We are for Israel because Israel in our view is the only state in the Mideast which is pro-freedom and an effective opponent to Soviet expansion.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 114)

● 1970—In a speech, Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) says: “My brothers and sisters, Israel is a settler colony. European Jews leave Europe, go to Palestine, change the name to Israel, expel the original inhabitants, the Palestinian Arabs, and dominate the land.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 46)

● 1970—In an interview, James Baldwin says: “When I was in Israel I thought I liked Israel. I liked the people. But to me it was obvious why the Western world created the state of Israel, which is not really a Jewish state. The West needed a handle in the Middle East. And they created the state as a European pawn. It is tragic that the Jews should allow themselves to be used in this fashion, because no one cares what happens to the Jews. No one cares what is happening to the Arabs. But they do care about the oil. That part of the world is a crucial matter if you intend to rule the world.” He adds: “[I am] not anti-Semitic at all, but I am anti-Zionist…I don’t believe they [Zionists] had the right, after 3,000 years, to reclaim the land with Western bombs and guns on biblical injunction.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 99)

● 1970—Edward Said visits Jordan

● 1970—Ghassan Kanafani publishes Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories
Palestine’s Children Returning To Haifa & Other Stories ( PDFDrive ) : Ghassan Kanafani : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1970—Fatah launches 199 operations against Israel in 1969 and 279 operations in the first 8 months of 1970 (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 347)

● 1971(January 3)—Israeli Black Panthers founded—The group is made up of Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews, with origins in the Middle East and North Africa, who tend to occupy the lower socioeconomic strata within Israeli society as compared to Ashkenazi Jews, with European backgrounds (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 131-132)

● 1971 (January 3)—American sociologist and political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset publishes an article in The New York Times titled “The Socialism of Fools,” which argues that the New Left is anti-Israel and encourages anti-Semitism. He writes: “anti‐Semitism appears to be on the rise around the world. But unlike the situation before 1945, when anti‐Jewish politics was largely identified with rightist elements, the current wave is linked to governments, parties, and groups which are conventionally described as leftist… One may oppose Israeli policy, resist Zionism or criticize worldwide Jewish support of Israel without being anti‐Semitic. But when one draws on the age‐old hostility to Jews to strengthen a political position, when one gives credence to the charge of a worldwide Jewish plot to rule, when one attacks those with whom one has political and economic differences as Jews, when one implies that Jews are guilty of some primal evil, then one is guilty of anti Semitism, and one is engaged in the same racism that all decent men insist on eliminating….As the war in Vietnam peters out, the various incarnations of the extreme left new and old, anarchists, Maoists, Trotskyists, Black Panthers and Communists—have reoriented their international emotional priorities to identify the heroes as the Arab terrorists and freedom fighters, and the villains as Israel and its American ally…The American New Left largely shares the pro‐Arab terrorist views expressed by the movement in Europe.” (Source: Seymour Martin Lipset, “The Socialism of Fools,” The New York Times, January 3, 1971)

● 1971 (February 15)—Anwar Sadat responds to a UN peace proposal from special representative Gunnar Jarring. Sadat reemphasizes Nasser’s “linkage” position set forth in 1968, which declared that Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai was not enough, and Israel needed to withdraw from all occupied Arab territories before peace could be on the table. Sadat states that if these conditions are met, Egypt is prepared to live with Israel in “peace.” Uri Kaufman argues that “Sadat’s response was groundbreaking” because it was “the first document in which a major leader used the p-word.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 41)

● 1971 (February 26)—Golda Meir’s government responds to a UN peace proposal from special representative Gunnar Jarring. They accept most of the proposals, but add that “Israel will not withdraw to the pre-5 June 1967 lines.” Uri Kaufman calls this response “one of the biggest blunders of Golda Meir’s premiership” because “Golda was seen as ruling out full withdrawal and thereby sinking the initiative.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 42)

● 1971 (February)—American civil rights activist John Watson travels to Kuwait to attend the Second International Symposium on Palestine. He visits Jordan and interviews writer and spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ghassan Kanafani, for the radical New York paper The Guardian (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 100)

● 1971 (March 8)—Sadat meets with Palestinian representatives and urges them not to make peace with Israel on any terms (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 41)

● 1971 (March 19)—In an article in Ha’aretz, Sabri Jiryis describes how Arab history is taught in Israel schools: “Even a cursory study of the history program will show that it is geared to celebrating the history of the Jews and presenting it in the best possible light, whereas the view of Arab history is warped to a point bordering on falsehood. Arab history is represented as a series of revolutions, killings, and continuous feuds, in such a way as to obscure Arab achievements. Similarly, the time devoted to the study of Arab history is meager. In the fifth grade, for example, ten-year-olds spend ten hours (or periods) learning about the ‘Hebrews’ and only five on the ‘Arabian peninsula.’ And even while studying the Arabian peninsula…In the sixth grade, thirty out of sixty-four history periods are spent on ‘Islamic History’…There is no mention of Arab history in seventh grade…In the eighth grade, there are thirty hours for studying ‘the state of Israel’ and only ten for the history of the Arabs from the nineteenth century to the present.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 127-128)

● 1971 (April)—In an article in the New York Times by C. L. Sulzberger titled “Strange Nonalliance,” the South African Prime Minister is quoted saying: “We view Israel’s position and problems with understanding and sympathy. Like us they have enemies bent on their destruction.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 65)

● 1971 (April 13)—Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir meets with five Jewish activists from the Israeli Black Panthers

● 1971 (May)—First issue published of the Middle East Research and Information Project’s journal called MERIP Reports

● 1971 (July 1)—The New York Review publishes a statement titled “The Liberation of Palestine and Israel,” signed by 33 well-known liberal and leftists, including Noam Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, and Benjamin Spock. The statement reads: “We urge that the American Jewish community and the American anti-war and radical movements take up these issues not by a mindless endorsement of one party orthodoxy or another in the Middle East but with serious study and a sensitive commitment to the liberation of both the Israeli and Palestinian people from militarism and exploitation.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 72-73)

● 1971 (July 30)—American Marxist historian Herb Aptheker gives a speech in New York City for the CPUSA’s Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East. Aptheker says that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not a question of Arab versus Jew, but rather of imperialism/colonialism/racism versus national liberation/self-determination/social progress. (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 102)

● 1971 (July)—Ariel Sharon, chief of the Southern Command, orders and leads the Israeli army’s bulldozing of significant portions of refugee housing in Gaza, burying alive an unknown number of Palestinian guerrillas in underground tunnels. (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, 54)

● 1971 (August)—During an interview, US Democratic politician George McGovern says: “The Middle East is more important than Viet Nam in terms of both our security and our traditions…[As President] I would be prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure its survival…we must leave no doubt that we are committing ourselves to Israel’s survival.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 130)

● 1971 (August)—By this point in the year, Israel has destroyed 16,212 Arab houses (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 14)

● 1971 (August 8-12)—At their national convention in Cleveland, the Socialist Workers Party adopts a resolution presented by Gus Horowitz titled “Israel and the Arab Revolution.” The resolution defines Israel as a “settler-colonialist and expansionist capitalist state maintained principally by American imperialism, hostile to the surrounding Arab peoples.” The resolution states that the SWP is “opposed to the Israeli state and the concept of self-determination for oppressor nationalities.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 86-87)

● 1971—In Gaza, Palestinian teenagers kill two Israeli children, Mark and Abigail Aroyo, with a hand grenade. This begins a more aggressive Israeli effort to fight terrorism

● 1971—After repeated accusations that Palestinian prisoners are being tortured by the Shin Bet before the police are brought in to take their confessions, the military courts decide to begin summoning the Shin Bet agents involved in each case to hear from them during trials (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 358)

● 1971—American activist Arthur Waskow publishes The Bush is Burning! Radical Judaism Faces the Pharaohs of the Modern Superstate, and charges both the Jewish establishment and the New Left with forcing young Americans to choose between al-Fatah and ultra-Zionism to the exclusion of other points of view (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 3)
The bush is burning! Radical Judaism faces the pharaohs of the modern superstate : Waskow, Arthur Ocean, 1933- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1971—Carl Gershman, leader of the Socialist Party of America’s youth group, the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL), says it is “an absurd and frightening state of affairs when people use the criterion of hostility to Israel to determine whether someone is anti-imperialist and ‘revolutionary.’” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 107)

● 1971—At the Second International Symposium on Palestine in Kuwait, Black Panther Party field marshal Donald “DC” Cox delivers a speech and says: “The Palestinian liberation struggle stands in the vanguard of the struggle against the Zionist menace that plagues the people of the entire Arab world in general, and has usurped the national rights and freedom of the Palestinian people in particular…The Black Panther Party unconditionally and firmly supports the just struggle of the Palestinian people and their war of national salvation against the lackey state of Israel and its imperialist backers.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 117)

● 1971—In the introduction to The Transformation of Palestine, historian Arnold Toynbee writes: “Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victim.” (Source: Michael Adams, “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” 81)

● 1971—Rabbi Meir Kahane, a man whose calls to open violence against Arabs were regularly broadcast in the US, moves to Israel (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 57)

● 1971—In an effort to gain support in Africa, Israel offers a donation of $2,850 to an anti-apartheid group. The South African government is furious, especially after they approved a measure to allow the South African Jewish community to transfer $11 million to Israel over a 3-year period. Under pressure, Israel withdraws the offer (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 59)

● 1971—Menachem Begin visits South Africa to fundraise for Herut Party (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 62)

● 1971—Wallace Stegner publishes Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil

● 1971—Israeli journalist Amos Elon publishes The Israelis: Founders and Sons
The Israelis : founders and sons : Elon, Amos : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1972—US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger launches a secret diplomatic initiative aimed at achieving a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt

● 1972—Shin Bet’s hit list of Gaza terrorists down from 400 to 10 names

● 1972 (January 1)—Chaim Bar-Lev completes his 4-year term as chief of staff of the Israeli army. His replacement is Lieutenant-General David Elazar

● 1972 (March 10-12)—At the National Black Political Convention (NBPC) in Gary, Indiana, Methodist minister and activist Douglas Moore criticizes Israel, arguing: “the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel constituted a clear violation of the Palestinians’ traditional rights to live in their own home land…Israeli agents are working hand-in-hand with other imperialistic interests in Africa, for example, South Africa…Be it therefore resolved that the United States Government should end immediately its economic and military support to the Israeli regime…; that the Arab peoples’ land holdings be returned to Palestinians; and that negotiations be ended in the freedom of the representatives of Palestinians to establish a second state based on the historical right of the Palestinian people for self-government in their own land.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 104)

● 1972—Israel Radio broadcast a mock trial in which Israel’s low-level diplomatic ties with South Africa are in the dock. The verdict sides with those seeking stronger relations with South Africa (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 66)

● 1972 (April)—During a gathering in Bet She’an, the Israeli Black Panthers proclaim: “We intend to initiate in this country a social revolution, build a new society of which there is still no example anywhere in the world: leftist, but not like the USSR or China; something like the kibbutz, but not exactly. We shall establish a 100 percent egalitarian society. We must reach a situation in which we shall fight together with the ‘fucking’ Arabs against the establishment. We are the only ones who can constitute a bridge of peace with the Arabs in context of a struggle against the establishment.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 136)

● 1972 (April 28)—Israelis drop chemicals from a Piper Cub plane on wheat fields in the West Bank village of Akraba (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 120)

● 1972 (May 8)—Palestinian Black September terrorists hijack a Sabena plane and force the captain to land at Lod airport. The hijackers demanded that Israel release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages. The standoff is ended by an Israeli commando raid in which all of the hijackers are killed or captured

● 1972 (May 19)—At the National Black Political Convention (NBPC) in Gary, Indiana, the NBPC adopts a resolution on Israel which states: “1. The Israeli government to be condemned for her expansionist policy and forceful occupation of the sovereign territory of another state. 2. Measures be taken to alleviate the suffering and improve the position of the Palestinian people in Israel. 3. The NBPC should also revolve to support the struggle of Palestine for self-determination. 4. The NBPC concurs also with the UN Position that Israel rescind and desist from all practice affecting the demographic structure or physical character of occupied Arab territories and the rights of their inhabitants.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 105)

● 1972 (May 30)—The Japanese Red Army working with the PFLP carry out the Lod Airport massacre, killing 26

● 1972 (July)—Mossad assassinates Palestinian writer and leader Ghassan Kanafani in a car bombing in Beirut

● 1972 (September 5-6)—Munich Olympics Massacre—Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes and coaches in West Germany during the Olympics in the first major terrorist action to be captured on live television—German authorities don’t allow the Israelis to help with the flawed rescue operation, which kills the 5 terrorists, but fails to save the Israeli hostages.

● 1972 (September 8)—Israeli Skyhawk planes attack villages and refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria killing a total of 59 civilians, including 19 children (Source: Sami Hadawi, Crime and No Punishment: Zionist-Israeli Terrorism 1939-1972, 83)

● 1972 (September 11)—Palestinian Press Agency publishes a group statement from the Black September members who were killed in Munich. The statement was drafted before the Munich Olympics operation began and reads: “We do not intend to kill any innocent people. We are struggling above all against injustice. We do not want to disturb the peace, rather we want to draw the world’s attention to the filthy Zionist occupation and the real tragedy our people are suffering…The earth can only be freed with blood. The world only respects the strong. Our strength does not lie in speeches, but in action. We apologize to the young athletes of the world if their sensibilities are disturbed by our undertaking. But they should know that there is a people whose homeland has been occupied for 24 years.” (Source: J. Smith and Andre Moncourt, The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1: Projectiles for the People, 204)

● 1972 (September 16)—Israelis launch ground incursion into Lebanon because of continued Palestinian operations from that territory. Napalm dropped on Nabatiya refugee camp, killing 200 civilians (Source: Sami Hadawi, Crime and No Punishment: Zionist-Israeli Terrorism 1939-1972, 84)

● 1972 (September)—Israel signals a shift in attitude toward South Africa when they abstain from a vote at the UN to grant observer status to the African National Congress (ANC) and other black liberation movements (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 67)

● 1972 (October 29)—Black September commandos hijack a Lufthansa jet en route from Beirut to Ankara, threatening to blow up the plane if West Germany does not release 3 surviving Munich terrorists (Sammar ‘Adnan ‘abd al-Ghani al-Jishshi, ‘Abd al-Qadir ad-Dinnawi, and Samer Muhammad ‘Abdallah). The West German government agrees to the demands and the three men are granted safe passage to Libya (Source: J. Smith and Andre Moncourt, The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1: Projectiles for the People, 191)

● 1972 (December)—Ashraf Marwan and another Israeli source inside the Egyptian army warn Israel that Egypt is preparing a surprise attack. After hearing similar warnings since 1969 from the same sources, Israelis disregard the information. After Marwan sends another warning in December, the Israeli government holds an emergency session and the army argues for a first strike. This plan is put on hold when Kissinger tells Rabin: “It is critical that Israel not break the ceasefire, even if it has information of an Egyptian intention to restart the war.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 68, 84)

● 1972 (December 11)—New York Times reports: “the Israeli Government arrested four native‐born Israelis for allegedly participating in an espionage ring that involved a large number of Arabs. If the Israelis are found guilty, they will be the first citizens in their country's history who practiced espionage for ideological rather than economic reasons. They were all anti‐Zionists who wanted Israel to become a binational, socialist state. They all had political roots in Matzpen (the Israeli Socialist Organization)” (Source: Paul Cowan, “Jews Against Zionism,” New York Times, January 21, 1973)

● 1972 (December)—At their convention, the Socialist Party of America, now renamed the Social Democrats USA (SDUSA), issues a pro-Israeli statement that reads: “Israel, a small democracy ruled by a Socialist government based on a vigorous labor movement, is menaced by an alliance of terrorists and backward Arab dictatorships which together receive massive military and political support from the Soviet Union. We urge support for Israel on moral grounds, and also because such a policy contributes to peace in the Middle East by obstructing Arab adventurism and Soviet expansionism.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 158)

● 1972—PFLP, expelled from Jordan during Black September, moves to Damascus. George Habash turns against terrorism, so Wadi Haddad moves to Baghdad and forms the Special Operations Group to launch his own terrorist operations

● 1972—From 1969 to 1972, Israel spent 10% of its entire GDP on its air force (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 52)

● 1972—Ariel Sharon reduces maozim near Suez Canal from 30 to 16 (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 90)

● 1972—At their Seventeenth General Conference, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopts a resolution calling on Israel to stop changing the historical character of the city of Jerusalem and to refrain from carrying out any excavations in it. Egyptian delegate to UNESCO, Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil, notes that despite the resolution, “Israel has continued to carry out its excavations and to change the historical character of Jerusalem.” (Source: “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 [1975]: 3-4)

● 1972—Matzpen, the Israeli Socialist Organization, releases a book of essays edited by Arie Bober titled The Other Israel: The Radical Case Against Zionism

Arie Bober (ed.): The Other Israel (1972) (marxists.org)

● 1972—Noam Chomsky reflects on his early support for Israel during the Six Day War of 1967, saying: “I personally believed that the threat of genocide was real, and reacted with virtually uncritical support for Israel at what appeared to be a desperate moment. In retrospect, it seems that this assessment of the facts was dubious at best.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 69)

● 1972—Statistics from the US presidential election show a significant Jewish shift away from the Democrats to the Republicans. Nixon receives 35% of the vote, nearly triple the amount he got in 1968 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 165)

● 1972—During her US presidential campaign, Shirley Chisholm says: “A generation has grown up in the Palestinian ghetto, and, like the young who have survived their early years in our ghettos, these Palestinians have made clear that they will no longer tolerate the injustice of their conditions…Their acts of desperation in recent years have shocked us, perhaps unnecessarily, for we should have learned from our problems here at home the inevitable result of social injustice and poverty.” She says that to solve the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians requires “full representation for the Palestinians in all negotiations concerning the return or compensation for Palestinian Arab property; and immediate consideration of the problem of the lack of status of the several hundred thousand people who left Israeli held territory in 1948 and 1967 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 163-164)

● 1972—Ugandan dictator Idi Amin shuts down the Israeli embassy and expels all his Israeli advisers (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 67)

● 1973 (March)—PFLP leader Muhammad al-Aswad, nicknamed the “Guevara of Gaza,” is killed in an Israeli ambush (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, [Autumn 2014]: 54)

● 1973 (March)—PLO abducts Cleo Allen Noel Jr., the US ambassador to Sudan, and his assistant, George Curtis Moore. They demand the release of Sirhan Sirhan. Both men are shot and killed (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 537)

● 1973 (April 9)—YAWF’s Middle East committee co-sponsors a “Deir Yassin Demonstration” in New York City on the 25^th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 80)

● 1973 (April 9-10)—Operation Spring of Youth—Israeli special forces assassinate PLO leaders in Lebanon—Israeli commandos led by Ehud Barak assassinate three PLO leaders in their homes in West Beirut in the biggest targeted killing operation in 20^th century

● 1973 (May)—CIA report finds no connection between Black Panthers and Palestinian fedayeen (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 148)

● 1973 (May)—Organization of African Unity (OAU) passes a resolution denouncing Israel’s occupation of the Sinai Peninsula as a “threat to the security of the continent.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 69)

● 1973 (June)—Egyptians discover secret Israeli listening device (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 76)

● 1973 (July 21)—Lillehammer Affair—Israel tries to kill a Black September (Munich Olympic Massacre) architect Ali Hassan Salameh, but murders the wrong man in Norway. Instead, they fatally shoot a Moroccan pool boy named Ahmed Bouchiki—The Israeli assassins are caught by Norway police, put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to prison. Israel eventual gets them released, but it is an international embarrassment—Bayonet, Israel’s assassins who operated in Europe, are disbanded after the Norway failure (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 1973 (August)—Angela Davis meets PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in communist East Berlin (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 103)

● 1973 (August 21)—During a meeting in Alexandria, Syrian and Egyptian military leaders finalize plans for war with Israel (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 72)

● 1973 (August 24)—AMAN, Israeli military intelligence, learns that Soviet Scud missiles have arrived in Egypt (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 69)

● 1973 (August 29)—Egyptian President Sadat and Syrian President Assad decide to launch their war against Israel on October 6—the Yom Kippur holiday

● 1973 (September)—The Israeli military governor attends the opening of a new mosque in the Jawrat al-Shams neighborhood of Gaza by Shaykh Ahmad Yasin, founder of the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood

● 1973 (September 13)—When Israel sends a group of fighter jets on a reconnaissance mission over northern Syria, the Syrians send MiGs to challenge them, resulting in the IAF shooting down 12 Syrian jets. This is the largest aerial dogfight in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict fought outside of the wars (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 71)

● 1973 (September 25)—Jordan’s King Hussein travels to a secret Mossad location in Tel Aviv to meet with Golda Meir for the fourth time and he warns that Egypt and Syria are planning war (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 73)

● 1973 (October)—Israel’s nuclear arsenal has grown to a dozen weapons (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 51)

● 1973 (October 6)—Start of Yom Kippur War—Egyptian and Syrian armies launch war against Israel and catch them off guard. Syrians capture Israeli base at Mount Hermon—31 Israelis are captured and the Syrians are able to obtain documents and equipment that the Israelis didn’t have time to destroy. Captured soldiers are filmed by journalists on October 15. One of those captured is Israeli intelligence official Amos Levinberg, who tells the Syrians everything he knows. When Levinberg returns to Israel the government decided not to prosecute him as a traitor (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 99)
The War in October: What happened in 1973? | E1-P1 | Featured Documentary (youtube.com)

● 1973 (October)—During the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli army issues a booklet to soldiers written by the central command’s rabbi, Abraham Avidan, with a preface by General Yona Efrati. The booklet states: “When our forces encounter civilians during the war or in the course of a pursuit or a raid, the encountered civilians may, and by Halachic standards even must be killed, whenever it cannot be ascertained that they are incapable of hitting us back. Under no circumstances should an Arab be trusted, even if he gives the impression of being civilized.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 90-91)

● 1973 (October 7)—Israeli’s launch Operation Dougman 5 to knock out Syrian SAM’s (Surface to Air missiles) defending Golan Heights—Operation seen as the biggest disaster in Israeli air force history when 6 fighter jets are lost. At the Dvaylah army command center, a pessimistic Moshe Dayan worries that “the Third Temple (Israel) is at risk” and even recommends preparing Israel’s nuclear weapons (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 129, 134)

● 1973 (October 8)—A dark day in the history of the Israeli army—Israeli loses 60 tanks and 2 battalions (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 141)

● 1973 (October 9)—Although massively outnumbered, the Israeli forces in the Golan Heights manage to hold their positions and on the fourth day of the battle the Syrians withdraw, just as the Israeli defenses were almost at the point of collapse. The area where the fighting took place is known as the Valley of Tears. Soviets begin resupply of weapons to Egypt and Syria. Israeli ambassador to the US, Simcha Dinitz, tells Henry Kissinger that in the first 72 hours of the war, Israel lost 49 planes and 500 tanks—US President Nixon formally agrees to replace all the tanks and fighter jets Israel lost and resupply ammunition (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 176, 193)

● 1973 (October 10)—Soviets begin airlifting weapons to Syria and Egypt

● 1973 (October 12)—US backtracks and now refuses to supply Israel with fighter jets—The IAF began the war with 301 combat-ready planes and now it is down to 220. Once it dipped below 210-220 it could no longer provide air support for ground operations (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 176, 196)

● 1973 (October 13)—King Hussein of Jordan sends 160 tanks and soldiers to help Syrian war effort. Sadat turns down ceasefire offer (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 198)

● 1973 (October 14)—Egyptians launch one of the largest tank battles in world history when they try to take over an Israeli military base at Tasa, where hundreds of Israeli tanks are under the command of Ariel Sharon. Most lopsided battle of the war—Egypt loses 250 tanks, Israel lost 6—US resupply of weapons arrive (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 176, 204)

● 1973 (October 17)—Arab oil ministers meeting in Kuwait announce that they will reduce production by 5% immediately, and an additional 5% each month, until Israel withdraws to the 1967 boundary (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 282)

● 1973 (October 18)—From the 16^th to the 18^th, Israelis shoot down 36 Egyptian planes and 7 helicopters and only lose 1 plane

● 1973 (October 19)—First day in Yom Kippur War that IAF does not lose a single plane—Nixon asks Congress for $2.2 billion aid package for Israel (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 284)

● 1973 (October 19)—At the sixth annual convention of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates in Washington D.C., Daniel Berrigan, a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest and anti-war activist, delivers a speech on Israel titled “Responses to Settler Regimes.” Berrigan says: “The Jews arose from the holocaust, a cause of universal joy; but the Jews arose like warriors, armed to the teeth. They took possession of a land, they exiled and destroyed old Arab communities, they (a minority) made outsiders of those who were in fact, the majority of citizens…Israel entered the imperial adventure. She took up the imperial weapons, she spread abroad the imperial deceptions.” Berrigan calls Israel “an imperial entity” and “an Orwellian nightmare of double talk [and] racism…aimed at proving its racial superiority to the people it has crushed.” He also recognizes that “It is of course scarcely possible to open the moral question of Israeli or Arab conduct today, without exciting the most lively passion, and risking the most serious charge.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 172)

● 1973 (October 20)—Israeli pilot Giora Even makes his 17^th career kill, making him the world’s most successful ace of the modern fighter-jet era (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 176, 274)

● 1973 (October 21)—The American Servicemen’s Union (ASU) releases a statement in their newspaper, The Bond, warning that American soldiers will refuse to fight in the Middle East if they are asked to defend Israel. The statement reads: “GIs have no business intervening in the Middle East. We stand nothing to gain, and our lives to lose…This war is not about lofty ideals; it is about OIL…The native Palestinians were forced from their land into ‘refugee’ (concentration) camps and the US started building up the Israeli military to threaten the oil-producing nations…the very existence of the state of Israel represents aggression against the Arab nations.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 134)

● 1973 (October 22)—Ceasefire between Israel and Egypt announced—On his way back from Moscow, Kissinger visits Israel—UN Security Council passes Resolution 338, reaffirming Resolution 242 and calling for the convening of a peace conference and a resolution of Arab-Israeli differences through an exchange of land for peace

● 1973 (October 23)—After ceasefire, Israeli army surrounds Egyptian Third Army—Syrian President Assad agrees to ceasefire with Israel

● 1973 (October 25)—Yom Kippur War ends—More than 2,800 Israeli soldiers killed, 11,000 Egyptians, 6,000 Syrians. IAF lost 98 fighter jets and 800 tanks (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 308)

● 1973 (November 1)—Golda Meir meets with Kissinger in DC

● 1973 (November 18)—Israeli Government appoints a commission of inquiry to be headed by Shimon Agranat, president of the Israeli Supreme Court. The Government gives it authority to explore two things: the intelligence failure leading up to the surprise attack on Yom Kippur and the army’s defense in the early days of the war.

● 1973 (November-December)—PLO representative in London, Said Hammami, publishes an article in the Times (London), calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, becoming the first PLO representative ever to make such a proposal. In December, he pens a second column and calls for mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestinians (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 376)

● 1973 (December 1)—David Ben-Gurion dies and is buried in Sde Boker kibbutz next to his wife

● 1973 (December 7)—UNESCO resolution No. 3092 states that the General Assembly “reaffirms that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition and institutional structure of the status of the occupied territories or any part thereof are null and void.” The General Assembly “Calls upon all states, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any changes carried out by Israel in the occupied territories and to avoid actions, including actions in the field of aid, which might be used by Israel in its pursuit of the policies and practices referred to in the present resolution.” (Source: “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 [1975]: 4)

● 1973 (December 31)—Golda Meir’s Labor Alignment Party receives 51 seats in the Knesset, the second highest total in Israeli history (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 316)

● 1973—After the Yom Kippur War, Naji al-Ali’s cartoon character Handala/Hanthala is now only shown with his back to the audience

● 1973—After Henry Kissinger persuades Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to pursue peace with Israel, Saddam Hussein in Iraq sees an opportunity to take over the mantle of protector of the Palestinians. Saddam invites Yasser Arafat to join their cabinet as minister of Palestine affairs, but Arafat refuses because he was still angry with Iraq for not supporting PLO during Black September in Jordan. This is when Saddam begins supporting anti-PLO Palestinian terrorists like Abu Nidal

● 1973—Israel’s Herut party platform calls for annexation of West Bank and Gaza (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 15)

● 1973—American Jewish Communist Hyman Lumer publishes Zionism: Its Role in World Politics
Zionism: Its Role in World Politics : Hyman Lumer : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1973—New Left film production company Newsreel releases documentary titled We Are the Palestinian People: Revolutionary Until Victory
We Are the Palestinian People: Revolution Until Victory (1973) : Single Spark Films : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1973—The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) begins paying the Youth Committee for Peace and Democracy in the Middle East (YCPDME) $5,000 a year to provide them with reports on what they consider to be anti-Israeli groups both on and off college campuses, including the Young Socialist Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society, and Youth Against War and Fascism (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 155-156)

● 1973—Maxime Rodinson publishes Israel: A Colonial-Settler State?
Israel : a colonial-settler state? : Rodinson, Maxime : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1973—Alexander Altmann publishes Moses Mendelssohn: A Biographical Study
Moses Mendelssohn : a biographical study : Altmann, Alexander, 1906-1987 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1973—Eliezer Berkovits publishes Faith After the Holocaust
Faith after the Holocaust : Eliezer Berkovits : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1974 (January 27)—PLO representative Said Hammami and Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery have their first meeting in London.

● 1974 (February 3)—Israeli Captain Moti Ashkenazi, commander of the Budapest maoz, the only maoz to hold out against the Egyptian onslaught during the Yom Kippur War, begins a one-man protest outside of the prime minister’s office, holding a sign that reads “DAYAN RESIGN!” Ashkenazi takes out an ad in a newspaper and advertises a protest for February 17 (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 313)

● 1974 (March 4)—During a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, boxer Muhammad Ali says: “America is the headquarters of Zionism and imperialism.” When visiting Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Ali declares: “In my name, and in the name of all Muslims in America, I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 139-140)

● 1974 (March 18)—Arab oil embargo lifted

● 1974 (March 25)—The Black Panther Party’s new position on Israel is presented in the Black Panther in an article titled “The Issue Is Not Territory, but Human Rights.” The article states: “We can no longer accept an unprincipled posture, in the interest of misguided subjective notions. We can no longer allow our posture to be characterized as simply ‘pro-Arab,’ for we support the right of all human beings to freedom and human dignity.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 126)

● 1974 (April 2)—First report of Agranat Commission released. Commission absolves Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan of any wrongdoing during Yom Kippur War. However, it concludes that General David Elazar failed to carry out his duties as chief of staff and they recommend that he be replaced.

● 1974 (April 10)—Golda Meir resigns

● 1974 (April)—Syrian President Assad launches a ferocious war of attrition against Israeli occupation of Golan Heights. In April, Syria fires 41,000 shells into Israeli positions. 442 Israelis killed by end of 1974 (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 312)

● 1974 (May 14-15)—Ma’a lot Massacre—Palestinian terrorists take 115 Israelis hostage, chiefly school children—Ends in the murder of 25 hostages and six other civilians

● 1974 (May)—Weather Underground releases political manifesto, Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism. In a section titled “The Palestinian Movement,” the authors state: “People have been confused and misled into thinking that the situation in the Mideast is impossibly complicated. Blindness to the Palestinian people is at the root of this quandary. The Palestinian struggle is a genuine and deep-rooted movement for national liberation. As a people, they have actively opposed colonization of their lands from the beginning: against the Turkish rulers, against the British empire, and now against zionism as embodied in the state of Israel. This is the key to the past and the future of the Mideast. There is a sobering similarity between the situation of the Palestinians and the history of the Native American people. The reality is that Israel is an expansionist power, based on Zionist colonialism.

[…]

The Palestinians are 3.3 million landless people, dispersed primarily in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Israel. They have become the people of the diaspora—exiled from their homeland of thousands of years by the state of Israel and the ideology of zionism. Referred to in the US press as ‘Arab terrorists,’ ‘Arab refugees,’ or ‘Southern Syrians,’ the Palestinians have been struggling to return to their land and for their right to self-determination and liberation. Their claim is just; it is based on the fact of Palestinian national existence: a common heritage, the labor of their ancestors, the cultivation of citrus and olives, trade, the building of the cities of Haifa, Jaffa and Lydda, their culture, their dignity as a people.

For 24 years, hundreds of thousands of proud Palestinians have been forced into hastily set up U.N. refugee camps with no means of survival except food depots and U.N. rations. Displaced again in 1967, this time from the occupied territories, the Palestinians faced a second exodus, twice refugees. The atrocious camps, originally organized as a temporary measure, are the living grievance—they express the contradiction embodied in the existence of Israel at the expense of Palestine.

Israel has never recognized the Palestinians’ rights. Zionist leaders have rejected U.N. resolutions calling for the return of the refugees to their homeland, rejected the idea that the ‘so-called Palestinian people’ exist, and insisted that they are the Arabs’ problem, not theirs. From the outset, Israel has worked toward a purely Jewish state…Zionists colluded with the imperialists to create Israel on an already-populated land.

From its inception, zionism has been an imperial ideology…Israel is a settler colony…Israel is an expansionist country…Israel is a client state of US imperialism, serving as policeman and favored partner in the exploitation of the Mideast and Northern Africa…The zionist state is clearly the aggressor, the source of violence and war in the Mideast, the occupier of stolen lands The military solutions of periodic war and expansion, reprisal raids and constant preparation for war are the consequences of intransigent opposition to a politically cooperative future with Palestinians and Arabs. It is racist and expansionist—the enemy of Palestinians, the Arab people, and the Jewish people.

[…]

The white movement in the US has failed to give clear and open support to the Palestinian struggle. We have not taken on the necessary task of exposing the myths about Israel which cloak the true situation and disarm many people. The nature of the state of Israel is protected by intense passions and by the real memories of Nazism and anti-semitism. But despite ancestors at Auschwitz and relatives in Israel, we cannot escape the responsibility of opposing the crimes of the Israeli government and the consequences of zionist ideology.

[…]

The Palestinian struggle is at the heart of other conflicts in the Mideast…Palestinian liberation will not be suppressed.

The US people have been seriously deceived about the Palestinians and Israel. This calls for a campaign to educate and focus attention on the true situation…Our silence or acceptance of pro-zionist policy is a form of complicity with US-backed aggression and terror, and a betrayal of internationalism.

SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE! US OUT OF THE MIDEAST! END AID TO ISRAEL!” (Source: Prairie Fire in Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground, 1970-1974, 337-342)
Prairie Fire (sds-1960s.org)

● 1974 (June 3)—Prime Minister Golda Meir is replaced by Yitzhak Rabin. Moshe Dayan resigns

● 1974 (June 9)—Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament in exile, commits itself to establishing an “independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated”

● 1974 (June)—PLO adopts its “Ten Point Program” which declares “it is impossible for a permanent and just peace to be established in the area unless our Palestinian people recover from all their national rights and, first and foremost, their rights to return and to self-determination on the whole of the soil of their homeland.” Points 1-3 read: 1) To reaffirm the Palestine Liberation Organization’s previous attitude to Resolution 242, which obliterates the national right of our people and deals with the cause of our people as a problem of refugees. The Council therefore refuses to have anything to do with this resolution at any level, Arab or international, including the Geneva Conference. 2) The Palestine Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favor of our people and their struggle. 3) The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights, and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.
PLO 10-Point Program/Political Program (1974) (marxists.org)

● 1974 (September 8)—Palestinians plant a bomb in a TWA jet en route from Tel Aviv to New York. The plane is destroyed mid-air, killing all 88 passengers (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 537)

● 1974 (September 20)—In an article in Ha’aretz, a writer says that most Israeli children’s books have the same story: “the Arab who murders Jews out of pleasure, and the pure Jewish boy who defeats the ‘cowardly swine!’” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 91)

● 1974 (October)—Over 100 nations at the UN accept the PLO as the Palestinian’s representatives. At their Eighteenth General Conference, UNESCO accepts the PLO as an observer member and passes other resolutions that declare UNESCO should be granted educational facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and “peace must be made and racialism abolished.” The General Conference expresses the hope that in the near future it would see Palestine as a member of the international community, outraging Israel, who declares that UNESCO has “expelled” them (Source: “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” 9-10)

● 1974 (November)—Poll taken by the Israeli Institute of Social Research finds that 75% of Israelis would return all or nearly all land acquired in the Six Day War for peace with the Arabs (Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History, 478)

● 1974 (November 13)—PLO leader Yasser Arafat speaks for 101 minutes before UN General Assembly in one of the greatest diplomatic successes in Palestinian history. Arafat says: “I dream of a peaceful future in Palestine’s sacred land…Let us work together that my dream may be fulfilled, that I may return with my people out of exile…there in Palestine to live…in one democratic State where Christian, Jew and Muslim live in justice, equality and fraternity. As chairman of the PLO…I proclaim…that when we speak of our common hopes for the Palestine of tomorrow we include in our perspective all Jews now living in Palestine who choose to live with us there in peace and without discrimination….Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” The Israeli delegation boycott’s the speech and leaves their seats empty (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 378-379)

● 1974 (December)—Yippie Abbie Hoffman writes to his wife: “I am violently anti-Israel and no longer believe they have a right to exist. During the past ten years they have forfeited any right they might have ‘earned’…Zionism was the cause of the war. The PLO are as guilty of aggressions as were the North Vietnamese!...I hate Israel and want to see the Palestinians triumph.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 20)

● 1974—Israel bombs Nabatiya Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

● 1974—At the Rabat Summit, the Arab League recognizes PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people

● 1974—Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) founded—Ultra-nationalist Orthodox Jews dedicated to establishing Jewish settlements in West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights

● 1974—At its ninety-fourth session, the Executive Council of UNESCO condemns Israel for continuing to violate the Charter of UNESCO and infringe their resolutions (Source: “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 [1975]: 3-4)

● 1974—New American Movement (NAM), founded by Staughton Lynd and other Democratic Socialists, issues a statement proclaiming: “We support the dezionization of the state of Israel. We support the right of the Palestinian people to national self-determination in Palestine.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 118)

● 1974—The War Registers League (WRL), the oldest secular pacifist organization in the US, declares in their “Statement on the Middle East” that “We actively oppose any US shipment of arms to any nation, anywhere including the Middle East.” They also note that “We must face with frankness that within the United States the greatest barrier to open discussion has come from the organized forces of Zionism which have sought to equate any criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism.”(Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 168, 170)

● 1974—British historian Sir Martin Gilbert publishes Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Atlas of the Arab-Israeli conflict : Gilbert, Martin, 1936-2015 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1974—Hajj Amin al-Husseini says: “There is no room for peaceful coexistence with our enemies. The only solution is the liquidation of the foreign conquest in Palestine…and the establishment of a national Palestinian state on the basis of its Muslim and Christian inhabitants and its Jewish [inhabitants] who lived here before the British conquest and their descendants.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 108)

● 1975 (March 5)—Abu Jihad sends team of 8 into Israel; first time terrorists get a squad into the heart of the country—Terrorists seize the Savoy Hotel and take hostages, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. 44 Israeli commandos storm the hotel and kill 7 terrorists. 8 civilians were blown up by terrorists and 3 Israeli soldiers killed. This is seen as another significant Israeli failure

● 1975 (March)—The Gerald R. Ford administration undertakes a “reassessment” of US relations with Israel and as part of this reassessment the government once again holds up Israel’s request to acquire top-of-the-line American aircraft (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 173)

● 1975 (March 31)—Top secret minutes from meeting between South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, and Israeli defense minister, Shimon Peres, reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to the South African regime, who ultimately decline the offer due to the cost (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance)

● 1975 (April 3)—Israel and South Africa sign a security and secrecy agreement governing all aspects of the new defense relationship (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 83)

● 1975 (April 13-14)—Unidentified gunmen riding in a speeding car open fire in the Christian East Beirut suburb of Ain Rammanah, killing 4 men, including two Phalangists. Later the same day, 27 Palestinian civilians riding in a bus through East Beirut are ambushed and killed by Phalangists as revenge. The next morning, Palestinian guerillas backed by Muslim militiamen fight pitched battles in the streets of Beirut with Christians from the Phalangists and Tigers military. Beginning of Lebanese Civil War

● 1975 (May)—76 US senators send their “Letter of 76” to President Ford, complaining about his “reassessment” of US-Israeli relations and reaffirming their support for Israel (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 148)

● 1975 (June)—First formal, official Arab-American delegation to meet with US president and secretary of state (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 107)

● 1975 (July 30)—In an article in Zo Hadareh, Yoseph Elgazi says: “Upper Nazareth, which was created some fifteen years ago, ‘in order to create a counterweight to the Arab Nazareth,’ constitutes a cornerstone of the ‘Judaization of the Galilee’ policy. Upper Nazareth was erected upon the hills surrounding Nazareth as a security belt surrounding it almost on all sides. It was built upon thousands of acres of lands which were expropriated high-handedly, purely and simply by force, from the Arab settlements, particularly Nazareth and Rana.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 103-104)

● 1975 (September 11)—Bayard Rustin forms the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC)

● 1975 (September)—Siani II Agreement—US pledges that it will not negotiate with PLO until they recognize Israel’s right to exist (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 185)

● 1975 (November 10)—The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution that denounces Zionism as a form of racism (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 111)

● 1975 (December 21)—Six terrorists led by Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, attack a meeting of OPEC leaders in Vienna, Austria. The group, calling themselves the Arm of the Arab Revolution, kills 3 before taking hostages and demanding that authorities read out a pro-Palestinian communique over the radio and TV. After negotiations, all terrorists and hostages walk away unharmed

● 1975—197,000 Palestinian refugees officially in Lebanon, but the true number is closer to 350,000 (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 380)

● 1975—In an interview with the Journal of Palestine Studies, Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil, former Minister of Higher Education in Egypt, ex-President of the Arab University in Beirut, and Egyptian delegate to UNESCO, reports that “[Israel’s] excavations in the Aqsa Mosque area have endangered the Aqsa Mosque itself. It has bulldozed about 600 buildings in Jerusalem, including religious endowments and mosques; it has erected hundreds of buildings on confiscated Arab land and has a plan to build 35,000 new housing units around the city. All this is wholly destructive of the traditional character of Jerusalem…The world will not accept Israel's claim that Jerusalem is her capital. Through the resolutions of the inter- national organization, adopted with such a large majority, it is telling Israel that it is only an occupying power in the territory it is occupying, and that it is not entitled to do what it is doing now.” (Source: “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 [1975]: 5)

● 1975—In the Congress of Afrikan People’s newspaper Unity and Struggle, an article states: “progressive forces in the world will hold up a mirror to zionism…so the world can see the ugly face of racism…Zionism is a form of colonialism, which has erected the settler colony of ‘Israel.’ The land that is supposedly called ‘Israel’ is Palestine.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 94-95)

● 1975—Golda Meir publishes her autobiography My Life
My life : Meir, Golda, 1898-1978 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1976 (January 20)—Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) hosts an event at Columbia University in solidarity with the Palestinian people. PLO member Shafiq al-Hut speaks to the crowd of 600 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 149)

● 1976 (February)—PLO massacre of Christian villagers in Damour, Lebanon

● 1976 (March 30)—Protests erupt after the Israeli government announces that it plans to expropriate 20,000 dunams of land in the Galilee, 30% of which is Arab owned, for the establishment of new Jewish settlements and military bases. On March 30, Arab Israeli leaders call a Land Day demonstration, and 6 protesters are shot and killed. Event marks the first time that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza protest in solidarity with Arabs living in Israel. Beginning of Land Day march as a yearly tradition (Source: Bram Wispelwey and Yasser Abu Jamei, “The Great March of Return,” Health and Human Rights , Vol. 22, No. 1 [June 2020]: 179-186)

● 1976 (April)—South African prime minister John Vorster visits Israel and meets with prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. During World War II, Vorster served as a general in a militant Afrikaner nationalist organization that openly supported the Nazis (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 176; Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 3)

● 1976 (May 2)—Lead editorial in the New York Times argues that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is “a model for future cooperation” between Arabs and Jews (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 38)

● 1976 (June)—Syrian forces move into Lebanon to restore order (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 60)

● 1976 (June 13)—Palestine Solidarity Committee and Palestine Action Coalition hold a “Salute to Palestine” march in New York as a counterdemonstration to the annual “Salute to Israel” parade (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 151)

● 1976 (June 17)—Palestinian gunmen kill Ambassador Francis Meloy and the economic counselor Robert Waring in Beirut (Source: James M. Markham, “U.S. Ambassador and Aide Kidnapped and Murdered in Beirut Combat Sector,” New York Times)

● 1976 (June 27-29)—PFLP and German leftists (Wilfried “Boni” Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann) hijack an Air France plane during a stopover in Athens, Greece. They divert the flight to Libya and then Uganda, where they are welcomed and supported by dictator Idi Amin. Terrorists hold 248 passengers hostage and call on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in return for their release. After moving all of the hostages to a defunct airport, the hijackers separate all Israelis and several non-Israeli Jews from the larger group of passengers, subsequently moving them into a separate room. 148 non-Israeli hostages are released and flown out to Paris. The 94 remaining passengers, most of whom are Israelis, and the 12-member Air France crew remain hostages.

● 1976 (July 4)—Entebbe Raid (Operation Thunderbolt)—Israel sends a Sayeret Matkal team led by Yonatan Netanyahu to Entebbe, Uganda to rescue the Israeli hostages. Israeli commandos use a Mercedes-Benz 600 resembling the one owned by Idi Amin to deceive the Ugandan troops during the raid. Israelis kill all hijackers and 45 Ugandan soldiers and save 100 hostages. 4 hostages are killed during the raid, including a British-Israeli citizen named Dora Bloch, who was murdered on the orders of Amin. Yonatan Netanyahu is the only Israeli killed. Operation seen as a major success.

● 1976 (August 12)—Christian Phalangist massacre Palestinians in the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp in Lebanon—3,000 Palestinian civilians slaughtered (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 384)

● 1976 (August)—First high-level meeting between Israeli and Lebanese Maronite officials

● 1976 (December)—Israeli attacks peace activist Uri Avnery with a knife near his house in Tel Aviv, severely wounding him (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 379)

● 1976—PLO becomes the sole instrument of rule in the western sector of Lebanon stretching from Beirut south to the Israeli border

● 1976—Palestinian scholar and Fatah member Hanna Mikhail disappears while traveling from Beirut to Tripoli

● 1976—Arthur Koestler publishes The Thirteenth Tribe, which argues that the Jewish settlers in Palestine were descended from the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus that converted to Judaism in the eighth century
ARTHUR KOESTLER The Thirteenth Tribe : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1976—Moshe Dayan publishes his autobiography Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life
Moshe Dayan : story of my life : Dayan, Moshe, 1915-1981. cn : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1976—Israel’s stockpile of South African yellowcake uranium concentrate reaches 500 tons (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 44)

● 1976—US Congress passes the Ribicoff Amendment, which denies certain tax benefits to any firm complying with the Arab League boycott of trade with Israel (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 73)

● 1976—In an article titled “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” Klaus Polkehn argues: “The Zionist leaders not only did nothing against fascism; they even took action that sabotaged the anti-fascist front…In practice, they also rejected attempts to save the German Jews which did not have as their aim the settlement of the Jews in Palestine…The Zionist leaders share the responsibility for the failure to rescue a greater number of European Jewry. One should in all justice remember that those Jews who survived the monstrous fascist domination owed their lives to the soldiers of the anti-Hitler bloc, and especially to those of the Soviet army, who underwent terrible sacrifices in defeating the fascist dictatorship…Zionist leaders falsify history when they claim today that no one during the years of fascism stood by the side of the persecuted Jews except the Zionists…Apart from the many courageous acts of individuals to help the persecuted, the German Communist Party from the very first days of the fascist dictatorship condemned the anti-Semitic outrages as an integral ingredient of the regime in power” (Source: Klaus Polkehn, “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” 81-82)

● 1976—Israel becomes the largest beneficiary of American aid (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 81)

● 1977 (March)—Palestinian National Council (PNC) expresses willingness to establish a mini-state in any part of Palestine vacated by Israel

● 1977 (March)—US President Jimmy Carter becomes the first President to use the words “a Palestinian homeland” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxvi)

● 1977 (May)—Israel’s Labor Party which had ruled the country since its founding in 1948 loses its first national election to nationalist right-wing Likud Party led by Menachem Begin.

● 1977 (May)—Jimmy Carter meets with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Switzerland to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Assad objects to any bilateral discussions between Israel and any Arab nation that does not include the Soviet Union. He says: “If the Israelis insist on keeping East Jerusalem, this shows that they do not want peace, because we are as attached to it as they are…If Jerusalem is taken from us, we Muslims would be soulless.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 73-75)

● 1977 (June)—In a speech to the Knesset, Menachem Begin says: “I wish to declare that the Government of Israel will not ask any nation, be it near or far, mighty or small, to recognize our right to exist. The right to exist? it would not enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian, or American, to request for his people recognition of its right to exist. Their existence per se is their right to exist. The same holds true for Israel. We were granted our right to exist by the God of our fathers, at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization, nearly four thousand years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 22-23)

● 1977 (June 19)—London Sunday Times releases their “Insight” Report on torture in Israel. After an exhaustive series of investigations, the Times reveals that torture of Arabs is a regular, methodical, and officially sanctioned practice in Israel; that hundreds of Arabs are being detained and tortured; that the evidence is wholly convincing that the state condones the practice as a way of intimidating, controlling, and terrorizing the “native” population in the Occupied Territories. The Boston Globe is the only American newspaper to cover the torture report (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 42)

● 1977 (July 11-28)—National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the first liberal American organization to focus attention specifically on Israeli human rights abuses, sends a 10-person delegation to the Middle East to visit Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 178)

● 1977 (July)—US President Carter meets with Israeli Prime Minister Begin at the White House (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 166)

● 1977 (September 23)—During a protest outside the UN in New York, Palestine Solidarity Committee member Sheila Ryan says “[President Jimmy Carter] is a false prophet. This is not a peace but a pact for a new kind of war against the Palestinian people.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 151)

● 1977 (October 1)—The United States and the Soviet Union issue a joint declaration calling for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from Palestinian territories captured in the 1967 War; resolution of the Palestinian issue in a way that would assure “the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people;” establishment of demilitarized zones with UN peacekeeping forces, termination of the state of war and “establishment of normal peaceful relations.”

● 1977 (October)—The Socialist International (SI), made up of social democratic parties, issues the Kreisky Report, which calls for recognition of Palestinian national rights (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 159)

● 1977 (November 20)—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Israel and gives a speech to the Israeli parliament. Sadat begins by saying: “Allow me to address my call from this rostrum to the people of Israel. I convey to you the message of the Egyptian people, a message of security, safety, and peace to every man, woman, and child in Israel.” During his speech, Sadat tells the Israelis: “you have found the moral and legal justification to set up a national home on a land that did not all belong to you.” Menachem Begin responds, “No, Sir, we did not take a foreign country. We came back to our homeland.” (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 328)

● 1977 (December 2-5)—Arab states and PLO meet in Tripoli to denounce Sadat and reject UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. They reiterate the 3 no’s from the Arab League at Khartoum in 1967 (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 122)

● 1977 (December 26)—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat says that Israel’s 1967 attack on the Arabs was defensive (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 206)

● 1977—Israel’s Likud Party Platform states: “The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable…therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

● 1977—Saddam Hussein says: “We will never recognize the right of Israel to live as a separate Zionist state” (Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall)

● 1977—PLO expelled from Egypt

● 1977—Black Sunday film premieres, telling the fictional story of an Israeli anti-terrorist agent (Robert Shaw) trying to stop a Palestinian plot to attack the Super Bowl

● 1977—Documentary The Palestinian premieres, directed by Roy Battersby and narrated by Vanessa Redgrave
The Palestinian (Al-Falastini) 1977, dir. Roy Battersby (youtube.com)

● 1977—Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) founded in Washington D.C. with the slogan “Palestinians Have Human Rights Too.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 180)

● 1977—Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC) estimates that only 14% of American blacks are pro-Israel, compared to 17% who are “Third World oriented” and 69% who are uncommitted (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 176)

● 1977—Edward Said joins the Palestine National Council

● 1977—South Africa becomes Israel’s largest customer for weapons (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 105)

● 1978 (January 4)—Abu Nidal has PLO representative in London, Said Hamami, assassinated

● 1978 (March 11)—Coastal Road Massacre—11 Fatah men land on beach in Haifa and go on killing spring of Israelis, shooting from a bus—35 Israelis killed, 13 children

● 1978 (March 14-21)—Operation Litani—Israeli incursion into South Lebanon to destroy PLO bases that were launching raids into Galilee. Another goal is to extend the territory under the control of Lebanese Major Saad Haddad and the local militia he had recruited among the Christian population of the area, Israel’s surrogate and client force in South Lebanon. Action condemned by Jimmy Carter administration, leading to Israeli withdrawal. Carter later wrote: “Israel invaded Lebanon and used American-made antipersonnel cluster bombs against Beirut and other urban centers, killing hundreds of civilians and leaving thousands homeless.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, 44)

● 1978 (March 24)—Article in Ha’artez celebrates the Israeli incursion into Lebanon and states: “What has happened last week, has shown to everyone who has eyes in his head, that the Israeli defense force is today an American Army both in the quantity and quality of its equipment: the rifles, the troop-carriers, the F-15’s, and even the KFIR planes with their American motors, are a testimony that will convince everybody.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 112)

● 1978 (March 25)—Writing in the Washington Post, H. D. S. Greenway states: “the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon has left a broad path of death and wide-scale destruction unprecedented in the region south of the Litani River…hardly a town is left undamaged. Some have been all but totally flattened by air strikes and explosive shells. Nothing that had gone before…prepares one for the devastation that has been visited on the ancient stone towns in this rolling, rock-strewn farming country. Much of southern Lebanon between the Litani River and the Israeli border now looks like the devastated sections of Beirut, and like the ruined and blasted Lebanese towns to the north, such as Damour. The scope and sweep of the damage here makes a mockery of Israeli claims to have staged surgical strikes against Palestinian bases and camps…[It] is clear that the Israelis have used the same tactic that the Americans used in Vietnam: concentrated and heavy firepower and air strikes to blow away all before them—be they enemies or civilians—in order to hold down their own casualties.” (Source: H. D. S. Greenway, “Israel Leaves a Path of Destruction,” The Washington Post, March 25, 1978, pg. A1)

● 1978 (March 28)—Wadi Haddad dies in East Germany. The official cause is listed as leukemia, but investigative reporters say he was poisoned by Mossad through either chocolate or his toothpaste (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 1978 (May 10)—General Gur, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, gives an interview to Al-Hamishmar.

Question: “is it true [during the March 1978 Israeli invasion of Lebanon] that you bombarded agglomerations [of people] without distinction?”

Answer: “I am not one of those people who have a selective memory. Do you think that I pretend not to know what we have done all these years? What did we do the entire length of the Suez Canal? A million and a half refugees! Really: where do you live…We bombarded Ismailia, Suez, Port Said, and Port Fuad. A million and a half refugees…Since when has the population of South Lebanon become so sacred? They knew perfectly well what the terrorists were doing. After the massacre at Avivim, I had four villages in South Lebanon bombed without authorization.”

Question: “Without making distinctions between civilians and non-civilians?”

Answer: “What distinction?”

Question: “Then you claim that the population ought to be punished?”

Answer: “Of course, and I have never had any doubt about that…I knew exactly what I was doing. It has now been thirty years, from the time of our Independence War until now, that we have been fighting against the civilian [Arab] population which inhabited the villages and towns, and every time that we do it, the same question gets asked: should we or should we not strike at civilians?” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxxvii-xxxviii)

● 1978 (May 20-21)—Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC) holds its first major meeting in Washington D.C. titled “Palestinian Human Rights and Peace” and begins issuing the Palestine Human Rights Bulletin (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 180)

● 1978 (June 12)—US Secretary of State Harold H. Saunders gives testimony before the House Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East and states that the US has an “irrevocable commitment to the security, strength and well-being of Israel.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 188)

● 1978 (July)—During an interview with Newsweek, Saddam Hussein says: “Regarding the Palestinians, it’s no secret: Iraq is open to them and they are free to train and plan here.” Saddam also says that Iraq and US will not have a good relationship until they scale back their support for Israel (Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall)

● 1978 (August 3)—Moderate Palestinian ‘Izz al-Din Kalak murdered (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 123)

● 1978 (September 17)—Camp David Accords—A pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland

● 1978 (September)—Socialist Bayard Rustin writes to Daniel P. Moynihan and says that there is a decline in support for Israel among American youth (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 156)

● 1978 (October)—With Egypt no longer an ally in the struggle to destroy Israel, the Syrian and Iraqi Baath Parties agree to set aside their long-standing differences in order to establish a “joint charter for national action” against Israel

● 1978 (November)—Poll shows that Americans rank the Middle East as the most important foreign policy issue (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 150)

● 1978 (December 8)—Golda Meir dies at age of 80

● 1978—Peace Now movement founded in Israel calls for an end to war and violence against the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors

● 1978—Menachem Begin is given an honorary degree by Northwestern University (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 44)

● 1978—After Vanessa Redgrave is nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress in the 1977 film Julia, the Jewish Defense League is outraged because of Redgrave’s role in the 1977 documentary The Palestinian. The JDL burns Redgrave in effigy and protests outside the Oscars. During her acceptance speech, Redgrave says: “In the last few weeks you have stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threat of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums, whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world, and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”

● 1978—The Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), founded by the Weather Underground, publishes an article in their journal Breakthrough which argues that Zionism is “a version of white supremacy which offers power and privilege to Jews through the power of an Israeli settler-state built on the backs of the nations indigenous to the region, in particular the Palestinians.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 143)

● 1978—National Lawyers Guild (NLG) releases their report Treatment of Palestinians in Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza: Report of the National Lawyers Guild 1977 Middle East Delegation. The report details numerous Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians. The report also recognizes the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and calls for a return of Palestinian refugees to their homes (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 179)

● 1978—Legal Adviser to the State Department, Herbert J. Hansell, reaffirms the United States’ legal position that all of the territory Israel captured in 1967 is being held under belligerent occupation (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 91)

● 1978—Edward Said publishes Orientalism, an assault on the traditional European and American interpretations of the Middle East. Said argues that Western scholars invented a place they called the Middle East, a culturally inferior and politically hostile “Other.”
Orientalism : Edward Said : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1979 (January)—Zuhair Mohsen, head of the pro-Syrian faction of PLO, is assassinated in Cannes, France. Ronen Bergman claims that Mohsen was the first target killed by the Mossad combat unit known as the “New Bayonet”

● 1979 (January 19)—Israel General Eytan gives an interview to Yediot Aharonot, and says “before the State of Israel existed we came here to conquer this country, and for this purpose the state was established.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 205)

● 1979 (January 22)—Ali Hassan Salameh, Munich Massacre organizer, is assassinated by Israel

● 1979 (March)—Israel conducts a highly secretive test and launches a modernized version of the Jericho missile into the Mediterranean (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 132)

● 1979 (March)—Jimmy Carter makes a presidential visit to Israel and addresses the Knesset, saying: “The people support a settlement [between Israel and Palestine]. Political leaders are the obstacles to peace.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 68)

● 1979 (March 15)—During a protest against the Egypt-Israeli peace treaty in the West Bank town of Halhoul, Israeli soldiers shoot and kill a 21-year-old laborer and a 17-year-old schoolgirl. Israel imposes a 23-hour curfew on the town. (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 193)

● 1979 (March 26)—Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty at Camp David—Israel to withdraw from Sinai Peninsula—On the same day that treaty is signed, Israel announces 20 new settlements in the West Bank, in addition to the 77 already there (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 193)

● 1979 (April 6)—Operation Big Lift—Israel blows up nuclear plant on France’s Mediterranean coast at La Seyne-sur-Mer, near Toulon, because France was selling nuclear reactor parts to Saddam Hussein

● 1979 (April 22)—PLO affiliated terror group arrives at Nahariya, an Israeli city seven miles from Lebanese border. Terrorists break into the home of the Haran family and kill a father named Danny and his daughter Einat. The mother hides with daughter Yael and holds her mouth so terrorists won’t hear, but ends up suffocating and killing her.

● 1979 (August)—New American Movement (NAM) recognizes the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people and calls on the US government to do the same (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 118)

● 1979 (August 17-19)—Palestine Congress of North America founded in Washington D.C.

● 1979 (August)—US Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, is forced to resign because he had a brief social meeting with Zuhdi Terzi, the PLO delegate to the UN. This causes a scandal and greatly angers Black activists and politicians because Young was one of the first Black Americans to serve in that role (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxiii)

● 1979 (August 4)—At its third national convention in Cleveland, The Black Theology Project issues a statement that reads: “As black Christians committed to the fight for liberation of the oppressed whether they be in South Africa, Israel, the occupied Arab territories, or in the US, we see the essence of the struggle of the Palestinian people as the same struggle for freedom of our Black Brothers and Sisters in southern Africa…The indigenous people of both lands have been displaced by violence or forced to live as oppressed people in their own countries. The human rights of the indigenous people of South Africa are violated because of apartheid, and the human rights of the indigenous Palestinian Arabs, Christians and Moslem, are violated because of Zionism.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 207)

● 1979 (August 21)—SCLC board member Wyatt Tee Walker, who visited the West Bank in 1976, says: “All you have to do is visit a refugee camp one time and you will know that the Palestinians are the niggers of the Middle East. The Palestinians deserve justice in the Middle East.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 206)

● 1979 (September)—SCLC delegation, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, and Chrisitan clergyman Joseph E. Lowery visit Arafat in Beirut, Lebanon. When Jackson visits the Qalandiya refugee camp he says: “I know this camp…When I smell the stench of open sewers, this is nothing new to me, This is where I grew up.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 203-204)

● 1979 (September 21)—The day after he returns from Lebanon, Joseph E. Lowery delivers a speech at the national conference of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in Washington, and says: “As a Christian, I lay claim to the Holy Land (Palestine, Israel) as part and parcel of the heritage of faith. My Jesus was born there, and in that lovely land he opened the gates of God through which millions have marched…And while I may not, as Jews and Arabs do, call myself a direct, blood descendant of Abraham in the ‘begat’ sense of the Book of Matthew, he is father of my faith which is Judeo-Christian in its roots and fruits. So my brothers, the Jews, and my brothers the Palestinians are mine and I am theirs and no manner or matter of disavowal can change it.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 198-199)

● 1979 (October 11)—SCLC member and sitting Congressman Walter Fauntroy provides a report to Congress on the recent SCLC delegation to Lebanon. He says: “Our visit to these [PLO] facilities…gave striking evidence that the PLO is not the one-dimensional ‘terrorist organization’ we have been led to believe that it is, but contains all the infrastructure of a nation in exile.” Fauntroy brought home American ordnance the group found in Lebanon, reporting: “I have returned with shrapnel, parts of exploded shells and cluster bombs, which I lifted from the ruins of bombed-out Palestinian and Lebanese villages in Lebanon.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 200)

● 1979 (December 17)—UN General Assembly’s Resolution 34/160 stipulates that the situation faced by Palestinian women as a result of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories should be on the conference’s agenda (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 189)

● 1979—CBS-New York Times poll finds that many Americans do not support Egypt-Israel peace treaty. 70% of respondents disapprove of American promise to provide Israel with oil for the next 15 years (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, 198)

● 1979—Relationship between PLO and Shiites breaks down in Lebanon when Arafat is suspected in the killing of Mousa Sader in Libya

● 1979—Annexationists from Israels’ Likud party break away and form Tehiya Party led by former Likudniks Geula Cohen and Yuval Neeman

● 1979—Ayatollah Khomeini inaugurates an annual Jerusalem Day in Iran

● 1979—Edward Said publishes The Question of Palestine. One of Said’s main goals is to examine the influence of imperialism on Zionism. He argues that “Zionism and European imperialism are epistemologically, hence historically and politically, coterminous in their view of resident natives…Zionism essentially saw Palestine as the European imperialist did, as an empty territory paradoxically ‘filled’ with ignoble or perhaps even dispensable natives…[The] early Jewish settlers in Palestine ignored the Arabs in exactly the same way that white Europeans in Africa, Asia, and the Americas believed the natives of those places to be nonexistent and their lands uninhabited, ‘neglected,’ and barren.”

Another main goal of the book is to show how Israeli society dehumanizes and erases the Palestinians. Said argues that “the dehumanization of the Arab, which began with the view that Palestinians were either not there or savages or both, saturates everything in Israeli society… The adjective ‘Arab’ in common Israeli parlance is synonymous with dirty, stupid, and incompetent [and] Palestinians have been known only as refugees, or as extremists, or as terrorists.”

Another issue Said tackles is the hypocrisy and misrepresentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Western media. Said says: “In sheer numerical terms, in brute numbers of bodies and property destroyed, there is absolutely nothing to compare between what Zionism has done to Palestinians and what, in retaliation, Palestinians have done to Zionists. The almost constant Israeli assault on Palestinian civilian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan for the last twenty years is only one index of these completely asymmetrical records of destruction. What is much worse, in my opinion, is the hypocrisy of Western (and certainly liberal Zionist) journalism and intellectual discourse, which have barely had anything to say about Zionist terror…The American press, with only a few exceptions, has paid very little attention to what Israel said and what it was doing on the West Bank, and this may be one of the most scandalous omissions in the history of journalism… It is one of the most frightening cultural episodes of the century, this almost total silence about Zionism’s doctrines for and treatment of the native Palestinians. Any self-respecting intellectual is willing today to say something about human rights abuses in Argentina, Chile, or South Africa, yet when irrefutable evidence of Israeli preventive detention, torture, population transfer, and deportation of Palestinian Arabs is presented, literally nothing is said.”

Said also notes that “to oppose anything about Israel and Zionism is to seem to be advocating anti-Semitism at least, and genocide at most…[However, to] write critically about Zionism in Palestine has therefore never meant, and does not mean now, being anti-Semitic.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxxvi-xxxvii, xi, 50, 59, 81, 83, 90 113, 150, 172-173, 205)
The Question of Palestine (archive.org)

● 1979—American sympathy with the Arabs and Palestinians rises from 10% in 1977 to 25% in 1979 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 183)

● 1979—Civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy calls on the US State Department to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories to investigate allegation of violations of Palestinian human rights by Israeli security forces (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 207)

● 1979—Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founds the al-Mujama al-Islamiya (the “Islamic Society”), out of which the Hamas movement emerges (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 115)

● 1980—Between 1978 and 1980, Flotilla 13 carried out more than 23 raids against the PLO on Lebanese territory or at sea and killed 130 enemies

● 1980 (February 14)—The National Black Pastor’s’ Conference sends a delegation to Lebanon to meet with the PLO. They observe “striking similarities between the Palestinian refugee camps and the urban ghettoes of the United States.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 208)

● 1980 (April 21)—Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton visits the Middle east. In Beirut, he meets with Yasser Arafat. Newton visits the Palestinian refugees at the al-Rashidiyya camp and observes fragments of bombs from Israeli jets bearing American markings. Israel refuses Newton entrance into the country (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 127)

● 1980 (April 24)—A cable from the US embassy in Chile acknowledges that Israel is a major arms supplier of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 20)

● 1980 (May)—Likud Defense Minister Ezer Weizman expels the mayor of the West Bank, Fahd Qawasmeh, after the killing of a Jewish settler in Hebron (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 256)

● 1980 (June 14)—Israel assassinates top Egyptian nuclear scientist working for Iraq. Agents kill him in his Paris hotel room by beating him to death with an ash tray to avoid using guns that could accidentally harm civilians (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 1980 (December)—Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin pledges to guarantee the safety of the Lebanese Christian community

● 1980—Israeli military government issues Order 854 which would have put all the Palestinian university curricula and teaching under the authority of the Israeli army. The Palestinian universities and students band together and reject it and the Israelis eventually back down (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 329)

● 1980—European Economic Community (EEC) declares Palestinian self-determination to be one of the main planks of its Middle East Policy (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xviii)

● 1980—In the US presidential election, Ronald Reagan receives 39% of the Jewish vote, the highest percentage of Jews voting Republican since 1956, and the second highest in any election since 1920 (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 165)

● 1980—Israel passes a new Basic Law, whose first clause states that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 90)

● 1980—Without asking Jimmy Carter, Israeli Ezer Weizman comes to America during his re-election campaign and visits several cities, publicly urging Jewish leaders to support Carter’s candidacy. Carter notes that: “Although strongly criticized for this unprecedented (and perhaps illegal) foreign involvement, he was undeterred.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 51)

● 1980—UN passes Resolution 465, calling on Israel to dismantle existing settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 52)

● 1981—Canadian writer George Jonas is approached by a publisher to meet with Yuval Aviv to hear story of how a Mossad team assassinated Palestinian terrorists involved in the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre

● 1981—Cease-fire between Israel and the PLO

● 1981 (June 7)—Israeli air force bombs unfinished Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, completely destroying the facility and killing 10 Iraqis and 1 French scientist (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 144-145)

● 1981 (July)—Israel bombs PLO headquarters in Beirut killing hundreds of civilians

● 1981 (July)—US suspends shipment of arms to Israel over the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor and bombing of PLO in Lebanon

● 1981 (July)—PLO has amassed 80 cannons and rocket launchers in Lebanon

● 1981 (August 5)—Prime Minister Menachem Begin appoints Ariel Sharon as defense minister of Israel

● 1981 (October 6)—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated by Muslim extremists

● 1981 (November)—Ariel Sharon makes his first trip to the US as Israel’s minister of defense—US signs Memorandum of Strategic Understanding with Israel

● 1981 (December 14)—Israel annexes the Syrian Golan Heights

● 1981—Menachem Begin tells a group of Jewish settlers “I…do solemnly swear that as long as I serve the nation as Prime Minister we will not leave any part of Judea, Samaria, or the Gaza Strip.” (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 15)

● 1981—The Reagan Administration secretly and abruptly changes United States policy and allows Israel to sell several billion dollars' worth of American-made arms, spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian Government (Source: Seymour M. Hersh, The New York Times, December 8, 1991)

● 1981—Reagan supplies AWACS surveillance aircraft to Saudi Arabia against the strong protests of AIPAC (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 552)

● 1981-82—US provides $1.4 billion in military aid to Israel each year

● 1982—Israel provokes PLO into attacking them by launching murderous raids in Lebanon, killing 200 Palestinian civilians and 60 children at a hospital. PLO responds and kills 1 Israeli, giving Israel justification to go to war

● 1982—Jewish terrorists plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, but plot is uncovered and fails

● 1982 (April)—Israeli reservist Alan Goodman shoots 2 Arabs in a rampage across the Temple Mount (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 527)

● 1982 (April 26)—Israel withdraws from the Sinai peninsula

● 1982 (April)—Women Against Imperialism (WAI) release a pamphlet titled The Issue of Zionism in the Women’s Movement, and argue that: “The US, like South Africa and Israel, is a white settler colony” and say that “It is the height of white supremacy to use the holocaust to claim Palestine for the Jews.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 195)

● 1982 (June 3)—Abu Nidal group tries and fails to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to London—Israel blames PLO (even though Nidal was Arafat’s enemy) and uses it as a pretext for the Lebanon war

● 1982 (June 4-6)—Operation Peace in Galilee—Israel invades Lebanon and starts war directed at the PLO. Begins with bombing of Beirut—During ten weeks of fighting, 19,000 Palestinians and Lebanese are killed, mostly civilians. Israel loses 364 soldiers. Between September 16-18, the Israeli Army killed 1,300 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in Beirut. Israel is condemned by the world for killing so many civilians. PLO is forced out of Lebanon

● 1982 (June 26)—In the Los Angeles Times, David Lamb reports that “Israel launched its heaviest attack of the war Friday on West Beirut, turning densely populated Muslim neighborhoods into flaming graveyards…As night fell, Beirut—a city whose sense of panic has given way to one of doom and defeat—shook as though as thousand pile drivers were at work. During the day and early evening, wave after wave of silvery, swept-swinged fighters flashed over the capital, diving on their targets, then pulling straight up to disappear in the cloudless sky…Most Western diplomats interviewed here say it has become clear that Israel wants either surrender of the annihilation of the Palestine Liberation Organization.” (Source: David Lamb, “Israelis Pound Beirut; Lebanon Premier Quits,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1982. A1)

● 1982 (June)—Letty Cottin Pogrebin publishes an article titled “Anti-Semitism in the Women’s Movement” in the feminist magazine Mrs. which supports Israel and Zionism and argues that: “Anti-Semitism remains the hidden disease of the [Women’s] Movement.” Women Against Imperialism publish their own article against Pogrebin in the feminist journal off our backs titled “Taking Our Stand against Zionism and White Supremacy,” which states: “We think the women’s movement must take a stand in solidarity with the Palestinian revolution and with the national liberation struggles of colonized third world peoples inside the United States.” They also say that “Zionist ‘Israel’ was carved in blood from the homeland of the Palestinian people.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 184-185)

● 1982 (August 12)—Israelis carry out 11 hours of nonstop air raids, dropping thousands of tons of ordnance on West Beirut. 800 homes are destroyed and 500 killed (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 416)

● 1982 (August 14)—European leaders criticize Israel’s war in Lebanon. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany tells the daily newspaper Die Welt: ''Here people are being killed indiscriminately—women and men who have nothing to do with the war, who bear no responsibility for this war…[S]ettling conflicting motives and interests with bombs and missiles cannot be reconciled with human dignity.'' Douglas Hurd, a Minister of State at the British Foreign Office, says in a radio interview: ''There can be no doubt that thousands of innocent civilians, Lebanese and Palestinian, have been killed or wounded in Lebanon in pursuit of objectives which are very far from clear and probably not going to be realized.” President Spyros Kyprianou of Cyprus strongly condemns the Israeli attacks as ''a horrible crime of genocide against the Palestinians and the people of Lebanon, which is a stain on our civilization…[and causing] universal indignation and abhorrence.” (Source: “Israelis’ Attacks in Lebanon Bring Increasing Criticism in Western Europe,” New York Times)

● 1982 (August 21)—Arafat begins evacuating PLO guerillas from Lebanon

● 1982 (August 23)—Bashir Gemayel elected President of Lebanon

● 1982 (August 30)—Arafat flees Beirut and travels to Athens, Greece, refusing to stop at any Arab country because he is furious that none of them came to the PLO’s aid in Lebanon

● 1982 (September 1)—Reagan Peace Plan announced based on Camp David Accords—Plan calls for the creation of a self-governing Palestinian entity in the West Bank and Gaza, confederated with Jordan—plan rejected by Menachem Begin

● 1982 (September 14)—Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel is assassinated by Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member of the pro-Damascus National Syrian Socialist Party

● 1982 (September 15)—Israeli army ignores pledge made to US not to enter West Beirut

● 1982 (September 15)—Arafat meets with Pope John Paul II

● 1982 (September 16-18)—Israel issues order that no IDF soldier is to enter the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, which is to be done by the Phalangists. The Lebanese Christian Phalange militia massacres 800-2000 Palestinian civilians at refugee camps, while Israeli soldiers shoot flares to provide them light at night. In his Pulitzer prize winning articles on the massacre in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman describes the horrifying scene: “Entire families had been slain as they sat at the dinner table. Others were found dead in their nightclothes. Some people were found with their throats slit…There were babies…already in a stage of decomposition—tossed into rubbish heaps…” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 147)

● 1982 (September 20)—During the trial of six militants accused of robbing a Brinks armored car, one of the defendants, Black Panther Sekou Odinga, makes a pro-Palestinian statement and says they should focus on “the massacre of the Palestinians” in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. Odinga complains that the prison guards refused to let him and the other defendants wear a black armband as a sign of mourning and solidarity of the Palestinian people. His lawyer, Chokwe Lumumba, asks the judge if his refusal to allow the defendants to wear the armbands is “because you side with the Israelis in the Lebanese massacre?” Odinga and defendants David Gilbert, Judith Clark, and Kuwasi Balagoon refuse to sit through the remainder of the proceedings and as they leave the court they shout “Long Live Palestine!” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 158)

● 1982 (September 25)—400,000 Israelis march in a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv to protest Israel’s role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 418)

● 1982 (September 26)—New York Times publishes 4-page article on Sabra and Shatila massacres by Thomas L. Friedman

● 1982 (October 9)—Yasser Arafat makes first visit to Jordan since the King ousted him in 1970

● 1982 (November 11)—16-year-old Ahamad Jaafar Qassir recruited into covert military division of Hezbollah named Islamic Jihad. He goes to an IDF building in Tyre and blows himself up, killing 76 Israelis and 27 Lebanese workers. This is the first Islamist suicide terrorist attack outside of Iran, and it killed more Israelis than any other such attack before or since

● 1982—By this year, Israeli drones are a key element in providing real-time intelligence for the top air force brass sitting in Canary, the command post deep underground in central Tel Aviv.

● 1982—Iran helps to create Hezbollah (Party of God) to fight against Israel in Lebanon. Group formed in Baalbek, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley by Sayyid Abbas al-Mussawi, and Sheik Subhi al-Tufayli

● 1982—Caribbean American poet June Jordan writes: “I was born a Black woman/And now/I am become a Palestinian (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 198)

● 1982—Neil Asher Silberman publishes Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799-1917
Digging for God and country : exploration, archeology, and the secret struggle for the Holy Land, 1799-1917 : Silberman, Neil Asher, 1950- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1982—At Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Mahmoud Abbas completes his dissertation titled “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism,” in which he argues the Zionists collaborated in killing a large number of European Jews in order to encourage the rest to embrace Zionism and emigrate to Palestine

● 1982—Jimmy Carter publishes his memoir, Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a President, which details his involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
Keeping faith : memoirs of a president : Carter, Jimmy, 1924- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1982—After US Republican senator Paul Findley loses his campaign for reelection, some argue that it was a result of his anti-Israel and pro-Arab statements (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 100)

● 1983 (February 7)—Israeli Kahan Commission finds that the Lebanese Phalange was primarily responsible for the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee massacre, but Israel should be held accountable as well. Ariel Sharon is fired as Defense Minister

● 1983 (February 10)—Israeli teacher Emil Grunzweig killed when a right-wing activist named Yonah Avrushmi throws a grenade into a Peace Now rally

● 1983—The editors of Mrs. print letters they received that argue against the pro-Israeli article published by Pogrebin in 1982. One letter reads: “If there was a time when it was urgent for Jews and others to feel free to criticize Israeli politics, that time is now. Such criticism from Jews need not be self-hating, nor from non-Jews, anti-Semitic. Rather it may be the most morally and politically defensible appraisal of the Middle Eastern dilemma possible. These distinctions are easier to comprehend in the current context of the appalling, we believe genocidal invasion of Lebanon by Israel…There is a long, honorable tradition of Jewish opposition to the Zionist vision and Zionist politics. We hope that charges like Pogrebin’s will not contribute to the decline of that tradition nor silence the open expression of controversial views in the Women’s Movement.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 193-194)

● 1983 (April 10)—PLO moderate Issam Sartawi is assassinated in Portugal by Abu Nidal

● 1983 (May 17)—Bashir Gemayel’s replacement, his brother Amin Gemayel, signs peace treaty with Israel, but it is never enforced or enacted

● 1983 (May)—Mutiny in PLO led by Arafat’s opponent Colonel Saed Abu Musa—defeated by September

● 1983 (July)—During his trial, Black militant Kuwasi Balagoon criticizes the American government that “supports and aids the Israeli government in its massacres of Palestinian people and the theft of their homeland—just as the euro-americans stole this land.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 162)

● 1983 (September)—Israeli Prime Minister Begin resigns and is succeeded by Yitzhak Shamir

● 1983 (September)—Israelis withdraw to Southern Lebanon after the PLO is forced out

● 1983 (October 5)—In The Washington Post, William Claiborne reports that the Israeli Army “has begun demolishing houses of suspected Palestinian guerillas as a deterrent. Israeli troops bulldozed the house of a 50-year-old Palestinian widow in the Ayn Hulwahh refugee camp…after charging her son with the ambush slaying of two Israeli soldiers three months ago.” Critics argue that the demolishing of homes is in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition against collective punishment. Claiborne goes on to note: “The demolishing of the houses, while paling by comparison to the level of violence that has been inflicted on this war-shattered country for the past nine years…underscored the tensions that have been rising in the Palestinian refugee camps here and the bitterness resulting from prolonged occupation. Graffiti scrawled on houses in the Ayn Hulwahh camp say, ‘Adolf Hitler, we love you,’ and rhetoric of the Palestinian refugee inhabitants of the camp appeared to have hardened since a toughening of Israeli security policy was implemented here. Residents and foreign relief workers said that an average of 50 Palestinian refugees are being arrested weekly and that Israeli troops have been adopting such retributive measures as blowing up parked cars in Palestinian areas with rocket-propelled grenades…Hazna Mahmoud Khatib, whose house was destroyed…., said that when Israeli troops were told that the son they were seeking, Raif, 25, was living in Germany, they arrested another son, Abed, 20, gave her five minutes to remove food and then leveled the house with a bulldozer. She said the house had been rebuilt from damage in the invasion…Now living in a makeshift tent next to the rubble of a flattened house, Khatib said she hoped to get help in rebuilding her house for the second time since the invasion.” (Source: William Claiborne, “Israel Razing Houses in Southern Lebanon,” The Washington Post, October 5, 1983. A1)

● 1983 (October 16)—50-60,000 Shiites gather in the Lebanese city of Nabatiya to celebrate the holiday of Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein in 680 C.E. In the middle of the service, an Israeli military convoy drove through the crowd and when they started throwing rocks at the vehicles, the IDF opened fire, killing 2 and wounding 15.

● 1983 (October 23)—Group called Islamic Jihad conducts suicide bombing in Beirut against the Multinational Force in Lebanon consisting of American and French soldiers acting as an international peacekeeping force. Bombing kills 241 Americans and 58 French military personnel

● 1983 (November 5)—Hezbollah suicide bomber drives a truck full of explosives into a Shin Bet building at an IDF base in Tyre, killing 28 Israelis—Attack occurs almost exactly a year after a similar suicide bombing in Tyre

● 1983 (November)—As part of a prisoner exchange, the PLO forces Israel to return precious archival material that was stolen from the PLO Research Center in Lebanon which contained documents detailing the history of Palestine before Zionism

● 1983—Under Ariel Sharon’s direct orders, F-16 fighters are scrambled at least 5 times to intercept and destroy commercial airliners believed to be carrying Arafat, only to be called back shortly after takeoff. Sharon and other leaders were more than willing to shoot down civilian airplanes to kill Arafat and were only stopped by subordinates (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 1983—Syrian President Assad tries to overthrow Yasser Arafat by sending dissident Fatah forces under the command of Abu Moussa against Arafat and his remaining forces in Tripoli, soon driving them into distant exile

● 1983—Jewish extremists murder 3 Palestinian students at Hebron’s Islamic College in revenge for the killing of a yeshiva student in the same town (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 306)

● 1983—Syrian minister of defense, Mustafa Tlass, publishes The Matzah of Zion, and argues that the 1840 blood libel case in Damascus was real
Matzo of Zion - Mustafa Tlass : Mustafa Tlass : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1983—Jimmy Carter visits Israel and goes to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial for the third time. When he goes to the Allenby Bridge he finds that the country has changed since his last visit. He later described how: “Israeli uniforms were everywhere, and only a trickle of people was crossing the border. Lines extended hundreds of yards, an uneven row of vehicles and campsites that looked as if some of the people and their produce had been waiting for days. There was a sense of tension and animosity in both directions.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 82)

● 1983—Since lack of cultivation or use for farming is one of the criteria that Israel uses to claim Palestine land as state property, it becomes official Israeli policy to prohibit, under penalty of imprisonment, any grazing or planting of trees or crops in these areas by Palestinians. Large areas taken for “security” reasons become Israeli civilian settlements (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 124)

● 1983—Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, an Israeli professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, responds to criticisms of Israel selling weapons to brutal dictatorships around the world, explaining that “what others regard as ‘dirty work,’ Israelis regard as defensible duty and even, in some cases, an exalted calling. There is virtually no opposition to this global adventurism…The role of regional and global policeman is something that many Israelis find attractive, and they are ready to go on with their job for which they expect to be handsomely rewarded.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 27)

● 1984 (January)—After visiting the West Bank and seeing how Israel deals with Palestinians, the head of South Africa’s defense mission in Israel, Eddie Webb, requests that Israel train South African soldiers and police in “anti-terrorism” techniques (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 150)

● 1984 (February 16)—Israel assassinates Sheikh Ragheb Harb, turning him into a martyr

● 1984 (March)—Hezbollah kidnaps, tortures, and executes the CIA’s Beirut bureau chief, William Buckley (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 558)

● 1984 (April 2)—Three Palestinian terrorists from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine enter Israel and open fire on tourists in Jerusalem with machine guns. 48 civilians wounded, with 1 dying later. Armed Israeli civilians stopped terrorists.

● 1984 (April 5)—The Armed Resistance Unit, also called the Red Guerilla Resistance and the Revolutionary Fighting Group, bombs the offices of the Israel Aircraft Industries building in New York city. The group releases a statement to the United Press International that reads: “Tonight we struck against the…Israeli war makers. This country will no longer be a safe haven for Israeli war makers. Victory to the PLO. Death to Zionism and Imperialism.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 145)

● 1984 (April 12)—Bus 300 Affair—4 Palestinians from Gaza take over a bus and hold the passengers hostage, demanding that Israel release Palestinians from their prisons. Israel storms the bus and kills 2 terrorists and 1 passenger. Avrum Shalom, head of Shin Bet, orders that the 2 Palestinian terrorists be killed on the spot because he didn’t want them to go to trial. His men take rocks and iron bars and beat the two men to death to make it seem like Israeli civilians did it. Shin Bet members later give false testimony about their role in the killing, causing a major scandal when photos emerge that contradict their story that the two men were immediately killed on the spot. A government inquiry is formed to investigate the affair. Shalom creates the “Skull Dossier” of other Israeli killings of Palestinians to show that what he did was standard operating procedure. No Shin Bet members are charged with a crime over the killings. Shalom resigns.
Rona Sela

● 1984 (April)—Hezbollah bombs kill 18 American servicemen in a restaurant in Torrejon, Spain (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 556)

● 1984 (April 24)—US cable from the embassy in Chile quotes the American undersecretary of state saying that Israel is still one of the main weapons suppliers of the brutal Pinochet regime (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 20)

● 1984 (June)—Charges are brought against 27 Jewish extremists involved in a plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock of the Al-Aqsa mosque

● 1984 (July)—Israeli elections end in a tie and Likud and Labor parties are forced to create a national unity government led by Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir

● 1984 (September)—Hezbollah bombs kill 22 people at US embassy in Beirut (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 556)

● 1984 (December 29)—Former West Bank mayor Fahd Qawasmeh is assassinated in Amman by Syrian agents because of his moderate approach to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 256-257)

● 1984—George Jonas publishes Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, which tells the story of a Mossad hit squad that assassinated the people involved in orchestrating the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre
Vengeance : the true story of an Israeli counter-terrorist team : Jonas, George, 1935- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1984—Meron Benvenisti’s West Bank Data Base Project finds that between 1977 and 1984 there was an average of 11 spontaneous acts of anti-Israeli violence for every one planned from outside Israeli/Palestinian territories (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 344)

● 1984—44,000 Israeli settlers in occupied Palestinian territories (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 15)

● 1984—James Adams publishes The Unnatural Alliance, detailing Israel’s relationship with South Africa
The unnatural alliance : Adams, James, 1951- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1984—After US Republican Senator Charles Percy loses his reelection campaign, some blame the Israel lobby and argue that Percy lost because he angered American Jews when he refused to sign the “Letter of 76” protesting President Ford’s “assessment” of the US relationship with Israel (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 100)

● 1984—Edward Said writes: “Zionism was a hothouse flower grown from European nationalism, anti-Semitism and colonialism…while Palestinian nationalism derived from the great wave of Arab and Islamic anti-colonial sentiment, has since 1967, though tinged with retrogressive religious sentiment, been located within the mainstream of secular post-imperialist thought.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 4)

● 1985 (March)—South African political prisoner Denis Goldberg is released and moves to Israel. Goldberg had been a defendant alongside Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia trial. Upon arriving in Israel, Goldberg says: “Through its relations with South Africa, Israel aids in the government’s oppression…I believe it is not in Israel’s long-term interests to ally itself with oppression. The Jews, who have experienced centuries of oppression, have a moral duty not to ally themselves with the South African regime.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 159-160)

● 1985 (March 8)—Israel tries to kill spiritual mentor of Hezbollah, Sheikh Fadlallah. Car bomb in Beirut injures Fadlallah and kills 80

● 1985 (April 4)—Israelis transfer 1,200 bound and blindfolded prisoners from Lebanon to Israel, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention which states that “protected persons are to be detained only within the occupied territory and their transfer to the territory of the occupying power is prohibited, regardless of motive.” (Source: “Israel Frees 752 Prisoners in Lebanon,” The Washington Post, April 4, 1985. A27)

● 1985 (April)—Israel completes its unconditional pullout from Lebanon

● 1985 (June 14)—TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome is hijacked by Shiite Hezbollah terrorists who immediately demand to know the identity of “those with Jewish-sounding names.” Two of the Lebanese terrorists, armed with grenades and a 9-mm. pistol, then force the plane to land in Beirut, Lebanon. The terrorists kill US Navy diver Robert Stethem, and dump his body on the runway. After 17 days, the hostages are released and the terrorists get away

● 1985 (July 10)—Jewish extremists who plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa mosque are sentenced to prison sentences from a few months to life—almost all the sentences are reduced by Israel’s President Chaim Herzog (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 306)

● 1985 (July)—At the World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Betty Friedan tells Egyptian feminist Nawa El Saadawi: “Please do not bring up Palestine…this is a women’s conference, not a political conference.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 198)

● 1985 (August)—Israel revives British Mandate practice of administrative detention, which allows the government to arrest and hold any suspected troublemaker for up to 6 months without bringing any charges against them (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 352)

● 1985 (October 1)—Operation Wooden Leg—Israeli air force bombs PLO base in Tunis

● 1985 (October 7)—Muhammad Abbas of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) organizes hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. During the hijacking a 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, is murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard

● 1985 (December 27)—Abu Nidal organizes simultaneous terrorist attacks at Rome and Vienna airports, where Palestinian militants open fire at El Al ticket counters, killing 20.

● 1985—Historian Sara Roy begins her Ph.D. research in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

● 1985—American intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard is arrested and charged with selling US secrets to Israel

● 1985—Meron Benvenisti’s West Bank Data Base Project finds that there were 16 spontaneous acts of spontaneous anti-Israeli violence for everyone one planned abroad in 1985 (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 344)

● 1985—British journalist Alec Collett is kidnapped by Abu Nidal’s terrorist group while he is in Lebanon working on an article for the UN on Palestinian refugees. His execution is videotaped and his body is finally recovered in 2009. Group claims to have killed Collett in revenge for US air raid on Libya in April 1986

● 1985—Jimmy Carter publishes The Blood of Abraham
The blood of Abraham : Carter, Jimmy, 1924- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1985—In a prisoner exchange, Israel releases 1,150 Palestinians for 3 Israelis (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 196)

● 1985—US and Israel conclude a free-trade agreement (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 81)

● 1985-86—Iran-Contra Affair—Israel offers the US a way to free 7 American hostages being held by Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Michael B. Oren: “[Israel] claimed that moderate elements within the Iranian leadership would obtain the hostages’ release in return for antitank missiles that were desperately needed in the war with Iraq…Reagan warranted a scheme in which Israel would secretly convey the missiles to Teheran and the United States would replenish Israel’s stocks.” By 1986, it is revealed that “Proceeds from the [Iranian] missile sales…had been funneled to anticommunist Contra guerillas in Nicaragua in violation of congressional law.” (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 559-560)

● 1986 (March)—In response to Qadhafi’s support of terrorists like Abu Nidal, Reagan orders the US Navy to patrol the Libyan coast. When Libyan missile boats open fire on the fleet, Navy fighters blast the vessels with missiles and bomb land-based radar sites (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 557)

● 1986 (June 26)—Israeli President Chaim Herzog gives blanket pardons to Avraham Shalom and 3 aides who were involved in lying about the killing of the 1984 Bus 300 hijackers (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 356)

● 1986 (August 1)—Anti-apartheid legislation in the US requires the government to report countries violating the arms embargo against South Africa, exposing Israel’s weapons deals (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 195)

● 1986 (August)—Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres visits President Paul Biya in Cameroon in the first visit by an Israeli PM to an African country since the 1960s. During the meeting, Peres openly criticizes South Africa and says: “A Jew who accepts apartheid ceases to be a Jew. A Jew and racism do not go together.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 188)

● 1986 (October 16)—During a routine bombing run in southern Lebanon, a bomb explodes too early and two Israeli airmen have to eject from their plane. Ron Arad cannot be located, leading to the biggest search operation in Israel’s history. Arad is never found and presumed dead, killed by Hezbollah

● 1986 (October 21)—Munzer Abu Ghazala, commander of Fatah’s naval arm, assassinated by Israeli agent with a car bomb in Athens

● 1986 (November)—During a speech to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu says: “For the Jewish people, apartheid is the ultimate abomination. It is an expression of the cruelest inhumanity. Israel will do everything possible to eliminate this odious system…Israel believes that apartheid is not reformable and that it must be abolished if greater suffering is to be averted.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 165-166)

● 1986 (December 18)—In Ramallah, a 16-year-old Palestinian schoolboy takes a hatchet out of his bookbag and begins attacking an Israeli soldier named Ariel Hausler, who survives (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 342-343)

● 1986 (December)—In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes: “The idea that the Jewish state should be so dependent on weapons sales for its economic or diplomatic survival is profoundly troubling to some people here, clashing with both their self-image and their vision of the Zionist utopia.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 194)

● 1986—Spain establishes diplomatic relations with Israel

● 1986—New York Times publishes an article by Thomas Friedman titled “How Israel Got Hooked on Selling Arms Abroad.” He wrote: “The idea that the Jewish state should be so dependent on weapons sales for its economic or diplomatic survival is profoundly troubling to some people here, clashing with both their self-image and their vision of the Zionist utopia.” Friedman found that 10% of the Israeli workforce, or 140,000 people, were involved in the arms trade (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 26)

● 1986—Meron Benvenisti’s West Bank Data Base Project finds that there were 18 spontaneous acts of anti-Israeli violence for everyone one planned abroad (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 344)

● 1986—As part of the West Bank Data Base Project, Sara Roy publishes The Gaza Strip Survey. Roy concludes that Gaza suffers not from underdevelopment but “de-development,” a deliberate Israeli policy of preventing the emergence in Gaza of a viable economy. The Israeli Knesset tries to have Benvenisti and Roy charged with aiding an “enemy organization.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 46)

● 1986—IDF sets up the “Cherry” unit to combat terrorists in the West Bank. Israelis pose as Arabs in Palestinian territory to find and take out terrorists/resistance fighters

● 1986—During the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon they develop the Hannibal Directive. If an Israeli soldier is captured, the Directive states that it is better to bomb and kill that captured soldier rather than allow them to become a hostage that is used to free imprisoned Palestinians

● 1986—Phalangists begin selling Lebanese passports to the PLO so they can join the local Palestinians in fighting the Lebanese Shiites, who the Phalangists now see as their greatest enemy

● 1986—Israel releases army-produced film Two Fingers from Sidon, which was meant to prepare soldiers for war in Lebanon, but film was finished after war was over

● 1986—Peter Hounam of the Sunday Times (London) is the first journalist to publish photographic evidence of Israel’s nuclear program (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 222)

● 1986—After Israeli nuclear technician Mordechi Vanunu gives an interview to the Sunday Times (London) and reveals secrets about Israel’s clandestine nuclear program, he is lured to Rome by a female Mossad agent, kidnapped, and taken back to Israel to face trial. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher freezes relations with Mossad after kidnapping

● 1986—French novelist Jean Genet’s final book Prisoner of Love is posthumously published. Part memoir and part anti-Zionist tract, the book describes Genet’s time among Palestinian guerillas in Jordan and Beirut
Prisoner of love : Genet, Jean, 1910-1986, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1987 (January)—Former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau leads commission looking into the practices of the domestic intelligence service in regard to its handling and interrogation of Palestinian security prisoners. Landau Commission finds that Israelis tortured Palestinians (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 357)

● 1987 (April 11)—35-year-old mother of three, Ofra Moses, is killed in West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe—Palestinian threw a firebomb in her car, burning her alive

● 1987 (April 13)—Twenty-three-year-old Palestinian from Rafah, Musa Hanafi, is shot and killed by Israeli troops during a Palestinian nationalist demonstration at the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 362)

● 1987 (May)—At AIPAC’s annual policy conference, US secretary of state George Shultz leads the audience in a “hell no to the PLO” chant (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 85)

● 1987 (July 22)—Palestinian newspaper cartoonist Naji al-Ali is assassinated in London—The killers are never caught or identified but both Mossad and the PLO are suspected

● 1987 (August 30)—Israeli cabinet votes to terminate Israel’s Lavi fighter program, ending the largest single weapons development effort in the history of the Jewish state

● 1987 (August)—Israeli Ministry of Defense brings online an $8.5 million computerized data bank for the occupied territories. The data bank is designed to keep track of every Palestinian’s property, real estate, family ties, political attitude, involvement in illegal activities, licensing, occupation, and consumption patterns. West Bank expert Meron Benvenisti said this computer “was the ultimate instrument of population control.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 413)

● 1987 (October)—After Palestinian youth throw rocks at the car of an Israeli West Bank settler named Nissan Ish-Goyev, he opens fire on them with his Uzi submachine gun, killing 13-year-old Hashem Lutfi Ib-Maslem

● 1987 (October 4)—5 Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad escape from the IDF’s Gaza prison. All 5 are killed by Israelis. The funerals for the 5 men turn into stormy demonstrations. The rioting is more violent than anything the IDF has witnessed in the occupied territories thus far

● 1987 (November)—Arab League summit conference in Amman, Jordan—For the first time since the League was founded in 1945, the main item on the summit’s agenda was not the Palestine question, but how to deal with the threat to the Arab world from Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolutionary Iran. (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 366)

● 1987 (December 6)—A Jewish merchant named Shlomo Sakle is stabbed by a Palestinian in a Gaza marketplace

● 1987 (December 8)—First Intifada starts after an Israeli army vehicle hits and kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza. The Intifada is a grassroots campaign not connected to any group or leader, and is predominantly comprised of non-violent protests and civil disobedience

● 1987 (December 9)—After Palestinian youths in Jabaliya pelt Israeli soldiers in a truck with rocks, the Israeli officer in charge opens fire and kills 17-year-old Gazan named Hatem Abu Sisi. The army tried to take Abu Sisi’s body, but 30,000 Palestinians take his body from the morgue and hold their own mass funeral that quickly turns into a riot (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 372)

● 1987 (December 21)—Israel’s 700,000-member Israeli-Arab community mounts a general strike in solidarity with their compatriots’ uprising in the West Bank and Gaza—The strike is called Peace Day (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 394)

● 1987 (December)—US passes the Anti-Terrorism Act which calls for the closure of PLO offices in US and threatens to penalize individuals who provide funds to the PLO (Source: Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, “America's Palestine Policy,” 195)

● 1987—After an Israeli civilian is shot and killed by a Palestinian while shopping in a Gaza marketplace, the Jerusalem Post interviews a 17-year-old named Ben-Tov who says: “What they ought to do is bring in the air force and level [Gaza]—all of it. Like the tornado [which just swept through] Texas.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 345)

● 1987—Between 1967 and 1987, Israel had to deploy only about 1,200 soldiers a day along with a few hundred Druse Broder Police and a few hundred Shin Bet agents to control all 1.7 million Palestinian inhabitants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 328)

● 1987—Hamas is founded—These Islamic extremists are initially supported by Israel as a way to weaken the PLO

● 1987—Jonathan Jay Pollard sentenced to life in prison for selling US secrets to Israel

● 1987—Israeli historian Benny Morris publishes The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947-1949 : Morris, Benny, 1948- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1987—Lesley Hazelton publishes Jerusalem, Jerusalem : a memoir of war and peace, passion and politics
Jerusalem, Jerusalem : a memoir of war and peace, passion and politics : Hazleton, Lesley, 1945- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1988 (January 28)—Woody Allen writes op-ed in New York Times: “As a supporter of Israel, and as one who has always been outraged at the horrors inflicted on this little nation by hostile neighbors, vile terrorists and much of the world at large, I am appalled beyond measure by the treatment of the rioting Palestinians by Jews. I mean, fellas, are you kidding?...Breaking the hands of men and women so they can’t throw stones? Dragging civilians out of their houses at random to smash them with sticks in an effort to terrorize a population into quiet?...Am I reading the newspapers correctly?...Are we talking about state-sanctioned brutality and even torture? My goodness!” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 479)

● 1988 (February)—Norwegian ambassador to Israel, Torleiv Anda, tells an Israeli reporter that the Nazi occupation was more enlightened than the Israeli one. Anda later apologizes (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 435)

● 1988 (February 5)—A redacted CIA intelligence report details the sophisticated weapons that Israel was selling the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, including missiles, tanks, and aircraft (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 20)

● 1988 (February 18)—Editorial appears in the Boston Globe about an incident in which four Palestinian youths in the West Bank were buried alive under piles of sand by several Israeli reserve soldiers with the intent to kill them. The four were dug out by their friends and Israeli soldiers responsible were charged and given prison sentences (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 432)

● 1988 (February 21)—Four Israeli writers, Yehuda Amichai, Amos Elon, Amos Oz, and A. B. Yehoshua, publish letter to the editor of the New York Times, calling on American Jews to “speak up” about Israeli policy in the West Bank, because “the status quo will further corrupt Israeli society and inevitably lead to another major war.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 486)

● 1988 (February 22)—Israeli Judge Strosman sentences Nissan Ish-Goyev to the extremely lenient sentence of 6 months in prison for killing 13-year-old Palestinian Hashem Lutfi Ib-Maslem in 1987. Israeli Supreme Court overturns sentence and Ish-Goyev goes to prison for 3 years (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 359)

● 1988 (February 26)—CBS News footage shows 4 Israeli soldiers in Nablus beating 2 Palestinian demonstrators for 40 minutes (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 448)

● 1988 (March 7)—Mother’s Bus Attack—Hijacking of an Israeli civilian bus carrying workers to the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Three Arab militants take 11 passengers hostage and execute two. The bus is then stormed by Yamam, Israel's elite counter-terrorism unit. In the 40-second takeover operation, all three hijackers are killed, along with one of the hostages.

● 1988 (April)—Israel assassinates Yasser Arafat’s closest lieutenant Abu Jihad in a commando raid in Tunis. Jihad is shot over 70 times by over 20 commandos in front of his wife and child
Assassination in Tunis | Al Jazeera World (youtube.com)

● 1988 (June 15)—Following the trial and conviction of a Palestinian post-graduate student studying at Hull University, Ismail Sowan, two Mossad agents are expelled from the UK. Sowan was found in possession of a large arms cache and was sentenced to eleven years in prison. During his trial it is revealed that he had been employed by Mossad for ten years. Mossad failed to inform Britain’s security service MI6 about Sowan or the Palestinian activities in London, including the assassination of Naji al-Ali

● 1988 (June 23)—IDF demolishes the home of the Dakdouk family in the West Bank as punishment for their 18-year-old son Nizar being on the Shin Bet’s wanted list for leading a gang of teenagers that threw gasoline bombs at Israeli trucks. Nizar and his family are interviewed by ABC news and Nizar brags about being a hero. Afterwards, Israelis disguise themselves as the ABC news team and kidnap Nizar and he is sent to prison. When this plot is revealed, it causes a scandal and the Israeli secret service are told not to impersonate American media again

● 1988 (July)—King Hussein decides to reduce Jordan’s administrative role in the West Bank

● 1988 (August)—Shin Bet rounds up 180 Hamas members and puts them through questioning, but gets no good info

● 1988 (August 18)—Hamas releases leaflet that declares: “the Muslims have had a full—not partial—right to Palestine for generations, in the past, present, and future.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 435)

● 1988 (September)—Arafat gives an interview to Playboy and declares: “Everyone has now discovered who is the REAL TERRORIST organization: It is the Israeli military junta who are killing women and children, smashing their bones, killing pregnant women. You just have to look at the television to see this. So now it is clear and obvious who the real terrorists are.” (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 385)

● 1988 (September 30)—After being hit with a stone thrown by Palestinian youths in Hebron, Rabbi Moshe Levinger pulls out a gun and fires into the crowd, killing Palestinian shop owner Hassan Abdul Azis Salah

● 1988 (October 5)—Hamas leaflet proclaims: “We are against conceding so much as an inch of our land which is steeped in the blood of the Companions of the Prophet and their followers…we shall continue the uprising on the road to liberation of our whole land from the contamination of the Jews” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 435)

● 1988 (November)—21 Israeli officer trainees are driving past the Kalandia refugee camp when some Palestinian youths pelt their bus with stones. The officer candidates make the driver stop the bus, and they go on a rampage through Kalandia, smashing windows, overturning cars, and breaking in doors. When an Israeli newspaper quotes an unidentified senior military official as saying that the officers would be disqualified from their course, the public outcry is so fierce that Defence Minister Rabin is forced to write letters to each of the parents of the officer candidates, promising that all 21 would be able to join a future officer’s program. (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 394)

● 1988 (November 14)—During the Palestine National Council (PNC) deliberations in Algiers, Arafat’s deputy Salah Khalaf says: “[True], I [once] wanted all of Palestine all at once. But I was a fool. Yes, I am interested in the liberation of Palestine, but the question is how. And the answer is: step by step.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 124)

● 1988 (November 15)—Palestine National Council (PNC) issues the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written by poet Mahmoud Darwish

● 1988 (December 13-15)—Arafat publicly recognizes Israel’s right to exist for the first time in Geneva during special session of the UN General Assembly. Arafat renounces armed struggle to destroy Israel. US begins dialogue with the PLO. Arafat also declares that the PNC accepts UN Resolutions 242 and 338 as a basis for negotiations (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 403; Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 126)

● 1988 (December)—A year after the Intifada started, 626 Palestinians have killed, 37,000 injured, and 35,000 arrested (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 437)

● 1988—Hamas military leader Salah Shehade is arrested for terrorism and sentenced to ten years in prison

● 1988—An estimated 300,000-400,000 of the roughly 4.2 million Israelis have moved to the US on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, with an estimated 100,000 in California alone (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 464)

● 1988—The story of King Hussein’s 1972-1973 secret meetings with Israeli leaders is leaked to the press (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 73)

● 1988—Toronto Star describes intifada youth in Gaza as “the first generation to have lost their fear because they have nothing to lose; Jail sentences merely change the architecture of their prison.” (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza as an Open-Air Prison,” Middle East Report 275 [2015]: 12)

● 1988—Far-right Moledet Party founded in Israel. They openly subscribe to the mass transfer of Palestinians out of Palestinian territory (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xiii)

● 1988—Under pressure from American Jewish organizations, US Secretary of State George Schultz prevents Yasser Arafat from returning to the UN (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxiii)

● 1988—Grassley Amendment in Congress seeks to forbid the PLO from any dealings in the US and to close the Palestine Information Office in Washington (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxiii)

● 1988—Israel forbids the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University to open

● 1988—In his article “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” Michael Adams argues that “in their handling of the Palestine problem during the past half-century, the politicians of the Western world have acted for the most part with a quite exceptional disregard for truth and justice.” (Source: Michael Adams, “What Went Wrong in Palestine?,” 80)

● 1988—Abraham Rabinovich publishes The Boats of Cherbourg
The boats of Cherbourg : Rabinovich, Abraham : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1988—Philip Mattar publishes The Mufti of Jerusalem : Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement
The Mufti of Jerusalem : Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement : Mattar, Philip, 1944- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1988—Hezbollah abducts and hangs William Higgins, an American colonel serving with UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 558)

● 1988—The US designates Israel a “major non-NATO ally,” one of only twelve such countries, affording it preferential treatment in bidding for US defense contracts and access to expand weapons systems at lower prices (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 81)

● 1988—US Secretary of State George P. Schultz visits the Middle East 3 times to try to get the Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to come to the peace table and is rebuffed by all three each time (Source: Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, 498)

● 1988—Hamas releases Charter with 36 articles—Charter is anti-Semitic, citing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and describes Hamas’s war with Israel as a war against Muslims and Jews
The Avalon Project : Hamas Covenant 1988 (yale.edu)

● 1988—Israeli Prime Minister Rabin adopts “iron fist” approach to the Intifada and calls for Israeli forces to “break bones”

● 1989—In his bid to Judaize the Muslim Quarter, Ariel Sharon buys the Mediterranean Hotel building, where Mark Twain stayed during his visit to Jerusalem (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 375)

● 1989 (February)—Arafat gives an interview to Vanity Fair

● 1989 (May)—Arab leaders accept Egypt back into the Arab League (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 130)

● 1989 (May)—At the annual AIPAC convention, US Secretary of State James Baker says: “Now is the time to lay aside once and for all the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel…Forswear annexation. Stop settlement activity. Reach out to the Palestinians as neighbors who deserve political rights.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 130)

● 1989 (July 15)—Joseph Papp cancels a scheduled appearance by the El-Hakawati Palestinian Theater Company of Jerusalem at his Public Theater. The six-person company, which had performed in Israel and Europe before making its American debut, was to present ''The Story of Kufur Shamma,'' a drama about a Palestinian man's 40-year search for survivors from his village after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Mr. Papp says he dropped the show because he is concerned about the reaction of Jewish theatergoers in New York and did not want to present a Palestinian play about the Middle East without also presenting an Israeli one. (Source: Andrew L. Yarrow, “Papp Cancels Palestinian Play,” The New York Times)

● 1989—Sami Hadawi publishes Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine
Bitter harvest : a modern history of Palestine : Hadawi, Sami : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1990—Israel equips its drone fleet with lasers so that they can emit a beam and designate a target for warplanes

● 1990 (February)—Shin Bet learns that an armed squad attached to Fatah intends to attack IDF reservists in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Cherry men dress as the reservists and hide micro-Uzis under fake potbellies. They open fire, killing many terrorists, with snipers taking out the rest (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 1990 (February)—Palestinian Islamic Jihad launch a terror attack against a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Egypt, killing 9 Israelis and 2 Egyptians

● 1990 (March 22)—Israel assassinates a Canadian rocket scientist named Gerald Bull who was working for Saddam Hussein. He is shot to death in Brussels

● 1990 (April 9)—Palestinian Islamic Jihad uses a car bomb to blow up an Israeli bus in Gaza, killing 7 soldiers and a 22-year-old student from New Jersey

● 1990 (April)—In Paris, Jimmy Carter meets with Yasser Arafat for the first time. Arafat tells him: “The PLO has never advocated the annihilation of Israel. The Zionists started the ‘drive the Jews into the sea’ slogan and attributed it to the PLO. In 1969 we said we wanted to establish a democratic state where Jews, Christians, and Muslims can all live together. The Zionists said they do not choose to live with any people other than Jews…We said to the Zionist Jews, all right, if you do not want a secular, democratic state for all of us, then we will take another route. In 1974 I said we are ready to establish our independent state in any part from which Israel will withdraw. As with Israelis, there are many differences among the voices coming from the PLO, and listeners interpret the words to suit their own ends.” At the meeting, Arafat agrees to accept the Camp David Accords as the basis for future negations with the Israelis (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 62)

● 1990 (June)—US-PLO dialogue suspended when Arafat refuses to expel a small Palestinian group on his executive committee for an attempted terror attack on Israel (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 58)

● 1990 (August)—Arafat becomes a pariah when he supports Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, which no other Arab leaders except Muammar Gaddafi supported

● 1990—Rabbi Moshe Levinger is found guilty of killing a Palestinian shop keeper in 1988 and is sentenced to 5 months in prison, but he only serves 3 (Source: Ariel Schalit, AP)

● 1990—American historian Paul Breines publishes Tough Jews: Political Fantasies and the Moral Dilemma of American Jewry, and argues that Jews “traditionally portrayed themselves as mild, bookish, and wise human beings, not given to retaliation or unprovoked violence. After 1967 the Jewish self-image changed dramatically. Jews began to be portrayed as killers, karate experts, detectives, and thugs, whom Breines refers to collectively as Rambowitz.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 58)
Tough Jews : political fantasies and the moral dilemma of American Jewry : Breines, Paul, 1941- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1990—Robert Fisk publishes Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, examining the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
Pity the nation the abduction of Lebanon : Fisk, Robert : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1990—Rabbi Meir Kahane is assassinated in New York

● 1990—In Damascus, President Assad tells Jimmy Carter that he is willing to negotiate with Israel on the status of the Golan Heights, and he gives Carter permission to report his proposal to Washington and to the Israelis, which he does 3 days later.

● 1991 (January)—Israel revokes the “general exit order” that it had issued in 1972 to allow residents of the occupied territories to move freely between the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel during daylight hours only. With this new measure, Palestinians now have to request individual exit permits every time they want to leave the territory. (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, [Autumn 2014]: 55)

● 1991 (January 18)—Saddam Hussein attacks two Israeli cities, Haifa and Tel Aviv, with 42 Scud missiles during Gulf War. No one is hurt and the US persuades Israel to stay out of the conflict

● 1991 (January 29)—In an interview with a British newspaper, Palestinian academic Sari Nusseibeh explains why some Palestinians were glad to see Israel hit by Scud missiles from Iraq: “If Palestinians are happy when they see a missile going from east to west, it is because, figuratively speaking, they have seen missiles going from west to east for the last 40 years.” Israel arrests Nusseibeh and accuses him of being an Iraqi agent. He spends 90 days in Ramle prison (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 453)

● 1991 (March)—US Secretary of State James Baker visits Jerusalem to invite Palestinian leaders from the West Bank and Gaza to take part in a peace conference. 11 Palestinians attend the meeting. Abdel Shafi, president of the Gaza Medical Association, tells Baker: “Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Territories must stop. There will be no peace process while the settlements continue. You can count on hearing this from me all the time.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 466)

● 1991 (September 6)—Faced with the prospect of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews, Israel formally requests $10 billion in loan guarantees from the United States (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 224)

● 1991—Between 1984 and 1991, there were 3,425 operations against the IDF and the South Lebanon Army, the pro-Israel Lebanese militia set up by Israelis. In these attacks, 98 Israeli soldiers and 134 Lebanese civilians were killed

● 1991—Religious Israeli ultra-nationalists start to settle in Arab Silwan, next to the original “City of David” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 528)

● 1991—Between 1967 and 1991, the US is estimated to have provided Israel with $77 billion in aid (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xvi)

● 1991—Edward Said resigns from the Palestine National Council

● 1991—Historians Benny Morris and Ian Black publish Israel's secret wars: a History of Israel's Intelligence Services
Israel's secret wars : a history of Israel's intelligence services : Black, Ian, 1953- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1991—Population of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza reaches 103,855, with the 137^th Jewish settlement in the West Bank inaugurated in August

● 1992—PLO running out of money

● 1992 (February 14)—“Night of the Pitchforks”—a squad of Islamic Jihad guerillas slip into an IDF field camp and kill 3 soldiers with knives, axes, and pitchforks

● 1992 (February 16)—Israeli drone is used to identify a car carrying Hezbollah cleric Abbas al-Mussawi. He is blown up along with his wife and 6-year-old son

● 1992 (March 3)—Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh sets off a bomb near a synagogue in Turkey. No one is killed

● 1992 (March 7)—Ehud Sadan, chief security officer at the Israeli embassy in Turkey, is killed by a bomb planted by a group called Hezbollah in Turkey

● 1992 (March 17)—Hezbollah plants a car bomb outside Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people, including 4 Israelis, 5 Argentinian Jews, and 22 children

● 1992 (May)—A Palestinian attacks and kills a young girl named Helena Rapp in Tel Aviv

● 1992 (June 8)—Atef Bseiso is assassinated by Israelis in Paris for his role in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. This killing causes a scandal because Bseiso was a CIA asset and he was killed in France

● 1992 (June 23)—Shamir government replaced by Yitzhak Rabin and the Labor Party, who is able to build a coalition without Likud participation

● 1992 (September 4)—While speaking to a delegation from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Yitzhak Rabin says he wishes “Gaza would sink into the sea…But since that is not going to happen a solution must be found to the problem of the Gaza Strip.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 111)

● 1992 (October)—Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Madrid

● 1992 (December 13)—Members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas kidnap an Israeli police officer named Sergeant Nissim Toledano and demand the release of Ahmed Yassin in exchange for his release. Israeli government refuses to make a deal and Hamas murders Toledano by strangulation and stabbing

● 1992 (December 16)—In response to the Toledano murder, IDF chief Ehud Barak suggests a mass expulsion of Hamas activists to Lebanon. 400 Palestinians are rounded up, blind-folded, handcuffed, and bussed to the Lebanese border. A scandal breaks out when it is revealed that many of the people they expelled were not on the Shin Bet list and were suffering in a makeshift refugee camp

● 1992—From 1990 to 1992, under Shamir’s Likud-led right-wing government, the number of Israelis moving into settlements in occupied Palestinian territories more than doubles (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 17)

● 1992—Unemployment is so bad in Gaza that when the UNRWA advertises 8 garbage collector’s jobs, 11,655 people apply (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 49)

● 1992—Nur Masalha publishes Expulsion of the Palestinians
Expulsion of the Palestinians : the concept of "transfer" in Zionist political thought, 1882-1948 : Masalha, Nur, 1957- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1992—Philip R. Davies publishes In Search of “Ancient Israel,” and argues that there is little to no historical reality to the Biblical Israel

● 1993 (January 25)—A Pakistani man named Mir Aimal Kansi shoots and kills two CIA employees in their cars as they were waiting at a stoplight outside of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. In a prison interview, Kansi said “I was real angry with the policy of the US government in the Middle East, particularly toward the Palestinian people.” (Source: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, The History of the CIA)

● 1993 (February)—Rabin realizes that deporting Hamas activists to the Lebanese border was a mistake and brings them back to Gaza and the West Bank. They return as heroes

● 1993 (March)—Israel seals off Gaza from the rest of the world for the first time (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, [Autumn 2014]: 55)

● 1993 (April 6)—Mehola Junction bombing—first suicide car bombing inside Israel—sparks a string of similar attacks—within 11 months, suicide bombers kill more than 100 Israelis and wound more than a thousand

● 1993 (September 13)—End of First Intifada—Edward Said notes that the intifada had a major impact on the global perception of Israelis and Palestinians, stating that “since the intifada had begun, international public opinion had rendered the Israelis as sullen and brutal killers, their ‘vision’ nothing more than cruel punishment administered to defenseless civilians.” (Source: Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, xxxii)

● 1993 (September)—Arafat writes to Rabin and says that the PLO “recognize[s] the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 127)

● 1993—Secret peace talks between Israel and the PLO begin in Oslo, Norway with Israeli academics Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak meeting with PLO treasurer, Ahmad Qurie

● 1993 (September 13)—Declaration of Principles (Oslo Accord) signed at White House between Rabin, Peres, and Arafat, supervised by President Bill Clinton. Israel recognizes the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and the PLO recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a state. The deal provides for a provisional Palestinian authority over the Gaza Strip and an enclave surrounding the West Bank town of Jerricho

● 1993 (October)—In an article titled “The Morning After,” Edward Said says: “let us call the [Oslo] agreement by its real name: an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 7)

● 1993 (November)—Mohammed Deif is put in charge of Hamas terror operations inside Gaza

● 1993—250,000 illegal Jewish settlers now residing in occupied Palestinian territory

● 1993—Palestine, based on the 1991 trips to Gaza by Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco, serialized as a comic book

● 1993—Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington publishes Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, which argues that the world is no longer split between the rival ideologies of communism and capitalism, but torn rather by a visceral conflict between Western Chrisitan countries and Islam.
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon & Schuster; 1996) (montclair.edu)

● 1993—Ezer Weizman elected president of Israel

● 1994—Palestinian National Authority established

● 1994 (January)—In an article titled “Time to Move On,” Edward Said says: “Israel has not even admitted that it is an occupying power, and through every one [of] its actions and statements has gone out of its way to make the likelihood of an independent Palestine more and more remote.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 41)

● 1994 (February 25)—Zionist settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein kills 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. When Baruch committed the murders he was wearing an IDF uniform. He was eventually stopped by bystanders and killed. Goldstein was a member of the militant settlement Kiryat Arba, who erected a graveside plaque that read: “To the holy Baruch Goldstein, who gave his life for the Jewish people, the Torah and the nation of Israel.” (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 474)

● 1994 (March 29)—In retaliation for the Mosque Massacre in Hebron, members of the Jordanian group called Bay’at al-Imam (Oath of Allegiance to the Prayer leader) plot to attack an Israeli outpost on the border with suicide bombings. The plot is discovered by the Jordanian intelligence agency, Mukhabarat, who launch a series of raids that capture the conspirators, including Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 12 members of the group sign a confession admitting to possessing illegal weapons and plotting acts of terrorism, and are sentenced to 15 years in prison. (Source: Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of Isis, 55-56)

● 1994 (April 6)—After waiting the mandatory 40 days of mourning for the 29 Palestinians killed on February 25, Yahya Ayyash sends a suicide bomber to blow himself up close to two buses in the Israeli town of Afula, killing 8 civilians. One week later, another suicide bomber kills 5 Israelis in bus station in Hadera

● 1994 (May 12)—In an article in Ha’aretz, Israeli political scientist Meron Benvenisti comments on the Cario agreement between the PLO and Israel, saying: “A perusal of hundreds of the Agreement’s pages can leave no doubt about who is the winner and the loser in this deal. By seeing through all the lofty phraseology, all deliberate disinformation, hundreds of pettifogging sections, subsections, appendices and protocols, one can clearly recognize that Israeli victory was absolute and Palestinian defeat abject.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 102)

● 1994 (July 18)—Hezbollah member Imad Mughniyeh orchestrates a suicide bombing in Buenos Aires at the Argentinian Jewish AMIA community center that kills 85

● 1994 (July)—Arafat goes to Gaza

● 1994 (July 26)—Palestinians detonate car bomb outside Israeli embassy in London, wounding 20 civilians

● 1994 (October)—Between September 1993 and October 1994, Israel confiscates over 80,000 dunums of Palestinian land, most of it in Jerusalem (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 102)

● 1994 (October 19)—Yahya Ayyash recruits suicide bomber who kills 22 Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv

● 1994 (October 26)—Israel and Jordan sign Peace Treaty. Morocco and Israel agree to open liaison offices in each other’s capitals (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 474)

● 1994 (November)—In an article titled “Changes for the Worse,” Edward Said says: “No president has been as Zionist as he [Bill Clinton]. Thus Clinton set a very low standard for members of his own party to follow.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 114)

● 1994 (November 11)—A member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad blows himself up at an IDF post in Gaza killing 3 reservists

● 1994 (December)—In an article titled “Two Peoples in One Land,” Edward Said offers his assessment of Arafat and Clinton, saying: “Arafat has had no experience of normal civilian life. Poorly educated, megalomaniac, and now living in the terminal dream world of all petty dictators, he cannot and never will be reformed… President Clinton is indifferent to the daily abuses of Israeli power, and has never said a word in public that expresses the slightest understanding of the Palestinian cavalry.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 122)

● 1994 (December 29)—Osama bin Laden releases a statement titled “The Betrayal of Palestine,” his first public pronouncement intended for a wider audience. The letter condemns the Chief Mufti of Saudi Arabia for endorsing the Oslo Accords. Bin Laden writes: “The current Jewish enemy is not an enemy settled in his own original country fighting in its defense until he gains a peace agreement, but an attacking enemy and a corrupter of religion and the world…The legal duty regarding Palestine and our brothers there—these poor men, women, and children who have nowhere to go—is to wage jihad for the sake of God, and to motivate our umma to jihad so that Palestine may be completely liberated and returned to Islamic sovereignty…[We must] wage an Islamic jihad against the Jews until the land is returned to its people and these deviant Jews return to their country…[This] alleged peace (the Oslo Accords) that the rulers and tyrants are falling over themselves to make with the Jews is nothing but a massive betrayal, epitomized by their signing of the documents of capitulation and surrender of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all of Palestine to the Jews, and their acknowledgement of Jewish sovereignty over Palestine for ever.” (Source: Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, 9-10)

● 1994—Under the 1994 Paris Protocol, an integral part of the Oslo accords, all legal trade from Gaza has to be channeled to or via Israel (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2 [Winter 2014]: 8)

● 1994—Yashir Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts at achieving peace between Palestine and Israel

● 1994—Israel Shahak, Professor of Chemistry at the Hebrew University, publishes Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, which argues that Israel’s laws officially discriminate against non-Jews in three fundamental areas: residency rights, the right to work, and the right to equality before the law. (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 131)
Israel Shahak - Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight Of Three Thousand Years : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1994—Israel sells weapons to the brutal Hutu regime in Rwanda who use them against the Tutsis in their genocide. During 100 days, the Hutus kill 800,000 Tutsis, utilizing Israeli Uzi submachine guns and hand grenades. When Israeli environmental minister Yossi Sarid was questioned about Israel supporting the Hutu-led massacres, he said: “We have no control over where our weapons go.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 11)

● 1995 (January)—Shimon Peres says: “We will build [settlements], but without declaring it in public…The Labor Party always knew how to do things quietly…but today, everybody announces everything they do in public.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 155)

● 1995 (January)—In an article titled “Sober Truths About Israel and Zionism,” Edward Said says: “I fail to see how we are supposed to equate the ‘right’ of a largely European people to come to Palestine, pretend that it was empty of inhabitants, conquer it by force, and drive out 70 percent of its inhabitants, with the right of the native people of Palestine to resist these actions and try to remain on their land. It is a grotesque notion to suggest parity in such a situation and then also to ask the victims to forget about their past and plan to live together as inferior citizens with their conquerors. The proposition is especially galling since it comes from a movement that claims quite openly never to have forgotten its own history of persecution, and indeed allows itself every crime against the Palestinian people because it says it is living under the shadow of past persecutions.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 132)

● 1995 (January)—When asked about the criticisms launched against him in Edward Said’s book Peace and its Discontents, Yasser Arafat says: “This is too absurd a book for me to respond to. Who made the intifada in Gaza? He, in America, did not make the intifada!...I, of course, read the book for entertainment, and there are others like him who are jumping on the bandwagon of patriotism. The PLO made the intifada through its people and its children—2,000 martyrs, 117,000 wounded, 138,000 detainees, 7,000 disabled, 8,000 miscarriages among women—while he, in America does not feel the suffering of his people, does not understand the size of the greatest uprising in the modern age, which is considered to be the completion of the Palestinian revolution.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 165)

● 1995 (January 6)—In a letter to the editor of Kol Ha’ir, Israel Shahak, writes: “It is not only the Palestinians who do not have the right to use [the] land [of Israel]. The racist regulations of the Jewish National Fund which is in charge of such matters, also prohibit the lease or any other use to any non-Jews. In my view, the thus institutionalized racism exceeds in importance the robbing of the land from the Palestinians. There are many states which systematically robbed land. The US, for example, robbed Indian land, transforming most of it into state land. Nevertheless, such land is now available for use by any US citizens. If a Jew were in the US prohibited to lease land belonging to the state only because he were Jewish, this would be rightly interpreted as anti-Semitism. Unless we recognize the real issue—which is the racist character of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel and the roots of that racism in the Jewish religious law—we will not be able to understand our realities. And unless we can understand them, we will not be able to change them.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 129-130)

● 1995 (January 22)—Islamic Jihad terrorist wearing an IDF uniform blows himself up at a bus stop in Beit Lid, near Tel Aviv. When others run to help wounded, another suicide bomber detonates. A third bomber was supposed to kill more, but got cold feet and ran. The attack kills 21 soldiers and 1 civilian. Rabin visits the scene and is harassed by angry Israelis

● 1995 (March 30)—Rida Yassin, known as Abu-Ali Rida, commander of Hezbollah in the Nabatiyeh area, is assassinated by an Israeli drone in Operation Golden Beehive. This is only the second time Israel used drone to kill a target

● 1995 (April)—In an article titled “Justifications of Power in a Terminal Phase,” Edward Said writes: “Terrorism…must be condemned and rejected, but that condemnation must also include the policies that directly produced terrorism in the first place, policies calculated to humiliate, dispossess, and render desperate an entire nation.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 143)

● 1995 (May)—100 babies in Gaza City and Jabalya refugee camp are diagnosed with marasmus, an extreme form of malnutrition (Source: Sara Roy, “Economic Deterioration in the Gaza Strip,” 37)

● 1995 (August)—First bus bombing in Jerusalem (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 576)

● 1995 (October)—In an article titled “The Middle East ‘Peace Process,” Edward Said writes: “Their [Hamas] suicide missions, bomb-throwing, and provocative slogans are acts of defiance principally, refusals to accept the crippling conditions of Israeli occupation and Palestinian collaboration. No matter how many secular people like myself lament their methods and their vision…, there is no doubting the truth that for many Palestinians these people express a furious protest against the humiliations, demeanments, and denials imposed on all Palestinians as a people.” (Source: Edward Said, Peace and Its Discontents, 156)

● 1995 (October 23)—US Congress passes the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which requires the United States to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by May 31, 1999. The act includes a presidential waiver that is used up until 2018 (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 93)

● 1995 (October 26)—Fathi Shaqaqi of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine is assassinated in Malta by Mossad

● 1995 (November 4)—Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by ultranationalist Israeli Yigal Amir at a peace rally. Amir says that his goal was to interrupt the Israeli/Palestinian peace process (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 138)

● 1995—Yahya Ayyash is responsible for 9 suicide attacks from 1994 to 1995 in which 56 people were killed and 387 wounded

● 1995—14,000 Christians left in Jerusalem (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 528)

● 1995—Best of enemies: The memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi published
Best of enemies : the memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi : Abū Sharīf, Bassām : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1995—Israel withdraws from 6 West Bank cities and towns (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 261)

● 1996 (January 5)—Yahya Ayyash assassinated when Israel detonates a bomb in a cellphone he was given

● 1996 (January)—When Jimmy Carter visits Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, he finds it even more oppressive than his last trip. He later described how: “it was obvious that the Israelis had almost complete control over every aspect of political, military, and economic existence of the Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli settlements permeated the occupied territories, and highways connecting the settlements with one another and with Jerusalem were being rapidly built, with Palestinians prohibited from using or crossing some of the key roads. In addition, more than one hundred permanent Israeli checkpoints obstructed the routes still open to Palestinian traffic, either pedestrian or vehicular.” (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 141)

● 1996 (February 25)—Mohammed Deif retaliates for the Ayyash assassination with a series of suicide bombings, beginning with a bomber who blows himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing 26. After the attacks, Israel imposes a heightened closure on the West Bank and Gaza, causing immense economic hardship and suffering. Scholar Sara Roy finds that: “The overwhelming majority in the Gaza Strip have been left with no source of daily income. Many can no longer adequately feed their children…Unemployment in Gaza has increased from 50 percent to 74 percent, and from 30 percent to 50 percent in the West Bank… Losses from unemployment amount to $1.04 million daily for the Gaza Strip alone [and] at least 600,000 people in Gaza (out of total of one million) are presently in desperate need of income… Prior to the heightening of the closure, approximately 700 trucks crossed the Gaza-Israel border daily. By early April, the number had dropped to seven or eight trucks daily… The Gaza Strip requires an average of 3,000 tons of cement daily but received only 300 tons in the first 23 days after the February closure, bringing the construction sector to a virtual halt and idling at least 16,000 workers…The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics estimates that from February 25 to April 4, when the closure was at its tightest, total direct losses to the Palestinian economy were $244.3 million.” (Source: Sara Roy, “Economic Deterioration in the Gaza Strip,” 36-37)

● 1996 (March 3)—Mohammed Deif recruits a suicide bomber to blow himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing 19 and wounding 8

● 1996 (March 4)—Mohammed Deif recruits suicide bomber to blow themselves up at a shopping mall in Tel Aviv, killing 13 and wounding more than 100

● 1996 (March 8)—The Israeli authorities terminate Gazan’s access to the sea, prohibiting local fishermen from fishing in the zone designated in the Cairo Agreement, which guarantees access up to 20 nautical miles from the shoreline of the Gaza Strip. Three days later, the authorities allow fishermen to work in an area limited to six nautical miles from the shore. However, several Palestinians reported being shot at by Israeli gunboats as they passed only three miles. By the end of March, fishing is officially permitted up to 12 miles (Source: Sara Roy, “Economic Deterioration in the Gaza Strip,” 37)

● 1996 (April)—Israel invades Lebanon in “Operation Grapes of Wrath.” The massive incursion displaces 400,000 Lebanese civilians

● 1996 (April 18)—Qana massacre—Israel bombs UN compound in Lebanon killing 106. UN inquiry finds that Israel deliberately targeted the site, although Israel denies it

● 1996 (April 24)—PNC meets in Gaza and by a vote of 504 to 54 decides to amend their charter in line with Arafat’s commitments to excise the articles calling for Israel’s destruction (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 130)

● 1996 (May 29)—Peres loses election to Netanyahu, mostly because Peres lost support after so many suicide bombings

● 1996 (June 25)—Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah claim responsibility for a truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that targeted the Khobar Towers that US servicemen occupy. The blast kills 19 Americans and wounds 372 (Source: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, 577)

● 1996 (September)—Prime Minister Netanyahu opens the Hasmonean tunnel that runs from the Western Wall alongside the Temple Mount to emerge in the Muslim quarter. Rumors spread that the tunnels are an attempt to undermine the Islamic Sanctuary, leading to riots that leave 85 Palestinians and 16 Israelis dead (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 530)

● 1996—Since start of the First Intifada in 1987, the Israeli army and settlers have killed 1,422 Palestinians. 175 Israelis are killed in the same period

● 1996—Shabtai Teveth publishes Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust
Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust : Teveth, Shabtai, 1925-2014 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1996—PFLP formally withdraws from the PLO (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 70)

● 1996—Abdulmalik Dahamsha, the first Muslim Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, gives his inaugural speech in Arabic (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 91)

● 1996—Jimmy Carter and other Christians begin raising funds to build Nazareth Village in Israel to emulate the original community of Jesus (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 171)

● 1996—Israel releases 123 Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the remains of 2 Israeli soldiers (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 196)

● 1996—President Bill Clinton meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for the first time. When Netanyahu lectures Clinton on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Clinton responds to an aide: “Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?” (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 273)

● 1997—Israel and the US are the only two countries that vote against the UN General Assembly resolution titled “Peaceful Settlement of the question of Palestine,” which calls for Israel to stop building settlements in occupied Palestinian territory

● 1997 (January)—Prime Minister Netanyahu signs the Hebron Accord, in which he agrees to transfer control of the West Bank city of Hebron to the Palestinian Authority while keeping 20 percent of it (in which 400 Jewish settlers lived among 130,000 Palestinians) under Israeli control. Netanyahu's agreement to partially withdraw from Hebron, whose biblical and modern history gave it a particular significance to nationalist and religious Jews, is condemned by many of his right-wing supporters. For the first time, a leader of the Likud is officially handing "Jewish land" over to the Palestinians. Under Netanyahu, the Likud's traditional opposition to the partition of Eretz Yisrael was irrevocably undermined. (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 19)

● 1997 (March 21)—Suicide bomber blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing 3 women and wounding 48

● 1997 (July 30)—Mohammed Deif recruits two suicide bombers to blow themselves up at Jerusalem’s Mahaneh Yeudah market, killing 16 and wounding 178

● 1997 (September)—Three suicide bombers blow themselves up in Jerusalem, killing 5 and wounding 181

● 1997 (September 4)—Shayetet (Flotilla) Disaster—Israeli commandos go into Ansariya, Lebanon to plant a bomb for an assassination but they are attacked by Hezbollah, who kill 12. Hezbollah was able to intercept Israeli intelligence and use it to plan the attack

● 1997 (September 25)—“Mashal Affair”—Netanyahu orders Hamas leader Khaled Mashal assassinated. Israeli agents poison him in Jordan, but two agents are arrested by the police. In order to secure the release of the Israeli agents, Israel is forced to give Mashal an antidote so that he survives. In order to get the six remaining Israeli assassins out of the Israeli embassy in Jordan, Netanyahu is forced to release Yassin from prison

● 1997 (December 4)—During a speech for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Nelson Mandela says: “We have assembled once again as South Africans, our Palestinian guests and as humanists to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine…[W]e know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” (Source: Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, 53)

● 1998 (March 29)—Mohi al-Dinh Sharif, Hamas explosives expert, is assassinated by an Israeli car bomb

● 1998 (September 11)—Awadallah brothers assassinated—Israel obtains Hamas archives that contains crucial info on group

● 1998 (October)—Netanyahu agrees to the Wye River Memorandum, in which he reluctantly agrees to carry out a further Israeli withdrawal from 13% of the West Bank (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 20)

● 1998 (December)—During an interview with Al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden says: “[Even] though the Palestinian people were famous for their activity and agriculture, which they exported together with their citrus fruits, their textiles, their soap, this people—and they are our brothers—became homeless, chased all over the world. In the end they became low-wage workers for this colonialist Jew, who lets them enter when it wants, and then prevents them from entering when it does not want them…The infidels tell Muslims that bin Laden is threatening to kill civilians—yet what are they doing in Palestine? They’re not only killing innocents, but children as well!...I say that there are two sides in the struggle: one side is the global Crusader alliance with the Zionist Jews, led by America, Britain, and Israel, and the other side is the Islamic world.” (Source: Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, 68, 70, 73)

● 1998 (December 14)—Bill Clinton visits Gaza and tells the Palestinian National Council: “I am honored to be the first American president to address the Palestinian people in a city governed by Palestinians, for Palestinians.” (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 277)

● 1998 (December)—Republican committee finance chairman Mel Sembler organizes a trip to Israel for Texas governor George Bush, who meets with Ariel Sharon (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 323)

● 1998—Bad relations between Israel and Jordan due to “Mashal Affair” are mended during a mutual visit to DC of Hussein and Netanyahu

● 1998—10-year prison sentence is up for Hamas military leader Salah Shehade, but Israel decides to hold him in “administrative detention” which is essentially imprisonment of detainees without trial

● 1998—Benjamin Netanyahu formally asks British Prime Minister Tony Blair for permission to allow Mossad to resume covert operations in Britain, which had technically ended in 1988

● 1998—Teddy Katz, an Israeli student at Haifa University, writes his master’s thesis on the destruction of the Palestinian village of Tantura during the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Katz finds that Zionist militias executed the civilians of Tantura, describing how: “All of the men of Tantura were taken to the cemetery of the village, and they put them in lines, and they ordered them to begin digging, and every line that finished digging [were] just shot and fell down to the holes.” Because of his research, Katz is sued by Haganah veterans, and all of his work is removed from the libraries at Haifa University (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 17-18)

● 1999 (May 17)—Ehud Barak beats Netanyahu in the election with 56% of the popular vote (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 278)

● 1999 (November)—Mauritania, a member state of the Arab League, establishes formal relations with Israel and exchanges ambassadors (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 474)

● 1999—One Day in September documentary premieres, telling the story of the 1972 Munich Massacre
One Day In September 1999 : Kevin Macdonald : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 1999—After the death of Jordanian King Hussein, his son Abdullah II assumes the throne

● 2000 (February)—Controversy breaks out when the Israeli Minister of Education, Yossi Sarid, leader of the left-wing Meretz Party, announces that poems by the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish will be placed in the Israeli school literature curriculum. Likud Party member Uzi Landau complains that in Israeli schools “there is less Zionism and more post-Zionism and less Jewish history and more fabricated Palestinian history and fabricated Zionist and Jewish history.” (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 92)

● 2000 (May)—Ehud Barak unconditionally pulls Israel out of Lebanon. Arab leaders like Syria’s Assad see this as a major defeat for Israel and proof that guerrilla warfare can beat them

● 2000 (July)—US President Clinton invites Arafat and Barak to Camp David for peace talks. Barak offers 91% of the West Bank with a Palestinian capital in Aby Dis and all the Arab suburbs of east Jerusalem. The summit collapses in mutual recriminations, and despite Saudi pressure to accept, Arafat refuses the deal. He tells Clinton: “Do you want to attend my funeral? I won’t relinquish Jerusalem and the Holy Places.” Arafat shocks the delegation when he insists that Jerusalem has never been the site of the Jewish Temple, which he argues actually existed only on the Samaritan Mount Gerizim. Aaron David Miller notes: “I can’t help thinking our [US] behavior in blaming the Palestinians and facilitating Barak’s campaign to delegitimize Arafat as a partner was immature and counterproductive.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 531; Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 307)

● 2000 (September 28)—Second Intifada (Aqsa Intifada) starts after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon makes a provocative visit to the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) and says “the Temple Mount is ours.” During the visit, television cameras capture Israeli police rough-handling the mosque’s highest-ranking Muslim cleric—The following day the IDF kills 7 Palestinian protesters—Intifada leads to the worst violence since 1967, including several suicide bombings. During 8 years of the Intifada, 6,600 are killed: 4,916 Palestinians (3000 in Gaza) and 1,100 Israelis

● 2000 (September 30)—France 2 cameramen capture harrowing footage of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah who was killed in Gaza when he and his father, Jamal al-Durrah, were caught in the cross fire between Israeli military and Palestinian security forces
Muhammad al-Durrah: the image that shocked the world (youtube.com)

● 2000 (October 1)—Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, two Israeli reservists, are killed in Ramallah, West Bank by an angry lynch mob. Their bodies are horribly mutilated and paraded in the streets

● 2000 (October)—Under Mughniyeh’s orders, a special Hezbollah unit abducts 3 Israeli soldiers from the Israel-Lebanon border. In order to secure their release, Israel has to release Islamic Jihad members from prison. These freed prisoners immediately launch 8 suicide bombings that kill 39 civilians before Shin Bet is able to arrest or kill them

● 2000 (October)—Arafat walks out on Madeleine Albright in Paris after Ehud Barak keeps him waiting too long (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 63)

● 2000 (November 9)—Hussein Abayat, Fatah operative involved in attacks on Israel, is killed in the first aerial assassination carried out by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories

● 2000—British journal of Psychiatry diagnoses “Jerusalem Syndrome Subtype Two” as “those who come with magical ideas of Jerusalem’s healing powers” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 358)

● 2000—Israel agrees to Palestinian Authority request to release Hamas member Salah Shehade from prison. Shehade is forced to sign a pledge that he won’t go back to terrorism. He signs it, but immediately goes back to work leading the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He introduces the Qassam rocket which transforms the way Hamas fights Israel

● 2000—By end of year, 276 Palestinians have been killed by Israel

● 2000—Targeted killing operations run out of Israeli Joint War Room kill 24 people (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2000—Simon Reeve publishes One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God"
One day in September : the full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the Israeli revenge operation "Wrath of God" : Reeve, Simon : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2000—375,000 Jewish settlers in West Bank and East Jerusalem—a 52% increase from 1993 (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 477)

● 2000—Yasser Arafat is the most frequent visitor to the Oval Office (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 62)

● 2001—Targeted killing operations run out of Israeli Joint War Room kill 84 people (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2001 (January 1-5)—Israelis agree to the “Clinton Parameters” for peace talks with the Palestinians. PNA rejects them. Arafat visits Clinton in Washington on the 2^nd. Another round of talks are held at Taba just as George W. Bush became president (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 144)

● 2001 (January 18)—Top-secret legal opinion submitted to Israeli prime minister that declares targeted assassinations are legal. In 2003, the state submits non-classified version of the opinion to the Supreme Court, which affirms it in 2006 (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2001 (February)—Ehud Barak defeated by Ariel Sharon in election

● 2001 (March 27)—Suicide bomber blows himself up in the midst of a Passover holiday celebration at the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 30 Israelis (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 155)

● 2001 (March 29)—Massive Israeli force destroys Arafat’s office compound in Ramallah. Ariel Sharon claims that Arafat is supporting the intifada and claims that they don’t want to kill him, just arrest him (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 156)

● 2001 (April 5)—Iyad Haradan, commander of Islamic Jihad, is assassinated by Mossad phone bomb

● 2001 (May 18)—Hamas operative blows himself up at security checkpoint outside HaSharon Mall, killing 5

● 2001 (June 1)—Suicide bomber kills 21, mostly Jewish immigrants from Russia, outside discotheque in Tel Aviv

● 2001 (June 27)—Osama al-Jawabra, member of Fatah’s Al-Asqa Martyr’s Brigades, is assassinated by Mossad phone bomb

● 2001 (July 31)—IDF drone kills Jamal Mansour, member of the political arm of Hamas, and also kills 6 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children

● 2001 (August)—During war games, Israel realizes that it could defeat the Syrian army only using drones

● 2001 (August 27)—Israeli Apache helicopter fires rockets through the window of Abu Ali Mustafa’s office in Ramallah, killing him

● 2001 (September 11)—After 9/11 terrorist attacks, the PLO declares itself “a partner of the US in its war against terrorism.” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 69)

● 2001 (September 16)—During an interview, US President George Bush tells a reporter: “This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while, and the American people must be patient.” The word crusade enrages some Muslims in Middle East (Source: C-SPAN)

● 2001 (September)—US Republican Mike Pence tells Condoleezza Rice: “I believe in the Book of Genesis where it reads, ‘I will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse you’…And I believe that America is in peril if we fail to vigorously defend Israel and her interests.” (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 117)

● 2001 (October)—Ariel Sharon compares the US to Neville Chamberlain and Israel to Czechoslovakia, amid fears that America would sacrifice Israeli interests to secure Arab support in the war against terror (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 336)

● 2001 (October 17)—In retaliation for Aby Ali Mustafa’s killing, members of the PFLP assassinate Rehavam Zeevi, minister in Sharon’s cabinet, in his hotel in Jerusalem

● 2001 (October 21)—In an interview with Al-Jazeera journalist Taysir Alluni, Osama bin Laden says: “the United States has involved itself and its people again and again for more than 53 years, and recognized and supported Israel, and dispatched a general air supply line in 1393 AH [1973] during the days of Nixon, from America to Tel Aviv, with weapons, aid, and men, which affected the outcome of the battle, so how could we not fight it [America]?...America has terrorized and it has erased its own values…We swore that America could never dream of safety, until safety becomes a reality for us living in Palestine. That has exposed the American government, and that it exists as an agent of Israel, and puts Israel’s needs before the needs of its own people. So the situation is straightforward: America won’t be able to leave this ordeal unless it pulls out of the Arabian peninsula, and it ceases its meddling in Palestine, and throughout the Islamic world…I say to those who talk about the innocents in America, they haven’t tasted yet the heat of the loss of children, and they haven’t seen the look on the faces of the children in Palestine and elsewhere. By what right are our families in Palestine denied safety? The helicopters hunt them while they are in their homes, while they are amongst their women and children; everyday the bodies and wounded are removed. So these fools cry about the deaths of Americans, and they don’t cry about the deaths of our sons? Don’t they fear receiving a similar punishment?” (Source: Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, 126-128)

● 2001 (December 1)—Three suicide bombers in succession kill 11 people in Jerusalem mall

● 2001 (December 2)—Suicide bomber blows himself up in Haifa, killing 15 and wounding 40

● 2001 (December 26)—Al-Jazeera releases a statement that Osama bin Laden recorded titled “Nineteen Students” where he states: “The deliberate killing of innocent children in Palestine today is the ugliest, most oppressive, and hostile act, and something that threatens all of humanity….[It] is as if Israel—and those backing it in America—have killed all the children in the world. What will stop Israel killing our sons tomorrow…? What would the rulers do if Israel broadened its territory according to what they allege is written in their false, oppressive, unjust books, which said that ‘Our borders extend as far as Medina’? What will rulers do except submit to this American Zionist lobby?...America and the western leaders always say that Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine, and other such militias, are terrorist organizations. If self-defense is terrorism, what is legitimate? Our defense and our fight is no different to that our of our brothers in Palestine like Hamas…So let us relieve the oppression of the poor people in Palestine and elsewhere.” (Source: Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, 147-148, 152)

● 2001 (December)—Israel calls for the resignation of Daniel Bernard, the French ambassador to London, who is reported to have called Israel “that shitty little country” at a party (Source: Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian)

● 2001—Israel passes a law requiring all military officers holding the rank of two-star general or higher to wait at least three years before running for public office

● 2001—Biblical archeologist William G. Devers publishes What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It?: What Archaeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel
What did the biblical writers know, and when did they know it? : what archaeology can tell us about the reality of ancient Israel : Dever, William G : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2001—From 1970 to 2001, Israel establishes 21 Jewish-only settlements in Gaza (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 116)

● 2001—Azmi Bishara, Arab Christian member of the Israeli Knesset, is stripped of his parliamentary immunity and charged with supporting terrorism for a speech he gave in August 2000 hailing the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a victory for Hezbollah (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 91)

● 2002—Israel begins construction of a wall to separate themselves from the West Bank

● 2002—Syrian President Assad begins providing Hezbollah with Soviet weaponry and within 1 year they possess the largest arsenal ever held by a guerrilla group

● 2002—Targeted killing operations run out of Israeli Joint War Room kill 101 people (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2002 (January 3)—Israel seizes a ship in the Red Sea named Karine A that is carrying tons of weapons from Iran via Hezbollah and destined for Gaza and Arafat (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 340)

● 2002 (March)—22-year-old Palestinian sniper named Tha'ir Kayid Hammad, armed with a World War II-era Mauser rifle, kills 10 Israelis at a checkpoint in Wadi al-Haramiya (The Valley of Thieves), between Ramallah and Nablus in the West Bank (Source: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936, 243)

● 2002 (March)—Arab peace initiative—Arab League summit in Beirut—Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullaziz, the crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia calls for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land for peace principle, and Israel's acceptance of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel.

● 2002 (March)—138 Israeli men, women, and children are killed and 683 wounded by Palestinian suicide bombers. The worst attack is when a suicide bomber dressed as a religious Jewish woman blows himself up, killing 30. Worst year of terror attacks since Israel’s founding

● 2002 (March 6)— Israeli’s locate Salah Shehade in Gaza, but the bombing hit is called off due to the high number of potential civilian casualties

● 2002 (March 9)— Salah Shehade sends a suicide bomber to blow himself up in Café Moment, near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, killing 11 civilians

● 2002 (March 29)—Operation Defensive Shield—largest Israeli military engagement since the Six Day War—Israeli tanks besiege Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah. First time that the Israeli military uses airplanes to bomb the West Bank

● 2002 (April)—Israel assassinates Russian General Anatoly Kuntesevich who was helping Syria produce nerve agent VX.

● 2002 (June 18)—Salah Shehade sends a suicide bomber to blow himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing 19 passengers

● 2002 (June 24)—In a major White House address George W. Bush becomes the first US president to support a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the first president to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state. However, he also calls for the Palestinians to “elect new leaders, not compromised by terror,” referring to Arafat (Source: Eugene Rogan, The Arabs, 487)

● 2002 (July)—Between July 2001 and July 2002, Salah Shehade is responsible for organizing attacks against Israel that killed 474 people and wounded over 2,000. Shehade’s name is put on a Red Page and Operation Flag Bearer is initiated to assassinate him

● 2002 (July 22)—Israel drops bomb on a building in Gaza to kill Salah Shehade, but they also kill his assistant, his wife, his daughter, and 10 other civilians, including 7 children, with the youngest being 1. The civilian killings lead to protests in Israel.

● 2002 (August)—Shin Bet’s targeted killings lead to a decline in suicide bombers. After 85 Israeli deaths in March 2002 from suicide attacks, there were only 7 deaths in July and 6 in August

● 2002 (September)—Meir Dagan takes over Mossad

● 2002 (December 6)—Israel assassinates Ramzi Nahara, a drug dealer and Israeli intelligence agent who switched allegiances when Israel withdrew from Lebanon. A bomb disguised as a rock blows up and kills him

● 2002 (December 21)—Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram reports that Ashraf Marwan was an Israeli spy (Marwan warned Israel about 1973 Yom Kippur War). At the time, Marwan is a wealthy businessman living in London (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 326)

● 2002—Saddam Hussein orders his security officials to provide aid to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers (Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall)

● 2002 (October 6)—Osama bin Laden releases his “Letter to America” explaining that one of the main reasons for the 9/11 terrorist attacks was US support for Israel and the violence committed against Palestinians. To the question of “Why are we opposing you?” bin Laden states:

a) You attacked us in Palestine:

(i) Palestine, which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years. The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its*price, and pay for it heavily.

It brings us both laughter and tears to see that you have not yet tired of repeating your fabricated lies that the Jews have a historical right to Palestine, as it was promised to them in the Torah. Anyone who disputes with them on this alleged fact is accused of anti-semitism. This is one of the most fallacious, widely-circulated fabrications in history. The people of Palestine are pure Arabs and original Semites. It is the Muslims who are the inheritors of Moses (peace be upon him) and the inheritors of the real Torah that has not been changed. Muslims believe in all of the Prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all. If the followers of Moses have been promised a right to Palestine in the Torah, then the Muslims are the most worthy nation of this

When the Muslims conquered Palestine and drove out the Romans, Palestine and Jerusalem returned to Islam, the religion of all the Prophets peace be upon them. Therefore, the call to a historical right to Palestine cannot be raised against the Islamic Ummah that believes in all the Prophets of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them) - and we make no distinction between them.

The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed alone; their sons are not orphaned alone.

[…]

You have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal capital, and agreed to move your embassy there. With your help and under your protection, the Israelis are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Under the protection of your weapons, Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa mosque, to pollute it as a preparation to capture and destroy it.

[…]

The American people are the ones who pay the taxes which fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy our homes in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands in the Arabian Gulf, and the fleets which ensure the blockade of Iraq. These tax dollars are given to Israel for it to continue to attack us and penetrate our lands. So the American people are the ones who fund the attacks against us, and they are the ones who oversee the expenditure of these monies in the way they wish, through their elected candidates. (Source: Messages to the World: The States of Osama bin Laden, 160-172)

● 2002 (November 12)—In an audio-taped message to Al-Jazeera titled “To the Allies of America,” Osama bin Laden says: “What Bush—the pharaoh of the age—is doing, killing our sons in Iraq, and what America’s ally Israel is doing, using American aeroplanes to bomb houses in Palestine with old men, women, and children in them, was enough for the sane leaders among you to distance themselves from this criminal gang. Our people have suffered murder and torture in Palestine for nearly a century. But as soon as we defend them the world gets agitated and joins forces against the Muslims under the false and unjust pretext of fighting terrorism.” (Source: Messages to the World: The States of Osama bin Laden, 174)

● 2002—Ariel Sharon tells Likud MKs (Members of Knesset): “I think the idea that it is possible to continue keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation—yes it is occupation, you might not like the word, but what is happening is occupation—is bad for Israel.... Controlling 3.5 million Palestinians cannot go on forever.” (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 26)

● 2002—Anton LaGuardia publishes War Without End: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Struggle for a Promised Land

● 2002—British Palestinian activist Ghada Karmi publishes an article titled “A Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?” Karmi argues that the two-state solution is dead and only a bi-national one-state solution can work for Israelis and Palestinians
ONE-STATE.org - Ghada Karmi (archive.org)

● 2002—Jimmy Carter receives the Nobel Peace prize for his role in negotiating the Egyptian-Israel peace accord

● 2003—Biblical archeologist William G. Devers publishes Who Were the Early Israelites, and Where Did They Come From?
Who were the early Israelites, and where did they come from? : Dever, William G : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2003—Mossad assassinates al-Qaeda leader Abd-al-Sattar al-Masri in Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp

● 2003 (January 5)—2 suicide bombers from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades blow themselves up in Tel Aviv, killing 23 and wounding over 100. Within hours of the killings, IDF Unit 8200 plans to bomb a Fatah office in Gaza dubbed Target 7068, and to do it specifically when civilians are there. An Israeli named Amir refuses to obey the order, believing the intentional killing of civilians to be illegal. Other members of Unit 8200 also refuse to be involved in killing Palestinian civilians (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2003 (February 14)—In an audiotaped message titled “Among a Band of Knights,” Osama bin Laden says: “One of the most important objectives of this new [American-Israeli] Crusader campaign, after dividing up the region, is to prepare it for the establishment of what is called the state of Greater Israel, which would incorporate large parts of Iraq and Egypt within its borders, as well as Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, the whole of Palestine, and a large part of Saudi Arabia. Do you know what harm and suffering Greater Israel will bring down upon the region? What is happening to our people in Palestine is just a small example of what they want to repeat in the rest of the region courtesy of the Zionist-American alliance: murder of men, women, and children, incarceration, terrorism, destruction of houses, bulldozing of fields and razing of factories. People are living in constant fear and alarm, expecting death to come at any moment from a missile or bomb destroying their house and killing their womenfolk…The creation of Greater Israel will entail Jewish domination over the countries of the region. What will explain to you who the Jews are? The Jews are those who slandered the Creator, so how do you think they deal with God’s creation?” (Source: Messages to the World: The States of Osama bin Laden, 189-190)

● 2003 (April)—“Road map to peace in the Middle East” is released based on George Bush’s call for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine

● 2003 (May 2)—Welsh documentarian James Miller is killed by the IDF while filming in Gaza

● 2003 (March 8)—Hamas strategist Ibrahim Al-Makadmeh becomes the first person assassinated in Operation Picking Anemones, which targeted political figures for assassination, not just military figures. Makadmeh is blown up by an Apache helicopter Hellfire missile while he is driving in Gaza

● 2003 (March 16)—Rachel Corrie, an American activist and member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, is killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she tries to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house in the West Bank

● 2003 (August 12)—Ismail Abu Shanab, founder of Hamas, is assassinated by 5 missiles shot from an Israeli Apache helicopter in Gaza

● 2003 (September 6)—In response to Israel killing Hamas political figure Ismail Abu Shanab, Yassin calls a meeting of the entire Hamas leadership (“The Dream Team”) at the home of Dr. Marwan Abu Ras in Gaza. Shin Bet bombs the house, but they targeted the third floor and the meeting was on the first floor. The Hamas leaders survive.

● 2003 (September 9)—A suicide bomber blows himself up outside Tzrifin army base, killing 9 Israeli soldiers, in retaliation for the bombing of the Abu Ras house. Later that same day, another suicide bombing takes place at Café Hillel in Jerusalem’s Germany Colony, killing 7 people and wounding 57

● 2003 (October)—Opinion poll published by the International Herald Tribune of 7,500 citizens in 15 European nations finds that Europeans see Israel as the top threat to world peace, ahead of North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 209)

● 2003 (November)—US proposes that Ariel Sharon resume talks with Syria, which he flatly rejects

● 2003—Targeted killing operations run out of Israeli Joint War Room kill 135 people

● 2003—Israeli building starts in the vital East One (E1) section, east of the Old City in Jerusalem, which would have effectively cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank, undermining the creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli liberals and the US government persuade Israel to stop this, but plans to build Jewish settlements in the Arab neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan continue (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 533)

● 2003—American conservative political consultant Frank Lutz writes his first Israeli propaganda (hasbara) guide called the “Language Dictionary” for the Israel Project. It is a step-by-step guide that underlines “the words that work” and the “words that don’t work” when talking to Westerners about Israel

● 2003—Historian Tony Judt publishes an article in the New York Review of Books titled “Israel: The Alternative,” and argues that the idea of Israel and ethnic nationalism is no longer adequate to underpin a Jewish state and the solution is “a single, integrated, binational state of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 6-9)

● 2004—International Court of Justice finds that Israel’s West Bank wall is illegal

● 2004 (January 14)—Female suicide bomber named Reem Saleh Riyashi blows herself up and kills 4 Israelis at the Erez Crossing. This is the first time Hamas uses a female suicide bomber

● 2004 (March 22)—Ahmed Yassin is assassinated by an Israeli helicopter in Gaza

● 2004 (April)—Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announces that Israel will disengage from Gaza

● 2004 (April 14)—President Bush demands that Sharon promises not to harm Arafat, which might cause trouble across entire Middle East

● 2004 (April 15)—In a statement broadcast on Al-Jazeera titled “To the Peoples of Europe,” Osama bin Laden says: “There is a lesson in what is happening in occupied Palestine, and what happened on September 11 and March 11 (Madrid terrorist bombing) are your goods returned to you…Our actions are but a reaction to yours—your destruction and murder of our people, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Palestine. Look, for example, at the event that terrorized the world, the murder of the wheel-chair-bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, God have mercy on his soul.” (Source: Messages to the World: The States of Osama bin Laden, 234)

● 2004 (April 17)—Ahmed Yassin’s replacement, Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, is assassinated in an Israeli bombing. Rantisi’s killing is the 168^th targeted killing operation since the beginning of the Second Intifada

● 2004 (April 26)—Jordan’s intelligence agency, Mukhabarat, uncovers and stops a plot by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to detonate a chemical bomb in Jordan’s capital, Amman. In a public statement, Zarqawi tries to deflect accusations about a chemical bomb, saying: “God knows, if we did possess [a chemical bomb], we wouldn’t hesitate one second to use it to hit Israeli cities such as Eilat and Tel Aviv.” (Source: Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of Isis, 149-150)

● 2004 (May 12-24)—After 11 Israeli soldiers are killed, Israel launches Operation Rainbow in Gaza, which leads to the invasion and siege of Rafah. Over 50 Palestinians are killed

● 2004 (May 25)—British Channel 4 releases documentary Death in Gaza
Death in Gaza (2004 HBO documentary) - YouTube

● 2004 (July 12)—Hezbollah member Ghaleb Awali is assassinated by an Israeli car bomb

● 2004 (September 26)—Hamas leader Izz al-Din al-Sheikh Khalil is assassinated by an Israeli car bomb

● 2004 (September 29-October 16)—Operation Days of Penitence—Following the death of 2 Israeli children in Sderot, who were killed by a Qassam rocket launched by Palestinian militants, Israel invades Gaza. 130 Palestinians are killed. The Jabalia refugee camp is targeted

● 2004 (October 29)—In a videotaped address titled “The Towers of Lebanon,” Osama bin Laden says: “God knows that the plan of striking the [Twin] towers…came to me when things went just too far with the American-Israeli alliance’s oppression and atrocities against our people in Palestine and Lebanon. The events that made a direct impression on me were during and after 1982, when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon with the help of its third fleet. They started bombing, killing, and wounding many, while others fled in terror. I still remember those distressing scenes: blood, torn limbs, women and children massacred. All over the place, houses were being destroyed and tower blocks were collapsing, crushing their residents, while bombs rained down mercilessly on our homes. It was like a crocodile devouring a child, who could do nothing but scream. Does a crocodile understand anything other than weapons? The whole world heard and saw what happened, but did nothing. In those critical moments, many ideas raged inside me, ideas difficult to describe, but they unleashed a powerful urge to reject injustice and a strong determination to punish the oppressor. As I looked at those destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the oppressor in kind by destroying towers in America, so that it would have a taste of its own medicine and would be prevented from killing our women and children. On that day I became sure that the oppression and intentional murder of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy.” (Source: Messages to the World: The States of Osama bin Laden, 239)

● 2004 (November 11)—Yasser Arafat dies in a Paris hospital under mysterious circumstances

● 2004—International Court of Justice issues declaration that Israel must respect Palestinians right to “self-determination”

● 2004—Breaking the Silence founded—Israeli organization that is dedicated to providing IDF veterans a confidential outlet to describe their experiences in the occupied Palestinian territories

● 2004—After serving 18 years in prison for revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to Britain, Mordechai Vanunu is released

● 2004—The number of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel fall by 50% and Israeli casualties by 30% (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 29)

● 2004—Buthina Canaan Khoury releases documentary Women in Struggle, which follows four Palestinian women political prisoners after their release from an Israeli prison
Women in Struggle - YouTube

● 2004—Reut Institute/Group founded to combat what it calls the “delegitimization” of Israel

● 2004—Omar Barghouti, an independent Palestinian analyst and doctoral student, writes an article titled “Relative Humanity: The Fundamental Obstacle to a One-State Solution in Historic Palestine” and argues that “the two-state solution…is really dead. Good riddance!...we are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it.” He calls for the creation of “a secular democratic state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, anchored in equal humanity and, accordingly, equal rights.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 16)

● 2004—Gary Sussman of Tel Aviv University writes an article titled “The Challenge to the Two-State Solution” and argues that: “The bi-national state…will come along because separation is discredited and impossible.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 16)

● 2004—UN Security Council passes Resolution 1559 calling for Hezbollah and other militant groups in the Middle East to disarm (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 99)

● 2004—Israeli releases 433 Palestinians in exchange for the return of an Israeli businessman and the remains of 3 soldiers (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 196)

● 2004—Between 2000 and 2004, the 50 members of AIPAC’s board donated an average of $72,000 each to US political campaigns and PACs (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 100)

● 2004—Timothy Weber publishes On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend
On the road to Armageddon : how evangelicals became Israel's best friend : Weber, Timothy P : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2004—The pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL) begins sending US police delegations to Israel to learn counterterrorism skills. Since then, more than one thousand police have visited Israel with the ADL program and other pro-Israel groups. Anthony Lowenstein notes that “The ADL has a long history as a virulent pro-Israel lobby group, masking itself in the language of human rights…A key aim [of the ADL] has always been to target critics of the Jewish state” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 12-13)

● 2005 (January 6)—Jimmy Carter visits Israel and meets with Ariel Sharon (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 169)

● 2005 (January)—Mahmoud Abbas is elected to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), replacing Arafat. No presidential election has been held since so Abbas has ruled without a popular mandate

● 2005 (March 30)—50 years after the failed Lavon Affair in Egypt, Israel acknowledges the mission for the first time. President Moshe Katsav presents 3 surviving Egyptian Jews involved in the mission with certificates of appreciation

● 2005 (May)—Aaron David Miller writes an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Israel’s Lawyer” which argues that to succeed in Arab-Israeli peace-making, the US must be an advocate for both sides, not just Israel (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 75)

● 2005 (August 17-September 12)—Unilateral Israeli withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip—8,000 Israeli settlers evacuated from 21 settlements in Gaza

● 2005 (September 13)—After Israel withdraws from Gaza, American Jewish donors buy more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers for $14 million and transfer them to the Palestinian Authority. When Israel exits Gaza, Palestinians loot dozens of the greenhouses, carrying away irrigation hoses, water pumps, and plastic sheeting (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2005 (November)—Ariel Sharon leaves the Likud party to found the Kadima (Forward) party

● 2005 (December 23)—Steven Spielberg’s film Munich premieres, depicting the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli covert assassination of Black September terrorists

● 2005—Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement begins. The movement advocates punitive measures against the state of Israel, including boycotts, divestment, and economic sanctions

● 2005—Palestinian-Dutch filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad releases film Paradise Now which follows two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack on Israel

● 2005—Artist Banksy makes several paintings on Israel’s West Bank barrier wall

● 2005—Israeli casualties in Palestinian terrorist attacks fall by 60% (Source: Jonathan Rynhold and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” 29)

● 2005—Premiere of Israeli reality TV show The Ambassador, based on the American show The Apprentice. The show pits 14 young Israelis against one another in tasks designed to test their skills at selling Israel's image to the world

● 2005—Eitan Bar-Yosef publishes The Holy Land in English culture 1799-1917 : Palestine and the question of Orientalism
The Holy Land in English culture 1799-1917 : Palestine and the question of Orientalism : Bar-Yosef, Eitan : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2005—A study by the Rand Corporation titled “The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State” calls for the creation of a high-speed train that will connect Gaza and the West Bank (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 125)

● 2005—Virginia Tilley publishes The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock
The one-state solution : a breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock : Tilley, Virginia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2005—President Bashar al-Assad removes all Syrian troops from Lebanon (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 80)

● 2005—Gal Gadot (20 years old) begins mandatory 2-year military service in the IDF (Source: William Earl, Variety)

● 2006 (January 25)—Hamas win elections to run Gaza, gaining 74 of the 132 available seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council

● 2006 (January)—Ariel Sharon suffers incapacitating stroke

● 2006 (February)—Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s adviser Dov Weisglas admits that the goal for the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is: “We have to make them much thinner, but not enough to die.” (Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 10)

● 2006 (March)—Opinion poll taken by the Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University finds that 62% of Israelis favor direct talks with Hamas (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 185)

● 2006 (April)—Israeli Defense Ministry tries to block South Africa’s release of a 1975 agreement outlining the planned military cooperation between the two countries, which was signed by Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres. However, the document is released anyway (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 10)

● 2006 (April 17)—Second Rosh Ha'ir restaurant bombing—suicide bombing at Tel Aviv restaurant by Islamic Jihad terrorist kills 11 Israeli civilians and wounds 70

● 2006 (May)—Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri is caught smuggling $800,000 hidden in his clothes into Gaza. In total, Hamas managed to bring in $60 million into Gaza in 2006 (Source: Benedetta Berti, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 22)

● 2006 (May)—US Congress passes the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act—The Act forbids any aid to the Palestinian Authority unless the president of the PA certifies that it won’t go to Hamas (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 131)

● 2006 (May 26)—Mahmud al-Majzub, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s top man in Lebanon, is assassinated by an Israeli car bomb

● 2006 (May)—In an Israeli prison, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti joins forces with a Hamas spokesman named Abed al-Halak Natashe to endorse a two-state proposal that could unite the Palestinian factions. The proposal calls for a unity government with Hamas joining the PLO (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 213)

● 2006 (June)—During an interview with Aaron David Miller, Reverend Jerry Falwell says that the entire Middle East “wants to see Israel in the Mediterranean” (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 100)

● 2006 (June 25)—IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is kidnapped by Palestinians and held by Hamas. In response, Israel bombs Gaza and kills more than 200 civilians

● 2006 (June 28)—Operation Summer Rains—In response to the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, Israel launches an invasion of Gaza, killing over 400 Palestinians

● 2006 (June 29)—Premier of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode titled “The Gang Goes Jihad,” which centers on an Israeli businessman who claims ownership of a large portion of Paddy's Pub and tries to push the gang out

● 2006 (July 12-29)—Hezbollah kills several Israeli soldiers and abducts two. The IDF launches an ineffectual land invasion, called the Second Lebanon War. In the first month, Israel kills 800 Lebanese civilians in airstrikes and displaces 1 million. However, the IDF suffers heavy losses and has to shamefully withdraw two weeks later

● 2006 (July)—US President George W. Bush makes it clear that the US will defend Israel militarily if it were attacked (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 81)

● 2006 (November 1)—Operation Autumn Clouds—Israel invades Gaza after repeated rocket attacks—70 Palestinian civilians killed in less than 48 hours—By the end of the month, almost 200 had been killed, half of them women and children. At the end of the violence, 400 Palestinians are dead, 75 of them children (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 133)

● 2006 (December 11)—Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosts a Holocaust-denier conference in Tehran (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 154)

● 2006 (December 28)—Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem publishes its annual report on the atrocities committed in the Occupied Territories. They find that in 2006 Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians (including 141 children), more than triple the previous year when 200 Palestinians were killed. (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel)

● 2006—Amnon Sharon publishes Sane in Damascus, a chronicle of his time in Syrian captivity during the Yom Kippur War
Sane in Damascus : Sharon, Amnon, 1947- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2006—63% of Gaza’s population is dependent on humanitarian aid (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza's Humanitarianism Problem,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3 [Spring 2009]: 30)

● 2006—Ilan Pappe publishes The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (archive.org)

● 2006—Rashid Khalidi publishes The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
The iron cage : the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood : Khalidi, Rashid : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2006—Ali Abunimah publishes One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse

● 2006—Premier of The Iron Wall documentary directed by Mohammed Alatar and produced by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwuU_MXXdBI

● 2006—International human rights organizations estimate that since 1967, 630,000 Palestinians, or 20% of the total population in the occupied territories, have been detained at some point by Israelis (Source: Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, 196-197)

● 2006—Pastor John Hagee publishes Jerusalem Countdown, and argues that all American Christians must support Israel
Jerusalem countdown : Hagee, John : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2006—A poll finds that Israelis rank the 1973 Yom Kippur War as the most important event in their history since the creation of the state in 1948 (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 134)

● 2007 (January)—Mossad copies information in the briefcase of Ibrahim Othman, Syrian Atomic Energy Commission director, in Vienna. They learn that Syria is trying to build a nuclear bomb

● 2007 (January)—It now illegal for Israelis driving on “Israeli-only” roads in the West Bank to transport Palestinians in their cars without a permit (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 236)

● 2007 (January 14)—Mossad assassinates Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, an Iranian nuclear scientist

● 2007 (February 1)—Fatah strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, storms the Islamic University in Gaza, a Hamas bastion. Hamas responds the next day by attacking Fatah police stations

● 2007 (February)—Mecca Agreement aims to create a national unity government of Hamas and Fatah, but is never implemented

● 2007 (April)—Bush administration draws up a plan to arm Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan to overthrow Hamas in Gaza. The plan leaks, alerting Hamas to the coup attempt (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 135)

● 2007 (April 20)—During a lecture at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Brigadier General Yair Golan, commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, says that “separation and not security is the main reason for building the Wall of Separation and that security could have been achieved more effectively and more cheaply through other means.” (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 48)

● 2007 (June 27)—Former Egyptian Israeli spy Ashraf Marwan is found dead by his London apartment—Most Israeli intelligence analysts believe he was murdered by the Egyptians (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 327)

● 2007 (June)—A leak reveals that Mahmoud Abbas and the U.S. asked Israel to authorize shipments of heavier weapons into Gaza from Egypt for Fatah to use against Hamas. War breaks out between Fatah and Hamas, with Hamas massacring a large number of Fatah officials in Gaza and seizing the Strip by force, effectively setting up an independent state and ruling over 1.5 million people in Gaza. (Source: Norman Finklestein, Gaza)

● 2007 (September 6)—Operation Out of the Box—Israel bombs and destroys Syrian nuclear reactor—seen as a huge Mossad success

● 2007 (September 19)—Israeli security cabinet officially declares the Gaza Strip a “hostile entity,” where no Israeli citizen should be allowed other than in combat, and announces that it has unanimously decided to place additional sanctions on Gaza—Israel begins land, air, and sea blockade of Gaza, restricting the supply of goods, fuel, and electricity. Denied petrol, Gazans trade their cars for donkeys. (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 12; Nicolas Pelham, “Gaza's Tunnel Complex,” 31)

● 2007 (November)—At an Annapolis peace conference, Ehud Olmert argues that if Israel fails to achieve a two-state solution, then the nation will “face a South Africa-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.” (Source: Sasha Polakow-Suransky, The Unspoken Alliance, 234)

● 2007 (November)—Sa’ib Erikat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, says: “The Palestinians won’t accept Israel as a Jewish state.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 174)

● 2007 (December)—At a rally in Gaza to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of Hamas’s founding, Ismail Haniyeh says: “We will never recognize Israel.” During a video broadcast, Khalid Mashal says: “We will never give up one inch of Palestine.” (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 176)

● 2007—Former US President Jimmy Carter publishes Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Dozens of Jewish groups protest the book for the use of the word apartheid

● 2007—Israel’s Jewish population numbers 5.4 million (Source: Benny Morris, One State, Two States, 70)

● 2008 (January)—Hamas bulldozes their way through the iron wall that Israel had erected on the eve of its 2005 pullout from Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of Gazans pour into Egypt and go on a shopping spree. Egypt pushes them back into Gaza (Source: Nicolas Pelham, “Gaza's Tunnel Complex,” 31)

● 2008 (January 21)—Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert says: “We won’t allow for a humanitarian crisis, but have no intention of making [Gazan’s] lives easier. And the harder their lives, excluding humanitarian damage, we will not allow them to lead a pleasant life.” (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 6-23)

● 2008 (February 12)—Mossad assassinates Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh with a car bomb in Syria

● 2008 (February 29)—Operation Hot Winter—Israel invades Gaza after rocket attacks—over 100 Palestinians killed

● 2008 (June)—Hamas and Israel enter into cease-fire brokered by Egypt

● 2008 (August 1)—Israeli snipers assassinate Syrian General Suleiman in Tartus, Syria for his involvement in their nuclear program—This is the first known instance of Israel targeting a legitimate government official for assassination

● 2008 (September)—One year into Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Palestinian Federation of Industries estimates that 98 percent of businesses had been forced to shut down, throwing Gaza into an economic crisis, with unemployment reaching 79% (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 15)

● 2008 (October)—IDF Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot promotes the “Dahiya Doctrine” which calls for Israel to completely destroy any city where an attack originates from and use disproportionate force to show Israel’s enemies that they will be wiped out if they attack. Doctrine named after the Lebanon city Dahiya that Israel attacked in 2006. (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 138-139)

● 2008 (November)—Netanyahu makes it clear that he prefers John McCain to Obama in the US presidential election

● 2008 (November 4)—Israel violates cease-fire with Hamas by conducting lethal border raid in Gaza that kills 6 Palestinian militants. Hamas responds by launching rockets into Israel. In the US, Barack Obama is elected President the same day

● 2008 (December 27)—Operation Cast Lead—Israeli ground offensive in Gaza—1400 Palestinians killed, including hundreds of children. 300 Gazans killed in first 4 minutes of the offensive. 16 children killed on day 1. During the offensive, 10 Israeli soldiers are killed, 4 by friendly fire

● 2008—Between 2001 and 2008, Israel destroyed 55 mosques in Gaza

● 2008—Premiere of Waltz with Bashir, animated documentary by Ari Folman which depicts his search for lost memories of the 1982 Lebanon War—Deals with Israeli complicity in the Sabra and Shatila massacres by the Phalangists militia

● 2008—Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis releases Lemon Tree, which depicts a Palestinian woman’s battle to stop the Israelis from destroying her lemon trees

● 2008—80% of Gaza’s population is dependent on humanitarian aid (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza's Humanitarianism Problem,” 30)

● 2008—After teachers go on strike in Gaza in protest of the Hamas government’s decision to move teachers between institutions, Hamas begins replacing striking teachers with their sympathizers, dramatically increasing the Islamist influence in Gaza’s schools (Source: Benedetta Berti, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 24-25)

● 2008—In an interview, Hamas leader Khalid Mish'al says: “being an Islamic movement in Palestine…does not mean you are opposed to the Palestinian or Arab Christian. To the contrary we are taught to reinforce the culture of coexistence, dialogue, cooperation…” (Source: Benedetta Berti, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 27)

● 2008—Iran test fires a new version of the Shahab-3 long-range missile that has the potential of hitting targets in Israel (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 155)

● 2008—Since 1990, pro-Israel interests have contributed $56.8 million in individual, group, and soft-money donations to US federal candidates and party committees (Source: Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land, 100)

● 2009 (January 4-5)—When Israel invades the Zeitoun area in Gaza, they bomb a building and kill over 20 members of the Samouni family

● 2009 (January 12)—In a Newsweek article titled “A Plan of Attack for Peace,” Daniel Klaidman suggests creating a land corridor connecting Gaza to the West Bank and allowing for the free flow of people and commerce between the two (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 124)

● 2009 (January 17-18)—Israel declares a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza war, apparently at the behest of Barack Obama

● 2009 (April)—UN Human Rights Council appoints a Fact-Finding Mission to investigate all violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead. Richard Goldstone is appointed to lead the commission

● 2009—Israel uses computer virus Stuxnet to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program

● 2009 (September)—Goldstone Report released on Operation Cast Lead finds that Israel may have committed war crimes and the goal of Cast Lead was to “punish, humiliate, and terrorize” Gazans. Report finds that Israel disproportionately targeted Gaza for destruction and the operation was designed to kill civilians. Report is condemned by Israel (Source: Finklestein, Gaza)

● 2009 (November)—UN General Assembly calls for Israel and Hamas to conduct investigations into possible war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead

● 2009 (November)—Mossad hit team goes to Dubai to assassinate Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. They poison his drink at his hotel, but he doesn’t drink enough to kill him. He passes out and goes to the doctor, who doesn’t suspect he was poisoned, and sends him on his way. (Source: Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First)

● 2009—Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams says that there is “a total denial of rights of the people of Palestine. This is an open-air prison…People can’t travel out of here; they can’t travel in.” (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza as an Open-Air Prison,” 12)

● 2009—80% of all imports into Gaza come through over 1,000 tunnels (Source: Benedetta Berti, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 23)

● 2009—Conservative political consultant Frank Lutz updates his propaganda (hasbara) guide, The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary, to offer ways for supporters of Israel to talk about the staggering civilian death toll in Operation Cast Lead and the increase in illegal Israeli settlements
tip report (transcend.org)

● 2009—Shlomo Sand publishes The Invention of the Jewish People, arguing that most modern Jews do not descend from the ancient Land of Israel but from groups that took on Jewish identities long afterward
The invention of the Jewish people : Sand, Shlomo : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2009—In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Israeli writer Avner Cohen says “the Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.” He explains how Israel helped the charity al-Mujama al-Islamiya (the “Islamic Society”), founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1979, to become a powerful political movement, out of which the Hamas movement emerged (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 115)

● 2009—Norman Rose publishes A Senseless, Squalid War: Voices from Palestine, 1890s to 1948
A senseless, squalid war : voices from Palestine, 1890s to 1948 : Rose, Norman : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2009—Netanyahu is elected to second term as Israel’s prime minister

● 2009—Historian Benny Morris publishes One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict and argues that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to fuse the West Bank and Jordan and create a larger Palestinian state

● 2009—During the Paris Air Show, the Israeli military company Elbit Systems shows a promotional video where one of their killer drones assassinates a Palestinian target. Andrew Feinstein, an expert on the global arms industry, discovered that the assassination depicted in the video was also responsible for killing several innocent Palestinian civilians, including children. Feinstein notes that “No other arms-producing country would dare show actual footage like that…Israel is so far beyond the pale in the way that it operates…[There is a] general lawlessness and defiance of international law. They just don’t give a damn.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 8)

● 2010—A poll in Arab world finds that 12% of the Arab public believes Israel is “very powerful” and 44% believe Israel is “weaker than it looks”

● 2010 (January 12)—Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Alimohammadi is assassinated in Tehran by Mossad with a parked motorcycle strapped with a bomb

● 2010 (January 19)—A Mossad hit-team of up to 27 members goes to Dubai to assassinate Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. They inject him with a paralyzing drug in his hotel room and murder him—video footage reveals the assassination and embarrasses the Israeli secret service when it is discovered that the killers used passports from Canada, Britain, and France
The murder of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh - YouTube

● 2010 (March 18)—In an interview with NPR, historian Philip Jenkins addresses the question, “Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?” He explains: “Much to my surprise, the Islamic scriptures in the Quran were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible… By the standards of the time, which is the 7th century A.D., the laws of war that are laid down by the Quran are actually reasonably humane. Then we turn to the Bible, and we actually find something that is for many people a real surprise. There is a specific kind of warfare laid down in the Bible which we can only call genocide. It is called herem, and it means total annihilation. Consider the Book of 1 Samuel, when God instructs King Saul to attack the Amalekites: ‘And utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them,’ God says through the prophet Samuel. ‘But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (Source, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, “All Things Considered,” NPR)

● 2010 (May)—Humanitarian flotilla en route to Gaza and carrying 700 passengers comes under attack in international waters by Israeli commandos. In an assault in the middle of the night, Israelis drop from a helicopter onto the ship Mavi Marmara and shoot 9 passengers to death. Mavi Marmara is sponsored by the Turkish group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), which is labeled a terrorist organization by Israel (Source: Finklestein, Gaza)

● 2010 (June)—Two Belgian lawyers representing a group of Palestinians charge 14 Israel politicians including Ehud Barak with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during Operation Cast Lead

● 2010 (June)—Israel establishes an ‘independent public commission’ to investigate the Mavi Marmara incident. Commission is chaired by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel

● 2010 (September)—Netanyahu fires Dagan from Mossad/Dagan resigns

● 2010 (November 29)—Two Israelis on motorcycles attach small bombs to the cars of two senior figures in the Iranian nuclear program, blowing them up and killing them

● 2010—Since 1949, the United States has provided Israel with more than $100 billion in grants and $10 billion in special loans. Other bodies not part of the administration annually transfer $1 billion to Israel. This is larger than the amount of money transferred by the United States to North Africa, South America, and the Caribbean put together. (Source: Noam Chomsky and Ilian Pappe, Gaza in Crisis, 55)

● 2010—Only one village of Jews remains in Yemen (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 166)

● 2010—Israel deports Hamas leader Saleh al-Arorui to Syria

● 2010—In a speech Benjamin Netanyahu declares: “The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem’s not a settlement. It is our capital.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem)

● 2010—Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel writes an open letter to Barack Obama: “Neither Athens nor Rome aroused so many passions [as Jerusalem]. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it’s not the first time, it’s a homecoming.” (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem)

● 2010—Israelis consecrate the restored Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem that was demolished by Jordanians in 1948, sparking minor riots (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 533)

● 2010—President Obama forces Netanyahu to freeze Jerusalem settlement-building temporarily, leading to the most bitter moment in US-Israeli relations (Source: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem, 536)

● 2010—British Prime Minister David Cameron calls Gaza an “open-air prison.” (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza as an Open-Air Prison,” 12)

● 2010—Anti-Defamation League (ADL) assembles a list of the “Top Ten Anti-Israel Groups in America”

● 2011 (January)—Al Jazeera begins publishing The Palestine Papers, a collection of over 1600 confidential Palestinian records of negotiations with Israel from 1999 to 2010 that were leaked to the newspaper

● 2011 (January)—Turkel Report released—report exonerates Israel of culpability for the killing on the Mavi Marmara and alleges the passengers plotted and armed themselves to kill the Israeli commandos

● 2011 (February)—US vetoes the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal—the only “no” vote cast (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 10)

● 2011 (February)—Rapper Lupe Fiasco releases song “Words I Never Said” with the lyrics: “Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit”
Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey [Music Video]

● 2011 (March 14-15)—2,000 Palestinian youths and numerous civil society organizations gather in a square in the middle of Gaza City calling on Hamas and Fatah to end their divisions and restore democracy in Palestine. On the 15^th, 8,000 demonstrators, the majority of whom are university students, march through Al Manara Square demanding national unity (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 40)

● 2011 (April)—Richard Goldstone publishes a shameful op-ed in the Washington Post that basically disowns the damning Goldstone report which accused Israel of collective punishment and terror. Goldstone now argues that new evidence proves Israel didn’t intentionally target civilians during Operation Cast Lead (Source: Finklestein, Gaza)

● 2011 (May 6)—Shaul Mofaz, a former IDF chief and ex-defense minister, calls for an immediate recognition by Israel of a Palestinian state “followed by negotiations between the two states over borders [and] security arrangements.” (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 23)

● 2011 (May 22)—In an address to the annual conference of AIPAC, majority leader in the US House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, says: “Sadly, it [Arab culture] is a culture infused with resentment and hatred. It is this culture that underlies the Palestinians’ and the broader Arab world’s refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. This is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not about the ’67 lines.” (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 23)

● 2011 (June)—A delegation of indigenous and women of color feminist scholars and activists, including Angela Davis and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, visit the Palestinian territories

● 2011 (July)—Iranian nuclear physicist Darioush Rezaeinejad is assassinated in Iran by a gunman on a motorcycle, presumed to be Mossad

● 2011 (July 7)—US House of Representatives overwhelmingly pass a resolution urging Obama to consider suspending economic aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to pursue statehood outside of direct negotiations with Israel (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 16)

● 2011 (September)—Egyptian demonstrators storm the Israel embassy in Egypt

● 2011 (October)—Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei rejects the Palestinian bid for state-status representation in the UN because to do so would implicitly accept the two-state solution and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 156)

● 2011 (December 18)—Last US troops withdraw from Iraq (Source: Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of Isis, 249)

● 2011—Gilad Shalit released when Israel releases 1,027 Palestinians from their prisons

● 2011—Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system becomes operational

● 2011—In clashes with Gaza this year, 3 Israeli soldiers are killed, compared to 71 Palestinians, including 23 civilians (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” 57)

● 2011—Panel of independent United Nations human rights experts find that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal (Source: Tamer Qarmout and Daniel Béland, “The Politics of International Aid to the Gaza Strip,” 33)

● 2011—UNESCO grants Palestine full membership

● 2011—Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) begins protest/boycott of Israeli company SodaStream for operating a factory in the occupied West Bank

● 2011—Jerusalem Post reports that in Israel “average Jewish income was 40% to 60% higher than average Arab income between the years 1997 to 2009.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 90)

● 2011—Israel introduces the Nakba Law, which authorizes the state to withhold funds from any public institution that mourns or commemorates the 1948 Nakba (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 21)

● 2011—“Tent Movement” or “Housing Protests” in Israel—In response to escalating housing costs, young Israelis pitch tents in cities across Israel as a symbol of the struggles they face

● 2011—Poll conducted by the Arab Opinion Index of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies finds that 78% of Egyptians and 80% of Jordanians object to their country’s recognition of Israel (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 130)

● 2011—David Haward Bain publishes Bitter Waters: America’s Forgotten Naval Mission to the Dead Sea
Bitter waters : America's forgotten naval mission to the Dead Sea : Bain, David Haward : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2012 (January 6)—In an article published in The Hill, Sara Roy argues that “Gaza is the political heart and strategic core of Palestine and Palestinian nationalism, the center of resistance in the past and present. As such Gaza represents a political threat that goes well beyond—and long precedes—Hamas. Israel well understood this, which is why Gaza was cut off—marginalized, demonized and punished with a crippling siege now in its sixth year. It is also why Gaza continues to be attacked.” (Source: Sara Roy, Unsilencing Gaza, 44)

● 2012 (January 12)—Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, chemical engineer at an Iranian plant, is assassinated by a bomb attached to his car by a Mossad motorcyclist

● 2012 (February)—Palestinians in the West Bank paint a tribute to Trayvon Martin, a black American youth shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement

● 2012 (September)—Netanyahu delivers a speech at the UN General Assembly and holds up a picture of an “Iranian Bomb” to warn of Iran getting a nuclear weapon

● 2012 (October)—According to a document leaked to Haaretz, Israeli decision-makers had fixed the average daily intake for the population of Gaza at 2,279 calories per person, and were allowing supply trucks into the Strip on that basis (Source: Jean-Pierre Filiu, “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” 57)

● 2012 (October)—Noam Chomsky attends academic conference at Gaza’s Islamic University

● 2012 (October 24)—Israel blows up weapons shipment that was meant to go to Gaza in Khartoum, Sudan

● 2012 (November)—Netanyahu supports Mitt Romney for US President over Obama

● 2012 (November 1)—Israel admits to assassinating Abu Jihad in 1988 Tunisian raid

● 2012 (November 14)—Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza lasts 8 days—Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari is assassinated in an Israeli airstrike—100 Gazans killed, including 35 children—first time Israel uses the Iron Dome

● 2012 (November 21)—On the last day of Operation Pillar of Defense, an Arab Israeli citizen detonates a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring 28 civilians

● 2012 (November 30)—The United Nations votes overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations is approved by a more than two-thirds majority of the 193-member world body. The Vatican is the only other entity in the U.N. that shares the same status.

● 2012—Norwegian documentary Tears of Gaza released, depicting the shocking violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead

● 2012—Documentary 5 Broken Cameras premieres to global audiences—the film was shot by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat and depicts his struggles against Jewish settlers in West Bank village of Bil’in

● 2012—UN report asks, “Will Gaza be livable in 2020?”

● 2012—"60 Minutes” premieres episode titled “Christians of the Holy Land,” in which reporter Bob Simons visits people living in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, including a family of Palestinians boxed in on almost all sides by the wall the Israelis have built in the West Bank. Before the episode airs, Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael B. Oren, confronts Simon for his “outrageous” reporting.
Christians of the Holy Land (youtube.com)

● 2012—The Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago publish an online document titled “The Playbook—Tackling the Delegitimization of Israel on Campus” which encourages students to photograph pro-Palestinian student activities and contact campus officials if “any school values” are violated (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 203)

● 2012—Biblical archeologist William G. Devers publishes The Lives of Ordinary People in Ancient Israel: Where Archaeology and the Bible Intersect
The lives of ordinary people in ancient Israel : where archaeology and the Bible intersect : Dever, William G : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2013 (May 4)—During a speech in Chicago, Angela Davis says: “It is…outrageous that the state of Israel uses the carceral technologies developed in relation to US prisons not only to control the more than eight thousand Palestinian political prisoners in Israel but also to control the broader Palestinian population.” (Source: Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, 108)

● 2013 (July)—After a coup where Army Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrows President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt seals 1,500 commercial tunnels passing from Gaza into Sinai and floods other tunnels

● 2013 (December 13)—Angela Davis gives a speech in London titled “On Palestine, G4S, and the Prison-Industrial Complex.” Notable excerpts include:

“[The] appalling treatment of undocumented immigrants from the UK to the US compels us to make connections with Palestinians who have been transformed into immigrants against their will, indeed into undocumented immigrants on their own ancestral lands. I repeat—on their own land. G4S and similar companies provide the technical means of forcibly transforming Palestinian[s] into immigrants on their own land.”

“Before Palestinians are even arrested, they are already in prison. One misstep and one can be arrested and hauled off to prison; one can be transferred from an open-air prison to a closed prison.”

“[I]f we say abolish the prison-industrial complex, as we do, we should also say abolish apartheid, and end the occupation of Palestine!”

“Just as we say ‘never again’ with respect to the fascism that produced the Holocaust, we should also say ‘never again’ with respect to apartheid in South Africa, and in the southern US. That means, first and foremost, that we will have to expand and deepen our solidarity with the people of Palestine.” (Source: Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, 58-60)

● 2013—Through the education ministry, Hamas runs more than half of Gaza’s schools: 395 out of 690 (Source: Benedetta Berti, “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” 25)

● 2013—Alan Lichtman and Richard Breitman publish FDR and the Jews
FDR And The Jews : Richard Breitman, Allan J. Lichtman : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2013—Anthony Bourdain visits Israel and Palestine for his show Parts Unknown

● 2013—Palestinian author Laila El-Haddad publishes The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey

● 2013—Premiere of documentary The Lab, directed by Yotam Feldman, which explores Israel’s military industry

● 2014 (January)— Jasiri X releases his song “Checkpoint” based off his experience in the Occupied West Bank
Checkpoint - Jasiri X (youtube.com)

● 2014 (January)—Actress Scarlett Johansson quits as an ambassador for Oxfam over her support for the Israeli company SodaStream that runs a factory in the occupied West Bank. Oxfam releases a statement that says: “Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support.” (Source: BBC)

● 2014 (June)—A rogue Hamas cell abducts and kills three Israeli teenagers in the Occupied West Bank

● 2014 (June)—Israel launches Operation Brother’s Keeper in the Occupied West Bank—5 Palestinians are killed, several homes are demolished, and 700 Palestinians, mostly Hamas, are arrested

● 2014 (July 1)—Israel’s new minister of justice, Ayelet Shaked, posts on social media that the families of Palestinians who have died resisting Israel should “follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 36)

● 2014 (July 4)—Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announces the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate during the Friday prayer at Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Iraq (Source: Joby Warrick, Black Flags: The Rise of Isis, 304)

● 2014 (July 8)—Israel’s Operation Protective Edge lasts 51 days, killing over 2,000 Gazans, including more than 500 children. In air assaults, 16,000-18,000 buildings are rendered uninhabitable in Gaza, leaving over 100,000 homeless

● 2014 (July 10)—8 Palestinian civilians are killed when the IDF fires a missile at the Fun Times Beach café in Khan Younis, Gaza, where people had gathered to watch the World Cup. The IDF claims they were targeting a single terrorist (Source: Fares Akram, The New York Times)

● 2014 (July 22)—Hamas rocket explodes near Ben-Gurion airport in Israel, causing US and other countries to ban flights to Israel

● 2014 (July 25)—American actor Jesse Eisenberg makes his first trip to Israel and says: “Israel is a wonderful country, and it is an unfortunate time, of course, for people living here, but for me this has been a very good week.” (Source: David Caspi, The Hollywood Reporter)

● 2014 (July)—The European Union calls on Hamas to immediately put an end to acts of terror and renounce violence. At the same time, it recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself

● 2014 (July)—Two Israeli minors kidnap a Palestinian teenager named Mohammed Abu Khdeir and burn him to death in Jerusalem (Source: Peter Beaumount, The Guardian)

● 2014 (August 1-4)—After Hamas claims it kidnapped an IDF soldier named Hadar Goldin, Israel resorts to massive bombing of Rafah, in part to kill Goldin so they wouldn’t have to do a prisoner exchange [Hannibal Directive]

● 2014 (November)—Palestinians issue a statement of solidarity with the family of Michael Brown, a young Black man shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson Missouri. Palestinian students visit Ferguson (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 213)

● 2014 (December 28)—37 children whose parents were killed in the recent Israel-Gaza conflict have been prevented by Hamas from visiting Israel on a trip organized by peace activists. Hamas said they would have had to visit "settlements and occupied towns" and they needed to protect children from "the politics of normalization" with Israel. (Source: BBC)

● 2014—4,000 rockets fired from Gaza kill 5 Israeli citizens

● 2014—3,804 Palestinians killed in 3 Gaza Wars in 2008, 2012, and 2014—87 Israelis killed. The majority of Palestinians killed were civilians, while the Israelis killed were soldiers. 550 Palestinian children killed in 2014; 62 Israeli soldiers killed by militants

● 2014—Spanish documentarian Hernán Zin releases Born in Gaza, which depicts the struggles of children living in Gaza under constant Israeli attacks

● 2014—In an article titled, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” historian Trude Strand finds that Israel’s policy in Gaza is one of “isolation, fragmentation, and institutionalized impoverishment.” (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 17)

● 2014—Around 80 percent of Gaza’s population is estimated to be aid dependent (Source: Trude Strand, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” 17)

● 2014—Shlomo Sand publishes The Invention of the Land of Israel. Sand's account dissects the concept of 'historical right' and tracks the invention of the modern geopolitical concept of the 'Land of Israel' by nineteenth century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also what is threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.
The invention of the land of Israel : from Holy Land to homeland : Sand, Shlomo, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2014—A letter sent by the education ministry to all schools in Israel states: “the Bible provides the cultural infrastructure of the state of Israel, in it our right to the land is anchored.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 39)

● 2014—Elbit Systems, Israeli private military company, is awarded contracts by US Department of Homeland Security to militarize the US-Mexico border (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 49)

● 2014—UAW Local 2865, the union representing student workers at the University of California, becomes the first US union to join the BDS Movement. A year later, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America become the second national labor union in the US to endorse BDS (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 151)

● 2014—Frank Barat conducts a series of interviews with Angela Davis. Notable excerpts include:

“My experience has been that many people assume that in order to be involved with Palestine, you have to be an expert. So people are afraid to join because they say, ‘I don’t understand. It’s so complicated…The question is how to create windows and doors for people who believe in justice to enter and join the Palestine solidarity movement…[W]e’ve been trying to find ways to talk about Palestine so that people who are attracted to a campaign to dismantle prisons in the US will also think about the need to end the occupation in Palestine. It can’t be an afterthought. It has to be part of the ongoing analysis.”

“The militarization of the police [in the US] leads us to think about Israel and the militarization of the police there—if only the images of the police and not of the demonstrators had been shown, one might have assumed that Ferguson was Gaza.”

“Israeli police have been involved in the training of US police. So there is this connection between the US military and the Israeli military. And therefore it means that when we try to organize campaigns in solidarity with Palestine, when we try to challenge the Israeli state, it’s not simply about focusing our struggles elsewhere, in another place. It also has to do with what happens in US communities.”

“[G4S] has learned how to profit from racism, anti-immigrant practices, and from technologies of punishment in Israel and throughout the world. G4S is directly responsible for the ways Palestinians experience political incarceration, as well as aspects of the apartheid wall, imprisonment in South Africa, prison-like schools in the United States, and the wall along the US-Mexico-border.”

“[S]olidarity with Palestine must…be taken up by organizations and movements involved in progressive causes all over the world. The tendency has been to consider Palestine a separate—and unfortunately too often marginal—issue. This is precisely the moment to encourage everyone who believe in equality and justice to join the call for a free Palestine” (Source: Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, 5, 11, 14-15, 21)

● 2014—Website Canary Mission established with the self-professed goal of “document[ing] and expos[ing] people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” The website has been accused of cyberbullying and doxxing pro-Palestine students.
Canary Mission

● 2015 (February)—Artist Banksy creates a series of paintings in Gaza. Writing about the murals, Banksy says: “Gaza is often described as ‘the world's largest open air prison' because no-one is allowed to enter or leave. But that seems a bit unfair to prisons – they don't have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day.” (Source: Ilana Feldman, “Gaza as an Open-Air Prison,” Middle East Report 275 [2015]: 12)

● 2015 (March 3)—Netanyahu delivers a speech to the US Congress, without presidential approval, and condemns the US making any deals or treaties with Iran (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, 154)

● 2015 (May)—The Vatican officially recognizes the state of Palestine, switching its diplomatic recognition from the PLO to the Palestinian state

● 2015 (July)—An 18-month-old Palestinian boy is burned to death after settlers set fire to his family house in Duma village, south of Nablus city, in the Occupied West Bank. Two Palestinian houses were burned at the entrance of the village with graffiti left on the walls in Hebrew reading “revenge” and “long live Messiah.” (Source: Al-Jazeera)

● 2015 (September 2)—Israeli company SodaStream shuts down their West Bank factory and moves to the Israeli Negev Desert. BDS claims a victory for their boycott, while SodaStream’s CEO calls the group anti-Semitic (Source: The Guardian)

● 2015 (November)—Activists Kristian Davis Bailey and Khury Petersen-Smith release a statement titled “2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine.” They proclaim: “The foundation of the Israeli state came through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine…While there are differences between Israel and the US, we see parallels with a country that was founded on the enslavement o black people and where anti-black racism remains at the heart of US society centuries later…Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Panther Party taught us that internationalism is a central part of our liberation here. This statement seeks to honor the legacy of black internationalism and the historic solidarity between black and Palestinian struggles as our movements enter a new chapter.” (Source: Michael R. Fischbach, Black Power and Palestine, 214)

● 2015—Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi says: “There is a much higher level of discussion of matters related to Palestine than ever before, especially in the field of Middle East Studies and among students on many campuses. This is truer of younger academics than of older ones…One can today discuss topics on campuses, in the classroom and outside, at a reasonably high level and without overt friction, that would have been completely off limits 20 years ago.” (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 203)

● 2015—Amnesty International reports: “In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces committed unlawful killings of Palestinians civilians, including children, and detained thousands of Palestinians who protested against or otherwise opposed Israel’s continuing military occupation, holding hundreds in administrative detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remained rife and were committed with impunity. The authorities continued to promote illegal settlements in the West Bank, and severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement, further tightening restrictions amid an escalation of violence from October, which included attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians and apparent extrajudicial executions by Israeli forces. Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked Palestinians and their property with virtual impunity. The Gaza Strip remained under an Israeli military blockade that imposed collective punishment on its inhabitants. The authorities continued to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and inside Israel, particularly in Bedouin villages in the Negev/Naqab region, forcibly evicting their residents.” (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, 95)

● 2015—While working on a story for Vice, American-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin and his camera crew film Swedish-born Israeli settlers destroying a Palestinian family’s home in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. They capture footage of the settlers throwing a young Palestinian girl’s toys out of the house, removing pipes, and destroying furniture. The editor of Vice decides to cut these scenes from their story, saying: “the settlements are crazy controversial. Some see them as illegal. Israel doesn’t. So we can’t show this confrontation because it will make it show too much of one side’s argument and further complicate an already complicated story.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 3)

● 2015—Israeli economy minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, says: “Israel is in the forefront of the global war on terror. This is the frontline between the free and civilized world and radical Islam. We’re stopping the wave of radical Islam from flowing from Iran and Iraq all the way to Europe. When we fight terror here, we’re protecting London, Paris, and Madrid.” He said that Israel cannot afford to give up the West Bank because “if we give up this piece of land and hand it over to our enemies, my four children down there in Raanana will be in harm’s way. It’s just one missile away from hitting them.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 7)

● 2015—Jewish survivors of the Pinochet regime in Chile file a legal suit in Israel with human rights lawyer Eitay Mack demanding that Israel reveal its ties to the Chilean military junta. In 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court declined to hear the case (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 7)

● 2016 (March)—After Abdel Fattah al-Sharif is accused of a knife attack on an IDF soldier in Hebron, IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria shoots him in the head and kills him as he is injured on the ground. The killing is filmed by a human rights activist and spreads online
Extrajudicial killing in broad daylight, Hebron, March 2016 - YouTube

● 2016 (April)—Bus bombing in Jerusalem by Hamas wounds 20. Police named the bomber as 19-year-old Abdul Hamid Abu Srour, from near Bethlehem, who dies from the injuries he sustained in the attack

● 2016 (April 20)—Premier of Broad City episode titled “Jews on a Plane,” which takes a critical and comedic look at Israeli Birthright tours

● 2016 (April)—After only being on the job two for days, the Bernie Sanders campaign suspends their new Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Rimmon Zimmerman, over her pro-Palestinian views (Source: Zack Beauchamp, Vox)

● 2016 (December)—Brookings Institution poll shows that 60% of Democrats and 46% of all Americans support sanctions against Israel for its illegal construction of settlements in West Bank

● 2016 (December)—US Secretary of State John Kerry helps pass UN Security Resolution 2334 that calls Israeli settlement in the Occupied West Bank a violation of international law, but issues no sanctions on Israel

● 2016—Before leaving office, Obama’s $38 billion aid package to Israel is finalized, the largest military aid package from one country to another in history (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 7)

● 2016—600,000 Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

● 2016—86% of Arab countries disapprove of Arab recognition of Israel because of its policies against Palestinians

● 2016—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reestablishes diplomatic ties with Israel

● 2016—UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon visits Gaza and accuses Israel of “collective punishment”

● 2016—Angela Davis publishes Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle : Angela Davis : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2016—Republican Party drops the two-state solution from their platform (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 155)

● 2016—During Obama’s last year in office before Trump took over, his “administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day [of 2016], the US military blasted people overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.”

● 2017 (January)—Liberal feminists object to the leadership of Palestinian American organizer Linda Sarsour during the Women’s March in DC. Some accuse Sarsour of having links to Hamas terrorism (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 159)

● 2017 (February)—An Israeli court finds IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria guilty of killing an unarmed Palestinian in Hebron, and he is sentenced to 18 months in prison

● 2017 (March 9)—Premier of Al Jazeera documentary, Occupation of the American Mind, which explores the overwhelming pro-Israel propaganda and bias in US mainstream media
The Occupation of the American Mind (original 84-minute version) (youtube.com)

● 2017 (May)—Trump arrives in Israel after visiting with 50 Muslim leaders in Riyadh to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Israel, he says he is “deeply encouraged” by his meetings, and insists that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman would “love to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Trump tells the Israelis there is a “growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you on this threat posed by Iran.” Trump promotes the “outside-in” approach that believes in negotiating directly with Arab states and hoping they will use their influence with the Palestinians to advance agreement on Middle East peace. (Source: Philip Gordon, “Israel, the Arab States, and the Illusion of Normalization,” 1)

● 2017 (June)—Netanyahu calls for the disbanding of the UNRWA (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 101)

● 2017 (July 3)—In an article titled “Israel, the Arab States, and the Illusion of Normalization,” American diplomat Philip Gordon argues: “I believe that many of the hopes placed on normalization in advance of a deal with the Palestinians are misplaced. While modest steps toward normalization by some countries may be possible if Israel also acts, genuine normalization between Arab states and Israel will only happen in the context of comprehensive peace supported by the Palestinians.”

● 2017 (August 6)—Eric Lee resigns from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) over their support for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 201)

● 2017 (August 11-12)—Neo-Nazis gather in Charlottesville for the “Unite the Right” rally to protest the removal of a confederate statue. The night before the rally, hundreds of white supremacists march with torches on the University of Virginia campus, shouting “Jews will not replace us.”
Charlottesville: Race and Terror – VICE News Tonight (HBO) (youtube.com)

● 2017 (October)—Trump and Netanyahu file notice to withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israeli bias

● 2017 (December)—Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza conduct a general strike in protest over President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. At the same time, there are weekly anti-corruption protests against the growing scandals of Netanyahu (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 95)

● 2017 (December 26)—American TV personality Rachel Ray causes controversy when she calls Palestinian food “Israeli” in a tweet

● 2017—From 2000 to 2017, there have been at least 100 attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers every month (Source: Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel)

● 2017—Israeli historian Ilan Pappe publishes Ten Myths About Israel. The ten myths include: 1) Palestine Was an Empty Land before Jews Arrived, 2) The Jews Were a People Without a Land, 3) Zionism is Judaism, 4) Zionism Is Not Colonialism, 5) The Palestinians Voluntarily Left Their Homeland in 1948, 6) The June 1967 War Was a War of ‘No Choice,’ 7) Israel is the Only Democracy in the Middle East, 8) The Oslo Mythologies, 9) The Gaza Mythologies, 10) The Two-States Solution Is the Only Way Forward

● 2017—White nationalist Richard Spencer says that Israel “is the most important ethno-state, the one I turn to for guidance.” Spencer has called himself a “white Zionist” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 38; Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 4)

● 2017—Israeli private military company Elbit Systems is awarded contracts by US Department of Homeland Security to militarize the US-Mexico border (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 49)

● 2017—Anti-Semitic crimes in the US surge 60%, with every state reporting acts of anti-Semitism (Source: Harmeet Kaur, CNN)

● 2017—Hamas revises their charter—the new document formally accepts the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - what are known as pre-1967 lines. This idea has been the basis for previous rounds of peace talks with Israel. New Charter emphasizes that their armed resistance is against Zionism, not Jews (Source: Yolande Knell, BBC)
Doctrine of Hamas | Wilson Center

● 2017—Donald Trump chooses David Friedman as ambassador to Israel, a bankruptcy lawyer with a long history of alignment with the Israeli far-right (Source: Ori Z. Soltes, Untangling the Middle East, xxvii)

● 2017—During a meeting with the leaders of Hungary and Czech Republic, Netanyahu is caught on a hot mic saying: “[Israel] is part of the European culture. Europe ends in Israel. East of Israel, there’s no more Europe.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 6)

● 2017-2018—Poll conducted by the Arab Opinion Index of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies finds that 87% of Arabs reject recognition of Israel (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 130)

● 2018 (March 30)—On Land Day, Palestinians in Gaza begin the “Great March of Return” demonstration. The IDF shoots 773 people, killing 17 (Source: Bram Wispelwey and Yasser Abu Jamei, “The Great March of Return,” 179-186)

● 2018 (April)—After a video surfaces showing an Israeli laughing while he shoots at Palestinian protesters, Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman says: “There are no innocent people in Gaza” (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 19)

● 2018 (April)—City council of Durham, North Carolina unanimously votes to ban the city’s law enforcement from working with Israel (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 180)

● 2018 (May)—IDF shoots and kills 60 Palestinian civilians along border fence with Gaza. At same time, Jared Kushner is in Israel celebrating the US moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem

● 2018 (June 1)—Israeli sniper shoots and kills Razan Najjar, a paramedic tending to wounded protesters during the Great March of Return (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 167)

● 2018 (July 19)—Israeli Knesset passes the “Nation State of the Jewish People” law which states that the right to self-determination in Palestine “is unique to the Jewish People” and that “the State views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value, and shall act to encourage and promote its establishment and strengthening.” The passing of the law is praised by American white nationalist Richard Spencer, who says: “Jews are, once again, at the vanguard, rethinking politics and sovereignty for the future, showing a path forward for Europeans.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 4)

● 2018 (August 31)—Trump administration cuts off funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the agency that provides aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 4)

● 2018 (October 27)—Anti-Semitic White supremacist Robert Bowers guns down 11 Jewish worshippers at a Synagogue in Pittsburgh in the worst act of anti-Jewish violence in US history

● 2018 (November 9)—Celebrities help raise a record $60 million for the Israel Defense Forces at the annual gala dinner in New York for Christians United for Israel. Celebrities in attendance include Gerard Butler, Aston Kutcher, Pharrell Williams, Ziggy Marley, and Fran Drescher
Celebrities help raise record $60 million for Israel Defense Forces (cufi.org.uk)

● 2018 (November 28)—Black academic Marc Lamont Hill speaks at the annual commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at the United Nations. The day after the speech, in which he called for solidarity with Palestine “from the river to the sea,” CNN fires Hill from his position as commentator at the network (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 180)

● 2018—53% of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are in poverty; 52-69% unemployment

● 2018—Israeli-Canadian documentary The Oslo Diaries released

● 2018—More than 40 international Jewish groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace in the US, condemn the conflation between legitimate criticisms of Israel and anti-Semitism (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 146)

● 2018—Brookings Institute poll finds that 56% of Americans support imposing sanctions on Israel if it continues to build illegal settlements and 64% support a single democratic state in which Arabs and Jews are equal (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 147)

● 2018—The number of hate crimes targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank triples from the previous year (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 187)

● 2018—Rep. Ron DeSantis from Florida brings forth a bill to encourage the President to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, but it is swiftly voted down (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 87)

● 2019 (January 1)—US and Israel officially withdraw from UNESCO, claiming they have an anti-Israeli bias (Source: Thomas Adamson, AP)

● 2019 (January)—Birmingham Civil Rights Institute rescinds the Fred Shuttlesworth Award that it had scheduled to honor Angela Davis with after the Birmingham Holocaust Center draws attention to her pro-Palestine activism (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 180)

● 2019 (January)—Black academic Michelle Alexander writes an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine,” in which she says that Martin Luther King’s criticism of the Vietnam War inspired her to speak out on the Israeli oppression of Palestinians (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 181)

● 2019 (February)—US Senate passes a bill that includes the “Combating BDS Act of 2019” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 78)

● 2019 (March 25)—Trump recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, declaring: “The State of Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 to safeguard its security from external threats. Today, aggressive acts by Iran and terrorist groups, including Hizballah, in southern Syria continue to make the Golan Heights a potential launching ground for attacks on Israel. Any potential future peace agreement in the region must account for Israel’s need to protect itself from Syria and other regional threats. Based on these unique circumstances, it is therefore appropriate to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 84)

● 2019 (June)—US senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker declares: “This BDS movement is something that I do not support.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 49)

● 2019 (June 83)—Netanyahu and US ambassador David Friedman unveil a plaque marking the birth of the latest Israeli settlement called Ramat Trump, or “Trump Heights.” The settlement is established in honor of Trump and his pro-Israeli policies (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 83)

● 2019 (November)—The Trump administration officially recognizes Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 186)

● 2019—Group called the Democratic Majority for Israel is established to build more support for Israel within the US Democratic Party (Source: Michael R. Fishbach, The Movement and the Middle East, 204)

● 2019—Palestinian women launch the Tal’at Movement (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 188)

● 2019—More than 77 American universities have passed BDS resolutions and referendums (Source: Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, 202)

● 2019—Yossi Kuperwasser, a member of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a reserve general who served in Israel’s military intelligence, criticizes BDS, writing: “The aim of these demands is the total annihilation of Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 21)

● 2019—Netanyahu bars US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering Israel over their support for Palestine, which he labels “anti-Semitism”

● 2019—Israel refuses to sell Ukraine their phone-hacking software Pegasus in an effort to appease Russia (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 12)

● 2020 (January)—As of this date, 28 US states have laws or policies that penalize businesses, organizations, or individuals for engaging in or calling for boycotts against Israel.” (Source: Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, Except for Palestine, 77)

● 2020 (May 30)—Israeli police kill Iyad Halek, a Palestinian man with autism, in Jerusalem

● 2020 (September 15)—Israel signs the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Within two years, annual trade between Israel and the UAE reaches almost $1 billion (Source: Uri Kaufman, Eighteen Days in October, 174, 330)

● 2020—Israel assassinates Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh using a remote-controlled machine gun and artificial intelligence technology (Source: BBC)

● 2020—In a study by the University of Arizona, Maha Nasser finds that between 1970 and 2020 Palestinians wrote less than 2% of the opinion pieces in the New York Times and 1% in the Washington Post (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 3)

● 2021 (January 21)—American author Nathan Thrall explores Israel’s apartheid system in an article in the London Review of Books titled “The Separate Regimes Delusion.” He notes that “South Africa’s apartheid lasted 46 years. Israel’s is at 72 and counting.”
Nathan Thrall · The Separate Regimes Delusion

● 2021 (May 12)—“Wonder Woman” actress Gal Gadot is criticized for a post she made on Twitter: “My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.” Many criticize the fact that she used the word “neighbors” instead of Palestinians. (Source: William Earl, Variety)

● 2021 (June 20)—Israeli officials condemn Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, accusing it of branding itself as anti-Israeli. (Source: Saphora Smith, NBC News)

● 2021—B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights group, releases a report that concludes that there is a “regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. This is apartheid.” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International arrive at the same conclusion in their own reports. A quarter of American Jews surveyed agree that Israel is an apartheid state. Even Amos Schocken, the publisher of Haaretz, Israel’s most progressive newspaper, admits it, saying: “The product of Zionism, the state of Israel, is not a Jewish and democratic state but instead has become an apartheid state, plain and simple. One can say many things about this, but one cannot say Israel is fulfilling Zionism as a Jewish and democratic state.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 2)

● 2021—Israeli arms sales are the highest on record, surging 55% over the previous two years to $11.3 billion, with Europe being the biggest recipient of their weapons. Israel is now one of the top ten weapons dealers in the world (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 9)

● 2021—During fighting between Israel and Hamas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweets that Israel is the “victim” and condemns Hamas launching rockets into Israeli territory (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 11)

● 2021—US Congresswoman Cori Bush tweets: “The Black and Palestinian struggles for liberation are interconnected, and we will not let up until all of us are free.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 14)

● 2022 (January)—Israeli filmmaker Alon Schwarz release his documentary Tantura which focuses on the work of Israeli researcher Teddy Katz into the 1948 Tantura Massacre, in which Israeli soldiers killed over 200 Palestinian civilians and buried them in a mass grave
Tantura (2022) 1080p HD : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● 2022 (March)—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks via video link to the Israeli Knesset, demanding Israel weapons to fight Russia (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 10)

● 2022 (April)—Speaking to a Ukrainian journalist, Volodymyr Zelensky says that Israel is the ideal model for Ukraine and “We will become a big Israel.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 10)

● 2022 (May)—Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is shot and killed by IDF fire while covering an Israeli military operation in Jenin—Israel admits to the killing, but no one is charged with a crime

● 2022 (May)—Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, American neo-conservative Elliot Abrams says: “The role of Israel is to serve as a model.” He urged the world to follow Israel as “an example in military might, in innovation, in encouraging childbirth.” (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 5)

● 2022 (June 30)—A new agreement in Israel will put Ben & Jerry's ice cream back on shelves in the annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank despite the ice cream maker's protest of Israeli policies, according to Unilever, the company that owns the brand. The Vermont company, which has long backed liberal causes, took to social media to state its opposition to Unilever's decision. "We continue to believe it is inconsistent with Ben & Jerry's values for our ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," tweeted the company, which noted it would no longer profit from the brand in Israel. (Source: CBS News)

● 2022 (August 17)—At a joint press conference in Berlin with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” (Source: Philip Oltermann, The Guardian)

● 2022 (September)—Chief of Israeli Border Police, Major General Amir Cohen, is hosted by his American counterpart, Raul Ortiz, head of the US Border Patrol. Ortiz said he was interested in learning about the “non-lethal” methods used by Israelis to disperse and suppress protests. At the meeting, Cohen displayed an Israeli drone that drops tear gas on protesters (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 13)

● 2022—Premiere of documentary H2: The Occupation Lab, directed by Idit Avrahami and Noam Sheizaf

● 2022—Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack discovers that the Israeli government has approved every defense deal brought to it since 2007, including weapons sales to countries like India, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, which have worsened conflicts in those regions (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 10)

● 2022—Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid temporarily moves into a house in Jerusalem that was owned by Palestinians in 1948 before they were forced to flee (Source: Anthony Lowenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, 25

● 2023 (September 7)—Israeli officials condemn the comments of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said: “They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. No. It was clearly explained that they fought them because of their social role and not their religion…[Their role in] usury, money and so on…The truth that we should spread to the world is that European Jews are not Semites. They have nothing to do with Semitism. As for the Eastern Jews [Mizrachi Jews from the Middle East] they are Semites.” (Source: Yolande Knell, BBC)

● 2023 (October 7)—Hamas attacks Israel. Several militants cross the Gaza border into Israel and attack Israeli communities, kibbutz, and the Nova music festival. During the attack, over 1,200 Israelis are killed, mostly civilians, and 250 people are taken back to Gaza as hostages.

● 2023 (October 16)—Two Palestinian-Americans, 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin and her 6-year-old son Wadea Al Fayoume are attacked in a hate crime in Illinois. Wadea Al Fayoume is stabbed 26 times and killed. (Source: Holly Yan and Brad Parks, CNN)

● 2023 (October 16)—In an article in The Guardian titled “The language being used to describe Palestinians is genocidal,” Chris McGreal highlights the following genocidal comments in the wake of the October 7^th Hamas attack:

“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible.” -Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog

“Level the place [Gaza].” –US Senator Lindsay Graham

“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” -Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant

● 2023 (October 18)—Director Quentin Tarantino visits troops in Israel to “boost morale” during their offensive in Gaza (Source: James Hibbard, The Hollywood Reporter)

● 2024 (October 18)—Starbucks sued the union Workers United in federal court in Iowa, saying a pro-Palestinian social media post from a union account early in the Israel-Hamas war angered hundreds of customers and damaged its reputation. Starbucks is suing for trademark infringement, demanding that Workers United stop using the name “Starbucks Workers United” for the group that is organizing the coffee company’s workers. (Source: Dee-Ann Durbin, Associates Press)

● 2023 (October 23)—Founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Maurice Isserman, leaves the party, stating: “I left to protest the DSA leadership’s politically and morally bankrupt response to the horrific Hamas October 7 anti-Jewish pogrom that took the lives of 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and saw over 200 hostages carried off to Gaza, both groups of victims including children and infants.” (Source: The Nation)
Why I Just Quit DSA | The Nation

● 2023 (November 7)—The House votes to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American lawmaker in Congress, over the rhetoric she’s used in response to the Israel-Hamas war. The censure resolution, introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), accuses Tlaib of “promoting false narratives” about Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack on Israel and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” One of the flashpoints was a slogan used in a video she shared on social media calling for freedom “from the river to the sea”

● 2023 (November 10)—When asked by a Democrat, “How many [dead Palestinians] will be enough?” Florida Republican Michelle Salzman responds with the genocidal comment: “All of them.” (Source: Erum Salam, “Outrage grows after ‘chilling call for genocide’ by Florida Republican, The Guardian)

● 2023 (November 10)—The Guardian reports that “Islamophobia and antisemitism on rise in the US amid the Israel-Hamas war.” ABC News reports: “The Biden administration says colleges must fight ‘alarming rise’ in antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

● 2023 (November 14)—China, Iran, and a multitude of Arab nations condemn statements made on a radio show by Israeli Heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu, that using a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was an option in the Israel-Hamas war, and calling Gaza a threat to the world (Source: Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press)

● 2023 (November 19)—The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen begin attacking ships in the Red Sea, which they say is revenge for Israel’s war in Gaza (Source: BBC)

● 2023 (November 19)—The Israeli advocacy group The Civil Front posts a video on their YouTube page of Israeli children from the Gaza Envelope settlements, which lie within 7 kilometers of the Gaza Strip, singing a song titled “Friendship Song,” which contains a genocidal message. The Israeli media outlet Kan also released the video, before deleting it. In the video, the children sing:

Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza

Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction

Look the IDF is crossing the line

to annihilate the swastika-bearers

In another year there will be nothing there

And we will safely return to our homes

Within a year we will annihilate everyone

And then we will return to plow our fields
Watch: Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza | The Electronic Intifada

● 2023 (November 23)—Article written by Jean Shaoul on the World Socialist Website titled “Israel’s lies about October 7 incursion fall apart,” argues that many of the Israeli civilian deaths during Hamas attack were caused by Israeli forces

● 2023 (November 25)—Three 20-year-old students of Palestinian descent (Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani) are shot and injured near the University of Vermont. The students were wearing keffiyehs to show solidarity with Palestine amid the ongoing war in Gaza when they were shot. A suspect is arrested the following day, with the Burlington Police Chief stating the shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

● 2023 (November 28)—US House of Representatives votes on House Resolution 888, reaffirming Israel’s right to exist

● 2023 (November 30)—Israel has killed over 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, mostly civilians, women, and children (over 6,000 children killed)

● 2023 (November)—“Abandon Biden” group formed after the Biden administration fails to call for a ceasefire by October 31 (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2023 (December 1)—New York Times reports that the Israeli government knew about the October 7 Hamas attack for over a year and did nothing to stop it (Source: Ronen Bergman and Adam Goldman, New York Times)

● 2023 (December 1)—After Israeli hospitals are inundated with requests to cryogenically freeze the sperm of young men killed in the conflict with Hamas, the Ministry of Health cuts the red tape to allow for easier Posthumous sperm retrieval (PSR). Sperm lives on briefly after death, which is why it’s possible for doctors to retrieve it from testicular tissue. (Source: Lianne Kolirin, CNN)

● 2023 (December 4)—Over 15,000 Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, mostly civilians and children

● 2023 (December 7)—Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say two Israeli airstrikes on October 13 that killed a Reuters videographer and wounded six other journalists in south Lebanon were apparently deliberate and a direct attack on civilians (Source: Bassem Mroue, ABC News)

● 2023 (December 8)—The Israeli military has rounded up scores of Palestinian men in Gaza, stripped them to their underwear and paraded them in various public locations, video footage and photographs show. There were claims in Israeli media that the images showed the surrender of Hamas fighters. But as the pictures and footage were circulated widely across social media and elsewhere, several men were identified as civilians, including a journalist. (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)
Footage shows IDF parading scores of Palestinian men around in underwear | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian

● 2023 (December 9)—Israeli airstrike destroys the Omari Mosque, Gaza’s most iconic landmark and oldest mosque dating back to the 7^th century (Source: Daniel Estrin, NPR)

● 2023 (December 9)—According to Gaza Health Ministry, 17,487 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7—Haaretz publishes an analysis by Yagil Levy, a sociology professor at the Open University of Israel, which finds that civilians make up 61% of Gaza deaths from airstrikes and the civilian proportion of deaths is higher than the average in all world conflicts in 20th century (Source: Ali Sawafta and Maggie Fick, Reuters; Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2023 (December 12)—During a campaign event, President Joe Biden states that Israel is carrying out “indiscriminate bombing” of the civilian population of Gaza. He subsequently adds that Israel’s Minister of National Security “Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they… They not only want to have retribution, which they should for what the Palestinians—Hamas—did, but against all Palestinians.” (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2023 (December 15)—Israeli military says its troops shot and killed three hostages by mistake (Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, Samer El-Talalqa) (Source: The Guardian)

● 2023 (December 16)—Iran says it has executed a Mossad agent accused of spying for Israel (Source: Reuters)

● 2023 (December 17)—Israeli airstrikes kill 90 Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza (Source: Reuters)

● 2023 (December 19)—Israel has killed 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7 (Source: Emma Graham-Harrison and Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2023 (December 22)—76 members of the al-Mughrabi family are killed by one of the deadliest Israeli airstrikes of the Gaza war (Source: AP)

● 2023 (December 23)—At least 201 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2023 (December 24)—In one of the Gaza war’s deadliest nights, Israeli airstrikes kill 100 people in Khan Younis and Maghazi camp (Source: The Guardian)

● 2023 (December 26)—Six Palestinians killed by Israeli drone strike in Nur Shams refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank. Since October 7^th, 300 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed and more than 5,000 arrested (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2023 (December 26)—After an Israeli airstrike kills Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria, Iran releases an animated video depicting the assassination of Prime Minister Netanyahu in an explosion at an Israeli command center (Source: Thomas Kika, Newsweek)

● 2023 (December 27)—Death toll in Gaza surpasses 21,000, with 7,000 missing, most buried under rubble (Source: Democracy Now!)

● 2023 (December 29)—187 Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza in the last 24 hours, says Gaza Health Ministry (Source: The Guardian)

● 2023 (December 29)—South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2023—Verso publishes Anthony Lowenstein’s book The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. The book explores Israel’s weapons industry and how they market their arms around the world as “battle-tested” on Palestinians. Lowenstein argues that Palestine acts as a “laboratory” for Israel to test their military technology. He writes: “Palestine is Israel’s workshop, where an occupied nation on its doorstep provides millions of subjugated people as a laboratory for the most precise and successful methods of domination” (9)

● 2023—Nathan Thrall releases his book A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

● 2024 (January 2)—Senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arorui is killed by an Israeli drone strike in Beirut. Saleh al-Arorui was known for founding Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (January 5)—Video footage shows the Israeli army killing unarmed Palestinian civilians in the Occupied West Bank. Israeli troops shoot a 17-year-old boy named Osaid Rimawi after falsely accusing him of lighting a Molotov cocktail. Then the Israeli security forces repeatedly run over the body of a man they had shot.
West Bank videos show Israeli troops killing teenager and driving over man’s body | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian

● 2024 (January 6)—The Euro-Med Monitor reports that 30,676 Palestinians have been killed by IDF attacks since October 7, including 12,040 children, 6,103 women, 241 healthcare workers, and 105 journalists (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (January 10)—Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies conducts poll of 8,000 Arab respondents in 16 countries and finds that 67% find Hamas’s October 7 attack a “legitimate form of resistance” to Israel (Source: Danielle Greyman-Kennard, The Jerusalem Post)

● 2024 (January 11)—The US and UK militaries launch strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (January 12)—An OXFAM report describes Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza as the deadliest conflict of the 21^st century, with a rate of 250 people killed a day (Source: Jordan Shilton, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (January 13)—Thousands march in Washington D.C. calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza

● 2024 (January 18)—Netanyahu says he opposes a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (January 22)—According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel has killed over 25,000 Gazans since October 7 (Source: World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (January 22)—24 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in deadliest day for IDF during the war (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (January 24)—According to an Economist/YouGov poll, roughly equal numbers of American adults believe Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinians amounts to genocide: 35% say it is, 36% say it isn’t, with 29% undecided. (Source: Richard Luscombe, The Guardian)

● 2024 (January 25)—During a speech, Netanyahu says: “The war must end with the eradication of the new Nazis, there will be no compromise.” (Source: Thomas Scripps, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (January 26)—International Court of Justice issues a ruling for Israel to prevent genocide, but ICJ does not call for a ceasefire (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (January 28)—Israel accuses 12 members of the UNRWA of participating in/aiding the October 7 Hamas attack. However, they provide no evidence (Source: Politico)

● 2024 (January 28)—During an appearance on “State of the Union,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accuses pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza to be Russian agents of Vladimir Putin. Pelosi says: “for them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message...Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It’s about Putin’s message. I think some of these—some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia. And I say that having looked at this for a long time now, as you know.” When asked by host Dana Bash whether she thinks pro-Palestinian protesters are “Russian plants,” Pelosi says: “I don’t think they’re plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the FBI to investigate that.” (Source: Patrick Martin, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (January 30)—Israeli agents assassinate three Palestinian militants in an undercover operation in the Ibn Sina hospital in the Occupied West Bank city of Jenin. An Israeli border police counter-terrorism unit and a unit from the internal security forces, Shin Bet, entered the hospital disguised in women’s clothes and doctors’ scrubs. The units made their way to a room on the third floor and shot all three men in the head using pistols fitted with silencers in an attack that took less than 10 minutes from start to finish. Israel says the dead men are Mohammad Jalamana, a spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, Basel Ghazawi, of Islamic Jihad, and his brother Mohammed. All three were allegedly active in the umbrella force known as the Jenin Battalion, a newly formed group that has engaged Israeli forces in fierce fighting during raids in the lawless city over the past two years. (Source: Bethan McKernan, The Guardian)
Israeli special forces disguised as civilians kill three militants at West Bank hospital | Palestinian territories | The Guardian

● 2024 (January 30)—Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters is dropped by music rights company BMG over his pro-Palestine comments (Source: Adrian Horton, The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 1)—Joe Biden issues an executive order targeting four Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians. The order imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against the individuals (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 1)—The artist, musician, and film director Laurie Anderson has withdrawn from a guest professorship at a university in Germany after officials took issue with her support for a 2021 statement by Palestinian artists titled Letter Against Apartheid (Source: Ashifa Kassam, The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 2)—UN estimates that Israel’s recent war in Gaza has left 17,000 children unaccompanied or separated from their families (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (February 4)—University of Pennsylvania’s interim president denounces the political cartoons of Dwayne Booth (a.k.a Mr. Fish) criticizing Israel’s war in Gaza as anti-Semitic.
Interview with Dwayne Booth, Penn lecturer attacked over anti-genocide cartoons - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

● 2024 (February 5)—New York University (NYU) has suspended two adjunct professors, Amin Husain and Tomasz Skiba, for expressing opposition to the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza (Source: John Conrad, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (February 9)—The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a statement asserting that the prime minister has ordered the Israeli military to submit a plan for the forced evacuation of the southern town of Rafah, where one million refugees from other areas of Gaza have been driven. The World Socialist Website calls the plan “ethnic cleansing” (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (February 11)—Six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family are fleeing heavy fighting in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel Al-Hawa when a bombing kills her family members. Her 15-year-old cousin calls emergency dispatchers for help, but the line goes dead after a burst of gunfire. When the dispatchers call back, Hind answers and says that her cousin has been killed. Two first responders from the Palestine Red Crescent Society are dispatched to save her, but they are killed along with Hind. (Source: Chantal Da Silva, NBC News)

● 2024 (February 11-12)—Israel launches a massive bombardment of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, killing over 100 people (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (February 12)—Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed over 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (February 14)—Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill 11 civilians, including 6 children (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (February 18)—Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva compares Israel’s slaughter in Gaza to the Holocaust, saying: “What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (February 20)—Gaza’s health ministry reports that Israel has killed 29,000 Palestinians since October 7 (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (February 25)—Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old anarchist and active-duty member of the US Air Force, sets himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C., declaring that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide." Bushnell dies from his injuries (Source: Michael Balsamo, The Associated Press)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJpWOikX9jU

● 2024 (February 25)—Death toll of Israel’s genocide in Gaza passes 30,000 (Source: Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 27)—UN human rights expert Michael Fakhri says that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians and the denial of food is a war crime that constitutes genocide (Source: Nina Lakhani, The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 28)—During the Democratic primary in Michigan, Joe Biden wins 81% of the vote, but more than 13% of voters chose not to vote for him, and instead wrote “uncommitted” on the ballot as a protest over his support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (February 29)—Flour Massacre—Israeli infantrymen, snipers, tanks and drones open fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians in Gaza City as they lined up to receive flour from aid trucks, killing at least 118 and injuring more than 700. (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (February)—Mehring Books publishes David North’s The Logic of Zionism: From Nationalist Myth to the Gaza Genocide
Socialist internationalism & the struggle against Zionism & imperialism, by David North (youtube.com)

● 2024 (February)—The film No Other Land premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film, by the Palestinian-Israeli collective of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor recounts the brutal expulsion of Palestinian villagers from Masafer Yatta, a settlement of 19 villages south of Hebron in the West Bank

● 2024 (March 2)—US aircraft drop 66 bundles of aid carrying 38,000 meals to people besieged by Israel in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (March 6)—Washington Post reveals that the Biden administration has worked to hide weapons transfers to Israel for use in Gaza by splitting them up into over 100 separate transactions falling below a minimum threshold for reporting to Congress. The secret weapons shipments include thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms, and other lethal aid (Source: John Hudson, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (March 7)—During his State of the Union speech, President Biden announces that the United States will deploy 1,000 troops off the coast of Gaza for the nominal purpose of building a floating pier for humanitarian aid. Biden says: “I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters…No US boots will be on the ground.” (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (March 8)—A member of the activist group Palestine Action vandalizes a 1914 painting of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge (Source: Harriet Heywood and Brian Farmer, BBC)

● 2024 (March 10)—After winning the award for Best International Film at the Oscars for The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer reads a statement protesting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Glazer says: “All our choices we made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say “look what they did then”—rather, 'look what we do now.” Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza—all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?” (Source: Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill)

● 2024 (March 13)—Pro-Palestine protesters interrupt Ziggy Marley’s headlining set at the WOMAD music festival in Australia to protest his pro-Israel stance. Protesters also call attention to the festival’s exclusion of the Palestinian group 47SOUL (Source: Aleksandra Bliszczyk, VICE)

● 2024 (March 14)—Israeli forces carry out another massacre of civilians in Gaza waiting to receive food aid, killing 60 and wounding 160 (Source: Andre Damon, World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (March 14)—Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, gives a speech in the Senate floor to condemn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and call for elections to replace him (Source: Annie Karni, The New York Times)

● 2024 (March 16)—In an article titled, “Charles Schumer’s Senate speech and the US-Israeli ‘Final Solution’ in Gaza,” World Socialist Website writer Andre Damon argues: “It is time to call things by their right name: The Netanyahu government is carrying out the ‘Final Solution of the Palestinian Problem.’”

● 2024 (March 19)—In an interview, Trump says that American Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel (Source: Jill Colvin, Time)

● 2024 (March 21)—Satellite images analyzed by the United Nations Satellite Centre show that 35% of the Gaza Strip's buildings have been destroyed or damaged in Israel’s genocidal war (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (March 22)—Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announces the seizure of 3.8 square miles of Palestinian territory in the West Bank in the single largest land seizure by the Israeli government since 1993. Smotrich declares: “While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country.” The announcement comes the same day the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in Tel Aviv speaking with Netanyahu about the Gaza War. (Source: Cate Brown, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (March 23)—IDF kills 19 Palestinians in Gaza City who are waiting for humanitarian aid (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (March 24)—According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has killed 32,226 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. 84 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (March 25)—UN Security Council demands immediate cease-fire in Israel-Gaza War—US abstains (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (March 26)—Twelve Palestinians drown trying to get to aid dropped by a plane off a Gaza beach (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (March 27)—Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, tells the UN’s Human Rights Council she believes: “the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met.” (Source: NBC News)

● 2024 (March 27)—Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon kill 16 people and Hezbollah rockets kill one Israeli civilian, making it the deadliest day along the border since October 7 (Source: Stephen Kalin, The Wall Street Journal)

● 2024 (March 28)—Despite student protests, the University of Michigan Board of Regents announces that it will not divest from companies linked to Israel (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (March 29)—Israeli airstrikes near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo kill and wound dozens of people (Source: Stephen Kalin, The Wall Street Journal)

● 2024 (March 29)—The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration has approved another arms shipment to Israel for use in the Gaza genocide, including over 1,800 massive 2,000-pound bombs (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (March 30)—During his monologue on Saturday Night Live, comedian Ramy Youssef says: “Please stop the suffering. Stop the violence. Please free the people of Palestine, please. And please free the hostages, all the hostages, please.” (Source: Jacob Stolworthy, The Independent)

● 2024 (March 30)—More than 200,000 protesters march in London against Israel’s ongoing genocide in the eleventh national demonstration held in Britain’s capital since last October (Source: Robert Stevens, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (March 31)—Republican Congressman from Michigan, Tim Walberg, says that the way for Israel to end the war in Gaza is to “get it over quick” by bombing it like the US did in “Nagasaki and Hiroshima.” (Source: Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian)

● 2024 (March 31)—Thousands of Israeli protesters call for the removal of prime minister Netanyahu and vow to persist until he is ousted (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (March)—Al Jazeera releases documentary Stern: The Man, the Gang, and the State, direct by Hossam Sarahan
عندما حاول الصهاينة التعاون مع هتلر- شتيرن: الرجل، والعصابة، والدولة. - YouTube

● 2024 (April 1)—The Israeli army withdraws from the Shifa hospital in Gaza after killing over 400 Palestinians in what the Euro Med Monitor calls “one of the largest massacres in Palestinian history.” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 1)—Israel bombs the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing three senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including Mohammad Reza Zahedi (Source: Alex Lantier, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 2)—Chris McGreal, writing in The Guardian, reports that “doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza”

● 2024 (April 2)—Inspired by the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell, active-duty airman Larry Herbert begins a hunger strike outside the White House, carrying a sign that reads: “Active Duty Airman Refuses to Eat While Gaza Starves.” (Source: Democracy Now!)

● 2024 (April 2)—Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills 7 members of the World Central Kitchen, including citizens of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and Palestine; the first foreigners killed working for an international aid organization in Gaza. World Central Kitchen Founder José Andrés disputes the claim of Netanyahu and Biden that the strike was a tragic mistake, saying that his workers were intentionally targeted “systematically, car by car.” (Source: The Washington Post; Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 2)—Over 48,000 Wisconsin voters choose “uninstructed” on their primary ballots, instead of voting for Joe Biden, as a protest over his role in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza (Source: Malaika Jabli, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 2)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that Qatar-based news station Al Jazeera will no longer be allowed to broadcast from Israel due to a measure shutting down media outlets deemed a "security risk." He says: "Al Jazeera has harmed Israel's security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre, and incited against IDF soldiers. It's time to remove Hamas' mouthpiece from our country.” Writing in The Guardian, Etan Nechin says: “Netanyahu wants to ban Al Jazeera to hide Gaza’s horrors—but reality is getting through.” (Source: Kristine Parks, Fox News)

● 2024 (April 3)—Bethan McKernan and Harry Davies, writing in The Guardian, report that: “The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent link to Hamas.”

● 2024 (April 4)—Shin Bet announces that they stopped a mixed terror cell of Israeli-Arabs and Palestinians who had plotted to kill National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Source: The Jerusalem Post)

● 2024 (April 4)—John Hudson, writing in The Washington Post, reports that the “U.S approved more bombs to Israel on day of World Central Kitchen strikes.”

● 2024 (April 4)—Joe Biden calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and says future US support for Israel will depend on how they treat innocent civilians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 5)—Nancy Pelosi joins Senate Democrats in urging Biden to halt arms to Israel. Bernie Sanders says: “My view is no more military aid to Israel when children [there] are starving.” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 5)—Jonathan Freedland publishes op-ed in The Guardian titled “After six months, the war in Gaza is making Israel a pariah state.”
After six months, the war in Gaza is making Israel a pariah state | Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 6)—After pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt a speech by University of Michigan president Santa J Ono, he proposes a “disruptive activity policy” that would create strict punishments for anyone who interrupts official university events (Source: Ava Sasani, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 8)—Since October 7, Israel has killed 33,137 people in Gaza. Once the missing are added, the true toll is likely over 44,000. A further 75,815 people have been wounded (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 8)—The International Court of Justice in The Hague hears a complaint by Nicaragua accusing the German government of violating the UN Genocide Convention by providing Israel with aid, including military equipment, used in committing genocide. (Source: Peter Schwarz, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 9)—CNN finds new information that contradicts the IDF’s version of events of the February 29 “Flour Massacre” in which 118 Palestinians were killed. Their research and reporting finds that the IDF opened fire earlier than they initially said and intended to cause mass bloodshed
CNN finds new information contradicting IDF’s account of night over 100 died in Gaza | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (April 9)—Columbia University suspends several students for a pro-Palestine event held on campus in March that featured Khaled Barakat as a speaker, who has been linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US State Department designated foreign terrorist organization. (Source: Danielle Wallace, Fox News)

● 2024 (April 9)—US defense secretary Lloyd Austin rejects the claim that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 10)—In an op-ed in The Guardian, Chris McGreal argues “Thirty years ago the world failed to stop the Rwandan genocide. Now we fail Gaza.”
Thirty years ago the world failed to stop the Rwandan genocide. Now we fail Gaza | Chris McGreal | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 10)—During a press conference at the White House, Biden says: “As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad, ironclad.” (Source: Patrick Martin, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 12)—A group of students calling themselves the Yale Hunger Strikers for Palestine begin a hunger strike in protest over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza (Source: Erum Salam, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 12)—During raids in the Occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shoot dead two Palestinians, including Mohammad Omar Daraghmeh, a member of the armed wing of Hamas. Later the same day in Ramallah, dozens of Jewish settlers rampage through a Palestinian village, killing one. Since the start of the Gaza war, at least 460 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers. In the same period, at least 13 Israelis, among them two members of Israeli forces, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank (Source: Ali Sawafta, Reuters)

● 2024 (April 13)—The IDF is on high alert after they say Iran launched unmanned aerial vehicles "from within its territory toward Israel.” (Source: Faris Tanyos, CBS News)

● 2024 (April 13)—Trump and other Republicans call for the deportation of “pro-Hamas radicals” to “make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.” (Source: Simone Weichselbaum, NBC News)

● 2024 (April 14)—The IDF says that 99% of Iran’s 300 drones and missiles have been intercepted in overnight attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 15)—Pro-Palestinian protests take place across the US with activists disrupting major transportation hubs in Philadelphia, Connecticut, Tampa, San Antonio, Chicago, and Oakland. Protesters shut down the Kennedy Expressway outside of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Highway 101 on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, resulting in stand-still traffic at both locations (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (April 15)—Leaked New York Times Gaza memo tells journalists to avoid words “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “occupied territory” (Source: Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim, The Intercept)

● 2024 (April 16)—UN declares that Israel violated international law with their attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 16)—Israeli settlers kill two Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 16)—Alan J. Kuperman writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Civilian deaths in Gaza rival those of Darfur—which the US called a ‘genocide.’”
Civilian deaths in Gaza rival those of Darfur – which the US called a ‘genocide’ | Alan J Kuperman | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 16)—A House GOP-led resolution introduced by Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, R-N.Y., to formally criticize the use of the phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" passes in a 377 to 44 vote. 43 Democrats and one Republican vote against it. (Source: Elizabeth Elkind, Fox News)

● 2024 (April 16)—The University of Southern California cancels the valedictorian commencement speech of Asna Tabassum because of her pro-Palestinian views. (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (April 17)—Israel’s government has accelerated the construction of settlements across East Jerusalem, with more than 20 projects totaling thousands of housing units having been approved or advanced since the start of the war in Gaza six months ago (Source: Jason Burke, The Guardian)
Revealed: Israel has sped up settlement-building in East Jerusalem since Gaza war began | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 17)—Hezbollah launches missiles and drones at a military facility in northern Israel, wounding 14 Israeli soldiers. The attack is retaliation for Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah members (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (April 17)—Google fires 28 employees for their involvement in sit-in protests in New York and California demanding the tech giant end its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territory. They specifically called for the company drop its work on Project Nimbus, a $1 billion cloud computing contract which provides the Israeli government, including the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. A leaked contract shows that Google billed the Israeli Ministry of Defense $1 million for consulting services (Source: Niles Niemuth, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 18)—New York Police Department officers arrest over 100 students at a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration on Columbia University’s campus, including the daughter of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. It is the first time in over half a century that Columbia University allowed the NYPD on campus to arrest students. (Source: Elliot Murtagh and Clara Weiss, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 18)—At least 10 family members, including five children aged between 3 and 16, are killed in an Israeli airstrike on a neighborhood in Rafah, in southern Gaza (Source: Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, and Tareq Al Hilou, CNN)

● 2024 (April 19)—Israel launches airstrikes against Iran (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 19)—Israeli police arrest the internationally renowned feminist Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian at her home in Jerusalem on charges of incitement to violence. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who holds both Israeli and US citizenship, was suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, though the university later reinstated her. (Source: Democracy Now!)

● 2024 (April 20)—Palestinian death toll in Israel’s genocide in Gaza surpasses 34,000 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 20)—After a days-long raid, Israeli forces kill 13 Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm, a city in the northern part of the West Bank, in what they describe as a “counter-terrorism” operation. (Source: The Washington Post)

● 2024 (April 20)—Palestinian civil defence crews have uncovered a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s Khan Younis, with 180 bodies recovered so far (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (April 21)—Two Israeli strikes on the city of Rafah kill 22 people, including 18 children. The first strike killed a man, his wife, and their three-year-old child. The second killed 17 children and two women from the same extended family. (Source: Peter Symonds, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 22)—AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups plan to spend $100 million on congressional races to unseat progressives over their stance on the war in Gaza (Source: Joan E. Greve, Alice Herman, and Will Craft, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 22)—An independent review commissioned by the United Nations and led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna finds that the Israeli government has still provided no evidence to back up their claim that UNRWA worked with Hamas during the October 7^th attack (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 22)—Columbia University classes go online as pro-Palestinian protests continue to disrupt camps life and the crackdown grows more intense. A huge crowd of faculty members stage a walk-out to protest the suspension and arrest of pro-Palestinian student protesters (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 22)—The death toll at the Nasser hospital in Gaza rises to over 300, as more mass graves are discovered. The dead include men, women, and children, as well as people with clear indications of being medical patients. Some were discovered handcuffed, indicating that victims were killed in mass summary executions. The UN Human Rights chief is “horrified” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 23)—US Senate passes $95 billion aid package for their allies, which includes $26.3 billion for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza (Source: Lauren Gambino and Joan E. Greve, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 23)—Robert Reich publishes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Protesting against slaughter—as students in the US are doing—isn’t antisemitism.”
Protesting against slaughter – as students in the US are doing – isn’t antisemitism | Robert Reich | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 24)—A Guardian investigation reveals that top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16 million in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East (Source: Eli Clifton, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 24)—Naomi Klein publishes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “We need an exodus from Zionism”
We need an exodus from Zionism | Naomi Klein | The Guardian

● 2024 (April 25)—Students continue to protest the genocide in Gaza on college campuses across the United States. 34 students arrested at the University of Texas in Austin, 50 arrested at the University of Southern California, and 100 arrested at Emory College in Boston, the first campus crackdown where the police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters (Source: Timothy Pratt, Maya Yang, and Erum Salam, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 26)—Pro-Palestine camps spread to 40 universities across the US, with many professors now supporting their students. Students at colleges around the world are starting to protest the genocide in Gaza, with demonstrations at Paris' prestigious Sciences Po university (Source: The Guardian, Reuters)

● 2024 (April 26)—A premature Palestinian infant, rescued from her mother's womb shortly after the woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza, has died (Source: Mohamed Jahjouh and Wafaa Shurafa, Associated Press)

● 2024 (April 26)—The US military has started building a pier off Gaza to deliver aid (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (April 26)—In a live address to students at the City University of New York, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised pro-Palestinian student protesters, saying: “It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes…You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history. You’re against a colonial regime that steals the land from the people who are Indigenous to that area. I urge you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicted upon Gaza with all of your might, all of your will and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent.” (Source: Nina Lakhani, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 26)—Florida governor Ron DeSantis says that pro-Palestine protesters at universities in his state can be “expelled” (Source: Scott McDonald, Fox News)

● 2024 (April 27)—US Senator Bernie Sanders tells Netanyahu: “It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions.” Sanders argues that the Israeli prime minister is using the accusation of anti-Semitism to distract attention from “extremist and racist government” policies (Source: Robert Tait, The Guardian)

● 2024 (April 27)—Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is arrested alongside 100 others at an anti-genocide encampment at Washington University in St. Louis (Source: Niles Niemuth, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 27)—200,000 march in London in the country’s 12^th national pro-Palestine demonstration. (Source: Robert Stevens, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (April 29)—More than 50 tenured journalism professors from top universities have signed a letter calling on the New York Times to address questions about one of their major investigative reports that described a “pattern of gender-based violence” in the October 7^th Hamas attacks on Israel. Relatives of a woman slain in the attack, whose story became a central focus of the Times report, cast doubts on reporting suggesting that she was raped by Hamas members. (Source: Lara Wagner, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (April 30)—Dozens of protesters have taken over the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia University in New York, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window. They rename the building Hind Hall after the six-year-old girl named Hind Rajab who was killed in Gaza in February. (Source: Robert Tait, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 1)—Counter-protesters attack a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 1)—Amid the growing pro-Palestinian campus protests, US House of Representatives passes the Antisemitism Awareness Act (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (May 1)—During a May Day rally, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, tells the crowd: “Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be broken…for having a genocidal president…If Palestine dies, humanity dies.” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 1)—280 pro-Palestinian student demonstrators are arrested at Colombia University; hundreds of students arrested at colleges across the country as police continue their crackdown. 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at college campuses across the country in the past two weeks (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 2)—Turkey stops all trade with Israel over “humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 2)—UN finds that rebuilding the destroyed homes in Gaza will cost $40 billion and take 16 years (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 2)—Medhi Hasan writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Which is worse, Israel’s lies about Gaza, or its Western backers who repeat those lies?”
Which is worse, Israel’s lies about Gaza or its western backers who repeat those lies? | Mehdi Hasan | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 2)—Pro-Palestinian protesters at the Evergreen State College in Olympia agree to remove their week-old encampment after striking a deal with administrators that includes the school publicly calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and exploring divestment from companies that profit from “the occupation of Palestinian territories.” Rachel Corrie was a student at Evergreen when she was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to protect a Palestinian home from demolition in Rafah (Source: Catalina Gaitán, The Seattle Times)

● 2024 (May 3)—In an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs from Ghost Robotics in the Gaza War. Most of the tests have been with a "robot dog," which is also equipped with a drone and can replace or reinforce the Oketz Unit's dogs in certain situations (Source: Sagi Cohen, Haaretz)

● 2024 (May 3)—14 students at Princeton University begin a hunger strike, announcing: “Our hunger strike is a response to the administration’s refusal to engage with our demands for dissociation and divestment from Israel. We refuse to be silenced by the University administration’s intimidation and repression tactics. We struggle together in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We commit our bodies to their liberation” (Source: Amelia Neath, The Independent)

● 2024 (May 4)—The Columbia College Student Council release a statement in The Guardian titled “We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices.”
We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices | Columbia College Student Council | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 4)—Officials at the Houthi-run Sanaa University in Yemen offer US students suspended from their colleges for pro-Palestinian activism the chance to continue their education. In a statement, they say: “The board of the university condemns what academics and students of U.S. and European universities are being subjected to, suppression of freedom of expression…We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from U.S. universities for supporting Palestinians…We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can." (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 4)—During the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony, students demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza wave Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and chant anti-war slogans, such as: “Israel bombs, UMich pays!” and “How many kids have you killed today?” A plane carrying a sky banner flies over the university with the message: “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” (Source: Maya Yang, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 5)—Police in riot gear dismantle Palestinian solidarity encampment at the University of Southern California (USC) (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 6)—After weeks of anti-genocide protests, Columbia University cancels its main graduation commencement ceremony (Source: Karen Matthews, The Associated Press)

● 2024 (May 6)—Analysis reveals that the Israeli airstrike that killed 7 health workers in Lebanon in March used US munition, violating the 1997 Leahy law which stipulates that the US defense and state departments are prohibited from providing assistance to foreign security forces when there is “credible information” that they have committed gross violations of human rights. (Source: William Christou, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 6)—Israel begins airstrikes in Rafah. Hamas says it accepts ceasefire proposal, but Netanyahu claims the proposal falls short of their key demands. (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 7)—Rapper Macklemore releases a pro-Palestinian song titled “Hind’s Hall.”
Macklemore - HIND’S HALL (youtube.com)

● 2024 (May 7)—Pro-Palestine student protesters refuse to leave their encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Anti-genocide student protesters at the Rhode Island School of Design occupy a building on campus. Police clear anti-genocide encampment at University of Chicago (Source: Karen Matthews and Steve Leblanc, The Independent; Kim Bellware, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 7)—Israel launches Rafah offensive, saying the mission is to “eliminate Hamas.” China joins France in calling for Israel to end the Rafah siege (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 7)—At a Holocaust event, Joe Biden condemns the “scourge of antisemitism” in America, saying “we must give hate no safe harbor.” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 7)—Over the past three weeks, over 2,500 people in the United States have been arrested and criminally charged for participating in pro-Palestinian civil disobedience on college campuses (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 8)—The US pauses a weapons shipment of 1,800 2,000lb bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs to Israel over concerns that they will be used in the offensive on Rafah. US says the hold on weapons delivery will continue if Israel presses ahead with their attack on Rafah. Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticizes the decision, tweeting “Hamas loves Biden.” Netanyahu says that Israel can “stand alone” and “We will fight with our fingernails.” (Source: The Guardian; Newsweek)

● 2024 (May 8)—The first faculty-led Gaza solidarity encampment protest in the US is established at New York’s New School campus by two dozen professors who pitch tents in the lobby of an academic building located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan in support of their students, and against Israel’s attack on Gaza and their university’s financial ties to Israel. (Source: Erum Salam, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 9)—The pro-Palestinian student protests in the US have spread across Europe, with similar anti-genocide demonstrations and encampments appearing in France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Greece, and Italy. (Source: Alejandro López, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 9)—Xavier University of Louisiana cancels graduation address by UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield after students express anger over US ceasefire vetoes at the UN (Source: Associated Press)

● 2024 (May 9)—More than 800 faculty and staff call for the chancellor of UCLA to quit after counter-protesters attacked pro-Palestinian student demonstrators and police violently raided their encampment (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 9)—Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in the Swedish port city of Malmo against Israel's participation in the pan-continental pop competition Eurovision. London’s biggest Eurovision viewing party canceled over Israel’s participation (Source: CBS News; The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 9)—Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda wins a Peabody Award for her remarkable reporting on Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (May 9)—Multiple people were arrested at the University of Calgary’s Gaza encampment in Alberta, Canada after riot police deployed “non-lethal munitions” and tear gas on a crowd of less than 200. (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 9)—On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Hillary Clinton criticizes the pro-Palestinian student movement sweeping the country, saying: “I have had many conversations…with a lot of young people over the last many months now. They don't know very much at all about the history of the Middle East. Or, frankly, about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country.” She adds, “Propaganda is not education…Propaganda, whether it's on TikTok or in the classroom, is actually the opposite of education. Anybody who is teaching in a university, or anyone who is putting content on social media, should be held responsible for what they include and what they exclude…So much of what we're seeing—particularly on TikTok—about what's going on in the Middle East, is woefully false," she continued. "But it's also incredibly slanted: pro-Hamas, anti-Israel. And it is not any place where anyone should go to get information on complex manners, like what's going on there." (Source: Aila Slisco, Newsweek)

● 2024 (May 10)—The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians closes its headquarters in East Jerusalem after local Israeli residents set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 10)—The undergraduate student body at Emory University in Atlanta has passed a no confidence vote against the school’s president following pro-Palestine protests there that have resulted in more than two dozen arrests. (Source: Greg Norman, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 10)—Across the US, police clear out anti-genocide encampments on college campuses, including MIT, the university of Arizona, and the University of Pennsylvania (Source: Isabel Rosales, Paradise Afshar and Kelly McCleary, CNN)

● 2024 (May 10)—Influencer Haley “Baylee” Kalil posts a video on TikTok shortly after the Met Gala lip syncing the famous line attributed to Marie Antoinette, “Let them eat cake,” leading to a social media movement to block her and other celebrities who are not using their platform to speak out against the genocide in Gaza. (Source: Arianna Johnson, Forbes)

● 2024 (May 10)—Over 110,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah to escape Israeli violence (Source: Louisa Loveluck, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 10)—CNN investigative report finds evidence of Israelis abusing Palestinian prisoners at the Sde Teiman detention center. According to the testimony of three Israeli whistleblowers, doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing and medical procedures were sometimes performed by underqualified medics
Sde Teiman: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center | CNN

● 2024 (May 10)—UN General Assembly votes to back Palestinian bid for membership (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 10)—US State Department finds that Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza is “inconsistent” with human rights law, but will not cut military shipments to the country (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 10)—Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu issues their government’s assessment of the number of Palestinians they have killed since October 7. They state that they have killed 30,000 people: 14,000 terrorists and 16,000 civilians. (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (May 11)—Since the initial arrest of 108 students in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on April 18, police in the United States have arrested over 2,800 people according to the AP and over 2,900 according to a tracker maintained by The Appeal. (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 11)—Pro-Palestine protesters deface a building at the University of North Carolina (UNC) with red paint and signs. One poster read: “Rather than support the student body, [the UNC chancellor] supports GENOCIDE.” (Source: Amalia Roy, WHGP-TV Greensboro)

● 2024 (May 11)—Canary Mission, a website dedicated to harassing and doxxing pro-Palestine protesters, has accused over 250 US students and academics of supporting terrorism or spreading antisemitism and hatred of Israel since the start of the latest Gaza conflict (Source: Gabriella Borter, Joseph Ax and Andrew Hay, Reuters)

● 2024 (May 12)—Students at Duke University in North Carolina walk out before comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement speech in protest over his support of Israel. Some students wave Palestinian flags (Source: Doha Madani and Rebecca Cohen, NBC News)

● 2024 (May 12)—Thousands protest in Israel amid anger at Netanyahu over hostages. Demonstrators call for a deal to bring the hostages home (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 12)—Jonathan Guyer writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “How ‘Zionist’ became a slur on the US left.”
How ‘Zionist’ became a slur on the US left | Protest | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 13)—Johns Hopkins University strikes a deal with pro-Palestine student protesters. The students agree to clear their encampment and the University agrees to consider divesting from companies that support the war or have ties to Israel by expediting its existing Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee process (Source: Taiyler S. Mitchell, HuffPost)

● 2024 (May 13)—Parents of over 900 Israeli soldiers send a letter to Israel’s defense minister and IDF chief urging the IDF to call off the “death trap” Rafah attack that “appears to be nothing short of recklessness.” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 13)—Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attack an aid convoy heading to Gaza, throwing much needed packages of food into the road and setting vehicles on fire (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 14)—US National security advisor Jake Sullivan reiterates the US position that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza (Source: USA Today)

● 2024 (May 14)—Maj. Harrison Mann, a US Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency, has resigned from the military according to an open letter he published online saying he is distressed that his work has contributed to the deaths of Palestinian civilians. (Source: Alex Horton and John Hudson, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 14)—Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 14)—Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters chain themselves together in front of the entrance to Google’s annual developer conference in protest of the tech company’s ties to Israeli military projects. (Source: Kari Paul, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 14)—28 people are arrested by Greek police during the pro-Palestine protest and encampment at the Athens Law School. 9 people from the United Kingdom and the European Union member states are facing deportation from Greece (Source: Katy Fallon, Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (May 14)—Mahdi Fleifel’s film, To a Land Unknown, premieres at the Cannes Film Festival. The fictional story follows two undocumented Palestinian refugees and cousins, who find themselves in Athens and make desperate efforts to reach Germany, where they hope to open a restaurant. The film received a nine-minute standing ovation at its screening at the film festival, and the crowd at the theatre also chanted ‘Free, Free Palestine!’ and other slogans to show support for Palestine. (Source: David Walsh, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 15)—A group of New York University student protesters walk out of their graduation commencement at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and demand that university leaders divest from Israel. A small group of students in their graduation gowns chant, "We will free Palestine." (Source: Stephen Soras, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 15)—The union that represents University of California academic workers (United Auto Workers Local 4811) authorizes a strike over the administration’s crackdown on Gaza protests on campus. (Source: Lauren Kaori Gurley, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 15)—Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, resigns from her post at the Interior Department, saying she could no longer work for the administration because of President Biden’s continued support of Israel’s war in Gaza. (Source: Yasmeen Abutaleb, The Washington Post)
Biden was my boss. I resigned because as a Jew I cannot endorse the Gaza catastrophe | Lily Greenberg Call | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 16)—The Israeli military announces that 5 of its soldiers were killed by “friendly fire” when an Israeli tank fired at a building in Gaza that was being used by its own troops. Since October 7, 44 of the 273 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza died as the result of what the IDF calls “operational accidents” (Source: Anat Peled, The Wall Street Journal)

● 2024 (May 16)—Medics at the pro-Palestinian UCLA protests say that police weapons drew blood and cracked bones. OB-GYN resident Elaine Chan describes how: “All of [the hurt students] were profusely bleeding. In OB-GYN we don’t treat rubber bullets…I couldn’t believe that this was allowed to be (done to) civilians — students — without protective gear.” (Source: Molly Castle Work and Brett Kelman, USA Today)

● 2024 (May 16)—The Biden administration intends to dispatch more than $1 billion of military equipment to Israel so that it can continue the genocide against the Palestinians. The military package will include $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million for mortar shells. (Source: Jordan Shilton, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 16)—US completes installation of floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 16)—Riot police remove pro-Palestinian student protesters and their encampment from UC Irvine, arresting 50 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 16)—Youtuber Mrs. Rachel receives online backlash after starting a fundraiser for children in Gaza. She states: “I love every child… Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the US — Muslim, Jewish, Christian children — all children, in every country. Not one is excluded.” (Source: Gina Vivinetto, Today)

● 2024 (May 16)—Commenting on the US campus protesters calling for a free Palestine, the author Salman Rushie tells a German podcast that while he has “argued for a Palestinian state for most of my life – since the 1980s, probably – right now, if there was a Palestinian state, it would be run by Hamas, and that would make it a Taliban-like state, and it would be a client state of Iran…Is that what the progressive movements of the western left wish to create? To have another Taliban, another Ayatollah-like state, in the Middle East, right next to Israel?...The fact is that I think any human being right now has to be distressed by what is happening in Gaza because of the quantity of innocent death. I would just like some of the protests to mention Hamas. Because that’s where this started, and Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It’s very strange for young, progressive student politics to kind of support a fascist terrorist group.” (Source: Ella Creamer, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 17)—Supplies begin arriving in Gaza via the new US-made pier, but Hamas reiterates that all land routes must be reopened to deliver aid, and they reject any outside military presence in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 17)—The International Court of Justice holds emergency hearings in the pending case brought by the government of South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The hearings featured further devastating presentations of what the South African ambassador called the “continuing annihilation of the Palestinian people.” (Source: Tom Carter, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 17)—In Hartlepool, England, a Moroccan asylum seeker named Ahmed Ali is sentenced to 45 years in prison for knife attacks and the stabbing death of a 70-year-old on October 15^th. Ali tells police that his acts of violence were revenge for “Israel [killing] innocent children” and he declares: “Allah willing, Gaza would return to be an Arab country.” (Source: Daniel Lavelle, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 17)—Several pro-Palestinian protesters are arrested at the University of Pennsylvania after hundreds descend into a campus building and attempt to occupy it. (Source: Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 17)—Ahmad Ibsais writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “I’ve never felt more disillusioned as a Palestinian.” He writes:

There has always been trauma involved in being a Palestinian. When I was only 13 years old, I saw my people in Gaza slaughtered by 150 occupation shells on evening news, as if our death was casual, replaced a few days later by false ideas of “peace talks”. And, now, for the past seven months, that trauma has been overwhelming: we’ve seen more than 30,000 Palestinians, 14,000 children, slaughtered, with world governments, especially my own US government, not only excusing this onslaught but actively enabling and funding Palestinian death.

However, if you were to turn on the news we are bombarded with coverage of the Met Gala and other inanities. The media, and western world at large, fawns over the costumes draped over an evening of celebrity gossip, with no mention of the 200 Palestinians murdered every day.

Through social media, the catastrophe on Gaza has become all too clear; we see live the footage of children trapped under rubble, fathers carrying the remains of their family members in bags, or the hundreds of other documented and systematic war crimes, as UN rights experts say, committed against the Palestinian people. These images and sounds are interlaced on our feeds with whatever random content is put out by our peers who could not be bothered about the suffering of our people.

Why must I see pictures from a birthday party after witnessing a Palestinian child take their last breath? I have seen more posts and “hot takes” on the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar than the several mass graves found at al-Shifa hospital. Is Palestinian life worth so little that people simply do not care? Is the death of our people inconvenient to normalcy? Here in the States, the media and administrations have spent decades telling us that war is endemic to the Middle East and that the Palestinians have brought this destruction upon themselves. To those in power I ask, do you not hear the screams of the Palestinian child?

But the disillusionment to Palestinian suffering goes far beyond the Met Gala. It is ingrained in the media coverage, or lack thereof, that has led to western disregard for the lives of my people. Each day for the last seven months, I, and those in my personal life, have felt an indescribable grief – not a breath goes by where the constant thought of my family back home or destruction of Palestine does not weigh heavy on my lungs.

[…]

For many in the west, Palestinian lives seem to hold little value. There is a willing ignorance that prevents empathizing and sustaining interest in Palestinian death. It would mean confronting those hard questions about our lives and our government. It would also mean recognizing how the Israeli military strategically schedules its major bombardments during times when they know the western public is preoccupied and conditioned for distraction. They understand the reality that Palestinian life will not interfere with American comfort.

Historically, operations such as 2008’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza commenced shortly after Christmas, when western attention was still fixated on the holidays. The 2014 bombardment that created a generation of orphans in Gaza took place during the World Cup. Israel’s 2018 massacre of Palestinian protesters in Gaza began on the eve of the Met Gala that year.

This pattern was repeated numerous times over the last few months. Christmas of 2023 was one of the deadliest nights to that point, when refugees in the Maghazi camp were massacred on Christmas night. While holiday dinners were hosted in the west, the world forgot that people in the Holy Land bled – the third-oldest church in the world was destroyed due to indiscriminate bombardment. During the Super Bowl this year, Netanyahu ordered the military to submit their military plan to invade Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians were pushed as a “safe zone”, which we now know was invaded during the Met Gala this year.

These are not coincidences, but rather intentional efforts to minimize eyes upon their brazen disregard for human life. Yet, for all their marketing prowess, Israel cannot ultimately control the horrific images of grieving families wailing over the mutilated bodies of loved ones. The west cannot simply look away and retreat their privilege. It should not be easier to disengage than confront the complexities of brutal occupation and cycles of violence. Each failure to acknowledge Palestinian humanity, each decision to buffer yourself from the violence, is as if you drop the bombs yourself.

This disillusionment is inescapable to us Palestinians. There is no red carpet, no star-studded gala to blissfully distract us, and those in Gaza, from the rubble, the screams and looming threat of the next bombardment. We owe it to the Palestinians suffering under the bombs our tax dollars fund to not make their death a backdrop to be scrolled past.
I’ve never felt more disillusioned as a Palestinian | Ahmad Ibsais | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 18)—A quarter of a million march in London to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to mark the 76^th anniversary of the Nakba. Leading the demonstration were Palestinians holding keys as a symbol of intent to return to their stolen land. 10,000 march in Berlin in a similar protest (Source: Chris Marsden, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 19)—An Israeli airstrike targeting a house at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza kills at least 31 people (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 19)—President Biden delivers the keynote address at the Morehouse College graduation commencement. Some students turn their backs on him as he addresses Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, saying: “It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, that’s why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire. I know it angers and frustrates many of you including in my family.” (Source: Trevor Hunnicutt, Reuters)

● 2024 (May 20)—The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. The court’s prosecutor says there are “reasonable grounds to believe that” Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for a series of “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” committed since at least October 8^th. Among the alleged crimes the court lists against the Israeli leaders are the willful killing of civilians and starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Biden calls the ICC prosecutor’s request “outrageous” with Netanyahu saying it is “scandalous” and he is “disgusted” (Source: Laurence Norman, The Wall Street Journal; The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 20)—Campaign finance disclosures reveal that AIPAC has poured $2 million into a New York congressional primary to oppose the progressive incumbent Jamaal Bowman, who told MSNBC that “[AIPAC doesn’t] want Israel to be criticized, they don’t want Israel to be held accountable – they don’t want anyone to mention Palestine or speak up for Palestinian rights and lives.” (Source: Alice Herman and Will Craft, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 20)—Mohamad Bazzi writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Biden wants progressives to believe he’s reigning in Israel. He isn’t.”
Biden wants progressives to believe he’s reining in Israel. He isn’t | Mohamad Bazzi | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 20)—A strike by 2,000 academic workers begins at the University of California, Santa Cruz against the police repression of campus Gaza protests (Source: Norisa Diaz, Jesus Ugarte, David Benson, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 20)—President Biden publicly defends Israel, insisting that they are not committing a genocide in Gaza (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 20)—A pro-Palestinian protester interrupts a speech by Nancy Pelosi as she accepts an award for "distinguished citizen of the year" by the Harvard Club of San Francisco. The protester shouts: “[W]hat good can you be as a distinguished citizen when you are aiding and abetting this war and this ongoing genocide in Palestine?... Shame on everybody here! Shame on you! How dare you do this? Where our own students are getting attacked by your administration!” (Source: Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 20)—Over a hundred pro-Palestine protesters waving flags and signs stage a mass walkout during the Yale graduation commencement (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (May 21)—The Israeli government calls on “civilized nations” to boycott the International Criminal Court warrants against its leaders (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 21)—In an exclusive report, the Guardian finds that settlers intercepting the vital humanitarian supplies to the strip are receiving information about the location of the aid trucks from members of the Israeli police and military. Individual members of Israel’s security forces are tipping off far-right activists and settlers to the location of aid trucks delivering vital supplies to Gaza, enabling the groups to block and vandalize the convoys (Source: Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 21)—The United Nations has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity. It also says no aid trucks have entered the territory in the past two days via the floating pier set up by the US for sea deliveries, and warns that the $320 million project may fail unless Israel starts providing the conditions humanitarian groups need to operate safely. The Pentagon confirms that none of the aid that has been unloaded from the temporary pier the US constructed off the coast of Gaza has been delivered to the broader Palestinian population (Source: Associated Press; CNN)

● 2024 (May 21)—Dozens of riot cops with the University of Michigan and Michigan State Police violently clear out the Ann Arbor Gaza Solidarity encampment. 4 are arrested and 50 are pepper sprayed (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 21)—Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Committee hearing, shouting out the name “Hind Rajab” (Source: Associated Press)

● 2024 (May 21)—At the premier of the film, The Apprentice, actress Cate Blanchett appears to wear a dress with the colors of the Palestinian flag

● 2024 (May 21)—The Israeli government says it will return a camera and broadcast equipment it had seized from The Associated Press in the southern Israeli city of Sderot after the action prompted swift backlash from US officials and press groups. The camera had been used to show a live-stream of Gaza (Source: Jon Passantino, Hadas Gold and Oliver Darcy, CNN)

● 2024 (May 22)—Israel recalls its ambassadors from Norway, Ireland, and Spain in response to their recognition of the Palestinian state (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 22)—British Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy is heckled by pro-Palestine protesters as he tries to speak at an IPPR (The Institute for Public Policy Research) anti-corruption event in London. The disruption lasts for 10 minutes as Lammy defends his position on the war in Gaza. (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (May 22)—An Israeli strike in the central Gaza town of Deir al Balah kills at least 12 people, including small children. CBS News' team visited the town's Al Aqsa hospital soon after the strike and saw an infant being removed from the womb of his mother, who was killed in the strike. Doctors were unable to save the tiny baby. (Source: Imtiaz Tyab, CBS News)

● 2024 (May 23)—A new video released by families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza shows seven female Israeli soldiers after they were captured by Hamas (Source: NBC News)

● 2024 (May 23)—Harvard University’s governing board rejects an effort from faculty to allow a group of 13 students sanctioned due to their participation in pro-Palestine protests to receive their degrees and graduate. The Harvard Corporation veto of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) decision, which The Harvard Crimson describes as “unprecedented,” underlines tensions between the university’s faculty and administration in the wake of mass pro-Palestine protests that have roiled college campuses this year. (Source: Nick Robertson, The Hill)

● 2024 (May 23)—Two-day Israeli raid in the Occupied West Bank leaves 12 Palestinians dead (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 23)—During a stand-up routine at Abu Dhabi Comedy Week, American comedian Dave Chappelle says: “What is happening in Gaza is a direct result of antisemitism in the West. If you are in America, the best thing you can do is to make American-Jews feel safe, feel loved and supported so they can know they don't have to support a country that is committing genocide just to feel safe.” (Source: Gabriel Hays, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 24)—Bodies of three Israeli hostages kidnapped and killed by Hamas militants are recovered in the Gaza Strip—Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux (Source: Romina Ruiz-Goiriena and Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today)

● 2024 (May 24)—The UN’s top court has ruled that Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive” in the city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border. (Source: Tom Watling, The Independent)

● 2024 (May 24)—Actor Nicola Coughlan explains why she’s been wearing a pin while promoting Season 3 of “Bridgerton” to show support for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, saying: “It’s very important for me because I feel like I’m a very privileged person…I’m doing my dream job and I’m getting to travel the world, but then I’m hyper-aware of what’s happening in Rafah at the moment…I’m Irish also, so it’s sort of a different perspective. And I just feel, if I have this global platform, which I do at the minute, I think if I can hopefully raise funds for aid organizations…“You do get told, ‘You won’t get work, you won’t do this,‘” she said. “But I also think, deep down, if you know that you’re coming from a place of ‘I don’t want any innocent people to suffer,’ then I’m not worried about people’s reactions.” (Source: Paige Skinner, HuffPost)

● 2024 (May 24)—During Harvard’s commencement ceremony, student Shruthi Kumar gives an unscripted condemnation of the university after 13 students are barred from graduation over involvement in anti-genocide protests. She says: “I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and the right to civil disobedience on campus…Harvard, do you hear us?” (Source: Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 24)—3500 attend the “People’s Conference for Palestine” in Detroit, Michigan. (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 24)—Model Bella Hadid wears a red keffiyeh-inspired dress at the Cannes Film Festival, in a nod to her Palestinian heritage. (Source: Rosa Rahimi, CNN)

● 2024 (May 25)—Thousands protest in Tel Aviv, calling for the resignation of Netanyahu, an end to the war, and the return of the hostages (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 25)—Israeli military sirens sound in Tel Aviv for the first time in months as Hamas says it has launched a “big missile” attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 26)—Israeli airstrike kills 45 in Rafah after Hamas launches rockets at Tel Aviv. The bombing set fire to the tents of displaced Palestinian refugees. A Palestinian paramedic on scene described how: “We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs … We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly…We retrieved a large number of child martyrs from the Israeli bombardment, including a child without a head and children whose bodies have turned into fragments.” While world leaders like France’s Macron denounce the brutal bombing, Netanyahu calls the airstrike a “tragic” mistake (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 27)—On a radio show, former Harvard University professor Alan Dershowitz denounces the pro-Palestine college protests, saying: “This is much like what happened in Germany in the early 1930s, when Nazi students blocked Jews from entering universities… [During] Harvard graduation the other day, students walked out. Students wore Hamas-supportive garb. Students were on Hamas' side. They are our future leaders… What worries me is 10, 15 years from now, these Hitler youth will be members of Congress, will be on the editorial board of the New York Times, will be owning media stations … and substitute their own radical progressive anti-American craziness for the stability that our Constitution calls for.” On the show Dershowitz announces his intention to start a group called "Hurt a Jew, We Sue You," targeting individuals responsible for antisemitic actions (Source: New York Post)

● 2024 (May 28)—Israeli tanks seen entering Rafah (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 28)—Officials from Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit, Michigan, have ordered 200 students to take down their encampment against the ongoing genocide in Gaza (Source: Phyllis Steele, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 28)—Hundreds of protesters gather at the European Commission Headquarters in Barcelona and outside the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Madrid to demand a tougher hand with Israel and stronger sanctions (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 28)—During a visit to Israel, former Republican presidential candidate Niki Haley writes “finish them” on IDF artillery shells (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 28)—A Guardian exclusive report details Israel’s 9-year “war” on the International Criminal Court. Investigation reveals how intelligence agencies tried to derail war crimes prosecution. The Guardian reports that the former head of the Mossad allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation
Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed | Israel | The Guardian
Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 28)—Paul Rogers writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “These inhumane attacks on Rafah are no accident. They’re central to the IDF’s brutal, losing strategy.”
These inhumane attacks on Rafah are no accident. They’re central to the IDF’s brutal, losing strategy | Paul Rogers | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 28)—3 Israeli soldiers killed in Rafah offensive, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since October 7^th to 290 (Source: Dov Liber, The Wall Street Journal)

● 2024 (May 29)—Reports find that US-made weapons were used in the Israeli airstrike that caused a deadly fire that killed over 45 displaced Palestinians on May 26. The GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) are manufactured by Boeing and the specific bombs used in the massacre were most likely produced at the company’s facility in Santa Clarita, California (Source: The Guardian; Tom Hall and Dan Conway, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 29)—Several dozen student activists from the Palestine solidarity camp at the University of Manchester have now barricaded themselves inside the historic Whitworth Hall. (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (May 29)—A large crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy a train station in Italy's Bologna to campaign against the war in Gaza (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 29)—Vanity Fair France has issued an apology after editing a photo of actor Guy Pearce, in which a Palestinian flag pin he wore is not visible (Source: Leah Asmelash, CNN)

● 2024 (May 29)—Singer Dua Lipa denounces Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Instagram, saying: “Burning children alive can never be justified…The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza. (Source: The Guardian; The Hill)

● 2024 (May 29)—A Palestinian-American nurse named Hesen Jabr has been fired at the New York University Langone Medical Center after delivering a speech during Nurse’s Week decrying the "genocide in Gaza." (Source: Danielle Wallace, Fox News)

● 2024 (May 29)—Actor Rachel Zegler condemns the AI-generated “All Eyes on Rafah” post that has been circulating on social media, saying on Instagram: “I genuinely find it disturbing that the only way so many people have suddenly felt comfortable sharing their support for palestinian lives is via an Al-generated image that doesn’t even begin to touch upon the actual horrors of what these human beings are experiencing.” Others claim that AI-images are beneficial because they can help bypass the algorithms that social media companies use to censor discussions on Palestine (Source: Shruti Rajkumar, HuffPost)

● 2024 (May 29)—Before Taylor Swift’s concert in Madrid, #SwiftiesForPalestine begins trending on X/Twitter (Source: Jessica M. Goldstein, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 29)—During a White House press briefing a reporter asks National Security spokesman John Kirby “How many more charred corpses does he have to see before the president considers a change?” He responds: “The president does not make decisions or execute policy based on public opinion polling” and emphasizes that Israel’s strikes in Rafah are “limited” and “targeted” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 29)—The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reports that a convoy of three ambulances was bombed by Israeli war planes. When one of the ambulances caught fire as a result and the paramedics attempted to extinguish the blaze, Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing them (Source: Oscar Grenfell, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (May 30)—Two more US officials resign over the Biden administration’s position on the Gaza war. Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), says he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was cancelled at the last minute by USAID leadership. Stacy Gilbert, a state department official from the bureau of population, refugees and migration, sent an email to colleagues explaining that she was leaving because of an official finding by the department that Israel was not deliberately obstructing the flow of food or other aid into Gaza, which is untrue. (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2024 (May 30)—Arwa Mahdawi writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies?” pointing out that “Politicians parroted untrue rumors that Hamas had beheaded Israeli babies. When the children are Palestinian, they shrug.”
Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

● 2024 (May 30)—The United Nations warns that the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza has dropped by 67% since Israel launched a military offensive in the southern city of Rafah earlier this month (Source: Christian Edwards and Ibrahim Dahman, CNN)

● 2024 (May 30)—In an interview, Oscar-nominated photographer Nan Goldin says: “It is so shameful, as a Jewish person. I was brought up believing that Jewish people, like me, were exceptional in our kindness and humanity. The genocide in Gaza has affected me so very deeply. (Source: Maira Butt, The Independent)

● 2024 (May 30)—Hamas says it has told mediators it will not take part in more indirect negotiations during ongoing aggression but are ready for a “complete agreement” including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stopped its war on Gaza (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (May 30)—During his speech at the Yeshiva University’s commencement, pro-Israeli American politician John Fetterman criticizes Harvard for allowing “anti-Semitism” on their campus while wearing a bracelet from the music festival in Israel that was attacked by Hamas on October 7 (Source: New York Post)

● 2024 (May 31)—Egypt has detained several students who were trying to promote pro-Palestinian boycotts and solidarity campaigns, the latest sign that it does not want to leave space for activism over the war in Gaza despite growing official criticism of Israel. According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent Cairo-based group, at least 125 people have been arrested since the Gaza war began in October, 95 of whom are still being held in pre-trial detention on charges including membership of a banned group or spreading false news (Source: Farah Saafan, Reuters)

● 2024 (May 31)—According to a survey by Pew Research a majority of Israelis support their country’s military response to Hamas in Gaza but are divided over its scope. The survey found 39 percent of Israelis said that the country’s military response against Hamas in Gaza has been “about right,” and 34 percent said it has “not gone far enough” — indicating continued support for the war. Another 19 percent said they think it has gone too far. (Source: Niha Masih, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (May 31)—Pro-Palestinian protesters take over parts of the Brooklyn Museum, hanging a banner above the main entrance, occupying much of the lobby and scuffling with police (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (May 31)—Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a new 3-phase peace deal that offers a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all the hostages. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still says there can be no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed (Source: Julian Borger and Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian; Dan Williams, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 1)—Pro-Palestinian students walk out of the University of Chicago graduation (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 1)—Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march in Paris demanding an end to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 2)—Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu confirms that Israel has accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by US president Joe Biden, though he describes it as flawed and in need of much more work (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 2)—The American singer Kehlani makes a pro-Palestine statement in their music video for their new single “Next 2 U.” The video shows background dancers performing with Palestinian flags while wearing suits that incorporate keffiyehs. (Source: Angela Yang, NBC News)
Kehlani - Next 2 U [Official Music Video] (youtube.com)

● 2024 (June 3)—Israeli officials confirm the deaths of four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari says they were killed during an operation against Hamas in Khan Yunis (Source: MSNBC)

● 2024 (June 3)—Students and faculty at the University of Toronto hold a ceremony for Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza who they said will never be able to graduate themselves. (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 3)—Pro-Palestinian graffiti spray-painted on the exterior of a Michigan law firm is being investigated as a hate crime (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 3)—Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters occupying an Israeli consulate building in San Francisco (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 4)—A wealthy American benefactor and graduate of Columbia University who served in World War II has given a $260 million donation to an Israeli university, as the fallout from months of protests and police operations on U.S. campuses continues. (Source: Patrick Smith, NBC News)

● 2024 (June 4)—A group of about 50 pro-Palestine protesters has set up an encampment outside the Los Angeles City Hall. About 20 tents line the sidewalks outside the building and several of them have Palestinian flags and phrases like “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza.” (Source: Lauren Irwin, The Hill)

● 2024 (June 4)—Speaking to Time magazine, President Biden says that there is “every reason” to believe Netanyahu is prolonging war for political gain (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 4)—Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, says that the group is not seeking to widen its conflict with Israel but is ready to fight any war imposed on it, adding that “Any Israeli expansion of the war on Lebanon will be met with devastation, destruction and displacement in Israel.” (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (June 4)—The US House of Representatives passes House Resolution 8282, also known as the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act. The GOP-backed resolution sanctions the International Criminal Court for taking actions against Israel without formal US consent. (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 4)—Protesters block traffic on Tel Aviv highway calling for a hostage release deal (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 5)—Hezbollah rockets have sparked days of bushfires in northern Israel, with swathes of forest reserve destroyed and 11 people hospitalized for smoke inhalation. (Source: Lucy Williamson, BBC)

● 2024 (June 5)—Thousands of Israelis take part in a “Jerusalem Day” parade, a nationalist march through a Palestinian area in Jerusalem. Israeli participants shout: “Death to the Arabs!” The Biden administration “strongly condemns” disturbing footage of Israeli right-wing activists attacking a Palestinian journalist during the march (Source: Julia Frankel, John Bowden, and Andrew Feinberg, The Independent)

● 2024 (June 5)—Experts say starvation already causing mass death and lasting harm in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 5)—The website for the Columbia Law Review is no longer accessible following the publication of an article critical of Israel that the publication’s board says did not go through the proper review process. At issue is the publication of an article that said Palestinians are living under a “brutally sophisticated structure of oppression” by Israel (Source: Jordan Valinsky, CNN)

● 2024 (June 5)—The New York Times reveals that Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign in 2023 targeting US lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza. The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military. ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was used to generate many of the posts. The campaign also created three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles. (Source: Sheera Frenkel, “Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War,” The New York Times)

● 2024 (June 6)—At least 40 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school run by a UN agency in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. An investigation by Al Jazeera confirms that the missiles fired on the camp were equipped with US-supplied “precision” guidance systems. A piece of debris from one of the weapons used in the attack was traced to the American firm Honeywell. (Source: Barak Ravid, Axios; CNN; Jordan Shilton, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 6)— Hospital officials in Gaza say at least 65 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Deir El-Balah (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 6)—Studies find that the carbon cost of rebuilding Gaza will be greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions generated individually by 135 countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the unprecedented death toll. Reconstructing the estimated 200,000 apartment buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, bakeries, water and sewage plants damaged and destroyed by Israel in the first four months of the war on Gaza will generate as much as 60m tonnes of CO₂ equivalent tCO₂e (Source: Nina Lakhani, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 6)—Police move against pro-Palestine student protesters at Stanford University who have barricaded themselves in the President’s office (Source: Reuters; Newsweek)

● 2024 (June 6)—Pro-Palestine activists interrupt Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live over her stance on Israel’s war on Gaza, shouting out “15,000 children dead.” The activists were forcibly removed by security guards. (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (June 6)—The NAACP urges President Joe Biden to "indefinitely" halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and pressure the US ally to end its war in the Gaza Strip, sending a reminder that his support for Israel could hurt him among Black voters in November's election. (Source: Jarrett Renshaw and Kat Stafford, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 6)—Houthi militants have fired a new missile at Israel called the “Palestine,” which is believed to be able to fly at hypersonic speeds. The Yemen-based rebel group targeted the southern port city of Eilat with the new missile, though no damage or injuries were reported. Footage released by the group claims to show the launch of the Palestine, its warhead painted in the checkered pattern of a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. Experts say it is a precision-guided solid-fuel missile, more advanced than the liquid propellant missiles without guidance that the Houthis have been using until now. (Source: Sophia Yan, The Telegraph)
Houthis attack Israel with new missile called the Palestine (youtube.com)

● 2024 (June 6)—US Congress invites Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint-session of Congress on July 24 (Source: Tom Carter, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 6)—To show solidarity with Palestine, delegations of several countries leave the room when the Israeli delegate starts his speech at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 6)—Variety reveals that “prominent Hollywood marketing and branding guru” Ashlee Margolis, founder of the exclusive Beverly Hills public relations and marketing firm The A List, has informed her staff not to work with anyone “posting against Israel.” She wrote: “Anyone saying Israel is committing a ‘genocide’ is someone we will pause on working with, as that is simply not true.”

● 2024 (June 6)—The Hill fires Briahna Joy Gray for her critical reporting on Israel. The firing comes days after Gray rolled her eyes during an on-air interview with the sister of an October 7^th Israeli hostage. Gray responded on X: “There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech — particularly when it’s critical of the state of Israel.” (Source: Jon Levine, Patrick Reilly, New York Post)

● 2024 (June 6)—200 people gather outside San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) to protest the genocide being carried out by the Israeli government and military in Gaza. The protest was organized by California Jewish Artists for Palestine (CJAFP), along with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

● 2024 (June 6)—Zaya Benazzo and Maurizio Benazzo release their documentary Where Olive Trees Weep, which explores the lives of Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank
Home - Where Olive Trees Weep

● 2024 (June 7)—After killing 13,000 Palestinian children over eight months, the UN adds Israel to a list of states committing violations against children (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 8)—Israeli forces rescue four hostages alive from two separate locations in the central Gaza area of al-Nuseirat. The hostages, who had been kidnapped at the October 7^th 2023 Nova music festival, are named as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40. During the rescue operation, Israeli forces killed 274 Palestinians and wounded 698 in what the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, calls a “massacre,” with a UN aid describing scenes of “shredded bodies on the ground.” Reports claim that Israeli special forces used an aid truck and a civilian car to carry out the operation and that the hostages were evacuated using the US-made “humanitarian” pier. Reports also claim that a US special “hostage cell” played a crucial role in the rescue of the four Israeli captives. The IDF boasts that it used “high-precision American technology that had not been used before in the process of freeing the hostages.” Human rights activist Kenneth Roth argues that the hostage raid broke international law and the international criminal court should investigate (Source: Maayan Lubell, Reuters; Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian; The Palestine Chronicle; Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 8)—Thousands gather at the White House for a pro-Palestine demonstration organized by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), CODEPINK, and the Council on American Islamic Relations. Police use pepper spray as protesters unfurl a giant red banner to symbolize Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s genocide (Source: Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 8)—Chandni Desai writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Israel has destroyed or damaged 80% of schools in Gaza. This is scholasticide”
Israel has destroyed or damaged 80% of schools in Gaza. This is scholasticide | Chandni Desai | The Guardian

● 2024 (June 8)—At the Queen’s Reading Room Festival, Harry Potter actor Miriam Margolyes says that Charles Dickens would have been pro-Palestine (Source: Maira Butt, The Independent)

● 2024 (June 8)—Hundreds of protesters lay on the ground outside Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum of modern art in Spain to mimic casualties in Gaza and accuse Israel of carrying out a genocide (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 8)—Israeli police used water cannons in Tel Aviv to disperse protesters at a rally against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 9)—Moderate Israeli politician Benny Gantz resigns from the war cabinet, making Prime Minister Netanyahu more reliant on his far-right allies (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 9)—Hamas claims that 3 hostages, including a US citizen, died in the Israeli raid that killed more than 200 Palestinians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 10)—UN Security council endorses US-backed hostages-for-ceasefire Gaza deal. Israeli far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich calls any deal with Hamas “collective suicide” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 10)—Writing on the World Socialist Website, Jacob Crosse reports that: “New York Representative and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted two high-level Zionist lobbyists (Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Stacy Burdett, a longtime high-level executive at the Anti-Defamation League) on her congressional X account to slander opposition to the state of Israel and the US-backed genocide it is currently carrying out as “antisemitic.”

● 2024 (June 10)—4 Israeli soldiers are killed when the explosives they were using to clear a building explode prematurely. Among the dead are 19-year-old Almog Shalom (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 11)—United Nation human rights officials say that the Israeli operation that freed four hostages in central Gaza "may amount to war crimes” noting that: “The manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution -- as set out under the laws of war -- were respected by the Israeli forces” (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (June 11)—Hamas accepts a UN resolution backing a plan to end the war with Israel in Gaza and is ready to negotiate details (Source: Daphne Psaledakis and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 11)—An end-of-term exam at Oxford University has been cancelled after pro-Palestine students occupied the building (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (June 11)—Brooklyn museum director and multiple Jewish board members' homes are vandalized. A sign taped outside one home reads: “Anne Pasternak, Brooklyn Museum, White Supremacist Zionists.” (Source: New York Post)

● 2024 (June 12)—Hezbollah launches close to 100 projectiles into Israel in response to the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon the previous evening, marking one of its largest rocket barrages at northern Israel since the start of the war on Gaza (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (June 12)—US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says that Hamas has proposed “unworkable” changes to the ceasefire plan (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 12)—The UN releases their first in-depth report on Israel’s “crimes against humanity” during their genocide in Gaza. The commission concluded that the Israeli military and government “committed the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare; murder or willful killing; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; forcible transfer; sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity; and [sexual and gender-based violence] amounting to torture or inhuman and cruel treatment.” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 12)—Israeli soldiers have launched fireballs into Lebanon using a medieval-style trebuchet. Footage shows IDF soldiers next to the trebuchet as it fires the flaming projectile over the border, right into Lebanese plantations. In an interview, an IDF spokesman says: “This is a local initiative and not a tool that is widely used. The area on the Lebanese border is characterized by boulders, thickets, and dense thorn vegetation, which poses a challenge to the IDF troops deployed in defense.” (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (June 12)—The UNRWA accuses Israel of frequently preventing aid deliveries (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 12)—A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) shows support for armed struggle climbed by 8 percentage points to 54% of those surveyed in the Occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Support for Hamas rose by 6 percentage points to 40%. Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, had 20% backing. (Source: Ali Sawafta, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 12)—Students at the London School of Economics (LSE) have been ordered to leave their pro-Palestinian encampment after losing the first stage of a legal battle. The students first set up the encampment on May 14 (Source: Poppy Wood, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (June 12)—Israeli government accounts on the social media site X have been posting a video with a quote from freed hostage Mia Schem, in which she says that “there are no innocent civilians” in Gaza (Source: David Ingram, NBC News)

● 2024 (June 12)—Freed Israeli hostage Noa Argamani says that she and other hostages were kept as slaves by Hamas. Hamas officials admit that they do not know how many of the remaining hostages are alive (Source: Daily Mail; The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 13)—The political group “Abandon Biden” holds an online presidential forum to hear from candidates opposed to the genocide in Gaza, including Jill Stein (Green Party), Cornel West (independent) and Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation-PSL) (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 14)—The US imposes sanctions on the Israeli group Tsav 9 for their role in blocking and destroying aid deliveries to Gaza (Source: Simon Lewis, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 14)—More than 60% of Gazans report that they have lost a family member in the current war with Israel (Source: Jesus Mesa, Newsweek)

● 2024 (June 15)—8 Israeli soldiers have been killed in a blast that engulfed their armored vehicle in southern Gaza, in the biggest loss of life for the IDF in a single incident since January (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 16)—Israel’s defence minister has rejected Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to work together on defusing an escalating conflict along the northern border with Lebanon. (Source: Nicola Smith, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (June 16)—Kushie Amin writes an op-ed in Al Jazeera titled “How not to show solidarity with the Palestinian people,” which criticizes Malala Yousafzai for co-producing the musical Suffs with Hillary Clinton. Amin argues that while Yousafzai should be commended for speaking up for Palestinian women and donating $300,000 to Palestinian charities, she should also be criticized for not speaking out against the US role in Israeli violence in Gaza, particularly the role of pro-Israeli figures like Clinton

● 2024 (June 16)—The Israeli military announces a daily “tactical pause” to allow aid into Gaza. Netanyahu reportedly criticizes the decision amid increasing divisions within the IDF (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 16)—Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu dissolves his war cabinet that had been overseeing the conflict in Gaza, apparently moving to solidify his grasp on decision-making over the fighting with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 16)—Democrat Rio Khanna says that Biden is “running out of time” to gain the support of young voters who are against the genocide in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 17)—Israeli double strike on houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp kills 17 Palestinians. A reporter for Al Jazeera describes how: “The first strike killed ten people, including women and children. Five of them were from the same family. An hour later, the second attack targeted another family’s home. The victims include not only the parents and their children, but also the grandparents” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 18)—A United Nations report finds that the conflict in Gaza has created unprecedented soil, water, and air pollution in the region, destroying sanitation systems and leaving tons of debris from explosive devices (Source: Gloria Dickie and Alison Withers, Reuters)

● 2024 (June 18)—Israeli TV station Kan reports that the Israel Defense Force's Gaza Division distributed an internal intelligence document on September 19, 2023, outlining the details of Hamas' planned raid on October 7. The document states that the IDF had observed Hamas conducting a series of trainings where militant fighters practiced attacking both Israeli military stations and civilian kibbutzim communities. The IDF's Southern Command and Gaza Division also wrote in the document that they expected Hamas to take between 200 and 250 hostages. The officials even had intel on how Hamas intended to treat the hostages in certain extreme circumstances and what rules Hamas set for executing hostages (Source: Grace Eliza Goodwin, Business Insider)

● 2024 (June 18)—Hezbollah releases drone surveillance footage it says shows key Haifa ports in Israel. The IDF releases a statement declaring that operational plans for a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon have been approved (Source: The Guardian; Jordan Shilton)

● 2024 (June 18)—Actor Ben Stiller writes an op-ed titled “Why I Can’t Stay Silent About the Suffering in Israel and Gaza.”
Ben Stiller on the Israel-Hamas War and the Need for Peace (msn.com)

● 2024 (June 19)—An official United Nations inquiry into violations of international law by Israel in Palestine accuses Israeli leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the “extermination” of Palestinians in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Commission member Chris Sidoti declared: “the only conclusion you can draw [from the report] is that the Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world.” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 19)—Pro-Palestine protesters target an awards ceremony at the University of Oxford honoring figures including Sir Michael Palin. (Source: Poppy Wood, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (June 19)—The White House disputes Netanyahu’s claim that the US is withholding weapons from Israel (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 20)—Netanyahu rebukes an IDF spokesperson who warns that Hamas cannot be defeated because it is an “ideology” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 20)—The IDF transfers powers in the Occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants led by far-right Bezalel Smotrich (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 20)—AIPAC breaks its own record in donations to unseat New York representative Jamaal Bowman in the “most expensive House primary ever” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 20)—Charges dropped against Columbia students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 21)—UNRWA school damaged by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis area of Gaza (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (June 21)—Israeli tank strike on a Palestinian refugee camp near a Red Cross office in Rafah kills 25 (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 21)—Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters joins Yusuf/Cat Stevens and rapper Lowkey in a “Stand Up for Palestine” concert at London’s St Pancras New Church (Source: Chris Marsden, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 22)—A group of anonymous volunteer editors of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia declare that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is “generally unreliable” to provide information on the Israel-Palestinian conflict “due to significant evidence that the ADL acts as a pro-Israeli advocacy group and has repeatedly published false and misleading statements as fact” (Source: Michael Collins, USA Today)

● 2024 (June 22)—Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on two densely populated locations in Gaza City aimed at assassinating a senior Hamas commander. The strikes hit the al-Shati neighborhood, known as Beach camp, and the al-Tuffah district, which were both struck by significant explosions, killing 38 people (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 22)—A floating pier built by the US military for seaborne humanitarian deliveries to Gaza has proved itself to be fragile in the face of rougher seas than expected, and the future of the whole $230m project is now in question. The pier has been usable for just 12 days since it began operations on May 17 (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 23)—Clashes break out between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators in front of the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles after the synagogue hosted an event advertising real estate in the “best Anglo neighborhoods in Israel.” Democratic mayor Karen Bass condemns the violence and suggests a city-wide mask ban targeted at pro-Palestine protesters wearing keffiyehs (Source: Landon Mion, Fox News)

● 2024 (June 23)—A video showing Israeli troops driving with a wounded Palestinian man strapped to the hood of a military jeep after a raid in the Occupied West Bank has sparked outrage, prompting accusations of egregious mistreatment and human shielding, amid the Israeli military’s intensifying operations in the territory. The Israel Defense Forces said the incident violated military protocol and is under investigation.
(12) PRCS on X: "The Israeli occupation forces prevented Palestine Red Crescent crews from providing first aid to an injured person in the Jabarat area of #Jenin. They then placed the injured person on the front of a military jeep and detained him before later allowing our crews to transfer him https://t.co/sQ9GXWGrDz" / X

● 2024 (June 23)—Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant flies to US for “critical” talks on the offensive against Gaza and Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 24)—The Guardian has uncovered evidence showing how Israel has relaunched a controversial entity known as “Concert” as part of a broader public relations campaign to target US college campuses and redefine antisemitism in US law. The relaunch of the Israeli government program called “Concert” (later changed to Voices of Israel) is designed to carry out what Israel calls “mass consciousness activities” targeted largely at the US and Europe. Voices of Israel previously worked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel. Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations and other voices of dissent.
Exclusive: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (June 24)—A metal fence has been erected around an Oxford student encampment protesting the genocide in Gaza that was set up on May 6 outside the Museum of Natural History in Oxford and in Cambridge. The authorities plan to dismantle the camp on the 25^th (Source: Dan Freeman & Dave Gilyeat, BBC)

● 2024 (June 24)—Gisha, an Israeli human rights group dedicated to the free movement of Palestinians, has assembled a list of times that Israel has banned from entering Gaza– from newspapers to notebooks and spices to sweets
Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza | Gaza | The Guardian

● 2024 (June 24)—The Craft Alliance, an arts center in St. Louis, Missouri, has censored two pro-Palestinian artists who dared to make a statement against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Officials of the Craft Alliance shut down an exhibition by local artists Dani Collette and Allora McCullough, accusing the pair of using “antisemitic slogan[s] and imagery” that called for “violence and the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.” Their exhibition at the Craft Alliance, with its pro-Palestinian themes, was entitled Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope. One of the works taken out of the show, according to St. Louis Public Radio, “was a bowl with a keffiyeh print, titled ‘Symbol of Solidarity,’ and the other was several watermelon seed-shaped pieces with the phrase ‘Land Back’ carved into them.” A few title cards for Collette’s pieces were also removed, including for the artworks “Indigenous to Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea.” Not only was the exhibition entirely closed down several days later by the Craft Alliance, but McCullough was also fired from her job giving classes at the arts center. (Source: David Walsh, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 24)—Israeli far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich says he aims to establish sovereignty over the Occupied West Bank and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 25)—An investigation by The Guardian finds that Israel’s genocide in Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history and some within the IDF appear to have viewed journalists working in Gaza for outlets controlled by or affiliated with Hamas to be legitimate military targets. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) records at least 103 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in the violence in Gaza. Other lists suggest that number is higher (Source: Harry Davies, Manisha Ganguly, David Pegg, Hoda Osman, Yuval Abraham and Bethan McKernan, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 25)—John Oakes writes an op-ed for The Guardian titled “The starvation of Gaza is a perverse repudiation of Judaism’s values.”
The starvation of Gaza is a perverse repudiation of Judaism’s values | John Oakes | The Guardian

● 2024 (June 25)—Israel’s Supreme Court ends military draft-exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (June 25)—New York Progressive Jamaal Bowman loses House Democratic primary to George Latimer, who was backed by pro-Israel groups in the most expensive House primary ever (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 26)—The White House announces that the United States has provided Israel with more than $6.5 billion in weapons since October 7. This figure is nearly double the US’s typical annual Israel military aid budget of $3.4 billion and will be further supplemented by $14 billion in weapons funding allocated by Congress this year. (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 26)—Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman visits Israel, where Netanyahu says: “We’ve been through dark times in these months of anguish, war. During that time, I can say that Israel has had no better friend than Sen. John Fetterman.” (Source: Nick Robertson, The Hill)

● 2024 (June 26)—The art and film festival South by Southwest will not receive sponsorship from the US Army for its 2025 festival after several music acts dropped out of the 2024 SXSW lineup in response to the Army sponsorship, citing the US military’s relationship with Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza (Source: Selome Hailu, Variety)

● 2024 (June 27)—During his trip to DC, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has warned that Israel’s military is capable of taking Lebanon “back to the stone age” in any war with Hezbollah militants (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 27)—Local prosecutors dismiss criminal trespassing charges against 79 people arrested during a pro-Palestine protest at the University of Texas in April (Source: Lily Kepner and Christopher Cann, USA Today)

● 2024 (June 27)—The Leeds offices of JP Morgan and a branch of Barclays in the city have been vandalized by pro-Palestinian activists, who sprayed the entrances to the buildings in red paint (Source: Alex Barton, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (June 27)—Save the Children finds that 15,000 children have been killed, and up to 21,000 children are estimated to be missing in Gaza, many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 27)—During the first 2024 US Presidential debate, Donald Trump refuses to say whether he would support an independent Palestinian state, saying: “I’d have to see.” He accused Biden of wanting to be a Palestinian, but said that he was a “weak, bad Palestinian,” and emphasized the Biden should let Israel “finish the job” (Source: Laura Kelly, The Hill)

● 2024 (June 27)—People applying for naturalization in Germany will now be required to affirm Israel’s right to exist, under changes to the country’s citizenship law (Source: Sophie Tanno, CNN)

● 2024 (June 28)—Israeli soldiers have demolished 11 homes and destroyed several other buildings in the Occupied West Bank, leaving 50 Palestinians homeless (Source: Bethan McKernan, The Guardian)

● 2024 (June 28)—Britain has challenged the right of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The UK claims the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Israeli nationals (Source: Charles Hymas, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (June 28)—Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters tried to disrupt President Biden’s Manhattan fundraiser Friday night and clashed with cops (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (June 29)—The Biden administration has sent Israel more than 10,000 city block-destroying 2,000-pound bombs since October (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (June 29)—President Joe Biden’s $230 million Gaza pier has been removed due to heavy winds and high seas, US officials say, and it is unclear if and when the military will reinstall it (Source: Haley Strack, National Review)

● 2024 (June 30)—Rene Lichtman, an 86-year-old Holocaust child survivor, leads a vigil in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills to protest the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. The event, held outside the of the Zekelman Holocaust Museum, was sponsored by the Coalition Against Genocide (Source: The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 1)—Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men take to the streets of Jerusalem to protest Israel’s top court decision that the military must start drafting religious students. The IDF sprayed the protesters with skunk water, a non-lethal substance used to control large demonstrations (Source: Wall Street Journal; The Telegraph)

● 2024 (July 1)—In an article on The World Socialist Website titled “Genocide by Design: The Gaza Massacre is made in Washington,” Andre Damon argues that by sending Israel more 2,000-pounds bombs, “the Biden administration is consciously and deliberately seeking the complete destruction of Gaza and the massacre of as many Palestinians as possible.”

● 2024 (July 1)—In an op-ed in The Guardian, Mohamad Bazzi argues that “Gaza has turned into Biden’s most perplexing moral and foreign policy failure” and “the US president has squandered his leverage over Netanyahu even as the Israeli leader continues to undermine him.”

● 2024 (July 1)—Israel releases 55 Palestinian detainees from Gaza, including Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of the Shifa hospital, who said that the Israelis subjected him and the others to “daily physical and psychological humiliation” (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (July 1)—Israel has ordered the mass displacement of another 250,000 people from the city of Khan Younis in Gaza (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 2)—Harrison Mann, a former US military intelligence analyst who left the military last month over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, warns that Israel risks going to war against Hezbollah to ensure Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, but it would be a miscalculation that could lead to mass civilian deaths in both Lebanon and Israel. He also warns that such a disastrous new war would pull the US into a regional conflict (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 2)—12 former US government officials who quit their posts over Biden’s Gaza policy, release their first joint public statement, saying: “Joe Biden’s policy on Gaza is a failure and a threat to U.S. national security that dehumanizes both Palestinians and Jews.” (Source: Akbar Shahid Ahmed, HuffPost)
Exclusive: 12 Biden Administration Resignees Slam Gaza Policy | HuffPost Latest News

● 2024 (July 2)—Maryam Hassanein, an employee at the Interior Department, becomes the third Biden administration appointee to quit over the government’s role in the genocide in Gaza (Source: Akbar Shahid Ahmed, Huff Post)

● 2024 (July 2)—The Indigenous Embassy of Jerusalem released a video of the grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation of Ontario, Alvin Fiddler, speaking about the identification of Indigenous peoples with Israel’s struggle (Source: Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365News)

● 2024 (July 3)—Israel kills a senior Hezbollah commander in a drone strike outside Tyre. In the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, over 400 people have been killed inside Lebanon by Israeli forces since October 7, including at least 80 civilians. About Israeli 10 civilians and 18 Israeli troops have been killed in their fight against Hezbollah (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 3)—More than 37,953 Palestinians have been killed and 87,266 have been wounded in the Israeli military genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023. During the same time period, 320 Israeli soldiers have been killed (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 4)—In retaliation for the killing of one of their commanders, Hezbollah fires 200 rockets into Israel, with one hitting a mall in Acre (Source: The Guardian; Reuters)

● 2024 (July 4)—63 Members of Knesset send a letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) demanding they hold a declaratory debate and vote over opposition to Palestinian statehood. The letter reads: “The Israeli Knesset categorically opposes founding a Palestinian state west of the Jordan (river). Founding a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel will be an existential threat to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region. It will only be a short matter of time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terror, acting in coordination with the Axis led by Iran, to wipe out the state of Israel.” (Source: Eliav Breuer, The Jerusalem Post)

● 2024 (July 4)—Senator Fatima Payman has resigned from Australia's ruling Labor Party, days after voting against her party that refused to support a motion on Palestinian statehood. Labor has strict penalties for those who undermine its policy positions, and Payman was already “indefinitely suspended” from the party’s caucus after vowing to do it again (Source: BBC)

● 2024 (July 4)—Pro-Palestine protesters have climbed the roof of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra and unfurled several banners, one of them reading: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Four people from the Renegade Activists group, dressed in dark clothing, stood on the roof of the building for about an hour, rolling out several large black and white banners, including one reading: “No peace on stolen land”. One of the protesters gave a speech using a megaphone accusing the Israeli government of “war crimes” in Gaza with the support of the United States, and the Australian government of being complicit in the alleged abuses. “We declare to the Australian government we will continue to unmask and resist the US imperial, hegemonic and capitalist interests you devote yourself to,” the protester yelled. (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 4)—During elections, Palestinian flags outside British polling stations are being taken down amid concerns of voter intimidation (Source: Camilla Turner, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (July 4)—According to Peace Now, Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the Occupied West Bank in more than three decades. Peace Now said authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 sq km (nearly 5 sq miles) of land in the Jordan valley, indicating it was “the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords.” Settlement monitors say the recent land acquisition links Israeli settlements along a crucial corridor adjacent to Jordan, a development they say threatens the formation of a future Palestinian state. (Source: Lorenzo Tondo and Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 4)—US Senator Lindsey Graham writes on X: “The Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth. It will take years to fix this problem. When I hear ‘from the river to the sea,’ it reminds me of ‘the Final Solution.’ The Hamas terrorists are the SS on steroids.” (Source: Danielle Greyman-Kennard, The Jerusalem Post)

● 2024 (July 5)—Lebanese farmers fear their fields are no longer safe and have been poisoned by what they believe is Israel's unlawful use of white phosphorus during their shelling (Source: Sean Hogan, Reuters)

● 2024 (July 6)—Hamas fighters launched 6 back-to-back attacks on Israeli soldiers in Gaza in the last 24 hours. In one such attack, Al-Qassam Brigades' claim to have killed 10 IDF soldiers and destroyed two Merkava 4 tanks with a thermobaric rocket. Hamas ally - Palestinian Islamic Jihad - released a video showing close-quarters combat between Israeli soldiers and its armed wing inside a home in north Gaza's Shujaiya (Source: The Times of India)

● 2024 (July 6)—Jeremy Corbyn delivers a speech at a large pro-Palestine march, saying: “We are a movement.” Tens of thousands of protesters called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the first time under the new Labour Government in central London (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (July 7)—Haaretz investigation finds that Israel deployed the Hannibal directive at 3 sites to prevent the kidnapping of soldiers during the October 7^th assault, potentially endangering or killing civilians in the process (Source: Bethan McKernan, The Guardian)
Israel’s use of Hannibal Directive led to many deaths on October 7, including Israeli civilians - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

● 2024 (July 8)—The Lancet, the prestigious peer-reviewed British medical journal, has warned that the true death toll in the Gaza genocide could be 186,000 or more. The official death toll since the onset of the Israeli attack, according to Gazan government sources, is 37,396. But The Lancet noted that this figure reflects neither the thousands of people buried under the rubble nor the countless deaths caused by the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s food distribution, healthcare and sanitation systems. (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 9)—Facebook will suppress attacks on Jewish people as “Zionists”, arguing that the term is used to mask anti-Semitism (Source: Matthew Field, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (July 9)—The US government announces that the Gaza aid pier will be permanently dismantled after operating for only 20 days (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 9)—A group of independent UN experts declares that there is no doubt that famine has spread throughout the entire Gaza strip as a consequence of a deliberate policy of mass starvation against Palestinians by the Israeli government (Source: Peter Symonds, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 10)—An Israeli airstrike on the entrance of a school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has killed at least 31 people (Source: Lorenzo Tondo, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 10)—A statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam was vandalized with “Gaza” graffiti, drawing criticism from the city’s mayor (Source: Benjamin Brown and Teele Rebane, CNN)

● 2024 (July 10)—Harvard University reverses the suspensions of five pro-Palestinian protesters after pressure from the school's faculty. The five protesters took part in a 20-day encamped occupation of Harvard Yard during the spring semester, but the Harvard College Administrative Board decided to drop the suspensions and downgrade their punishments to probation, according to the Harvard Crimson. (Source: Breccan F. Thies, Washington Examiner)

● 2024 (July 10)—US to resume sending 500lb bombs to Israel while withholding 2000lb bombs (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 11)—Foreign doctors in Gaza describe how Israeli-made weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel are causing horrific injuries to civilians and disproportionately harming children (Source: Chris McGreal, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 11)—Walmart has been accused of "irresponsible" behavior over the sale of keffiyeh-style scarves which critics have suggested glorifies combatants in the Israel-Hamas conflict (Source: Marni Rose McFall, Newsweek)

● 2024 (July 11)—Delta airlines apologizes after official X account says “I’d be terrified” of airline employees wearing Palestinian flag pins” (Source: Marlene Lenthang and Rima Abdelkader, NBC News)

● 2024 (July 12)—Emergency workers claim to have recovered the bodies of approximately 60 Palestinians from two districts of Gaza City after Israeli forces pulled back from days of battles with Hamas militants in the territory’s biggest urban area (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 13)—Gaza’s health ministry said at least 71 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis on a camp for war displaced in southern Gaza, adding that 289 others were injured (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 13)—In one of the deadliest attacks of the nine-month Gaza genocide, a massive Israeli airstrike hit an area designated as a humanitarian zone at al-Mawasi, killing 92 Palestinians and wounding 300 (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 14)—Less than 24 hours after Israel’s deadly strike on Khan Younis, the IDF kills 17 Palestinians in an attack on Gaza City (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 15)—Two pro-Gaza activists have been arrested after laying a Palestinian flag at the Cenotaph in London in a protest calling for an arms embargo on Israel. The activists, from the protest group Youth Demand, were pictured sitting in front of the war memorial in central London, having written “180,000 killed” in chalk on the road. (Source: The Telegraph)

● 2024 (July 15)—The IDF levels the Gaza headquarters of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA. Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini posts images of the destruction with the comment: “UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, turned into a battlefield & now flattened. Another episode in the blatant disregard of international humanitarian law.” (Source: Thomas Scripps, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 15)—In an interview, Biden calls himself a Zionist and says he’s done ‘more for the Palestinian community than anybody,’ drawing intense criticism (Source: The Independent)

● 2024 (July 15)—In Los Angeles’ Saban Theater, Sheryl Sandberg hosts a viewing of her documentary Screams Before Silence, about the alleged sexual violence and rape committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023 (Source: Kelly Hartog, The Jerusalem Post)
Screams Before Silence (youtube.com)

● 2024 (July 16)—At least 60 Palestinians are killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza strip. Targets include a “humanitarian zone” and a school harboring displaced people (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 16)—US Secretary of State reportedly tells senior Israeli leaders that the US has “serious concern” about recent civilian casualties in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 16)—Israel’s military announces that it has eliminated half of Hamas’s military leadership since the war in Gaza began more than nine months ago, in addition to roughly 14,000 fighters who have also been killed or apprehended during the conflict. (Source: Adam Taylor, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (July 17)—Labor MP Zarah Sultana writes an op-ed for The Guardian titled “I call on Keir Starmer to suspend arms sales to Israel and end Britain’s complicity in the killing”
I call on Keir Starmer to suspend arms sales to Israel and end Britain’s complicity in the killing (msn.com)

● 2024 (July 17)—The US has imposed visa restrictions against Sergeant Elor Azaria, a former Israeli military sergeant, for his alleged involvement in gross violations of human rights in the Occupied West Bank, including an extrajudicial killing (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 17)—Justin Salhani writes an op-ed for Al-Jazeera titled “Why does Israel step up its attacks when Gaza ceasefire talks advance?”
Why does Israel step up its attacks when Gaza ceasefire talks advance? (msn.com)

● 2024 (July 17)—A meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Middle East was briefly interrupted when two protesters stood with signs and yelled for the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 18)—Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit as a “provocative intrusion” that endangered the fragile status quo regarding the Jerusalem compound (Source: Al-Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 18)—The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) has removed two works inspired by Gaza from its Young Artists’ Summer Show after an open letter from the Board of Deputies of British Jews raised “significant concerns” about their content. In a letter posted on X, a board vice-president, Andrew Gilbert, described three works on display at the gallery as containing “antisemitic tropes and messaging”, which had caused “significant concern to members of our community”. (Source: Nadia Khomami, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 18)—The US military begins dismantling their floating aid pier in Gaza, declaring “mission accomplished” (Source: The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 18)—The poliovirus has been found in sewage samples from Gaza putting thousands of people living in crowded displaced persons’ camps at risk of contracting the highly infectious disease that can cause deformities and paralysis (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 19)—The UK’s newly elected Labour government will resume funding to the UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA. (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 19)—The Houthis in Yemen claim responsibility for a drone attack in Tel Aviv (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 19)—The UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible” and make full reparations for its “internationally wrongful acts” in a sweeping and damning advisory opinion that says the occupation violates international law. In a historic, albeit non-binding opinion, the court found multiple breaches of international law by Israel including activities that amounted to apartheid (Source: Haroon Siddique, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 19)—Adidas has pulled images of the model Bella Hadid from advertisements promoting a sports shoe first launched to coincide with the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The German-based sportswear company said it was “revising” its campaign after criticism from Israel over Hadid’s involvement. Many Israel officials label Hadid an anti-Semite for her pro-Palestinian views (Source: Tom Ambrose, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 20)—Israeli forces pound several areas across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 30 Palestinians, according to health officials, as tanks advance deeper into western and northern Rafah. Among those killed are local journalist Mohammad Abu Jasser, his wife, and two children, in an Israeli strike on their house in the northern Gaza Strip. Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said Abu Jasser's death raised the number of Palestinian media personnel killed by Israeli fire since October to 161 (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters)

● 2024 (July 20)—The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that fighter jets struck Houthi "military targets" in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in western Yemen, killing at least six people. The IDF say the strikes are "in response to the hundreds of attacks" carried out by the Iran-backed group against Israel over the past months. This was the first confirmed report of an Israeli strike on Yemen, which is over 1,000 miles away. (Source: Mandy Taheri, Newsweek; The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 20)—Israel strikes Hezbollah ammunition depot in south Lebanon, wounding four civilians (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 21)—The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian peninsula country. (Source: Associated Press)

● 2024 (July 21)—Pakistan declares Israel an “entity committing war crimes” (Source: Adam Schrader, United Press International)

● 2024 (July 21)—Christina Assi, a Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field. (Source: Lujain Jo and Kareem Chehayeb, The Independent)

● 2024 (July 21)—Masked Israeli settlers attack a group of Palestinian farmers and foreign activists accompanying them for protection in the Occupied West Bank town of Qusra. Eight activists were participating as part of a Palestinian grassroots campaign called Defend Palestine, which calls on international volunteers to travel to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to protect Palestinians from Israeli settler attacks. Two Americans and a German national were taken to hospital with suspected fractures after the attack, their campaign said, adding that another American volunteer suffered minor injuries. One of the Palestinian farmers was hospitalized. (Source: Abeer Salman and Lauren Izso, CNN)
Israeli settlers attack foreign activists and Palestinian farmers in West Bank (msn.com)

● 2024 (July 22)—Israeli strikes kill over 80 Palestinians in the eastern areas of Khan Younis, shortly after Israel issued new orders to evacuate some neighborhoods after what it said was renewed attacks from those zones (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ari Rabinovitch and Hatem Khaled, Reuters)

● 2024 (July 22)—The Israeli military has confirmed that two more captives held in Gaza died months ago, adding that the possibility that they were killed by Israeli fire in southern Khan Younis is being investigated. Alex Dancyg, 75, and Yagev Buchstav, 35, who were taken by Hamas fighters during the October 7 attacks on Israel from their homes near the Gaza fence, were declared dead after a review by Israeli authorities including health experts (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 22)—The United Nations accuses Israeli troops of firing on an aid convoy traveling an agreed-upon route to the north (Source: Louisa Loveluck, Hajar Harb, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (July 23)—Seven major US labor unions call on Biden to “shut off military aid to Israel.” The unions that signed on to the letter include the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), International Union of Painters (IUPAT), National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Auto Workers (UAW) and United Electrical Workers (UE). The letter states: “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a ceasefire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off US military aid to Israel.” (Source: Michael Sainato, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 23)—Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah agree to form a unity government at talks hosted by China (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 23)—41 IDF reservists issue an open letter refusing to fight in Gaza, saying that military action won’t bring the hostages home (Source: Jean Shaoul, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 23)—Seven Palestinians, including two militant commanders and a woman, were killed during Israeli raids targeting gunmen in the Occupied West Bank (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 23)—As Netanyahu prepares to address the US Congress, a group of Jewish activists stage a sit-in at a congressional office building, ending in over 200 arrests. Senator Bernie Sanders condemns the speech by “war criminal” Netanyahu. Rep. Ilhan Omar calls it “utterly immoral and cruel,” and congressman Jamaal Bowman writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “A genocidal war criminal will address Congress. As a congressman, I’m outraged.” (Source: The Guardian; The Hill)

● 2024 (July 23)—Former President Trump posts a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Truth Social. Abbas wrote: “It is with grave concern that I have received news and later on watched footage of your attempted assassination…Acts of violence must not have a place in a world of law and order.” (Source: Tara Suter, The Hill)

● 2024 (July 24)—While thousands protest in DC, Netanyahu delivers a speech to the US Congress and says that the Hamas attack on October 7^th was “proportionally…like 20 9/11’s in one day” and is “a day that will forever live in infamy.” During his speech, protesters revealed bright yellow shirts with the words “SEAL THE DEAL NOW,” while Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib held up a sign that read: “WAR CRIMINAL—GUILTY OF GENOCIDE.” During the speech, pro-Palestinian protesters took down at least one American flag at Union Station in Washington and replaced it with a Palestinian flag. Pro-Palestine activists say they released maggots, mealworms, and crickets in a hotel where some of the Israeli delegation was staying. Musician Dave Matthews joined the protests and said that Netanyahu’s visit was “disgusting” (Source: Daily Mail; Holly Patrick, The Independent; Lauren Sforza, The Hill; Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 24)—More than 150,000 people have fled the Gazan city of Khan Younis since Monday, two UN agencies have said (Source: BBC)

● 2024 (July 24)—Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of 5 hostages killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which had been held in Gaza, including Maya Goren (56), Oren Goldin (33), and three reserve/conscript soldiers (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 25)—Vice President Kamala Harris condemns the pro-Palestine demonstrators who protested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress for “despicable acts” and “dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.” She said: “I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.” Similarly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on X: “Grave concern for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza cannot justify defacing federal property with Hamas slogans…Passionate differences are grounds for fierce debate and meaningful protest, not intimidation and certainly not support for terrorism.” (Source: Myah Ward, Politico; Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill)

● 2024 (July 25)—Dozens of US doctors and nurses who worked in Gaza have written to Joe Biden demanding the US withdraw diplomatic and military support for Israel until there is a ceasefire. They warn that: “It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 92,000, an astonishing 4.2% of Gaza’s population.” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 25)—In an exclusive investigation, The Guardian reports that US officials are investing public funds in Israeli bonds in deals that raise ethics concerns. The report reveals that State and local officials have invested $1.7bn of the public’s money in Israel Bonds since 7 October
Revealed: US officials are investing public funds in Israeli bonds in deals that raise ethics concerns | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (July 25)—During an interview with Jake Tapper, former US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, argued that Palestinian civilians cannot be trusted after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel. She said: “Three thousand members of Hamas came in, took over their neighborhood, took over the concert site, butchered people, robbed from them, burned people alive and took people hostage. You know who joined them? Thousands of Palestinian citizens. That's what no one's talking about. They looted, they murdered and they helped. And in many cases, and I talked to hostage survivors, they took them back and sold them to Hamas. So why would Netanyahu or anyone in Israel trust Hamas or the Palestinians?" (Source: Aila Slisco, Newsweek)

● 2024 (July 25)—President Biden meets with Netanyahu in DC to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza. Netanyahu tells the President: “From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel.” After meeting with Netanyahu, Vice President Kamala Harris said: “I told [Netanyahu] that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias, such as Hamas and Hezbollah….From when I was a young girl, collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel. I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating. Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters.” Harris added that: “I will not be silent [on Gaza].” (Source: C-SPAN; The Guardian; The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 25)—Prosecutors in Washington D.C. announce that they are dropping charges against 11 people out of the 25 total who were arrested for protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States Capitol (Source: Landon Gourov, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 26)—Netanyahu meets with Trump and presents him with a photo of one of the Bibas toddlers, children who are still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Netanyahu calls VP Kamala Harris’ remarks the previous day “disrespectful” (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (July 26)—More than 180,000 Palestinians have fled bombardment around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in four days, the United Nations reports (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 26)—Polls show 72% of Israelis want Netanyahu to step down as prime minister (Source: Tamar Glezerman, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 26)—The British government drops its challenge to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 27)—At least 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes, including 30 killed in a strike on a school in Deir al Balah in central Gaza. The Israeli military claims the school was a Hamas command centre (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 27)—Israel’s war in Gaza is taking a toll on its economy. Some 60,000 small businesses are expected to close by the end of the year because the government has blocked the entry of 120,000 West Bank and Gaza Palestinian workers into Israel, where they were employed in construction, manufacturing and agriculture. Israel’s tourism industry, which accounted for 5.6 percent of GDP before the COVID pandemic, has collapsed. Israel’s economy contracted by almost 22 percent in the last quarter of 2023 following the start of the war and was still 7 percent down in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period in 2023. According to figures released by the Bank of Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Finance, the cost of the first six months of the war had reached more than 70 billion shekels ($73 billion) by the end of March. This prompted the Knesset to increase the 2024 budget by $73 billion, with most going to finance the military and the rest to civilian wartime needs, compared with the original budget approved in May 2023, leading to a likely deficit equal to 8 percent of GDP, breaching the 6.6 percent target ceiling the government set for 2024. (Source: Jean Shaoul, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (July 27)—A rocket barrage fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah kills 12 people, including children playing on a football field, and wounds 29 others in the remote town of Majdal Sham in the annexed Golan Heights, making it the deadliest single attack in Israeli territory since October 7^th. Netanyahu vows revenge, while Hezbollah denies responsibility (Source: Jotam Confino, The Telegraph; The Guardian; Tom O'Connor, Newsweek)

● 2024 (July 28)—Israel attacks Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and threatens further retaliation for a rocket strike that killed 12 civilians, while also dispatching a senior envoy to discuss a proposed suspension of the nine-month Gaza war that has ignited the Lebanese and other regional fronts. (Source: Dan Williams, Bloomberg)

● 2024 (July 28)—Israeli attacks kill at least 19 Palestinians, including children, and injure numerous others across Gaza. At least 10 people were killed in an airstrike on a house in central Khan Younis and another airstrike hit tents in the Al-Mawasi area, which the Israeli military has designated a “humanitarian zone” for displaced Palestinians, killing at least four people. One of them was an infant girl that arrived at a nearby hospital, according to a statement by the Kuwait Specialized Field hospital. (Source: Abeer Salman, Kareem El Damanhoury and Ibrahim Dahman, CNN)

● 2024 (July 28)—On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver covers the oppression Palestinians face in the Occupied West Bank

● 2024 (July 28)—Belal Muhammad becomes first fighter of Palestinian origin to win a UFC title (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (July 29)—Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send forces into Israel as he accused Benjamin Netanyahu 's regime of doing “ridiculous things to Palestine.” He said his country might enter Israel as it had done in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, though stopped short of spelling out what sort of intervention he was suggesting (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (July 29)—Israel's military campaign in Gaza has turned vast swaths of the coastal enclave into ruins, making it extremely difficult for soldiers to operate in the rubble, according to a recently published report. The "rubblization" of the urban battlespace in Gaza caused headaches for armored and infantry elements of the Israel Defense Forces as they sought to maneuver and identify Hamas targets, analysts at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank described in a report (Source: Jake Epstein, Business Insider)

● 2024 (July 29)—US tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of jet fuel for Israel must not dock in Gibraltar, says British MPs (Source: Patrick Wintour, The Guardian)

● 2024 (July 29)—French police have opened an investigation into death threats received by three Israeli athletes at the Paris Olympic Games (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (July 29)—Israel kills at least two Hezbollah fighters in a drone strike amid warnings that an escalation in fighting with the Lebanese militant group could become more serious than the war in Gaza. (Source: Tom Watling, The Independent)

● 2024 (July 29)—Protesters, including at least one far-right lawmaker, stormed two Israeli military bases after soldiers were detained on suspicion of severely abusing a Palestinian prisoner. In photos and videos shared on social media, demonstrators waving Israeli flags could be seen at the Sde Teiman detention camp where Palestinian prisoners, including members of Hamas' elite Nukhba force, are known to be held. (Source: Chantal Da Silva, NBC News)

● 2024 (July 29)—In violation of humanitarian law, a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps, rigged a critical water reservoir in Gaza with explosives and then detonated them, destroying the facility known as the Canada Well. The water facility, located in Tel Sultan neighborhood on the northwestern side of Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, was built in 1999 with funding provided by the Canadian International Development Agency. Equipped with solar panels, it enabled water services to continue for tens of thousands of people in the area despite the destruction of the entire electrical grid in the enclave. Following the destruction, the IDF soldiers celebrated by posting videos of the operation on their Instagram and X social media accounts, writing: “Destruction of the Tel Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat.” (Source: Benjamin Mateus, The World Socialist Website)

●  2024 (July 29)—Jennifer Lopez donates $4.5 million to provide meals and medical aid to Palestinians. 

● 2024 (July 30)—Israel's military blew up more than 30 water wells in Gaza in July, a municipality official and residents said, adding to the trauma of air strikes that have turned much of the Palestinian enclave into a wasteland ravaged by a humanitarian crisis. (Source: Hatem Khaled, Reuters)

● 2024 (July 30)—Israeli historian Ilan Pappé publishes Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic

● 2024 (July 30)—Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the United States will defend Israel if it is attacked by Hezbollah from Lebanon (Source: Miriam Berger, Michael Birnbaum, Maham Javaid, Andrew Jeong, The Washington Post)

● 2024 (July 30)—Israel has carried out a strike on southern Beirut, killing senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukur, who they claimed was “responsible for the murder of children.” It is the first time the Israeli military has targeted Beirut since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 (Source: Tom Watling, The Independent)

● 2024 (July 30)—A group of congressional aides has launched The Congressional Dissent Channel, a public dissent channel where staffers can anonymously express their concerns about Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. The website’s homepage states the channel is where aides can “safely and anonymously offer alternative or dissenting opinions to Congressional policies and action.” (Source: Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill)

● 2024 (July 30)—Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70% in the US in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel's war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group reports (Source: Kanishka Singh, Reuters)

● 2024 (July 31)—Israel assassinates Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. CNN reports that the bomb was concealed about two months ago in the guest house where Haniyeh was known to stay in Tehran and detonated remotely once he was inside his room there. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel in retaliation (Source: The Guardian; Ramsey Al-Rikabi, Bloomberg; Jeremy Diamond, CNN)

● 2024 (July 31)—An Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills two Al Jazeera journalists. Israeli forces targeted a car carrying reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraperson Rami al-Rifi, both 27, killing them instantly, along with a child who was travelling with them (Source: Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, The Independent)

● 2024 (July 31)—US Senator Lindsey Graham calls on Israel to “destroy” Iranian oil refineries (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (August 1)—Israel confirms that they assassinated Mohammed Deif, the head of the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades and the mastermind behind the October 7^th attack. Following an intelligence assessment, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said he was killed when fighter jets struck an area of the southern city of Khan Younis. (Source: Mithil Aggarwal, NBC News)

● 2024 (August 1)—Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s funeral held in Tehran. Some mourners chant “Death to Israel” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 1)—The FBI has contracted the Israeli tech firm Cellebrite to help in its investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who tried to kill former President Trump at a rally on July 13 and mortally wounded a supporter in the crowd instead, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. American law enforcement agencies have tapped the company for years for its ability to break into smartphones from a range of Big Tech firms and using different mobile operating systems. (Source: Michael Ruiz, David Spunt, Fox News)

● 2024 (August 1)—Khaled Meshaal has been tipped as one of several possible candidates to become Hamas’s new political leader after the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh. A senior figure of the Palestinian militant group, Meshaal became known around the world in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination attempt on a street outside his office in Amman, Jordan. (Source: The Telegraph)

● 2024 (August 1)—According to the Gaza Health Ministry, since October 7^th 2023, Israel has killed 40,000 Palestinians, and wounded over 90,000 (Source: Ami Kaufman and Bianna Golodryga, CNN)

● 2024 (August 1)—Israeli airstrikes hit a school in Shejaia in Gaza City, killing at least 15 people and wounding 29, Palestinian civil emergency services said, as fighting continued in various parts of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it had targeted fighters operating in a compound within the school that it said was used as a hideout for Hamas commanders and fighters. (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (August 1)—Stella Maris has been stripped of key positions at the University of St Andrews after “inflaming tensions” on campus by accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. (Source: Daniel Sanderson, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (August 1)—Uncommitted movement demands DNC allow a representative to speak on Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 2)—With the senior leadership of Hamas shattered by a recent series of assassinations carried out by Israel, Yahya Sinwar, one of the key architects of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, now appears to be the de facto boss of the terrorist organization, experts say. The 61-year-old leader of Hamas in Gaza is also among the top targets sought by Israel, which placed a $400,000 bounty on his head following the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (August 2)—Assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is buried in Qatar. Hamas calls for a “day of overwhelming anger” and Hezbollah chief says conflict with Israel is in “new phase” after the assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukur (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 2)—The Telegraph has learned that Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, hired Iranian security agents to plant explosives in three separate rooms of a building where a Hamas leader was staying. The original plan was to assassinate Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of the Palestinian terror group, in May when he attended the funeral of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s former president. The operation didn’t go ahead due to the large crowds inside the building and the high possibility of its failure, two Iranian officials told The Telegraph. Instead, the two agents placed explosive devices in three rooms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) guesthouse in north Tehran where Haniyeh might stay. The agents were seen moving stealthily as they entered and exited multiple rooms within minutes, according to the officials who have CCTV footage of the building. The operatives are then said to have snuck out of the country (Source: Akhtar Makoii, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (August 3)—Two Israeli airstrikes in the Occupied West Bank kill nine Palestinian militants. One airstrike on a vehicle in the West Bank killed a commander in the Palestinian armed group Hamas. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said four other men were also killed (Source: Reuters; The Hill)

● 2024 (August 3)—During a call with Israeli Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirms that the US will deploy a fighter squadron to bases in the Middle East, which are within striking distance of Iran (Source: Jordan Shilton, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 3)—An American-Israeli man named Bram Settenbrino who is deployed in Gaza with a combat engineering unit of Israel’s armed forces has posted videos online that show indiscriminate fire at a destroyed building and the detonation of homes and a mosque. The soldier’s father said his son had “sent a congratulatory video dedicating a detonation to honor a friend’s new marriage”, and that the family business had received threats since the videos began circulating. Many have called the videos evidence of war crimes (Source: Alice Speri, The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 3)—Kamala Harris has won the backing for her presidential bid of a key US Muslim organization that had declined to endorse Joe Biden before he withdrew from his re-election campaign. Salima Suswell, the founder and chief executive of the Black Muslim Leadership Council Fund, told NBC on Thursday: “[Harris] has shown more sympathy towards the people of Gaza then both President Biden and Former President Donald Trump. (Source: Erum Salam, The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 3)—Iran has claimed that the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week was carried out by a “short-range projectile” and a “severe explosion” outside a guest house where he was staying. This contradicts information told to CNN, after a source familiar with the matter said that Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that had been covertly hidden inside the guest house (Source: Radina Gigova and Jeremy Diamond, CNN)

● 2024 (August 3)—About 50 rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon towards upper Galilee, according to Israeli media (Source: Sky News)

● 2024 (August 3)—Around 100,000 people take part in a march through London in the 17th national protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza (Source: Ioan Petrescu, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 4)—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other members of the far-left "Squad" are facing a class action lawsuit alleging that they incited and encouraged anti-Israel protests and encampments at Columbia University earlier this year. Five students filed the lawsuit anonymously, naming Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Reps. Jamal Bowman of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The lawsuit also names roughly a dozen pro-Palestine organizing groups. (Source: Anders Hagstrom, Fox News)

● 2024 (August 4)—Israeli airstrikes hit two schools and a hospital complex in Gaza, killing at least 30 people (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters; Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian)
Video shows aftermath of airstrike on Gaza school buildings | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (August 4)—A Palestinian stabbed two people to death in a city near Tel Aviv (Source: Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 4)—Israel Defense Forces discovered a large tunnel that is big enough to allow vehicles to pass through on the border between Gaza and Egypt. The 10-foot-tall tunnel was found last week on the so-called Philadelphi Route as IDF troops were in the area to search for tunnel routes that Hamas were believed to be using to smuggle arms. (Source: Stephen Sorace, Fox News)

● 2024 (August 5)—General Michael Kurilla, the head of the US Central Command, which controls US forces in the Middle East, arrived in the region this weekend to plan military operations after Israel’s targeted assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (Source: Alex Lantier, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 5)—Six weeks after leading the charge to oust Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a New York primary, a big-spending pro-Israel super PAC is hoping to help defeat another member of the House “squad” of progressive Democrats – Missouri Rep. Cori Bush. Already a top target for centrist and Israel-aligned groups, Bush broke ranks with her party’s leadership to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza last year and has been fiercely critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian civilians. (Source: Gregory Krieg, CNN)

● 2024 (August 5)—The IDF announces that they killed a Hamas economic minister in the Gaza Strip, Abd al-Fattah al-Zari’I, and they killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon, Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah's Radwan Force (Source: The Times of Israel; ABC News)

● 2024 (August 5)—The United Nations says that nine employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) likely participated in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 (Source: Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News)

● 2024 (August 5)—Palestinians in Khan Younis hold a mass burial after Israel returns 80 bodies it had previously taken from various graves and locations across the strip, Gaza's Health Ministry said (Source: Reuters)
Palestinian bodies buried in mass grave following Israeli transfer | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (August 6)—Israeli forces killed 45 Palestinian fighters in Gaza over the past day, the military said, after heavy fighting in which militant group Hamas said it destroyed two armored personnel carriers during an ambush near the city of Rafah. The Israeli military said the Hamas official in charge of smuggling operations was among those killed and that his death significantly hit their ability to bring weapons and military equipment into the besieged enclave. Air strikes killed five Palestinians in the Al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, medics said, while two others were killed in a separate air strike in Rafah, near the southern Gaza border with Egypt. (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie, Reuters)

● 2024 (August 6)—Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire as tensions between the two rise. An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon kills 4 Hezbollah operatives. Several projectiles penetrated Israeli airspace from Lebanon, the mayor of the town of Nahariya, which sits on the Mediterranean coast in the north-western Galilee region, said. The Israeli military said several civilians were wounded. Hezbollah said it launched several drones at military facilities in response to Israel targeting Hezbollah structures in the south of Lebanon (Source: Alisa Odenheimer, Bloomberg; Stephen Sorace, Fox News)

● 2024 (August 6)—Israeli forces backed by drone strikes killed at least 12 people in the Occupied West Bank after raids around two flashpoint cities in the north led to gunbattles with Palestinian militants. The Israeli military said it conducted two separate air strikes in the volatile city of Jenin, hitting armed militant cells, but gave no details. (Source: Ali Sawafta, Reuters)

● 2024 (August 6)—Israel has conducted a systematic policy of prisoner abuse and torture since the start of the Gaza war, subjecting Palestinian detainees to acts ranging from arbitrary violence to sexual abuse, Israeli rights group B'Tselem said in a report titled “Welcome to Hell”: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps (Source: James Mackenzie, Reuters)

● 2024 (August 6)—Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, architect of October 7^th attack, as their new leader (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 7)—U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will skip this year's atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki because Israel was not invited. Emanuel will not attend the event on Friday because it was “politicized” by Nagasaki's decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said. (Source: Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press)

● 2024 (August 7)—The Science Museum: The Live Stage Show performance at the New Wimbledon Theatre in south-west London, was disrupted when protesters unfurled a pro-Palestine banner. The protesters said they were asking the Science Museum “to drop its sponsorship deal with Adani Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Adani Group”. They said the Adani Group “manufactures drones and snipers with Israeli arms companies”. (Source: Joe Pinkstone, The Telegraph)

● 2024 (August 7)—Cori Bush, Missouri’s first Black Congresswoman, loses primary after pro-Israel groups spent millions oust her. Speaking to supporters, Bush said that this loss radicalized her and “Now they [AIPAC] should be afraid. The White House condemned these remarks as “inflammatory and divisive.” (Source: The Guardian; Newsweek)

● 2024 (August 7)—During a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, pro-Palestine protesters interrupted a speech by Vice President Kamala Harris by chanting “We won’t vote for genocide.” Harris responded by saying: “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I’m speaking.” (Source: Nnamdi Egwuonwu and Jillian Frankel and Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News)

● 2024 (August 9)—When pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt a speech by Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally in Arizona, she switches up from her condescending response two days earlier and instead attempts to show patience and concern for their cause. The crowd cheers when she declares that “now is the time” for a cease-fire in Gaza (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (August 10)—Israeli strike on the Tabeen school in Gaza City kills at least 100. The compound housed 6,000 displaced people who were hit as they prepared for dawn prayer (Source: Bethan McKernan, The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 14)—Four-day-old twins, Asser and Ayssel, were killed by an Israeli strike as their father registered their births. Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan’s wife and mother were also killed in the strike (Source: Gianluca Avagnina, BBC)

● 2024 (August 14)—Report finds that Israeli forces in Gaza use civilians as human shields against possible booby-traps (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 15)—Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, resigns in wake of the Gaza campus protests (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 15)—One Palestinian killed as Israeli settlers attack an Occupied West Bank village near Nablus (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 16)—Gaza sees first polio case in 25 years as UN calls for mass vaccinations (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 18)—Israeli airstrike in the town of Zawaida kills 18 Palestinians of the same family. Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children aged two to 22, a grandmother to the children, and three other relatives (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 19)—Mark Smith, ex-UK diplomat, says that Israel is committing war crimes in plain sight in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 20)—To prevent more pro-Palestinian protests, the University of California bans encampments and face masks on campus (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 20)—At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school in Gaza. Israel says it targeted a Hamas militant base inside the school (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 20)—Israel says bodies of 6 hostages have been recovered from Gaza. The dead men were civilians abducted by Hamas from a kibbutzim on October 7, 2023 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 21)—Pro-Palestine protesters interrupt Nancy Pelosi on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Source: New York Post)

● 2024 (August 22)—Israel launches reprisal strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 22)—150 Hollywood insiders sign a letter demanding that Bisan Owda's Emmy nomination for her documentary with AJ+ be revoked (Source: New York Times)

● 2024 (August 22)—Jewish delegate unfurls “Stop Arming Israel” banner at the Democratic National Convention. DNC refuses to allow a Palestinian delegate to speak (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (August 22)—Codepink disrupts Tim Walz during DNC Women’s Caucus and calls for an arms embargo on Israel (Source: Codepink)

● 2024 (August 23)—Israel claims to have killed prominent Hezbollah commander Muhammad Mahmoud Najam in southern Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 23)—Baby in Gaza partly paralyzed from polio in territory’s first case in 25 years (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 24)—Israeli airstrikes kill at least 36 Palestinians in southern Gaza. Among the dead are 11 members of a family, including 2 children (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 25)—Hezbollah launches hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, as Israel's military says it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a bigger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. (Source: Maytaal Angel and Maya Gebeily, Reuters)

● 2024 (August 26)—In an interview with Mehdi Hasan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib slams the Democratic National Convention for not featuring a Palestinian American speaker, saying: “It’s hard not to feel invisible as a Palestinian American. Our trauma and pain feel unseen and ignored by both parties. One party uses our identity as a slur, and the other refuses to hear from us. Where is the shared humanity? Ignoring us won’t stop the genocide.” (Source: Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill)

● 2024 (August 27)—Pro-Palestine activists defaced a building at Cornell University on the first day of classes—smashing the glass of a doorway and scrawling hateful messages like “Blood is on your hands.” We had to accept that the only way to make ourselves heard is by targeting the only thing the university administration truly cares about: property,” the vandals said in an anonymous statement to the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper that broke the story. The vandals struck sometime overnight or in the early morning, shattering the glass at an entrance to Cornell’s Day Hall and spray-painting messages including “Israel bombs and Cornell pays.” (Source: Carl Campanile, New York Post)

● 2024 (August 27)—The Atlantic publishes an op-ed by Arash Azizi titled “Is a New Palestine Movement Being Born?”
Is a New Palestinian Movement Being Born? (msn.com)

● 2024 (August 27)—IDF rescues Bedouin Israeli hostage named Qaid Farhan Alkadi from tunnel in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 27)—Gregroy Fenves, president of Atlanta’s Emory University, announces a new policy banning tents on campus and protests after midnight (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 28)—Israeli strikes and raids in the Occupied West Bank kill 9 Palestinians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 28)—UN forced to suspend food distribution as Israel places 89 percent of Gaza under evacuation orders (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 28)—Four anti-genocide protesters at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus were arrested by police during a peaceful “die-in” protest led by the Tahrir Coalition of student groups against the genocide in Gaza. The demonstration demanded an end to the genocide and called on the U-Mich administration to end its investments in the Israeli economy. The roughly 50 protesters lay at the center of the university’s quad (the Diag) with rags painted red and signs depicting victims of the US/Israel-led genocide. (Source: Luke Galvin, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 28)—One week before fall semester classes resume, the social media platform Instagram has permanently shut down the accounts of pro-Palestinian organizations on two college campuses in New York City. At Columbia University, Instagram banned the account of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) without notice or explanation. (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 29)—British human rights activist and reporter Sarah Wilkinson was arrested by UK police, and subsequently released, allegedly for content she published online in support of Palestine and against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. (Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 29)—Palestinian Tik-Toker Medo Halimy, 19, died after he was hit by shrapnel during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis (Source: Daysia Tolentino and Marin Scott, NBC News)

● 2024 (August 29)—The IDF claims to kill 5 Palestinian militants at a mosque during an operation in the Occupied West Bank

● 2024 (August 29)—After trying and failing 5 times to assassinate Abu Shujaa, leader of the Tulkarem Brigade of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, Israel succeeds on their sixth attempt, killing him alongside 20 other Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank

● 2024 (August 29)—Kamala Harris sits down for her first interview as a presidential candidate with CNN. In response to whether she would withhold weapons to Israel as president, Harris says: “Let me be very clear, unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself. And that’s not going to change. But let’s take a step back. October 7. 1,200 people are massacred, many young people who are simply attending a music festival. Women were horribly raped. As I said then, I say today, Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself.” She adds: “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a deal done.” (Source: Jacob Crosse, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (August 29)—UK broadcaster Channel 4 News interviews an Israeli settler from America who is hoping to move to Gaza after Israel annexes it. She argues: “I think colonialism gets a bad rap, like genocide is bad, but colonizing places that are genocidal and they have bad ideology, it’s good to come in and correct their views.”
Israeli settler: ‘Colonialism gets a bad rap’ – Middle East Monitor

● 2024 (August 30)—The World Socialist Website conducts an interview with Israeli historian Ilan Pappé
Exposing and opposing Zionism: A conversation with Ilan Pappé - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

● 2024 (August 30)—Israeli military launches fatal airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza. The IDF claims they targeted “armed assailants” trying to hijack it but the charity that organized the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with (Source: Julian Borger, The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 30)—Senior Hamas commander, Wassem Hazem, is killed by Israeli police in the Occupied West Bank. The IDF says he was killed in a car that contained weapons, ammunition, and large quantities of cash. Two other Hamas gunmen were killed by a drone while trying to escape from the vehicle (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (August 31)—Following the protests at Hostages Square and the nearby Begin Road, Israeli protesters calling for a hostage deal head toward an entrance of the Ayalon Highway, jumping over dividers to begin blocking the road, only to be stopped by police who push the protesters back. As protesters gather on the side of the highway, police officers push, yell and arrest several people. (Source: Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel)

● 2024 (August 31)—Palestinian family in the Occupied West Bank accuses Israel of using their 10-year-old daughter as a “human shield.” When the IDF entered the Nur Shams camp, they told 10-year-old Malak Shihab to go through houses and open the doors, with Israeli soldiers positioned to fire on anyone on the other side
‘There was no mercy, even on children’: trauma in the West Bank after Israeli raids | West Bank | The Guardian

● 2024 (August 31)—First Palestinian children in Gaza given polio vaccine after a 10-month-old child was paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 1)—After the bodies of 6 dead hostages, including an American, are recovered from Gaza, Netanyahu says Hamas “do not want a peace deal.” Hamas claims that the 6 hostages were killed by Israeli “fire and bombing.” Biden says “Make no mistake. Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” and Kamala Harris releases a statement reading: “Hamas is an evil terrorist organization that has even more American blood on its hands…The threat Hamas poses … must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza.” Head of the Histadrut union urges all Israeli workers to join in a general strike amid outrage over the hostage deaths. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis take to the streets in the largest day of protest since October 7, 2023. Anger was enflamed by the news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet had effectively torpedoed a hostage exchange deal just days before, on Thursday, by insisting on continued occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt. According to an Israeli Health Ministry postmortem, the six hostages had been killed as recently as Thursday or Friday, amid fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian fighters. (Source: The Guardian; The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (September 1)—A video posted on X shows Israeli tanks driving over the dead body of an 82-year-old Palestinian man.
(1) Chelsea Hart چلسی هارت on X: "The IDF killed this 82 year old man in Jenin refugee camp on Friday. Blocked medical personnel and left him to bleed out and die. It’s now Sunday and his body is still laying there. And now Israeli tanks are seen driving over his dead body. Not a peep from the western media. https://t.co/n3U7OUfidf" / X

● 2024 (September 2)—Israel’s labor court orders a general strike to end earlier than planned. Strike across Israel was due to end at 6pm, but court says action must end sooner (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 2)—UK announces a partial ban of weapons exports to Israel. Netanyahu calls the act “shameful” (Source: Al Jazeera; The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 2)—Biden says that Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a ceasefire with Hamas (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 2)—Anti-genocide car rally takes place outside of home of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken

● 2024 (September 3)—After Netanyahu again insists on the need for Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, called the Philadelphi corridor, Israeli politician Benny Gantz says that Netanyahu is putting his own interests before Israels and delaying a cease-fire deal (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 3)—BBC investigation finds that “Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land”
Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land (msn.com)

● 2024 (September 3)—The US Department of Justice announces charges against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other militants over their roles in the Oct. 7 surprise attack against Israel. “The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a video statement. “These actions will not be our last.”

● 2024 (September 3)—Pro-Palestine protesters dump buckets of fake blood outside the State Department in DC, chanting “the blood is on your hands”

● 2024 (September 3)—Actress Selma Blair posts an Instagram story and says: “About a year ago, after October 7, there was a chance for the world to see what terrorists are capable of, and so much of the world, especially where I live in California, doesn’t seem to see this tragedy and the truth of what is happening. I stand with Israel. I stand with the hostages. I stand with their families — mothers, sisters, friends — these are innocent people that have been in hell and then murdered…The jihadists, the radicals, the extreme, they’re terrorists, and they run Gaza. And that is who so many people are filling the streets with, praising. Something very wrong is happening here.” (Source: Lindsay Kornick, Fox News)

● 2024 (September 4)—Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been arrested during a pro-Palestine protest in Denmark. The Swedish climate activist, 21, joined an occupation of a University of Copenhagen building as students call for it to boycott Israeli universities

● 2024 (September 4)—UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 4)—A clip from the Israeli English podcast Two Nice Jewish Boys is going viral on social media, showing hosts Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein discussing the idea of wiping out every single person in Gaza if given the chance. Weinstein stated that if there were a button to “erase every living being in Gaza,” he would “press it in a second,” adding that most Israelis would (Source: Middle East Eye)

● 2024 (September 4)—Over 10,000 protesters march in New York, calling for an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza

● 2024 (September 5)—Israeli airstrikes in the town of Tubas in the Occupied West Bank have left five Palestinians dead, including Mohammed Zubeidi, the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, a prominent figure during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. (Source: Shamim Chowdhury, Newsweek)

● 2024 (September 5)—Hamas releases a video of murdered Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in which he calls on "President Biden, Antony Blinken and all my fellow American citizens to do everything in their power to stop the war, stop this madness, and bring me home now." (Source: Chantal Da Silva, NBC News)

● 2024 (September 5)—The celebrity activist group Artists4Ceasefire demands that the United States stop supplying weapons to Israel, citing “grave human rights violations.” Members of the group include Mark Ruffalo, Ilana Glazer, Mahershala Ali, and Cynthia Nixon (Source: The Times of Israel)

● 2024 (September 5)—Pro-Palestine protesters interrupt a book reading at Politics and Prose in Washington DC, where CNN’s Dana Bash and Kara Swisher were holding an event called “America’s Deadliest Election.” A masked woman shouted at Bash: “After World War II, every single journalist that was complicit in their war that was complicit in their war crimes was charged. You belong behind bars! I came here to ask her why she’s telling lies on public air every single day. Every time she lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies. She is killing people. You are a killer!” CNN’s Jake Tapper argues that pro-Palestine protesters target Bash because she is Jewish and they are anti-Semitic

● 2024 (September 6)—Israeli forces withdraw from the Occupied West Bank city of Jenin after a 10-day raid that killed 21 Palestinians. Operations in other parts of the West Bank continue (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 6)—Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills at least 12 Palestinians, including 2 women and 2 children (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 6)—IDF shoots and kills an American-Turkish woman named Aysenur Ezgi (26) taking part in a protest against settlement expansion in the Occupied West Bank (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 6)—Pro-Palestine protesters disrupt an opening night screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, chanting “Stop the genocide!" during opening remarks (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (September 6)—Washington Post releases a video on Lonnie Kleinman, a rabbi who was fired after she continued advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza
A rabbi called for a cease-fire in Gaza. She lost her job. | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (September 6)—Pro-Palestine protesters at Harvard University chant “Long live the intifada” and “Globalize the intifada,” as they march through campus three days after classes began (Source: The Times of Israel)

● 2024 (September 7)—Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (September 7)—125,000 people march through London in the 18th national demonstration against the Gaza genocide organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They promote the slogans: “End the genocide! Stop arming Israel! No Middle East war! No to Islamophobia!” (Source: The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (September 7)—Jewish American film director Sarah Friedland used her acceptance speech at the Venice Film Festival’s awards ceremony to strongly criticize Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza. She declared: “I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation.”

● 2024 (September 7)—Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he calls "the growing threat of expansionism" from Israel, drawing a rebuke from the Israeli foreign minister (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (September 8)—Senior Gaza rescue service official and four of his family members are killed in an Israeli airstrike; 3 Israeli civilians shot to death near the Jordan border crossing by a Jordanian driver (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 8)—Three employees at the Noguchi Museum in New York are fired for violating an internal policy that banned keffiyehs, a garment symbolic of Palestinian culture. A fourth employee, the director of visitor services, was also terminated. Artists, art workers, and Queens residents protested the firings outside the museum, where they demanded the ouster of its director, Amy Hau.

● 2024 (September 9)—Israeli strikes on Syria kill 25 people, including civilians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 9)—At least 19 Palestinians are killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Khan Younis humanitarian zone. Residents of the encampment say it was hit by at least 4 missiles, while the IDF says that it “struck significant Hamas terrorists” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 9)—A group of about 50 Italian soccer fans clad in all black turn their backs in apparent protest during Israel’s national anthem before a Nations League match in Hungary (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (September 10)—Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has published a report accusing Israel of carrying out the “deliberate starvation” of the Palestinians in Gaza as a means of exterminating them and annexing their land. “Israel has engaged in an intentional starvation campaign against the Palestinian people, which evidences genocide and extermination,” Fakhri said in his report. (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (September 10)—Documentary The Bibi Files premieres at Toronto film festival, despite a legal attempt to stop it due to leaked interrogation footage of the prime minister appearing in the film (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 10)—YouTube suspends Candace Owen’s channel after accusing her of hate speech for her interview with Kanye West, where he claimed that Jews control the media. Owens blames “Zionists” for the suspension (Source: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today)

● 2024 (September 10)—Pro-Palestine protesters outside of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia call to shut down the Presidential debate between Trump and Harris. During the debate, Trump says that Harris “hates Israel” and if she is elected then Israel will not exist in two years

● 2024 (September 11)—An Israeli airstrike kills at least five people in the Occupied West Bank city of Tubas, as Israeli security forces continue an extended operation that the military says is targeting Iranian-backed militant groups (Source: Ali Sawafta, Reuters)

● 2024 (September 12)—Six UN aid workers are among 18 killed in an Israeli strike on a Gaza school in a Nuseirat refugee camp. UNRWA says the attack on the school led to highest death toll among its staff in a single incident (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 12)—The Washington Post reports that Israeli forces mischaracterized events leading up to the fatal shooting of US activist Aysenur Ezgi, and contrary to IDF reports, protests in the Occupied West Bank had subsided half an hour before the killing took place

● 2024 (September 13)—One man is shot and another is arrested after a clash at a Massachusetts pro-Israel rally (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 13)— Israeli special forces conduct a rare raid in Syria, killing at least 16 people and striking a blow against a suspected Iranian missile factory (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

● 2024 (September 14)—At least 10 Palestinians are killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza (Source: USA Today)

● 2024 (September 14)—UN employee is shot dead by an Israeli sniper in the Occupied West Bank. The IDF claims the sanitation worker had been throwing explosive devices at its troops from the roof of his home in the el Far’a camp (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 15)—Yemen’s Houthis claim responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reaches central Israel for the first time (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 15)—Three Israeli hostages, whose bodies were found last year in underground tunnels in Gaza, were likely killed in a military airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander, an investigation into their deaths concluded. An investigation into the deaths of Nik Beizer, 19, Ron Sherman, 19, Elia Toledano, 28, found there was a "high probability" that the hostages were killed "as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike" targeting Hamas Northern Brigade commander Ahmed Ghandour, the Israel Defense Forces said

● 2024 (September 16)—Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including five women and four children

● 2024 (September 17)—A majority of Gazans believe Hamas' decision to launch the October 7 attack on Israel was incorrect, according to a poll pointing to a big drop in backing for the assault that prompted Israel's devastating Gaza offensive. The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that 57% of people surveyed in the Gaza Strip said the decision to launch the offensive was incorrect, while 39% said it was correct (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (September 17)—3,000 are injured and at least 12 people are killed, including an 8-year-old girl and 4 hospital workers, after thousands of Hezbollah pagers explode across Lebanon in a suspected Mossad attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 17)—In a second Mossad attack, several Hezbollah walkie-talkies explode across Lebanon, killing and injuring several civilians

● 2024 (September 17)—A group of more than 700 actors, directors, writers and other film professionals has issued an open letter calling on the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and other entertainment industry guilds to issue a public statement calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza (Source: David Walsh, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (September 19)—Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel, calling it the “first phase” of its retaliation for the assassination of top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in July (Source: Al-Jazeera)

● 2024 (September 19)—Uncommitted movement declines to endorse Kamala Harris for President (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 19)—Prosecutors charge 10 people at UC Irvine after pro-Palestine protests (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 20)—Pro-Palestine protester wearing a keffiyeh is charged with violating the New York face mask ban (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 20)—Israeli soldiers are filmed pushing bodies of Palestinians off a roof in the Occupied West Bank (Source: The Guardian)
Video shows Israeli soldiers throwing bodies off roof in occupied West Bank | CNN

● 2024 (September 20)—A Holocaust survivor named Prof Veronika Cohen marks her 80^th birthday with a protest outside an Israeli prison over the abuse of Palestinian prisoners (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 20)—Hezbollah fires rockets at northern Israel. Top Hezbollah commander is killed in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut. Lebanon officials report children among the dead (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 21)—At least 37 are killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut. Israel officials say entire senior command of Hezbollah has been “eliminated” (Source: The Guardian; MSNBC)

● 2024 (September 21)—Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has condemned a political cartoon published on the National Review’s website that shows a pager exploding on her desk. (Source: Hilary Hanson, HuffPost)
(9) Abdullah H. Hammoud on X: "Absolutely disgusting. Anti-Arab bigotry & Islamophobia have become normalized in our media. The National Review ran this dangerous cartoon of @RashidaTlaib. This garbage was created by Henry Payne with the @detroitnews. At what point will people call this out? https://t.co/S7DtYBnKrI" / X

● 2024 (September 22)—7 people killed in Israeli strike on school shelter in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 25)—Israel launches a massive wave of airstrikes in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 24)—Biden calls for a cease fire in Gaza in his last speech to the United Nations as President (Source: The New York Times)

● 2024 (September 23)—Israeli airstrikes kill 492 people, including 35 children, 58 women and two medics in over a thousand separate airstrikes, in heaviest daily death toll in Lebanon since 1975-1990 civil war (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 25)—Officials in Lebanon say Israeli airstrikes have killed 500 people, including dozens of women and children (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (September 26)—Hezbollah air unit commander Mohammed Surer is killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 27)—Israel accused of breaking global labor law by withholding Palestinian worker pay (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 27)—Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill 6 and injure 90 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 28)—Israeli airstrike in Lebanon kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and commander Ali Karaki (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 29)—Israel launches airstrikes against Houthis in Yemen (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (September 29)—Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon kill over 100 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 1)—Hours after Israel received a warning from the US about an imminent Iranian attack, Iran fires over 100 missiles at Israel

● 2024 (October 1)—At least 8 are dead after gunmen open fire at Tel Aviv light-rail station (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (October 1)—IDF conducts “limited raids” into Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 1)—A federal court rules that a student group at the University of Maryland can move forward with a vigil for Gaza on Oct. 7 after the school canceled all events on campus that day, the first anniversary of Hamas’s terror attack against Israel, which spurred the ongoing war. (Source: The Hill)

● 2024 (October 2)—Israel announces the death of 8 IDF soldiers killed in Lebanon

● 2024 (October 2)—6 killed in an Israeli airstrike on a medical center in central Beirut (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 2)—An open letter dated October 2, 2024 to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, written and signed by 99 American physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses and midwives, calls on the White House to bring the genocidal attack on Gaza and the Palestinians to an immediate end. All of the signatories are volunteers to the Gaza strip who have spent a combined total of 254 weeks at Gaza’s hospitals and clinics since October 7, 2023
USA Letter | October 2 — Gaza Healthcare Letters

● 2024 (October 2)—More than 70 are killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 3)—Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backs a direct Israeli attack on Iran in response to Tehran’s missile strike on Israeli military infrastructure (Source: Niles Niemuth, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 3)—The Lebanese army says it has returned fire at Israel for the first time (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 3)—Al Jazeera releases a documentary on Israeli war crimes in Gaza
What did Al Jazeera’s investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza reveal? | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

● 2024 (October 3)—Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut kill 9 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 4)—Germany’s foreign ministry says that an Israeli airstrike on the Tulkarm refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank that killed at least 18 people is “shocking” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 4)—Democrats increasingly suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in US domestic politics by ignoring President Biden’s calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the US Presidential election. (Source: Alexander Bolton, The Hill)

● 2024 (October 5)—US Navy bombs 15 Houthi military sites in Yemen (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (October 5)—Trump urges Israel to take out Iranian nuclear facilities (Source: The New York Post)

● 2024 (October 5)—French President Macron says it is time to “stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 5)—Israel hits south Beirut with “very violent” strikes, Lebanese state media says (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 5)—300,000 march in pro-Palestine protest in London. 17 arrested (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 6)—Pro-Palestine protest staged in New York ahead of one year anniversary of Israel-Hamas war. Some wear keffiyeh scarves, wave Palestinian and Lebanese flags and hold a large cardboard image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with red paint across his face (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (October 6)—Israel has killed the leader of the armed wing of Hamas, Saeed Atallah, in an airstrike in northern Lebanon, according to Hamas-affiliated media. Atallah was killed alongside three family members in the coastal city of Tripoli while in a Palestinian refugee camp (Source: The New York Post)

● 2024 (October 6)—Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi writes an op-ed titled “As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities—and my faith in humanity.”
As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

● 2024 (October 6)—Woman killed in suspected terror attack in in Beersheba, Israel (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 6)—Hezbollah rockets hit Israeli city of Haifa (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 7)—10 firefighters killed by Israeli strike in southern Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 7)—US Vice President Kamala Harris marks the 1-year anniversary of the October 7^th Hamas attack on Israel by planting a tree outside her home and declaring “We must never forget.” Both Harris and Biden declare that the Hamas attacks were the worst day of violence against Jews since the Holocaust (Source: MSNBC)

● 2024 (October 7)—Hamas fires barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv on October 7 anniversary (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (October 7)—Thousands march in a pro-Palestine protest in New York (Source: CBS)

● 2024 (October 7)—100 Israeli aircraft launch intense wave of airstrikes on 120 sites in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 8)—Patrick Martin writes an article on the World Socialist Website titled “Biden administration marks one year of Gaza genocide with Zionist-imperialist propaganda”
Biden administration marks one year of Gaza genocide with Zionist-imperialist propaganda - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

● 2024 (October 8)—Israeli military deploys fourth division in Lebanon ground offensive (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 8)—Hezbollah claims to have killed an Israeli soldier crossing the border to Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October)—Author Ta-Nehisi Coates publishes The Message, which includes an essay on Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people

● 2024 (October 8)—36 people killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon; 7 killed in Israeli strikes in Syria (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 9)—Israeli carries out its heaviest strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut since the start of the conflict in Lebanon (Source: MSNBC)
Israel carries out heaviest Hezbollah strikes in Beirut since start of conflict | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (October 9)—A video shared on social media shows uniformed troops hoisting an Israeli flag in the southern Lebanese town of Maroun El Ras (Source: Reuters)
Video shows Israeli flag being raised in Lebanese village | Watch (msn.com)

● 2024 (October 9)—Republicans threaten to punish colleges that allow pro-Palestine protests (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 9)—Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says that Israel’s strike on Iran will be “lethal, precise, and surprising” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 9)—International Rescue Committee reports that over 50,000 children could be living without parents in Gaza, leading to a higher risk of starvation (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 10)—Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza kills at least 28 people, including women and children. (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 10)—After a year of Israel bombing Gaza, over 70% of housing has been destroyed
How a year of war laid waste the Gaza Strip – visualised | World news | The Guardian

● 2024 (October 10)—American University’s sign and sidewalks in Washington D.C. are graffitied with pro-Palestine slogans, such as “Free Palestine” and “Genocide” (Source: DC News Now)

● 2024 (October 10)—UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israel has fired on their bases deliberately. Human Rights Watch says urgent investigation needed after UN peacekeepers injured in third attack in three days (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 10)—At least 22 people have been killed and 100 wounded in deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut since the start of the war. Senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa reportedly targeted in the air attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 10)—UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of “extermination” in destruction of Gaza health system (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 10)—The Israeli government blocked the screening of Lyd, a film co-directed by Rami Younis, a Palestinian journalist, and Sarah Ema Friedland, a Jewish-American artist and educator, at the Al Saraya Theater in Jaffa, part of Tel Aviv (Source: The World Socialist Website)
LYD Trailer

● 2024 (October 11)—A group of pro-Palestine students at Columbia University are scaling up their rhetoric against Israel, calling for "liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance." In a statement posted to Instagram, Columbia University Apartheid Divest rescinded its apology made in April on behalf of a member who told school officials: "Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists." (Source: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY)

● 2024 (October 11)—US-made munition is used in the Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed 22. This is the first confirmation of US made weapons being used in Lebanon since 2006 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 13)—Actor Andrew Garfield calls attention to the war in Gaza during an interview to promote his new movie We Live in Time. He said: “We should be putting our energy toward something that actually matters. Maybe the lives of, I don’t know, Palestinians in Gaza right now. Maybe that’s where we put our hearts and our energy in, and anyone suffering, anyone oppressed, anyone that is suffering under the weight of the horrors of our world right now, anyone who doesn’t have a choice in living lives of dignity. That’s where our energy should be going right now.” (Source: Paige Skinner, HuffPost)

● 2024 (October 13)—The US Defense Department announces that a THAAD missile defense battery manned by US soldiers is being deployed to Israel, marking the first time that American “boots on the ground” are being deployed to Israel since October 7, 2023. THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, is a missile defense system operated by the US Army. Each THAAD battery typically includes six truck-mounted launchers, a radar unit, and a fire control center, and is staffed by about 100 personnel. (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 13)—Spanish Prime Minister calls for an end of arms sales to Israel

● 2024 (October 13)—4 Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 13)—Peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israeli tanks destroyed their main gate (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 14)—Israeli forces targeted the tents of displaced Gazans on the premises of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza. An explosion from the airstrike set the compound on fire that burned down more than 50 tents. Initial reports state that at least four were killed and 70 wounded, including women and children, in the surprise attack. The images of people being burned alive, including Sha’ban al-Dalou, posted on social media and broadcast on news channels sparked a wave of shock and horror among those watching the devastation (Source: Benjamin Mateus, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 14)—US deploys 100 troops to Israel following Hezbollah’s deadly attack on an army base (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (October 14)—Israeli airstrike kills more than 20 in a Christian town in northern Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 14)—Police arrest pro-Palestine protesters outside of the New York Stock Exchange (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 14)—UK, Italy, France, and Germany call on Israel to stop attacking UN forces in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 14)—US warns Israel it will withhold arms and funding if Gaza aid doesn’t improve (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 15)—Mehdi Hasan publishes an op-ed in The Guardian and argues that “Israel is a rogue nation. It should be removed from the United Nations.”

● 2024 (October 16)—US demands proof that Israel does not have a starvation policy in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 16)—IDF says it has killed more than 50 Hamas fighters in close-quarters combat in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 16)—Lebanese governor decries “massacre” after the mayor of Nabatiyeh is among those killed in an Israeli attack

● 2024 (October 17)—At least 28 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school used as a shelter in Gaza City. The dead include doctors and children. The IDF claims the school was used by Islamic Jihad members (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 17)—Israel confirms that the IDF killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7^th 2023 attack on Israel. IDF releases video of Sinwar’s death. Sinwar was tracked by an Israeli mini drone as he lay dying in the ruins of a building in southern Gaza and filmed slumped in a chair covered in dust. As the drone hovered nearby, the video shows him throwing a stick at it, in an apparent act of defiance. Vice President Harris says that with Sinwar’s death “justice has been served.” (Source: The Guardian; Reuters)

● 2024 (October 17)—US grants temporary protected status to Lebanese nationals amid Israeli violence (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 17)—US attacks Houthi targets in Yemen with B-2 stealth bombers for the first time (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 18)—Hamas says that the remaining Israeli hostages will not be freed until the “aggression” ends (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 18)—Harvard University professors hold a “study-in” at the campus library to stand in solidarity with pro-Palestine students who were penalized for hosting a demonstration in September. Last month, pro-Palestine students held a silent “study-in” at the Widener Library. As a result, they were banned from the library for two weeks

● 2024 (October 18)—The World Socialist Website interviews Muhlenberg College professor Maura Finkelstein, who was fired for opposing the Gaza genocide. Finkelstein says “Zionism and Judaism are not the same.”
“Zionism and Judaism are not the same”: An interview with Muhlenberg College professor Maura Finkelstein, fired for opposing the Gaza genocide - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

● 2024 (October 18)—More than 60 Palestinians are killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. One strike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed 33 civilians, including Mahasen Al-Khatib, a digital illustrator from Gaza (Source: The Guardian)
Palestinian illustrator Mahasen Al-Khatib murdered in Israeli airstrike on Jabalia refugee camp - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (October 19)—Gaza’s health ministry reports that at least 42,519 Palestinians have been killed and 99,637 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 19)—A drone launched from Lebanon has hit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s holiday home in Caesarea, but he was not in the vicinity and there were no casualties. Two other drones were intercepted by the Israeli army, and at least 55 rockets were fired, injuring 13 people (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (October 19)—At least 87 Palestinians are killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 20)—UN says the “nightmare in Gaza [is] intensifying” and “relentless” Israeli airstrikes means that nowhere is safe for civilians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 20)—Israel bombs buildings in Beirut that they say belong to a Hezbollah-run banking system (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 20)—US documents leaked showing alleged Israeli plans to attack Iran (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 21)—IDF releases video showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar going into tunnel in Khan Younis with his family before the October 7, 2023 attack
IDF releases video showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar fleeing into tunnel with family before Oct. 7 attack

● 2024 (October 21)—Israeli airstrike hits a hospital in Beirut. Israel claims a Hezbollah bunker was under the hospital and held millions in cash. 4 children are among those killed (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 21)—Network of Israeli citizens arrested after spying for Iran. Suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information on Israeli bases and facilities (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 21)—Palestinian news agency says at least 29 have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Northern Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 21)—Palestinians accuse IDF of using them as “human shields” by sending them into unexplored houses and tunnels in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 21)—Israel downs 5 Hezbollah drones over the Mediterranean Sea (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (October 21)—CNN publishes an article titled “He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide.” IDF soldier Guy Zaken explains how he can no longer eat meat after driving a bull dozer that had to “run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds [and] everything squirts out.”
‘He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide

● 2024 (October 22)—US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken meets with Netanyahu (Source: The Guardian)
Blinken discusses mass extermination plan with Netanyahu, pledges “ironclad commitment” to Israel - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (October 22)—UNRWA chief says that Northern Gaza “smells of death after non-stop Israeli bombardments” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 22)—Israel considers using private security contractors to deliver aid to Gaza, as the Knesset prepares to vote on banning the UN relief agency from operating in Israel (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 22)—Israel confirms that they killed the likely new leader of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, in an early October attack (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 23)—Israel bombs the ancient port city of Tyre in Lebanon, claiming it was targeting a Hezbollah command center (Source: The New York Times)

● 2024 (October 23)—Lebanese officials say that more than 2,500 have been killed by Israel since attacks began (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 24)—The Israel Defense Forces killed or wounded 150 civilians, including women and children, in an airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 24)—At least 17 people killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Nuseirat (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 24)—Israeli assault on northern Gaza forces postponement of polio vaccination campaign. World Health Organization (WHO) says the “escalating violence” has led to the delay of 100,000 children in Gaza receiving the vaccine (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 24)—University of Michigan hires state attorney Dana Nessel to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 24)—Brown University suspends its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine after the group led a rally protesting the university's decision not to divest its endowment from companies that support Israel (Source: NBC News)

● 2024 (October 25)—Israeli airstrikes across Gaza kill 72, including 38 in Khan Younis and 13 children from the same family (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 25)—Three journalists from Hezbollah-affiliated TV stations Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar are killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 25)—The Washington Post publishes an op-ed by Ishaan Tharoor titled “Is Israel carrying out de-factor ethnic cleansing?”
Is Israel carrying out de facto ethnic cleansing?

● 2024 (October 25)—Israel conducts “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, killing two Iranian soldiers. Iran says their defense system limited the damage, whereas Israel claims they have crippled Iran’s missile production (Source: USA Today)

● 2024 (October 25)—Jordanian foreign secretary tells US secretary of state to stop “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 26)—The daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong suggests that her father’s decision to block the newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris was due to Harris’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza. (Source: Liam Reilly, CNN)

● 2024 (October 27)—Joyce Msuya, a United Nations official, warns that “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 27)—A truck plowed into a bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing one and injuring at least 30 people in what police are calling a suspected terror attack (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (October 27)—70 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, including two Palestinian journalists (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 28)—At least 7 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese city of Tyre (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 28)—Israel's parliament votes to ban the operations of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the main humanitarian aid agency operating in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement on the legislation reiterating the accusations that UNRWA employees are involved in terrorist activities in the region. An investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services closed in August, with some allegations being debunked and noting that others lacked sufficient evidence (Source: NBC News)

● 2024 (October 28)—US Senator Bernie Sanders releases a six-minute video urging workers and young people outraged over the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza to nevertheless cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. The video has been viewed over 5 million times on X and YouTube, while his comments have been reprinted in the Guardian and on MSNBC’s website
Bernie Sanders calls on workers and youth outraged over Gaza genocide to vote for Kamala Harris - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (October 28)—Speaking in Michigan on Monday, former President Bill Clinton justified the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, openly advocating the targeting of civilians and collective punishment against non-combatants, both of which are war crimes. He said: “Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died. People who criticize it are essentially saying ... look how many people you’ve killed in retaliation. So how many is enough for you to kill to punish them for the terrible things they did?” To this, Clinton replied: “What would you do if ... one day they come for you and slaughtered the people in your village, you would say ... I’m not keeping score that way. ... It isn’t how many we’ve had to kill.” He also added: “Well, I got news for [pro-Palestine protesters]. They [the Israelis] were there first before their faith [Islam] existed. They were there in the time of King David, the southernmost tribes had Judea and Samaria.” (Source: Jordan Shilton, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 29)—At least 110 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza after an Israeli airstrike hit a five-story building in the residential neighborhood of Beit Lahiya. At least 25 of the dead are children (Source: CNN; ABC News)

● 2024 (October 30)—UN human rights expert Chris Sidoti says that “Israel’s killing and wounding of children in Gaza is the “greatest of any conflict in recorded warfare” (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (October 30)—Radiohead singer Thom Yorke walks off stage during concert in Melbourne, Australia after being heckled by a pro-Palestine protester. Many have criticized his decision to perform a concert in Israel in 2017 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 30)—UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says that the world must act to prevent the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 30)—An Israeli airstrike targeted a car in Al Maghazi in central Gaza, killing three people. CNN footage captured the moment when a paramedic at Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital realized an injured woman was his mother
Gaza paramedic discovers patient is his deceased mother | CNN

● 2024 (October 31)—UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, says the UN should consider suspending Israel over the genocide of Palestinians (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 31)—Israeli airstrikes kill 45 in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (October 31)—Rocket attack from Hezbollah in Lebanon kills 7 in northern Israel, including 4 Thai workers (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 1)—The Guardian publishes an article by Alice Speri titled “‘I had to get out’: the US military officers filing for conscientious objector status over Gaza”
‘I had to get out’: the US military officers filing for conscientious objector status over Gaza | US military | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 1)—Israel pounds Beirut's southern suburbs with a series of powerful airstrikes after issuing evacuation orders to residents, in the first such strikes in days targeting the dense urban area. So far, 13 deaths have been reported (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (November 1)—Israeli airstrike kills 25 in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 1)—UN warns that Israeli assaults on northern Gaza has caused an “apocalyptic” situation (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 1)—World-renowned Jewish Israeli historian Professor Haim Bresheeth, a lifelong peace activist and anti-Zionist, was arrested in London during a protest against Israeli’s genocide of the Palestinians. Bresheeth, who is in his seventies, is a retired professor of media and culture at the University of East London. He was arrested by police under the Terrorism Act, accused of a “hate speech”, outside the official London residence of Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely. (Source: Robert Stevens, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 2)—Hundreds of journalists from all over the world have signed an online petition condemning the Israeli government for deliberately killing Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank and Lebanon over the past year. 790 individuals—writers, reporters, editors, producers, photographers and photojournalists, artists, videographers, educators and students—have signed the online petition with the headline, “Israel Must Stop Killing Journalists.” (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 2)—Israeli military forces claim to have abducted a high-ranking Hezbollah official during an unprecedented operation, where special forces landed on the shores of Batroun in northern Lebanon, captured the alleged official, and escaped on a fast boat. Axios, citing Israeli sources, reported that the captured individual, Imad Amhaz, was responsible for Hezbollah's naval operations

● 2024 (November 2)—Activists from Palestine Action have stolen sculptures of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, from the Chemistry Building at the University of Manchester on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. They also threw red paint over the offices of the charity Jewish National Fund in London (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (November 3)—After more Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell says that everyone in northern Gaza is at “imminent risk” of death (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 3)—Julian Borger publishes an article in The Guardian titled “The ultranationalist TV channel fast becoming Israel’s most-watched news source.” He writes: “An ultranationalist Israeli television channel backed by the government is fast emerging as one of the country’s most-watched news sources, despite allegations from liberal groups that it is inciting war crimes, and claims from the army that it is riling up hatred of its generals for not being far enough to the right. Last month Channel 14, also known as Now 14, beat Israel’s principal mainstream news outlet, Channel 12, in viewer ratings when 343,000 Israelis watched Channel 14’s ‘Patriots’ talkshow, known for its virulent rhetoric on Gaza. Media analysts say Channel 14’s rise is both a sign and a driver of the shift of Israeli public opinion to the extreme right that has rapidly accelerated since the start of the Gaza war a year ago.”
The ultranationalist TV channel fast becoming Israel’s most-watched news source | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 3)—Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza kill at least 31 Palestinians (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters)

● 2024 (November 3)—Iranians rallied in Tehran and burned US and Israeli flags to mark the 45th anniversary of the U.S. embassy seizure in the city during the 1979 Islamic Revolution
Iranians burn US, Israeli flags to mark 45 years since embassy seizure | Watch

● 2024 (November 3)—Washington Post publishes an article titled “Israeli forces used civilians as human shields in Gaza, Palestinians and soldiers say.”
Israeli forces used civilians as human shields in Gaza, Palestinians and soldiers say

● 2024 (November 3)—UN says Israel bombed a vaccination center and an aid official’s car in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 4)—Israel claims to have killed Hezbollah commander, Abu Ali Rida, in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 4)—In an article in The World Socialist Website, Jean Shaoul reports that: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fascist cabinet has approved a budget for 2025 with some of the biggest spending cuts and tax increases to finance the war that Israel has ever seen… According to the Finance Ministry, by the end of last September the direct cost of the war had reached $29 billion. Since then, it has soared with the assault on Lebanon, the heavier fighting in Gaza and the strikes on Iran. Tens of thousands of reservists have been called up and ammunition is being used up at an immense rate. The daily costs have risen from $110 million to $135 million.”
Israel’s war budget points to a deepening economic, social and military crisis - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 4)—Israeli police have arrested a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over allegedly leaking classified information to foreign media. Opposition leaders say the intelligence was “faked,” and part of a ruse to thwart a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. The investigation centers on allegations that the prime minister’s office promoted to foreign media the claim that Hamas was planning on smuggling hostages out of Gaza over the Egyptian border and creating divisions in Israeli society to pressure Netanyahu into a hostage release and ceasefire deal (Source: CNN)
Police arrest Netanyahu aide as opponents accuse him of leaking intelligence to thwart Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal

● 2024 (November 4)—The Israeli government formally notifies the United Nations that it is banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the most important and critical Palestinian relief agency, from operating within the occupied territories. The decision to ban UNRWA from Israel, which officially begins in January 2025, effectively blocks the organization from operating in Gaza and the West Bank. The decision is recognized by human rights officials throughout the world as an act of collective punishment, which violates international law. (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)
Israel bans UN Palestine relief agency as part of Gaza mass starvation campaign - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 5)—54 Palestinians are killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, including 2 children. IDF orders residents of Beit Lahiya to evacuate (Source: The Guardian)
Israel kills 54 Palestinians in one day during renewed northern Gaza offensive - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 5)—A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK finds that a majority of Europeans believe that the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was unjustified, but also that Israel’s subsequent attacks in Gaza were unjustified too. Most people in these countries believe that a full-scale war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran is likely (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 5)—Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reports that Israel has killed 3,002 people since the start of the war (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (November 5)—Benjamin Netanyahu fires Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, leading to protests across the country (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 6)—IDF Brigadier General Itzik Cohen says that Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza. Other IDF officials distance themselves from the comment (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 7)—62 arrests made in Amsterdam after attacks on Israeli soccer fans, which put 5 Israelis in the hospital. Israel begins evacuating their citizens from Amsterdam after making claims of an attempted anti-Semitic “pogrom” (Source: The Guardian; The Hill)

● 2024 (November 7)—Israeli strike kills 12 in Gaza City school (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 7)—Ex-CIA chief warns that Trump will give Israel “black check” to do what they want, which may mean all-out war with Iran (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 7)—French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau criticizes the unveiling of a giant “Free Palestine” banner at a Paris Saint Germain (PSG) soccer match, saying it is "unacceptable." (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (November 7)—Fairfax County and university police, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) conducted a raid of the off-campus home of the two students, one of whom is co-president of the SJP at George Mason and the other is a former president of the same chapter. The extreme reaction by the university and police stemmed from an event on August 28 where several people spray-painted pro-Palestine messages on the campus sidewalk. No charges or formal accusations have been brought upon the two students who were raided nor is there any indication that the SJP or anyone associated with the SJP did the vandalism. According to The Intercept, “more than 12 police officers showed up outside at an address in Springfield, Virginia, knocked, broke down the door, and raided the family home of two Palestinian American students at George Mason University.” The FBI and police “forced the family to gather in the living room while they searched the house. … Some family members were eventually released to attend work, but the rest remained while police conducted their six-hour search.” It adds, “Police seized electronics from the residence, including phones and laptops, but made no arrests.” Despite this fact, GMU has issued a criminal trespass notice and barred the students from campus for four years, effectively expelling them, according to a petition opposing the ban that has been signed by over 3,400 people (Source: The World Socialist Website)
George Mason University president doubles-down on lies to justify crackdown on Students for Justice in Palestine - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 8)—UN reports that nearly 70% of the Palestinians killed by Israel have been women and children. The UN human rights office said that out of the 8,119 of those killed during the first six months of the war in Gaza, 3,588 were children and 2,036 were women. The youngest victim was a one-day-old boy and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman. (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 8)—Jay Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says that people in Gaza are enduring “almost unparalleled suffering” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 8)—Thousands of writers and publishing professionals around the world have signed a pledge not to work with Israeli cultural institutions complicit in the murderous mass assault on the Palestinians. The statement accuses the Zionist state of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” The open letter, circulated by the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest), based in London and the Occupied West Bank, continues to attract signatories. PalFest explained October 29: “Since launching 24 hours ago, this has risen to a total of 4,500 writers and publishing professionals pledging to boycott all complicit Israeli institutions. Names are coming in faster than we can process them.” The total has since topped 5,500, with “more names of authors, publishers, and book workers added every few minutes.” (Source: The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 9)—Although the Gaza Health Ministry reports that 43,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023, other studies argue that the true number could now be over 200,000 (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)
UN report: Israeli war of extermination kills more children than men - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 9)—Hamas may be forced to close its offices in Qatar after the US told their government that allowing the militant group to have a base there is no longer acceptable. (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (November 9)—Israel continues to bomb buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs (Source: Associated Press)
Aftermath of more Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs | Watch

● 2024 (November 10)—More than 40 people have been killed in waves of Israeli strikes across Lebanon, including three children (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (November 10)—US bombs several Houthi weapons facilities in Yemen (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 10)—Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza kill dozens, including 13 children. A total of 20 children are killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 10)—The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issues a report stating Northern Gaza’s citizens are threatened by an “imminent and substantial likelihood of extreme famine.” (Source: Ashleigh Fields, The Hill)

● 2024 (November 10)—Thousands of protesters take to the streets of Tel Aviv to demand a deal to release the remaining hostages being held in Gaza (Source: Associated Press)

● 2024 (November 11)—Aid to Gaza falls to the lowest level in 11 months (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 11)—Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu confirms that he ordered the deadly Hezbollah pager attack that killed 39 (Source: Daily Mail)

● 2024 (November 11)—Nesrine Malik writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “One thing I’m sure of: Harris ignored voters’ anger over Gaza, and it cost Democrats dearly”
One thing I’m sure of: Harris ignored voters’ anger over Gaza, and it cost the Democrats dear | Nesrine Malik | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 11)—Moustafa Bayoumi writes an op-ed in The Guardian titled “Not changing course on Gaza was a colossal mistake by Kamala Harris”
Not changing course on Gaza was a colossal mistake by Kamala Harris | Moustafa Bayoumi | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 12)—Israeli airstrike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub kills 14. After at least 78 people were killed in Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raids on Tuesday, the official death toll in Lebanon since October 8 stands at 3,365, with 14,344 wounded (Source: Reuters; The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 12)—US President-elect Trump names former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has argued that “there’s no valid reason to have a cease-fire with Hamas. They’re not capable of having an honorable negotiation…This is like trying to negotiate with the Nazis in World War II. You just don’t. You beat them. You defeat them. You eradicate them.” Huckabee also believes that Israel has a right to the West Bank, which he calls by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria, and in 2016 he was caught on camera saying that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” (Source: Lauren Irwin, The Hill; The Guardian; CNN)

● 2024 (November 12)—The Guardian publishes an op-ed by Ben Reiff titled “Israel’s true objective in northern Gaza? Removing Palestinians – and annexing the territory.”
Israel’s true objective in northern Gaza? Removing Palestinians – and annexing the territory | Ben Reiff | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 12)—Masked men wave Nazi flags outside of a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank in Michigan (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (November 12)—Humanitarian groups say almost none of the US’s demands that Israel improve conditions in Gaza have been met. However, the US State Department determined that Israel is not violating international human rights law by withholding food to Gaza, effectively endorsing Israel’s policy of deliberately seeking to exterminate the population of Gaza through starvation. US Secretary of State Blinken says that the US wants a fighting pause in Gaza, but will not limit weapons transfers (Source: The Guardian; The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 13)—Israel allows 15 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, marking a significant delivery of supplies amid the ongoing conflict. The aid, provided by the United Arab Emirates, included food, water, medical supplies, and shelter materials, all desperately needed in Gaza's hardest-hit areas. (Source: Newsweek)

● 2024 (November 13)—More than 100 of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) staff have accused the state broadcaster of pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the Gaza war, in an open letter first seen by the Independent newspaper. The letter, signed by more than 230 figures in the UK’s media industry, writers and academia, said the public broadcaster had failed to provide “fair and accurate” coverage of the conflict and demanded it “recommit to fairness, accuracy and impartiality”. It was sent to the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie.

● 2024 (November 13)—Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to force votes on resolutions to block more than $20 billion in offensive aid to Israel (Source: Axios)

● 2024 (November 13)—The Guardian publishes a political cartoon by Fiona Katauskas where she asks: “Aid to Gaza: is there a line Netanyahu won’t cross” Not if the US is drawing it.”
Aid to Gaza: is there a line Netanyahu won’t cross? | Fiona Katauskas | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 13)—The Guardian publishes an op-ed by Owen Jones titled “Is there any red line that Israel will be held to? Biden has just confirmed the answer is no.” He argues that Israel has ignored US demands for aid to Gaza, but there have been no consequences

● 2024 (November 13)—Hundreds of posters depicting members of the University of Rochester community as "Wanted" were discovered across campus buildings, prompting condemnation from university officials and an investigation by law enforcement. In a statement, University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf denounced the posters adding that "several of those depicted appear to have been targeted because they are members of our Jewish community. We view this as antisemitism, which will not be tolerated at our University. This isn't who we are. This goes against everything we stand for, and we have an obligation to reject it." Activists say the posters highlight the school’s continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (November 13)—US government charges CIA’s Asif W. Rahman with leaking Israel’s plan to attack Iran (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 13)—Protesters march in France against the war in Gaza amid Thursday's soccer match between the French national team and Israel. In Amsterdam, around 100 pro-Palestine protesters defy a protest ban and march in a demonstration (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (November 14)—Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in the town of Baalbek kill 20 people, including 15 first responders (Source: William Christou, The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 14)—Some fans at Stade de France booed during the Israeli national anthem, and minor altercations erupted at a UEFA Nations League game between the two countries (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (November 14)—Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren denounces the Biden administration over the Gaza humanitarian situation and joins Bernie Sanders in endorsing a joint resolution of disapproval against Biden (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 14)—Human Rights Watch reports that Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a policy that amounts to crimes against humanity. UN special committee likens Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza to genocide (Source: Peter Beaumont, The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 15)—The Guardian publishes an op-ed by Mohamad Bazzi titled “Biden now has his best opening to end Israel’s war on Gaza—and won’t use it.”
Biden now has his best opening to end Israel’s war on Gaza – and won’t use it | Mohamad Bazzi | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 15)—The Guardian publishes an article by Thaslima Begum titled “Mazyouna’s face was ‘ripped off’ when a rocket hit her home. Israel has refused to allow her evacuation.” The article describes how “the 12-year-old is one of 2,500 children in Gaza that need to be evacuated urgently yet humanitarian agencies say few are being allowed to leave by the Israeli authorities.”
Mazyouna’s face was ‘ripped off’ when a rocket hit her home. Israel has refused to allow her evacuation | Global development | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 16)—The Gaza Health Ministry reports at least 35 deaths in 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war to 43,799 (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 16)—Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since the invasion began after capturing the strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chama (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 16)—As of this date, Israel has killed more than 200 emergency workers in Lebanon (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 17)—Israel kills Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s lead spokesmen, in the first airstrike on central Beirut in more than a month (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 18)—In a book based on interviews with Pope Francis titled Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Towards a Better World, it is reported that last year the Pope said: “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies” (Source: Axios)

● 2024 (November 18)—Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 20 Palestinians, including six people in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said. Four people, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, which is designated as a humanitarian zone, while two died in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hussam al-Masri, Reuters)

● 2024 (November 18)—Armed looters hijack almost 100 trucks carrying aid supplies into Gaza. Ninety-seven of the lorries were lost and their drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload their aid after passing through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, in what is believed to have been one of the worst incidents of its kind. Eyewitnesses said the convoy was attacked by masked men who threw grenades. Gaza ministry says 20 killed in “anti-gang” operation after looting of aid convoy (Source: The Guardian; BBC)

● 2024 (November 18)—A 64-year-old woman named Alexandra Szustakiewicz has been accused of a hate crime after she attacked a man wearing a "Palestine" sweatshirt at an Illinois Panera Bread (Source: Ahmad Hemingway, ABC News)

● 2024 (November 19)—Food prices in Gaza soar after looting of almost 97 aid trucks worsens shortages. The UN reports that virtually no aid has arrived in Gaza for 40 days (Source: The Guardian; BBC)

● 2024 (November 19)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that Palestinians in Gaza who turn over Israeli hostages will be offered $5 million as a reward, as well as an exit route out of the war-torn territory (Source: Business Insider)

● 2024 (November 19)—Nidal al-Mughrabi writes an article in Reuters titled “Hamas attack on Israel stirs controversy among Gaza clerics,” discussing how the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war has stirred debate among the enclave's Palestinian clerics, with some saying it was not worth the heavy civilian death toll and others declaring the Oct. 7, 2023 assault was a Muslim duty
Hamas attack on Israel stirs controversy among Gaza clerics

● 2024 (November 20)—Netflix has been criticized for their new Biblical film Mary because of the casting of two Israeli actors in the role of Mary and her Joseph: Noa Cohen and Ido Tako (Source: Fox News)

● 2024 (November 20)—Barış Demir writes an article in The World Socialist Website titled “Turkish and Kurdish elites seek to profit from Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians”
Turkish and Kurdish elites seek to profit from Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 20)—The US Senate affirms its support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has killed and injured over 300,000 people since October 7, 2023, and roundly rejects a series of resolutions aimed at blocking a fraction of a $20 billion war package the Biden administration approved for Israel in August (Source: The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 20)—The US vetoes the UN resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas (Source: The New York Times)

● 2024 (November 21)—The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas officials, including Mohammed Deif, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively. Netanyahu calls the action “anti-Semitic” and “absurd” (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (November 21)—A Palestinian girl named Mazyouna, whose face was “ripped off” by an Israeli missile, is allowed to leave Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 21)—UN finds that Gaza food production is “decimated” with 70% of farmland hit in Israeli strikes (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 22)—Netanyahu thanks Victor Orban for inviting him to Hungary after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister. He says that Orban is “on the side of justice and truth” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 22)—Pro-Palestinian organizations have taken the Dutch state to court, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza. They argue that the Netherlands, a staunch ally of Israel, has a legal obligation to do everything in its power to stop violations of international law and the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (November 22)—UN report finds that many people in Gaza are only eating once a day as hunger spreads (Source: Wafaa Shurafa and Fatma Khaled, The Independent)

● 2024 (November 23)—Andre Damon writes an article for The World Socialist Website titled “US threats against the International Criminal Court and the normalization of genocide”
US threats against the International Criminal Court and the normalization of genocide - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (November 23)—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing backlash for saying: “If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats then they should be discussing AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).” (Source: Grace Hall, Miami Herald)

● 2024 (November 23)—Tens of thousands in Sanaa, Yemen rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the Lebanese people
Tens of thousands in Sanaa rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the Lebanese people | Watch

● 2024 (November 23)—At least 29 people killed by Israeli airstrikes on a residential building in Lebanon (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (November 23)—Hamas says an Israeli female hostage was killed in the north Gaza combat zone (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 23)—Doctors in Gaza have found that Israel is using missiles designed to explode and spread metal cubes that pierce blood vessels and nerves, causing death or paralysis in what they describe as a “war crime” (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (November 23)—Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation in Nigeria, wrote on X: “What Netanyahu did to the Palestinians is worse than what Hitler did to the Jews. As evil as Hitler was at least he never buried over 100,000 children alive under the rubble of destruction in the space of one year.”

● 2024 (November 23)—The Israeli parliament unanimously agreed to sanction Haaretz, the country's oldest newspaper, citing its critical coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. The editor of Haaretz, Aluf Benn, responds with an article titled “Netanyahu’s boycott of Haaretz won’t stop us reporting the grim truth about Israel’s wars.”
Netanyahu’s boycott of Haaretz won’t stop us reporting the grim truth about Israel’s wars | Aluf Benn | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 24) )—Rabbi Zvi Kogan is killed in the UAE in what Israel has called an “antisemitic terror incident” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 25)—A Guardian report finds that US munition was used by Israel to target and kill three members of the press in Lebanon on October 25^th: Ghassan Najjar, Mohammad Reda, and Wissam Qassem. Fragments of the bombs were traced back to a Colorado-based aerospace company Woodward. The Guardian found no evidence of the presence of Hezbollah military infrastructure at the site of Israel’s attack, nor that any of the journalists were anything but civilians. Experts say the killing constitutes a war crime. Under US law, if a country uses arms supplied by the US in a war crime, military assistance to that country should be suspended. Despite evidence of several instances where US munitions have been used by Israel to commit potential war crimes, US military assistance to Israel has continued unaffected.
Revealed: Israel used US weapons in strike that killed journalists | Israel | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 25)—Omar Barghouti writes an article in the Guardian titled “The UN has failed us on Gaza. We need to decolonize and radically reform it”
The UN has failed us on Gaza. We need to decolonize and radically reform it | Omar Barghouti | The Guardian

● 2024 (November 25)—To date, 3,754 people have been killed and 15,626 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry. Nearly one-quarter of Lebanon’s population has been forced from their homes (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (November 26)—Biden says the governments of Israel and Lebanon have accepted a US proposal to end the “devastating” conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Only hours earlier, Israeli launched wide-scale airstrikes on Beirut (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 26)—John Reardon pleads guilty to death and bomb threats against Jews in Massachusetts (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 27)—The Civilian Board of Inquiry releases a report finds that the Israeli government failed in its “primary duty to protect its citizens” in the lead-up to and during the Oct. 7, terrorist attacks (Source: Omer Bekin, NBC News)
Israeli government failed in 'its duty to protect its citizens,' civilian-led probe into Oct. 7 finds

● 2024 (November 28)—Release of the book 10/7: 100 Human Stories, by Haaretz reporter Lee Haron. The book tells the stories of Israelis who were attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023

● 2024 (November 28)—A bipartisan bill, the Protect Economic Freedom Act, aims to withdraw federal financial aid from colleges participating in commercial boycotts of Israel. The legislation seeks to combat the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has gained traction on college campuses. "The new bipartisan Protect Economic Freedom Act will give the Department of Education a critical new tool to combat the antisemitic BDS movement on college campuses," Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, said. (Source: Grace Hall, The Miami Herald)

● 2024 (November 28)—Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip (Source: Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters)

● 2024 (November 28)—More than two dozen Pro-Palestinian protesters are arrested for blocking the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City (Source: ABC News)

● 2024 (November 29)—Israeli food minister says that their military will remain in Gaza for years (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 30)—Biden is spotted leaving a bookstore in Nantucket, Massachusetts with Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. The author commented that it was “4 years too late”

● 2024 (November 30)—Hamas releases a video of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, who was taken on October 7, 2023, asking Donald Trump to secure his freedom (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (November 30)—Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill two aid workers. The first strike killed a World Kitchen employee named Ahed Azmi Qdeih. The Israeli military says that he had taken part in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, but his family insists the Israeli allegations are false and are meant to justify his unlawful killing. They say he was an engineer who dedicated his life to charitable work. The second aid worker killed was Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, who worked for Save the Children. At least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Saturday, including at least nine Palestinians waiting to receive flour from a car (Source: Reuters)

● 2024 (December 2)—Hamas says 33 captives held by the group in Gaza have been killed since the start of Israel’s nearly 14-month-old war (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (December 4)—Amnesty International report finds that Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide (Source: The Guardian)
Genocidal intent: Amnesty International exposes malice aforethought in the Gaza genocide - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (December 4)—Activist group Led By Donkeys unfurls a giant banner reading “Yes it’s a genocide” at Parliament Square in London

● 2024 (December 5)—The World Socialist Website reports that: “At the 40th International Documentary Association (IDA) awards in Los Angeles December 5, No Other Land, a scathing indictment of Zionist repression and violence in the illegally Occupied West Bank, received three major awards. However, the film distribution network, also headquartered in the same city, has refused to see to it that the work is actually shown to the public in the US. This is an explicit act of acquiescing to pro-Israeli intimidation and objectively covering up massive, world-historical crime”

● 2024 (December 7)—Israel attacks Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, with the hospital’s director saying a “large number” of Palestinians were killed (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 8)—Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad flees Syria as rebels take over the country. The rebels are led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 9)—Israel, US, and Turkey launch airstrikes in Syria, claiming that they are “protecting their interests.” Israel launches hundreds of strikes in Syria to destroy “strategic weapons systems,” including dozens of planes, helicopters, and other military equipment. Turkey accuses Israel of displaying “occupier mentality” and the UN says the airstrikes must cease (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 9)—Pope Francis made a plea for peace while unveiling a nativity featuring baby Jesus nestled in a keffiyeh in Vatican City. The pontiff declared “Enough wars, enough violence!” while receiving a delegation of representatives from the Palestinian groups that organized the project by Bethlehem-based artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi (Source: Kelby Vera, HuffPost)

● 2024 (December 10)—Netanyahu says that the Golan Heights will remain part of Israel “for eternity” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 11)—Pro-Palestine protesters repeatedly interrupt US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan (Source: C-SPAN)

● 2024 (December 11)—A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through. The report also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression
Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds | Gaza | The Guardian

● 2024 (December 12)—Israeli attacks kill at least 28 people hours after UN demands ceasefire in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 12)—The Guardian publishes an op-ed by Ahmad Ibsais titled “‘International law’ is an illusion for Palestinians
‘International law’ is an illusion for Palestinians | Ahmad Ibsais | The Guardian

● 2024 (December 12)—The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) suspended humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, citing repeated and systematic attacks by armed gangs on aid convoys (Source: The World Socialist Website)
UNRWA suspends humanitarian aid to Gaza after Israel allows armed gangs to rob convoys - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (December 15)—An educational charity called Parallel Histories conducted a session at Lancaster Royal grammar school where 50 students aged 13 to 18 came together to discuss the Israel-Palestinian conflict by examining competing narratives and analyzing primary sources
‘A whole new world opened up’: the radical project taking Israel-Palestine into schools | Schools | The Guardian

● 2024 (December 16)— Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance. Netanyahu said he wanted to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally occupied under international law. Turkey condemns Israel’s plan (Source: The Guardian; BBC)

● 2024 (December 16)—Israel launches dozens of airstrikes on Syria despite the pledge of peace from rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani. Israel dropped a bomb on Syria so powerful it measured 3.0 on the Richter scale, producing a massive mushroom cloud. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the bombardment was “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012” (Source: Michael Howie, Evening Standard; The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 16)—Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza kill Khaled Nabhan, also known as Abu Diaa, a Palestinian man who became widely known after a video showed him kissing the eyes of his slain granddaughter and calling her “soul of my soul” last year. Israeli air strikes had killed his granddaughter, Reem, and grandson Tarek in November 2023 (Source: Al Jazeera)
‘Soul of my soul’: Israeli shelling kills Gaza grandfather who moved world | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

● 2024 (December 17)—Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that over 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its war of extermination in October 2023. Health officials added that tens of thousands of people remain buried under the rubble and therefore have yet to be factored into the official death toll, and over 106,962 more have been injured (Source: Andre Damon, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (December 19)—Shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel, a series of intense Israeli airstrikes shook Yemen's rebel-held capital and a port city and killed at least nine people, (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2024 (December 19)—Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” by denying clean water to Palestinians in Gaza, and called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (December 19)—A new report from Doctors Without Borders finds that there are “clear signs of ethnic cleansing” by Israel in Gaza. They note in their report that “Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza” (Source: David Hodari, NBC News)

● 2024 (December 19)—Another employee of President Biden’s State Department has resigned over U.S. policy toward Gaza. Mike Casey quietly left his role as deputy political counselor on Gaza — one of only two jobs specifically focused on Gaza — in July, after realizing all his reports were systematically dismissed despite the rapidly mounting death toll and catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. Casey found that, unlike in his previous diplomatic work in Malaysia, China and Pakistan, the U.S. government does not expect Israeli authorities to listen to any of their recommendations or demands, and instead defers completely to Israel. Mike Casey told The Guardian in an interview about his resignation he “got so tired of writing about dead kids” and that “We don’t have a policy on Palestine. We just do what the Israelis want us to do.” (Source: Democracy Now!)

● 2024 (December 20)—Two professors declared “personae non gratae” by New York University have accused the university of escalating suppression of pro-Palestinian speech under pressure from donors, politicians and pro-Israel groups. NYU has barred the two tenured faculty members, Andrew Ross and Sonya Posmentier, from entering some buildings after they joined a sit-in at the library and other protests over two days last week to demand the university make public its investments in companies tied to Israel and close its campus in Tel Aviv. On the second day, they were arrested and charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, relatively minor offences that do not result in a criminal record (Source: Chris McGreal, The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 20)—The Guardian publishes an article by Alice Speri titled “Defining genocide: how a rift over Gaza sparked a crisis among scholars.”
Defining genocide: how a rift over Gaza sparked a crisis among scholars

● 2024 (December 20)—Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza kill 25 Palestinians, including a family of 10 and 7 children

● 2024 (December 21)—Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and the Jabalya refugee camp in the north kill between 77-100 Palestinians (Source: Kelsey Ables, Victoria Bisset, Bryan Pietsch, John Hudson, Hazem Balousha, The Washington Post; Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2024 (December 21)—A missile launched from Yemen struck the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, marking a rare instance of a failed interception over the city. The missile landed in Tel Aviv’s southern Jaffa district after interception attempts failed after warning sirens sounded in the area. There were 14 injuries but no fatalities. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces claimed responsibility after the strike, announcing that they had launched a hypersonic ballistic missile named “Palestine 2” at an Israeli military site in the Jaffa area (Source: Freddie Clayton, NBC News)

● 2024 (December 21)—Pope Francis condemns Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as “cruelty, not war” (Source: CBS News)

● 2024 (December 22)—Israeli airstrikes kill 28 in Gaza, including 13 people in a house in Deir al-Balah, a town in central Gaza, belonging to the Abu Samra family.
Civil agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said that eight people, including four children, were killed in the attack on the Musa Bin Nusayr school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war. Bassal said an overnight Israeli airstrike killed three people in the southern city of Rafah, and a drone strike this morning hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 22)—Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 20 people. One of the airstrikes hit a tent camp in the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi which has been targeted by deadly Israeli airstrikes before and is reportedly overcrowded. The airstrike killed eight people, including two children (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 22)—The Guardian publishes an article by Caroline Davies titled “‘They can’t sleep … can’t speak’: the lifeline offered to Gaza’s traumatised children”
‘They can’t sleep … can’t speak’: the lifeline offered to Gaza’s traumatised children | Gaza | The Guardian

● 2024 (December 22)—UNRWA reports that families are scavenging for food in Khan Younis in Gaza, saying: “Everyday we see people scavenging through trash looking for food or material to burn for warmth” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 23)—Children among 20 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. Victims include six people escorting an aid convoy and eight in a tent encampment in a humanitarian zone (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 23)—The Guardian publishes an op-ed by Nesrine Malik titled “A consensus is emerging: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Where is the action?”
A consensus is emerging: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Where is the action? | Nesrine Malik | The Guardian

● 2024 (December 24)—Medical crews in Gaza encountered a gruesome scene of cats eating the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks near the Nuseirat refugee camp (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (December 25)—A 3-week old Palestinian baby girl freezes to death in a Gaza tent camp, the third baby to die from the cold in recent days (Source: Associated Press)

● 2024 (December 26)—An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said all five were militants posing as reporters (Source: PBS)

● 2024 (December 26)—The New York Times publishes a detailed account reporting the existence of official Israeli military documents authorizing the killing of 20 non-combatants in every attack on a single presumed Hamas supporter, with the ratio in some cases reaching 100 to one. World Socialist Website reporter Andre Damon notes that “The report makes clear that Israel has waged its war on Gaza as a war of extermination, with the killing of the civilian population through aerial bombardment a goal co-equal with the massacre of those who have taken up arms against the Israeli occupation.”
New York Times reveals Israeli extermination order authorizing killing 20 civilians for each “combatant” - World Socialist Web Site

● 2024 (December 26)—Israel’s military says it struck multiple targets linked to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport and three ports along the western coast. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he and his United Nations colleagues were preparing to board a plane at Sanaa airport when it came under Israeli bombardment (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2024 (December 27)—IDF intercepts a missile fired by Houthis at the Ben Gurion airport (Source: The Guardian)

● 2024 (December 28)—Israeli forces arrested a hospital director and dozens of staff after raiding the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza, where they also forced patients to strip in the streets. The World Health Organization said the raid on Kamal Adwan – which has come under Israeli assault for months – put the facility out of service, warning on Friday that some patients, including those on ventilators, remained inside (Source: CNN)

● 2024 (December 30)—Michael Moore has boarded Palestine's Oscar entry From Ground Zero as an executive producer ahead of a theatrical release. The project, shortlisted for the upcoming Academy Awards in the best international feature film category, is a collection of 22 films by Palestinian filmmakers completed while impacted by the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
From Ground Zero | Official Trailer HD | Only In Theaters January 3

● 2024—Premiere of film September 5, directed by Tim Fehlbaum, that recounts the Munich massacre from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew and their coverage of the events

● 2025 (January 1)—Israeli airstrike kills 12 Palestinians in Gaza on New Year’s Day (Source: The Guardian)

● 2025 (January 2)—At least 43 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza including in al Mawasi “safe-zone” (Source: The Guardian)

● 2025 (January 2)—The Palestinian Authority has suspended Al Jazeera from broadcasting and operating in the occupied West Bank. It accused the network of broadcasting “inciting materials” and “misleading reports” that “provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs (Source: CNN)

● 2025 (January 3)—In the first three days of the new year, at least 82 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. The missiles targeted various locations across Gaza, including residential areas, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones. (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2025 (January 3)—The US State Department notifies Congress of planned $8 billion arms sale to Israel (Source: CNN)

● 2025 (January 4)—The Gaza Health Ministry reports that the death toll has reached more than 45,500 Palestinians killed and nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since the genocide began in October 2023. The ethnic cleansing campaign has continued for 450 days, or more than 100 Palestinians have been killed per day on average by the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu (Source: Kevin Reed, The World Socialist Website)

● 2025 (January 4)—Israeli airstrikes kill at least 10 people, including a child, in southern Gaza (Source: The Associated Press)

● 2025 (January 5)—Israeli forces fire on World Food Program convoy in Gaza (Source: The Guardian)

● 2025 (January 7)—The UN has called out Israeli forces for a “flagrant violation” of international law after they used an ambulance to carry out a raid in the Occupied West Bank (Source: Al Jazeera)

● 2025 (January 9)—Gaza's Health Ministry says that more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023. They report that women and children make up more than half the fatalities (Source: The Associated Press)

Sources and Further Information

Books

● Adams, James. The Unnatural Alliance. New York: Quartet Books, 1984.

● Anderson, Scott. Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New York: Anchor Books, 2013.

● Antonius, George. The Arab Awakening: The Story of the Arab National Movement. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938.

● Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

● Asbridge, Thomas. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land. New York: Harper Collins, 2010.

● Aslan, Reza. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Random House, 2014.

● Awad, Sumaya and brian bean (Eds.). Palestine: A Socialist Introduction. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2020.

● Bar-Yosef, Eitan. The Holy Land in English Culture, 1799-1917: Palestine and the Question of Orientalism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005.

● Bergen, Peter. The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021.

● Bergman, Ronen. Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations. New York: Random House, 2019.

● Berkovitz, Eliezer. Faith After the Holocaust. New York: KTAV Publishing, 1973.

● Black, Ian and Benny Morris. Israel’s Secret Wars: A History of Israel’s Intelligence
Services. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991.

● Breitman, Richard and Alan Lichtman. FDR and the Jews. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 2013.

● Carter, Jimmy. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

● Carter, Jimmy. The Blood of Abraham. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985.

● Chomsky, Noam and Ilan Pappe. Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010.

● Coughlin, Con. Saddam: His Rise and Fall. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.

● Davis, Angela. Y. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016.

● Dimont, Max I. Jews, God, and History. 2^nd edition. New York: Signet Classics, 2004. Originally published 1962.

● Elkins, Caroline. Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

● Finklestein, Norman G. Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.

● Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. New York: Atheneum, 1990.

● Fischbach, Michael R. Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019.

● Fischbach, Michael R. The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020.

● Friedman, Thomas L. From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York: Anchor Books, 1989.

● Fromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009.

● Gardner, Lloyd C. Three Kings: The Rise of an American Empire in the Middle East After World War II. New York: The New Press, 2009.

● Glubb, Sir John. The Life and Times of Muhammad. New York: Stein and Day, 1971.

● Hadawi, Sami. Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine. New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991.

● Halkin, Hillel. Jabotinsky: A Life. New Haven: Yale University, 2014.

● Hanebrink, Paul. A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018.

● Hazelton, Lesley. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split. New York: Anchor Books, 2009.

● Hazelton, Lesley. Jerusalem, Jerusalem: A Memoir of War and Peace, Passion and Politics. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.

● Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. New York: Random House, 1991.

● Hill, Marc Lamont, and Mitchell Plitnick. Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. New York: The New Press, 2021.

● Hoffman, Bruce. Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947. New York: Vintage Books, 2015.

● Irving, Sarah. Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian Resistance. London: Pluto Press, 2012.

● Jonas, George. Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.

● Kaufman, Uri. Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2023.

● Kessler, Oren. Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.

● Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism, 1917-2017. New York: Picador, 2020.

● Khalidi, Rashid. The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.

● Kimchee, David and Jon. The Secret Roads: The “Illegal” Immigration of a People, 1938-1948. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1955.

● Lowenstein, Antony. The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. New York: Verso, 2024.

● Man, John. Saladin: The Sultan Who Vanquished The Crusaders And Built An Islamic Empire. New York: DA Capo Press, 2016.

● Mattar, Philip. The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

● Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden. London: Verso, 2005.

● Miller, Aaron David. The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace. New York: Bantam Books, 2008.

● Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Jerusalem: The Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.

● Morris, Benny. One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

● Oren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

● Oren, Michael B. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.

● Pappe, Ilan. Ten Myths About Israel. London: Verso, 2017.

● Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006.

● Polakow-Suransky, Sasha. The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa. New York: Vintage Books, 2010.

● Rabinovich, Abraham. The Boats of Cherbourg: The Secret Israeli Operation that Revolutionized Naval Warfare. New York: Seaver Books, 1988.

● Rees, Lawrence. The Holocaust: A New History. New York: Public Affairs, 2017.

● Reeve, Simon. One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God.” New York: Arcade Publishing, 2000.

● Rodison, Maxime. Israel: A Colonial-Settler State? New York: Monad Press, 1973.

● Rogan, Eugene. The Arabs: A History. New York: Basic Books, 2009.

● Rose, Norman. A Senseless, Squalid War: Voices from Palestine, 1890s to 1948. London: Pimlico, 2010.

● Rowell, Alex. We Are Your Soldiers: How Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.

● Roy, Sara. Unsilencing Gaza: Reflections on Resistance. London: Pluto Press, 2021.

● Said, Edward. The Question of Palestine. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Originally published in 1979.

● Said, Edward. Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process. New York: Vintage Books, 1996. Originally published in 1993.

● Schama, Simon. The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC—1492 AD. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.

● Schama, Simon. The Story of the Jews: Belonging, 1492-1900. New York: HarperCollins, 2017.

● Schiff, Ze’ev and Ehud Ya’ari. Israel’s Lebanon War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.

● Segev, Tom. 1949: The First Israelis. New York: Free Press, 2018.

● Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents. 8^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.

● Smith, J. and Andre Moncourt, The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History, Volume 1: Projectiles for the People. Oakland: PM Press, 2009.

● Soltes, Ori Z. Untangling the Middle East: A Guide to the Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Chaotic Region. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017.

● Teveth, Shabtai. Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1996.

● Thrall, Nathan. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2023.

● Thrall, Nathan. The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2017.

● Tilley, Virginia. The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2005.

● Tuchman, Barbara. Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour. New York: Random House, 1984. Originally published in 1956.

● Veidlinger, Jeffrey. In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2021.

● Warrick, Joby. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS. New York: Anchor Books, 2015.

● Weber, Timothy. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004.

● Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

Articles

● Abboushi, W. F. “The Road to Rebellion: Arab Palestine in the 1930's,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 6, No. 3 (1977): 23- 46.

● Abu-Lughod, Ibrahim. “America's Palestine Policy,” Arab Studies Quarterly Vol. 12, No. 1/2, (1990): 191-201.

● Adams, Michael. “What Went Wrong in Palestine?” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 18, No. 1. (1988): 71-82.

● Barakat, Rana. “Criminals or Martyrs? Let the Courts Decide!-British Colonial Legacy in Palestine and the Criminalization of Resistance.” Al Muntaqa Vol. 1, No. 1 (2018): 84-97.

● Berti, Benedetta. “Non-State Actors as Providers of Governance: The Hamas Government in Gaza between Effective Sovereignty, Centralized Authority, and Resistance,” Middle East Journal Vol. 69, No. 1 (Winter 2015): 9-31.

● Dever, William G. “Archeological Method in Israel: A Continuing Revolution,” The Biblical Archaeologist Vol. 43, No. 1 (1980): 40- 48.

● “Dr. Shams El-Din El-Wakil on the Unesco Controversy,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1975): 3-11

● Feldman, Ilana. “Gaza as an Open-Air Prison,” Middle East Report 275 (2015): 12-14.

● Feldman, Ilana. “Gaza’s Humanitarianism Problem,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Spring 2009): 22-37.

● Filiu, Jean-Pierre. “The Twelve Wars on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, (Autumn 2014): 52-60.

● Gordon, Philip. “Israel, the Arab States, and the Illusion of Normalization,” Institute for National Security Studies (July 3, 2017): 1-9.

● Kochavi, Arieh J. “The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine,” Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 34, No. 3 (1998): 146-167.

● Krammer, Arnold. “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947-48,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 2, No. 2 (1973): 102-119.

● Mesher, David R. “Zionism, American Style by Emma Lazarus,” Studies in American Jewish Literature No. 2. (1982): 203-208.

● Pelham, Nicolas “Gaza's Tunnel Complex,” Middle East Report, No. 261, (Winter 2011): 30-35.

● Polkehn, Klaus. “The Secret Contacts: Zionism and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (1976): 54-82

● Qarmout, Tamer and Daniel Béland, “The Politics of International Aid to the Gaza Strip,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Summer 2012): 32-47.

● Roy, Sarah. “Economic Deterioration in the Gaza Strip,” Middle East Report, No. 200, Minorities in the Middle East: Power and the Politics of Difference (1996): 36-39.

● Rynhold, Jonathan, and Dov Waxman, “Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 123, No. 1 (Spring, 2008): 11-37.

● Shapira, Avraham. “Individual Self and National Self in the Thought of Aaron David Gordon,” Jewish Studies Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 3 (1996): 280-299.

● Sharif, Regina. “Christians for Zion, 1600-1919,” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (Spring - Summer, 1976): 123-141:

● Strand, Trude, “Tightening the Noose: The Institutionalized Impoverishment of Gaza, 2005–2010,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Winter 2014): 6-23.

● Wispelwey, Bram and Yasser Abu Jamei, “The Great March of Return,” Health and Human Rights , Vol. 22, No. 1 (June 2020): 179-186.

Documentaries

● We Are the Palestinian People: Revolution Until Victory (1973)
We Are the Palestinian People: Revolution Until Victory (1973) : Single Spark Films : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● The Palestinian—dir. by Roy Battersby (1977)
The Palestinian (Al-Falastini) 1977, dir. Roy Battersby (youtube.com)

● One Day in September—dir. by Kevin Macdonald (1999)
One Day In September 1999 : Kevin Macdonald : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● Death in Gaza—dir. by James Miller (2004)
Death in Gaza (2004 HBO documentary) - YouTube

● Women in Struggle—dir. by Buthina Canaan Khoury (2004)
Women in Struggle - YouTube

● The Iron Wall—dir. by Mohammed Alatar (2006)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwuU_MXXdBI

● Waltz with Bashir—dir. by Ari Folman (2008)

● Tears of Gaza—dir. by Vibeke Løkkeberg (2010)

● The Gatekeepers—dir. by Dror Moreh (2012)

● 5 Broken Cameras—dir. by Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy Davidi (2012)

● A World Not Ours—dir. by Mahdi Fleifel (2012)

● The Lab—dir. by Yotam Feldman (2013)
The Lab (2013) [Israel's Weapons-Testing Human Laboratory]

● Born in Gaza—dir. by Hernán Zin (2014)

● The Occupation of the American Mind—dir. by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp (2017)
2017 (March 9)—Premier of Al Jazeera documentary, Occupation of the American Mind
The Occupation of the American Mind (original 84-minute version) (youtube.com)

● The Oslo Diaries—dir. by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan (2018)

● Tantura—dir. by Alon Schwarz (2022)
Tantura (2022) 1080p HD : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

● H2: The Occupation Lab—dir. by Idit Avrahami and Noam Sheizaf (2022)

● Israelism—dir. by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen (2023)
Watch Israelism (2023) - Free Movies | Tubi

● Stern: The Man, the Gang, and the State—dir. by Hossam Sarhan (2024)
عندما حاول الصهاينة التعاون مع هتلر- شتيرن: الرجل، والعصابة، والدولة. - YouTube

● The Bibi Files—dir. by Alexis Bloom (2024)

● Where Olive Trees Weep—dir. by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo (2024)

● Al Jazeera Investigates Gaza (2024)
What did Al Jazeera’s investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza reveal? | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

● No Other Land—dir. by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (2024)

Films/Series

● Paradise Now—dir. by Hany Abu-Assad (2005)

● Munich—dir. by Steven Spielberg (2005)

● The Lemon Tree—dir. by Eran Riklis (2008)

● Carlos—dir. by Olivier Assayas (2010)

● Omar—dir. by Hany Abu-Assad (2013)

● Fauda—developed by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff (2015-2021)

● Seven Days in Entebbe—dir. by José Padilha (2018)

● The Spy—dir. by Gideon Raff (2019)

● Golda—dir. by Guy Nattiv (2023)

● September 5—dir. by Tim Fehlbaum (2024)