1. TIMELINE OF THE ISRAELI- PALESTINIAN CONFLICT 1897-1967

2. 1897 The first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland, which issued the Basle program on the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) 1904 Fourth Zionist Congress decided to establish a national home for Jews in Argentina 1905 Zionist Congress decided the Jewish homeland should be Palestine

3. 1914 WW I Britain promised the independence of Arab lands under Ottoman rule, including Palestine, in return for Arab support against Turkey which had entered the war on the side of Germany 1916 Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence 1917 Britain promised to support establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine

4. 1922 Britain was granted the Mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations 1936-9 Massive Arab rebellion against British rule and the Zionists following soaring Jewish migration 1945-6 Following WWII and the horrors of Nazi rule, worldwide sympathy and support for Zionism increased as did Jewish immigration to Palestine. Zionist groups fought against British soldiers. Some committed terrorist atrocities such as the blowing up of the King David hotel in 1946 where 88 died

5. 1947 Britain decided to hand over the issue of the future of Palestine to the UN. The UN voted on partitioning the country into a Jewish and Arab state with Jerusalem as a “corpus separatum” under international trusteeship. The Arab states and the Palestinians rejected this pointing out that, although their community made up only one third of the population, owned only 6% of the land, that the Zionists would receive 54% of the country including the mist fertile coastal region. In the military struggle that followed, the Palestinians were defeated. Terrorism was used on both sides. The Zionists forces pushed forward into the area designated for an Arab state and a refugee crisis followed. 1948 In May the Zionists declared independence of a new Israeli state. Arab states declared war. The result was an expanded Israel on 78% of Palestine. Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Jordan, the West Bank. 1967 In the 1967 war Israel occupied both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem plus the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.