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Chronology of Middle East Conflict:
1917:
In the Balfour Declaration, Britain expresses its support
for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people”, though without prejudicing its
non-Jewish communities.
1920:
Britain takes over the administration of Palestine,
Transjordan (later renamed Jordan) and Mesopotamia (Iraq),
following the defeat of the Ottoman empire in the first world
war.
1923:
Britain cedes the Golan Heights from Palestine to
French-run Syria. Britain’s official mandate over Palestine,
from the League of Nations, comes into effect.
1936:
A three-year Arab revolt begins, amid frustration at rising
Jewish immigration and continued colonial rule.
1939:
Britain imposes restrictions on Jewish immigration to
Palestine.
1945:
At the end of the second world war, America urges Britain to
lift its restrictions on Jewish refugees settling in Palestine
but Britain resists this pressure.
1946:
The King David Hotel, Britain’s military headquarters in
Jerusalem, is bombed by a Jewish militant group, Irgun.
1947:
Britain asks the recently formed United Nations to take
over the Palestine problem. The UN proposes partition. The
Arabs reject this.
1948:
The state of Israel is proclaimed. Neighbouring Arab states
invade it. Israel’s nascent defense forces repel them.
Around 700,000 Arabs flee. Though Egypt ends up occupying the
Gaza strip and Transjordan takes East Jerusalem and the West
Bank, Israel ends up bigger than the UN partition plan had
proposed.
1956:
Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal and closes off access to the
Israeli port of Eilat. Israel, France and Britain form a
secret pact to attack Egypt. Under American pressure, they are
forced to withdraw.
1964:
Arab leaders create the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), whose founding charter calls for a Palestinian Arab
state encompassing the whole of British Mandate Palestine and
declares the establishment of Israel “illegal and null and
void”.
1967:
After Egypt masses its troops in the Sinai desert and
blockades Eilat, the six-day war is launched and won by
Israel. Sinai and the Gaza strip are taken from Egypt; the
West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan; and the Golan
Heights from Syria. The PLO moves to Jordan. The UN passes
Resolution 242, calling among other things for Israeli forces
to withdraw from “territories occupied in the recent
conflict” (a phrase whose precise meaning still provokes
fierce debate) in return for Arab recognition of Israel's
right to exist peacefully. The Arab League issues its “three
noes”: no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no
recognition of Israel.
1969:
America launches the Rogers plan, which reiterates Resolution
242's land-for-peace formula. Both sides reject it.
1970:
In what becomes known as “Black September”, Jordan expels
the PLO after it creates a “state within a state” and
hijacks American, Swiss, Israeli and British planes, holding
some passengers hostage. The PLO eventually re-establishes
itself in Lebanon, from where it launches raids on Israel.
1973:
The Yom Kippur war: attacks by Egypt and Syria on Judaism’s
holiest day take Israel by surprise but it strikes back and
its troops cross the Suez Canal and enter Syria before the UN
calls for a ceasefire.
1977:
Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader
to go to Israel, visiting Jerusalem to seek a peace
settlement.
1978:
After terrorist attacks on buses in northern Israel, its
forces launch an incursion into Lebanon to attack PLO bases.
America’s President Jimmy Carter hosts the Camp David talks
between Israel and Egypt.
1979:
Israel and Egypt sign a peace deal, in which Israel returns
the Sinai to Egypt.
1981:
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon-based Palestinian
militants is brokered by an American envoy, Philip Habib, but
lasts less than a year.
1982:
Israel invades Lebanon. The PLO moves to Tunisia. America
sends peacekeeping troops to Lebanon. It also launches the
Reagan plan, proposing self-government for the West Bank and
Gaza, though in association with Jordan rather than as an
independent state. Israel, followed later by the PLO and
Jordan, reject it. Up to 2,000 Palestinians are killed by
Lebanese Christian militiamen allied to Israel in the Sabra
and Chatila refugee camps.
1983:
A suicide bomber kills 241 American marines, sailors and
soldiers in their base in Beirut.
1985:
Most Israeli troops are withdrawn from Lebanon, except for a
border “security zone”.
1987:
Palestinians launch the first intifada (“struggle”
or “shaking-off”) against Israeli rule in the West Bank
and Gaza. The clashes continue into the early 1990s.
1988:
America launches the Shultz plan, incorporating elements of
earlier peace proposals. The PLO issues a statement renouncing
terrorism and recognizing Israel’s right to exist, leading
America to open direct talks with the PLO. Jordan renounces
its claim to sovereignty over the West Bank in favor of the
PLO.
1991:
After the first Gulf war ends, America launches the Madrid
peace conference, with Israel holding its first formal
negotiations with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestinian
representatives (though not the PLO).
1993:
Secret talks begin in Oslo between Israeli academics and PLO
officials, leading to the Oslo accords. These propose an
interim Palestinian Authority, conducting limited
self-government in part of the occupied territories, and a
phased plan leading to a permanent peace settlement.
1994:
The PLO’s chairman, Yasser Arafat, returns from exile to the
occupied territories. Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.
1995:
Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo II agreement, under which
Israel hands over security responsibility to the Palestinian
Authority in parts of the occupied territories.
1998:
Mr Arafat and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin
Netanyahu, sign the Wye River memorandum, which aims to
clarify the Oslo II agreement and set a timetable for its
implementation.
1999:
After slippage in the implementation of the Oslo accords,
Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Barak, and Mr Arafat sign the
Sharm el-Sheikh memorandum, setting a new timetable, in talks
hosted by Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak.
2000:
Talks at Camp David between Mr Barak and Mr Arafat end in
failure. Israel's opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, makes a
provocative visit to Temple Mount in Jerusalem—known to
Muslims as the “noble sanctuary”, one of their holiest
places. Incensed, Palestinian militants launch a second intifada.
President Bill Clinton hastily calls another summit at Sharm
el-Sheikh, which reaches an agreement “to return the
situation to that which existed prior to the current
crisis”. A fact-finding commission headed by George
Mitchell, an American former senator, is set up. Amid attacks
from Lebanese militants, Israel pulls out of its “security
zone” in southern Lebanon, as Mr Barak had promised the
previous year.
2001:
Between George Bush taking office as American president and
Ariel Sharon winning the Israeli election, Israeli and
Palestinian delegations hold talks at Taba in Egypt. But Mr
Sharon refuses to talk peace while terrorist attacks continue,
and the Oslo process stops. The Mitchell commission produces
its report but it fails to make much impact. Mr Bush then
sends the CIA chief, George Tenet, to the region. He produces
another report proposing a ceasefire.
2002:
After several Palestinian suicide bombings, Mr Sharon launches
Operation Defensive Shield, seizing areas controlled by the
Palestinian Authority, which Israel accuses of failing to stop
militants’ attacks. Most of the West Bank and Gaza comes
under siege as Israeli forces close down the areas. The
Quartet group (America, the European Union, Russia and the UN)
launches the “road map”, a new phased plan for peace,
including the creation of an independent Palestine. Mr Bush
calls for new Palestinian leadership in place of Mr Arafat.
2003:
Under pressure from the Quartet, Mr Arafat hands much of
his power to Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate, who becomes
Palestinian prime minister. Mr Bush gets Mr Abbas and Mr
Sharon to shake hands on the road map. The Palestinian
militant groups agree among themselves a fragile ceasefire.
But it collapses after only seven weeks: after a Hamas suicide
bomber kills 22 people on a Jerusalem bus, Israel resumes its
“targeted killings” of militant groups' political leaders.
Mr Abbas resigns and his place is taken by Ahmed Qurei,
another moderate, though closer to Mr Arafat.
2004:
Mr Sharon unveils a controversial proposal to evacuate all
Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip. After a suicide bombing
kills ten in the Israeli port of Ashdod, Israel steps up its
attacks on Palestinian militants and kills Hamas's spiritual
leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. |
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