Israel Timeline
Israel is a small country in the Middle East. It was founded in 1948 to be a homeland for Jews. It makes up most of the Biblical Holy Land.
1800-1500 BC Abraham, the father of the Jewish People, lived sometime during this period.
63 BC The Romans conquered the region.
66-70 AD the Jews staged a revolt against Roman rule.
132-135 AD The Romans forced the Jews to leave the region of Israel. It then became known as Palestine.
600s The Arabs conquered the region.
600s-Mid 1900s The majority of the people living in the region of Israel were Arabs.
1000s-1200s Christians tried to claim the area during the Crusades.
Late 1800s The Zionist movement began. The Zionists sought to set up a Jewish state in Palestine.
Early 1900s Friction developed between the Jewish and Arab citizens of Palestine.
1917 The United Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration which supported the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1930s Large numbers of Jews from Eastern Europe immigrated to Palestine to get away from persecutions.
1939 The United Kingdom tried to limit the number of Jews immigrating to Palestine.
1939-1945 During World War II approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis under the dircetion of Adolf Hitler. This extermination is called the Holocaust.
1947 The region was divided into and Arab state and a Jewish state by the United Nations.
17 May 1948 The nation of Israel came into being. The surrounding Arab nations immediately attacked the new state. This began the first of several Arab-Israeli wars.
January 1949 Israel held its first election.
1949 Israel defeated the Arabs. They had taken control of about half of the land that was supposed to be a part of the Arab state.
1950 The Law of Return was passed. It allowed any Jew with a few exceptions to settle in Israel.
Early 1950s Conflicts occurred frequently between the Arabs and the Palestinians about border issues.
1950s The Israeli government began creating towns.
Mid 1950s Egypt began giving financial aid and military supplies to Palestinian Arab fedayeen
July 1956 Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal.
29 October 1956 Israeli forces invaded Egypt. They did this in response to the Egyptian help of the Palestinians.
5 November 1956 Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. The United Nations put an end to the fighting and place peace keeping troops in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
May 1967 The United Nations removed the peace keeping troops from the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
1967 Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West bank at the end of one of the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
Late 1960s The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) became prominent in the Middle East.
April 1969-August 1970 Israel and Egypt engaged in border fighting along the Suez Canal. The Soviet Union provided assistance to Egypt.
1970 An amendment was made to the Law of Return stating that a Jew is "a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion."
6 October 1973 A full scale war broke out between Egypt, Syria, and Israel.
25 October 1973 A cease-fire went into effect. Arab forces recaptured the Golam Heights and some additional Syrian territory.
1977 Egyptian leaders announced that they wanted to negotiate a peace settlement with Israel
1978 Israel invaded Lebanon to try and drive out the PLO.
1978 The Camp David Accords took place with Israeli Prime Minister Begin, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, and United States President Jimmy Carter.
1979 Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty
1980 Israel and Egypt sent diplomats to continue the peace talks.
1982 Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula.
1982 Israel attacked Lebanon again in retaliation for PLO terrorist attacks.
1985 Israel removed its forces from Lebanon except a security zone along the Lebanon-Israel border.
September 1983 Begin resigned as Prime Minister. Yitzhak Shamir became his successor
1987 Arab residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank began to stage demonstrations against Israeli occupation
1988 The Likud bloc won one more seat than the Labor party. Neither party held a majority, however. So the two groups formed a coalition and Shamir remained prime minister.
Mid 1980s-Early 1990s Thousands of Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel.
1991 During the Persian Gulf War, Iraq shot missiles into Israel.
October 1991 Peace talks began between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
July 1992 Yitzhak Rabin became the Prime Minister.
1990s Yitzhak Rabin became the Prime Minister.
1992 A law was passed allowing the people to directly elect the prime minister.
September 1993 Following some peace talks Israel and Palestine agreed to recognize each other.
October 1994 Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty which ended a war between the two countries which had technically existed since 1948.
4 November 1995 Rabin was assassinated by a right wing university student who opposed his policies.
May 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister.
1996-1997 Israel announced that they would increase Jewish settlements in the West Bank and to build in housing projects in East Jerusalem.
1997 Israel completed an agreement with the PLO over the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Hebron, a city in the West Bank.
October 1998 The Wye River Memorandum was signed by Israel and Palestine. The agreement called for Israel to turn over more land in the West bank.
December 1998 Netanyahu claimed that the PLO was not living up to their end of the bargain so he suspended Israeli troop withdrawals.
May 1999 Ehud Barak was elected prime minister.
September 1999 Barak and Yasir Arafat leader of the PLO signed an agreement which expanded the Wye River Memorandum.
May 2000 Barak and Yasir Arafat leader of the PLO signed an agreement which expanded the Wye River Memorandum.
July 2000 Barak and Arafat met at Camp David for peace talks hosted by President Bill Clinton.
September 2000 Areil Sharon leader of the right-wing Likud Party visited the Temple Mount. The Palestinians began to riot as a result.
February 2001 Sharon was elected prime minister.
2002 Israel re-occupied mush of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Works Cited
Reich, Bernard. "Israel." Worldbookonline.com.