Zionism:

• A political idea; a Jewish nationalist movement started by Theodor Herzl to create a Jewish state in their ancient homeland.

Judaism is a religion and Zionism is a political movement.

• When WWI ended, the British took over Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. The British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised a place for Jewish people to live.

• The League of Nations issued The Palestine Mandate to Britain, which led to the establishment of  a Jewish homeland in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration, which went into effect in 1923.
  • Palestinians were never consulted on this decision, but Zionists were asked about their vision for Palestine, which was included in the Balfour Declaration.
  • As a result, Jewish immigration to Palestine in the 20th century increased.

• Conflicts began between Arabs and Jews due to the influx of Jewish immigrants. 
  • The British government then tried to limit Jewish immigration.
  • Jewish militias formed to fight the Arabs and resist British rule after the limitation was implemented.
• During the Holocaust, more Jews immigrated to Palestine, which escalated the tensions with Arabs and made Britain want to leave.

• After WWII, the U.N. proposed a plan to partition Palestine into two individual states:
  • A Jewish state
  • An Arab state
  • Jerusalem would be an International zone.
• However, the Jewish immigrants that were only accounting for one third of the population were granted 56.5% of the territory, so Arabs rejected the plan. 
  • When Arabs rejected the plan, extreme violence broke out and the British left.
  • This allowed Israel to declare its independence on May 14, 1948.
• The declaration started the First Nakba, which involved Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
  • Israel won the war and 77% of the land that was originally allocated to Palestinians.
• Approximately 15,000 Palestinians were killed in that war, and 700,000 were forced to leave.

• The Six-Day War occurred after Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli vessels during disagreements over water rights.
  • Syria, Egypt and Jordan entered the war. Israel won Gaza, the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
  • When the Six-Day War ended, the alliance between the United States and Israel began.
• This all led to the U.N. adopting the U.N. Resolution 242, which called for Arabs to recognize Israel’s right to live in peace and for Israel to withdraw from occupied territories.
  • Israel, Egypt and Jordan accepted the resolution even though its tenets weren’t fully implemented. However, Palestine never accepted this agreement. 

• Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 6, 1973 to force Israel to negotiate ceding control of Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
  • The attack happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.
• Israel turned to the U.S. for help. At first, President Richard Nixon was hesitant, but after finding out the Soviet Union was helping Egypt and Syria, he sent them supplies.
  • The U.N. brokered a ceasefire that ended the war.
• It wasn’t until 1978 that Egypt and Israel, with the help of President Jimmy Carter, arrived at peace with the Camp David Accords.
  • The Camp David Accords were a blueprint to a peace treaty.
• Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt opened the Suez Canal to Israeli ships.

• The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) exchanged fire with Israeli forces along the Lebanese border.
  • The PLO, unaffiliated with the Lebanese government, used Lebanon (known as home to Palestinian exiles) as their base between the 1960s-1980s.
• The Iraq-based Abu-Nidal group, a militant offshoot of the PLO, attempted to assassinate Israeli’s ambassador to Britain.
  • Israel forces cited failed assassination when eliminating all Palestinian groups in Lebanon.
• Israel invaded Lebanon and permitted Christian militias to enter the refugee Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila.
  • Israel surrounded the camps.
  • The war ended when the U.S. brokered an agreement in 1983 allowing the PLO to relocate to Tunisia.
  • American and French soldiers were stationed to protect the transfer and the move.
• Palestinians fully withdrew following the bombing of Beirut by Islamic Jihad.
  • Israel started withdrawing in 1985 and created security zones.
• The area became a hotspot of terrorist activity by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militant group that opposes Israel.

• Israeli security forces increased repression in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • Palestinians staged an Intifada, Arabic for “shaking it off,” of Israeli oppression.
  • The nonviolent protests became violent.
• The Intifada went on until the 1990s and 2000 people were killed.
  • The U.S. and other nations' support led Palestine and Israel to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.
• In 1991, representatives from the U.S., Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and non-PLO delegates convened for the first in Madrid to hold negotiations and create a framework. 
  • This was known as the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993.
  • The Oslo Accords allowed Palestine to self-govern the West Bank and Gaza and established the Palestinian Authority as a government.
• Israel agreed to withdraw if PLO recognized Israel’s right to live in peace.

• Ariel Sharon, a right-wing Israeli Likud party leader, became Israel's prime minister in 2001.
• A second Intifada brought an end to peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
• The Intifada started when Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, a holy site for Muslims and Jews who know it as the Temple Mount.
  • Sharon was an advocate of Israeli sovereignty. Palestinians saw his visit as provocative because Sharon was accompanied by Israeli police.
  • This led to Palestinians protesting. At first, it was largely peaceful. 
• Israel responded to the protests by firing at the protestors with rubber bullets and later live ammunition, as well as sending tanks and helicopters into Palestinian areas.
• The protests led to violent resistance that escalated to suicide bombings and shootings inside Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
  • Israel reentered Gaza and the West Bank — ending the Oslo status — and constructed a reinforced security barrier.
• A ceasefire was declared in 2003. 
  • More than 4,300 people died, mostly Palestinians, and the Intifada caused billions in economic damage. 
  • There were multiple attempts for peacemaking that failed to gain traction in this period — the Mitchell Report, the Tenet Plan and the Road Map for Peace.

• In 2005, Sharon's government announced an Israeli disengagement plan to completely withdraw Israeli settlements and military forces from Gaza.
  • About 8,500 Israeli settlers, who had been living there for decades and resisted the plan, were forced to leave their homes. Some of them were compensated. 
• Israel gave up control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. 
  • The plan also removed four Israeli settlements from the West Bank.
• These efforts were meant to improve Israel’s security and create conditions for peace.

• Palestine's legislative branch was supposed to govern Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
  • The legislative branch has power over civil matters, internal security and public order.
• The Palestinian Authority (PA) was dominated by the secular Fatah party. 
  • The Fatah party recognizes the state of Israel and has sought to negotiate with Israel after renouncing armed resistance in the 1990s.
• Hamas won the 2006 election after winning a majority of council seats.
• Hamas had a history of armed confrontation with Israel and an objective of destroying the Israeli state.
  • Because of this, the international community refused to recognize the Hamas-led government. 
• The U.S. organized a violent coup against Hamas, promising $86 million in military assistance to Fatah Commander Mohammed Dahlan’s forces.
  • The two parties, Fatah and Hamas, could not reach a lasting power-sharing agreement, so a civil war broke out between the parties and their Allies' militias.
    • Hamas defeated Fatah’s forces. 
• Hamas took control over Gaza and Fatah kept control of the West Bank.
  • Israel instituted a blockade of Gaza. 

• On June 25, 2006, Hamas kidnapped Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, and took him to Gaza. The Israeli army launched air strikes at Gaza in response.
• Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers with the hope of advancing the Palestinians’ cause. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.
  • Israel responded with airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s operations in Lebanon and limited ground incursions in Southern Lebanon.
  • The group shot back with a barrage of rockets that hit several cities in northern Israel.
  • The crossfire displaced hundreds of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese civilians from their homes, resulting in more than 1,150 casualties on both sides.
• A U.N. resolution ended the fighting and required Israeli forces to withdraw from Lebanon.
  • 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. peacemaking troops overtook the area in order to prevent rearming Hezbollah.
• In response to the conflict, Israel began developing its Iron Dome short range missile defense system.

• Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas, but Israeli soldiers raided Gaza to kill Hamas militants in November 2008.
• Israel launched Operation Cast Lead.
  • The operation was a week long assault on Gaza that involved ground invasions as well as aerial bombing. 
  • About 1,000 Palestinians and 12 Israelis died.
  • It caused damage to housing, businesses and electrical infrastructure in Gaza.
• U.N. officials said that Israeli military committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by using white phosphorus in populated areas and intentionally targeting civilians. The U.N. also said Palestinian militants committed war crimes by shooting rockets at Israeli civilians.
• In 2011, Shalit was released from Gaza after he was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
• In 2012, after more Hamas rockets were launched from Gaza to Israel, Israel responded with an eight-day air strike that killed Ahmed al-Jabari, the head of Hamas’ military wing.
  • Around 180 people died in the fighting. 
  • The U.N. found that both sides committed war crimes.
  • Egypt helped negotiate a ceasefire that did not last.

• In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and then killed three Israeli teens from the West Bank.
  • Israel responded by launching airstrikes, ground operations and naval blockades in Gaza.
• Israel said that the target was Hamas militants and their infrastructure, but thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed in the seven weeks of fighting.
  • Hamas launched rockets into Israel, but most were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
• Egypt arranged another ceasefire, but Gaza was left with infrastructure damage and a shortage of basic necessities. The Israeli blockade remained.
  • At least 2,200 were killed in Gaza, mainly civilians.
  • Violence persisted.

• Israel threatened to evict Palestinian families from their homes and Israeli police restricted access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan.
• Palestinian protesters and Israeli police violently clashed in East Jerusalem.
  • Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem and Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza.
• Israel stated it only wanted to target Hamas and its infrastructure, but their attack resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties. 
  • Egypt and Qatar negotiated a ceasefire after 11 days. 
  • Outbreaks of violence still continued.