The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL
On May 14, 1948 - 75 years ago Sunday - David Ben-gurion, Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, issued an official declaration of the state of Israel to be established at the end of a British Mandate at midnight.
Within minutes, the United States would recognize the new nation. Within hours, Israel would find itself under attack by its neighboring Arab nations.
FROM A DREAM TO A REGIONAL POWER AUG. 30, 1897
A meeting of 200 Jewish leaders in Basel, Switzerland, calls for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
JAN. 9, 1917
British forces begin battling Ottoman Empire forces for control of Palestine and the Sinai.
NOV. 2, 1917
Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, giving support to a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine — but also insisting that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities.”
OCT. 30, 1918
Britain completes its capture of Palestine. The Ottoman Empire is dissolved.
APRIL 1920
The San Remo conference of Allied powers grants a mandate to Britain to prepare Palestine for self-rule. European Jewish migration, which had increased over the 19th century, continues.
SEPT. 16, 1922
Britain separates Transjordan from Mandate Palestine and forbids Jewish settlement there.
MAY 23, 1939
A British government White Paper seeks to limit Jewish migration to Palestine to 10,000 per year.
1941-1945
The Holocaust: Nazi persecution and murder of European Jews in Europe leaves at least 6 million dead and increases efforts of Jews to migrate to Palestine. Armed Jewish groups advocating for an independent Jewish state fight British authorities there.
NOV. 29, 1947
A United Nations plan to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with international control over Jerusalem and the surrounding area, is accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab states. Announcement of the plan sparks fighting between the Arab and Jewish population of Palestine.
MARCH 19, 1947
U.S. representatives at the U.N. recommend against the partition plan, despite assurances President Harry Truman had made the day before to Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann. A furious Truman orders his State Department on board.
MAY 14, 1948
On the day the British Mandate in Palestine officially ends, David Ben-gurion, executive head of the World Zionist Organization issues the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The Jewish state is to be known as Israel, Ben-gurion says. Eleven minutes after that declaration, the Truman administration announces its recognition of the new nation and its government.
MAY 15, 1948
The Arab-israeli war: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq launch an attack on Israel.
FEB. 24, 1949
The first of four armistice agreements are signed. Israel will come out of the war with more territory than envisaged under the Partition Plan, including western Jerusalem. Jordan annexes the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Egypt occupies Gaza. About 750,000 of the 1.2 million Arabs in Palestine either flee or are expelled.
MAY 11, 1949
The United Nations accepts Israel’s membership.
JULY 5, 1950
The Knesset — the Israeli legislature — passes the Law of Return, granting all Jews the right to migrate to, to settle in and to become citizens in Israel. Over the next several years, up to a million Jewish refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries plus 250,000 Holocaust survivors settle in Israel.
JULY 26, 1956
Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal and closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.
OCT. 29, 1956
The Sinai Campaign: The Israeli air force — with support from Britain and France — begins bombing Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula in order to reopen the canal and to end incursions by Palestinians from Sinai. The UN sends in a buffer force to Sinai and Gaza. Negev desert.
MAY 11, 1960
Eight Israeli agents abduct Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina and deliver him to Israel. He’s put on trial in April 1961 and executed on June 1, 1962.
JUNE 5-10 1967
The Six-day War: After months of tension and border skirmishes, Israel launches a pre-emptive attack on Egypt. Jordan, Syria and Lebanon join the war which lasts six days and leaves Israel in control of east Jerusalem, all of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai. In the coming years, Jewish settlements spring up in all these areas with government approval.
JUNE 30, 1967
Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem announces the city has been fully reunified.
OCT. 6-24, 1973
The Yom Kippur War: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria launch a surprise coordinated attack against Israeli forces in the occupied Sinai and Golan Heights. Israel prevails after suffering significant losses over three weeks of heavy fighting.
NOV. 22, 1974
The Palestinian Liberation Organization is allowed to represent Palestinian Arab refugees in the United Nations.
NOV. 10, 1975
UN General Assembly adopts a resolution describing Zionism as “a form of racism and racial discrimination.”
NOV. 19-21, 1977
After peace negotiations stall, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem, the first such gesture to Israel by an Arab nation.
SEPT. 17, 1978
Camp David Accords: U.S. President Jimmy Carter helps broker a peace agreement between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin that would create full diplomatic relations between the countries, establish an autonomous authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and withdraw Israeli forces from the Sinai.
OCT. 6, 1980
Muslim extremists, displeased with his peace efforts with Israel, assassinate Sadat in Cairo.
JUNE 6, 1982
Israeli forces invade southern Lebanon after repeated attacks by the PLO on Israeli settlements in northern Israel.
DEC. 16, 1991
Under pressure from U.S. President George H.W. Bush, the U.N. General Assembly rescinds its 1975 resolution describing Zionism as a form of racism.
SEPT. 13, 1993
The Oslo Accord: Israel and the PLO sign an agreement calling for withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and for the establishment of a self-governing authority for Palestinians.
Sources: “Truman” by David Mccullough, “Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989” by Michael Beschloss, “1948: Harry Truman’s Improbably Victory and the Year That Transformed America” by David Pietrusza, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel Defense Forces, the BBC, Atomic Heritage Foundation, NPR, PBS’ “American Experience,” Office of the Historian of the Department of State, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, National Archives, History.com, Myjewishlearning.com