Haganah Seizes Haifa
April 22, 1948 As communal violence increases with the approaching departure of British troops and expected declaration of Israeli independence, the Haganah seizes Haifa, and as many as 25,000 Arabs flee the city, possibly in…
Creech Jones Announces End of Mandate
A two-day debate on the future of Britain’s presence in Palestine begins in the British House of Commons. Eventually it is decided to terminate the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
U.N. Approves Partition Plan
The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 181 by a vote of 33-13 with 10 abstentions. The Resolution recommended the creation of separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, linked by an economic union.
Arab Committee Rejects U.N. Partition Plan
September 29, 1947 The Arab Higher Committee for Palestine formally rejects the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine’s partition plan, which advocates for the division of the land into a separate Jewish and Arab states and…
U.N. Special Committee on Palestine Holds Final Meeting
The United Nations had set up UNSCOP in April 1947. Its purpose, like previous commissions that visited Palestine, is to investigate underlying causes for communal unrest and to make political recommendations about curtailing violence.
White Paper Didn’t Halt Land Sales, Report Finds
A Land Transfer Committee report reveals that Arabs in Palestine willingly continued to sell land to Zionists in the early 1940s despite the British legal prohibition on doing so.
Gavriel Salomon Is Born
A specialist in the field of educational psychology, Gavriel Salomon served as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa from 1993-1998.
Arab Congress Rejects Partition
At the conclusion of a four-day conference in Cairo, Egypt, Arab leaders adopt the Resolutions of the Inter-Parliamentary Congress. The conference and resolutions are a response to the British Peel Commission Report of 1937.
Weizmann Expresses Dismay Over Britain’s Pro-Arab Position to MacDonald
As part of the Zionist strategy to engage the British government in political negotiations, Chaim Weizmann airs his grievances against the British government for reversing their pro-Zionist policy.
Arab Rebellion Breaks Out in Palestine
Violence between Jews and Arabs quickly escalated as Arab workers went on a six-month strike as violence erupted in different parts of British-ruled Palestine.
1930 Passfield White Paper Is Rejected by British PM Ramsay MacDonald
The White Paper contained distinct threats to the geography of the Jewish National Home. The subsequent nine years saw unprecedented growth of Jewish demographic and physical presence in Palestine.
Arab Leaders in Palestine Admit Failure of Non-Cooperation
In a diary entry, Frederick Kisch, the head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, notes that most Arab leaders “recognize that the policy of non-cooperation with the Government has been a failure.”
Arab Raiders Attack Tel Hai
March 1, 1920 A Shi’ite Arab militia, accompanied by local Bedouins, attacks the Jewish agricultural settlement of Tel Hai, which has served as a border outpost in the Upper Galilee between British-controlled Palestine and French-controlled…
Ronald Storrs Is Appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem
British General Edmund Allenby appoints Ronald Storrs as Military Governor of Jerusalem.
Sykes-Picot Agreement Proposes Division of Conquered Ottoman Territories
A secret treaty is negotiated to divide the former Ottoman territories between Britain and France.
Ottomans Introduce Title Deeds for Arab Lands
December 14, 1858 The Ottoman Empire enacts the Tapu Law, which introduces title deed registration in the empire’s Arab provinces. An effort to apply the principles of the Ottoman Land Code of 1858, the land…
