Gromyko Addresses the United Nations
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko proposes a unitary state for Palestine, but vows to support partition if it is deemed the only workable solution.
Britain Seeks Special U.N. Panel on Palestine
April 2, 1947 The British government notifies the United Nations of its intent to bring the question of Palestine’s future before the next U.N. General Assembly. The United Kingdom also requests a special General Assembly…
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.
Jewish Resistance Blows Up Rails Across Palestine
November 1, 1945 The newly formed Jewish Resistance Movement sets off explosions at more than 150 sites along the railway system of British Mandatory Palestine and blows up three British gunboats in the Jaffa and…
Harrison Report Confirms Deplorable Conditions of DP Camps
The Harrison Report, an inquiry into the conditions of displaced persons camps in occupied Germany, reveals that many of the rumors of poor treatment of Jews are indeed true and that “we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we do not exterminate them.”
Bergen-Belsen Is Liberated
April 15, 1945 The British 11th Armored Division liberates the Nazis’ Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany, discovering 60,000 starving prisoners, most of them seriously ill, and 13,000 unburied corpses. They are the remnants of…
Nazis Kill Palmach Paratrooper Haviva Reik
November 20, 1944 Haviva Reik and two other paratroopers from British Mandatory Palestine are among about 40 Jewish fighters executed by the Nazis after the suppression of an uprising in Slovakia. Reik, who was born…
Harold MacMichael Ends Term as High Commissioner of Palestine
Rattled by numerous attempts on his life, and fearing for the safety of his family, MacMichael steps down in August 1944.
Munich Olympic Massacre Victim Yossef Romano Is Born
Weightlifter Yossef Romano, one of the eleven Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is born in Benghazi, Libya.
Rambam Hospital Is Established
December 22, 1938 The Rambam Health Care Campus opens as the British Government Hospital of Haifa and is hailed by the British high commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, as the “finest medical institution in the…
Kfar Ruppin Is Founded
Kibbutz Kfar (Village) Ruppin is established under the framework of the “Tower and Stockade” movement in Zionism, which takes place primarily between 1936-1939.
British Parliament Debates Future of Palestine
In the midst of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt, a debate over British policy in Mandatory Palestine is held in the House of Commons.
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.
Zionist Leaders Debate Land Purchase Strategies
Zionist leaders debate how to confront proposed British restrictions on Jewish land purchase in 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.”
Palestine Jewish Agency Expands to Include World Jewish Representatives
The Jewish Agency holds its first meeting on August 12, the day after the conclusion of the Congress. With so many Jews having immigrated to the US over the previous four decades, American presence in the Jewish Agency had become financially and politically significant for Zionism’s key growth in the United States.
Syria Gains Control of Golan Heights
In border designations for states drafted primarily by Britain and France after WWI, the new state of Syria gains control of the Golan Heights.
Treaty of Sevres Dissolves the Ottoman Empire
Following the San Remo conference in April 1920, a treaty is signed between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire in the town of Sevres, France, officially breaking up the Ottoman Empire.
Herbert Samuel Appointed First High Commissioner of Palestine Durin San Remo Conference
British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asks Herbert Samuel to become the first High Commissioner of Palestine.
Weizmann Sends Warning to British General
Chaim Weizmann warns that unless world Jewry secures a place of their own they will be faced by a terrible catastrophe.
Ronald Storrs Is Appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem
British General Edmund Allenby appoints Ronald Storrs as Military Governor of Jerusalem.
