Ex-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Dies
Yitzhak Shamir, Israel’s seventh Prime Minister and staunch advocate for settlements in the West Bank, passes away in Tel Aviv at the age of 96.
British Zionist Leader Arieh Handler Dies
Handler moves to Israel in 1948, taking a leadership role in Hapoel Ha-Mizrahi. In 2006, at the age of ninety, he makes Aliyah to Israel for a second time.
American Zionist Leader Rose Luria Halprin Dies
Rose Luria Halprin, who served twice as the national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, passes away at the age of 83 in New York.
British Zionist Richard Crossman Dies
Richard Crossman, who supported Zionist efforts while serving on the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry, passes away at his home in England from liver cancer.
Ben-Gurion Dies at Age 87
David Ben-Gurion, (born David Gruen) Israel’s first Prime Minister passes away at the Tel Hashomer-Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Aviv at the age of 87.
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Is Inaugurated as Israel’s Second President
At the end of the traditional thirty-day mourning period for Israel’s first President Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi is inaugurated as Israel’s second President in a Knesset ceremony.
Golda Meir Secretly Meets With King Abdullah in Amman
The second secret meeting between the two is a last-ditch effort to persuade Transjordan to stay out of an impending war with the soon-to-be declared State of Israel.
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…
Truck Bombs Kill Dozens on Ben Yehuda Street
February 22, 1948 Arab militants disguised as British troops, joined by a pair of British deserters, detonate bombs in three British military trucks and an armored car in the morning along the shopping district of…
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.
Jewish Agency Accepts Partition Plan
David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency since 1935, formally accepts the partition plan proposed by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).
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.
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…
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…
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.
Labor Zionist Leader Berl Katznelson Dies
Berl Katznelson, a leader in the Labor Zionist movement, dies suddenly at the age of 57 in Jerusalem. His advocacy for the creation of a labor-based society in Israel would eventually form the basis of the Mapai party, which was created in 1930 and would dominate Israeli politics until the late 1970′s.
Mitzpe Gevulot Established in Negev
The agricultural outpost of Mitzpe Gevulot was established.
Extraordinary Zionist Conference Begins at Biltmore Hotel in New York
The Biltmore Conference will set the framework for Zionist policy in the years during and after World War II.
Kibbutz Givat Brenner Is Established
Originally working as laborers in surrounding agricultural communities, the founding members of Givat Brenner establish agricultural and industrial infrastructure for the kibbutz, quickly making it financially stable and self-sustaining.
British White Paper Restricts Jewish Immigration and Land Purchase
The 1939 White Paper signaled Britain’s readiness to relegate the Jews in Palestine to minority status in a future majority-Arab state.
Irgun Radio Begins Broadcasting
March 15, 1939 Kol Tzion HaLokhemet (“Voice of the Fighting Zion”), the underground radio network operated by the Irgun, sends out its first broadcasts across Palestine as Esther Raziel-Naor hits the airwaves. The network broadcasts…
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…
