The
Jewish Colonisation Association makes its first major purchase in the north of Palestine in an acquisition of 31,500 dunums of land near
Tiberias from the
Sursock family. This will go on to become one of the largest land purchases for the purposes of colonisation within Palestine.[2]
1907
September 28 - Founding of
Bar-Giora an underground Zionist militia, in
Jaffa.
1908
First edition of Al-Karmil, an anti-Zionist newspaper, published in
Haifa.[3]
1909
April 12 - founding of
Hashomer, Zionist defence militia and precursor of the
Hagana
1910
The Fula affair: Elias Sursock sold 10,000 dunums around the village of
al-Fula, the Palestinian peasants inhabiting the land petitioned the Ottoman government for assistance, but were ultimately unsuccessful and expelled by the
Hashomer paramilitary group. This marks one of the first expulsions of Palestinians.[4]
1911
Muslim intellectuals and politicians from throughout the Levant formed
al-Fatat ("the Young Arab Society"), a small Arab nationalist club in Paris. They also requested that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army not be required to serve in non-Arab regions except in time of war. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces.[5]
January/February - The new
Young Turk authorities allow Zionist groups to purchase land in Ottoman Syria.
January - First edition of the Arabic-language newspaper Filastin published in
Jaffa.
July 14 - First letter between the British Government and the Governor of
Mecca. The exchange became known as the
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence promises an Arab state in the Middle East in return for revolt against the Turks. That Palestine was part of this deal was confirmed during a 1918 War Cabinet meeting[8] but later denied by the British government.[9]
January 30 - Final letter of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence sent to the Governor of
Mecca.
May 16 - The
Sykes–Picot Agreement was signed between Britain, France and Russia, in which it was agreed in the event of a successful conclusion of the
war the former Ottoman lands incorporating very roughly, modern Iraq, Jordan and much of Israel, would be controlled by Britain; France would take control of what is today Lebanon, Syria, part of Turkey, part of northern Iraq, and a small section of northern Israel. Russia would take large areas of Eastern Turkey and Istanbul.
June 10 - Beginning of the
Arab Revolt against the Young Turk regime in Constantinople.
December 9 - Following an
offensive lasting three weeks, an officer in the British Army accepts the surrender of
Jerusalem from the town's mayor,
Hussein al-Husayni.
September - General
Allenby completes the British conquest of Palestine.
December 18 - the
Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC) purchased 71,356 more dunams of land in the Jezreel Valley, including
Tel Adashim, from Nagib and Albert Sursock of the Sursock family. The Ottomans had previously refused to authorize numerous sales, such that the Sursocks were unable to sell significant land to Jewish purchasers prior to World War I.[10]
Haj Amin al-Husseini founded the Jerusalem branch of the Syrian-based 'Arab Club' (El-Nadi al-arabi), which then vied with the Nashashibi-sponsored 'Literary Club' (Al-Muntada al-Adabi) for influence over public opinion, and he soon became its president.[11][12]
January 30 - The Supreme Council of the
Peace Conference decided that the Ottoman Empire's Arab-dominated provinces would not be returned to Turkey.[13]
February 3 - The Zionist Organisation submits its plan for implementation of the Balfour Declaration and urges the selection of Great Britain as Mandatory for Palestine.[13][14]
Intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine
1920
With the promulgation of the first Land Transfer Ordinance, and the reopening of the land registries, the Ottoman restrictions on foreign purchase of lands in Palestine are completely done away with.[15]
February 27 - Over one thousand protesters take part in an Arab nationalist demonstration in Jerusalem carrying banners bearing the slogans "Stop Zionist Immigration" and "Our Country For Us"[16] – a reference to
Aliyah, the Zionist immigration coming mostly from Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Arab nationalists in Damascus are pushing for the establishment of Arab
Greater Syria.
March 8 - A second large Arab nationalist demonstration takes place in Jerusalem.[17]
April 4–7 - The
1920 Palestine riots – violent 4-day riot against the Jews in Jerusalem's Old City. al-Husseini was charged with inciting the Arab crowds with an inflammatory speech and sentenced by military court held in camera (private)[18] to ten years imprisonment in absentia, since he had already violated his bail by fleeing to
Transjordan to avoid arrest. Zionist leader
Ze'ev Jabotinsky was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the possession of weapons.
July 1 -
Herbert Samuel sworn in as first High Commissioner. He announces the establishment of an Advisory Council consisting of 20 members: 10 British officials, 4 Muslims, 3 Christians and 3 Jews.[19]
Between 1921 and 1925, 80,000 acres (320 km2) of land in the Jezreel Valley is bought up by the
American Zion Commonwealth (AZC) for about nearly three-quarters of a million pounds as part of the
Sursock Purchases.[20] Under British Mandate, the land laws were rewritten, and the Palestinian farmers in the region were deemed tenant farmers by the British authorities, and the rights of the new owners to displace its population is upheld.[21][22] In total 1,746 families were displaced from 240,000 dunums of land;[23][24][25] Despite this however, some of the native inhabitants refused to leave peaceably, and had to be expelled by force by the British colonial police.[26] The dispossessed would flee to shantytowns on the edges of
Jaffa and
Haifa.[27]
May 1–7 -
Jaffa riots resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs being wounded. Most Arab casualties resulted from clashes with British forces attempting to restore order.[29] Thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach.
May 8 - The High Commissioner appoints Amin al-Husseini as
Mufti of Jerusalem.[30] al-Husseini turns from Damascus-oriented Pan-Arabism to a specifically Palestinian ideology centered on Jerusalem, which sought to block Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine. The frustration of pan-Arab aspirations lent an Islamic colour to the struggle for independence, and increasing resort to the idea of restoring the land to
Dar al-Islam.[31]
October - The
Haycraft Commission of Inquiry publishes its report into the Jaffa riots concluding that they were spontaneous rather than premeditated.[32]
December - The Mandate authorities issue an order creating a
Supreme Muslim Council to administer Muslim owned charitable properties,
Awqaf, and appoint (or dismiss) judges and officials in the
Sharia courts.[33]
1922
February - A delegation of Palestinian Arab leaders, led by
Musa al-Husayni, informs
Winston Churchill at the
Colonial Office that they cannot accept the Mandate or the Balfour Declaration and demand their national independence.[14]
June 30 - The United States Senate and House of Representatives adopt a joint resolution favouring "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."[14]
August 10 - The British authorities announce the setting up of a Legislative Council consisting of 11 British official and 12 elected members: 8 Muslims, 2 Christians and 2 Jews.[34]
September 16 - The Council of the League of Nations accepts the British
Transjordan memorandum defining the limits of Trans-Jordan and excluding that territory from the provisions in the Mandate concerning the Jewish national home.[35]
October - First British census of the population of Mandatory Palestine.
1923
Elections for the proposed Legislative Council fail due to the extent of the Palestinian Arab boycott. An attempt is made to expand the Advisory Council but this also fails when only three Palestinian Arabs could be found who were willing to join.[36]
October 4 - Secretary of State for the Colonies, the
Duke of Devonshire, proposes the setting up of an Arab Agency to have equivalent status to the
Jewish Agency.
December 11 - Arab Agency unanimously rejected by Palestinian Arab leaders.[38]
1924
Collective Responsibility Ordinance issued giving powers of collective punishment in rural areas. Introduced to combat feuding between communities. The powers included application of fines and demolition of houses.[39]
British garrison in Mandatory Palestine reduced to one
RAF squadron and 2 companies of armoured cars.[38]
March - General strike called in protest of the visit of the French High Commissioner of
Syria, Henry de Jouvenel.
Great Syrian Revolt continued in neighbouring French Mandate.
1928
Muslim Brotherhood formed in Egypt. Promoted Islam as the basis of society. Became politicized after 1938, rejecting Westernization, modernization, secularization.
The
1929 Palestine riots erupt due to a dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the
Western Wall. 133 Jews killed and 339 wounded ; 116 Arabs killed and 232 wounded.
1929 Hebron massacre: 67 Jews are massacred by Arabs. Many incidents of rape, torture, and mutilation are reported.[40]
Following the riots the British authorities agree to officially recognize the Executive Committee of the
Palestine Arab Congress as representatives of Palestinian Arab opinion and to invite them to give evidence to the Commission of Inquiry.[41]
1930
A fourth Palestinian Arab Delegation travels to London.
The British enlarge their garrison in Mandatory Palestine: They have two infantry battalions, 2 RAF squadrons and 4 squadrons of armoured cars. The
Palestine Police Force is re-organised by Sir
Herbert Dowbiggin and isolated Jewish settlements are given arms caches to be used if under attack.
The
Black HandIslamist group, led by Syrian sheikh
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, begins a campaign against Jewish civilians and the British in Mandatory Palestine.
May 12 - The Palestinian Arab delegation announce that the British Government has rejected their demands for the end to Jewish immigration, an end to land sales to Jews and the establishing of a democratic government in Palestine.
August 6 - The
Jewish Agency is officially recognized by the British Government.
February 14 - Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald sends a letter to
Chaim Weizmann qualifying some of the proposals in the
Passfield White Paper. The letter becomes known as the "Black Letter" amongst Palestinian Arabs.
April 11 - Three members of kibbutz
Yagur were killed by members of a local Arab gang.
August - Demonstrations in
Nablus against the storing of weapons in isolated Jewish settlements are broken up by police baton charges.
November 18 - Second British census of the population of Mandatory Palestine.[43]
December 16 - The Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, chairs a Muslim Congress in Jerusalem which is attended by 145 delegates from all parts of the Islamic world.[44]
October 27 - Following the discovery in Jaffa harbour of a large shipment of weapons destined for an address in Tel Aviv the
Arab Executive calls a general strike. A demonstration in Jaffa led by the president of the Executive,
Musa al-Husayni, turns into a riot in which a crowd of several thousand attacked the small force of
policemen, who responded with baton charges and gunfire. 26 demonstrators and one policeman were killed. Amongst the 187 injured was 80-year-old Musa al-Husayni, who never recovered and died the following year. There followed six weeks of rioting in all the major towns in which 24 civilians are killed. The disorders were suppressed by the police, not the army. They are different from earlier disturbances in that the targets were British Government institutions rather than Jews.[45][46]
November 25 - All the major Palestinian Arab political parties, with the exception of
Istiqlal, address a memo to the High Commissioner calling for democratic government, prohibition of the sale of Arab land to Jews, and the cessation of Jewish immigration.[47]
1934
February - Special commission of enquiry, chaired by
Sir William Murison, publishes its report into the 1933 disturbances.[48]
November 20 - Izz ad-Din al-Qassam is killed by the British.
1936
April 15 - Following the murder of 3 Jews in a robbery incident near
Tulkarm, 2 Arabs are murdered near
Petah Tikva.
April 17 - During the funeral in
Tel Aviv of one of the Jewish victims serious rioting breaks out in which 3 Jews are murdered. The Mandate authorities bring in Emergency Regulations by proclamation and curfews are imposed across Mandatory Palestine.[49]
April 20 - An Arab National Committee is formed in
Nablus, subsequently other committees are formed in all the Arab towns and villages.
April 21 - Five main Palestinian Arab political parties call for a general strike.
April 25 -
Arab Higher Committee established. It consists of members from all the Arab political parties, including
Istiqlal and is led by Haj Amin al-Husseini. The committee calls for the strike to continue indefinitely.
May 6 - A meeting of the National Committees in Jerusalem announces a tax strike.
May 11 - British army reinforcements arrive from
Egypt and
Malta.
May/June - Jaffa port is closed, there are sporadic attacks on the railways and Jewish settlements. Armed bands appear in the hill country.
June 17 to 29 - large areas of
Jaffa demolished by British Army.
August - Attempts by
Amir Abdullah and
Nuri Pasha fail to calm the situation in Mandatory Palestine. There is an increase in the number of attacks on Palestinian Jews, and on the oil pipeline and the railways. In mid-August Jewish acts of retaliation begin.[50]
August 25 -
Fawzi al-Qawuqji enters Mandatory Palestine with 150 volunteer Arab fighters.[51]
September 7 - An additional division of British troops arrives.
General Dill becomes supreme military commander.
September 22 - The British army launches an offensive against Arab rebels.
October 11 -
Ibn Saud, Amir Abdullah and
King Ghazi appeal to the Arab Higher Committee to call off the strike.
November - The Arab Higher Committee calls an end to the strike. Casualty figures taken from hospital records give the number of people killed during the six months of disturbances as: 195 Arabs, 80 Jews, 21 Army, 16 Police and Frontier Police, and 2 non-Arab Christians. In addition over 1,000 Arab rebels were killed.[52]
1937
The mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization, the
Haganah, maintains an official policy of restraint.
July - The
Peel Commission proposes a partition plan for Mandatory Palestine, rejected by the Arab leadership. The 2 main Jewish leaders,
Chaim Weizmann and
Ben Gurion had convinced the
Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.[53][54][55]
October 1 - British authorities ban all Arab nationalist political organisations, including the
Arab Higher Committee. Much of the rebel Arab leadership is exiled. Mufti al-Husseini escapes to the
Kingdom of Iraq.
October 2 -
Tiberias massacre. Arab rioters kill 19 Jews, including 11 children, and set fire to synagogues and Jewish homes.[57]
1939
February – March 17 - The
St. James Conference ends without reaching an agreement.
May 17 - The
White Paper of 1939 calls for the creation of a unified Palestinian state. Even though the White Paper states its commitment to the Balfour Declaration, it imposed very substantial limits to both Jewish immigration (restricting it to only 75,000 over the next 5 years), and Jewish ability to purchase land.
June 19 - Twenty Arabs were killed by Jews who mounted explosives on a donkey at a marketplace in Haifa.
June 29 - Thirteen Arabs were killed in multiple shootings during a one-hour period.
September 1 - The Second World War erupts. The Haganah begins the smuggling of Jews from Europe to Mandatory Palestine to provide refuge from the
Holocaust. Arab leaders are split: while some assist the
Allies, others like Iraqi
Rashid Ali and the Iraqi-based Palestinian Amin al-Husseini assist the
Axis. Many of the Middle Eastern Jewish communities are hit by pro-Axis Arab regimes, and the early stage of
Jewish exodus from Arab countries begins. Most Jewish and Arab Palestinian militant groups attain the policy of cease fire with each other and with the British.
1940
Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) – the most radical Jewish organization splits from Irgun.
1941
October 11 - The exiled Arab Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini arrives in Rome with an attempt to form close ties with the
Axis powers. al-Husseini meets
Benito Mussolini.
November 27 - al-Husseini arrives in Germany for a meeting with
Adolf Hitler. He would remain in Berlin until the end of the war, playing a major role in formation of Muslim
Waffen SS units and active work preventing thousands of
Jewish refugees to escape the
Nazis and reach Palestine.
1942
Biltmore Conference, New York - for the first time, Zionists call for an independent state instead of a national home - cannot rely on Britain.
February 12 -
Avraham Stern leader of the extremist Lehi group shot dead by British police whilst being arrested.
August 2 - British form the
Palestine Regiment, consisted of 3 Jewish and 1 Arab battalions, which assist the British forces in North Africa against the Axis.
1944
February 12 - After a period of reconciliation with the British, the Irgun launches a bomb attack on British immigration offices in Mandatory Palestine, no casualties reported. Soon after Lehi also renews its anti-British attacks.
October -
Operation ATLAS. A joint German-Arab commando unit of 5 men, under the auspices of the Palestinian Arab leader
Amin al-Husseini, was dispatched to disseminate violence between Jews and Arabs in
Mandatory Palestine. The parachutists' team members were caught, after they were rebuffed by the local Palestinian population, near
Jericho by Jordanian and British Police forces.
Irgun resumes operations against the British, after realizing the World War II is nearing its end; it still restrains itself of attacking British military, not to impact the war efforts of the allies.
November - the Palestine Regiment is reformed into the larger unit named the
Jewish Brigade, which utilizes Jewish symbols. It participates in invasion of the Allies into Italy.
1945
May 8 - Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies. Haj Amin al-Husseini is imprisoned by the French, but eventually escapes to Egypt.
Arab League formed to strengthen political, cultural, social, and economic goals of members, and to mediate disputes. Later added military defense coordination.
July 22 -
King David Hotel blown up by
Irgun. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, and 46 were injured.
1947
February 18 - Great Britain announces intention to hand the Mandate to the United Nations.
March 1–17 -
Martial law is imposed after
IZL and
LHI launched large scale attacks against British targets. Twenty British personnel were killed on the 1 March. In total, 15 British soldiers and 15 civilians were killed and 60 British soldiers and 30 civilians were wounded from 1 March to 13 March.[58][59]
September 3 - The majority of the members of UNSCOP, in Chapter VI of its report to UNGA, proposes the partition of Palestine into "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem".[61]
November 19 - the
Shubaki family assassination - the Lehi execute five members of the Shubaki family, having suspected one of the family to have been an informant for the British police
November 29 - With a two-thirds majority vote, the
UN General Assembly adopts a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of a
plan to partition the
British Mandate of Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States" and a "Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem" administered by the
United Nations.[62]
November 30 - Following the vote on the
Partition Plan, Palestinian Arabs react violently and fighting broke out in what became known as the
"Civil war".
December 2–5 -
1947 Jerusalem riots. The
Arab Higher Committee declared a strike and public protest of the vote. Arabs marching to
Zion Square on December 2 were stopped by the British, and the Arabs instead turned towards the commercial center of the City where many buildings and shops were attacked. Violence continued for two more days, with Arabs and Jewish attacking each other. 70 Jews and 50 Arabs are killed.
December 30 -
Haifa Oil Refinery massacre. Irgun militants hurl two bombs into a crowd of Arab workers from a passing vehicle, killing 6 workers and wounding 42, damaging the relative peace between the two groups in Haifa. Later that day the Arab crowd protested and broke into the refinery compound, killing 39 Jews and wounding 49. Skirmishes continued in Haifa and around the region.
December 31 - January 1 -
Balad al-Shaykh massacre. The Palmach, an arm of the Haganah, attacked the town while the residents were asleep, firing from the slopes of Mount Carmel, in retaliation for the killing of 39 Jews during the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre the day before, 30 December 1947.
1948
January 4 - Lehi set off a truck bomb outside
Jaffa's Town Hall, killing 26 civilians.
February 14 - 60 Arab villagers are killed by
Palmach at
Sa'sa'. Palmach sources report a battle with major casualties.
February 22 - In an operation organized by
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni with the help of British deserters, bombs placed in stolen British vehicles were exploded beside the Atlantic and Amdursky Hotels in
Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, which housed Palmach troops. However the troops were away on operations and almost all of the 58 dead and 32 seriously wounded were civilians. During the following week, Irgun and Lehi fighters killed 44 British troops and police in revenge.[63]
By late March 1948, the vital road that connected
Tel Aviv to western
Jerusalem, where about 16% of all Jews in the
Mandatory Palestine lived, was cut off and under
siege.
April 9 -
Deir Yassin massacre. Around 120 fighters from Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked
Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to relieve Arab siege of Jews in Jerusalem. Around 107 villagers were killed during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. 4 among the Irgun and Lehi forces were killed too.
April 13 -
Hadassah medical convoy massacre. Claimed as retribution for the Deir Yassin massacre, Arab protesters attack a large convoy, mostly of unarmed Jewish doctors, and some military personnel set off carrying patients, equipment, and supplies, travel from Jerusalem to the besieged hospital which treated the majority of Jewish residents in Jerusalem. 79 Jews are killed. Road attacks continue and convoys were unable to reach the hospital for a week.
April 22 -
Operation Yiftach launched, leading to the conquest of northeastern
Galilee between the Lebanese and Syrian frontiers.
April 23 - Arab quarters of
Haifa taken by the
Haganah.
May 13 -
Kfar Etzion massacre was an act committed by Arab forces, after the surrender of the Jewish village to
Arab Legion. Out of 133 Jewish villagers and defenders, 129 were murdered in the massacre,[64] 4 survived. Bodies were left unburied until January 1949. 320 prisoners from the Etzion settlements were taken to the "Jordan POW camp at Mafrak", including 85 women.[65]
^
abNeville J. Mandel (1976).
The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I. University of California Press. p. 22.
ISBN978-0-520-02466-3. In 1897, the year of the first Zionist Congress, a commission was set up in Jerusalem to scrutinise land sales to Jews... the commission effectively halted land sales to Jews in the Mutasarriflik for the next few years. Thus, when the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA — an organisation founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891 and un-connected with the Zionist Movement) began to interest itself in Palestine in 1896, it very quickly discovered that the possibilities of buying land were wider in the north of the country... The breakthrough, from JCA's point of view, came in 1901 when the Council of Ministers ruled that JCA's President, Narcisse Leven, could, as a foreigner, buy land in the Vilayet of Beirut under the Ottoman Land Code of 1867, provided that he undertook not to install foreign Jews on it. The very fact that this concession could be granted shortly after the 1901 regulations went into force points to another weakness in the Government's handling of its own policy. Under this concession, JCA acquired 31,500 dunams of land near Tiberias in the early part of 1901, mainly from the Sursuq family of Beirut.
^Isaiah Friedman,Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land? The British, the Arabs & Zionism, 1915–1920, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 2000 vol. 1 pp. 239–40
^Eliezer Tauber, The Formation of Modern Iraq and Syria, Routledge, London 1994 pp. 79ff., esp. 96ff.
^The charge was for violating paragraphs 32, 57, and 63 of the Ottoman code, dealing with incitement to riot. See E. Elat Haj Amin el Husseini, Ex Mufti of Jerusalem,Tel Aviv 1968 (page no. required). In his memoirs, Sir Ronald Storrs wrote: 'The immediate fomenter of the Arab excesses had been one Haj Amin al-Husseini, the younger brother of Kāmel Effendi, The Mufti. Like most agitators, having incited the man in the street to violence and probable punishment, he fled.' (Sir R. Storrs, Orientations, Nicholson & Watson, London 1945 p. 331: cited also Yehuda Taggar, The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Arab Politics 1930–1937, Garland Publishing, 1986 p. ? Ronald Storrs (reprint 1972) The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs Ayer Publishing,
ISBN0-405-04593-X p. 349
^A Survey of Palestine - prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted 1991 by the Institute of Palestine Studies, Washington. Volume 1:
ISBN0-88728-211-3. p.17
Polk, Stamler, Asfour: Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine. Beacon Press, Boston, 1957, pp. 237–238.
The above two books are quoted in
David Gilmour: Dispossessed: the Ordeal of the Palestinians. Sphere Books, Great Britain, 1983, pp. 44–45.
^Khalidi, Walid (Ed.) (1992) All That Remains. The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. IoPS, Washington.
ISBN0-88728-224-5. p.573
^Benny Morris, One state, two states:resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, 2009, p. 66
^Benny Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonising, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved –by a vote of 299 to 160 – the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."
^Benny Morris. 1948 : The First Arab-Israel War. Yale University Press. pp. 107–108.
^James Cameron, (British journalist), "The making of Israel", published by Martin Secker & Warburgh Ltd, 1976. SBN 436 08230 6. Page 51. "Seventy Jews were killed, many of them after surrendering, many of them finished off most barbarously by Arab villagers instructed by legionaries."
^Moshe Dayan, 'The Story of My Life'.
ISBN0-688-03076-9. Page 130. Out of a total of 670 prisoners released.
The
Jewish Colonisation Association makes its first major purchase in the north of Palestine in an acquisition of 31,500 dunums of land near
Tiberias from the
Sursock family. This will go on to become one of the largest land purchases for the purposes of colonisation within Palestine.[2]
1907
September 28 - Founding of
Bar-Giora an underground Zionist militia, in
Jaffa.
1908
First edition of Al-Karmil, an anti-Zionist newspaper, published in
Haifa.[3]
1909
April 12 - founding of
Hashomer, Zionist defence militia and precursor of the
Hagana
1910
The Fula affair: Elias Sursock sold 10,000 dunums around the village of
al-Fula, the Palestinian peasants inhabiting the land petitioned the Ottoman government for assistance, but were ultimately unsuccessful and expelled by the
Hashomer paramilitary group. This marks one of the first expulsions of Palestinians.[4]
1911
Muslim intellectuals and politicians from throughout the Levant formed
al-Fatat ("the Young Arab Society"), a small Arab nationalist club in Paris. They also requested that Arab conscripts to the Ottoman army not be required to serve in non-Arab regions except in time of war. However, as the Ottoman authorities cracked down on the organization's activities and members, al-Fatat went underground and demanded the complete independence and unity of the Arab provinces.[5]
January/February - The new
Young Turk authorities allow Zionist groups to purchase land in Ottoman Syria.
January - First edition of the Arabic-language newspaper Filastin published in
Jaffa.
July 14 - First letter between the British Government and the Governor of
Mecca. The exchange became known as the
McMahon–Hussein Correspondence promises an Arab state in the Middle East in return for revolt against the Turks. That Palestine was part of this deal was confirmed during a 1918 War Cabinet meeting[8] but later denied by the British government.[9]
January 30 - Final letter of the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence sent to the Governor of
Mecca.
May 16 - The
Sykes–Picot Agreement was signed between Britain, France and Russia, in which it was agreed in the event of a successful conclusion of the
war the former Ottoman lands incorporating very roughly, modern Iraq, Jordan and much of Israel, would be controlled by Britain; France would take control of what is today Lebanon, Syria, part of Turkey, part of northern Iraq, and a small section of northern Israel. Russia would take large areas of Eastern Turkey and Istanbul.
June 10 - Beginning of the
Arab Revolt against the Young Turk regime in Constantinople.
December 9 - Following an
offensive lasting three weeks, an officer in the British Army accepts the surrender of
Jerusalem from the town's mayor,
Hussein al-Husayni.
September - General
Allenby completes the British conquest of Palestine.
December 18 - the
Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC) purchased 71,356 more dunams of land in the Jezreel Valley, including
Tel Adashim, from Nagib and Albert Sursock of the Sursock family. The Ottomans had previously refused to authorize numerous sales, such that the Sursocks were unable to sell significant land to Jewish purchasers prior to World War I.[10]
Haj Amin al-Husseini founded the Jerusalem branch of the Syrian-based 'Arab Club' (El-Nadi al-arabi), which then vied with the Nashashibi-sponsored 'Literary Club' (Al-Muntada al-Adabi) for influence over public opinion, and he soon became its president.[11][12]
January 30 - The Supreme Council of the
Peace Conference decided that the Ottoman Empire's Arab-dominated provinces would not be returned to Turkey.[13]
February 3 - The Zionist Organisation submits its plan for implementation of the Balfour Declaration and urges the selection of Great Britain as Mandatory for Palestine.[13][14]
Intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine
1920
With the promulgation of the first Land Transfer Ordinance, and the reopening of the land registries, the Ottoman restrictions on foreign purchase of lands in Palestine are completely done away with.[15]
February 27 - Over one thousand protesters take part in an Arab nationalist demonstration in Jerusalem carrying banners bearing the slogans "Stop Zionist Immigration" and "Our Country For Us"[16] – a reference to
Aliyah, the Zionist immigration coming mostly from Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Arab nationalists in Damascus are pushing for the establishment of Arab
Greater Syria.
March 8 - A second large Arab nationalist demonstration takes place in Jerusalem.[17]
April 4–7 - The
1920 Palestine riots – violent 4-day riot against the Jews in Jerusalem's Old City. al-Husseini was charged with inciting the Arab crowds with an inflammatory speech and sentenced by military court held in camera (private)[18] to ten years imprisonment in absentia, since he had already violated his bail by fleeing to
Transjordan to avoid arrest. Zionist leader
Ze'ev Jabotinsky was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the possession of weapons.
July 1 -
Herbert Samuel sworn in as first High Commissioner. He announces the establishment of an Advisory Council consisting of 20 members: 10 British officials, 4 Muslims, 3 Christians and 3 Jews.[19]
Between 1921 and 1925, 80,000 acres (320 km2) of land in the Jezreel Valley is bought up by the
American Zion Commonwealth (AZC) for about nearly three-quarters of a million pounds as part of the
Sursock Purchases.[20] Under British Mandate, the land laws were rewritten, and the Palestinian farmers in the region were deemed tenant farmers by the British authorities, and the rights of the new owners to displace its population is upheld.[21][22] In total 1,746 families were displaced from 240,000 dunums of land;[23][24][25] Despite this however, some of the native inhabitants refused to leave peaceably, and had to be expelled by force by the British colonial police.[26] The dispossessed would flee to shantytowns on the edges of
Jaffa and
Haifa.[27]
May 1–7 -
Jaffa riots resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs being wounded. Most Arab casualties resulted from clashes with British forces attempting to restore order.[29] Thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach.
May 8 - The High Commissioner appoints Amin al-Husseini as
Mufti of Jerusalem.[30] al-Husseini turns from Damascus-oriented Pan-Arabism to a specifically Palestinian ideology centered on Jerusalem, which sought to block Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine. The frustration of pan-Arab aspirations lent an Islamic colour to the struggle for independence, and increasing resort to the idea of restoring the land to
Dar al-Islam.[31]
October - The
Haycraft Commission of Inquiry publishes its report into the Jaffa riots concluding that they were spontaneous rather than premeditated.[32]
December - The Mandate authorities issue an order creating a
Supreme Muslim Council to administer Muslim owned charitable properties,
Awqaf, and appoint (or dismiss) judges and officials in the
Sharia courts.[33]
1922
February - A delegation of Palestinian Arab leaders, led by
Musa al-Husayni, informs
Winston Churchill at the
Colonial Office that they cannot accept the Mandate or the Balfour Declaration and demand their national independence.[14]
June 30 - The United States Senate and House of Representatives adopt a joint resolution favouring "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."[14]
August 10 - The British authorities announce the setting up of a Legislative Council consisting of 11 British official and 12 elected members: 8 Muslims, 2 Christians and 2 Jews.[34]
September 16 - The Council of the League of Nations accepts the British
Transjordan memorandum defining the limits of Trans-Jordan and excluding that territory from the provisions in the Mandate concerning the Jewish national home.[35]
October - First British census of the population of Mandatory Palestine.
1923
Elections for the proposed Legislative Council fail due to the extent of the Palestinian Arab boycott. An attempt is made to expand the Advisory Council but this also fails when only three Palestinian Arabs could be found who were willing to join.[36]
October 4 - Secretary of State for the Colonies, the
Duke of Devonshire, proposes the setting up of an Arab Agency to have equivalent status to the
Jewish Agency.
December 11 - Arab Agency unanimously rejected by Palestinian Arab leaders.[38]
1924
Collective Responsibility Ordinance issued giving powers of collective punishment in rural areas. Introduced to combat feuding between communities. The powers included application of fines and demolition of houses.[39]
British garrison in Mandatory Palestine reduced to one
RAF squadron and 2 companies of armoured cars.[38]
March - General strike called in protest of the visit of the French High Commissioner of
Syria, Henry de Jouvenel.
Great Syrian Revolt continued in neighbouring French Mandate.
1928
Muslim Brotherhood formed in Egypt. Promoted Islam as the basis of society. Became politicized after 1938, rejecting Westernization, modernization, secularization.
The
1929 Palestine riots erupt due to a dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the
Western Wall. 133 Jews killed and 339 wounded ; 116 Arabs killed and 232 wounded.
1929 Hebron massacre: 67 Jews are massacred by Arabs. Many incidents of rape, torture, and mutilation are reported.[40]
Following the riots the British authorities agree to officially recognize the Executive Committee of the
Palestine Arab Congress as representatives of Palestinian Arab opinion and to invite them to give evidence to the Commission of Inquiry.[41]
1930
A fourth Palestinian Arab Delegation travels to London.
The British enlarge their garrison in Mandatory Palestine: They have two infantry battalions, 2 RAF squadrons and 4 squadrons of armoured cars. The
Palestine Police Force is re-organised by Sir
Herbert Dowbiggin and isolated Jewish settlements are given arms caches to be used if under attack.
The
Black HandIslamist group, led by Syrian sheikh
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, begins a campaign against Jewish civilians and the British in Mandatory Palestine.
May 12 - The Palestinian Arab delegation announce that the British Government has rejected their demands for the end to Jewish immigration, an end to land sales to Jews and the establishing of a democratic government in Palestine.
August 6 - The
Jewish Agency is officially recognized by the British Government.
February 14 - Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald sends a letter to
Chaim Weizmann qualifying some of the proposals in the
Passfield White Paper. The letter becomes known as the "Black Letter" amongst Palestinian Arabs.
April 11 - Three members of kibbutz
Yagur were killed by members of a local Arab gang.
August - Demonstrations in
Nablus against the storing of weapons in isolated Jewish settlements are broken up by police baton charges.
November 18 - Second British census of the population of Mandatory Palestine.[43]
December 16 - The Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, chairs a Muslim Congress in Jerusalem which is attended by 145 delegates from all parts of the Islamic world.[44]
October 27 - Following the discovery in Jaffa harbour of a large shipment of weapons destined for an address in Tel Aviv the
Arab Executive calls a general strike. A demonstration in Jaffa led by the president of the Executive,
Musa al-Husayni, turns into a riot in which a crowd of several thousand attacked the small force of
policemen, who responded with baton charges and gunfire. 26 demonstrators and one policeman were killed. Amongst the 187 injured was 80-year-old Musa al-Husayni, who never recovered and died the following year. There followed six weeks of rioting in all the major towns in which 24 civilians are killed. The disorders were suppressed by the police, not the army. They are different from earlier disturbances in that the targets were British Government institutions rather than Jews.[45][46]
November 25 - All the major Palestinian Arab political parties, with the exception of
Istiqlal, address a memo to the High Commissioner calling for democratic government, prohibition of the sale of Arab land to Jews, and the cessation of Jewish immigration.[47]
1934
February - Special commission of enquiry, chaired by
Sir William Murison, publishes its report into the 1933 disturbances.[48]
November 20 - Izz ad-Din al-Qassam is killed by the British.
1936
April 15 - Following the murder of 3 Jews in a robbery incident near
Tulkarm, 2 Arabs are murdered near
Petah Tikva.
April 17 - During the funeral in
Tel Aviv of one of the Jewish victims serious rioting breaks out in which 3 Jews are murdered. The Mandate authorities bring in Emergency Regulations by proclamation and curfews are imposed across Mandatory Palestine.[49]
April 20 - An Arab National Committee is formed in
Nablus, subsequently other committees are formed in all the Arab towns and villages.
April 21 - Five main Palestinian Arab political parties call for a general strike.
April 25 -
Arab Higher Committee established. It consists of members from all the Arab political parties, including
Istiqlal and is led by Haj Amin al-Husseini. The committee calls for the strike to continue indefinitely.
May 6 - A meeting of the National Committees in Jerusalem announces a tax strike.
May 11 - British army reinforcements arrive from
Egypt and
Malta.
May/June - Jaffa port is closed, there are sporadic attacks on the railways and Jewish settlements. Armed bands appear in the hill country.
June 17 to 29 - large areas of
Jaffa demolished by British Army.
August - Attempts by
Amir Abdullah and
Nuri Pasha fail to calm the situation in Mandatory Palestine. There is an increase in the number of attacks on Palestinian Jews, and on the oil pipeline and the railways. In mid-August Jewish acts of retaliation begin.[50]
August 25 -
Fawzi al-Qawuqji enters Mandatory Palestine with 150 volunteer Arab fighters.[51]
September 7 - An additional division of British troops arrives.
General Dill becomes supreme military commander.
September 22 - The British army launches an offensive against Arab rebels.
October 11 -
Ibn Saud, Amir Abdullah and
King Ghazi appeal to the Arab Higher Committee to call off the strike.
November - The Arab Higher Committee calls an end to the strike. Casualty figures taken from hospital records give the number of people killed during the six months of disturbances as: 195 Arabs, 80 Jews, 21 Army, 16 Police and Frontier Police, and 2 non-Arab Christians. In addition over 1,000 Arab rebels were killed.[52]
1937
The mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization, the
Haganah, maintains an official policy of restraint.
July - The
Peel Commission proposes a partition plan for Mandatory Palestine, rejected by the Arab leadership. The 2 main Jewish leaders,
Chaim Weizmann and
Ben Gurion had convinced the
Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.[53][54][55]
October 1 - British authorities ban all Arab nationalist political organisations, including the
Arab Higher Committee. Much of the rebel Arab leadership is exiled. Mufti al-Husseini escapes to the
Kingdom of Iraq.
October 2 -
Tiberias massacre. Arab rioters kill 19 Jews, including 11 children, and set fire to synagogues and Jewish homes.[57]
1939
February – March 17 - The
St. James Conference ends without reaching an agreement.
May 17 - The
White Paper of 1939 calls for the creation of a unified Palestinian state. Even though the White Paper states its commitment to the Balfour Declaration, it imposed very substantial limits to both Jewish immigration (restricting it to only 75,000 over the next 5 years), and Jewish ability to purchase land.
June 19 - Twenty Arabs were killed by Jews who mounted explosives on a donkey at a marketplace in Haifa.
June 29 - Thirteen Arabs were killed in multiple shootings during a one-hour period.
September 1 - The Second World War erupts. The Haganah begins the smuggling of Jews from Europe to Mandatory Palestine to provide refuge from the
Holocaust. Arab leaders are split: while some assist the
Allies, others like Iraqi
Rashid Ali and the Iraqi-based Palestinian Amin al-Husseini assist the
Axis. Many of the Middle Eastern Jewish communities are hit by pro-Axis Arab regimes, and the early stage of
Jewish exodus from Arab countries begins. Most Jewish and Arab Palestinian militant groups attain the policy of cease fire with each other and with the British.
1940
Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) – the most radical Jewish organization splits from Irgun.
1941
October 11 - The exiled Arab Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini arrives in Rome with an attempt to form close ties with the
Axis powers. al-Husseini meets
Benito Mussolini.
November 27 - al-Husseini arrives in Germany for a meeting with
Adolf Hitler. He would remain in Berlin until the end of the war, playing a major role in formation of Muslim
Waffen SS units and active work preventing thousands of
Jewish refugees to escape the
Nazis and reach Palestine.
1942
Biltmore Conference, New York - for the first time, Zionists call for an independent state instead of a national home - cannot rely on Britain.
February 12 -
Avraham Stern leader of the extremist Lehi group shot dead by British police whilst being arrested.
August 2 - British form the
Palestine Regiment, consisted of 3 Jewish and 1 Arab battalions, which assist the British forces in North Africa against the Axis.
1944
February 12 - After a period of reconciliation with the British, the Irgun launches a bomb attack on British immigration offices in Mandatory Palestine, no casualties reported. Soon after Lehi also renews its anti-British attacks.
October -
Operation ATLAS. A joint German-Arab commando unit of 5 men, under the auspices of the Palestinian Arab leader
Amin al-Husseini, was dispatched to disseminate violence between Jews and Arabs in
Mandatory Palestine. The parachutists' team members were caught, after they were rebuffed by the local Palestinian population, near
Jericho by Jordanian and British Police forces.
Irgun resumes operations against the British, after realizing the World War II is nearing its end; it still restrains itself of attacking British military, not to impact the war efforts of the allies.
November - the Palestine Regiment is reformed into the larger unit named the
Jewish Brigade, which utilizes Jewish symbols. It participates in invasion of the Allies into Italy.
1945
May 8 - Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies. Haj Amin al-Husseini is imprisoned by the French, but eventually escapes to Egypt.
Arab League formed to strengthen political, cultural, social, and economic goals of members, and to mediate disputes. Later added military defense coordination.
July 22 -
King David Hotel blown up by
Irgun. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, and 46 were injured.
1947
February 18 - Great Britain announces intention to hand the Mandate to the United Nations.
March 1–17 -
Martial law is imposed after
IZL and
LHI launched large scale attacks against British targets. Twenty British personnel were killed on the 1 March. In total, 15 British soldiers and 15 civilians were killed and 60 British soldiers and 30 civilians were wounded from 1 March to 13 March.[58][59]
September 3 - The majority of the members of UNSCOP, in Chapter VI of its report to UNGA, proposes the partition of Palestine into "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem".[61]
November 19 - the
Shubaki family assassination - the Lehi execute five members of the Shubaki family, having suspected one of the family to have been an informant for the British police
November 29 - With a two-thirds majority vote, the
UN General Assembly adopts a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of a
plan to partition the
British Mandate of Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States" and a "Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem" administered by the
United Nations.[62]
November 30 - Following the vote on the
Partition Plan, Palestinian Arabs react violently and fighting broke out in what became known as the
"Civil war".
December 2–5 -
1947 Jerusalem riots. The
Arab Higher Committee declared a strike and public protest of the vote. Arabs marching to
Zion Square on December 2 were stopped by the British, and the Arabs instead turned towards the commercial center of the City where many buildings and shops were attacked. Violence continued for two more days, with Arabs and Jewish attacking each other. 70 Jews and 50 Arabs are killed.
December 30 -
Haifa Oil Refinery massacre. Irgun militants hurl two bombs into a crowd of Arab workers from a passing vehicle, killing 6 workers and wounding 42, damaging the relative peace between the two groups in Haifa. Later that day the Arab crowd protested and broke into the refinery compound, killing 39 Jews and wounding 49. Skirmishes continued in Haifa and around the region.
December 31 - January 1 -
Balad al-Shaykh massacre. The Palmach, an arm of the Haganah, attacked the town while the residents were asleep, firing from the slopes of Mount Carmel, in retaliation for the killing of 39 Jews during the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre the day before, 30 December 1947.
1948
January 4 - Lehi set off a truck bomb outside
Jaffa's Town Hall, killing 26 civilians.
February 14 - 60 Arab villagers are killed by
Palmach at
Sa'sa'. Palmach sources report a battle with major casualties.
February 22 - In an operation organized by
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni with the help of British deserters, bombs placed in stolen British vehicles were exploded beside the Atlantic and Amdursky Hotels in
Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, which housed Palmach troops. However the troops were away on operations and almost all of the 58 dead and 32 seriously wounded were civilians. During the following week, Irgun and Lehi fighters killed 44 British troops and police in revenge.[63]
By late March 1948, the vital road that connected
Tel Aviv to western
Jerusalem, where about 16% of all Jews in the
Mandatory Palestine lived, was cut off and under
siege.
April 9 -
Deir Yassin massacre. Around 120 fighters from Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked
Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to relieve Arab siege of Jews in Jerusalem. Around 107 villagers were killed during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. 4 among the Irgun and Lehi forces were killed too.
April 13 -
Hadassah medical convoy massacre. Claimed as retribution for the Deir Yassin massacre, Arab protesters attack a large convoy, mostly of unarmed Jewish doctors, and some military personnel set off carrying patients, equipment, and supplies, travel from Jerusalem to the besieged hospital which treated the majority of Jewish residents in Jerusalem. 79 Jews are killed. Road attacks continue and convoys were unable to reach the hospital for a week.
April 22 -
Operation Yiftach launched, leading to the conquest of northeastern
Galilee between the Lebanese and Syrian frontiers.
April 23 - Arab quarters of
Haifa taken by the
Haganah.
May 13 -
Kfar Etzion massacre was an act committed by Arab forces, after the surrender of the Jewish village to
Arab Legion. Out of 133 Jewish villagers and defenders, 129 were murdered in the massacre,[64] 4 survived. Bodies were left unburied until January 1949. 320 prisoners from the Etzion settlements were taken to the "Jordan POW camp at Mafrak", including 85 women.[65]
^
abNeville J. Mandel (1976).
The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I. University of California Press. p. 22.
ISBN978-0-520-02466-3. In 1897, the year of the first Zionist Congress, a commission was set up in Jerusalem to scrutinise land sales to Jews... the commission effectively halted land sales to Jews in the Mutasarriflik for the next few years. Thus, when the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA — an organisation founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891 and un-connected with the Zionist Movement) began to interest itself in Palestine in 1896, it very quickly discovered that the possibilities of buying land were wider in the north of the country... The breakthrough, from JCA's point of view, came in 1901 when the Council of Ministers ruled that JCA's President, Narcisse Leven, could, as a foreigner, buy land in the Vilayet of Beirut under the Ottoman Land Code of 1867, provided that he undertook not to install foreign Jews on it. The very fact that this concession could be granted shortly after the 1901 regulations went into force points to another weakness in the Government's handling of its own policy. Under this concession, JCA acquired 31,500 dunams of land near Tiberias in the early part of 1901, mainly from the Sursuq family of Beirut.
^Isaiah Friedman,Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land? The British, the Arabs & Zionism, 1915–1920, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 2000 vol. 1 pp. 239–40
^Eliezer Tauber, The Formation of Modern Iraq and Syria, Routledge, London 1994 pp. 79ff., esp. 96ff.
^The charge was for violating paragraphs 32, 57, and 63 of the Ottoman code, dealing with incitement to riot. See E. Elat Haj Amin el Husseini, Ex Mufti of Jerusalem,Tel Aviv 1968 (page no. required). In his memoirs, Sir Ronald Storrs wrote: 'The immediate fomenter of the Arab excesses had been one Haj Amin al-Husseini, the younger brother of Kāmel Effendi, The Mufti. Like most agitators, having incited the man in the street to violence and probable punishment, he fled.' (Sir R. Storrs, Orientations, Nicholson & Watson, London 1945 p. 331: cited also Yehuda Taggar, The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Arab Politics 1930–1937, Garland Publishing, 1986 p. ? Ronald Storrs (reprint 1972) The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs Ayer Publishing,
ISBN0-405-04593-X p. 349
^A Survey of Palestine - prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted 1991 by the Institute of Palestine Studies, Washington. Volume 1:
ISBN0-88728-211-3. p.17
Polk, Stamler, Asfour: Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine. Beacon Press, Boston, 1957, pp. 237–238.
The above two books are quoted in
David Gilmour: Dispossessed: the Ordeal of the Palestinians. Sphere Books, Great Britain, 1983, pp. 44–45.
^Khalidi, Walid (Ed.) (1992) All That Remains. The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. IoPS, Washington.
ISBN0-88728-224-5. p.573
^Benny Morris, One state, two states:resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, 2009, p. 66
^Benny Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonising, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved –by a vote of 299 to 160 – the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."
^Benny Morris. 1948 : The First Arab-Israel War. Yale University Press. pp. 107–108.
^James Cameron, (British journalist), "The making of Israel", published by Martin Secker & Warburgh Ltd, 1976. SBN 436 08230 6. Page 51. "Seventy Jews were killed, many of them after surrendering, many of them finished off most barbarously by Arab villagers instructed by legionaries."
^Moshe Dayan, 'The Story of My Life'.
ISBN0-688-03076-9. Page 130. Out of a total of 670 prisoners released.