Zionism: The First 120 Years, 1882-2002.From CojsWikiBased on Zionism: The First 120 Years, 1882-2002, by Mordecai Naor, The Zionist Library, Jerusalem. See The Jewish Agency.
The number of Jews in Eretz Israel stands at some 7,000, approximately a third of them in Jerusalem. 1818 – An American Jew by the name of Mordechai Emanuel Noach suggests establishing a Jewish state by the name of Ararat in the northeastern United States as a stage in returning the Jewish people to their historic homeland – Eretz Israel. 1836 – Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer from Germany suggests to Moses Montefiore (the British philanthropist and supporter of settlement in Eretz Israel) and to the Rothschild family of bankers, that Palestine be bought from the present ruler of Eretz Israel, Mehemet Ali (who conquered Palestine from the Turks in 1831 and ruled it from Egypt for the next nine years). 1839 – Moses Montefiore arrives in Eretz Israel on the second of seven visits. He musters the members of the Jewish community and explores with them the possibility of Jewish settlement. 1840 – February – The beginning of the Damascus affair. A Christian monk and his servant go missing from Damascus and the Jews are accused of abducting them for religious ritual (use of their blood for the preparation of matza for Pesach). One of the Jews “admits” to this act after being tortured. A number of Jewish dignitaries are arrested and tortured, two of whom die. Moses Montefiore from England and Adolphe Cremieux from France, two Jewish notables with outstanding wealth and influence, successfully intervene on behalf of the Jews of Damascus. This is considered the beginning of international Jewish activity in the new era. In the Jewish paper Der Orient, published in Leipzig in German, an article appears without a by-line calling the Jews of Europe to leave their countries and return to Eretz Israel. Lord Shaftsbury, an English nobleman who introduced far-reaching social programs in his day, suggests to the British foreign secretary Henry Palmerston that Jews be allowed to settle in Eretz Israel in the framework of the development of Eastern countries. 1843 – Rabbi Yehuda hai Alkalai, a rabbi from Serbia, publishes his book Minhat Yehuda (The Offering of Yehuda). In it he invites Jews to take advantage of the awakening in the Jewish world in light of the Damascus affair for Return to Zion and settlement of Eretz Israel. 1845 – Colonel George Gawler, formerly the governor of South Australia, writes a book in which he suggests that Jews be allowed to establish Jewish agricultural settlements in Eretz Israel as compensation for their suffering in Europe and under Turkish rule. Seven years later (in 1852), he establishes an association for the colonization of Palestine. 1852 – Rabbi Yehuda hai Alkalai establishes in London the Society for the Settlement of Eretz Israel, which is disbanded after a short time. He tours Europe and advocates settlement in Eretz Israel. 1857 – September 15 – The British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, sends a memorandum to the foreign secretary in London, in which he suggests settling Jews in Eretz Israel as farmers to nurture the land. 1858 – The Mortara affair in Italy: a Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, is abducted from his parents’ home in Bolonia by messengers of the Catholic Church, following his secret baptism by a Christian servant during an illness. The Jewish world is outraged. Jewish leaders and scholars approach Pope Pious IX and ask him to return the boy to his parents. There is no response. The incident emphasizes the need for international Jewish organization and constitutes one of the reason for expediting establishment of the Alliance Israelite Universelle – a Jewish charitable, educational and defense organization. May 2, 1860 Birth of Benyamin Zeev Herzl, founder of political Zionism and the visionary of the State of Israel.
In Frankfurt, Germany, the social activist Dr. Chaim Luria establishes the Settlement Society for Eretz Israel, which in the years to come works in coordination with the likes of Rabbi Avi Hirsch Kalischer, Rabbi Yehuda hai Alkalai, Moses Hess, Rabbi Elijah Guttmacher and David Gordon. The company boasts no real achievements. Mishkenot Sha’ananim is founded in Jerusalem at the initiative of Moses Montefiore; the first neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City. This signifies the beginning of the New City. 1861 – Rabbi Joseph Natonek from Hungary publishes, anonymously, a booklet (in Hungarian) called Messiah – An Essay on Jewish Emancipation of Equal Advantage for Jews and Christians. In it he calls for Jews everywhere “to fulfill our national independence in the land of our forefathers.” 1862 – Moses Hess, a German-Jewish socialist, publishes his book, Rome and Jerusalem, in which he advocates the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. In the same year, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer writes a booklet called Derishat Zion (Seeking Zion) in which he too calls for Jews to return to the Land of Israel. It is surprising that rater than tell Jews to wait for the Messiah, the ultra-Orthodox Kalischer tells them to act for their own redemption. 1863 – David Gordon, a journalist (later editor) at the Hebrew weekly HaMagid from East Prussia, publishes a series of articles based on the idea of a Return to Zion (issues 14-18). 1866 – Rabbi Natonek visits the Jewish communities in Germany and meets with the heads of Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris in order to promote the idea of a Return to Zion. The following year he travels to Istanbul and meets with Turkish leaders with the same aim. 1868 – Charles Netter, one of the heads of Alliance, arrives in Eretz Israel in order to observe the situation in the tiny Jewish community and examine the possibility of settling additional Jews on the land. August 3 – Netter appears before a large crowd in Jerusalem’s Old City, and is moved and uplifted by the cry: “Give us land!” The first edition of HaShachar (The Dawn) appears in Vienna, a Hebrew publication edited by Peretz Smolenskin which maintains that the Jews are entitled to be considered a nation worthy of national independence. 1869 – January 11 – Netter appears before the management of Alliance Israelite Universelle, reads out his report on his visit to Eretz Israel and suggests establishing, in the first stage, an agricultural school. He expresses his willingness to head such a project and spends the rest of the year taking steps to implement the plan. 1870 – April 5 – Charles Netter’s relentless efforts result in the Turkish government giving him a license to open a Jewish agricultural school near Jaffa. June 15, 1870 Karl (Charles) Netter settles in a cave south of Jaffa and lays the cornerstone of the Mikveh Israel school, the first Jewish settlement in Israel of the modern era. June 15 – Netter settles in a cave south of Jaffa and lays the cornerstone of the new school, which constitutes the beginning of new Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel. A well is dug, after which the first students are welcomed. Netter heads the school till September 1873. For the first time since 1800 there is a Jewish majority in the city (11,000 souls). Although an historic event, it isn’t greatly emphasized at the time. 1871 – May 13 – Shabbat – the “Bechukotai” portion. The Jerusalem tailor R. Gershon, who makes clothes for the agricultural school students, suggests to Netter that he draw from the weekly Torah portion, Jeremiah 17:13: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame,” and call the school Mikve Israel (Hebrew for “Hope of Israel.”) Netter adopts the idea. 1872 – The Society for Working and Redemption of the Land is established in Jerusalem, which aims to establish the first agricultural settlement – Petah Tikva. Preparations are made to acquire land near Jericho, and, soon after, south of Jaffa (later to become Rehovot). The Turks prevent the acquisition and the company disbands. 1874 – The Moses Montefiore Testimonial Fund (Mazkeret Moshe) is founded in London following Montefior’s 90th birthday. Its aim is to aid Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel. 1875 – Moses Montefiore, aged 91, makes his seventh and final visit to Eretz Israel. The Society for Working and Redemption of the Land is again established in Jerusalem, and calls for the establishment of an agricultural settlement. Among its founders are David Guttman and Eliezer Raab, later co-founders of Petah Tikva. One of its slogans is: “If there is no country in the world – there is no Israel in the world.” It is possible that the establishment of the association is influenced by a proposal made by Haim Gedalia, a close acquaintance of Moses Montefiore, which he published in 1875. the proposal suggests acquiring all the Sultan’s lands in Eretz Israel from the Turks and establishing on them extensive Jewish settlement. 1876 – the book Daniel Deronda appears in England by the author George Eliot (the literary name of Mary Ann Owens). The book’s heroes are English Jews with a national conscience, who aspire to establish a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. The book has enormous influence on generations of young Jews. 1878 – Within two months the first two agricultural settlements are established. In the north, Jews from Safed establish gai Oni (Valley of My Strength) to the east of the city. In the south, Petah Tikva is founded by Jerusalemites among whom are Yoel Moshe Salomon, David Guttman, Joshua Stampfer, Zerach Barnett and Eliezer and Yehuda Raab. Gai Oni is abandoned after a short time and Petah Tikva after three years. The first seeds, however, have been sown. Laurence Iliphant, an English member of Hovevei Zion (The Lovers of Zion), suggests establishing agricultural Jewish settlements in Eretz Israel. He contacts the Turkish authorities and in 1880 publishes his book, Eretz HaGilad (The Land of Gilead), in which he calls for the establishment of a Jewish region in the north of Transjordan. The Turks have reservations. 1879 – Yehiel Michel Pines, a representative of the Mazkeret Moshe fund, arrives in Eretz Israel – an important figure during the impending First Aliyah period. Eliezer Pearlman (better known as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda), aged 21, publishes an article “A Dignified Question” in the fifth edition of HaShachar (April 1879). He calls for the return of his people to its land, determining of Jewish policy and renewal of the ancient language – Hebrew. The article is considered an important milestone in the annals of Zionism. Edward Cazalet proposes that England help Jews immigrate to Syria and to Palestine in order to participate in large development projects in these countries. 1881 – March 13 – Tsar Alexander II is murdered in Russia. This signals the beginning of Jewish pogroms, especially in the south of the country. Jewish emigration from Russia increases, especially to America. At the same time, the first associations of Hovevei Zion are established, which aim to settle Jews in settlements in Eretz Israel. June 5, 1881 Start of first aliya of Jews of Yemen. September-December – Towards the end of the year Jewish aliyah to Eretz Israel increases and among the new arrivals are Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, his wife Dvora and a group of olim from Yemen. January 11, 1882 First conference of Hovevei Zion (“Lovers of Zion”) in Romania resolves to purchase land in Israel and promote aliya. The same year witnesses the start of the First Aliya and the establishment of Rosh Pina and Zichron Ya’akov. January 21,1882 Formation in Kharkov, Ukraine of a group of young people dedicated to the revival of the Jewish people through a return to working the land in Israel. The group came to be known as the Bilu. 1882 – The pogroms in Russia continue. Hovevei Zion emissaries arrive in Palestine and go in search of suitable land for establishing settlements. A few thousand jews arrive in the country in 1882 alone in what will later be called the First Aliyah. At the same time, Laurence Oliphant renews his efforts to settle Jews in Palestine. The booklet Auto-Emancipation appears in Berlin, written by an unidentified author. He is, in fact, none other than Dr. Yehuda Leib Pinsker, a Jewish doctor from Russia. It is a fundamental publication in the annals of Hibbat Zion (The Lovers of Zion movement) and Zionism (see the chapter entitled Glossary of Terms). February 6 – BILU is established in Kharkov, southern Russia – an association founded by Jewish students who advocate aliyah to Eretz Israel, the establishment of communal settlements and revival of the Hebrew language. Within a few months, similar groups begin to organize throughout Russia. March 18, 1882 Creation of Va’ad Halutzei Yesod Hama’alah (“Yesod Hama’alah Pioneers Committee”), committed to helping purchase land in Israel to establish Jewish colonies. March 18 – Zalman David Levontin, an immigrant from Russia, establishes the Yesud haMa’ala Pioneers committee in Jaffa, whose objective is to help acquire land and establish Jewish settlements in Palestine. This constitutes the beginning of the establishment of the moshava (village based on private ownership) Rishon lesion. April 28, 1882 Turkey forbids Jewish immigration to Israel. April 28 – The Turks are concerned about increased Jewish aliyah and implement a ban on the immigration of Russian Jews to Palestine. The ban limits some members of Hovevei Zion, but the majority continue to operate. June 18, 1882 Nes Ziona established. July 6, 1882 First 14 members of the Bilu arrive in Jaffa; the date is regarded as the start of the First Aliya (1882-1903), when 25,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, largely from Russia and Romania. July 6 – The first group of BILU members arrive in Israel – 13 young men and one woman. They live in Jaffa and work in Mikve Israel. July 31, 1882 Establishment of Rishon leZion, first colony of the First Aliya. July 31 – The first moshava, comprising members of the First Aliyah, is established – Rishon lesion (Petah Tikva and Gai Oni, established some four years before, no longer exist). By the end of the year, two additional moshavot are established: Zamarin (later to become Zichron Ya’akov) and Rosh Pina, where Gai Oni once stood. October 18 – Joseph Feinberg from Rishon lesion meets with Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Paris and recruits him to help the new settlement. This is the beginning of Baron Rothschild’s involvement with settlement in Eretz Israel. A little later Rabbi Samuel Mohilever meets with the Baron and persuades him to help settle a group of Jewish farmers from Poland in Ekron (later renamed Mazkeret Batia). 1883 – Settlers from Petah Tikva evacuate their village temporarily because of the danger of malaria, and move to Yehud for a number of years before returning home. The moshava of Ekron is established. The Lerer family settles in Wadi Hanin (later Nes Ziona) and the Felman family settles to the north of Jaffa and plants a citrus orchard. All are members of the Hovevei Zion association. September 28, 1882 Baron de Rothschild agrees to support settlement in Israel. In a meeting with Rabbi Mohliver, he agrees to establish a colony in Israel as part of the efforts to save Russian Jewry. October 17, 1882 “Autoemancipation,” Zionist pamphlet by Yehuda Leib Pinsker published in Berlin, calls on Jews to settle in their homeland. December 12, 1882 Two years after a failed effort by Jews from Safed to establish the village of Gai Oni on the same site, the agricultural land of Rosh Pina, a village founded by immigrants from Romania, is ploughed for the first time. July 12, 1883 Baron Edmond de Rothschild starts his activities in Israel. November 7, 1883 Mazkeret Batya established, and named for the mother of Baron Hirsch. 1884 – A second moshava is established in the Galilee – Yesud haMa’ala – and towards the end of the year the BILU establishes its moshava – Gedera. The moshava of Bnei Yehuda, founded by people from Safed, is the first attempt to establish a foothold in the southern Golan. June 12, 1884 Members of Hovevei Zion from Poland establish Yesod Hama’alah. September 12, 1884 Moshav Ekron established, the sixth colony of the First Aliya. November 6-8 – The establishment of the first wave of Jewish moshavot in Eretz Israel comes to an end. Without the help of Baron Rothschild it is doubtful they would have survived the harsh living conditions. The Turks hinder Jewish aliyah and the establishment of moshavot. February 12, 1886 First daily newspaper in Hebrew published in St. Petersburg. April 25, 1886 Founding of Neve Zedek, first Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jaffa. June 28, 1887 Second Congress of Hibat Zion meets in Russia. The resolutions: to establish colonies in Israel and purchase additional land. 1887 – June 28-July 1 – There is a second meeting of the Hibbat Zion movement in Druzgnik, Russia in which religious and secular members weriously disagree on the character of the movement. The members resolve to strengthen the moshavot in Eretz Israel and acquire additional land. May 26, 1888 B’nai B’rith, founded in 1843, establishes an office in Jerusalem, its first in Israel. September 13, 1888 Be’er Tuviya is established for the first time. February 8, 1889 Bnei Moshe, secret arm of Hovevei Zion, created under the leadership of Ahad Ha’am. 1889 – March 15 – An article, “That Isn’t the Way,” appears in the Hebrew paper HaMelitz, which is published in St. Petersburg. It is written by an unknown author calling himself Ahad HaAm. He is in fact none other than Asher Zvi Ginzberg, the Hebrew essayist and thinker and one of the first spiritual Zionists. He attacks the settlement work being done in Eretz Israel, claiming it should have been preceded by the spiritual and cultural regeneration of the Jewish people. At the same time, in Odessa, south Russia, the secret association Bnei Moshe is established, under the leadership of Ahad HaAm, who aspires to realize the ideas presented in his article. September 16, 1889 Decision to establish the new Committee for the Hebrew Language, which worked to develop and advance the language. In 1953 it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language. 1890 – Aliyah to Palestine once again increases. Delegations and individuals stream into Palestine, buy land and plan the establishment of new settlements. Withintow years the moshavot of Rehovot, Hadera, Mishmar Hayarden and Ein Zeitim are established. April 1, 1890 Natan Birnbaum coins a new word, “Zionism,” in an article in his newspaper, Shichrur Atzmi (“Self Liberation”). April 1 – A new term – “Zionism” – is born, created by Nathan Birenbaum in an article in his paper Shichrur Atzmi (Auto-Emancipation) in Germany. April 26 – the first General Assembly of the Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel, the nickname given the Hovevei Zion in the framework of the Russian government license, takes place in Odessa. The more accepted name is the Odessa Committee. Among its resolutions is the opening of an office in Jaffa, headed by the engineer Vladimir (Zev) Tiomkin, for promoting the subject of settlement. September 1890 Kibbutz Mishmar Hayarden established. September 10, 1891 Baron Hirsch establishes JCA – Jewish Colonization Association. 1891 – Jews continue to arrive in Eretz Israel until the middle of the year. In July the Turkish authorities declare a halt to aliyah and cancel all land acquisition deals. This heralds the beginning of a protracted crisis. October – Theodor Herzl, a 31 year-old assimilated Jewish journalist and playwright, is chosen by the Viennese paper Neue Freie Presse as its Paris correspondent. This is a turning point in his life, which brings him to the pinnacle of Zionist accomplishment in a few short years. Over 400 individuals, both Jewish and gentile, sign a petition sent by the religious American William E. Blackstone (one dubbed the American Christian “Father of Zionism,”) to the President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, in which he calls on the President to help the Jews return to their historic homeland. September 26, 1892 First railway in Israel inaugurated – from Jaffa to Jerusalem. 1894 – the beginning of the Dreyfus affair in France. Herzl is shocked by the anti-Semitism rampant in all layers of French society and comes to the conclusion that if such a thing can happen in enlightened France, there is only one solution to the Jewish question: mass exodus from Europe and their concentration in their own territory. He decides to act on behalf of the suffering Jews by meeting, as a first step, with wealthy Jews in order to acquire financial backing for his plans. 1895 – June 2 – Herzl meets with Baron Maruice de Hirsch, one of the wealthiest magnates of his generation, and fervently explains his plans. The meeting, which constitutes the beginning of Herzl’s Zionist activity, does not go well and Hirsch stops him in mid-sentence. June 3-17 – Herzl puts his ideas down in writing day and night for two weeks. This constitutes the first draft of Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). In the second half of 1895, Herzl, who had left Paris and returned to Vienna, travels throughout Europe, arranges meetings and gives lectures outlining his plan. Most greet him with indifference and even ridicule. Only the philosopher and writer Max Nordau supports him. February 14, 1896 Publication in German in Vienna of a pamphlet, “The Jewish State,” in which Herzl discusses the Jewish question and suggests a homeland for the Jewish people as the solution. February 15, 1896 Mikveh Israel agricultural school established. May 19, 1896 Establishment of Metulla, northernmost settlement in Israel. 1896 – In Vienna, The Jewish State appears in German as a booklet, with a sub-title reading: A Political Solution to the Jewish Question. In the same year it is translated into Hebrew, English and other languages. Most reactions are negative but Herzl is not concerned. June – Herzl makes his first trip to Turkey, where he is granted an audience with the Great Vizier (prime minister). He offers to cover turkey’s national debt if the Sultan relinquishes Palestine in favor of the Jews. July 18 – Herzl travels to Paris to meet with baron Edmond de Rothschild, the well-known benefactor and patron of the new settlement in Palestine, to raise money for the realization of his plan. The meeting fails and Herzl decides to act alone without the help of wealthy Jews. 1897 – March 6 – Herzl assembles representatives from the Hovevei Zion societies in Germany, Austria and Galicia to discuss his plans. He suggests convening a Zionist Congress as soon as possible with the participation of representatives from the entire Jewish world. The plan meets with strong resistance in many circles, among them rabbis, community heads and even Hovevei Zion activists. June 4 – The first edition of the weekly Die Welt (The World) appears, edited and party financed by Herzl. It is the mouthpiece of the new movement he is establishing. Preparations for the First Zionist Congress are complete. When Jewish leaders and rabbis foil Herzl’s plans to hold the Congress in Munich, Germany, he moves the meeting to Basle, Switzerland. The Congress is set to take place during the last days of August 1897.
August 29-31, 1897 First Zionist Congress, led by Herzl, meets in Basel. World Zionist Organization established; Herzl elected president. 1897 – The First Zionist Congress convenes in Basle, which constitutes the foundation of the World Zionist Organization, and Herzl is elected president. The Congress, in which 197 delegates participate, accepts the Basle Program (see the chapter entitled Glossary of Terms). Herzl, who wants the Congress to appear especially festive, insists that delegates come to the proceedings in formal evening attire. “These people should consider this Congress as the most superior and festive of all,” he says to Max Nordau. The Jewish and general press send many reporters in order to cover this special Jewish assembly. September 1 – Herzl writes in his diary: “At Basle I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it.” There are mixed reactions to the Congress by the Jewish media: few support it, some have reservations about it, while the majority are waiting to see how things develop. The Warsaw daily, HaTzfira, edited by Nahum Sokolow, which opposed the Congress, is turning into a loyal supporter. Ahad HaAm’s haShilo’ah, on the other hand, warns the Jews, and especially the Zionists: “The new enthusiasm is artificial…and its end will bring despair…Israel’s salvation will come from ‘prophets’ rather than from ‘diplomats.’” The Neue Freie Presse in Vienna, where Herzl works, does not mention the Congress at all. November – Herzl first proposes his plan for establishing a “Zionist bank,” to be used as a financial instrument to achieve Zionist goals. The author Davis Trietsch suggests to Herzl the Jewish colonization of Cyprus, which is in British hands, rather than of Palestine, which is ruled by the Turks. May 4, 1898 Zionist Organization of America founded in New York; the first Zionist organization in USA. August 28-31, 1898 Second Zionist Congress meets in Basel. 1898 – August 28-31 – The Second Zionist Congress is held in Basle. Herzl proudly declares that since the first Congress, the Zionist movement has joined 913 societies – in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The Congress establishes the Jewish Colonial Trust, the financial arm of the World Zionist Organization. Leo Motzkin delivers one of the main lectures, following his tour of Eretz Israel’s new settlements. October 13 – Herzl leaves Vienna secretly and travels to Turkey and Palestine in order to meet with the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who is touring the East. He plans to recruit the Kaiser to influence the Turkish Sultan to seriously consider the proposals of the Zionists. October 18 – Herzl meets with the Kaiser in Istanbul and lectures him on the need to settle the Jews in Palestine. The Kaiser makes comments that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. In spite of this he tells Herzl: “Tell me in one word: what should I demand from the Sultan?” Herzl replies: “A franchise company [that will accept Eretz Israel] with German backing.” Late October – early November – The German Kaiser Wilhelm II arrives in Palestine, the high point being his visit to Jerusalem. Herzl is visiting Jaffa, the southern settlements and Jerusalem at the time. He meets the Kaiser twice: on October 28 at the gate of Mikve Israel and on November 2 in Jerusalem. The Kaiser makes no promises. 1899 – Herzl continues his extensive diplomatic activity in Europe and Turkey in order to promote the issue of the charter (franchise) on Palestine. He participates in the first peace committee held in The Hague, Holland in May 1899. January-February – Baron Rothschild arrives in Jerusalem on his third visit to Eretz Israel (previous visits were in 1887 and in 1893). He intimates that he is considering ending his settlement activity, but the hint is not taken. August 15-18, 1899 Thrid Zionist Congress meets in Basel. August 15-18 – The Third Zionist Congress is held in Basle. Herzl declares: “Our efforts are aimed at attaining a charter from the Turkish government under the sovereignty of his majesty the Sultan… only after this charter is in our hands…can we start large-scale, practical settlement.” By the end of the 19th century, the number of Jews in Eretz Israel stands at 50,000, double the number 20 years earlier, and 20 agricultural moshavot are inhabited by 5,000 people. The largest moshava is Zichron Ya’akov, which has a population of 871. The second largest is Petah Tikva (818), then Rishon lesion (626) and Rosh Pina (512). About two-thirds of the Jews in Eretz Israel live in Jerusalem, most of whom are from the Old Yishuv (Orthodox Jews). The New Yishuv is concentrated in the moshavot, in Jaffa, in Haifa and partly in Jerusalem. There are more than 10 million Jews in the world: close to eight million in Europe, one million in America, with the rest in Asia, Africa and Oceania. November 8 – Herzl writes in his diary: “If I don’t make progress with the Turkish government by the beginning of the Fourth Congress, I will humbly prepare the Cyprus plan.” (Jewish settlement in an island close to Palestine. See 1897.) 1900 – January 1 – Baron Rothschild announces the termination of his activity in Palestine and the transfer of the handling of the moshavot to the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA). This results in astonishment in the country and the beginning of a prolonged economic and social crisis. For more than a year the moshavot heads try, together with Hovevei Zion activists, to convince Rothschild to change his mind, but to no avail. Throughout the year the economic crisis depends and emigration from Eretz Israel increases. August 13-16, 1900 Fourth Zionist Congress meets in London and discusses the problems facing the Jewish people at that time. August 13-16 – The Fourth Zionist Congress takes place in London; the first time this body has convened outside Switzerland. The current problems of the Jewish people are discussed, especially the expulsion of the Jews from Romania nd the plight of agricultural laborers in Eretz Israel, following the termination of Baron Rothschild’s involvement in the moshavot and their transfer to ICA. 1901 – May 14 – Hovevei Zion heads and moshavot representatives from Eretz Israel meet in Paris with Baron Rothschild and ask him to transfer the moshavot to the farmers rather than to the ICA. The Baron refuses. May 17, 1901 Herzl meets the Turkish sultan, Abdul Hamid II, and asks permission for Jewish settlement in Israel in exchange for help in repaying Turkey’s international debts. His request is rejected. Turkey announces that it will allow Jewish settlement in Africa, but not in Israel. May 17 – Herzl is granted an audience with the Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II and asks him for a charter on Palestine. In return he promises that the Jews will cover the Turkish national debt. After prolonged negotiation, the Turks consent to Jewish settlement in the Empire but not in Palestine. October 7, 1901 Yavne’el established in the Lower Galilee. October – The ICA begins work on a new settlement region in Eretz Israel – the Lower Galilee moshavot. In October alone two moshavot are established: Yavneel and Kfar Tabor. October 25, 1901 Kfar Tavor, originally called Mescha, established in the Lower Galilee. December 29, 1901 Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel decides to establish Keren HaKayemeth leIsrael, the Jewish National Fund, in order to purchase land in Israel for the Jewish people.
1902 – January – Herzl is disappointed by his inability to persuade the Turks to grant a charter on Eretz Israel. For the first time Jewish settlement in the southwest of Palestine is considered – in the area of El-Arish. (Although actually Egyptian territory, it is under British control in practical terms.) Prof. Franz Oppenheimer, the well-known Jewish-German economist and sociologist, publishes a series of articles in the Zionist Die Welt, under the headline “Jewish Settlement,” in which he lays out his plan to establish cooperative settlements in Eretz Israel; a plan that comes to fruition ten years later in Merhavya. January 28, 1902 Opening of Sha’are Zedek, the first hospital in the new city of Jerusalem. February 1902 Anglo-Palestine Bank established in London as the financial arm of the World Zionist Organization’s activities. February 26 – The Anglo-Palestine Company Ltd. (later changed to Anglo-Palestine Bank Ltd.) was founded as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, the financial arm of the World Zionist Organization. After the establishment of the State of Israel, it becomes Bank Leumi le-Israel. March 5, 1902 Establishment in Vilnius of the Mizrachi movement for religious Zionist Jews. March 5 – The Mizrachi (religious-Zionist) movement is founded in Vilna, the first partisan organization in the framework of the Zionist movement. It is instigated by Rabbi Yitzhak Ya’akov Reines. March 25, 1902 Zionist survey committee, sent by Herzl to examine the suitability of the Sinai peninsula for Jewish settlement (El-Arish Plan), completes its work. July – Herzl suggests to the Turks the covering of part of the kingdom’s debt in return for a franchise on part of Eretz Israel – “Haifa and the surrounding area” and, mostly, the Jezreel valley. July 4 – A historic meeting between Herzl and Lord Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild, head of the British branch of the Rothschild family, takes place. At first the atmosphere is chilly but the ice gradually melts. Herzl emphasizes the urgent need for settling Eastern European Jews in the vicinity of Eretz Israel. July 7, 1902 Start of official contacts between the Zionist movement and the British government. Herzl appears before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration in London. July 7 – Herzl appears before a Royal Committee appointed to investigate the immigration of aliens (meaning Jews) to England, where he speaks on the problems of Jews in the world. In his opinion, Eastern European Jews must emigrate; if not, he says, they may die. October 5, 1902 Altneuland, Herzl’s utopian novel that describers the future Jewish state, published in German in Vienna, and shortly thereafter appears in Hebrew translation as “Tel Aviv.” October 22-23 – Herzl meets twice with the British secretary of state for the colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, suggesting the establishment of autonomous Jewish settlement in Cyprus and in El-Arish in the Sinai. Chamberlain has reservations regarding Cyprus but cautiously agrees to El-Arish. In the months to come this possibility is seriously and practically investigated. October 30 – Herzl’s book, Altneuland (Old-New Land), is published; a utopian novel which delineates the creation, by the Jews, or a model society in the Holy land. It is translated into Hebrew by Nahum Sokolow, under the title Tel Aviv, a name adopted in 1910 by the founders of the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood, north of Jaffa. In 1902, the first Jewish National Fund stamp appears bearing the name “Zion” and a picture of a Magen David (Star of David). March 6, 1903 Establishment of the village of Rehovot. 1903 – March – Herzl sends a delegation of experts to the Sinai Peninsula to examine the possibility of Jewish settlement in the area of El-Arish. The findings are positive but the plan is cancelled after it is rejected by the British representative in Cairo. April 19, 1903 Pogrom against the Jews of Kishinev, main city of Bessarabia (now Moldova). Creates renewed impetus to emigrate to the west or make aliya to Israel. April 19 – A pogrom in the town of Kishinev in southern Russia leaves more than 50 Jews dead, hundreds wounded and extensive damage. Shock and fury rock the Jewish world. In light of the pogrom, emigration from Russia too the United States increases, and, to a lesser extent, to Eretz Israel (the Second Aliyah). After the pogrom Herzl intensifies his efforts to find suitable territory for settling the masses of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Hayim Nahman Bialik writes his famous poem Be’lr haHarega (In the City of Slaughter). April 23, 1903 In a meeting between Herzl and the British Minister for the Colonies, Chamberlain, the idea of a Jewish homeland in Uganda is raised. April 23 – Herzl meets in London with Chamberlain, the British secretary of state for the colonies, who has returned from a prolonged visit to Eastern Africa. The minister raises the possibility of Jewish settlement in Uganda. Herzl reiterates his support for settlement in “Palestine or its vicinity.” May – Herzl changes his mind, and is inclined to accept the British offer to settle in Eastern Africa. The British suggest an area of 100,000 square kilometers and in a memorandum from the foreign ministry write: “The foreign secretary is giving serious consideration to offers regarding establishment of some kind of colony or Jewish settlement under conditions that will enable their people to perform their national traditions.” The philanthropist Itzhak Leib Goldberg from Vilna transfers a plot of land owned by him in the settlement of Hadera to the Jewish National Fund (JNF). This is the first territory (200 dunams) to be transferred to the authority of the Jewish National Fund. July 26 – The first branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank opens in Jaffa. Its manager is Zalman David Levontin, who co-founded Rishon lesion 21 years before. In the years to come the bank opens branches in Jerusalem, Hebron and in Beirut. August 14, 1903 British government offers the World Zionist Organization the Uganda Plan, the creation of a Jewish home in East Africa under British rule. August 6-16 – Herzl visits Russia and meets with the interior minister Viacheslav Plehve, despite the fact that some of the Zionist leaders believe he is one of those responsible for the Kishinev pogrom. He reaches an agreement with Plehve about Zionist activities in Russia and Turkish government aid for Zionism. He is welcomed enthusiastically by Jews in different cities. August 23-25, 1903 Sixth Zionist Congress, the “Uganda Congress.” August 23-28 – The Sixth Zionist Congress, the “Uganda Congress,” is held in Basle. Herzl raises the idea of establishing an autonomous Jewish region in Uganda, the British colony in Eastern Africa. There is stormy opposition to the proposal, especially among the Russian Zionists. Nordau tries to soften the offer by saying that the solution provides a “temporary refuge” for the Jewish emigrants of Eastern Europe, until they are able to settle in Eretz Israel. Finally Herzl’s suggestion to send a delegation to investigate the region is agreed upon. The Uganda scheme creates an unprecedented crisis in the World Zionist Organization. Herzl struggles to implement the plan, with the support of most of the senior leaders. There are, however, unparalleled objections and many fear a division in the movement between “Uganda Zionists” who support and trust Herzl, and between “Zion Zionists,” (Tziyonei Zion) who reject Uganda and are steadfastly loyal to Eretz Israel. They are not impressed by Herzl’s dramatic declaration at the end of the Congress that he will always remain devoted only to Zion, and that “If I forget three O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning!” August 24 – In Zichron Ya’akov, the first Kenesiya (Assembly) of Jewish settlement representatives in Eretz Israel, numbering 67 delegates, opens. A decision is reached to condemn Herzl’s Uganda scheme. At the end of deliberations, the Jewish teachers in Palestine establish the Teachers’ Union in Zichron Ya’akov. September 11 – In Homel, Russia, Jews are once again the victims of pogroms. A “Jewish resistance” takes a stand against the violence, for the first time – an important milestone in the annals of Russian Jewry. Some of the defenders are forced to leave the city and make aliyah to Eretz Israel. They are considered the first immigrants of the Second Aliyah (late November 1903). The Jewish National Fund acquires its first large tract of land in Eretz Israel, encompassing thousands of dunams in Deleqa-Umm Juni in the Jordan Valley. November 11, 1903 Large land purchase by Keren HaKayemeth at Delaika and Umm Juni. Kibbutz Deganya Aleph is established on these lands. November – The Uganda scheme becomes highly controversial within the Zionist movement. A gathering of Russian Zionist leaders takes place in Kharkov from November 11-14, and the scheme is vehemently rejected. Menahem Mendel Ussishkin, who regards it as a “betrayal of historic Zionism,” becomes the leader of the opposition to Herzl. Convention participants consider establishing a new Zionist organization, without Herzl, who reiterates his continued support for the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. 1904 – January 23 – Herzl meets in Rome with the King of Italy, Victor Emanuel III. The king promises him “to speak with every Turk possible on the Zionist issue.” January 25 – Herzl meets with Pope Pious X. he tries to convey to him the essentialness of the Zionist idea, but without success. The Pope does not approve of Herzl’s idea that Jerusalem be handed over to the Jews, and that the holy places receive ex-territorial status. February – The first exploratory delegation leaves for southern Palestine and Transjordan, financed by the World Zionist Organization. It is led by the German scientist Prof. Blankenhorn and includes Aaron Aaronsohn, the young agronomist from Zichron Ya’akov. March – Herzl opens a new round of talks with the Turkish government with regard to the charter on Palestine and is willing at this stage to make do with the area of Acco (Acre). April 11-15 – The Actions Committee (Va’ad haPo’el HaZioni) holds an unusually stormy session in which there is a direct clash between Herzl and Ussishkin regarding the Uganda scheme. In a conciliatory move, Herzl devotes party of the discussion to the development of settlement in Eretz Israel. Herzl and his rivals agree to a truce. May 13 – Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook makes aliyah. Her serves as rabbi of the Jewish community of Jaffa and of the newly established moshavot, and is an important link in bridging the gap between the New and Old Yishuv. May-June – Herzl, who suffers from a heart condition, takes some time out to rest and recuperate, on the advice of his doctors. He is extremely ill. Members of the Zionist movement are asked not to write him due to his deteriorating condition. Tammuz 2, 5664 (July 3, 1904) Death of Benyamin Zeev Herzl July 3 – Theodor Herzl, creator and head of the World Zionist Organization for its fist seven years, dies at the age of 44. The Jewish world mourns. August – Aliyah to Eretz Israel increases and there is a notable influx of young people. The Anglo-Palestine Bank acquires the land of Ben Shemen during the last months of Herzl’s life and with his knowledge. It opens a branch in Jerusalem – the second in Palestine. 1905 – January – Pogroms in Russia result in increased Jewish emigration. Most travel to America but a trickle make their way to Palestine. March – In Eastern Europe a pamphlet is published entitled, “A call to young Jews whose hearts are with their people and with Zion.” Written by Joseph Vitkin from Eretz Israel, this passionate appeal came to be regarded as one of the factors that inspired the Second Aliyah. May – The exploratory delegation sent to Uganda by the Sixth Zionist Congress in order to examine its suitability for Jewish settlement, publishes a negative report in London. July 27-August 2 – The Seventh Zionist Congress convenes in Basle, the first Congress since Herzl’s death, and the Basle Program is reaffirmed. The idea of settling in Uganda is rejected and the Territorialists (who are in favor of settlement outside of Eretz Isreal) leave the World Zionist Organization. The Congress applauds the proposal of Otto Warburg, who calls for the planting of Jewish National Fund olive trees in Herzl’s name – the beginning of the Herzl forest. David Wolffsohn, a Zionist leader from Germany, is chosen as chairman of the World Zionist Organization. After the Congress, the Territorialists hold the first meeting of the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO), headed by the English Jew Israel Zangwill. From then on they operate separately and make repeated attempts to find territory for those Jews wishing to leave their homes in Europe but who are not ready to make aliyah to Eretz Israel. The organization operates unsuccessfully until 1925. The main office of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) moves from Vienna, where Herzl resided, to Cologne in Germany. October 22 – The world’s first Hebrew high school opens in Jaffa. Later it is called the Herzliya Gymnasium, in honor of Herzl. October 31 – Pogroms break out against Jews in hundreds of population centers all over Russia, leaving 2,000 Jews dead in their wake. In many places, Jewish “self defense forces” emerge. The pogroms give renewed impetus to aliyah to Eretz Israel. The Jewish National Fund increases its involvement in Eretz Israel: throughout the year it acquires land in order to establish agricultural training farms and a school for Kishinev orphans. JNF also participates in the acquisition of land for establishing experimental agricultural stations in Atlit, founds the Lands Office and funds its activity in cooperation with the Anglo-Palestine Bank; acquires the lands of Kfar Hittim and aids cultural and educational institutions in Jaffa and Jerusalem. In Russia the Jewish socialist labor confederation is established, that goes by its popular name, Po’ale Zion (Workers of Zion). In the years to come it acts as the workers section of the Zionist movement. A branch is established in Eretz Israel too and some of the workers, who disagree with its socialist line, establish their own party, HaPoel HaTzair (The Young Worker). 1906 – January – In a Zionist Initiative, an international committee meets in Brussels to discuss the plight of Russian Jewry, which is suffering from persecution and pogroms. March 1 – The Bezalet art school is opened in Jerusalem. July – Menahem Mendel Ussishkin, the renowned Russian-Zionist leader, takes up his post as chairman of the Hovevei Zion’s Odessa Committee. July 5 – The Ahuzat Bayit company is established in Jaffa with the aim of building garden suburbs outside Jaffa. This signals the beginnings of the city of Tel Aviv. September 7 – A new immigrant arrives in Jaffa. His name is David Green, later David Ben-Gurion. October 4-10 – The Helsingfors conference of Russian Zionists is held in Helsinki (then within the boundaries of Tsarist Russia). It necessitates, from the point of view of Zionistic aspirations, “present-day work,” that is, ongoing Zionistic activity in the communities of the Jewish Diaspora. This is an important milestone in Zionist history and a bone of contention for years to come. The WZO opens an information and immigration office in Jaffa, headed by a new Russian immigrant by the name of Menahem Sheinkin. The office provides financial information for those interested in making aliyah. Aliyah to Palestine increases and among the thousands of new arrivals are members of the First Aliyah who left the country and returned with the Second Aliyah. Some 150,000 Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe arrive in the United States in 1906. 1907 – January 1 – The first edition of the Hebrew weekly HaOlam (The World) – the official organ of the WZO – appears in Cologne, Germany. Its first editor is Nahum Sokolow. In the years to come, the paper also appears in Russia and England, and from 1935 until its closing in 1950, in Jerusalem. January 10 – David Wolffsohn, chairman of the WZO, arrives in Palestine for a visit. He tours the agricultural settlements and town and is welcomed enthusiastically. February – Wolffsohn visits Istanbul, where he meets with the Grand Vizier (prime minister) Farid Pasha, and with Izzet Bey, one of the Sultan’s secretaries. He fails to advance the Zionist idea in the Turkish capital. April 8 – The JNF’s regulations are approved by the British government, and Max Isidor Bodenheimer, a lawyer, is chosen as JNF’s first chairman. May 7 – The JNF board of directors holds its first meeting in Cologne, where it decides to hasten the planting of the Herzl Forest in Hulda. May 30 – Dr. Arthur Ruppin, a young German-Jewish sociologist, arrives in Jaffa. He has come on behalf of the Zionist Executive and the JNF in order to observe the situation in the Yushuv. June 23 – The Ahuzat Bayit committee turns to the JNF, through Dr. Ruppin, and asks for a large loan in order to fund the building of the first 60 houses in a new neighborhood outside of Jaffa. July 16 – After much indecision (due to a preference for agricultural settlement) the JNF board of directors approves a loan of 250,000 francs, for 18 years, to aid the establishment of Ahuzat Bayit. August 14-21 – The Eighth Zionist Congress is held in The Hague, Holland. Among its resolutions: the opening of a permanent office of the WZO in Jaffa – the Palestine Office, headed by Dr. Ruppin. The Anglo-Jewish philanthropist Jacob Moser informs the Congress that he is making a large donation to establish the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jaffa (on condition that it is named after Herzl – Herzliya), as well as a donation to Bezalel, the Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. David Wolffsohn is elected president of the WZO. Concurrently with the Congress, the founding convention of the World Union of Po’ale Zion (the roof organization of the Po’ale Zion parties in different countries), is held in The Hague). September – Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the young scientist and Zionist leader, pays his first visit to Palestine. September 29 – A secret organization by the name of Bar-Giora is founded in Jaffa (at the home of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who came to Palestine with the second Aliyah) whose objective is to transfer the protection of the moshavot to Jewish hands. Its slogan: “In blood and fire Judea fell and in blood and fire Judea will rise.” The organization is the precursor of the HaShomer (“The Guard”) self-defense organization 18 months later. October – Wolffsohn pays an additional visit to Istanbul. He discusses with the Turkish government the possibility of receiving a charter on Palestine. 1908 – April 1 – Dr. Arthur Ruppin opens the Palestine Office in Jaffa. For ten years this is the principle Zionist address in Eretz Israel. The office fulfils a very important role in land acquisition and in the expansion of the agricultural and urban settlement. Within its framework, the Palestine Land Development Company is established. May – The planting of Herzl Forest in Ben Shemen begins. It is undertaken by the JNF. June 7 – The Palestine Office establishes its first national farm at Kinneret, intended to train pioneers fro agricultural labor. This is followed by the founding of additional farms in Hulda and Ben Shemen. June 21 – The first moshav po’alim (workers’ settlement) in Palestine is established in Ein Ganim, near Petah Tikva. July 24 – The Young Turks uprising takes place in Turkey. There is renewed hope in the Yishuv and the Zionist movement that this will result in a reprieve with regard to building the Zionist enterprise. 1909 – March – The WZO recognizes the first political party – the Po’ale Zion Federation. April 11 – The 60 families that organized in order to establish the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood in north Jaffa, hold a draw for the plots of land. This day is considered the day on which the neighborhood was founded, and which burgeoned, in the years to come, into the city of Tel Aviv. April 12 – HaShomer (“The Guard”) is founded in Kfar Tabor (Mescha). July 28 – A cornerstone-laying ceremony is held in the neighborhood of Ahuzat Bayit for the Herzliya Gymnasium. July-August – Wolffsohn pays his third visit to Istanbul. The WZO decides to publish newspapers in the Turkish capital that will support its position and influence the government, in the spirit of the aims of Zionist. Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky is appointed to head these newspapers. The French-language paper La Jeune Turke (The Young Turk) is the most well known. October – The WZO recognizes a second federation – HaMizrachi. November – The first families move from Jaffa to their new homes in the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood. December 26-30 – The Ninth Zionist Congress is held in Hamburg, Germany. It supports continued Jewish settlement in Palestine and adopts the Oppenheimer method for the establishment of cooperative settlements. Following this decision, a “cooperative” is established at Merhavya. 1910 – Yehoshua Hankin acquires 10,000 dunams in the center of the Jezreel Valley – the first large acquisition in this desolate region – from the Lebanese landowner Sursuk. The Jewish Colonization Association (ICA), where he works, refuses to approve the acquisition, so Hankin offers the land to Dr. Ruppin. Ruppin accepts, and on May 20 Hankin begins to work at the Palestine Land Development Company, becoming its mainstay and acquiring hundreds of thousands of dunams of land for the company in the years to come. In the following year, the first Jewish settlement, Merhavya, is established on this land in the Jezreel Valley. May 21 – In a general assembly of the residents of Ahuzat Bayit, a decision is made to change the name of the neighborhood to Tel Aviv, in light of Herzl’s book, Old-new Land, whose Hebrew name was given by the translator Nahum Sokolow. October 28 – The founding nucleus of Umm Juni is established, that less than a year later takes the name Degania – “the mother of the kibbutzim.” 1911 – January 24 – Merhavya is established in the heart of the desolate Jezreel Valley. The first members of the cooperative settlement arrive in April. Members of HaShomer protect the settlers and the settlement during clashes with the Bedouin and the neighboring Arabs. August 6 – In a letter from Umm Juni to Dr. Arthur Ruppin, head of the Palestine Office, Joseph Bussel informs Ruppin that “we have named our new settlement Degania, in honor of the five species of grain that we grow.” August 9-15 – The Tenth Zionist Congress is held in Basle, Switzerland. Discussions focus on the settlement enterprise in Palestine and Jewish-Arab relations. David Wolffsohn, president of the WZO, expresses his wish to retire. In his opening speech he proudly declares: “Fourteen years ago, Zionism was a sensation. Today it is a reality.” The Mizrachi delegates object to incorporating “cultural work” into the Zionist movement’s areas of activity. A new leadership is elected with Prof. Otto Warburg appointed as chairman. Immediately after the Congress the seat of the Zionist Executive is moved from Cologne to Berlin. December – Shmuel varshavsky (Yavnieli), a young activist in the Labor movement, is sent to Yemen as an emissary of the Palestine Office and of Rabbi Kook, in order to spur the Jews to make aliyah. In the coming years, more than 2,000 Jews from Yemen settle in Eretz Israel. Throughout the year, the first labor federations are founded: in the Galilee and northern Palestine in April, and in Judah (as the area south-east of Jaffa was called at that time) in June. Later a third federation is founded in Samaria (the area of Hadera-Zichron Ya’akov). December 13 – The federation operating in Judah decides to establish an institute that will care for the sick and the wounded. Its name: Kupat Holim (Sick Fund). This constitutes the basis for Kupat Holim Clalit (The General Sick Fund). 1912 – Hadassah is founded in new York, an organization of Zionist women. The name Hadassah (Queen Esther’s original name) is chosen to mark the festival of Purim. April 11 – In a desolate region on a slope of the Carmel Mountain, a cornerstone-laying ceremony takes place for Technicum, the first academic-technological institute in Palestine. It is later renamed the Technion. In the first half of 1912, more than 1,000 immigrants from Yemen make aliyah. Jewish aliyah to Palestine increases. Among the newcomers is Joseph Trumpeldor, who later works in Migdal and Degania. A Zionist youth movement by the name of Blau-Weiss (Blue and White) is founded in Germany (and later in Czechoslovakia). 1913 – August 13 – The first class of the Herzl Gymnasium graduates. Among the graduates are some of the key personalities of the Yishuv and the country in the decades to come: Moshe Shertok (Sharett), Eliyahu Golomb and Dov Hoss. September 2-9 – The Eleventh Zionist Congress is held in Vienna, Austria. On the agenda: achievements in settlement activity in Palestine and the idea of establishing a Hebrew university in Jerusalem. The lecturer on this subject: Dr. ChaimWeeizmann. Prof. Warburg is elected once again as chairman of the movement, and Yehiel Chlenov is elected as his deputy. October – The Gideon organization is established in Zichron Ya’akov, which unifies young moshavot members. Its members constitute the basis for NILI, a secret pro-British spy organization that operates under Turkish rule in Palestine during World War I. December – The “language war” breaks out in Palestine, when it becomes apparent that the German Hilfsverein (Ezra) group, which initiated the establishment of the first academic institute in Palestine, the Technion in Haifa, is about to make German the language of instruction in most subjects. A rebellion breaks out among students and teachers in Ezra institutes, and the WZO heads the opposition to the use of foreign languages in Jewish schools in Eretz Israel; taking upon itself the establishment of a chain of Hebrew educational institutes. In Galicia the Zionist youth movement HaShomer haTza’ir (The Young Guard) is established. It is named after the HaShomer (The Guard) organization in Eretz Israel. Throughout the year, new facts are created on the ground with regard to agricultural settlement: in the Jezreel valley a second moshav is established, Tel Adashim, whose members are from HaShomer, and in the Jordan valley a second cooperative group is established following Degania’s founding – Kinneret. 1914 – February – Baron Rothschild pays his fourth visit to Palestine, after a 15-year break. This time it is a peace-making mission with the Yishuv and the Zionist movement. Rothschild is impressed with what he sees, praises the work of the WZO and expresses his willingness to help. June – Following increased tension between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, a Jewish-Arab conference is planned for the beginning of July in a small town near Beirut to resolve differences. Nahum Sokolow is to head the Jewish delegation. For different reasons, among which is international tension following the Austrian duke Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo on June 28 (that leads to World War I), the conference does not take place. The Second Aliyah ends. Some 35,000 Jews made aliyah during the previous decade, among them a few thousand pioneers. The Second Aliyah is considered one of the most important periods in shaping the Yishuv on its way to statehood. 1914 – July 28 – World War I breaks out and the Jewish world is torn between the two sides: the Triple Alliance (Russia, England and France), the Triple Entente (Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by Turkey). The United States is neutral. Jews fight each other. August – Because of the war, the Turks suspend their shipping connections with Europe and declare a moratorium – rejecting payments and commitments. This results in a crisis and profound distress in the Jewish Yishuv. September 8 – The Turkish government cancels capitulation measures, according to which foreign nationals are subject only to their consuls and not to the governments of the country in which they live. Thousands of Jews in Palestine with foreign citizenship worry about their fate. October 6 – The American warship North Carolina brings $50,000 from the Jews of the United States to the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel. This is the beginning of Jewish-American aid to the Yishuv. October 30 – Turkey enters the war on the side of the Triple Alliance. Palestine, as part of Turkey, is now a participant in the war. The Turks order all foreign national in Palestine to take out Turkish citizenship or leave. Thus begins a mass exodus of Jews from Palestine. November 9 – In a discussion with the British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey, the Anglo-Jewish politician Herbert Samuel raises, for the first time, the possibility that Turkey will collapse following the war. The super powers, he says, will find it difficult to turn Palestine into one of their own territories, so perhaps it is worthwhile “fulfilling the ancient ambitions of the Jewish people and re-establishing a Jewish state.” Grey responds sympathetically. December 3-6 – A meeting of the Actions Committee (Va’ad HaPoel HaZioni) in Copenhagen, after the WZO decides to open a Zionist liaison office in neutral Denmark, while leaving its principle institutions in Germany. Sokolow and Chlenov, two Zionist leaders, are dispatched to the United States and arrive, eventually, in England. Zionist activity in most of the European countries – on both fronts – is paralyzed. December 10 – The first meeting between Weizmann and Samuel takes place in London; the first step on the long road to the Balfour Declaration. Weizmann, a medium-ranking Zionist leader, begins to pave his way to the leadership. The Jewish Yishuv in Palestine is being persecuted. The Turks arrest suspects, confiscate equipment and supplies, and place prohibitions on the use of Zionist symbols and stamps. Increasing numbers of Jews leave Palestine. American warships help evacuate those wishing to leave to Egypt, which is in British hands. December 28 – Baron Edmond de Rothschild meets in Paris with Dr. Chaim Weizmann. He tells him, surprisingly, that now that Turkey has entered the war, the cautious activity in Eretz Israel must stop and that Jews must work openly and demand the establishment of a Jewish state. 1915 – January-March – The Turks arrest a number of young leaders and community activists in Palestine. Among them are Manya Shohat, Yehoshua Hankin, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. Some of them are deported to Turkey for the entire duration of the war, and others – like Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi – to Egypt, from where they travel to the United States. March – Ze’ev Jabotinsky (who arrived from Russia) and Joseph Trumpeldor (who left Palestine because of Turkish persecution) join forces in Alexandria, Egypt to form a Jewish Legion, which will fight with the British in the struggle to liberate Palestine from the Turks. The British refuse to give their consent but agree to the establishment of an auxiliary unit, a mule corps, which comes to be known as the Zion Mule Corps. April 1 – The Mule Corps swears allegiance to the British army. Jabotinsky is not prepared to serve in the corps because its duties only involve transportation, and demands the establishment of a fighting legion. Trumpeldor is recruited tot eh regiment, firstly as deputy commanding officer with the rank of captain and later as deputy battalion commander. In mid-April, the battalion is sent to the Gallipoli front. Jabotinsky leaves for Europe in order to establish a Jewish fighting force. He meets with Pinhas Rutenberg, a Russian-Jewish engineer and a leading revolutionary in his country, in Brindesi, Italy. The two agree to work together to bring about the establishment of a Jewish Legion. Rutenberg leaves for the United States in order to advance matters. April-May – The beginning of the NILI underground movement (its name is chosen later), whose founders are Aaron Aaronsohn and Avshalom Feinberg, together with a small number of settlement members. These young people, in despair over the Turkish government, decide to make contact with the British and help them conquer Palestine from the Turks. June 10-11 – The Actions Committee (Va’ad HaPoel HaZioni) convenes in Copenhagen. It violently rejects Jabotinsky’s plan to establish a Jewish Legion. Jabotinsky is warned that if he doesn’t cease his activities he will “bury the Zionist enterprise forever.” The Actions Committee resolves that “The Jewish Legion project stands in deep contradiction to the principles of Zionist activity…no Zionist will participate or support this activity.” Jabotinsky refuses to heed them and despite objections by the majority of Zionist leaders, moves to London where he continues to work towards the establishment of a regiment. American warships arrive in Palestine throughout the year, bringing money and food sent by American Jews. This aid saves the Jewish Yishuv from starvation and disease. Upon their return, the warships take with them thousands of Jews who are leaving Palestine because of persecution and the ban on foreign nationals of enemy countries remaining in Palestine. 1916 – April 16 – Britain and France sign the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divides the Middle East between them. It is named after its two signers, senior officials in the foreign ministries of their countries: Sir mark Sykes from Britain and Francois-Georges Picot from France. According to the agreement, Palestine is to be under the governments of a number of super powers: the Haifa bay area – in British hands; the majority of the Galilee – in French hands; south of the Judah region and all of the Negev – in the hands of an Arab country backed by Britain; and the rest of Palestine, including Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tiberias and Nazareth – under international control. The agreement raises deep concern in the hearts of the Zionist leaders who wish to establish a Jewish state/national home in Palestine. May – At the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the British disband the Zion Mule Corps. One hundred and twenty of its members are transferred to England, where they become the basis of the Jewish Legion, which Jabotinsky is in the process of establishing. July – Aaron Aaronsohn, head of the NILI spy organization, leaves Palestine and travels to Europe. He arrives in Egypt some months later, where he manages spy operations. Operations in Palestine are headed by his sister, Sarah Aaronsohn, Avshalom Feinberg and Joseph Lishansky. September 20 – The Turkish governor in Palestine, Ahmed Jamal Pasha, expels Dr. Arthur Ruppin, head of the Palestine Office (the Zionist representation in Jaffa), from Palestine. It ignores the fact that Ruppin is a German citizen and that Germany is a principle ally of the Turks in the war. October 21 – Kfar bar-Giora, the first wartime settlement, is established in the Galilee by members of HaShomer. It is headed by Israel Giladi. After Giladi’s death in 1918, the kibbutz is named Kfar Giladi in his honor. Throughout the summer and autumn of 1916, the British army advances from Egypt in northern Sinai and crosses over into southern Palestine. On December 21 it conquers El-Arish. 1917 – In the first months of the year, the British army advances northward and by the end of March arrives in the Gaza region. March 26-28 – The first British assault on Gaza takes place, ending in defeat for the British. April – The assault provides Jamal Pasha with an excuse to order the wholesale evacuation of the Jews of Jaffa (including the neighborhood of Tel Aviv). He commands them to leave their homes and go north, for fear of a British attack. Ten thousand Jews leave within a few days. Most of the Arab residents escape into the surrounding villages and fields. The leaders of the Yishuv send urgent telegrams summoning the leaders of German and American Jewry and call on them to intervene in order to prevent additional expulsions and perhaps even mass killings (as with the Armenians). April-May – Weizmann (in London) and Sokolow (in Paris) work feverishly to enlist support for the idea of a Jewish national homeland in Eretz Israel. Weizmann believes that prime minister Lloyd George and foreign secretary Balfour sympathize with the idea. Sokolow, who is being helped by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Paris, is favorably impressed with the position of the French government. Intensive activity in the United States to gain the support of President Wilson is also underway. The Zionist leader Louis Dembitz Brandeis is especially active now that Wilson has appointed him to the Supreme Court – the first Jew to be appointed to that office. The Zionists increase their efforts to persuade Britain’s allies to agree to transfer control over Palestine to Britain once the Turks are defeated. April 17-20 – The second British assault on Gaza brings tremendous force to bear on the city, but again the British are repulsed. May 4 – Sokolow is granted an audience with Pope Benedict XV at the Vatican where he asks for moral support for the aspirations of the Zionists in Eretz Israel. The Pope responds: “Yes, yes. I imagine we will be good neighbors.” June 4 – A sympathetic declaration from the French government for Zionist aspirations is made by the secretary general of the foreign ministry, Jules Cambon, to Nahum Sokolow: “If conditions will allow and the independence of the holy places be preserved, it would be a deed of justice and reparation to assist, by the protection of the Allied Powers, in the renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago.” June 28 – General Edmund Allenby is appointed commander of the British forces in Palestine. He replaces General Archibald Murray. End of June-July 22 – Weizmann leaves on a secret mission to Spain on behalf of the British government in order to meet Henry Morganthau, the former American ambassador to Turkey. The latter is heading East in order to implement a plan he has conceived to “remove Turkey from the war,” as it opposes both British and Zionist interests. He succeeds in his mission, confirming, unquestionably, the special status of Weizmann in London. In the summer months, Zionist activity in London, aimed at achieving a formal, sympathetic declaration in favor of Zionism from the British government, increases. The British army is about to conquer Palestine. The Zionists present a proposal, which is conveyed to Lord Balfour by Lord Rothschild on July 18. Jabotinsky continues his efforts to establish a Jewish Legion. August 23 – In London, the British government consents to the formation of the 38th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers. Ze’ev Jabotinsky is among the first recruits. October 1 – The activities of the NILI organization, which had gained momentum from the beginning of the year (the transfer of information to the British in Egypt, the sending of emissaries and the receipt of money which was transferred to Yishuv leaders), come to an end on this date following the Turkish incursion into Zichron Ya’akov. The attack results in the arrest and torture of suspected NILI members and threats of violence against the Jewish Yishuv. NILI leader Sarah Aaronsohn is arrested by the Turkish military authorities and tortured for three days. To escape further torture, she commits suicide. Joseph Lishansky flees but is chased and caught by the Turks October 20. There is much concern in the Yishuv with regard to a Turkish reprisal. October – After prolonged discussions and indecision throughout the month of October, the final version of the Balfour Declaration is consolidated. The indecisive parties were really only trying to placate the Arab supporters and the anti-Zionist circles within British Jewry. October 31 – The British launch a large-scale attack in the Negev. It is a diversionary action against Gaza; the main battle is for Beersheva, which falls in one day. On the exact same day, the British government approves the final version of the Balfour Declaration. November 2 – The British government publishes the Balfour Declaration, signed by its foreign secretary, Lord James Arthur Balfour. The Declaration – address to Lord Lionel Rothschild who is asked to bring it to the attention of the “Zionist Federation” – includes an expression of support for the founding of a “national home” for the Jews in Palestine. There is great joy throughout the Jewish world, on both fronts. November – Throughout the first half of the month, the British army advances rapidly northwards, conquering Gaza in southern Palestine, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, Lod, Ramle and the surrounding area. The next step is to take possession of Jerusalem. December 9 – On the eve of Chanukah, the British enters Jerusalem. It meets no resistance as the Turks have secretly left the city. December 11 – The formal date of the conquest of Jerusalem. General Allenby enters the city victoriously. Upon reaching Jaffa Gate, he dismounts from his horse and enters the Holy City on foot. Four hundred years of Turkish rule have come to an end. December 16 – In Damascus, the Turks hang the two NILI members they are holding – Na’aman Belkind and Joseph Lishansky. 1918 – January 2-3 – Yishuv representatives from the territory conquered by the British assemble for a founding meeting of what will later be called the Elected Assembly (Asefat haNivharim). March 1 – The 38th Battalion of the Jewish Legion arrives in England from Egypt. It trains for battle on the front line in Palestine. April 1 – A Zionist commission arrives in Palestine, consisting of senior Zionist representatives, which has received British approval to operate in Palestine. At its head is Chaim Weizmann. June 4 – Weizmann meets with Emir Feisal in south Transjordan – one of the heads of the Arab Rebellion against the Turks and a British ally – to discuss cooperation between the Jewish and Arab national movements. June 9 – The 38th battalion positions itself on the front line in the area of Samaria. June 18 – The British approve the establishment of an additional battalion – the 40th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers – in the framework of the Jewish Legion, a regiment of the British army. Volunteers are to be recruited from Palestine. July 24 – A cornerstone laying ceremony is held for the Hebrew University at Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, with the participation of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and General Allenby. August 20 – A delegation of doctors and nurses from the Hadassah Organization of America arrives in Eretz Israel together with large amounts of medical equipment. It has come to help Yishuv members who need medical attention as a result of World War I. In late August, the 39th Battalion, that was recruited in the United States, arrives in Egypt en route to Palestine. September 19 – The great British attack to rout the Turkish army from Palestine and neighboring countries begins. Within 11 days the entire area is conquered – between south Samaria and Damascus, as well as Transjordan. Soldiers of the 38th and 39th Battalions of the Jewish Legion participate in the battles. October 8 – The Habima Theater is established in Moscow, and begins to operate in Palestine from 1931. In 1958 it is awarded the status of “national theater.” October 31 – Turkey surrenders. The war in the Middle East comes to an end. November 11 – World War I ends on the European front. Germany and Austria-Hungary surrender. 1919 – January 3 – An additional meeting takes place between Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, and Emir Feisal, one of the leaders of the Arab revolt. An agreement is negotiated and signed between the two in which Feisal accepts the Balfour Declaration and Weizmann promises to help the Arabs develop their countries. A WZO memorandum is presented at the Paris Peace Conference, held in Versailles, France. The Zionist demands: the Jews have an historic right to Eretz Israel; it is proper that Britain receive the mandate for Palestine; and the borders of Eretz Israel will include parts of Lebanon, Syria and Transjordan. February 3 – The jewish delegation to the Peace Conference (Comite des Delegations Juives) begins to function. It consists of representatives of organizations and bodies from all over the world who appeard before the Peace Conference, at the initiative of the WZO. They demand a guarantee of national rights for Jews wherever they reside. The Committee operates until 1936 when it merges with the newly founded World Jewish Congress. February – A large Zionist convention convenes in London with representatives from many countries. On the agenda are current issues, including discussions on the Peace Conference, the guaranteeing of rights to Jews in the countries they reside, the question of Jewish emigration, etc. February 24-March 12 – A Zionist delegation, headed by Weizmann and Sokolow, appears before the presidium of the Peace Conference. It presents the claims of the Zionists concerning Palestine and their standpoint regarding the granting of national rights to Jewish minorities in new European countries. June 10 – An international commission of inquiry, led by Americans Henry C. King and Charles R. Crane, is sent by the Peace Conference to Palestine. The two have come to learn about the aspirations and needs of the residents of Palestine regarding their political future. The committee’s conclusions, published at a later date, are anti-Zionist and recommend, among other things, that the project of making Palestine distinctly a Jewish commonwealth be given up and that Palestine be included in a united Syrian state. July 9 – Louis D. Brandeis, a Supreme Court judge and Zionist leader in the United States, arrives in Palestine for a visit. August – The Actions committee (Va’ad HaPoel HaZioni) convenes in London with Weizmann and Brandeis’s participation. For the first time, the modus operandi of the Jewish Agency is discussed. There is tension between Weizmann and Brandeis. October – The well-known Zionist leader Menahem Ussishkin makes aliyah and is appointed to head the Zionist Commission, the most senior Zionist representation in Palestine. Joseph Trumpeldor, a member of the Second Aliyah, who previously left the country, makes aliyah a second time. He has come to prepare the ground for the aliyah of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of members of the HeHalutz (The Pioneer) movement in Russia. December 9 – The Judean Regiment is established, comprising remnants of the three battalions of the Royal Fusiliers that were created two years previously. Its insignia is a menorah (seven-branched candelabrum) with the Hebrew word kadima (forward). December 19 – The S.S. Ruslan reaches the Jaffa shore. On board are 671 returnees and olim from Russia. This is considered the beginning of the Third Aliyah – sometimes compared to the American Mayflower because it is comprised mainly of public figures, scholars, doctors and artists. Throughout December 1919 the security situation in four Jewish settlements in the Upper Galilee – Metulla, Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai and Hamara – deteriorates. Trumpeldor is sent to the Galilee and is appointed commander of Tel Hai. 1919, the British military regime forbids large-scale Jewish aliyah to Palestine. The Jewish leadership also has concerns regarding such an aliyah until the conditions in Palestine improve. An announcement, circulated by the Zionist Executive in the summer of 1919, reads: “Uncontrolled and incompletely prepared immigration will be the greatest calamity for the immigrants and for our renascent land.” Despite all the warnings and fears, some 2,000 olim make aliyah in 1919. 1920 – Tension in the north increases and there is concern for the Jewish settlements. March 1 (11 Adar 5680) – The battle for Tel Hai. Arabs attack Tel Hai and Joseph Trumpeldor and five of the men under his command are killed. The defenders abandon Tel Hai and a few days later Kfar Giladi and Metulla (Hamara was abandoned in early January). April 4-7 – The Arab riots of 1920 (5680) in Jerusalem. Arabs attack the city’s Jews, killing six and wounding 200. Jabotinsky leads the defenders. The british arrest him together with 19 of his defenders and sentence them to long terms in prison. The Yishuv is outraged. April 19 – Elections are held to the first Elected Assembly (Asefat haNivharim) of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel. April 25-26 – The Supreme Council of the Allies (Triple Alliance) meets in San Remo, Italy and elects to grant the mandate for Palestine to the British. The Balfour Declaration is included in the mandate agreement. There is rejoicing in the Jewish Yishuv and in the Zionist movement all over the world. June 15 – The Hagana is founded. July 1 – British military rule in Palestine ends. The first civilian high commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who is closely associated with the Zionists, takes office. July 7-24 – The annual conference of the WZO (the Zionist Conference) convenes in London. The first large Zionist gathering after the war, participants include representatives of countries defeated in the war (Germany, Austria, etc.). Discussions relating to settlement in Eretz Israel take place and Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund), a vital overseas funding mechanism of the WZO, is founded. Weizmann is elected President of the WZO. There is a rift between Weizmann and Brandeis. Brandeis wants to build the Yishuv in Eretz Israel on economic foundations and objects to the preoccupation with ideological and cultural matters in Palestine and the Diaspora. July 8 – The new high commissioner grants pardons to Jabotinsky and his 19 colleagues. He also releases Arab prisoners. August 25 – The Joseph Trumpeldor Defense and Labor Battalion (Gedud haAvoda vehaHagana al shem Yosef Trumpeldor), usually referred to as Gedud haAvoda (Labor Battalion), is founded 00 a significant pioneering group active in Palestine during the 1920s. October 5 – Members of Kfar Giladi return to their settlement in the Galilee. Members of Tel Hai and Metulla follow suit. October 7-11 – The opening of the Elected Assembly is held and a National Council (Va’ad Le’umi) is elected to act as the Assembly’s executive organ. It is proclaimed the “Supreme Authority in dealing with the public and national interests of the Jewish people in Palestine.” November 4 – A reorganization committee arrives in Palestine, sent by the WZO Executive in London, to inspect the Zionist organizational and settlement work in Eretz Israel. It recommends major cuts in expenses. December 5-12 – The founding meeting of the General Federation of Labor (Histadrut haOvdim) takes place in Haifa – a central body in the life of the Yishuv and the country. Aliyah to Palestine in 1920 stands at more than 8,000. Many are young pioneers prepared to do any kind of manual labor, such as draining swamps, paving roads and constructing new settlements. 1921 – February 22 – First elections to the Rabbinical Council of Palestine take place and two chief rabbis are chosen: Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, and Rabbi Ya’akov Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi. February 24, 1921 (Adar 13, 5680) Yosef Trumpeldor and his comrades fall at Tel Hai. May 1-6 – The Arab riots of 1921 (5681). Arabs attack Jews in Jaffa, Petah Tikva, Rehovot and Hadera. Forty-seven Jews are killed and more than 100 are wounded. Among the dead is the renowned writer Yoseph Hayim Brenner. May 14 – The british suspend Jewish aliyah due to the tense situation in Palestine. September 1-14 – The Twelfth Zionist Congress convenes in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, the first to be held in eight years (since World War I). The Congress approves the decision on the London Zionist Conference the previous year to found Keren Hayesod and acquire large tracts of land in the Jezreel Valley. September 11 – During the Congress, Nahalal, the first worker’s moshav, is established in the Jezreel Valley. September 22 – Members of the Labor Battalion (Gedud haAvoda) establish Kibbutz Ein Harod in the eastern Jezreel Valley. By the end of the year, an additional three settlements – Geva, Kfar Yehezkel and Tel Yosef – will be established. During September, the entrepreneur Pinhas Rutenberg receives two franchises from the British for producing electricity in Palestine. He is assisted by the Zionist Executive. December – David Ben-Gurion, who spent the last year in London as an envoy of Ahdut Avoda, returns to Palestine and is appointed and is appointed a member of the secretariat of the Actions Committee (Va’ad HaPo’el) of the General Federation of Labor, and the Federation’s secretary-general (a position he holds until 1935). In 1921, large areas of the Jezreel Valley are acquired by the Palestine Land Development Company of the WZO. A protracted argument takes place within the institutions – whether to purchase quality land while money is short or consider buying cheaper land. This prompts Menahem Ussishkin to make his famous remark – that if the purchase had been considered costly, he and Ruppin would have been called poor businessmen, but if they had not bought eh land at all, they would have been called criminals. 1922 – April 16 – The HaPo’el HaMizrachi Organization of Palestine, which unites religious laborers, is founded. June 2 – The Jewish Yishuv makes progress towards self-rule: the first three moshavot – Petah Tikva, Rishon lesion and Rehovot – receive local council status. June 3 – The British government issues an official policy statement concerning Palestine (White Paper of 1922) in which it retreats from the promises made in the Balfour Declaration. Among other things, it declares that Abdullah ibn Hussein, a member of the ancient ruling Hashemite family from Hijaz, will be Emir of Transjordan, that Jewish aliyah will be limited, and that a legislative council will be established comprised of representatives of all the inhabitants of Palestine. This can only be detrimental to the Jews, who are in the minority. July 24, 1922 – The mandate for Palestine is officially handed over to Britain by the League of Nations Council. October 22-28, 1922 – The mandatory government holds its first census in Palestine. It attests to a population of 757,000 – 84,000 Jews and 673,000 Arabs and others. The Jews comprise 11% of the population. 1923 – January 1 – Frederick Kisch, a British Jew and former Lieutenant Colonel in the British army, becomes head of the Political Department of the Zionist Executive in Jerusalem. January 15-17 – The Actions Committee convenes in Berlin to discuss the subjects on the agenda of the forthcoming Zionist Congress. Dr. Weizmann reports on the settlement activity in Eretz Israel and London. There is much resentment at the meeting due to a delay on the part of the British mandatory authority in Palestine in ruling on the political and legal status of the National Council. Towards the end of deliberations, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a member of the Executive, drops a bombshell: he announces his resignation due to Weizmann’s reconciliatory line, especially with regard to everything relating to the separating of Transjordan from western Palestine by the British. He claims that the policy of the Executive might well result in failure for the Zionist movement and for activity in Eretz Israel. August 5-16 – The Thirteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia. On the agenda: settlement activity in Eretz Israel, the activities of Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund), then opening of a university in Jerusalem and the plan to establish the Jewish Agency. Dr. Chaim Weizmann is elected president of the WZO once again. August 29 – British mandatory rule in Palestine officially begins. The mandate agreement includes the British promise to build a Jewish national home (according to the Balfour Declaration). December 27 – Betar (Berit Trumpeldor), a Revisionist youth movement, headed by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, is founded in Riga, Latvia. Its aims are to educate youth in the spirit of shlemut hamoledet – Jewish statehood on both banks of the Jordan River – the ingathering of the exiles and military training for youth. At the end of 1923 the Third Aliyah to Eretz Israel ends, having brought 34,000 Jews to Palestine, many of whom were pioneers. A serious social and economic crisis hits the Jewish Yishuv because of reduced government activity (especially road-building). There is increased yerida from Palestine. Keren Hayesod provides funding for the country’s first two absorption centers for olim from the Third Aliyah. It takes upon itself the funding of the Yishuv’s education network and builds a village which serves as a refuge for orphans of the Ukrainian pogroms. At the same time it finances settlement areas, the health service, development, infrastructure and industry. 1924 – The crisis in the Jewish Yishuv continues and aliyah is at a low ebb. From the spring, however, a change begins to take place as thousands of olim pour into Palestine in what will later be called the Fourth Aliyah. Most of the olim arrive from Poland due to the harsh economic measures imposed on Jews by the Polish prime minister and minister of finance, Wladislaw Grabski. For this reason, the Fourth Aliyah is also known as the Grabski Aliyah. Another reason for increased aliyah is the implementation in the United States of restricted entry of emigrants from Eastern Europe, leaving Palestine almost the only option. In 1924, 14,000 Jews make aliyah – as opposed to 8,000 the previous year – a record since the First Aliyah. Many of the olim make their way to burgeoning Tel Aviv. March – The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA) is founded (whose beginning go back to the Jewish Colonization Association – ICA), which deals with matters relating to settlement and industry in Palestine. Its chairman is james Rothschild, the son of “the well-known benefactor.” March 26 – The poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and his wife Manya make aliyah and build a house in Tel Aviv. May 14 – Ultra-Orthodox Jews from Poland establish an agricultural moshava east of Tel Aviv called Bnei Brak. During the year, a settlement for hassidic Jews is founded near Haifa – Kfar Hassidim. October 17 – HaNo’ar haOved (Working Youth), a new youth movement, is established in Tel Aviv under the patronage of the General Federation of Workers (Histadrut HaOvdim), which unifies working boys and girls. November 23 – A new moshava is established north of Tel Aviv – Herzliya – after the father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl. December 8 – The Bayit vaGan neighborhood, situated south of Jaffa nad later to be known as the city of Bat Yam, is founded. Throughout the year Weizmann repeatedly attacks the Polish aliyah, because of their lack of pioneering tendencies and their preference for the city of Tel Aviv over the agricultural settlements. He declares that he would not want to see in Palestine towns and neighborhoods like the tiny industrial and commercial suburbs of Warsaw. His words provoke criticism among the immigrants and in the middle class circles. The Jewish Yishuv’s citrus industry continues to expand and within a few short years becomes one of Palestine’s major industries. 1925 – Within two months two institutes of higher education are founded in Eretz Israel, with the assistance of the WZO – the Technion in Haifa, which opens on February 9, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which opens its doors on April 1. There is much excitement in the Yishuv, especially at the university’s opening ceremony. Distinguished guests include Lord Balfour, the father of the declaration that bears his name, General Edmund Allenby, who conquered Palestine in World War I, and Zionist leaders such as Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow. March 31 – Afula is founded – an agricultural-industrial town in the heart of the Jezreel Valley. Its original name was Jezreel City, and it was planned as the biggest city in Palestine. April 30 – Ze’ev Jabotinsky founds a new political movement in Paris with a critical (revisionist) approach towards the Zionist leadership – the Revisionist movement. In the spring and summer months, aliyah increases, reaching its peak in June with 4,200 immigrants. Throughout the Yishuv, especially in Tel Aviv, there is economic prosperity. By the end of the year, 35,000 new immigrants have arrived in Eretz Israel – a number unprecedented since the days of the First Aliyah. August 18-28 – The Fourteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Vienna, Austria. At this time there is mass aliyah to Palestine (the Fourth Aliyah). A dispute develops at the Congress regarding the fulfillment of Zionism in Eretz Israel among supporters of the pioneering-cooperative approach and supporters of private initiative. The success of the latter, especially in Tel Aviv, is extolled. Delegates from the Center and the Right call on the leadership of the WZO to abandon their support of the cooperative settlements. Weizmann defends this form of settlement. Tel Aviv, which at the beginning of 1924 had 20,000 residents, has a population of 40,000 by the end of 1925. Economic prosperity reigns throughout most of the year, but towards the end of the year, signs of a decline are being felt. 1926 – As the year progresses, the economic and social crisis strengthens in Jewish Palestine and unemployment grows. “The Fourth Aliyah crisis” – as it is later called – deepens. May 4 – Thousands accompany the remains of the renowned Zionist leader Max Nordau (who died in 1922), which were brought from Paris to Tel Aviv for burial. It is a day of mourning throughout the Yishuv. September – In order to help recover from the economic crisis, the Hityashvut haElef (Settlement of the Thousand) scheme proposes the creation of intensive farms with holdings for 1,000 families. (The second such scheme takes place in the 1930s.) Following a lull in settlement activity in the Jezreel Valley, seven new settlements are set up in 1926 in the western part of the valley. Gordonia is founded in Poland, a Zionist youth movement named after Aharon Gordon and associated with the Young Workers Party (Mifleget haPo’el haTzair) in Eretz Israel. It establishes branches in a number of European countries, as well as in Eretz Israel. In 1926, the Fourth Aliyah ends, having brought some 60,000 Jews to Palestine over a two-year period. It is considered the first mass aliyah, many of whose members came from Poland’s middle classes. Keren Hayesod headquarters are moved from London to Jerusalem. In 1926, the famous economist and sociologist Prof. Franz Oppenheimer (who planned the first experimental cooperative settlement in Merhavya) arrives in Eretz Israel for an extended visit – at the request of the Zionist Executive – in order to observe agricultural and cooperative settlement. His report is exceptionally critical and is not well received by the settlers and most of the leadership. December 2, 1926 Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek established by Kibbutz Artzi-Hashomer Hatzair at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley. 1927 – “The Fourth Aliyah crisis” is the worst crisis to hit the Jewish Yishuv. Forty percent of the workforce in Tel Aviv is unemployed, aliyah to Palestine is at its lowest ebb and emigration from Palestine reaches a record high: 2,700 immigrants and 5,000 emigrants. January 2 (28 Tevet 5687) – The writer, editor and father of spiritual Zionism, Ahad HaAm (formerly Asher Ginzberg), dies at 71. He is brought to rest in Tel Aviv. January 12, 1927 Death of Ahad Ha’am (Asher Ginzburg), philosopher, writer and leader, one of the founders of Hovevei Zion and modern Zionism, creator of the concept of a “spiritual center” in Israel. January 16, 1927 Establishment of the Ben Shemen youth village. January 17, 1927 Agreement between Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Louis Marshall, a leader of American Jewry, for the establishment of the Jewish Agency for Israel. January 17 – Dr. Chaim Weizmann signs an agreement with Louis Marshall, a leader on the non-Zionists in the United States, regarding the establishment of an expanded Jewish Agency. In the first stage the two decide to send two committees to Palestine – that were included in the Joint Palestine Survey Commission. The committees arrive for extended stays in Palestine during 1927 and early 1928. April 1, 1927 Kibbutzim of Hashomer Hatzair and their training centers create a national network, Kibbutz Artzi in Haifa. April 1 – The Kibbutz Artzi of the Hashomer HaTzair (Young Guard) movement is founded – a kibbutz federation headed for many years by Meir Ya’ari and Ya’akov Hazan. April 9 – After a lengthy struggle, the entrepreneur Moshe Novomeysky succeeds – with the help of British partners and aid from the WZO – in obtaining a franchise from the British government to operate a chemical plant near the Dead Sea.
April 24 – The Betar movement is founded in Eretz Israel. June – The Solel Boneh Company, one of the bases of power of the Histadrut, goes bankrupt due to the economic crisis. Menahem Ussishkin , chairman of the Jewish National Fund, obtains one million dollars from Canadian Zionists (to be transferred over a period of ten years) for the acquisition of a new, marshy area of land intended for settlement – Wadi Hawarith, later Emek Hefer (Hefer Valley). July 11, 1927 Strong earthquake hits Israel; heavy damage in Safed and Shechem, and slightly less in Jerusalem. August 5, 1927 Establishment of the “United Kibbutz” movement, umbrella organization of the kibbutzim in Israel. In 1951, the organization split into two movements that were reunited in 1979 as TAKAM (United Kibbutz Movement). August 5 – The Kibbutz Me’uhad (United Kibbutz) is founded, which in time becomes the largest kibbutz movement. Yitzhak Tabenkin heads it for many years. August 30 – The Fifteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Basle, Switzerland. Discussions are overshadowed by the crisis in the Yishuv, especially the high unemployment rate in Eretz Israel. A small executive body is established consisting of three members, which aims to fight “the Fourth Aliyah crisis.” September 11 – In Naharayim in the Jordan valley work begins on a hydroelectric power station belonging to the Palestine Electric Company (later the Israel Electric Corporation), headed by Pinhas Rutenberg. November 1, 1927 British Mandate issues its own local currency – mil, grush, shilling and pound – after decades of using Egyptian currency and generations of using Turkish currency. 1928 – January 1 – The Constitution of Knesset Israel, approved by the mandatory government, becomes valid. This is the legal framework for the organization of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel and from which the activities of the main institutes are derived: the Elected Assembly, the National Council, the Rabbinical Council and the communities in the towns and settlements. April – The Zionist Executive, in cooperation with the General Federation of labor, initiates a series of development projects, in order to ease the appalling unemployment. June 18 – The Joint Palestine Survey Commission’s report, whose members remained in Palestine for extended periods of time to learn first-hand about the achievements and problems of the Jewish Yishuv, especially its pioneering settlements, is published in London. In the weeks that follow, the report, which attacks the collective settlements and the Jewish National Fund, causes angry outbursts in the Yishuv and the Zionist movement. June 29, 1928 Kibbutz Giv’at Brenner founded by pioneers from Italy – one of the largest kibbutzim in Israel. July 19-31 – The Actions Committee convenes in Berlin in order to discuss the Joint Palestine Survey, which is being attacked from all sides. Weizmann, who supports it, threatens to resign. In the end, most of the rejectionist standpoints are accepted, but almost everyone leaves satisfied. This paves the way for the establishment of the Jewish Agency. September 24 (Yom Kippur 5688) – The Wailing Wall incident. Clashes between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem are triggered by the removal of a screen dividing men and women, which enrages the Jewish Yishuv. In the months to come, the clashes escalate and the Arabs accuse the Jews of coveting the Moslem holy places on the Temple Mount. November 20 – The JNF announces the acquisition of a large tract of land in the desolate Zevulun Valley. In the first stage, 22,000 dunams are acquired. 1928 is still a difficult year with immigration standing at 2,178. The number of emigrants is slightly more – 2,186. 1929 – The Wailing wall incident gains momentum. The Arabs accuse the Jews of coveting the Arab holy places on the Temple Mount, resulting in clashes between Arabs and Jews in the Wailing Wall plaza. The Yishuv’s serious economic and social crisis (“the Fourth Aliyah crisis”) is coming to an end. July 27 – The Sixteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Zurich, Switzerland. Discussions focus on the establishment of the expanded Jewish Agency and the situation in Eretz Israel. The number of Revisionists and Labor movement delegates has increased greatly. August 11 – Following the Congress, the Constituent Assembly of the expanded Jewish Agency convenes in Zurich, an institute which includes the WZO and non-Zionist circles, especially in the United States. Among the participants at the founding conference – Prof. Albert Einstein, Lord Alfred Melchett from England and the well-known French Jewish leader Leon Blum (later to become the first Jewish prime minister of France). August 23-29 – The 1929 (5689) riots in Palestine. Violent Arab attacks take place throughout Palestine, leaving 133 Jews dead and hundreds wounded. Settlements are abandoned. The Jewish Yishuv and the Jewish world are deeply shocked. September 24 – Due to the state of emergency, additional important personalities join the National Council, headed by Pinhas Rutenberg, director of the Palestine Electric Company, in order to strengthen it. Soon after, Rutenberg is appointed president of the National Council – a position that did not previously exist. He holds this position for a short period of time. October 24 – The Shaw Commission, a bush commission of inquiry, is sent to Palestine to investigate the reasons for the bloody riots in August. 1930 – January 6 – The Po’alei Eretz Israel (Mapai) party is established in Tel Aviv, the union of two workers parties – Ahdut Avoda and HaPo’el HaTzair. It will lead the Yishuv and the State for close to 50 years. March 31, 1929 – The British reduce the aliyah quota and send a senior government official, John Hope-Simpson, to Palestine in order to investigate “all sides” of the Palestinian problem. August 22, 1929 – Hope-Simpson publishes his conclusions. He proposes halting Jewish aliyah and the establishment of any additional Jewish settlements. There is disappointment in the Jewish-Zionist camp at the British change of heart regarding its commitments in the Balfour Declaration. September – Plowing and tilling work begins in Wadi Hawarith, later Emek Hefer (Hefer Valley). October 20 – The British government publishes the White Paper of the British colonial secretary, Lord Passfield, which adopts the anti-Zionist attitude of Hope-Simpson. WZO president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who represents the consistent pro-British line, resigns in protest. 1931 – January 5 – Elections take place to the third Elected Assembly. Mapai gets over 40%. The Revisionists get 20%. February 13 – The British try to “soften” the blow of Passfield’s White Paper. Prime Minister J. Ramsay MacDonald sends a letter to the WZO in which he reiterates the British commitment, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration. Weizmann rescinds his resignation. April – A group of Hagana members reject the concept of restraint and break away from the Hagana in Jerusalem. They form their own armed resistance movement which at first is called Hagana Bet and later Irgun Tzva’i Le’umi (National Military Organization) or Etzel. June 30-July 17 – The Seventeenth Zionist Congress convenes in Basle and serious clashes between the Revisionist movement heads and most of the Congress take place regarding the “ultimate goal” of Zionism. The Revisionists demand an immediate decision – that the “ultimate goal” of the Zionists be declared the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Israel. When their demand is rejected they leave the Congress in protest. Dr. Chaim Weizmann is not elected president of the WZO – the price for his support of the British; Nahum Sokolow is elected in his stead. A new Executive is established, with Labor movement members participating, for the first time, in senior positions. Dr. Hayim Arlosoroff, aged 32, is elected head of the Political Department. November 18 – The mandatory government holds a second census in Eretz Israel. It establishes that there are 175,000 Jews, 851,000 Arabs and 10,000 others in Palestine. The Jews comprise 17% of the population. During 1931, and after prolonged discussions, a national headquarters is established for the first time, supported by the national Institutions – the Jewish Agency and the National Council. (For the first ten years of its existence, the organization is sponsored by the General Federation of Labor). 1932 – March 28 – The first Maccabiah opens in Tel Aviv – an international Jewish Olympics in which Jewish sportsmen from 21 countries participate. April 7 – The first Levant Fair opens in Tel Aviv – an international fair with the participation of representatives from 24 countries. It is highly successful from an organizational and economic standpoint. Due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and fears for the fate of the Jews, Recha Freier, a former teacher and researcher in Berlin, proposes sending Jewish youth to Eretz Israel ahead of their parents. Youth Aliyah is born. A large settlement drive in Eretz Israel results in 15 new Jewish settlements in just one year – a 14% increase. 1933 – With the rise of the Nazis in Germany, Jewish aliyah to Eretz Israel intensifies. This is promptly named the Fifth Aliyah. Even though the majority of immigrants are from Eastern Europe, it is referred to as the immigrant wave from Germany and central Europe (although they only comprise one-quarter of the immigrants). For that reason the Fifth Aliyah is also referred to as the German Aliyah. Within six-and-a-half years, close to a quarter of a million Jews make aliyah. January 30 – Adolph Hitler comes to power in Germany and implements blatant anti-Jewish policies. March-June – There are stormy elections to the Eighteenth Zionist Congress, which is to convene in Prague in the summer. Clashes between Revisionist movement supporters and Labor movement supporters in Eretz Israel, Poland and other countries worsen. June 16 – Dr. Hayim Arlosoroff, head of the Political Department of the Zionist Executive and of the Jewish Agency Executive, is shot and killed on a Tel Aviv beach. The Yishuv and the Zionist movement are in shock. August 21-September 4 – The Eighteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Prague in the shadow of Hitler’s rise to power. The labor movement, which wins the election by a near decisive majority, forms the coalition in the Zionist Executive. Dr. Arthur Ruppin is elected chairman and Moshe (Shertok) Sharett becomes head of the Political Department. Secretary of the Histadrut (the General Federation of Labor), David Ben-Gurion, is elected a member of the Executive, and Nahum Sokolow is elected for a second term as president of the WZO. In 1933 aliyah reaches a peak: the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, 37,000, is more than in the entire four-year period of the Third Aliyah; 21 new settlements are set up. In this year, Youth Aliyah is formally established. At its head is Henrietta Szold, one of the leaders of American Zionism, who made aliyah in 1920. In the same year, the transfer agreement with the German government is implemented, enabling German Jews making aliyah, to transfer their money to Palestine. In 1933, the moshavim movement is established. This unifies the moshavei haovdim (workers moshavim) and the bodies that will establish new moshavim. 1934 – Throughout most of the year there is tension in the Yishuv (due to the murder of Arlosoroff and the trial of those accused of his murder) between the labor movement and the Revisionist movement. A number of violent incidents break out between the two sides. February 19 – The first youth group arrives in Palestine in the framework of Youth Aliyah. The youngsters are sent for training to Kibbutz Ein Harod. March 25-April 5 – The Zionist Actions Committee convenes in Jerusalem for the first time in its history. Until now it has only convened abroad. April 9 – The national Labor Federation (Histadrut haOvdim haLeumit) is founded, which is associated with the Revisionists. July 31 – The first “illegal” immigrant ship – Velos – reaches the shores of Palestine, an operation organized by kibbutz members and the Hagana. August 25 – Union, the second “illegal” immigrant ship – organized by the Revisionist movement – arrives in Palestine. October 26 – David Ben-Gurion and Ze’ev Jabotinsky sign an agreement in London to settle all arguments between the Labor movement and the Revisionist movement. This causes surprise in the Zionist Yishuv. In the winter of 1935, the agreement is rejected by the referendum that is carried out by the Labor Federation (Histadrut haOvdim). Jewish aliyah reaches a new record – 45,000 in one year. Tel Aviv is growing fast and with 100,000 inhabitants is on its way to becoming the biggest city in Palestine. 1935 – As the treatment of Germany’s Jews deteriorates, thousands of academics, musicians, etc., mostly from the middle classes, leave the country. By the end of the year, 65,000 will have made aliyah – the largest number of immigrants to arrive in one year until the founding of the State of Israel. A period of economic prosperity in Palestine in contrast to the situation in most countries of the world. January 11 – HaKibbutz haDati (Religioius Kibbutz) is founded, a federation of religious Zionist kibbutzim affiliated with Mizrachi. Its first settlement – Tirat Tzvi – is established in 1937. August 10-September 3 – The Nineteenth Zionist Congress convenes in Lucerne, Switzerland. Weizmann is reelected president of the WZO. A coalition consisting of Mapai, Mizrachi and part of the General Zionists is established. The chairman of the Zionist Executive and Jewish Agency is David Ben-Gurion. The Congress discusses, among other things, the problem of the Jews of Germany and the absorption of those who have made aliyah to Eretz Israel. September 12 – In Vienna the New Zionist Organization (NZO) is established, headed by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. The founders are members of the Revisionist movement who seceded from the WZO. This results in a deep rift between Jabotinsky and Weizmann and the leaders of the Labor movement – who head the Zionist movement. The Jews in Eretz Israel number some 400,000. This constitutes 30% of the inhabitants of Palestine – more than double the number only four years earlier. 1936 – In the first few months of the year there is continued evidence of prosperity, although not to the same degree as in 1935. March 30, 1935 – The British mandatory government opens a radio station which broadcasts in English, Arabic and Hebrew. The Hebrew broadcasts are called “The Voice of Jerusalem.” The station is picked up all over Palestine and in other parts of the Middle East and Europe. There is great rejoicing in the fact that Hebrew is being given an important and regular radiophonic stage. April 19 – Nine Jews are killed in an attack by Arabs from Jaffa. This constitutes the beginning of the bloody riots that come to be called the 1936-39 riots or the Arab Rebellion, during which some 400 Jews are killed and thousands injured. April 20 – The Arabs declare an open-ended general strike and demand that the mandatory government put an immediate stop to Jewish aliyah and the sale of land to Jews, and transfer power to the Arab majority in Palestine. The bloody riots spread to every part of Palestine and the British have little success in preventing them. April 30 – Despite the riots, the Levant Fair opens in Tel Aviv with the participation of 16 countries. May 19 – The British approve the opening of Tel Aviv port following the strike of Arab workers at Jaffa port. May – The “Group of Five” – five important Jews, holding no political position, try, unsuccessfully, to bridge the gap between the Jews and the Arabs. They are Pinhas Rutenberg, Moshe Smilansky, Judah Leib Magnes, Moshe Novomeysky and Gad Frumkin. Hundreds of Yishuv members are recruited to the Jewish Supernumerary Police – The Noterim (Guardsmen) – for defense duties during the Arab riots. It is under British command but is in fact an arm of the Hagana. June – Arab acts of terror continue. The Hagana, that until now had been satisfied with a policy of passive defense in protecting the settlements, begins a policy of “activity outside the fence.” The first mobile unit is established in the Jerusalem hills (HaNodedet). October 12 – The Arab general strike and acts of terror come to an end. A period of relative calm prevails for almost a year. November 11, 1936 – The Peel Commission, a British royal commission of inquiry headed by Lord Peel, arrives in Palestine to investigate the reasons for the outbreak of the bloody riots. It holds a series of meetings with Jewish leaders, Arabs and the British government. December 10 – Kibbutz Tel Amal is founded, the first settlement to be set up according to the new “stockade and tower” method – fortified settlements that are established in a single day. By the end of 1939, some 50 new settlements are set up using this method. December 26 – Despite the rioting and tense security situation, the first concert of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (today the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) is held in Tel Aviv – the first cultural event of its kind. The conductor: Arturo Toscanini. 1937 – January 18 – The Peel Commission ends its discussions in Palestine and returns to England to complete its task. April 13 – “Illegal” immigration to Palestine (in Hebrew Aliyah Bet), is resumed with Revisionist support and is known as the ‘Af Al Pi’ (Despite) aliyah. April 26 – Half of the members of Irgun Bet (Hagana Bet), commanded by Abraham Tehomi, return to the Hagana. Those remaining establish the Irgun Tzva’i Le’umi (acronym Etzel), headed by David Raziel. It opposes the Yishuv leaders who believe that a policy of restraint towards the Arabs needs to be adopted. July 7 – The Peel Commission issues its report. It proposes dividing Palestine into a small Jewish state (comprising Galilee, the Jezreel Valley and part of the coastal plain, as far as Be’er Toviya), and Arab state (including most of the rest of Palestine) and a British-controlled corridor leading from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The Jews are split over the issue of partition; the Arabs reject the plan. August 3-16 – The Twentieth Zionist Congress convenes in Zurich, Switzerland. Stormy discussions ensue on the proposal of the Peel Commission to establish a small Jewish state in Palestine. At the end a decision is made not to decide but to ask the British government the conditions of the proposal. September 26 – Arab assassins kill Louis Andrews, the British governor of the Galilee region. This is a new phase in the Arab Rebellion, which continues until the spring of 1939. The British now act with an iron fist against the Arabs. An economic crisis erupts in Palestine as a result of the bloody riots and the separation of the Jewish economy and the Arab economy. Throughout the year, 16 new settlements, mostly “stockade and tower,” are set up. December 27 – The Hagana leadership decides to establish field units – for the first time a national rather than local defense unit. 1938 – January 4 – The British government establishes the Woodhead Commission to explore ways to apply the recommendations of the Peel Commission. March 21 – Hanita is established in western Upper Galilee, on the Lebanese border, as a “stockade and tower” settlement – the epitome of defense settlement. May-July – A security fence is built from Lake Kinneret to Rosh haNikra to deter Arab infiltrators. It is built by 1,000 Jewish laborers under the protection of 300 Noterim (Guardsmen). June – The Scottish officer Orde Charles Wingate is authorized by the British to organize Special Night Squads for fighting Arab terror in the north. Its members are from the Hagana and from the British army. June 29 (30 Sivan 5698) – The British execute Etzel member Shlomo Ben-Yosef, who becomes the first Jewish gallows’ martyr. July 27 – The Redemption Fund (Kofer haYishuv) is founded – a voluntary fund-raising agency for financing the defense of the Jewish community in Palestine. November 9 – Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in Germany. Hundreds of synagogues are destroyed, and thousands of Jews are arrested and businesses damaged. Jewish emigration from Germany intensifies and some make aliyah to Eretz Israel. On the same day, the Woodhead Commission publishes its report: it supports the Peel proposal regarding partition, but suggests establishing a small Jewish state on the coastal plain. In 1930, 250 Jews are killed in Arab terror attacks. Etzel asserts that only active retaliation will deter the Arabs. This is in contradiction to the instructions of the Yishuv leadership that favors targeted retaliatory attacks against Arab terrorists. “Illegal” immigration to Palestine, organized by the Revisionist movement, the Hagana and private initiatives, gains momentum. 1939 – February 7-March 17 – The St. James Conference (Round Table Conference of 1939) convenes in London – a British effort to bring about a solution to the dispute between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. The Arabs refuse to sit with the Jews at the negotiating table and after some six weeks the convention ends without the sides reaching an agreement. April – HaMosad leAliyah Bet (a center for “illegal” immigration) is founded, an arm of the Hagana, with the backing of the National Institutions. May 17 – The British government publishes the White Paper of 1939 on the Palestine problem. The paper is extremely hostile to Zionist policy and renounces the Balfour Declaration. May 18 – The entire Jewish Yishuv protests against the British government and the White Paper and hundreds of thousands participate in angry demonstrations. May 23 – An unprecedented settlement campaign – part of the Yishuv’s struggle against the White Paper’s policy – results in the establishment of seven new settlements, five of which are “stockade and tower.” The Hagana and Etzel begin to operate against the British and in the coming months hit government installations. This is the beginning of the anti-British armed struggle. August 16-25 – The Twenty-first Zionist Congress convenes in Geneva, Switzerland. Deliberations are overshadowed by the situation of the Jews in Europe, the fear of a second World War, and the deteriorating relations with the British in Palestine. The Congress discusses ways of fighting the White Paper. Participants barely have time to get back to their home countries before World War II breaks out. September 1 – World War II breaks out. The Zionist leaders and the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel inform the British that the Yishuv is at the disposal of the war effort in the joint struggle against the Nazi adversary. September 12 – The first volunteers from the Yishuv are conscripted into the British army. David Ben-Gurion defines the short-term aim of the Yishuv and Zionism: “We shall fight the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and the White Paper as if there were no war.” Throughout the Yishuv in Palestine a “national census of volunteers in the service of the homeland” takes place. More than 135,000 men and women are counted who are ready to join the British army and serve the Yishuv. The Hagana puts all its forces at the disposal of the struggle against the Nazis. Etzel also announces that it is ending its struggle against the British and joining the war against the Germans. October 17 – Pinhas Rutenberg, head of the Palestine Electric Company, is made a member of the National Council due to the state of emergency, and is elected president. December – The British announce the recruitment of volunteers to a pioneer corps. There is opposition in the Yishuv and a demand for recruitment to fighting units and not to auxiliary and service units. December 11 – Weizmann meets in London with Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill declares that after the war Britain must aid in the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine consisting of three to four million people. At the end of 1939, with a decline in the bloody riots initiated by the Arabs, the “stockade and tower” project comes to an end. Throughout the year, 17 settlements have been established by this method. Information on the killing of Jews, expulsions and harsh edicts in Nazi-occupied Europe filters through. Enormous progress for the WZO in the United States: within seven years the number of members grows from 8,000 to 43,000. By the end of the war, the number rises to 200,000. At the end of 1939, the Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs is established in neutral American in order to handle vital Zionist-related issues during the war. 1940 – During the first few months of the year, clandestine immigration continues, and thousands of Jews escaping from Nazi-occupied Europe look for ways to enter Palestine. The British do everything they can to put an end to this “illegal” aliyah and are unwilling to consider the danger to the lives of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. February 28, 1940 – British mandate land regulations come into effect as part of the policy of the White Paper, and Jewish land acquisition in Palestine is limited to a small part of the country. There is fury in the Yishuv, which finds expression in protest demonstrations. Spring-Summer – With the fall of France to the Nazis and the joining of Italy with the Germans, the British army’s situation in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East deteriorates. Syria and Lebanon are in the hands of the Vichy (the pro-Nazi authority in France) and Italian planes are positioned in Rhodes. June 26 – A split in Etzel leads to the departure of some members who object to helping the British, even in time of war. Those that leave establish a new underground organization, later to be called Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel). It is led by Avraham Stern (Yair). July 15 – Italian planes bomb Haifa. Nine days later, an additional bombing leaves 50 dead. September 9 – Italian planes bomb Tel Aviv, resulting in more than 100 dead, many wounded and extensive damage to property. The Italians also prove a threat in the south as the Italian army is invading Egypt via Libya. September 14 – The British change their policy towards conscripting members of the Yishuv and are ready to recruit them to Jewish infantry companies. At the same time, they recruit Arabs to Arab infantry companies. The British permit the Jewish Agency to open recruitment offices in addition to the government recruitment offices. November 25 – A terrible disaster in Haifa port. The Hagana sinks the Patria, a French ship carrying 1,700 “illegal” Jewish immigrants who the British are preparing to deport to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The amount of explosives needed to damage the ship enough to prevent her from sailing is miscalculated and the ship sinks; more than 200 refugees lose their lives. Information continues to arrive from Europe regarding German treatment of the millions of Jews in the countries under their control. As the year progresses, the economic situation in Palestine worsens – due to the war, imports and exports cease and unemployment rises. Keren Hayesod conduct a large-scale emergency campaign in response to the Arab revolt of the late 1930s. Tammuz 29, 5700 (1940) Death of Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
February – An increase in the conscription of Jewish Yishuv members to the British army. Leaders of the Yishuv and the WZO demand repeatedly that the British establish a large Jewish fighting force, or division. The British do not respond. March – Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the WZO and a well-known chemist, arrives in the United States in order to recruit American scientists for the British war effort against the Germans. April – The German army attacks the British in Libya. This constitutes a danger to Egypt and raises fears of a German invasion of Palestine. At the end of May, the German forces, under the command of General Rommel, reach the Egyptian border. The British army retreats. April 6-27 – A great German attack on the Balkans. Yugoslavia and Greece succumb to the Germans. Among the thousands of British soldiers taken captive in Greece are 1,500 Jewish soldiers from Eretz Israel. May 15 – Increased fears of a German invasion of Palestine. In order to strengthen the Yishuv, a special commando unit of the Hagana is established – the Palmach (short for Plugot Mahatz). May 18 – The Ari HaYam, with 23 Hagana and Palmach fighters and a British officer on board, sets sail for Lebanon (where the French pro-Nazis are in power) on a sabotage mission. The ship disappears and the mystery is never solved. June 8 – The British army invades Syria and Lebanon, from Palestine, and conquers them from pro-Nazi Vichy France. The danger to Palestine from the north has passed. The first Palmach fighters help the British with the invasion. Among them are Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin. June 10-12 – The Italians return and bomb Haifa and Tel Aviv. June 22 – Nazi Germany attacks the USSR with great force, and in a number of weeks conquers vast areas. There is tremendous fear in Palestine for the fate of the millions of Jews in Europe. Horrific news arrives daily regarding the slaughter of Jews in Romania, Lithuania, Poland and the USSR that have fallen into German hands. November 9 – Weizmann reiterates his demand that the British approve the establishment of a large Jewish division to fight the Germans. The British government, once again, does not respond. November 22 – David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, arrives in the United States for an extended visit in order to advance the Zionist cause during and after the war. He remains there until September 18, 1942. December – German pressure on Egypt decreases following the British counter-attack. The economic crisis in Palestine continues. A low point for Jewish aliyah to Eretz Israel. Only 4,500 Jews arrive in Palestine during the year, including “illegal” immigrants – the smallest number in ten years. News regarding killings, expulsions and forced labor of Jews in occupied Europe continues to reach Palestine. Unconfirmed reports claim that death camps are being set up. 1942 – January 20 – In Wannsee near Berlin the senior Nazi leaders convene and agree on the “final solution” – the destruction of all European Jewry. Reinhart Heidrich and Adolph Eichmann are to head the action. In the January 1942 edition of the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs, Dr. Chaim Weizmann publishes an article called “The Role of Palestine in the Solution of the Jewish Problem.” In it he writes: “One must clearly say to the Arabs that the Jews will be encouraged to settle in Eretz Israel…[and they] can achieve freedom and self-rule by establishing their own state…” February – The recruiting of Yishuv members to the British army increases. For the first time women are also recruited – to the ATS, an auxiliary corps for women. By the end of the war, the number of recruits reaches 30,000, among them 4,000 women. February 24 – The Struma, an “illegal” immigrant ship that left Romania for Eretz Israel with 770 passengers on board, is sunk in the Black Seat, not far from Istanbul. Only one passenger survives. May 9 – The Extraordinary Conference of American Zionists, initiated by David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, convenes in New York and approves the Biltmore Program (named after the hotel in which the Conference is held). The central issue is the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel after the war. June-July – Rommel’s army once again advances to the Egyptian border, crossing it eastwards. It arrives in El Alamein, 100 kilometers from Alexandria. There is increasing fear that the British will evacuate Palestine and that Germany will invade. In the Jewish Yishuv a state of emergency is declared and plans are made to fortify the Carmel in case of a German invasion. The advance of the Germans in Russia toward the Caucasus also raises fears of a German invasion of the Middle East from the north. June 22 – Due to the deteriorating situation, the Yishuv’s institutions implement a general call-up of all childless single and married people up to the age of 45. By the middle of 1942, some 20,000 men and women from the Jewish Yishuv join the British army. The number of volunteers in the Arab community of Palestine is far less. Palmach units are sent to southern Palestine, and to its shores, in order to aid in thwarting an invasion of landing of Germans from the sea. Due to the tense situation, conscription to the British army increases. October 15 – The Inner Actions Committee convenes in Jerusalem and adopts the Biltmore Program by a large majority. From this point on the program becomes the formal political program of the WZO. October 23 – The British army, under General Montgomery, attacks the Egyptian-Libyan front, repels Rommel’s army and goes in pursuit of him. The German threat to Egypt and Palestine is over. There is great relief in the Jewish Yishuv. At the same time, there is also a dramatic change on the Russian front – a Russian victory on the Stalingrad front. This proves a turning point and constitutes the beginning of the fall of Nazi Germany. November 23 – In Eretz Israel the first reliable news regarding the horrifying extent of the Jewish Holocaust in Europe is published. Institutions of the Yishuv declare three days of mourning. The economic crisis comes to an end due to the great demand for manpower and goods by the great British army. Throughout Palestine dozens of army camps and airports are set up. The institutions of the Yishuv declare a 30-day mourning period in light of the Jewish Holocaust in Europe. December 17 – Following the sinking of the Struma and concern for the lives of the “illegal” immigrants arriving in Palestine by sea, clandestine immigration from Europe is stopped. HaMosad leAliyah Bet turns its efforts to bringing the “illegal” immigrants to Palestine by land from countries of the Middle East. Aliyah continues but is at a low point; only 4,200 Jews arrive in Palestine. 1943 – In the Yishuv and throughout the free world, conferences, assemblies and demonstrations are held denouncing the Nazi slaughter in occupied Europe and the lack of intervention on the part of the Allies. April 19 – A Jewish rebellion breaks out in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Germans. May-August – A breakthrough in Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel: in the Negev three agricultural hilltop settlements (mitzpim) are established for exploring future settlement prospects in desert areas: Gvulot, Revivim and Bet-Eshel. May 22 – The first paratrooper, among the dozens trained from the Jewish Yishuv to operate behind German lines, is parachuted into Yugoslavia. Eleven more are to follow. July, 1943 – The British government establishes a Cabinet sub-committee to discuss the future of Palestine. Some months later the committee presents a proposal – to divide Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs. Throughout the year, the activities of Jewish soldiers from Palestine in the British army increase and they demand a blue and white flag, an insignia, and freedom to use the Hebrew language. This indicates their uniqueness as a national Jewish army. The British reject these demands. From their point of view the Jews are “Palestinian” soldiers. The struggle reaches its peak in October when the soldiers of the second battalion of the Buffs regiment in Libya wave their national flag without permission. Yishuv leaders and the WZO continue to demand from the British that they concentrate the Jewish recruits from Palestine in their own division. The British refuse again and again. Economic prosperity in Palestine continues due to the large amount of work needed for the war effort. The unemployment that marked the first years of the war is disappearing. 1944 – February 1 – Etzel, which until now has not acted against eh British because of the war, changes its policy with the arrival of a new commander – Menahem Begin – and declares a rebellion. It instigates a series of attacks on British buildings. March – Clandestine maritime immigration resumes. Ships sail from Romania to Turkey, and from there refugees are sent by train to Palestine. March 15 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares that America never agreed to the policy of the White Paper. April – A new wave of conscripts. According to a national leadership order, every high school graduate must enlist in the British army, the Palmach or the Noterim. June 5 – Throughout the Yishuv a “Day of Outcry” is held – a call to the world to rescue the remaining refugees in Europe. Businesses and places of entertainment close. August 1 – Election to the fourth Elected Assembly are held after a break of more than 13 years. Mapai holds onto first place, although its power is reduced due to a split in its ranks. The workers’ parties enjoy a 60% majority. September 20 – The struggle for establishing a Jewish fighting force in the framework of the British army continues and is finally successful: the British government announces the establishment of a Jewish Brigade Group, an enhanced brigade of 5,000 fighters with a flag and special insignia. Its Hebrew name: Hativa Yehudit Lohemet. October – Relations between the Hagana and Etzel are coming to a head. Hagana and Yishuv leaders demand that Etzel (and Lehi) cease operations against the British until the end of the war. Menahem Begin, the Etzel commander, rejects the demand. October 24 – The Cameri Theater is founded in Tel Aviv. November 4 – Weizmann meets with the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, who announces his support for the establishment of a Jewish state in a part of Palestine, including the Negev. November – Following the murder of Lord Moyne, a senior British statesmen in Cairo on November 6th by two young Lehi members, the “season” takes place – a forced break in Etzel activity by Hagana members and the handing over of some of them to the British. Lehi ceases operations. The Etzel commander instructs his men not to respond with force in order to prevent a civil war. Towards the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, the Jewish Brigade, which is concentrated in Italy, trains in preparation for the upcoming battles against the German army. 1945 – February 27 – The Jewish Brigade is deployed on the front line in northern Italy. In the months that follow it participates in active combat. May 7 – Ben-Gurion meets in London with the British colonial secretary, Oliver Stanley. From his words, it first appears that Britain is planning to leave Palestine. May 8 – The war in Europe ends and Germany surrenders to the Allies. The fighting in the Far East, against Japan, continues. With the end of the war, the terrible extent of the Holocaust becomes apparent: the Jewish nation has lost six million of its people in the war. The Jewish soldiers serving in the British army in Italy and other countries, dedicate a large part of their free time to taking care of Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees. May 22 – The British labor party, a part of the national coalition headed by Winston Churchill, adopts a pro-Zionist resolution at its annual conference and calls for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. May – Etzel and Lehi renew their acts of sabotage against the British. July 26 – The British Labor party wins a decisive victory in the general election. There is hope in the Jewish Yishuv and the Zionist movement that the new government in Britain will fulfill the previous promises of the Labor party, abolish the policy of the White Paper and aid in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. August 1 – A large Zionist Conference, the first after the war, convenes in London and outlines WZO policy for the coming period. Among its participants: movement leaders, soldiers who fought the Nazis and Jewish partisan fighters. August – The first signs of a chilly attitude by the new British government with regard to Zionist aspirations. This goes against the previous position of the Labor party heads – now important figures in the government. August 28, 1945– The British permit the Jewish refugees who they had previously deported to Mauritius to return to Eretz Israel (see December 1940). Clandestine maritime immigration resumes. A small ship called Dalin breaks through the marine blockade and lands its 35 passengers on the beach at Caesarea. By the end of 1945, seven additional small “illegal” immigrant ships reach the shores of Palestine without being detected by the British. October – The Hebrew Resistance Movement (Tnuat haMeri halvrit) is established, uniting the Hagana, Etzel and Lehi in the armed struggle against the British. October 9-10 – The first serious exploit of the Hebrew Resistance Movement takes place when a Palmach force breaks into the British detention camp at Atlit and releases more than 200 “illegal” immigrants detained by the British prior to their expulsion from Palestine. November 1 – Dozens of Palmach forces blow up trains belonging to the British mandatory government in more than 150 locations throughout Palestine. Other forces attack and destroy three British Coast Guard vessels engaged in the detection of immigrant ships. Etzel and Lehi attack the central train station in Lydda. November 13, 1945 – Ernest Bevin, the British foreign minister, comes out with a sharp statement against the Jews and the Zionist movement. He announces a reduction in Jewish aliyah and the establishment of an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in order to find a solution to the problem of Palestine. November 14, 1945– Angry demonstrations are held in Tel Aviv to protest Bevin’s announcement. The police open fire on demonstrators, killing six and wounding dozens of others. In the coming weeks, the anti-British struggle of the Hebrew Resistance Movement intensifies. The Hagana, as well as Etzel and Lehi, make repeated attacks on British installations. The British implement a curfew and begin searching for the perpetrators. In a series of especially grave incidents on November 26, near the settlement of Givat Hayim, Shefayim and Tishpon, the British shoot and kill nine Jews. 1946 – Throughout the first months of the year the mutinous activities of the Jewish Yishuv continue. In addition to the underground organizations’ attacks on police stations, railway lines and military airports, “illegal” immigrant ships continue to arrive in Palestine, and demonstrations are held in the big cities against British policy. March 6 – An Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry arrives in Palestine, consisting of six British and six American members. During the Committee’s stay in Palestine, the Hebrew Resistance Movement announces that it will cease all military activity. March 14 – The beginning of the Birya affair. The British discover a Palmach arms cache in Birya, north of Safed. They arrest those involved and take over the settlement. Thousands of Hagana members and youth establish Birya “B”. Upon leaving, the British destroy the new settlement but it is re-established. The British give in and leave. March 27 – “Wingate Night” in Tel Aviv. A head-on clash between the British and thousands of Jewish demonstrators, who are about to welcome the “illegal” immigrant ship Wingate on a Tel Aviv beach. April – The activities of the Hebrew Resistance Movement continue, and there is an upsurge in clandestine immigration. The British arrest more than 1,000 “illegal” immigrants in the port of La Spezia in Italy, before they set sail for Palestine. The “illegal” immigrants declare a hunger strike, and the Yishuv leaders join them. The affair has a serious impact around the world and the British decide to provide the olim with government permits (known as “certificates”) to sail to Palestine. April 30 – The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry publishes it conclusions: it recommends awarding 100,000 aliyah certificates to survivors of the Holocaust, and partially canceling the regulations of the White Paper. June – An especially stormy month. Activities of the Hebrew Resistance Movement are fully resumed. The climax is reached when ten bridges connecting Palestine with neighboring countries are blown up during the night of June 16-17 in an extensive Palmach operation. Etzel and Lehi also step up their activities. June 29 – “Black Sabbath.” The British send thousands of soldiers and policemen to carry out a nationwide raid against the Jewish Yishuv. Part of the Yishuv leadership is arrested, curfews are implemented in dozens of settlements, and the British go in search of Hagana arms. Weapons are discovered in one settlement only – that of Kibbutz Yagur. The British detain 2,700 members of the Yishuv. There is great anger against the British in the Jewish Yishuv, in the Zionist movement and throughout the world. July 22 – Etzel blows up the south wing of the Kind David hotel in Jerusalem, the main headquarters of the British mandatory government and British military command. Almost 100 people are killed and many are wounded – British, Jews and Arabs. The Jewish Yishuv is in shock and accusations are exchanged between Etzel and the Hagana regarding responsibility for the operation. The explosion causes the disbanding of the Hebrew Resistance Movement. July 30, 1946 – In London the British and American Morrison-Grady Plan for Palestine is published. Jews and Arabs are to receive partial autonomy – the Jews are allocated 16% of the land and the Arabs 40%; the rest is to remain in British hands. Both Jews and Arabs reject the plan. July 30, 1946-August 2 – The “great curfew” in Tel Aviv. For four days the British undertake house-to-house searches in order to find “Jewish terrorists.” August 5, 1946 – An emergency session of the Jewish Agency Executive is held in Paris. Some members of the Executive are unable to attend as they are being held by the British. Among the resolutions: a suspension of the armed struggle in Eretz Israel until the next Zionist Congress and concentration on clandestine immigration and settlement. There is a secret agreement for a plan to establish a Jewish state in part of Palestine, on condition that it is “viable.” August 13, 1946 – In response to increased clandestine immigration, the British begin to send immigrants that are caught to detention camps in Cyprus. They continue to do so until the end of the mandate. In the next few months, the Etzel and Lehi organizations increase their sabotage activities. The Hagana concentrate on putting the British deportation ships out of action, on supporting clandestine immigration, and on expanding settlement security. October 4, 1946 – US President, Harry S. Truman, issues a statement on the occasion of Yom Kippur expressing the support of his country in allowing 100,000 Jewish refugees to make aliyah to Palestine, and for the establishment of a Jewish state. The British government is enraged. October 5-6 – At the end of Yom Kippur, 11 new Jewish settlements are set up – the biggest settlement operation undertaken in one day. November 5 – The British release the detained “Black Sabbath” leaders as well as all other remaining detainees (2,700 were originally arrested). December 9-24 – The Twenty Second Zionist Congress convenes in Basle after a hiatus of more than seven years. It concentrates on the struggle for independence in Palestine. A discussion is held regarding clandestine aliyah. Weizmann, a moderate, is not elected as president of the WZO; Ben-Gurion’s activist line is adopted. The Congress bestows upon him an additional position – head of the security portfolio. In 1946, the settlers’ institutes, headed by the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod, establish 25 new settlements; the largest number established in one year up until the founding of the State. Twenty-two “illegal” immigrant ships reach the shores of Palestine; most are caught by the British. 1947 – January 1 – The laying of the Negev water line. During the next months, an additional 220 kilometers of pipeline are added, as well as seven new Jewish settlements in the northern Negev – an important advancement in light of the upcoming struggle for the Negev. February 18 – The British government announces its decision to transfer the Palestine problem to the United Nations. Ben-Gurion returns to Palestine after a long absence (partially because of his fear of being arrested by the British). He opens his own personal “seminar” in which he studies Yishuv security matters, until June 1947. March – A stormy month: Etzel and Lehi strike at British targets. The Hagana continues to organize “illegal” immigrant ships. The British announce martial law in Tel Aviv and in the Jewish parts of Jerusalem, which continues for a period of two weeks. April – The clashes with the British continue. April 16 – The British hand four captured Etzel fighters. On April21, an Etzel and a Lehi member, who are sentenced to death, commit suicide in a Jerusalem prison. April 28 – A special session of the UN is held in New York to discuss the problem of Palestine. The general assumption is that the UN will ask the British to continue their rule in Palestine. May 4 – The largest ever Etzel operation – its members break into Acco (Acre) prison and release dozens of Etzel fighters. May 14, 1947 – The UN Assembly decides to send a commission of inquiry to Palestine consisting of representatives of 11 UN member-countries, not including the super powers. The USSR representative, Andrei Gromyko, gives a surprisingly sympathetic speech in favor of Zionist aspirations. June, 1947 – The members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) tour Palestine and study the problem, speaking to Jews, Arabs and British. The Arabs usually shun the Committee, the Jews cooperate with it and the British are indifferent. During the Committee’s tour of the south and the Negev, its members are impressed by the Jewish-Zionist endeavor, especially in the field of agriculture and the development of water resources. July – The Yishuv struggles against the British with all its might. Not a day goes by without an action. July 18, 1947 – The “illegal” immigrant ship Exodus 1947 (Yitziat Europa 5707), reaches the shores of Israel with 4,500 souls on board. After a fierce struggle, during which unarmed immigrants use weapons such as tin cans and sticks to prevent the British from boarding, the ship is towed to Haifa port and the refugees sent back to Europe. This results in demonstrations and protests all over the Jewish world. The refugees refuse to disembark in France and demand to return to Palestine. July 29 – The tense situation deteriorates: the British hang three captured Etzel members and in response, Etzel members hang two captive British sergeants. Enraged British soldiers shoot indiscriminately in the streets of Tel Aviv, killing five and wounding dozens. August – One of the most violent months in the history of the struggle in Eretz Israel: installations, military camps and trains are blown up and ships intended for deporting refugees are sabotaged. The struggle of the Exodus refugees continues, and anti-British demonstrations are held all over the world. The UNSCOP Committee meets in Switzerland after visiting the Jewish displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria, to review their conclusions. August 26 – The WZO Actions Committee convenes in Zurich, Switzerland to discuss the possibility of established a Jewish state in the near future. September 1, 1947 – The UNSCOP Committee publishes its conclusions: it recommends the ending of the British mandate and the establishment of two states in Palestine – Jewish and Arab. During the following month, the British declare their willingness to leave Palestine. September 8 – The end of the Exodus affair: the British forcefully remove the refugees from the ship at the port of Hamburg, Germany. The UN Assembly convenes for its annual meeting. On the agenda – the question of Palestine and the recommendations of the UNSCOP Committee. In the next two months there is a tremendous Jewish and Zionist effort to have the Palestine partition plan approved, which will mean the establishment of a Jewish state. November 15 – the Arabs threaten war if there is a UN resolution to establish a Jewish state. The Yishuv and the Zionist movement prepare for such a scenario by establishing a kind of national recruitment office. November 29 – The UN Assembly approves the recommendations of the UNSCOP Committee by a majority of more than two-thirds (33 for, 13 against and 10 abstentions) – and end to the British mandate in Palestine, and the establishment of two states (Jewish and Arab) as well as an international zone in Jerusalem. The Jews in Eretz Israel and around the world rejoice; the Arabs threaten war. December – Bloody riots throughout the country, initiated by Arabs, soon turn into war. By the end of the month, hundreds of Jews have been killed. The Hagana prepares a counter-attack and establishes its first divisions. Clandestine immigration and settlement activity continue throughout 1947. Thirteen new settlements are set up and 20 “illegal” immigrant ships reach the shores of Palestine. After the UN vote on the partition of Palestine, Keren Hayesod organizes an emergency campaign to fund recruitment costs, in light of the Arab nations’ threats to destroy the nascent state. 1948 – January 1 – The two largest “illegal” immigrant ships, Pan York (Atzmaut) and Pan Crescent (Kibbutz Galuyot), each carrying 7,500 Jews, are captured by the British and their passengers transferred to Cyprus. The war between the Jews and Arabs is at its peak. Settlements and transportation are attacked. Travel to many settlements, especially to Jerusalem, is undertaken in secured convoys. During the winter months preparations are made for the establishment of the Jewish State; its institutes are founded by the National Institutions – the Jewish Agency and the National Council. March 19 – The US announces withdrawal of its support for the partition plan and the establishment of the Jewish State, basing its decision on the deteriorating military situation in Palestine. The Yishuv and the Jewish world are deeply disappointed. March – The convoy system is no longer effective and the Arabs manage to block the convoys’ path and even destroy some of them. Towards the end of the month, Jewish Jerusalem is under siege. April – After four months of defensive action, the Jewish settlement goes on the attack. Within several weeks, the situation has been reversed: the Hagana forces win in most sectors, Arab towns fall and their inhabitants flee. The siege of Jerusalem has been broken. April 6-12 – The Actions Committee convenes in Tel Aviv, with representatives from Eretz Israel and from abroad coming despite the war. A resolution is passed to establish the institutions of the nascent state, which will come into being in mid-May when the British evacuate Palestine. Heading the State’s institutions are the People’s Council (Moetzet haAm), a legislative body consisting of 37 members, and the People’s Administration (Minhelet haAm), consisting of 13 members. May – During the first half of the month, Jewish momentum continues and the British complete the evacuation. May 14 (5 lyyar 5708) – David Ben-Gurion declares the establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab states threaten war. The US recognizes the new country. May 15 – The armies of five Arab countries – Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq – invade Israeli territory and there is fierce fighting throughout the country. This continues for four weeks, during which time the Jewish forces succeed in repelling the invaders in most sectors. May 31 – The Hagana constitutes the basis for the founding of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Etzel and Lehi declare their intention of joining with it. June 11 – Israel and the Arab nations agree to the UN proposal of a ceasefire lasting four weeks – the first truce. July 9-18 – The truce ends and fighting is renewed. The IDF achieves many of its objectives. Ten days later the UN declares a second truce, this time an unlimited one. August 22-24 – The Actions Committee meets in Jerusalem. Among it’s important decisions: aliyah to Israel and the absorption of new immigrants are not just an Israeli undertaking but the responsibility of the entire Jewish people who should, therefore, assume the cost; the Jewish Agency shall continue to operate even after the establishment of the State in order to promote aliyah, handle absorption and continue to support Youth Aliyah and settlement. A confrontation is developing between the Israeli and American members of the Zionist Executive. The Americans demand that WZO headquarters be moved to New York now that the State has been established. Ben-Gurion and the Israeli leadership reject this demand. The government ministers resign from their jobs in the Jewish Agency Executive. Levi Eshkol begins to operate as the treasurer of the Jewish Agency and head of the Department of Agricultural Settlement. October – Following the violation of the ceasefire, the IDF embarks on two significant operations during the month: in the south (including the Negev), the Egyptian army is repelled in Operation Yoav, and Beersheva is conquered. An entire Egyptian brigade is surrounded in the “Faluja Pocket.” In the north, the Arabic “Hazala” army is defeated and the entire Galilee comes under IDF control. November 8 – The first census in Israel – the number of citizens stands at 782,000 – 713,000 Jews and 69,000 Arabs. November 19-December 10 – The Settlement Committee (Va’adat haHityashvut), consisting of senior representatives of the Israel government, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund and the Histadrut haOvdim decide (during four sessions) on the imminent establishment of 100 new settlements. December 25-January 7, 1949 – Operation “Horev” (or “Ayin”) in the Negev. The IDF drives the Egyptians out of all the land they captured in Eretz Israel, except for the Gaza Strip. During the operation, the IDF infiltrates into Sinai. As a result of American pressure, the IDF evacuates the captured territory. The Jewish Agency prepares for mass absorption. Since the middle of may and until the end of the year – despite the war – 102,000 immigrants have made aliyah to Israel, an addition of 15% to the Jewish population since the founding of the State of Israel. The Department of Agricultural Settlement of the Jewish Agency establishes 28 new settlements while the battles are in progress, most of which are border settlements close to the fighting areas. 1949 – January 25 – Elections to the Constituent Assembly (Asefa haMekonenet), which after convening becomes the first Knesset. Aliyah increases and thousands of new immigrants arrive every week. Among the arrivals are the last ten thousand detainees from the Cyprus camps, who were released by the British nine months after the establishment of the State of Israel. February 14 (Tu b’Shevat 5709) – The Constituent Assembly convenes for the first time in Jerusalem. After several meetings it moves to Tel Aviv. Since then Tu b’Shevat is celebrated as the birthday of the Knesset. February 16 – The first Knesset elects Dr. Chaim Weizmann as President of the State of Israel. February 24 – A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Egypt is signed on the island of Rhodes. During the months to come, additional agreements are signed with Lebanon, Jordan (then Transjordan) and Syria. Iraq refuses to sign such and agreement with Israel. March – Aliyah reaches a climax with the arrival of more than 30,000 immigrants. This results in serious housing shortages. March 8 – The first permanent government, headed by David Ben-Gurion, receives the approval of the Knesset. April 26 – Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces a policy of economic austerity. A special government office for supply and rationing (Misrad haAspaka vehaKitzuv) is in charge of implementing the new policy, headed by Dr. Dov Yosef. May 4 – On Israel’s first Independence Day it is reported that during the previous year, since the country was established, 200,000 new immigrants entered the country – equivalent to the number of olim arriving during the previous 13 years. June – Aliyah is affected by emigration sanctions in some Eastern Europe countries. There are difficulties in absorbing immigrants due to housing shortages. Thousands of immigrants fill every available place, including Arab towns and Arab villages that had been deserted. July 20 – With the signing of the ceasefire agreement with Syria, the War of Independence is formally at an end. During the war Israel had many great successes: its territory grew from 55%, as agreed by the UN resolution, to 70%; the Arab countries that invaded the young State were defeated and driven out in most of the battles; and the State of Israel became a fait accomplis in the Middle East. But Israel paid a heavy price – 6,000 dead and thousands wounded. August 17 – The coffin of Theodor Herzl – the founder of the WZO and visionary of the State – is brought to Israel and buried on a high mountain west of Jerusalem, which is named Mount Herzl in his honor. September 8-12 – The Knesset enacts two important laws: the Defense Service Law and the Compulsory Education Law. November – Aliyah continues. At the beginning of the month, the first planes arrive from Aden bringing immigrants from Yemen in the framework of Operation Magic Carpet. During the year, over 40,000 immigrants arrive in more than 400 flights. November 20 – Rejoicing Israel – “The million day.” The number of Jews, which was 650,000 the day the State of Israel was founded (18 months before) now stands at one mission, due mostly to the mass aliyah. December – A stormy month in the international arena. The UN General Assembly decides once again to make Jerusalem an international city. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion announced that the UN decision cannot be implemented; that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that all the government institutions – especially the Knesset and the government offices – will be moved there. Aliyah and settlement reach a peak in 1949. Israel absorbs 239,000 immigrants (an all-time record) and 114 new settlements (also a record) are established. 1950 – March 11 – A new radio station, Kol Zion laGola (The Voice of Zion to the Diaspora), begins broadcasting from Jerusalem. At first the broadcasts are in Yiddish, English and French, then later on in other languages. They are aimed at Jews throughout the world and funded by the WZO. Kol Israel (The Voice of Israel) broadcasts are in Yiddish, Ladino, French, Romanian, Hungarian, etc. and are intended for the hundreds of thousands of olim who have not yet mastered Hebrew. March 13 – The Knesset returns to Jerusalem after being in exile in Tel Aviv for almost a year. May – Aliyah to Israel continues on a grand scale. In order to surmount the housing problems, a new kind of settlement appears – the ma’abara (immigrant transit camp) – a temporary camp made of tin, wood or cloth that can be assembled within dasys. The first such camp is set up in Keasalon in the Judean hills on May 16. May 18 – A new air-borne aliyah begins: Ezra and Nehemiah. Within a year it will have brought some 120,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel. June – A record 20 new settlements are established in one month, most of them moshavei olim (immigrant settlements). July 5 – In a special festive session on this day, 46 years after the death of the visionary of the Jewish State, Dr. Theodor Herzl, the Knesset passes the Law of Return, which grants every Jew in the world the right to make aliyah to Israel. September 3 – The Billion Conference convenes in Jerusalem at the initiative of the State of Israel and the WZO. The wealthy Jewish participants, mostly from the United States, are called on to invest in Israel. September 6 – It is agreed that an Israel Bond issue be floated in the United States as a means of opening up a new source of urgently needed funds. This constitutes the launching of the Israel Bonds organization (see the chapter entitled “Glossary of Terms”). September – Operation Magic Carpet comes to an end – an air-borne operation that brought some 50,000 Jews from Yemen and Aden to Israel. October – Due to shortages throughout Israel, a comprehensive operation against black market dealings, headed by David Ben-Gurion, is implemented. In 1950, approximately 170,000 olim arrive in Israel. Some 40% of them live in more than 60 transit camps; others establish dozens of new moshavim throughout the country. During the year, social and political tension in the camps rises when the religious parties demand that new immigrant children receive a religious education. This leads to a crisis in the government. 1951 – January – The Kfar Yeroham ma’abara, later to become the development town of Yeroham, is set up in the central Negev, some 35 kilometers southeast of Beersheva. From this point on the development town model begins to grow and mature. In January, the Hula valley reclamation project begins – to turn swampland into arable land. This is one of the largest development projects to be implemented during the first years of the State. February 27, 1951 Establishment of the new town of Ashkelon. March 11, 1951 Start of Operation Ezra and Nechemia, airlift to Israel of the Jews of Iraq. May – David Ben-Gurion visits the United States, for the first time as prime minister. He is welcomed with great excitement by hundreds of thousands of American Jews, and meets with President Harry S. Truman. July 15, 1951 Completion of Operation Ezra and Nechemia that brought 114,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel. July 15 – The Ezra and Nehemiah Operation ends, having brought to Israel, by air, the majority of Iraqi Jewry. July 25 – A new kind of settlement is born: Nahal outposts (He’ahzut), in which Israel army units prepare for cooperative agricultural settlement. The first outpost is named Nahlaim Aleph opposite Gaza (today Nahal Oz). In the decades to come more than 100 outposts are set up, many of which become permanent settlements. July 27, 1951 Nahal Oz, first outpost created by Nahal (“Fighting Pioneer Youth,” army service that combines military service with land settlement), established opposite the Gaza Strip, close to the border. Today it is Kibbutz Nahal Oz. August 14, 1951 23rd Zionist Congress meets in Jerusalem, the first time such a meeting is held in Israel. Its 445 delegates replace the Basel Plan (establishment of a national homeland) with the Herusalem Plan (strengthening the country). August 14 – The Twenty-third Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem, the first Congress to be held in the State of Israel. It constitutes a special meeting of Israeli heads of State and Zionist leaders from all over the Jewish world. Zionist representatives from the United States emphasize the difference between exile and dispersion. In their opinion, the United States should not be considered an exile, as in exile Jews are threatened and are unable to leave freely and make aliyah to Israel, which is not the case in the US. The Congress approves the Jerusalem Program (see the chapter entitled “Glossary of Terms”). From now on all Congresses will be held in Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion provokes a number of public storms during the year, especially when he questions the future of the Zionist movement. In his opinion, the role of the WZO has come to an end. Instead of Zionist Organizations in different countries, he proposes the establishment of Leagues for Israel. November 1, 1951 Egged Transport Cooperative established as the union of three local companies. December 4, 1951 Creation of Sderot and Kiryat Malachi, towns that evolved out of ma’abarot (immigrant transit camps).
1952 – At the beginning of the year reparations from Germany is on the public agenda, causing much political tension and public protest. On January 9, the Knesset approves Prime Minister Ben-Gurion’s message on negotiation with West Germany regarding compensation. January 9, 1952 Law for Reparation from Germany approved in the Israeli Knesset (parliament). January 16, 1952 Start of Operation Koresh to bring Iranian Jews to Israel. March 3, 1952 Cotton sown in Israel for first time. March 20 – Talks begin in Holland between the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (an umbrella of all major Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, B’nai Brith, and the Joint Distribution Committee) with regard to reparations. They quickly run into difficulties, are stopped, then renewed. April 1, 1952 Establishment of Tahal, Israel Water Planning, by Israeli government, Jewish Agency and Keren Kayemeth. May 13, 1952 First class of medical students graduate from the Hebrew University. Throughout the year the government declares an easing in austerity measures and rationing. This is mostly due to the increasing stretches of arable land throughout Israel and the growing of vegetables by members (mostly new immigrants) of newly established agricultural settlements). September 10, 1952 Holocaust reparations agreement signed in Luxembourg. The West German government agreed to pay the State of Israel DM 3 billion within 12 years, and a further DM 450 million to Jewish Holocaust survivor organization in the rest of the world. September 10 – A reparations treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel is signed in Luxembourg. West Germany is obligated to pay Israel three billion marks (some three quarters of a billion dollars) and 450 million marks to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, representing 23 Jewish organizations. November 18, 1952 Jewish physicist Albert Einstein rejects David BenGurion’s offer to leave his home in the USA and become Israel’s second president, following the death of Chaim Weizmann. November 9 – Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the State of Israel and one of the great Zionist leaders of the twentieth century, dies at the age of 79. Professor Albert Einstein is offered the presidency, but he declines. November 24, 1952 Law of Status of the World Zionist Organization passed in the Knesset. This law confers legal basis to the Jewish people’s attachment to Israel and authorized the WZO leadership to work to advance aliya, klita and settlement of the land. November 30, 1952 Migdal HaEmek established by a group of immigrant families. December 2 – The Knesset passes the “World Zionist Organization – Jewish Agency for Israel Status Law, 1952,” which determines a division of labor between the government, the WZO and the Jewish Agency. This distribution of duties, which centers on institutionalizing the management of aliyah and absorption, was well as new settlement by the Jewish Agency, is ratified in a covenant between the sides in 1954 (see the chapter entitled “Documents”). December 10, 1952 Second president of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, sworn in. He was to be re-elected president twice and se4rved in office until his death. Aliyah to Israel in 1952 is low in comparison to previous years – only 24,000. One of the reasons for this is the economic hardship and inflation in Israel (some 60% a year). Another deterrent to aliyah is the system of “selection” that is inclined to favor young, healthy olim. 1953 – Aliyah continues to drop and hundreds, rather than thousands, arrive each month. January 13 – The Jewish world is staggered when the “Doctor’s Plot” comes to light in the Soviet Union: the authorities falsely accuse a group of senior Jewish doctors of planning to poison the country’s leaders. The charges are dropped three months later when Stalin, who had treated the Jews extremely harshly in his final years, dies. April 20 – Israel celebrates its fifth year of statehood. It awards Israel Prizes for the first time. During the summer, Jerusalem hosts a large exhibition of its achievements on the theme “the conquest of the wilderness.” May 14, 1953 New railway link running along the coast from Tel Aviv to Haifa inaugurated. June 3, 1953 Laying of cornerstone of Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan: its uniqueness was to lie in the fact that Jewish studies would be compulsory, and the campus would operate according to a Jewish rhythm. August 12 – The State Education Law is passed by the Knesset, enabling the existence of two streams: State and State-Religious. October 17, 1953 Eric Johnson, US President Eisenhower’s special envoy, arrives in Israel to try and find a solution to the escalating tension between Israel and Syria over rights to the waters of the Jordan River and construction of the National Water Carrier. A regional water plan is never realized. October 22, 1953 First pre-military boarding school opens in Haifa, attached to the city’s Reali high school. December 6 – David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister of Israel since its inception, announces his resignation as prime minister and defense minister and his intention to settle in a young Negev kibbutz – Sde Boker. Moshe Sharett becomes the country’s new prime minister. Only 11,000 olim arrive this year and there is increased yerida (emigration) from Israel due to the harsh living conditions and lack of work. 1954 – April 6 – Israel pays its respects to baron Edmond de Rothschild, whose tremendous contribution made the establishment of the State possible. His coffin, and that of his wife Adelheid, is brought to Israel from France by naval boat, and the two are re-interred Ramat haNadiv near Zikhron Ya’akov. July 26 – The government of Israel and the Zionist Executive sign the “World Zionist Organization – Jewish Agency for Israel Status law, 1952.” This covenant defines the role of the WZO-Jewish Agency in the country as “the authorized agency” for “the development and settlement of the country” and “the absorption of immigrants from the Diaspora.” The low aliyah rate continues and in 1954, only 18,000 olim arrive in Israel. The small number of olim enables the absorption authorities to step-up building for immigrants, close some of the ma’abarot, and transfer their inhabitants to permanent housing. New settlement is at a low ebb. Nevertheless, the Jewish Agency’s Agricultural Settlement Department introduces a new method of regional settlement – the settling of entire districts. In the first stage this involved the Lachish district in southern Israel and the Ta’anakh district in the southern Jezreel Valley. 1955 – Serious security incidents along Israel’s border with the Egyptians and the Jordanians – fedayeen (“suicide fighters”) infiltrate and murder Israeli civilians. The Israel Defense Forces launch a series of retaliatory attacks. April 19 – A new immigrant town is founded in the western Negev – Ofakim. April 24 – Otzem, the first settlement in the Lachish district, is established. Additional settlements are set up in the following two months. The majority of their residents are absorbed in a new fashion – “From Ship to Village” (the immediate placement of immigrants in agricultural settlements or development regions where housing or employment is available) – bypassing the problematic ma’abarot stage. August 7 – Bar-Ilan University, Israel’s third university and an institution with a religious character, opens in Ramat Gan. It is named after the deceased Jewish religious leader Meir Bar-Ilan. September 19 – Dimona, another new development town, rises in the Negev. September 23 – A stream of oil gushes from the Heletz oil rig southern Israel. Israelis are enormously optimistic about the possibility of discovering extensive reservoirs of oil. Following the signing of the arms agreement between Egypt and Czechoslovakia, which involves supplying large amounts of weapons to Egypt from Eastern Europe (intended for use against Israel), Israel implements a campaign to strengthen the country. Israeli citizens contribute millions of lira through the Security Fund and men, women and children donate jewelry, savings, saving funds and gifts. Aliyah, which in previous years had reached a low point, picked up in 1955, with 37,000 olim arriving in Israel, mostly from Morocco. This is a result of increased Pan Islamic influences and strengthened nationalist elements in Morocco, which is about to be granted independence. 1956 – The tense situation along the borders continues almost until the end of the year. Eguyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser threatens to destroy Israel, and the Straits of Tiran close to Israeli shipping traffic. Israel declares repeatedly that it will act in response to Egyptian threats, fedayeen terror and the blockade of the Straits of Tiran. January 11 – The foundations are laid for the town of Kiryat Gat, which is to be the urban center of the Lachish district. February 3 – The Knesset legislates the Keren Hayesod Law, and determines that its main goal is to institutionalize the fundraising sources for the financing of aliyah and absorption. April – New taxes are imposed on the Israeli public in order to finance security needs. France helps supply Israel with weapons and ammunition – including munitions and airplanes. Throughout he spring months thousands of laborers and volunteers leave for the front-line settlements, in the south and in the Negev, in order to help with digging and fortification work to counter an Egyptian attack. April 24 – The Twenty-fourth Zionist congress convenes in Jerusalem. It focuses on the difficult security situation in the State of Israel and ways in which world Jewry can help. May 10 – Netivot, a new development town, is founded in the Negev. Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev mountains and Ashdod-Yam in the southern coastal plain are also founded during the year. In a few short years this development town becomes the city of Ashdod. July 11 – An exciting event for the Jews in the USSR: a football match between the Israel national team and that of the Soviet Union takes place in Moscow. Although Israel loses 5:0, the enthusiasm of the thousands of Jewish supporters for the Israeli players is boundless. In the summer and autumn months, tension along the borders reaches a peak. Jordan joins Egypt and Syria in the establishment of a unified command against Israel. Israel warns Jordan that it will not tolerate further attacks from the Jordinian side. Many in Israel and around the world believe that a war between Israel and Jordan is imminent. October 29-November 6 – Israel attacks Egypt – the Sinai Campaign (code name Kadesh). The world is astonished by the Israeli operation in Sinai, which within a few short days results in Israel’s capture of the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. The threat against Israel is eliminated and the Straits of Tiran open to Israeli shipping vessels. At the same time, the armies of England and France attack the Suez Canal – which was nationalized a few months previously by the Egyptians – in order to restore international control and secure passage for ships of all nations. The Anglo-French operation, however, fails. Israel is pressured into withdrawing its forces from the occupied territories. During 1956, in spite of the tense security situation, aliyah continues and 56,000 olim arrive, most of them from North Africa. During the year, Morocco is granted independence and a ban is placed on Jewish emigration. In the coming years, the “illegal” immigration of Moroccan Jews is organized at a rate of a few thousand a year. Near the end of 1956, the first olim from Egypt arrive. They were deported following the Sinai Campaign. 1957 – January-March – Israel is forced to give in to international pressure and completes the evacuation of Sinai and the Gaza Strip. A UN emergency force separates Israel and the Egyptian army. The Straits of Tiran are open to Israeli shipping traffic. April – As a result of the Sinai Campaign, an oil line is laid from Eilat to Beersheva. July – There is great excitement among Soviet Jews, who are forbidden to exhibit any national sympathies: a large delegation from Israel is participating in the Democratic Youth Festival, which is being held in Moscow. Thousands of Soviet Jews attend their performances. Aliyah continues and during 1957, 71,000 olim arrive – the largest number between 1952 and 1990. Most are from countries that have undergone political crises, such as Egypt, Hungary and Poland. Only a few new settlements are established this year, but the development towns of ma’a lot and Natzerat Ilit are founded. The draining of the Hula Valley is completed. Thousands of dunams of land are added to the farms in the Galilee. 1958 – March-May – The first three settlements are established in Adullam – a new settlement district. Their founders are olim from Hungary, India, Persia and Morocco. April 24 – Israel celebrates its 10th anniversary. Processions and a large IDF military parade are held, and guests from all over the world, especially from the Diaspora, pour into the country. Israel currently has two million inhabitants, 90% of whom are Jews. Since the establishment of the State, the number of Jews has tripled, mostly due to the great aliyah. September – Aliyah from Eastern Europe, especially from Romania, increases and thousands arrive each month. Israel’s citizens are called upon to help with the economic burden that the wave of aliyah has created, and are forced to purchase aliyah bonds. The number of olim this year – 27,000. 1959 – After ten years, the government removes the regulations on the last commodities still being rationed. The age of austerity is over. February-March – Arab countries object to increased aliyah to Israel and the issue is even brought before the UN Assembly. The USSR informs the Arabs that it will not allow the aliyah of Jews from its domain. July 9 – In the Haifa neighborhood of Wadi Salib, populated mainly by Moroccan immigrants, social and economic frustrations lead to violent protest when demonstrators clash with police. Olim also demonstrate in other parts of the country. The minister for education and culture, Zalman Aranne, initiates a program of “Jewish Consciousness” in the Israeli education system. This is intended to deepen and increase Israeli youths “moral affinity to world Jewry, by acknowledging a mutual destiny and historical continuity which will unite world Jewry in every country for generations.” During 1959, 24,000 olim arrive and two new settlements are established. 1960 – January 4 – The Actions Committee approves a new Constitution for the WZO and grants independent status to Zionist territorial organizations. March 13 – A historic meeting in New York between the Prime Ministers of Israel and of West Germany, David Ben-Gurion and Konrad Adenauer. They discuss the possibility of diplomatic relations between the two countries – an emotionally charged issue at the time. May 23 – Israel announces that the Israeli Mossad (the institution for intelligence and special tasks) has located the notorious Nazi Adolph Eichmann – one of the primary planners and perpetrators of the Nazi extermination program – in Argentina and brought him to Israel. This is cause for great excitement in Israel and the rest of the world. Argentina protests the abduction of Eichmann from its territory. June 16 – Israel announces the employment of an atomic reactor in Nahal Sorek for the purpose of research. June 28 – Following approval of a 27.5 million dollar loan from the First International Bank of Israel, the first steps towards building Ashdod port are taken. July 6 – An industrial security milestone: the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) provides the IDF with the first training plane assembled in the cou8ntry – the Fouga Magister. December 27-January 11, 1961 – The Twenty-fifth Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem. Discussions focus on Jewish education in the Diaspora and relations between the WZO and the Israeli government. The Congress announces that since the State of Israel came into being, 440 agricultural settlements were established and 40 settlements expanded; the Jewish National Fund planted 43 million forest trees and prepared 350,000 dunams of land for agriculture; Youth Aliyah absorbed 100,000 children; and 60 ulpanim now exist around the country, teaching new olim how to live in Israel and speak Hebrew. Aliyah to Israel in 1960 – 24,000 – is still relatively low, with most olim coming from Russia and Morocco. Since 1956, Moroccan Jews have made aliyah to Israel “illegally” in operations organized by the Israel government and the WZO. 1961 – January 11 – The Egoz, transporting Jews from Morocco clandestinely, sinks on its way to Gibraltar; 42 passengers drown. The disaster exposes the plight of Moroccan Jews who are prohibited from making aliyah by the Moroccan authorities. Following the disaster, an agreement is reached with the Moroccan monarchy regarding the mass exodus of Jews. By 1964, 80,000 Jews will have left Morocco. Most of them go to Israel. April 11 – Adolph Eichmann’s trial begins in Jerusalem and receives unprecedented coverage in the international press. On December 15, Eichmann is sentenced to death by hanging. May 15 – The laying of the National Water Carrier, which will transport water from northern Israel to the arid south and the Negev, is in progress. On this date, the digging of the seven kilometer long Menashe Tunnel – the longest tunnel existing in Israel and constituting part of the National Water Carrier – is completed. July 5 – Israel launches Shavit II, and experimental meteorological satellite. July 30 – Work on the large new Ashdod port (in the south) begins. November 28 – The Israeli government and the Jewish National Fund sign an agreement between them regarding the management of the country’s land. The covenant provides for the establishment of two separate bodies: a Government Land Authority, which is to manage all State and JNF lands, and a Land Development Authority, established within the JNF, which is to concentrate on land reclamation and afforestation. Aliyah to Israel, which had slowed in recent years, picks up. In 1961, 47,000 olim make aliyah – almost double the number from the previous year. 1962 – Aliyah from Morocco intensifies following the agreement between Israel and young King Hassan II of Morocco, reaching 7,000 during May 1962 – Operation Yakhin. Many olim also arrive from Romania during the year. February 9 – The government of Israel announces a new economic policy, based on a 66% devaluation. This causes social unrest, protests and demonstrations. May 29 – The Supreme Court of Justice rejects Adolph Eichmann’s appeal and President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi denies him a pardon. May 31 – Eichmann is executed by hanging. His body is cremated and his ashes scattered over the Mediterranean Sea. June – The situation of Soviet Jews deteriorates and a number of Jews face death sentences for supposed economic offences. The general atmosphere is extremely anti-Semitic. November 21 – A new city – Arad – is established in the Judean desert. Several years have passed since the establishment of the last urban settlement. The number of new olim is on the rise and in 1962 more than 61,000 arrive in Israel. As a result of the deteriorating situation in Algeria – due to its War of Independence, the ensuing rebellion and the gaining of independence – hundreds of thousands of French men and women leave the country and settle France. Tens of thousands of Jews are among them. There is bitter disappointment in Israel that so few make aliyah to Israel. 1963 – The first steps are taken to establish a new city – Karmiel – in the western Lower Galilee. May 27 – A new university is founded in Haifa. In the beginning it is under the academic supervision of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. June 16 – David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister of Israel since 1948 (with a hiatus between 1953 and 1955), resigns from the premiership. He is succeeded by Levi Eshkol. As with his predecessor, Eshkol also holds the position of minister of defense. September 10 – The Arab League decides to deny Israel the water it needs to operate its newly constructed National Water Carrier. On December 12, 1963 the Arab chiefs of staff meet and agree on the plan to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River. Israel marks 80 years to the First Aliyah with gatherings and conferences, in which the last of the first olim are honored. The number of olim this year – 64,000. 1964 – January – The Kol Zion laGola (Voice of Zion to the Diaspora) radio station broadcasts for four-and-a-half hours a day in easy Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French, Mugrabit (Moroccan Arabic) and Romanian. January 5 – Pope Paul VI pays a one-day visit to Israel. January 13 – The first Arab Summit opens in Cairo. Arab leaders approve the decision to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River to prevent water from reaching Israel. March – The Arab states continue to put pressure on Eastern European countries to halt aliyah to Israel. May 6 – Israel signs the first cooperation agreement between the European Community and Israel in Brussels. June 10 – The National Water Carrier – which will transport water from northern Israel to the arid Negev in southern Israel – begins operating, in spite of Arab threats to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River. One million cubic meters of water per day are pumped from the Kinneret and carried through open canals, tunnels and giant pipes up to the springs of Rosh haAyin, where they connect to the Yarkon-Negev line. July 9 – The government of Israel decides to bring the remains of Vladimir (Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder and leader of the Revisionist movement, to Israel. He is laid to rest in a national ceremony at Mount Herzl. October 29 – The city of Karmiel is inaugurated in the Galilee. November 4 – The Tel Aviv University campus is inaugurated in Ramat Aviv after a decade of operating in different buildings throughout the city. December 30-January 11 – The Twenty-sixth Zionist Congress is held in Jerusalem. The main issues on the agenda: the dangers of assimilation in the Diaspora and the need to enhance Jewish consciousness. The number of olim who arrived in Israel during 1964 – 54,000. 1965 – This is a bad year security-wise for Israel, especially along the border with Syria. The Syrians, with the help of other Arab countries, begin activities aimed at diverting the headwaters of the Jordan River. January 3 – In its first act of terror, Fatah (the militant arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization), established just a few months previously, attempts to damage Israel’s National Water carrier. The coming months see further Fatah terror attacks, and the IDF retaliates by twice raiding terror bases in Jordan and Lebanon. March 6 – The Bourguiba Plan. In order to bring peace to the Middle East, the president of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, recognizes Israel’s existence (although on the basis of the borders outlined in the 1947 UN resolution). The Arab world is enraged. May 11 – The Israel Museum (Israel’s national museum) opens in Jerusalem. July 7 – Moshe Sharett, former prime minister and foreign minister, dies at the age of 70. he also served as head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency from 1933-1948 and chairman of the Zionist Executive from 1961-1965. Incidents along the border with Syria increase during the summer. The IDF damages equipment used for diverting the headwaters of the Jordan, and the Syrians are forced to move their tractors deep into their territory. August 9 – Israel and Germany establish diplomatic ties. November 21 – The port of Ashdod is inaugurated, replacing the old ports of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. During the year, the “Horse” Operation is carried out – which involves the establishment of four settlements and a community center in central Galilee, near the Lebanese border. The operation is thus named because some of the settlements can only be reached by horse. Aliyah in 1965 stands at 31,000 – a 60% decrease compared to the previous year. 1966 – February – Yuly Daniel, a Jew, and Andre Sinyavsky, a non-Jew, are tried in the USSR, charged with “distributing anti-Soviet propaganda.” The trial draws international attention to the situation of the Jewish minority in Russia. July 14 – Israel Air Force fighter planes attack tractors and bulldozers deep in Syrian territory, which are being used to divert Jordan River headwaters. Following the attack, the Syrians cease their activities. August 30 – The new Knesset building is inaugurated in Jerusalem. During the summer, activity on behalf of the “Jewry of Silence” – the millions of Jews living in the USSR who are forbidden to express their national sympathies – is stepped up in Israel and in Western countries. December 10 – Two Jewish writers share the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966: Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon from Israel and Nelly Sachs from Sweden. The economic situation in Israel is bleak following the government’s economic recession policy. One consequence is a sharp decline in aliyah – in 1966, less than 16,000 olim make aliyah, the lowest number for 13 years. Most of them are from affluent countries, especially the US, Britain and France. Acts of terror by Fatah – who infiltrate from Lebanon and Jordan into Israel – continue for most of the year. 1967 – January-April – The recession depends and the government considers new ways to restore economic prosperity. Unemployed citizens strike throughout the country. The Coordination Office of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency decide to establish a combined Coordinating Commission to deal with aliyah and absorption. The Commission consists of four ministers and four members of the Jewish Agency Executive. Its chairman is the chairman of the Jewish Agency and his deputy is the minister of labor. The Aliyah and Absorption Departments of the Jewish Agency are united. May 15 – Israel celebrates its 19th year of independence. On this same day, Egypt sends thousands of troops to Sinai, thereby breaking the agreement signed after the 1956 Sinai Campaign. The beginning of three tense weeks, which will later be called “the waiting period.” May 22 – Egypt announces the closing of the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping traffic. Tension rises in the Middle East. By the end of the month, Arab countries, headed by Egypt and Syria, have increased their threats against Israel. In Israel there is political activity in order to form a national unity government, which is established on June 1. The government is joined by Moshe Dayan from Rafi (Reshimat Po’ale Israel) and the heads of Gahal (Gush Herut Liberalim), Menahem Begin and Yosef Sapir. Levi Eshkol relinquishes the security portfolio in favor of Moshe Dayan. June 4 – The blockade of Israel intensifies: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq threaten to attack Israel. June 6-10 – The Six-Day War. A great victory for Israel. Within less than a week the IDF defeats the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria and captures almost 70,000 square kilometers – the entire Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria (“the West Bank”) and the Golan Heights. On June 7, the IDF completes the liberation of East Jerusalem, including the Old City. July 15 – The first kibbutz is established in the Golan Heights – Merom Golan. September 25 – Residents of Kfar Etzion, which was destroyed by the Jordinians in 1948, return to the village and rebuild it. This constitutes the first settlement in the renewed Etzion Bloc (Gush Etzion) The solidarity operation with Israel, which started in May 1967 when Israel was threatened and isolated, comes to an end. More than 7,200 Jewish youth from around the world volunteered to assist Israel and worked in kibbutzim, moshavim, factories and IDF bases. The operation was organized by the Youth and Hechalutz Department of the Jewish Agency. October – Nahal establishes two new outposts – Nahal Yam in northern Sinai and Nahal Snir near the Banias. Through the years, dozens of additional new outposts are established in the administered territories. The year 1967 is characterized by an emphasis on Jewish solidarity. Millions of Jews around the world anxiously follow events in Israel and the Middle East during the spring and summer of 1067. Many of them help during the difficult days and are elated by the great victory and the return of the Jewish holy sites to the Jewish people. In an emergency Appeal conducted by Keren Hayesod, the unprecedented sum of 300 million dollars is raised. 1968 – January – Three new settlements are established in the Golan heights within a month – El-Al, Mevo Hama and Ein Zivan. Additional settlements follow throughout 1968. February 6 – The first settlement is established in the Jordan Rift – Mehola. April 12 – Jewish settlement is renewed in Hebron. June 9 – The government of Israel takes over responsibility for absorbing olim from the Jewish Agency. A special office for absorption is to be included among the government offices. On July 1, 1968, Yigal Alon, Israel’s deputy prime minister, is also appointed minister of absorption. June 9-16 – The Twenty-seventh Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem. The assembly marks the great victory in the Six-Day War. The revised (second) Jerusalem Program is approved (1968), and “The Duties of the Individual Zionist” are agreed upon. A decision is also made to establish Tnuot Aliyah (Aliyah Movements) in the affluent countries, to be organized by local aliyah activists. Following the Six-Day War, aliyah to Israel from these countries increases. The Jewish Agency institutes Tour Ve’aleh, which enables Jews to visit Israel, make their observations and only later decide whether or not to make aliyah. Dozens of shlichim (emissaries) from Israel, representatives of the Aliyah Department and the Youth and Hechalutz Department, begin operating around the world. A small number of olim arrive from the USSR, despite the obstacles created by the Soviet authorities. The olim began coming even before the Six-Day War and continued coming in light of the enthusiasm that gripped the “Jewry of Silence” after the great IDF victory. 1969 – January 27 – World Jewry is concerned for the small Jewish minority in Iraq after Baghdad authorities execute nine Jews charged with espionage on behalf of Israel. March 8 – Egypt starts a War of Attrition against Israel in Sinai. It continues for 1 ½ years, until August 1970. August 26 – A new stage in Soviet Jewry’s struggle for national unity and contact with Israel: 18 families from Georgia send an unusual letter to Israel’s prime minister, the UN and various bodies throughout the world. In it they announce that they have sold all their possessions and expect to make aliyah to Israel. November 11 – A new university opens its gates in Beersheva. It is later named the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. December – Demonstrations and rallies are held for Soviet Jewry in Israel and around the Jewish world. Aliyah to Israel, which increased after the Six-Day war, intensifies still further. Almost 38,000 olim arrive in Israel in 1969; almost double the number from the previous year. Among them are many from affluent Western countries and from the East (particularly the USSR, despite the difficulties). Among the new settlements established during the year is Dikla, the first settlement in the Yamit district in northeastern Sinai. 1970 – Aliyah from the USSR increases despite attempts by the authorities to end it by forcing Jewish public figures to attack aliyah and Israel. The Soviet government does all it can to blacken Israel’s image in the world. January 23 – A ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice orders Israel to register children who have a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother as Jews. The issue of ‘Who is a Jew?’ is renewed. April 26 – A massive Jewish demonstration is New York calls for the Soviet regime to “Let My People Go!” July 14 – Eighty Jews turn to the Supreme Soviet in Moscow requesting that they be allowed to leave the USSR and make aliyah to Israel. August 7 – The War of Attrition ends on the Egyptian front. Both sides agree to the US proposal and a three-month ceasefire goes into effect. August 27 – An agreement is signed at the president’s residence in Jerusalem by the WZO, the United Jewish Appeal and the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal for the reconstitution of the Jewish Agency. December 16 – The Leningrad Trials open in the USSR in which 11 Jews are accused of hijacking a plane in order to escape from the country. The Knesset holds a special session (on December 17) on the subject and calls on public opinion throughout the world to mobilize and act against the continued attacks on Jews in Russia. A hunger strike is held at the Western Wall to express solidarity with the accused Leningrad Jews. December 24 – Two of the indicted Jews in the Leningrad Trials are sentenced to death, and the remainder to prolonged prison terms. The year is marked by increased Palestinian terror against Israel, the launching of Katyusha rockets into population center and the infiltration of terrorist groups across the border into Israel. Terror in the skies also continues. Among the new settlements established this year are Petza’el and Mitzpe Shalem in the Jordan valley and Ketura in the Arava. More than 36,000 olim arrive this year. Some 10,000 of them are from the USSR, a record number despite the restrictions and the increasing difficulties created by the Soviet authorities. 1971 – January 11 – Nathan Tzirolnikov, a new immigrant from the Soviet Union, is welcomed to Israel in a festive ceremony. He is the three millionth citizen of the State of Israel. February-March – Jews in Moscow and other cities in the Soviet Union, hold increasing numbers of demonstrations and protests, insisting they be allowed to make aliyah to Israel. February 23 – In Brussels, Belgium, an international congress opens in support of Soviet Jewry attended by some 800 Jewish and non-Jewish representatives from around the world. June 21 – The founding conference of the reconstituted Jewish Agency is held in Jerusalem. August 22 – Seventy Jews from the USSR request Israeli citizenship while still in the Soviet Union. This is an additional step in the struggle of Soviet Jews to immigrate freely to Israel. Aliyah to Israel from affluent countries and the USSR gains momentum. In 1971, 42,000 olim arrive in Israel. The year is marked by the continued struggle of Soviet Jews for recognition of their national identity and the right to immigrate to Israel. Protests are held in dozens of cities in Israel and throughout the Jewish world. Settlement in the territories is expanded. Among the settlements established are: Ophira (Sharm El Sheikh), Di Zahav (Dahab), Neviot (Nuweiiba), Sadot in the Yamit district and Elrom in the Golan. The Zionist Council is founded in Israel in 1971 and takes upon itself the nurturing of Zionist consciousness and volunteerism in the country. Some 100 voluntary bodies join it, including the Student Association and bodies from the kibbutzim and moshavim. 1972 – January 2 – A famous new immigrant arrives in Israel: Eliahu Rips from Riga, Latvia, who in 1969 set himself on fire to protest the Soviet authorities restrictions on aliyah to Israel. January 18-28 – The Twenty-eighth Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem and the plight of Soviet Jewry receives special attention. A resolution is approved and adopted – “The Duties of the Individual Zionist.” The congress announces that close to one million Jews throughout the world belong to the different Jewish bodies of the WZO. May – Aliyah from the USSR increases despite the restrictions, and in may 1971 more than 2,500 olim arrive in Israel. September 5 – Terrorists from the Black September organization kill 11 Israeli athletes and trainers during the Munich Olympic games. Palestinian terror has reached new heights. Fifty-six thousand olim arrive in Israel throughout the year, more than half of them from the USSR. The building of more than 50,000 new apartments contributes to economic prosperity in Israel. The Soviet demand that all those wishing to make aliyah to Israel pay a “diploma tax” is rejected by Israel, the United States and other countries. During the year, various Jewish and Zionist organizations initiate protests and demonstrations throughout the world on behalf of Soviet Jewry. There is increased pressure on Jews in the USSR, especially those requesting to make aliyah to Israel, including show trials in which Jews are charged with “maligning the USSR.” 1973 – January 13 – The World Jewish Congress holds its first conference. Representatives from Jewish communities throughout the world attend, including Romania and Yugoslavia from the Eastern bloc. January 15 – An historic meeting at the Vatican: Golda Meir, The Prime Minister of Israel, meets with Pope Paul VI for the first time. March-April – The Soviet authorities continue to pressure and intimidate Jews wishing to make aliyah. Some of them are tried and given long prison terms or sentenced to hard labor. This anti-Zionist and anti-Israel campaign continues in the coming months and many Jewish and non-Jewish leaders throughout the world speak out against it. April – the Soviet authorities abandon their demand for a “diploma tax” from Jews wanting to make aliyah to Israel. May 7 – An especially festive Independence Day in Israel and the Diaspora: the State of Israel is 25. Celebrations take place in a relatively relaxed atmosphere as Israel believes that a major Arab offensive is highly unlikely. Economic prosperity in Israel also contributes to a feeling of security. September 28 – Palestinian terrorists take over a train in Austria that is transporting Russian immigrants to Israel. They demand that the government of Austria close the transit camp near Vienna. The Austrian government gives in to their demands. October 6-24 – The Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israel and Israel finds itself in grave danger. It quickly rallies, however, capturing large areas of Egypt and Syria. Jews throughout the world come to Israel’s aid. During and after the war, 5,000 young volunteers arrive in Israel from Jewish communities around the world in an operation organized by the Youth and Hechalutz Department of the Jewish Agency. In an emergency Keren Hayesod campaign conducted between October and the year’s end, 300 million dollars are raised. In 1973, some 55,000 olim arrive in Israel, despite the war and the state of emergency in effect two months after the war. Sixty percent of the olim (33,000) are from the Soviet Union – a record number from this country. 1974 – February 25 – The IDF evacuates its forces from the area west of the Suez Canal. April-May – A War of Attrition between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights and the Syrian enclave, which the IDF conquered in the Yom Kippur War. May 31 – The War of Attrition ends. Israel begins to disengage its forces from the enclave. Throughout the Jewish world and the various Zionist organizations, the emphasis is on aid to Israel, following the Yom Kippur war, and on continued action on behalf of Soviet Jewry. The tension brought on by the Yom Kippur War results in an economic and social crisis in Israel, and there is a sharp decline in aliyah to Israel. In 1974, only 32,000 olim arrive in Israel, a reduction of 72% in comparison to the previous year. 1975 – January 7 – Israel marks the arrival of the one hundred thousandth immigrant from the USSR since the first wave of aliyah from this country in the late 1960s. Despite this, there are growing fears of increased “dropping out” on the way to Israel (usually in Vienna) of olim from the Soviet Union. At this point, one-third of olim have “dropped out.” September 24 – A new settlement is founded east of Jerusalem – Ma’alaeh Adumim – later to become a city. October 21 – Twenty-seven years after its closure during the War of Independence in 1948, the newly restored Hadassah hospital on Mt. Scopus reopens. November 10 – An excessively harsh resolution is adopted by the UN Assembly equating Zionist with racism. Israel, the Jewish world and Zionist organization throughout the world are enraged. Jewish leaders in countries that supported the resolution protest to their governments, and the American Congress expresses its objection to the resolution. Aliyah continues to fall and throughout 1975, only 20,000 olim arrive in Israel. Soviet Jews continue to drop out in Vienna in increasing numbers, and the Soviet authorities persist in their policy of placing obstacles in the way of those genuinely wishing to make aliyah. Throughout the world, Jews continue to protest and demonstrate for the unrestricted aliyah of Soviet Jews. 1976 – February 17 – The second Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry begins. Jewish representatives from dozens of countries discuss the situation of Soviet jews and seek ways in which to help them. June 23 – The Knesset proposal by MK Gideon Hausner in favor of conducting civil wedding ceremonies is rejected in the plenum by a majority of 31 to 18. June 27-July 4 – The Entebbe Operation. Palestinian terrorists hijack an Air France airliner carrying more than 100 Israeli passengers from Tel Aviv to Paris, and land it in Entebbe, Uganda. In a brilliant and daring airborne commando operation that staggers the world, the Israel Defense Forces free the hostages and return them to Israel. August 31 – Registration begins for residency of a new town in the Golan – Katzrin. Aliyah to Israel continues at a slow pace – less than 20,000 olim in 1976 – half of them from the USSR. The dropout rate in Vienna is growing. Jews and non-Jews throughout the world continue their activities on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the form of protest rallies, demonstrations and petitions. By 1976, some 50 absorption centers and immigrant hostels are operating around the country, with room for 10,000 olim. Palestinian acts of terror continue in Israel and in the administered territories – mostly the launching of Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into northern Israeli settlements. In a gesture of goodwill Israel provides medical and humanitarian aid to Christians in southern Lebanon at what come to be called the “Good Fence.” 1977 – 1977 is an especially turbulent year for Israel. During the election campaign, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigns and the Labor party is defeated in the general elections. April – The first World Zionist Youth Conference convenes in Jerusalem with the participation of youth both from Israel and the Diaspora. April 7, 1977 Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel’s champion basketball team, wins the European Cup competition. May 17 – After 29 years in power the Labor party (formerly Mapai) loses to the Likud. Menahem Begin is to be the next prime minister of Israel. June 10, 1977 Israeli shipping vessel rescues 66 Vietnamese refugees. As a humanitarian gesture, Israel’s prime minister elect, Menachem Begin, grants them asylum in Israel. June 15, 1977 Israel Airports Authority established. November 19, 1977 Egypt’s president, Anwar el-Sadat, arrives in Israel for a three-day visit. On the day after his arrival he addresses the Knesset and declares a turning point in Egypt’s attitude to Israel and a desire for peace. November 19 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat makes his first visit to Israel – an initial step towards signing a peace agreement with Israel. Israel, the Arab states, and the entire world are stunned. December 12, 1977 Inauguration of the first Jewish school in Madrid since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, in the presence of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel. December 28, 1977 Knesset approves the framework developed by the government for peace talks with Egypt. This includes the concept of autonomy for the Palestinian people. Some 21,500 olim arrived in Israel during 1977. The majority of recent settlement projects were over the green line. Between 1971 and 1977, 44 new settlements were established by the Settlement Division of the WZO. After the 1977 political upheaval, settlement in the territories was expanded. Also during this year – 17,000 youth were educated in Aliyat haNoar (Youth Aliyah) institutions; the Department for Education and Culture in the Diaspora continued its worldwide activities; 60 Hebrew teachers were trained in Jerusalem for work in Jewish communities abroad; more than 2,000 since the beginning of the 1950s. A census taken in 1977 throughout the Jewish world revealed that some 1.2 million Jews are affiliated to a variety of Zionist bodies outside of Israel. 1978 – February 20-March 1 – The Twenty-ninth Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem: the Jerusalem Program is reconfirmed, as are “The Duties of the Individual Zionist.” Other resolutions emphasize the centrality of Israel and the existence of a national Zionist liberation movement – an additional response to the 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism. March 15, 1978 Start of Operation Litani in South Lebanon to crush the terrorist infrastructure and expel it from the border area. May 11 – Israel celebrates 30 years of statehood. Festive gatherings and events take place around the country and in Jewish communities throughout the world. May 15, 1978 Beit Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, inaugurated in Tel Aviv. The Jewish Agency is one of the founding partners. May 15 – Beit HaTefutsoth – the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora – opens in Tel Aviv. July – The USSR puts one of many refuseniks on trial – Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky. The prosecution claims that he betrayed his homeland, spied for the West and distributed anti-Soviet propaganda. Sharansky is sentenced to 13 years in prison – 3 in isolation and 10 in a labor camp. July 11, 1978 Israel’s first modern highway, Road No.1, linking Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, opened. July 17, 1978 Natan Sharansky sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment in USSR. September 18 – The Camp David Accords, constituting a basis for peace between Israel and Egypt, are signed by Israel, Egypt and the United States. December 10 – Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat receive the Nobel Prize for Peace this year. In 1978, aliyah recovers to a great extent and more than 26,000 olim, mostly from the USSR, arrive in Israel. The number would have been greater if not for the massive dropping out (50%) of Soviet Jews in Vienna en route to Israel. The establishment of settlements in Samaria and in the Jordan valley continues, and an operation to establish mitzpim (hilltop settlements) begins in the Galilee. Despite the improved relationship with Egypt, and perhaps because of it, Palestinian terrorists continue to attack Israel, launch Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into Israel’s northern settlements, and harm its citizens. After a serious attack on a bus on the coastal road, the IDF implements the Litani Operation, which aims to destroy the infrastructure of the terrorists in southern Lebanon (March-May 1978). World Jewry responds to the government of Israel’s call to finance a neighborhood rehabilitation campaign. For 15 years Keren Hayesod will invest more than 160 million dollar in rehabilitating 35 underprivileged neighborhoods throughout the country. 1979 – March 26 – Israel and Egypt sign a peace agreement between them after protracted negotiations. April 10 – The Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University reopens after more than 30 years. The campus has been rebuilt and the faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law are located here. June 23 – the two large kibbutz movements – HaKibbutz haMeuhad and the Ihud haKevutzot vehaKibbutzim – amalgamate and establish the United Kibbutz Movement (UKM). June 24 – The Jubilee Assembly of the Jewish Agency – 50 years after the establishment of the Jewish Agency in Zurich, Switzerland – is held in Jerusalem, with the participation of heads of state, Zionist leaders from Israel and the Diaspora and numerous citizens of Israel. In the last two years of the 1970s, some 80,000 Jews are allowed to leave the USSR. Only half of them arrive in Israel. In summing up the decade (1970-1979), 330,000 olim arrive in Israel during these years, 160,000 of them from the USSR, 36,000 from the US, 18,000 from Argentina and 17,000 from France. In 1979, after the Ayotallah Humeini comes to power in Iran, many of the country’s Jews make aliyah. Not all of the Jews who leave Iran, however, go to Israel. 1980 – January 7 – The Zionist Executive convenes in Arad in order to outline the Zionist goals for the 1980s. Arye Dulzin, Chairman of the Executive, is critical of the fact that world Jewry accepted the Jewish Torah but is not willing to accept Zionist fulfillment. January 26 – Israel and Egypt establish full diplomatic ties. February 24 – A new currency in Israel, the shekel, replaces the lira that had been in use since the first days of the State. February 27 – The Coordinating Commission, a joint body of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency, approves the establishment of a national authority for aliyah and absorption, and finally puts and end to the prolonged quarrel between the government absorption office and the Jewish Agency. March 28 – A new law passed in the US facilitates the entry of immigrants into the country. There is a concern in Israel that Jews leaving the USSR who prefer the US to Israel, will take advantage of it. July 30 – The Knesset passes The Jerusalem Law, which declared “complete and united Jerusalem” to be the eternal capital of Israel. There are protests throughout the world. In August, the UN Security Council calls upon all those with diplomatic missions in Jerusalem to withdraw them from the Holy City. Most countries comply and move their embassies to Tel Aviv. October 6 – The Zionist Executive decides to establish a central administration for shlichut. Shlichim (emissaries) who go abroad in the future will not act as emissaries fro the different departments but as emissaries for the WZO or Jewish Agency. Aliyah is declining. In 1980, only 20,000 olim arrive in Israel, a drop of 54% in comparison to the previous year. The dropout phenomenon continues to eat away at aliyah. During the year, 21,500 Jews leave the USSR but only a third go to Israel. The economic situation in Israel is grim. There is galloping inflation, which for the first time passes the 100% mark to reach 131%. 1981 – February 18 – Yosef Mendelevich, a Prisoner of Zion in the USSR and one of the most famous of the refuseniks, arrives in Israel. June 7 – Israel Air Force planes attack and destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor, Osirak. July 13 – The WZO announces the implementation of the Jerusalem Fellows program for the education of Diaspora Jews. The program aims to recruit young Jewish mend and women in the Diaspora and train them in Israel for leadership positions in their communities in the field of Jewish education. November 1 – The Hebrew University opens the new academic year at the Mount Scopus campus after a break of 33 years. December – The Jewish National Fund celebrates its 80th anniversary. During 1981, the JNF dealt with afforestation (planting 20,000 dunams of forest), agricultural land development (40,000 dunams) and building new roads to new settlements (100 kilometers). December 9 – After prolonged contact and discussions, the United Hebrew Immigrant Aid Service (HIAS) agrees to limit aid to the Soviet Jewish dropouts. This raises hope for reducing the dropout rate. December 14 – The Golan law is adopted in the Knesset, extending Israeli sovereignty to the area of the Golan Heights. There are protests throughout the world. During 1981, the training of new teachers and instructors for Diaspora communities continued with 150 teachers completing their studies at Beit HaMidrash leMorim int eh framework of the Department for Torah Education and Culture in the Diaspora, and 109 instructors at the Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad (Machon) of the Youth and Hechalutz Department. Aliyah is at a low point – less than 12,000 olim came during the year. A large percentage of the few Jews that did leave the USSR dropped out along the way. Among the olim who arrived this year were 2,000 Ethiopian Jews, most of whom were transported from the port in Sudan by Israel naval ships; the remainder came by air via Kenya. Throughout the year, many Israeli and Jewish institutions around the world were targets of Palestinian terror. Among them were synagogues and El Al Israel Airlines offices. 1982 – February 8 – the Knesset marks one hundred years since the First Aliyah in a special session. April 25 – The return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt is completed. The city of Yamit is destroyed after a fierce and painful confrontation between IDF soldiers and Yamit residents. May 21 – A plaque is unveiled outside the house in Paris where Theodor Herzl wrote his book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). June 6 – The IDF initiates Operation Peace for Galilee (the Lebanon War). December – Youth Aliyah marks its 50th year with a series of events. December 7-17 – The Thirtieth Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem. It announces that Zionist federations are functioning in 33 countries around the world and that the number of members of the WZO exceeds 1.4 million; that 43 settlements (mitzpim) were established in the Galilee since the previous Congress, as well as settlements in the Golan Heights, Nahal Iron, HaGilboa and the Lachish district. During 1982 some 15,500 olim made aliyah. 1983 – March 15 – An international committee convenes in Jerusalem to discuss the plight of Soviet Jewry. September – Following Prime Minister Menahem Begin’s announcement that he intends to resign (28.8), negotiations begin for the establishment of a new government headed by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. It receives the confidence of the Knesset on October 10. October – Israel’s “banks shares crisis” and “dollar panic.” The Tel Aviv stock exchange closes for eleven days. Throughout the year there were terror attacks against the IDF, which had been deployed in Lebanon since June 1982. In 1983 aliyah recovered to a certain degree and 20,000 olim arrived in Israel. 1984 – The police and security forces uncover a Jewish underground operating in the administered territories. July 23 – Elections to the eleventh Knesset. Due to a stalemate, a national unity government is established. This is based on a rotation arrangement between Shimon Peres of the Labor party, who serves as prime minister for the first two years, and Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud party, who serves as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. At the end of this period, the two must change places. October – The Soviet authorities halt the emigration of Jews almost entirely, despite the fact that tens of thousands of them wish to leave. November – The beginning of Operation Moses, which brings thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in a combined Jewish Agency and Israel government operation. Aid is provided by the US. Some 7,000 olim are transported by air from Sudan to Europe and from there to Israel. After the operation is made public, the government of Sudan forbids the continuation of aliyah via its country. Israel had a difficult year: the fighting in Lebanon continued bringing the number of IDF soldiers killed, since mid-1982, to more than 600. Inflation broke all records an in 1984 reached 374%. After the establishment of the national unity government, painful steps were taken to stabilize the economy. During the year, 23,000 olim arrived in Israel – the largest number in six years. 1985 – January 20 – The IDF forces begin withdrawing from their positions in Lebanon, in accordance with a government decision. Despite this, terror attacks against IDF soldiers in Lebanon continue in the coming months. June 10 – The IDF completes its withdrawal from Lebanon, leaving a small force in the area near Israel’s border – a security zone. July – There is fury among Ethiopian olim due to the rabbinic demand that they convert to Judaism (an Orthodox conversion). September 4 – The New Israel Shekel (NIS) is born. It is worth one thousand old shekels. Aliyah is at an all-time low. Only 12,000 olim arrive this year. Aliyah from the USSR ceases almost entirely due to obstacles and prohibitions created by the Soviet authorities. 1986 – February 11 – The best-known Prisoner of Zion, Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky, is freed from Soviet prison after a prolonged international campaign for his release, led by his wife Avital. He immediately makes aliyah and receives a national welcome. February 27 – John Demanjuk, accused in the US of murdering Jews during World War II, is extradited to Israel to stand trial. October 20 – Yitzhak Shamir replaces Shimon Peres as prime minister for the next two years – in accordance with the rotation agreement of the national unity government – until the next general elections. Aliyah is at its lowest point in 40 years: only 11,000 olim arrive. Two thousand jews are allowed to leave the UUSR; only 209 make aliyah to Israel. 1987 – February 16 – John Demanjuk’s trail begins in Jerusalem. March – In light of a policy of great openness in the USSR (glasnost), initiated by President Gorbachev, aliyah from that country increases. March 27, 1987 Tens of refuseniks in the USSR participate in a Passover seder in the American Embassy in Moscow; a central event in the struggle to open the gates to immigration. April 6, 1987 First visit of an Israeli president to Germany: President Chaim Herzog hosted by President Richard von Weizsacker. April – Throughout April, 700 Jews are allowed to leave the USSR. Only a quarter reach Israel. April 13 – Dozens of aliyah refuseniks participate in a Pesach Seder that is held in the US embassy in Moscow, with the participation of US Secretary of State George Shultz. October 13, 1987 Ida Nudel, former prisoner for Zion and refusenik, arrives in Israel after a prolonged struggle to leave USSR. December 6-10 – The Thirty-first Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem, where it is reported that since the previous Congress in late 1982, 90 new settlements have been established by the Agricultural Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency and Settlement Division of the WZO, 38 in Judea and Samaria, eight in the Jordan Valley, seven in the Gaza Strip, 24 in the Golan Heights and the Galilee, 11 in the Negev and the Arava, and two in the center of the country. It is also reported that during the ten years of Project Renewal, 87 neighborhoods were rehabilitated, that the number of members in different Zionist organizations worldwide stands at over 1.5 million, that hundreds of shlichim from Israel operate around the world in the fields of education, youth leadership and aliyah, and that aliyah came to a standstill during the 1980s and suffered, among other things, from the worst dropout rate of Soviet Jewish emigrants. The Zionist Congress calls all the Jewish, Zionist and other Appeals connected in some way to Israel, to preserve, support and strengthen the senior status of Keren Hayesod as an expression of the centrality of Israel in the life of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora. December 9 – Serious disturbances in the Gaza Strip, symbolizing the beginning of the Palestinian intifada (uprising). Aliyah in 1987 stands at 14,000. Among the new arrivals are Prisoners of Zion and aliyah refuseniks from the USSR, including Yuli Edelstein, Ida Nudel and Vladimir Slepak. 1988 – The relationship between Israel and the USSR improves, especially with regard to aliyah. March 19, 1988 Soviet authorities allow an Israeli plane to fly over its territory for the first time, a sign of perestroika and the changing Soviet attitude to Israel and the Jews.
April 21 – Israel celebrates its 40th Independence Day and ceremonies and events are held in Jewish communities throughout the world. April 25 – John Demanjuk is convicted in the Jerusalem District Court of crimes against the Jewish nation, and sentenced to death by hanging. He appeals to the Supreme Court of Justice. The 1988 index stands at 16.3%, the lowest for many years. Aliyah during 1988 is still low – 16,000. More Jews are allowed to leave the USSR but many still drop out en route to Israel. 1989 – January – News reaches Israel that a great aliyah can be expected from the USSR, which is now pursuing a liberal and open policy under the leadership of its president, Mikhail Gorbachev. March – El Al Israel Airlines opens two air routes to Eastern European countries – Poland and Hungary. Rumors abound regarding the possibility of approval of direct flights for olim from the USSR to Israel. A difficult year in the struggle against Palestinian terror, with many terror attacks in Israel, the administered territories and in southern Lebanon. There is a significant improvement in the aliyah rate. In 1989, 24,600 olim arrive in Israel, an increase of 50% in comparison to the previous year, and the largest number for ten years. Towards the end of the year, olim begin arriving from the USSR in overwhelming numbers. In December alone, more than 4,000 Jews make aliyah; just a hint of what is to come in 1990. 1990 – During the first months of the year, increased numbers of Soviet Jews arrive in Israel on a weekly basis. June 12 – The 50,000th oleh of 1990 arrives in Israel. In light of this enormous number, matters relating to aliyah, absorption and housing occupy the Israeli public. July – As aliyah increases, so too do demonstrations by Israel’s homeless, who set up encampments in city centers in order to protest what they consider the favoring of olim over native Israelis. Keren Hayesod marks its 70th year. It operates around the world and in Israel, raising money for aliyah, absorption, settlement and development enterprises. August 2 – Iraq invades Kuwait and occupies it, a move that leads to the Gulf War at the beginning of 1991. September 11 – Aliyah is at a high point – 100,000 olim have arrived since the beginning of the year, almost all from the USSR. October – Israel imports thousands of temporary structures (caravans) in order to cope with the housing problem created by the influx of increasingly large numbers of olim. On October 30, the first caravan neighborhood is inaugurated in Bat Yam. There is public criticism regarding the building of new ma’abarot (immigrant transit camps). November – During this month, 26,562 olim arrive in Israel, 95% of them from the USSR. December 23 – Israel and the USSR agree on consular relations between them, a sign of improved relations between the countries. This, of course, affects aliyah. During the last week of December 1990, 1,500 new olim arrive daily – a total of 36,000, and an all-time record for a single month. December 31 – The 200,000th oleh of 1990 arrives in Israel. He is Igor Goldfarb, a 25-year-old engineer from the USSR. Only in 1949 had Israel witnessed aliyah on such a scale, when 239,000 olim arrived in one year. In 1990, the Jewish Agency initiates the First Home in the Homeland project in which thousands of new olim are absorbed directly into the country’s kibbutzim. The project combines kibbutz ulpan (Hebrew classes) with initial preparations for living and working in the kibbutz or a city. Dozens of Jewish Agency shlichim are sent to large Jewish population centers in the USSR to aid in the aliyah of Jews to Israel. Keren Hayesod marks 70 years to its founding, while Operation Exodus – the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union – is getting underway. (Some one million people will make aliyah by 2001.) 1991 – January 17-February 28 – The Gulf War begins. Israel does not participate in the war but is bombarded by Iraqi Scud missiles (39). Although this results in serious damage to property, there are relatively few casualties. May 25, 1991 Completion of Operation Solomon, the airlift to Israel of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews in 36 El Al and IDF airplanes in as many hours.
August 22, 1991 First pair of F-16 aircraft received by the Israel Air Force in a special ceremony. October 7, 1991 First direct flight from USSR to Israel brings 150 new immigrants. October 18, 1991 USSR renews diplomatic relations with Israel after severing them 24 years earlier during the Six Day War. October 30, 1991 Peace Conference meets in Madrid under the auspices of the USA and USSR, with the participation of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Participants disperse after five days without setting a time or place for the next meeting. October – Aliyah from the USSR continues on a large scale. On October 7, the world is witness to the first direct flight of olim from the USSR to Israel. December 16, 1991 General Assembly of the United Nations votes by 111 to 25 that Zionism is not racism, thereby rescinding the resolution to that effect passed in 1975. December 16 – The UN Assembly rescinds its anti-Zionist resolution of 1975, determining by a large majority (111 in favor, 25 against) that Zionism is not racism. The Jewish National Fund celebrates its 90th anniversary. During 1991, some 170,000 olim arrive in Israel, mostly from the USSR, which has broken up and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). February 16, 1992 Death of Menachem Begin, former prime minister, commander of IZL (pre-state underground movement) during the struggle for the creation of the state, leader of Revisionist movement and Likud. February 18, 1992 Ma’ale Adumim, settlement established east of Jerusalem, becomes a town.
June 23 – An upset in elections to the 13th Knesset. The Likud loses power and the Labor party, headed by Yitzhak Rabin, forms the next government. July 26-30 – The Thirty-second Zionist congress convenes in Jerusalem and discussions focus on renewed aliyah from the CIS and changes in the former USSR. It is announced that aliyah from the CIS is continuing at a considerable rate and that 60 Jewish Agency shlichim have been sent to 24 cities and 14 centers of activity around the CIS. It is also reported that the Youth and Hechalutz Department is active in 220 communities in the Diaspora, which has resulted in increased numbers of youth movement graduates among olim from Western countries. At this Congress it is decided to establish a committee to examine the structure of the WZO, and a committee to examine the system of elections to the Congress. It is also decided to strengthen the involvement of the Zionist movement in the lives of Jewish communities around the world, including in the CIS and in Eastern Europe. The Congress re-acknowledges the Hungarian Zionist Federation, which has renewed its activities after years of Communist rule. August – There are initial signs of reduced unemployment, which rose significantly with the arrival of the most recent wave of aliyah. Economists estimate that the Israeli economy is recovering and that many olim are finding jobs. 1992 is the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain. The Department for Sephardi and Oriental Communities of the WZO holds a series of events in Israel and abroad to mark the occasion. October – Dozens of olim arrive from Bosnia, where battles are raging between Serbs and Bosnians. December 14 – Almost 32 years after the Egoz sank near the Moroccan coast, the remains of the deceased are brought to Israel (with the approval of King Hassan), and re-interred at Mount Herzl in a state ceremony. During 1992, 71,000 olim arrive in Israel, most of them from the former USSR. 1993 – March – A wave of Palestinian terror sweeps the country and the administered territories, including stabbings and stonings. A full closure is placed on the administered territories. July 25-30 – The IDF embarks upon Operation Accountability following continued Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israeli settlements, and heavily bombards Hizbullah bases north of the security zone in southern Lebanon. July 29 – The Supreme Court of Justice acquits Ivan Demanjuk for lack of conclusive evidence and orders him banished from Israel. August 23, 1993 After secret talks in Oslo, Israel and the PLO sign the draft of a Declaration of Understanding. August 30 – There is great surprise in Israel, the Arab world and the administered territories when it is discovered that Israel and the PLO have been holding secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway and have arrived at an agreement based on the withdrawal of IDF troops from “Gaza and Jericho first.” September 13, 1993 Framework agreement signed in Washington between Israel and PLO that includes mutual recognition, establishment of a Palestinian Authority, and transfer of parts of the West Bank and Gaza to its control. September 13 – Israel and the PLO sign a Declaration of Principles in Washington. This contains a set of mutually agreed-upon general principles regarding the five-year interim period of Palestinian self-rule, which will begin upon Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area. October-December – Terror attacks continue in Israel, the administered territories and in southern Lebanon. During 1993, 77,000 olim arrived in Israel, mostly from the USSR. 1994 – October 26 – After several months of discussions, a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan is signed. US President Bill Clinton attends the event, which is held in the Arava, north of Eilat. December 10 – The Nobel Peace Prize for 1994 is awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. Eighty thousand olim arrived in Israel during 1994. 1995 – A very tense year in Israel. Terror attacks continue and tension is high between supporters and opponents of negotiations with the Palestinians. The latter demonstrate, block roads and even threaten important public figures. September 20 – Oslo 2 is signed. The PLO commits to canceling the Palestinian Covenant, and the IDF commits to withdrawing from six cities in Judea and Samaria (Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem, Kalkiliya, Ramallah and Bethlehem). November 4 – Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated when leaving a mass peace rally in Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square. His murderer is Yigal Amir, a Jewish law student at Bar-Ilan University. In 1995, 77,000 olim arrived in Israel. During the year the economic situation improved, the standard of living increased and unemployment dropped. Inflation stood at 8.1%, the lowest for 26 years. 1996 – April – Israel mounts Operation Grapes of Wrath in southern Lebanon following Katyusha rocket attacks on targets in the Galilee. The IDF attacks Hizbullah positions with artillery and fighter planes. May 29 – The 1996 general elections introduce a new feature to the system – the direct election of the prime minister: in addition to voting for one’s party, the electorate can also cast a ballot for one of the candidates for prime minister. Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud defeats Shimon Peres of Labor by a small majority to form the new government. Among the surprises: the success of the Israel beAliyah party (most of whose members are olim from the CIS) in winning eight seats in the Knesset. The educational focus in schools during the 1996 academic year is “One Hundred Years of Zionism.” Ceremonies and events are held to mark the Jubilee all over Israel as well as in WZO centers in the Diaspora. August – Many fires destroy JNF forests – the result of arson by Palestinians. September – The Jewish National Fund formulates a plan to deal with the fires. December – The fighting between IDF troops stationed in southern Lebanon and the Hizbullah increases. Katyusha rockets fall on northern settlements. Seventy thousand olim arrive in Israel during the year, mostly from the CIS. Among the arrivals is a large group of Jews from war-torn Chechnya, who were rescued at great risk. 1997 – January 17 – The IDF redeploys in the city of Hebron, in accordance with the Hebron Accord between the government of Israel, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, and the PLO. Israel completes its withdrawal from the main towns in Judea and Samaria, in accordance with Oslo 2. February 5 – Banks in Switzerland establish a fund of 100 million francs to compensate the descendants of Jews who deposited money with them but did not survive the Holocaust. July 14 – The 15th Maccabiah begins in Ramat Gan. The opening ceremony is overshadowed by a grave disaster: while the Australian delegation crosses a temporary bridge above the polluted Yarkon River on its way to the stadium, the bridge collapses. Four members of the delegation die and many more are injured. December 23 – The Thirty-third Zionist Congress is held in Jerusalem, marking 100 years to the establishment of the WZO. Discussions focus on the controversy between the different streams in Judaism, especially in the United States. In 1997, 66,000 olim arrive in Israel, mostly from the USSR. According to the World Zionist Congress, the damage caused to Jews in World War II amounts to between 230 and 320 billion dollars. 1998 – April 30 – Israel celebrates its 50th Independence Day with a series of festive ceremonies. Many tourists and guests arrive from abroad, including representatives of Jewish communities and Zionist federations. August 12 – A federal court in New York rules that banks in Switzerland must pay 1.25 billion dollars to Holocaust survivors. October 15-23 – Israeli-Palestinian peace talks take place at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, US, presided over by President Bill Clinton. A new agreement is reached between Netanyahu and Arafat for moving the peace process forward. November 16 – The annual assembly of Jewish federations in the US (the General Assembly – GA) is held in Jerusalem for the first time, in honor of Israel’s Jubilee. December 14 – The Palestine National Council meets in Gaza and nullifies the articles of the Palestine National Charter that call for the elimination of Israel. Guest of honor at this gathering is US President Bill Clinton. In Israel doubts are expressed regarding the reliability of such a decision. Fighting in southern Lebanon continues throughout the year, with many shooting incidents in the administered territories. In 1998, 56,000 olim arrive in Israel – 46,000 (82%) of them from the CIS. More than 3,100 olim arrive from Ethiopia (5.5%). 1999 – During the year, the Birthright program takes shape, which aims to enable every Jewish boy and girl from the Diaspora to visit Israel. It is funded by the Jewish Agency, the State of Israel and a number of Jewish-American donors. February – Tension increases between secular and religious Jews (particularly Orthodox) in Israel. On February 14, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox demonstrate in Jerusalem against court rulings regarding State and religion. May 17 – In elections to the 15th Knesset, Ehud Barak, the Labor party nominee, is elected prime minister with a 56% majority. His opponent, Netanyahu, announces his retirement from political life. June – The Assembly and Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency convene in Jerusalem. Sallai Meridor replaces Avraham burg as Chairman of the Executive. Simultaneously, the World Zionist Youth Congress takes place in Jerusalem with the participation of 150 representatives from throughout the Jewish world. October – Barak’s new government expresses a willingness to reach an agreement with the Palestinians as soon as possible, and is prepared to make sacrifices. November – An Aliyah Fair (Expo Israel 99) takes place in Buenos Aires to offer potential immigrants concrete aliyah and job opportunities in Israel. It is visited by 13,000 Argentinean Jews. The number of olim rose this year – 77,000 – 90% of them from the CIS. Some 17,000 Jewish youth from around the world visited Israel during 1999 in the framework of the Jewish Agency’s Israel Experience programs. One thousand Israeli youth leaders left for Jewish camps throughout the world. The educational activities of the Jewish Agency were advertised in dozens of countries worldwide; 90,000 Jews in the CIS participated in these activities during the year. December – End of the year, the decade, the century and the millennium. In Israel there are 6.15 million inhabitants, 4.85 million of whom are Jews (79%). The number of Jews in Israel at the end of the 20th century is almost one hundred times more than at the beginning of the century in Eretz Israel (50,000). There are many anti-Semitic incidents around the world, most of which, especially in Europe, are carried out by Muslims. 2000 – February – The Jewish Agency’s People-to-People Center opens, which aims to connect affinity groups and professional communities in Israel and the Diaspora on a one to one and group basis. February 7 – The Executive of the Jewish Agency initiates activities for condemning the establishment of a right wing national government in Austria and calls for world Jewry not to holiday in Austria and not to hold Jewish conventions there. May 24 – The IDF withdraws from southern Lebanon. This marks the end of Israel’s military involvement in Lebanon, which began in June 1982. September – The Palestinians increase their terror activities, which continue even today despite mediation attempts by the US, the UN and European countries. During the year, the Partnership 2000 program, initiated by the Jewish Agency, breaks off into different departments. Among the new initiatives are the People-to-People Center, a cultural center for the Diaspora, and the Jewish world on the Internet. Some of the programs are operated in cooperation with other departments of the Jewish Agency. 2001 – February 6 – In elections for prime minister, Ariel Sharon of the Likud defeats Ehud Barak of Labor by a 64% majority and establishes a new, broad government. During the first half of the year, 91 delegations leave for different countries – 66 to the East and 25 to the West, in the framework of a Jewish Agency-WZO campaign to promote aliyah. April-May – During April and May, ten aliyah fairs are held in the CIS. June 1 – Twenty-one new immigrant youth from the CIS are murdered in a vicious suicide bombing at the entrance to a nightclub near the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv – a popular place of entertainment for teenage olim from the CIS; 105 are injured. The Jewish Agency helps bring family members of the deceased to Israel. IT also helps their families in Israel and waives the loans given them upon their arrival in Israel in the framework of the “absorption basket” (sal klitah). June 24 – The government of Israel and the Jewish Agency begin a national project for the improvement of the absorption conditions of Ethiopian olim. Some 660 million dollars is to be invested over a period of nine years to advance education and employment and cultivate leadership and volunteering in this community. June 26 – One thousand Jewish leaders from around the world participate in the Jewish Agency Assembly, which resolves to embark on a solidarity campaign under the slogan – “Israel Now.” This is a direct result of Palestinian terror attacks, which have had an adverse effect on the country. July-August – one hundred and twenty years to the First Aliyah – the beginning of settlement – is marked in Israel. A number of events are held at Degania – “the mother of the kibbutzim.” August – During the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, there are attempts to depict Israel and Zionism in a negative light. This is a Palestinian initiative meant to punish Israel for its activities in the administered territories. The Jewish Agency retaliates in order to repair the image of Israel – a sovereign and democratic country, acting within the law, whose historic right to exist is being threatened. September 1 – Elections to the Thirty-fourth Zionist Congress begin around the world. They continue until mid-December 2001.
September 30 – In the shadow of the US terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a group of major Jewish donors, who have been asked to help Israel in its war against terror, convene in New York. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaks at the convention (by video phone from Jerusalem) while Sallai Meridor, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, attends in person. Participants announce their commitment to donate 60 million dollars. October – A terrible tragedy in the Black Sea. More than 50 Israeli citizens, almost all new immigrants, are lost when a Russian plane crashes en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. The Jewish Agency flies family members to the crash site, providing assistance in identifying the bodies of their loved ones. In Russia and in Israel, the Jewish Agency sets up incident rooms and initiates special broadcasts on Kol Israel’s (the Voice of Israel’s) Reka radio network in order to notify the families. October 23 – Five new partnerships between cities in Israel and Jewish communities around the world are launched in the framework of Partnership 2000. At the BOG Assembly of the Jewish Agency, the following partnerships are announced: Netanya – Cincinnati (USA); Ramle and the Gezer regional council – Kansas City (USA); Ashkelon – Mexico; Nahariya – Belgium; Shoham – Venezuela. November 21 – A new religious settlement for 300 families – Halukim – is founded in the Negev with the help of the Jewish Agency. December – The Jewish National Fund marks its 100th anniversary with a series of ceremonies and events. The Jewish Agency, together with Keren Hayesod, the United Jewish Communities and the government of Israel, initiate the Confrontation Line project. It is a three-year plan and involves an investment of 80 million dollars to aid settlements and individuals living near Israel’s confrontation lines, following the withdrawal of IDF forces from Lebanon. Palestinian terror activities intensify in Israel and in the administered territories and suicide bombings cause many Israeli casualties. Between September 2000 and the end of 2001, 300 Israelis were killed; some 90 were soldiers; 78 were new olim. Few olim – only 43,000 – arrived in Israel during 2001. 2002 – January – At the initiative of the Jewish Agency, the State of Israel agrees to encourage aliyah from Argentina, France and South Africa. The Jewish Agency prepares for increased aliyah, especially from Argentina due to the harsh economic situation there. Keren Hayesod partially funds these operations. March 7 – The Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency approves changes in its composition. The main change is the addition of a large number of Israeli public figures – including journalists, industrialists and economists – regardless of their political affiliation. April – The IDF launches the Defensive Wall (Homat Magen) operation against terrorist bases in areas under Palestinian Authority control. Tough battles are fought, especially in the Jenin refugee camp. Terrorist attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers decrease dramatically. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, is besieged for a number of weeks in his Ramallah headquarters. April-May – Anti-Israel demonstrations take place throughout the world. In response, Diaspora Jews demonstrate their solidarity for Israel: two large solidarity rallies of hundreds of thousands are held in Washington and New York, and thousands of Jews demonstrate in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, etc. |