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Britain seizes Palestine from Ottomans.
Gives support to "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration, along with an insistence that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities". -
San Remo
San Remo Allied Powers conference grants Palestine to Britain as a mandate, to prepare it for self-rule. European Jewish migration, which increased in the 19th century, continues. -
Britain separates Transjordan
Britain separates Transjordan from Mandate Palestine, forbids Jewish settlement in former. -
British government
British government White Paper seeks to limit Jewish migration to Palestine to 10,000 per year, excepting emergencies. -
Nazi Holocaust
Nazi Holocaust of the Jews in Europe prompts efforts at mass migration to Palestine. Jewish armed groups in pursuit of independent Jewish state fight British authorities. -
United Nations
United Nations recommends partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with international control over Jerusalem and its environs. -
Israel declares independence
Israel declares independence as British mandate ends. Admitted to United Nations. -
First Arab-Israeli war
Armistice agreements leave Israel with more territory than envisaged under the Partition Plan, including western Jerusalem. Jordan annexes West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, Egypt occupies Gaza. Around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs either flee or are expelled out of their total population of about 1,200,000. -
Period: to
Centre-left dominates coalition governments
initially under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (1948-54; 1955-63). Promotes a self-sufficient, agrarian and secular Jewish democracy with a non-aligned foreign policy. -
Period: to
Jewish refugees
Up to a million Jewish refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, plus 250,000 Holocaust survivors, settle in Israel. -
Period: to
Israel colludes with Britain and France
srael colludes with Britain and France to invade Egypt during the Suez Crisis, in order to re-open canal to Israeli shipping and end armed incursions by Palestinians from Sinai. UN buffer force set up in Sinai and Gaza, Israeli shipping allowed through Suez Canal. -
Israel begins to build a large nuclear reactor
Israel begins to build a large nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert, with French assistance. This becomes the basis for the country's officially unconfirmed nuclear weapons programme ten years later. -
Trial and execution
Trial and execution -
Improving relations and concerns
Improving relations and concerns -
National Water Carrier completed
National Water Carrier completed, to bring water from the River Jordan to the Negev. Tensions rise with Arab neighbours over Jordan water allocations. -
SY Agnon
SY Agnon is joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.