Jews in Palestine Timeline

Legend: 

Blue: Population of Palestine

Gold: Attempted/successful Immigration to Palestine

Red: Palestinian Conflict
Purple: Promises/Agreements/Commissions

Black: Events Outside of Palestine

1700
1,500 followers of Yehudah Ḥasid travel to Jerusalem. Many die during the journey. Roughly 1,000 arrive in Jerusalem in October 1700.*

1740
Ḥayyim ben Jacob Abulafia begins rebuilding Tiberias which had been in ruins for almost 70 years after Sheikh Dahir al-ʿAmr, ruler of Galilee, invites him to “come up and take possession of the land”*

1770-1786
Jews expelled from Jedda, Saudi Arabia*

1775
Hebron — Mob attacks take place after Jews are falsely accused of murdering the son of a local sheikh. At first the Sheikh demands to kill all the Jews but after pleas settles on a large fine that nearly destroys the community.*

1790
Jews are massacred in Tetuán, Morocco*

April 20, 1799
Napoleon writes a proclamation calling for a Jewish homeland in Palestine before being defeated at Acre**

1825 to 1855
Nicholas I ascends to the Imperial Russian throne
During his 30-year reign, he passes 600 decrees against Jews*
Nicholas conscripts 50,000 child soldiers (“cantonists”) in an effort to forcibly Russify/Christianize them*

June 15, 1834 to July 18, 1834
Pogroms of Safed. 500+ Jews killed. Synagogues looted/burned.**

August 1838
Second wave of pogroms of Safed*

1850 Jewish Population of Palestine: 13,000*

1862
Spiritual leader Abba Mahari leads thousands of members of the Ethiopian Jewish community Beta Israel on a journey toward the Red Sea, in order to reach Jerusalem. The journey fails; many perish and those who remain are forced to turn around.*

February 1863
HaLevanon, first Hebrew-language newspaper published in Palestine**

1880 Jewish Population of Palestine: 24,000*

1881-1882
Alexander II assassinated; anti-Jewish violence is reported in more than 200 Jewish settlements*

First Aliyah: 1882–1903

1890 Jewish population of Palestine: 43,000*

1891-1892
30,000 Jews expelled from Moscow*

1871 to 1900
800,000+ Jews leave Eastern Europe*

1901 to 1914
1.6 million Jews leave Eastern Europe, the overwhelming majority from the Russian Empire (about 2 million) and Galicia (350,000)*

1903
•The Protocols of the Elders of Zion published*
•Kishinev pogrom - 49 Jews killed, 600 injured, 1,500 homes damaged*

1905
•Britain passes the Aliens Act, targeted primarily at limiting Jewish immigration* •25,000+ Jews are killed; 100,000+ Jews injured; 3,000+ shops looted, 1,500+ homes burnt/looted/demolished in an estimated 600+ pogroms in Russia**

Second Aliyah: 1904–1914

1914 Jewish population of Palestine: 94,000*

November 1914
Ottoman Empire enters WWI on the side of the Central Powers

1914 to 1918
World War I
Allied Powers - France, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, United States, Japan
vs
Central Power - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire
The Allied Powers win

1915
McMahon-Hussein correspondence – Britain offers Sharif Hussein of Mecca support for an Arab State including Palestine*

May 1916
Sykes-Picot Agreement – Britain, France, and Russia make a secret agreement to divide up the Middle East between them*

April 6, 1917
Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation
8,000 Jews expelled from Jaffa and Tel Aviv resulting in roughly 1,500 deaths*

November 9, 1917
Balfour Declaration published in the press – Britain, in promising support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine also promises to safeguard the rights of the Arab population*

1918
Anglo-French Declaration – Britain and France promise independence to the former subjects of the Ottoman Turks, including Palestine*

1918 to 1922
100,000+ Jews killed in 1,100 pogroms, mostly in Ukraine**

Third Aliyah: 1919–1923
40,000 Jews arrive in Palestine, mostly from Russia and Poland

1920's to 1940's Canada restricts Jewish immigration**

March 1, 1920

Battle of Tel Hai
8 Jews, 5 Arabs killed
Started by Arabs*

April 4-7, 1920
Nebi Musa riots
Shouts from the crowd of “We will drink the blood of the Jews”*
5 Jews, 4 Arabs killed; 216 Jews, 18 Arabs, 7 Britons wounded
Started by Arabs*

April 25, 1920
Britain granted a Mandate for Palestine at the San Remo Conference*

May 1921
US enacts Emergency Quota Act, limiting migration 

May 1921
Jaffa riots
48 Arabs killed by British police, 47 Jews killed by Arabs; 140 Jews, 73 Arabs wounded
Started by Arabs*

1922 Jewish population of Palestine: 93,360*

Fourth Aliyah: 1924–1928
80,000 Jews arrive in Palestine, mostly from the newly-formed Soviet Union and from Poland.
23,000 leave due to poor economic conditions.

August 1929
Palestine riots
133 Jews killed/mutilated by Arabs, 116 Arabs killed; 339 Jews, 232 Arabs wounded
Started by Arabs**

•Includes these mass killings:
  >Hebron massacre (August 24) - 67 Jews killed
  >Safed massacre (August 29) - 18 Jews killed

Fifth Aliyah: 1929–1939
340,000 Jews flee Poland, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia
Around 100,000 flee to countries subsequently conquered by Nazis and most are killed

1931 Jewish population of Palestine: 176,468*

April 1931
3 Jews killed by Syrian group Black Hand*

Dec 1932
2 Jews killed by Syrian group Black Hand*

The Emigration of Polish Jews in the 1930s*

1933 •Latin American countries limit Jewish immigration* •Australia limits immigration to those of British origin*

August 3-5 1934
Constantine riots - Algeria
25 Jews and 3 Muslims killed, roughly 200 people injured, several Jewish businesses and homes destroyed or looted

September 15, 1935
"Nuremberg Laws": first anti-Jewish racial laws enacted; Jews no longer considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans; nor could they fly the German flag.

July 12, 1936
Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.

April 15 to October 1936
Arab opposition to Jewish immigration results in 187 Muslims, 80 Jews, and 10 Christians killed. Most Muslims killed by British*

July 1937
Peel Commission recommends partitioning Palestine*

1938
British put down the Arab Revolt. The violence leaves 206 Jewish civilians, 454 Arab civilians, and 175 Mandate authority employees dead. In addition, British troops kill 1,138 armed Arab insurgents.*

October 2, 1938
Tiberias massacre
19 Jews killed, including 11 children*

November 9, 1938
Kristallnacht – In Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland: 200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration camps.*

1939 Jewish population of Palestine: 457,973*

February 1939
Jewish Irgun members kill 33 Arabs in multiple attacks*

May 1939
The British government issues the White Paper restricting Jewish immigration to 75,000 over the next five years before cutting it off entirely-thereby guaranteeing a two-thirds Arab majority in the country. It also restricts the transfer of land and promises the creation of a Palestinian state within 10 years.*

June 2 and 19, 1939
Jewish Irgun members kill 25 Arabs in Haifa*

June 1939
The German ocean liner St. Louis leaves Havana, Cuba, and returns to Europe after being denied entry by Cuba, the United States, and Canada. The ship carried over 900 Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany and were seeking to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. The ship would return to Europe where 254 passengers would die in the Holocaust.

September 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland, beginning WWII

September 9, 1940
Italian Air Force bombs Tel Aviv, killing 130 Jews and 7 Arabs*

June 1-2, 1941
Farhud - Iraq
More than 180 Jews killed and 1,000 injured. 900 Jewish homes destroyed.*

February 1941
Opinion poll in Palestine conducted by Sari Sakakini finds that 88% of Palestinian Arabs favor Nazi Germany in the war*

March 1942 to November 1943 Operation Reinhard — Nazis kill 1.7 million Jews in killing centers of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka* By 1943, Nazis had killed roughly 80% of the 6 million Jews they would kill during the Holocaust*

May 15 – July 9, 1944 Hungarian gendarmerie officials, under the guidance of German SS officials, deport around 440,000 Jews from Hungary. Most are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where, upon arrival and after selection, SS functionaries kill the majority of them in gas chambers.*

November 2-3 1945
Anti-Jewish riots, Egypt
5 Jews killed, 300 wounded*

November 5-7, 1945
140+ Jews killed and many more injured in a pogrom in Tripolitania, Libya*

Winter 1945
UNRRA staff workers distribute a questionnaire among 19,000 Jewish DPs (displaced persons), finding that 18,700 list "Palestine" as their first choice for emigration. They find that 98% also write "Palestine" as their second choice. Staff members administer another questionnaire, asking DPs not to repeat "Palestine" as their second choice. Instead, a quarter write "crematorium."*

July 4, 1946
Kielce pogrom, Poland
42 Jews massacred and ~50 more wounded. The event touches off a mass migration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and other countries of eastern and central Europe.*

1945–1948 The Brichah ("escape") organization moves more than 100,000 Jews past British patrols and illegally into Palestine.*

July 22, 1946
King David Hotel bombing
Jewish Irgun members kill 91, including 41 Arabs, 28 Britons, and 17 Jews; 40-45 wounded*

1946 population of Palestine: Jewish 602,586 (32%) | Muslim 1,181,000 (60%)*

November 29, 1947
UN adopts the Israel-Palestine partition plan

November 30, 1947
Fajja Bus attack
7 Jews killed in two incidents by gunfire*

November 1947 - May 1948
Palestinian Civil War
•895 Jews, 991 Arabs, 123 Britons killed*
•Includes these mass killings:
  >December 30, 1947: Haifa Oil Refinery massacre - 40 Jewish workers killed*
  >January 1, 1948: Balad al-Shaykh massacre - 60 Arabs killed*
  >January 5, 1948: Semiramis Hotel bombing - 20 Arabs killed*
  >January 15,1948: Convoy of 35 - 35 Jews killed*
  >February 22, 1948: Ben Yehuda Street bombing - 55 Jews killed*
  >March 31, 1948: Cairo-Haifa train bombing - 40 Arabs killed, 60 Arabs wounded
  >April 9, 1948: Deir Yassin massacre - 100-254 Arabs killed
  >April 13, 1948: Hadassah convoy massacre - 78 Jews (nurses, doctors, and patients) killed
  >May 3, 1948: Ein al Zeitun massacre - 37-70 Arab prisoners killed
  >May 13, 1948: Kfar Etzion massacre - 127-157 Jews killed
  >May 13-14, 1948: Abu Shusha massacre - 60-70 Arabs killed*

Dec 3, 1947
•Jerusalem riots — 8 Jews killed*
•Aden riots, Yemen — 82 Jews, 33 Arabs, 4 Muslim Indians, and one Somali killed as well as wide-scale devastation of the local Jewish community of Aden*
•Aleppo Pogrom, Syria — 75 Jews killed and several hundred wounded. 10 synagogues, 5 schools, an orphanage and a youth club, along with several Jewish shops and 150 houses destroyed.*

December 12-13, 1947
Jewish militants/Irgun/Haganah members kill 69 Arabs, wound 15 in five separate attacks*

December 24-29, 1947
31 Jews killed, 21 Arabs, 2 Britons killed in five skirmishes*

December 30, 1947
Haifa Oil Refinery massacre
Arabs beat 39 Jews to death and wound 49 after an Irgun bombing which killed 6*

December 31, 1947
Hajj Amin al-Husayni — the main authority figure in the region of Palestine and active Nazi collaborator — organizes the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem*

May 14, 1948
•British Mandate of Palestine ends
•Israel declares itself a state

May 15, 1948 to July 20, 1949

Palestine War
•Armies from five countries (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Transjordan) join the Arab-Jewish civil war, siding against Israel.
•The newly-created state of Israel loses 1% of its population, including 2,000 Holocaust survivors, defeating the Arab armies.*
•4,000 Israeli troops and 2,373 civilians killed; ~10,000 Arabs killed, roughly 800 being civilians (estimates of Arab casualties vary widely).
•~700,000 Arabs flee or are forced out of Israel in the course of the war. 156,000 Arabs stay.
•10,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip are driven out or killed and their communities, homes, and property destroyed or confiscated.*