First published in Great Britain in 2019 by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
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Pen and Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Gerry van Tonder, 2019
ISBN 978 1 52672 869 2
eISBN 978 1526 72 870 8
Mobi ISBN 978 1526 72 871 5
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TIMELINE
1517
Four centuries of Turkish rule over Palestine commence.
1840
15 July: The Convention of London is signed between the United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia and Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire on the other, offering Khedive Mohammed Ali the Sanjak (prefecture) of Acre, in what is now Israel.
1896
14 February: Theodor Herzl, considered to be the founder of modern Zionism and the father of the modern state of Israel, releases Der Judenstaat , a publication advocating a Jewish homeland.
1897
2931 August: The inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization is held at Basel, Switzerland.
1904
July: Upon the death of Theodor Herzl, a Ukrainian-born Jew, Zeev (born Vladimir) Jabotinsky assumes leadership of the right-wing Zionists.
1905
In Russia, Zeev Jabotinsky calls on Europes Jews to consolidate and demand autonomous rights for minority ethnic groups.
1908
On behalf of the World Zionist Organisation, Zeev Jabotinsky takes up the position of editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Jeune Turc in Constantinople.
1915
Russian-born Jew and Zionist activist Joseph Trumpeldor forms the 650-strong volunteer Zion Mule Corps within the British Army, with the objective of helping the British wrest Palestine from the Ottoman Empire.
1916
26 May: After participating in the Gallipoli campaign, the Zion Mule Corps is disbanded.
Zeev Jabotinsky, Theodor Trumpeldor and 120 former members of the Zion Mule Corps join 16 Platoon, 20th Battalion, London Regiment.
1917
August: The British Army formally raises five battalions of Jewish volunteers, designated the 38th42nd (Service Battalions), Royal Fusiliers, and unofficially referred to as the Jewish Legion.
2 November: British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, in a letter to Lord Rothschild, declares his countrys sympathy with Zionist aspirations, adding that the government is in favour of an independent Jewish state in Palestine.
9 December: Jerusalem surrenders to British general, Edmund Allenby.
28 December: Colonel Ronald Storrs is appointed military governor of Jerusalem.
19 20
1 March: Yosef Trumpeldor and five other Jews are shot and killed in a shootout between Jewish settlers and several hundred Arabs at Tel Hai.
47 April: Palestinian Arabs riot against Jews in Jerusalems Old City during the Muslim festival of Nebi Musa, the name of what is believed to be the tomb of Moses on the West Bank.
1921
17 May: Starting off as a fight between two rival Jewish groups, Arabs commence a series of attacks against Jews in widespread disorder known as the Jaffa Riots. Ninety-five Arabs and Jews are left dead.
1925
April: The Union of Revisionist Zionists, Brit HaTzionim HaRevizionistim (HaTzohar) , is founded in Paris under the leadership of Zeev Jabotinsky.
October: Much-lauded Field Marshal Herbert Plumer, Baron Plumer, becomes High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine.
1926
June: The eighteen-year-old Yefim Gordinlater Chaim Shalom Haleviarrives in Haifa from Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania.
1927
11 July: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake kills hundreds and badly damages thousands of buildings throughout mandatory Palestine and Trans-Jordan, including the cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias and Nablus.
1928
23 September: In Jerusalem, on the morning of the Jewish holy festival Yom Kippur, British constable Douglas Duff and ten armed policemen forcibly remove elderly Jewish worshippers and a screen they are using to segregate the sexes at the sacred Western Wall.
November: Sir John Chancellor succeeds Plumer as High Commissioner of the British Mandate.
1929
2329 August: In the Buraq Uprising, also known as the 1929 Massacres, Arabs murder 133 Jews in various centres during riots over access to Jerusalems Western Wall.
1931
April: The Irgun Zvai Leumi National Military Organizationis founded to fight for national freedom and independence.
1933
16 June: Prominent Jewish politician and proponent of Arab dialogue, thirty-four-year-old Dr Chaim Arlosoroff is assassinated in Tel Aviv by Revisionist Zionists.
October: Palestinian Arabs demonstrate against the mandates Jewish immigration policy, clashing with British police in Jerusalem, Nablus, Haifa and Jaffa.
19361939
In what became known as the Great Revolt, Palestinian Arabs rise up against the British mandatory administration. An estimated 5,000 Arabs, 262 British Army personnel and 300 Jews are killed.
1937
1114 November: The Irgun conducts its first terror attacks on Arab targets throughout Palestine.
1938
28 March: Arabs kill six Jews in a vehicle ambush on the AcreSafad road.
21 April: Operatives from Revisionist Zionist youth movement Betar unsuccessfully carry out an attack on an Arab bus on the TiberiasRosh Pina road.
29 June: Shlomo Ben-Yosef, convicted of carrying arms of war on 21 April, is hanged at the British-run Acre Prison, becoming a martyr for the Revisionists.
