World Vocab Israel and Palestine

Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)

A secret agreement between Great Britain and France to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence; it initially proposed international rule for Palestine.

Balfour Declaration (1917)

A British statement announcing support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" while pledging that the rights of existing non-Jewish communities would not be prejudiced.

Zionism

A nationalist movement that called for the Jewish people to move to their ancient homeland and establish a state there.

Theodor Herzl

A Jewish Austro-Hungarian journalist regarded as the father of modern political Zionism and the author of The Jewish State (1896).

Chaim Weizmann

A Zionist leader and British Jew who was instrumental in obtaining the Balfour Declaration and served as the first president of the State of Israel.

David Ben-Gurion

A prominent Zionist leader and the first Prime Minister of Israel; during WWII, he advocated for supporting the British war effort while simultaneously fighting British immigration restrictions.

British Mandate for Palestine

A League of Nations authorization (ratified in 1922) that gave Britain the task of governing Palestine and establishing a Jewish homeland while protecting the rights of the existing population.

Transjordan

The region east of the Jordan River; although part of the original Palestine Mandate, it was governed separately by Britain starting in 1921.

San Remo Conference (1920)

An Allied meeting that abandoned the plan for international control of Palestine and instead designated it as a solely British mandate.

Aliyah

The Hebrew word for "ascent," used to describe Jewish immigration to the land of Israel.

White Paper of 1922 (Churchill White Paper)

A British policy document that clarified the Balfour Declaration, stating that the Jewish homeland should be "in Palestine" rather than all of Palestine being the homeland.

White Paper of 1939

A British policy that withdrew support for a Jewish homeland, limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 over five years, and promised an independent Arab state within 10 years.

Arab Revolt (1936–1939)

A major uprising by Palestinian Arabs involving strikes and attacks on British and Jewish targets in response to increased Jewish immigration.

Peel Commission (1937)

A British royal commission that first proposed dividing the Palestine Mandate into separate, independent Jewish and Arab states.

Haganah

A Jewish self-defense militia formed in 1921 following anti-Jewish attacks in Jaffa.

Amin al-Husseini

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Arab Higher Committee who fled Palestine after the Arab Revolt and sought support from Nazi Germany during WWII.

Biltmore Program (1942)

A Zionist resolution passed in New York calling for Palestine to be opened to unlimited Jewish immigration and established as a "Jewish Commonwealth".

League of Arab States (Arab League)

An organization formed in 1945 to represent Arab interests and support Palestinian independence against the establishment of a Jewish state.

SS Struma

A ship carrying nearly 770 Jewish refugees that sank in 1942 after being refused entry to Palestine by the British and held in Istanbul.

United Nations (re: Palestine)

The international organization to which Britain turned in 1947 to find a solution for the escalating conflict in the Palestine Mandate.

Hussein-McMahon Correspondences

Letters (1915–16) between Sharif Hussein and the British High Commissioner that Arabs argued promised them independence in Palestine.

Treaty of Sèvres (1920)

The post-WWI treaty that formally placed Palestine under British mandatory control.

Jewish Agency

An organization authorized by the Mandate to advise and cooperate with the British administration on matters related to the Jewish National Home.

Kibbutz

A system of collective farms established by Jewish settlers in Palestine to promote agricultural development and self-sufficiency.

Holocaust

The Nazi genocide of six million Jews, which created urgent global pressure for the establishment of a Jewish state as a safe haven after WWII.

Lord Curzon

The British Foreign Secretary who described Palestine as "the military gate to Egypt and the Suez Canal".

Herbert Samuel

The first High Commissioner of Palestine, appointed in July 1920 to lead the civilian administration.

Article 22 (League of Nations Covenant)

The provision that defined the mandate system as a "sacred trust of civilization" intended to help territories eventually reach independence.

Article 95 (Treaty of Sèvres)

The specific treaty article that formally placed Palestine under British control and legally incorporated the Balfour Declaration.

Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion)

The first organized Russian-based group to propose Jewish migration to Palestine following the 1881 assassination of Alexander II.

The First Aliyah

The first wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine that began shortly after 1881.

April 11, 1909

The specific date on which the first Jewish city, Tel Aviv, was founded in the suburbs of Jaffa.

Dreyfus Affair

The French espionage case that convinced Theodor Herzl that Jews could never fully assimilate into European societies.

Hashomer

The first Jewish self-defense militia, created in 1909.

"A land without people for a people without land"

A prominent Zionist slogan used to morally justify the settlement of Palestine.

Jewish National Fund

The organization established to finance the purchase of land in Palestine for Jewish settlers.

King-Crane Commission (1919)

An Allied commission sent to the Middle East to determine the wishes of the local populations regarding their future governance.

Hope-Simpson Report (1930)

A British inquiry that led to the Passfield White Paper, which briefly recommended further restrictions on Jewish immigration.

August 23, 1929

The date of the Wailing Wall riots, a major outbreak of violence between Jews and Arabs.

Ben-Gurion’s WWII Strategy

The policy of helping the British in the war as if the White Paper did not exist, while fighting the White Paper as if the war did not exist.

Mauritius

The island in the Indian Ocean where British authorities interned or transferred illegal Jewish immigrants during WWII.

SS Struma

A refugee ship carrying 769 Romanian Jews that sank in February 1942 after the British pressured Turkey to refuse its entry to the Mediterranean.

Alexandria Conference (October 1944)

The meeting of Arab heads of state that called for the creation of the League of Arab States.

Jewish Commonwealth

The specific term used in the 1942 Biltmore Program to describe the desired future status of Palestine.

Saint-Jean Maurienne Agreement (1917)

One of the secret wartime agreements mentioned in the timeline regarding the division of the Middle East.

Armistice of Mudros (1918)

The agreement that marked the formal surrender of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI.

Supreme Muslim Council (1922)

The consultative body formed to act as a channel of communication between the Arab community and the British administration.

Plan Dalet

A Zionist military plan executed during the 1948 Palestine war for the conquest of territory in Mandatory Palestine in preparation for the establishment of a Jewish state.

Deir Yassin

Massacre that took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries (Like the Irgun) attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children.