| 1918 |
Treaty of Versailles
formally ends Word
War I. Out of an estimated
1.5 million Jewish soldiers in all the armies,
approximately 170,000 were killed and over 100,000
cited for valor. |
| 1918 |
Damascus taken
by T.E. Lawrence and Arabs. |
| 1918 |
American Jewish
Congress is founded. |
| Nov. 1918 |
Germany's Kaiser
Wilhelm abdicates. |
| 1918 |
Nahum Zemach founds
the Moscow-based Habimah
Theater which receives acclaim
for “The
Dybbuk.” |
| Jan. 5, 1919 |
The German Workers'
Party (DAP) is founded in Munich; Adolf
Hitler joins the Party nine months
later. |
| 1919 |
Jewish educational
summer camping is launched in the
United States with what came to be
known as the Cejwin Camps. |
| 1919 |
Versailles Peace
Conference decides that the conquered
Arab provinces will not be restored
to Ottoman
rule. |
| 1919 |
First Palestinian
National Congress meeting in Jerusalem
sends two memoranda to Versailles rejecting
Balfour
Declaration and demanding
independence. |
| 1919-1923 |
Romania
grants citizenship to Jews. |
| 1919 |
|
| 1919 |
|
| 1919-1923 |
|
| 1919 |
|
| 1919-1943 |
|
| 1919 |
League of Nations established in an effort to
prevent further wars. |
| 1920 |
Histadrut
(Jewish labor federation) and Haganah
(Jewish defense organization) founded. |
| 1920 |
Vaad
Leumi (National Council) set up by Jewish
community (yishuv)to conduct its affairs. |
| 1920 |
Keren
Hayesod created for education, absorbtion
and the development of rural settlements in Eretz-Israel. |
| 1920 |
|
| 1920 |
Fall of Tel Hai to Arab attackers; Joseph
Trumpeldor and five men under his command killed. |
| 1920 |
Mandate
for the Land of Israel given over to Britain on
the condition that the Balfour Declaration be implemented,
San Remo Conference. |
| 1920 |
|
| 1920 |
|
| Feb. 24, 1920 |
|
| April 1, 1920 |
|
| 1920 |
|
| 1920 |
Second and third Palestinan National Congress'
held. |
| 1921 |
|
| 1921 |
U.S. immigration
laws
“reformed” to
effectively exclude Eastern European
Jews and other immigrants. Further
restrictions imposed in 1924. |
| 1921 |
Fourth Palestinian National Congress, convenes
in Jerusalem, decides to send delegation to London
to explain case against Balfour. |
| 1921 |
The Allied Reparations Committee assesses German
liability for World
War I at 132 billion gold marks
(about $31 billion). |
| 1921 |
The NSDAP, also known as the Nazi
Party, establishes
the Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Troopers; Brown Shirts). |
| 1921 |
|
| 1921 |
Völkischer
Beobachter (People's Observer), the
official National Socialist newspaper,
begins publication. |
| July 29, 1921 |
|
| 1921 |
Kingdom of Iraq
established. |
| 1921 |
First moshav, Nahalal, founded in the Jezreel
Valley. |
| 1921 |
|
| 1921-1944 |
|
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
Transjordan
set up on three-fourths of the British mandate area,
forbidding Jewish immigration, leaving one-fourth
for the Jewish national home. |
| 1922 |
Jewish
Agency representing Jewish community vis-à-vis
Mandate authorities set up. |
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
Supreme Muslim Council created under the jurisdiction
of the British government to centralize religious
affairs and institutions, but is corrupted by the
overzealous Husseini family who used it as an anti-Jewish
platform. |
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
Harvard's president proposes a quota on the number
of Jews admitted. After a contentious debate, he
withdrew the recommendation. |
| 1922 |
|
| 1922 |
First British census of Palestine shows total
population 757,182 (11% Jewish). |
| 1922 |
Fifth Palestinian National Congress in Nablus,
agrees to economic boycott of Zionists. |
| 1922 |
Jungsturm Adolf
Hitler (Adolf Hitler Boys Storm
Troop) and Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler (Shock Troop
Adolf Hitler) are established. The latter will form
the nucleus of the Schutzstaffel
(SS). |
| June 24, 1922 |
Walther Rathenau, Jewish foreign minister of Germany,
is assassinated by members of Organisation Consul,
a clandestine, right-wing political organization
led by Captain Hermann Ehrhardt. |
| Jan.1923 |
France and Belgium
occupy the Ruhr after an economically broken Germany
is unable to meet the annual installment of its
war-reparations payments designed to pay off Germany's
$31 billion war debt. |
| March 1923 |
The Schutzstaffel (SS; Protection Squad) is established.
It is initially a bodyguard for Hitler but will
later become an elite armed guard of the Third Reich. |
| 1923 |
Palestine constitution suspended by British because
of Arab refusal to cooperate. |
| 1923 |
Overthrow of Ottoman
Muslim rule by “young
Turks” (Kemal Ataturk) and establishment
of secular state. |
| 1923 |
Sixth Palestinian national Congress held in Jaffa. |
| 1923 |
The first issue of the pro-Nazi, antisemitic newspaper
Der
Stürmer (The Attacker)
is published in Nuremberg, Germany.
Its slogan is "Die Juden
sind unser Unglück" ("The Jews are
our misfortune"), a phrase picked
up from Heinrich von Treitschke. |
| Nov. 8-11, 1923 |
Hitler's so-called “ Beer
Hall Putsch” takeover attempt
at Munich fails, temporarily rattling
the National Socialist Party and
leading to Hitler's arrest in Bavaria,
Germany. |
| 1923 |
|
| 1924-1932 |
|
| 1924 |
Benjamin Frankel starts Hillel Foundation. The
first Hillel House opens at the University of Illinois,
offers religious and social services. |
| 1924 |
|
| May 11, 1924 |
|
| May 14, 1924 |
Ultra-Orthodox Jews found an agricultural settlement
between Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva: Bnei- Brak. |
| 1924 |
The United States Congress passes the Immigration
Restriction Act, which effectively bans immigration
to the U.S. from Asia and Eastern Europe. |
| July 1924 |
While in prison, Hitler begins work on Mein
Kampf. |
| 1925-1979 |
Pahlevi dynasty
in Persia (“Iran”:
1935). |
| 1925 |
|
| 1925 |
|
| 1925 |
Edna
Ferber is the first American Jew to win Pulitzer
Prize in fiction. |
| 1925 |
Palestinian National Congress meets in Jaffa. |
| March 24, 1925 |
Publication of the pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic newspaper
Der Stürmer resumes after being banned
by the Weimar government in November 1923. |
| April 26, 1925 |
Paul von Hindenburg is elected president of Germany. |
| 1926 |
France proclaims Republic of Lebanon. |
| 1927 |
Warner Brothers
produces drama of Jewish assimilation, "The Jazz Singer," the
first film with sound. |
| 1928 |
Britain recognizes independence of Transjordan. |
| 1928 |
Seventh Palestinian National Congress convened
in Jerusalem; established a new forty-eight member
executive committee. |
| 1928 |
Yeshiva College is dedicated in New York. |
| 1929 |
2,000 Arabs attack Jews praying at the Kotel
on the 9th
of Av. Arabs view British refusal to condemn
the attacks as support. |
| 1929 |
|
| 1929-1945 |
Anne Frank,
Holocaust victim whose diary, written during the
Nazi Occupation became famous. |
| 1929-1939 |
|
| 1930 |
|
| 1930 |
Lord Passfield issues his White Paper banning
further land acquisition by Jews and slowing Jewish
immigration. |
| 1930 |
Salo Wittmayer Baron joins the faculty of Columbia
University, his is the first chair in Jewish history
at a secular university in the United States. |
| 1931 |
Etzel
(the Irgun), Jewish underground organization, founded. |
| 1930 |
Second British census of Palestine shows total
population of 1,035,154 (16.9% Jewish). |
| 1931 |
The Nahum Zemach-founded
Moscow-based Habimah Theater which
received acclaim for "The Dybbuk" moves
to Eretz-Israel. |
| 1932 |
|
| 1932 |
British Mandate over Iraq terminated, Iraq gains
independence. |
| 1932 |
Discovery of oil in Bahrain. |
| 1932 |
Herbert
Lehman was elected New York's first Jewish governor;
from that time on, Jews formed a pact with the Democratic
Party. |
| 1932 |
First Maccabia athletic games take place with
representatives from 14 countries. |
| 1932 |
German Chancellor von Papen persuaded President
von Hindenburg to offer Hitler the chancellorship. |
| 1932 |
Formation of Istiqlal Party as first constituted
Palestinian-Arab political party; Awni Abdul-Hadi
elected president. |
| 1933 |
Concession agreement signed between Saudi government and Standard Oil of California (SOCAL). Prospecting begins. SOCAL assigns concession to California Arabian Standard Oil Co. (CASOC). |
| 1933 |
The American Jewish Congress declares a boycott
on German goods to protest the Nazi persecution
of Jews. |
| 1933 |
|
| 1933 |
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. |
| 1933 |
Germany begins anti-Jewish boycott. |
| 1933 |
Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope
Pius XII, signed the Hitler Concordat; whereby
the Vatican accepted National Socialism. |
| 1933 |
Albert
Einstein, upon visiting the United States, learns
that Hitler had been elected and decided not to
return to Germany, takes up position at Princeton. |
| 1933 |
Riots in Jaffa
and Jerusalem to protest British "pro-Zionist" policies. |
| 1934 |
In Afghanistan,
two thousand Jews are expelled from towns and forced
to live in the wilderness. |
| 1934 |
American Jews cheer Detroit Tigers' Hank
Greenberg when he refuses to play ball on Yom
Kippur. In 1938, with five games left to the season,
Greenberg's 58 home runs are two shy of Babe Ruth's
record. When several pitchers walk him rather than
giving him a shot at the record, many believe major
league baseball did not want a Jew to claim that
place in America's national sport. |
| 1935 |
|
| 1935 |
Hakibbutz Hadati, the religious kibbutz movement
is founded. |
| 1935 |
Regina Jonas was ordained by Liberal ( Reform)
Rabbi Max Dienemann in Germany, becoming the first
woman rabbi. |
| 1935 |
Ze'ev Jabotinsky founds the New Zionist Organization. |
| 1935 |
|
| 1936-1939 |
|
| 1936 |
Supported by the Axis powers, the Arab Higher
Committee encourages raids on Jewish communities
in Eretz-Israel. |
| 1936 |
Texaco buys 50% interest in California Arabian Standard Oil Co.'s concession. |
| 1936 |
Leon Blum becomes the first Jew elected premier
of France, enacts many social reforms. |
| 1936 |
|
| 1936 |
Syria ratifies the Franco-Syrian treaty; France
grants Syria and Lebanon independence. |
| 1936 |
World Jewish Congress convened in Geneva. |
| 1936 |
Peel Commission investigated
Arab riots, concluded Arab claims were "baseless". |
| 1937 |
|
| 1937 |
British declare Arab Higher Committee in Palestine
illegal and Mufti
of Jerusalem escapes to Syria. |
| 1937 |
The Peel Commission recommends the partition of
Palestine between Jews and Arabs. |
| 1937 |
Chaim Weizmann and David
Ben-Gurion accept partition plan, despite fierce
opposition at the 20th Zionist Congress. |
| 1937 |
John Woodhead declares partition unworkable after
Arab riots. |
| 1937 |
Central conference of American Rabbis reaffirm
basic reform philosophies in the Colombus Platform. |
| 1938 |
Dammam Well No. 7 discovers commercial quantities of oil. Barge exports to Bahrain. |
| 1938 |
Oil discovered in Kuwait. |
| Nov. 9, 1938 |
|
| 1938 |
Charles E. Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest,
launches media campaign in America against Jews. |
| 1938 |
|
| Sept. 29, 1938 |
Chamberlain declares "peace in our time" after
allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland
in the Munich
Agreement. |
| 1938 |
Catholic churches ring bells and fly Nazi flags
to welcom Hitler's troops in Austria. |
| 1938 |
Hershel Grynszpan, 17, a German refugee, assassinates
Ernst von Rath, the third secretary to the German
embassy in Paris. |
| 1938 |
More than 100,000 Jews march in an anti-Hitler
parade in New York's Madison Square Garden. |
| 1939 |
First tanker-load of oil is exported aboard D.G. Scofield. |
| 1939 |
President Roosevelt appoints Zionist and Jewish
activist Felix
Frankfurter to the Supreme Court. |
| 1939 |
|
| 1939 |
S.S.
St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees from
Germany, is turned back by Cuba and the United States. |
| 1939 |
Jewish songwriter Irving
Berlin introduces his song "God Bless America."
He also wrote "White Christmas". |
| 1940 |
|
| 1940 |
British government authorizes the Jewish Agency
to recruit 10,000 Jews to form Jewish units in the
British army. |
| 1940 |
British refuse illegal immigrant ship, the Patria,
permission to dock in Palestine. |
| 1941 |
British and France guarantee Syrian independence. |
| 1941 |
|
| May 15, 1941 |
|
| 1942 |
|
| 1942 |
|
| 1942 |
|
| 1943 |
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. |
| 1943 |
Palmach parachutes into enemy lines in Europe. |
| 1943 |
|
| 1943 |
Raphael Lemkin, an international lawyer who escaped
from Poland to the U.S. in 1941, coins the term
genocide to describe the Nazi extermination of European
Jews. |
| 1943 |
Zionist Biltmore
Conference, held at Biltmore Hotel
in New York, formulates new policy
of creating a "Jewish Commonwealth" in
Palestine and organizing a Jewish army. |
| 1944 |
CASOC renamed Arabian American Oil Co.(Aramco). |
| 1944 |
|
| 1944 |
|
| 1944 |
Camp for Jewish war refugees is opened at Oswego,
New York. |
| 1939/1942-1945 |
|
| 1945 |
|
| 1945 |
Bess Myerson becomes the first Jewish woman to
win the Miss America Pageant. |
| 1945 |
Covenant of League
of Arab States, emphasizing Arab character of
Palestine, signed in Cairo by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen. |
| 1945 |
|
| 1945 |
|
| 1945 |
Arab League Council decides to boycott goods produced
by Zionist firms in Palestine. |
| March 22, 1945 |
Two convicted members of the Stern Gang hanged
for Murder of Lord Moyne in Cairo prison. |
| January 19, 1946 |
Member of Jewish underground destroyed a power
station and a portion of the Central Jerusalem prison
by explosives. Two persons were killed by the police.. |
| January 20, 1946 |
Jewish underground members launched an attack
against the British-controlled Givat Olga Coast
Guard Station located between Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Ten persons were injured and one was killed. Captured
papers indicated that the purpose of this raid was
to take revenge on the British for their seizure
of the refugee ship on January 18. British military
authorities in Jerusalem questioned 3,000 Jews and
held 148 in custody.. |
| April 25, 1946 |
Jewish underground attacked a British military
installation near Tel Aviv. This group which contained
a number of young girls, had as its goal the capture
of British weapons. British authorities rounded
up 1,200 suspects.. |
| June 24, 1946 |
The Irgun radio "Fighting Zion" wams
that three kidnapped British officers
are held as hostages for two Irgun
members, Josef Simkohn and Issac Ashbel
facing execution as well as 31 Irgun
members facing trial.. |
| June 27, 1946 |
Thirty Irgun members are sentenced by a British
military court to 15 years in prison. One, Benjamin
Kaplan, was sentenced to life for carrying a firearm.. |
| June 29, 1946 |
British military units and police raided Jewish
settlements throughout Palestine searching for the
leaders of Haganah. The Jewish Agency for Palestine
was occupied and four top official arrested. . |
| July 1, 1946 |
British officials announced the discovery of a
large arms dump hidden underground at Meshek Yagur.
2659 men and 59 women were detained fo the three
day operation in which 27 settlements were searched.
Four were killed and 80 were injured.. |
| July 3, 1946 |
Palestine High Commissioner, Lt. General Sir Alan
Cunningham commuted to life imprisonment the death
sentences of Josef Simkhon and lssac Ashbel, Irgun
members. |
| July 4, 1946 |
Tel Aviv. British officers, Captains K Spencer,
C. Warburton and A. Taylor who had been kidnapped
by Irgun on June 18 and held as hostages for the
lives of Simkohn and Ashbel, were released in Tel
Aviv unharmed. At this time, Irgun issued a declaration
of war against the British claiming that they had
no alternative but to fight. . |
| July 22, 1946 |
The west wing of the King
David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed British
Military Headquarters and other governmental offices
was destroyed at 12:57 PM by explosives planted
in the cellar by members of the Irgun terrorist
gang. By the 26 of July, the casualties were 76
persons killed, 46 injured and 29 still missing
in the rubble. The dead included many British, Arabs
and Jews. . |
| July 24, 1946 |
London. The British
government released a White Paper that
accuses the Haganah, Irgun and Stern
gangs of "a planned movement of sabotage and
violence" under the direction
of the Jewish Agency and asserts that
the June 29 arrest of Zionist leaders
was the cause of the bombing. |
| July 28, 1946 |
The British Palestine
Commander, Lt. General Sir Evelyn Barker,
banned fraternization by British troops
with Palestine Jews whom he stated "cannot
be absolved of responsibility for terroristic acts."
The order states that this will punish "the
race . . . by striking at their pockets
and showing our contempt for them." . |
| July 29, 1946 |
Police in Tel Aviv raided a workshop making bombs.. |
| July 30, 1946 |
Tel Aviv is placed under a 22hour-a-day curfew
as 20,000 British troops began a house-to-house
sweep for members of the Jewish underground. The
city is sealed off and troops are ordered to shoot
to kill any curfew violators. |
| July 31, 1946 |
A large cache of weapons, extensive counterfeiting
equipment and $1,000,000 in counterfeit Government
bonds were discovered in Tel Aviv's largest synagogue.
Also, two ships have arrived at Haifa with a total
of 3,200 illegal Jewish immigrants. . |
| August 2, 1946 |
British military authorities ended the curfew
in Tel Aviv after detaining 500 persons for further
questioning.. |
| August 12, 1946 |
The British Government
announced that it will allow no more
unscheduled immigration into Palestine
and that those seeking entry into that
country will be sent to Cyprus and
other areas under detention. Declaring
that such immigration threatens a civil
war with the Arab population, it charges
a "minority
of Zionist extremists" with attempting
to force an unacceptable solution of
the Palestine problem.. |
| August 12, 1946 |
Two ships carrying a total of 1,300 Jewish refugees
arrived at Haifa. The port area was isolated on
August 11 by British military and naval units. The
first deportation ship sailed for Cyprus with 500
Jews on board. |
| August 13, 1946 |
Three Jews were killed and seven wounded when
British troops were compelled to fire on a crowd
of about 1,000 persons trying to break into the
port area of Haifa. Two Royal Navy ships with 1,300
illegal Jewish immigrants on board sailed for Cyprus.
Another ship with 600 illegal immigrants was captured
and confined in the Haifa harbor. . |
| August 26, 1946 |
British military
units searched the coastal villages
of Casera and Sadoth Yarn for three
Jews who bombed the transport "Empire Rival" last
week. Eighty-five persons, including
the entire male population of one of
the villages were sent to the Rafa
detention center.. |
| August 29, 1946 |
Jerusalem. the British Government announced the
commutation to life imprisonment of the death sentences
imposed on 18 Jewish youths convicted of bombing
the Haifa railroad shops.. |
| August 30, 1946 |
British military units discovered arms and munitions
dumps in the Jewish farming villages of Dorot and
Ruhama. |
| Sept. 8, 1946 |
Jewish underground members cut the Palestine railroad
in 50 places.. |
| Sept. 9, 1946 |
Tel Aviv. two British officers were killed in
an explosion in a public building.. |
| Sept. 10, 1946 |
British troops imposed a curfew and arrested 101
Jews and wounded two in a search for saboteurs in
Tel Aviv and neighboring Ramat Gan. Irgun took the
action against the railways on September 8, as a
protest.. |
| Sept. 14, 1946 |
Jewish underground members robbed three banks
in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, killing three Arabs. Thirty-six
Jews were arrested.. |
| Sept. 15, 1946 |
Jewish underground attacks a police station on
the coast near Tel Aviv but were driven off by gunfire. . |
| October 2, 1946 |
British military
units and police seized 50 Jews in
a Tel Aviv cafe after a Jewish home
was blown up. This home belonged to
a Jewish woman who had refused to
pay extortion money to the Irgun. . |
| October 6, 1946 |
Jerusalem. An RAF man was killed by gunfire.. |
| October 8, 1946 |
Two British soldiers were killed when their truck
detonated a kind mine outside Jerusalem. A leading
Arab figure was wounded in a similar mine explosion
in Jerusalem and more mad mines were found near
Government House.. |
| October 31, 1946 |
The British Embassy in Rome was damaged by a bomb,
believed to have been phased by Jewish underground
members. Irgun took responsibility for the bombing
on November 4.. |
| November 3, 1946 |
Two Jews and two Arabs were killed in clashes
between Arabs and a group of Jews attempting to
establish a settlement at Lake Hula in northern
Palestine. . |
| November 5, 1946 |
British authorities released the following eight
Jewish Agency leaders from the Latrun concentration
camp where they had been held since June 29: Moshe
Shertok, Dr. Issac Greenbaum, Dr. Bernard Joseph,
David Remiz, David Hacohen, David Shingarevsky,
Joseph Shoffman and Mordecai Shatter. A total of
2,550 Haganah suspects have also been released as
well as 779 Jews arrested in the wake of the King
David bombing. . |
| November 7, 1946 |
Railroad traffic was suspended hr 24 hours throughout
Palestine following a fourth Irgun attack on railway
facilities in two days. |
| November 9-13, 1946 |
Nineteen persons, eleven British soldiers and
policemen and eight Arab constables, were killed
in Palestine during this period as Jewish underground
members, using land mines and suitcase bombs, increased
their attacks on railroad stations, trains and even
streetcars. . |
| Nov. 14, 1946 |
London. The Board of Deputies of British Jews
condemned Jewish underground groups who threatened
to export their attacks to England. . |
| Nov. 18, 1946 |
Police in Tel Aviv attacked Jews, assaulting many
and firing into houses. Twenty Jews were injured
in fights with British troops following the death
on November 17 of three policemen and an RAF sergeant
in a land mine explosion.. |
| Nov. 20, 1946 |
Five persons were injured when a bomb exploded
in the Jerusalem tax office. . |
| Dec. 2-5, 1946 |
Ten persons, including six British soldiers, were
killed in bomb and land-mine explosions. . |
| Dec. 3, 1946 |
A member of the Stern Gang was killed in an aborted
hold-up attempt. . |
| Dec. 26, 1946 |
Armed Jewish underground members raided two diamond
factories in Nathanya and Tel Aviv and escaped with
nearly $107,000 in diamonds, cash and bonds. These
raids signaled an end to a two-week truce during
the World Zionist Congress.. |
| 1947 |
|
| January 1, 1947 |
Dov Gruner was sentenced to hang by a British
military court for taking part in a raid on the
Ramat Gan police headquarters in April of 1946. . |
| January 2, 1947 |
Jewish underground staged bombings and machine
gun attacks in five cities. Casualties were low.
Pamphlets seized warned that the Irgun had again
declared war against the British. . |
| January 4, 1947 |
Jerusalem. British soldiers have been ordered
to wear sidearms at all times and were forbidden
to enter any cafe or restaurant. . |
| January 5, 1947 |
Eleven British troops were injured in a hand grenade
attack on a train carrying troops to Palestine.
The attack took place near Benha, 25 miles from
Cairo.. |
| January 8, 1947 |
British police
arrested 32 persons suspected of being
members of the Irgun's "Black Squad" in
raids on Rishomel Zion and Rehoboth. . |
| January 12, 1947 |
One underground member drove a truck filled with
high explosives into the central police station
and exploded it, killing two British policemen and
two Arab constables and injuring 140 others, and
escaped. This action ended a 10-day lull in the
violence and the Stern Gang took the credit for
it. . |
| January 14, 1947 |
Yehudi Katz is sentenced to life in prison by
a Jerusalem court for robbing a bank in Jaffa in
September of 1946 to obtain funds for the underground.. |
| January 22, 1947 |
Sir Harry Gumey, Chief Secretary, stated that
the British administration was taxing Palestine
$2,400,000 to pay for sabotage by the Jewish underground
groups. . |
| January 22, 1947 |
Colonial Secretary
Arthur Creech Jones informed the House
of Commons 73 British subjects were
murdered by underground members in
1946 and "no culprits
have been convicted." . |
| January 27, 1947 |
London. Britain's conference on Palestine, boycotted
by the Jews, reconvened. Jamal el Husseini, Palestine
Arab leader, declared that the Arab world was unalterably
opposed to partition as a solution to the problem.
The session then adjourned.. |
| January 29, 1947 |
London. It was officially announced that the British
Cabinet decided to partition Palestine. . |
| January 29, 1947 |
Irgun forces released former Maj. H. Collins,
a British banker, who they kidnaped on January 26
from his home. He had been badly beaten. On January
28, the Irgun released Judge Ralph Windham, who
had been kidnapped in Tel Aviv on January 27 while
trying a case. These men had been taken as hostages
for Dov Bela Gruner, an Irgun member under death
sentence. The British High Commissioner, Lt. Gen.
Sir Alan Cunningham, had threatened martial law
unless the two men were returned unharmed. . |
| January 31, 1947 |
General Cunningham ordered the wives and children
of all British civilians to leave Palestine at once.
About 2,000 are involved. This order did not apply
to the 5,000 Americans in the country.. |
| February 3, 1947 |
The Palestine
Govemment issued a 7-day ultimatum
to the Jewish Agency demanding that
it state "categorically
and at once" whether it and the supreme Jewish
Council in Palestine will call on the Jewish community
by February 10 for "cooperation with the police
and armed forces in bringing to justice the members
of the terrorist groups." This
request was publicly rejected by Mrs.
Goldie Meyerson, head of the Jewish
Agency's political department. . |
| February 4, 1947 |
British Oistrict Commissioner James Pollock disclosed
a plan for military occupation of three sectors
of Jerusalem and orders nearly 1,000 Jews to evacuate
the Rehavia, Schneler and German quarters by noon,
February 6. |
| February 5, 1947 |
The Vaad Leumi rejected the British ultimatum
while the Irgun passed out leaflets that it was
prepared to fight to the death against the British
authority.
The first 700 of some 1,500 British women and
children ordered to evacuate Palestine leave by
plane and train for Egypt. British authorities,
preparing for military action, order other families
from sections of Tel Aviv and Haifa which will
be turned into fortified military areas. |
| February 9, 1947 |
British troops
removed 650 illegal Jewish immigranS
from the schooner "Negev" at Haifa and
after a struggle forced them aboard the ferry "Emperor
Haywood" for deportation to Cyprus. . |
| February 14, 1947 |
The British administration revealed that Lt. Gen.
Sir Evelyn Barker, retiring British commander in
Palestine, had confirmed the death sentences of
three Irgun members on February 12 before leaving
for England. The three men, Dov Ben Rosenbaum, Eliezer
Ben Kashani and Mordecai Ben Alhachi, had been sentenced
on February 10 to be hanged for carrying firearms.
A fourth, Haim Gorovetzky, received a life sentence
because of his youth. Lt. Gen. G. MacMillian arrived
in Jerusalem on February 13 to succeed Gen. Barker. . |
| February 15, 1947 |
The Sabbath was the setting for sporadic outbreaks
of violence which included the murder of an Arab
in Jaffa and of a Jew in B'nai B'rak, the kidnapping
of a Jew in Petah Tikvah and the burning of a Jewish
club in Haifa. |
| March 9, 1947 |
Hadera. A British army camp was attacked.. |
| March 10, 1947 |
Haifa. A Jew, suspected of being an informer,
was murdered by Jewish underground members.. |
| March 12, 1947 |
The British Army pay corps was dynamited in Jerusalem
and one soldier killed. . |
| March 12, 1947 |
British military
units captured most of the 800 Jews
whose motor ship "Susanne" ran the
British blockade and was beached north of Gaza on
this date. A British naval escort brought the "Ben
Hecht," the Hebrew Committee of
National Liberation's first known immigrant
ship, into Haifa, and its 599 passengers
were shipped to Cyprus. The British
arrested the crew, which included 18
US. seamen.. |
| March 13, 1947 |
British authorities announced 78 arrests as a
result of unofficial Jewish cooperation, but two
railroads were attacked, resulting in two deaths,
and eight armed men robbed a Tel Aviv bank of $65,000. . |
| March 14, 1947 |
Jewish underground members blew up part of an
oil pipeline in Haifa and a section of the rail
line near Beer Yakou . |
| March 17, 1947 |
British authorities ended marshal law which had
kept 300,000 Jews under house arrest for 16 days
and tied up most economic activity.. |
| March 17, 1947 |
A military court sentenced Moshe Barazani to be
hanged for possessing a hand grenade. . |
| March 18, 1947 |
Underground leaflets admitted the murder of Michael
Shnell on Mount Carmel as an informer. . |
| March 22, 1947 |
British officials announced the arrest of five
known underground members, and the discovery near
Petah Tikvah of the body of Leon Meshiah, a Jew
presumably slain as a suspected informer. . |
| March 28, 1947 |
The Irgun blew up the Iraq Petroleum Co. pipeline
in Haifa.. |
| March 29, 1947 |
A British army officer was killed by Jewish underground
membesr when they ambushed a party of horsemen near
the Ramle camp. A raid on a Tel Aviv bank yielded
$109,000. . |
| March 30, 1947 |
Units of the British
Royal Navy, answering an SOS, took
the disabled " Moledeth" with
1,600 illegal Jewish refugees on board
under tow some 50 miles outside Palestinian
waters. . |
| March 31, 1947 |
Jewish underground members dynamited the British-owned
Shell-Mex oil tanks in Haifa, starting a fire that
destroyed a quarter-mile of the waterfront. The
damage was set at more than $1,000,000, and the
British government in Palestine has stated that
the Jewish community will have to pay for it. . |
| April 2, 1947 |
The "Ocean Vigour" was
damaged by a bomb in Famagusta Harbor,
Cyprus. The Haganah admitted the bombing. . |
| April 3, 1947 |
A court in Jerusalem sentenced Daniel Azulai and
Meyer Feinstein, members of the Irgun,
to death for the October 30 attack
on the Jerusalem railroad
station. The Palestine Supreme Court admitted an
appeal of Dov Bela Gruner's death sentence. |
| April 3, 1947 |
The transport "Empire Rival" was
damaged by a time bomb while en route
from Haifa to Port Said in Egypt. . |
| April 7, 1947 |
The High Court denied a new appeal against the
death sentence of Dov Bela Gruner, and a British
patrol killed Moshe Cohen. . |
| April 8, 1947 |
Jewish undergroud members killed a British constable
in revenge for the Cohen death.. |
| April 10, 1947 |
London. The British Government requested France
and Italy to prevent Jews from embarking for Palestine. . |
| April 11, 1947 |
Jerusalem. Asher Eskovitch, a Jew, was beaten
to death by Muslims when he entered the forbidden
Mosque of Omar. . |
| April 13, 1947 |
Guela Cohen, Stern Gang illegal broadcaster, escaped
from a British military hospital.. |
| April 14, 1947 |
A British naval
unit boarded the refugee ship "Guardian" and
seized it along with 2,700 passengers
after a gun battle in which two immigrants
were killed and 14 wounded.. |
| April 16, 1947 |
In spite of threats of reprisal from the Irgun,
the British hanged Dov Bela Gruner and three other
Irgun members at Acre Prison on Haifa Bay. Jewish
communities were kept under strict curfew for several
hours. Soon after the deaths were announced, a time
bomb was found in the Colonial Office in London
but was defused.. |
| April 17, 1947 |
Lt. Gen. G. Macmillan confirmed death sentences
for two more convicted underground members, Meier
Ben Feinstein and Moshe Ben Barazani, but reduced
Daniel Azulai's sentence to life imprisonment. . |
| April 18, 1947 |
Irgun's reprisals for the Gruner execution were
an attack on a field dressing station near Nethanaya
where one sentry was killed, an attack on an armored
car in Tel Aviv where one bystander was killed and
harmless shots at British troops in Haifa. . |
| April 20, 1947 |
A series of bombings by Jewish underground members
in retaliation for the hanging of Gruner injured
12 British soldiers.. |
| April 21, 1947 |
Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani killed themselves
in prison a few hours before they were scheduled
to be hanged. They blew themselves up with bombs
smuggled to them in hollowed-out oranges. . |
| April 22, 1947 |
A troop train arriving from Cairo was bombed outside
Rehovoth with five soldiers and three civilians
killed and 39 persons injured. |
| April 23, 1947 |
The British First
Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Hall,
defended the Labor Government's policy
in Palestine and he acknowledged in
the House of Lords that Britain would
not "carry out a policy
of which it did not approve" despite
any UN action. He blamed contributions
from American Jews to the Jewish Palestinians
as aiding the underground groups there
and cited the toll since August 1,
1945: 113 killed, 249 wounded, 168
Jews convicted, 28 sentenced to death,
four executed, 33 slain in battles.
Viscount Samuel urged increased immigration. . |
| April 23, 1947 |
The Irgun proclaimed
its own "military courts"
to "try" British troops and
policemen who resisted them. . |
| April 25, 1947 |
A Stern Gang squad drove a stolen post office
truck loaded with explosives into the Sarona police
compound and detonated it, killing five British
policemen. . |
| April 26, 1947 |
Haifa. The murder of Deputy Police Superintendent
A. Conquest climaxed a week of bloodshed. . |
| May 4, 1947 |
The walls of Acre prison were blasted open by
an Irgun bomb squad and 251 Jewish and Arab prisoners
escaped after a gun battle in which 15 Jews and
1 Arab were killed, 32 (including six British guards)
were injured and 23 escapists were recaptured. The
Palestine Govemment promised no extra punishment
if the 189 escapees still at large will surrender. . |
| May 4, 1947 |
The Political Action Committee for Palestine ran
a series of advertisements in New York newspapers
seeking funds to buy parachutes for young European
Jews planning to crash the Palestine irnmigration
barrier by air. . |
| May 8, 1947 |
A Jew was ambushed and shot to death by an Arab
group near Tel Aviv, and three Jewish owned Tel
Aviv shops whose owners refused to contribute money
to Jewish underground groups were burned down. . |
| May 12, 1947 |
Jewish underground members killed two British
policemen.. |
| May 12, 1947 |
The British authorities announced that 312 Jewish
political prisoners were held in Kenya, East Africa,
20 in Latrun and 34 in Bethlehem.. |
| May 15, 1947 |
The Stern Gang killed two British lieutenants
and injured seven other persons with two derailments
and three badge demolitions.. |
| May 16, 1947 |
Haifa Assistant Police Superintendent, Robert
Schindler, a German Jew, was killed by the Stern
gang, and a British constable was killed on the
Mt Carmel-Haifa road near Jerusalem.. |
| May 17, 1947 |
The 1,200 ton
Haganah freighter "Trade Winds" was
seized by the Royal Navy off the Lebanon
coast and escorted into Haifa, and
over 1,000 illegal immigrants were
disembarked pending transfer to Cyprus. . |
| May 19, 1947 |
The British government
protested to the United States government
against American fund-raising drives
for Jewish underground groups. The
complaint referred to a "Letter to the Terrorists of
Palestine" by playwright Ben Hecht, American
League for a Free Palestine co chairman, first published
in the New York "Post" on May 15. The
ad said, "We are out to raise
millions for you.". |
| May 22, 1947 |
Arabs attacked a Jewish labor camp in the south,
retaliating for a Haganah raid on the Arabs near
Tel Aviv May 20. Some 40,000 Arab and Jewish workers
united the same day in a one day strike against
all establishments operated by the British War Ministry.. |
| May 23, 1947 |
A British naval
party boarded the immigrant ship "Mordei Haghettoath" off
South Palestine and took control of
its 1,500 passengers. Two British soldiers
were convicted in Jerusalem of abandoning
a jeep and army mail under attack.. |
| May 28, 1947 |
Syria. Fawzi el-Kawukji
who spent the war years in Germany
after leading the 1936-39 Arab revolt
in Palestine, told reporters in Damascus
that an unfavorable decision by the
UN inquiry group would be the signal
for war against the Jews in Palestine. "We must prove that in case" of an Anglo-American
war with Russia, "we can be more dangerous
or useful to them than the Jews," he
added. . |
| May 28, 1947 |
Jewish underground members blew up a water main
and a shed in the Haifa oil dock areas and made
three attacks on railway lines in the Lydda and
Haifa areas.. |
| May 31, 1947 |
The Haganah ship "Yehuda Halevy" arrived
under British naval escort with 399
illegal Jewish immigrants; they were
immediately transferred to Cyprus.. |
| June 4, 1947 |
The Stern Gang sent letter bombs to high British
governmental officials. Eight letter bombs containing
powdered explosives were discovered in London. Recipients
included Ernest Bevin, Anthony Eden, Prime Minister
Attlee and Winston Churchill.. |
| June 5, 1947 |
Washington. President Truman asked all persons
in the US to refrain from helping Jewish underground
groups. The American Jewish Committee and Jewish
Labor Committee condemned Ben Hecht's campaign.. |
| June 6, 1947 |
New York Secretary General of the UN, Trygve Lie
has forwarded a request to all countries a request
by the British that they guard their fronties against
departure of illegal immigrants bound for Palestine. |
| June 18, 1947 |
Haganah disclosed that one of its men was killed
by a booby trap which foiled an Irgun plot to blow
up British Military Headquartes in Tel Aviv. . |
| June 28, 1947 |
The Stern Gang opened fire on British soldiers
waiting in line outside a Tel Aviv theater, killing
three and wounding two. Another Briton is killed
and several wounded in a Haifa hotel. This action
was claimed by Jewish underground members to be
in retaliation for British brutality and the alleged
slaying of a missing 16 year old Jew, Alexander
Rubowitz while he was being held in an Army barracks
on May 6. . |
| June 29, 1947 |
New York. The
UN Committee votes 9-0 to condemn the
acts as "flagrant disregard" of
the UN appeal for an interim truce
as Stern Gang wounded four more Bdtish
soldiers on a beach at Herzlia. Major
Roy Alexander Farran surrendered voluntarily
after his escape from custody in Jerusalem
on June 19. He had been arrested in
connection with the Rubowitz case. . |
| June 30, 1947 |
The Palestine goverrunent permitted oil companies
to raise paces of benzine nearly 10% to pay for
$1 million damage suffered when Jewish underground
members blew up oil installations at Haifa on March
31. . |
| July 2, 1947 |
lrgun members robbed a Haifa bank of $3,200 while
both the Stem gang and the Irgun warned the British
that their provocative acts in Palestine must end
before a truce can be effected. The Guaternalan
and Czech members of the UN Commission visited two
Jewish convicts in Acre Prison.. |
| July 12, 1947 |
Dr. Adem Altman, president of the United Zionist
Revisionists, told a party rally in Jerusalem that
the Revisionists would settle for nothing less than
an unpartitioned free Jewish state in Palestine
and Trans-Jordan. Irgun announced in Jerusalem that
two British sergeants kidnaped in Nathanaya are
being held in Tel Aviv and have been sentenced to
death by Irgun courtmartial. . |
| July 14, 1947 |
Netanya. The British imposed mastial law and placed
the 15,000 inhabitants of Netanya under house arrest.
They made 68 arrests and sentenced 21 persons to
6 months each in the Latrun detention camp. . |
| July 17, 1947 |
Netanya. The Irgun in five mine operations against
military traffic to and from Nathanya killed one
Briton and injured 16. . |
| July 18, 1947 |
Steamer Exodus repelled
by forces from shores of Palestine,
(formerly the "President Warfield")
was escorted into Haifa by British
naval units after a battle, William
Bernstein and two immigrants were killed
and more than 30 injured. The blockade runner itself was badly damaged.
The remainder of the 4,554 passengers, the largest
group of illegal immigrants to sail for Palestine
in a sister ship, were put aboard British prison
ships for removal to Cyprus. The American captain,
Bernard Marks, and his crew were arrested. The
ship sailed from France. |
| July 19, 1947 |
Haifa. Rioting,
quickly suppressed, broke out among
the passengess of the "Exodus 1947" when
they learned they were to be resumed
to France. . |
| July 19, 1947 |
The Palestine
Government charges that a Jewish "campaign of lawlessness, murder and sabotage" has
cost 70 lives and $6 million in damage
since 1940. . |
| July 21, 1947 |
Before officially
admitting that 4,529 passengers of
the "Exodus 1947" who had
been transferred to three British ships,
were being sent not to Cyprus but back
to France, the Palestine Government
took the precaution of first placing
Jesusalem's 90,000 Jews under nightly
house arrest. . |
| July 23, 1947 |
Haganah sank the
British tansport "Empire
Lifeguard" in Haifa harbor as
it was discharging 300 Jewish immigrants
who had officiallyy been admitted to
Palestine under quota. Sixty-five immigrants
were killed and 40 were wounded. The
British were able to refloat the ship.. |
| July 26, 1947 |
Jewish underground members blew up the Iraqi Petroleum
Co. pipeline 12 miles east of Haifa and destroyed
a Mt. Carmel radar station.. |
| July 27, 1947 |
An ambush and mines cost the British seven more
casualties, all wounded.. |
| July 28, 1947 |
Two small Haganah ships loaded with 1,174 Jews
from North Africa were intercepted by British naval
units off Palestine and brought into Haifa. The
illegal immigrants were transshipped aboard British
transports and taken to Cyprus.. |
| July 29, 1947 |
The British authorities hanged three Irgunists
in Acre prison despite appeals from Jewish leaders.
The condemned, Myer Nakar, Absalom Habib and Jacob
Weiss, had fought in the Czech underground during
the war. They were convicted of blowing up Acre
Prison on May 4 and liberating 200 Arabs and Jews. . |
| July 29, 1947 |
The 4,429 Exodus
1947 illegal immigrants
who sailed from Sete, France, July
11 for Palestine only to be shipped
back by the British aboard three transports,
refused to debark as the vessels anchored
off Port de Douc, France. Only a few
who were aboard went ashore. The French
government informed the refugees that
they do not have to debark but will
be welcomed if they do. The transports
are the "Runnymede
Park," "Ocean Vigour" and "Empire
Valour.". |
| July 30, 1947 |
Irgun members
announced that they have handed two
British sergeants, Marvyn Paice and
Clifford Martin, whom they had held
as hostages since duly 12, for "crimes against the Jewish community." The
two were seized when death sentences
on the three Irgun members were confirmed
by the British authorities. Two more
British soldiers were killed by a land
mine near Hadera. British troops attacked
the Jewish colony of Pardes Hanna in
revenge for the murders.. |
| July 31, 1947 |
The bodies of the two murdered Bdtish sergeants
were found hanging from eucalyptus trees one and
a half miles from Netanya about 5:30 AM. A booby
trap blew Martin's body to bits when it was cut
down. Enraged British troops stormed into Tel Aviv,
wrecked shops, attacked pedestrians and sprayed
a bus with gunfire killing five Jews: two men, two
women and a boy.. |
| August 1, 1947 |
Thirty-three Jews are injured in an anti-British
riot at Tel Aviv during the funeral procession of
five civilians killed by British soldiers on July
31. In Jerusalem a Jewish underground attack on
the British security zone in Rehavia was repulsed
with one attacker killed and two captured.. |
| August 2, 1947 |
The body of an unidentified Jew was found on a
road near Tel Aviv. He was believed to have been
kidnapped by men in British uniforms two weeks ago.
Total casualties in Palestine since mid-July: 25
persons slain, 144 wounded. The dead include 15
Britons, two Jewish underground membmers, eight
civilians. Anti-British slogans, swastikas and dollar
signs are painted onto British consulates in New
York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. |
| August 3, 1947 |
The Bank of Sharon in Ramat Gan was robbed by
Jewish underground, $8,000 stolen.. |
| August 4, 1947 |
An Irgun leader
in Paris states that his organization
has sentenced high British military
and civilian offficials in Palestine
to death "in absentia" and
will hang them upon capture.. |
| August 5, 1947 |
Striking at dawn, British security forces arrested
35 leading Zionists and sent them to the Latrun
detention camp in an attempt to wipe out the Irgun
leadership.In reprisal, Irgunists blew up the
Department of Labor in Jerusalem, killing three
British constables. Those arrested included Mayor
Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv; Mayor Oved Ben Ami
of Nathanya; Mayor Abraham Kdnitzki of Ramat Gan;
Adeh Altman, president of the radical Revisionist
Party; Menahem Arber, leader of the Revisionist
youth organization, B'rith Trumpeldor, which is
outlawed; Max Kritzman, Dov Bela Gruner's attomey,
and David Stem, brother of the late founder of
the Stern Gang. All those arrested except the
three mayors were Revisionists. Among many papers
confiscated was correspondence from Soviet Russian
agents in Italy and Bulgaria and extensive plans
to poison the water supply of the non-Jewish parts
of Jerusalem with botulism and other bacteria.
Bacteria was supplied by Soviet sources through
Bulgaria. |
| August 15, 1947 |
A mine derailed a Cairo-Haifa troop train north
of Lydda, killing the engineer, and Irgunist claimed
the incident was part of its campaign to disrupt
all the Palestine rail traffic. . |
| August 16, 1947 |
Arab-Jewish clashes have brought death to 12 Arabs
and 13 Jews and heavy property destruction this
week in the regions of Jewish Tel Aviv and Arab
Jaffa. Strife was renewed on august 10 when Arabs
killed four Jews in a Tel Aviv cafe, in reprisal
for the deaths of two Arabs in a Haganah raid in
Fega two months ago. Haganah responded to the Arab
actions by bombing a house in an Arab orange grove
near Tel Aviv, killing eleven Arabs, including a
woman and four children. . |
| August 18, 1947 |
The shops of five Jewish merchants in Tel Aviv
were destroyed by the Irgun because the owners refused
to give money to that organization. . |
| Sept. 9, 1947 |
Hamburg, Germany.
In a bitter three hour fight aboard
the "Runnymede Park," 350 British
troops completed a two-day forced debarkation of
4,300 "Exodus 1947" illegal Jewish refugees
from three ships in Hamburg, Germany. First ashore
yesterday were the "Ocean Vigour's" 1,406;
a few put up token resistance and five passengers
sustained minor injuries. Early today, the "Empire
Rival's" 1,420 passengers debarked
peaceably after a home made bomb was
found in the ship's hold. . |
| Sept. 10, 1947 |
Washington D.C.
Secretary of State George C. Marshall
disclosed that the US had urged Britain
to reconsider sending the "Exodus" group
to Germany, but Britain replied tht
there were no facilities for housing
them elsewhere because the French did
not want them and there were a number
of vacant detention camps in Germany. . |
| Sept. 11, 1947 |
Paris. The French
government has now announced tht
it would admit the '`Exodus" refugees
if they were not forcibly deported
from Germany and on the understanding
that they will be admitted eventually
to Palestine. . |
| October 13, 1947 |
A terrorist bomb damaged the US. consulate general
in Jerusalem, injuring two employees slightly. Similar
bombings occurred at the Polish consulate general
last night and at the Swedish consulate on September
27. . |
| Nov. 14, 1947 |
Jewish underground members killed two British
policemen in Jerusalem and two soldiers in Tel Aviv
to raise the total casualties in three days of violence
to 10 Britons and five Jews killed, and 33 Britons
and five Jews wounded. The outbreaks began after
British troops killed three girls and two boys in
a raid on a farmhouse arsenal near Raanana on November
12. The underground retaliated yesterday by throwing
hand grenades and firing a machine gun into the
Ritz Cafe in Jerusalem. . |
| Nov. 16, 1947 |
About 185 European
Jews landed near Netanya from a small
schooner and escaped before the British
could intercept them. A larger vessel,
the "Kadimah," was seized
and brought to Haifa where 794 Jews
were transshipped to a British transport
for Cyprus.. |
| Nov. 17, 1947 |
The British administration disclosed that it will
sell state owned real estate along the Haifa waterfront,
from which it expects to make $8 million. It will
also invest in England about $16 million from bonds
that had been sold to Palestinians. Zionists strongly
protested this as they said it would denude Palestine
of its assets. There was no comment from the administration
to these charges. . |
| Nov. 22, 1947 |
An Arab was killed in Haifa by the Stern Gang
following the killings of four other Arabs near
Raanana on November 20.. |
| Dec. 1, 1947 |
The Arab League announced on December 1 that premiers
and foreign ministers of seven Arab states would
meet in Cairo next week to plan strategy against
partition. In Palestine: Jerusalem and the Jaffa
Tel Aviv boundary zone were centers of week-long
strife which began when seven Jews were killed throughout
Palestine on November 30 and the mayor of Nablus,
Arab nationalist center, proclaimed jihad or a holy
war. British High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham
warned the Arab Higher Command on December 1 that
Britain was determined to keep order so long as
it held its mandate, and police stopped Arab agitators
from raising crowds in Jerusalem.. |
| Dec. 2, 1947 |
Arabs looted and burned a three block Jewish business
district in Jerusalem on December 2, the first day
of a three day Arab general strike during which
20 Jews and 15 Arabs were killed. When British troops
failed to intervene, Haganah came into the open
for the first time in eight years to restrain large
scale Jewish retaliation and also guard Jewish districts.
Some Haganah men were arrested for possessing weapons.
The day's strife caused $1 million worth of damage
and resulted in a 21 hour curfew being applied to
Arab Jerusalem for the rest of the week. The curfew
was extended to outlying roads on December 3 to
stop stonings of Jewish traffic and keep rural Arabs
out of the capital. Max Pinn, head of the Jewish
Agency's Trade and Transfer Deparunent was killed
on December 2 when Arabs stoned his auto near Ramleh
On this day dews stoned Arab buses in Jerusalem.
On December 2, Haganah claimed to have mobilized
10,000 men in the intercity trouble zone, and the
Arab Legion of Trans-Jordan reported on this date
that it had reinforced Jaffa. Seven Jews were killed
in Jaffa-Tel Aviv on this date. There were lesser
attacks in Haifa this week. Also, the Syrian Parliament
enacted a draft law and voted $860,000 for the relief
of Palestinian Arabs. On the same day Arabs attacked
the Jewish part of Aleppo. . |
| Dec. 3, 1947 |
On the Jaffa-Tel Aviv boundary, which also is
under around-the clock curfew, the week's heaviest
battle was a six-hour clash between Haganah and
Arabs on December 3 in which seven Jews and five
Arabs were killed and 75 persons injured. . |
| Dec. 5, 1947 |
The United States Department of State announced
on December 5,1947 that they were placing an embargo
on all American arms shipments to the Middle East.
On December 5, British military reinforcements were
sent to Aden after four days of Arab-Jewish fighting
in which 50 Jews and 25 Arabs were killed. . |
| Dec. 13, 1947 |
On December 13, bombings by the Irgun killed at
least 16 Arabs and injured 67 more in Jerusalem
and Jaffa and burned down a hundred Arab houses
in Jaffa. In Syria, an anti-Jewish attack in rebaliation
for the Irgun actions burned down a 2,750-year old
synagogue in Aleppo and destroyed the priceless
Ben-Asher Codex, a 10th century Hebrew Bible of
original Old Testament manuscripts. . |
| Dec. 14, 1947 |
Regular troops of the Arab Legion of the Trans-Jordan
Army killed 14 Jews and wounded nine Jews, two British
soldiers and one Arab when they atbcked a bus convoy
approaching their camp near Lydda. The Arabs said
the Jews attacked them first. . |
| Dec. 17, 1947 |
British troops came to the aid of police sending
off a raid by 100 Arabs on the Jewish settlement
of Nevatim, seven miles west of Beersheba.. |
| Dec. 18, 1947 |
Haganah killed 10 Arabs in a reprisal raid on
Khisas in the north of the country.. |
| Dec. 19, 1947 |
Reliable reports from Damascus state that Arab
guerrillas are massing there in preparation to launching
an attack into Palestine before the first of the
year. . |
| Dec. 20, 1947 |
Haganah carried out another said on Arabs by atbcking
the village of Qazasa near Rehovoth. One Arab was
killed and two were wounded. . |
| Dec. 25, 1947 |
Emir Mohammed Zeinati, an Arab landowner, was
killed in Haifa for selling land to the Jews. Stern
gang members machine-gunned two British soldiers
in a Tel Aviv cafe. . |
| Dec. 26, 1947 |
Armed Jewish underground
members raided two diamond factories
in Netanya and Tel Aviv and escaped
with $107,000 in diamonds, cash and
bonds. The Stern gang distributed
leaflets reporting that Israel Levin,
a member, was killed in Tel Aviv on
December 24 for trying to betray a
Stern Gang member. . |
| Dec. 29, 1947 |
Irgun members kidnaped and flogged a Briitish
major and thzee sergeans in rebliation for the flogging
of Benjamin Kimkhim who was also sentenced to 18
years in prison on December 27 for robbing a bank.
The major, E. Brett, was seized in Netanya and the
sergeants in Tel Aviv and Rishon el Siyon. Each
got 18 lashes, the same number Kimkhim seceived.
An Irgun bombing at the Damascus Gate in Jesusalem
killed 11 Arabs and two Britons. . |
| Dec. 30, 1947 |
The Dollis Hill Synagogue in London was set on
fire and 12 sacred scrolls wese destroyed by argry
British citizens.. |
| 1947 |
|
| 1947 |
|
| 1947 |
Three Jews are hanged for involvement in Acre
Prison break and two British sergeants are executed
in reprisal. |
| 1947 |
|
| 1947 |
Construction begins on Tapline for Saudi oil. |
| January 4, 1948 |
A series of bombings inflicted heavy Arab casualties.14
were killed and 100 injured when the Stern
gang destroyed the Arab National Committee headquarters
in Jaffa. . |
| January 5, 1948 |
|
| January 7, 1948 |
14 Arabs were killed by two Irgun bombs at Jerusalem's
Jaffa gate. |
| January 12, 1948 |
Stem gang members looted Barclay's Bank in Tel
Aviv of $37,000. |
| January 13, 1948 |
The U.S. War Assets
Administration received orders from
Army Secretary Kenneth Royal to cancel
its sale of 199 tons of M-3 explosive
to a purchasing agent of the Jewish
Agency, which got 73 tons out of the
country before the rest was seized |
| Jan. 14-15, 1948 |
The FBI arrested
six New York men on charges of trying
to ship Haganah 60,000 pounds of TNT,
which was seized in Jersey Gty after
having been bought from the Letterkenny
Arsenal Ordnance Depot in Chambersburg,
Pennsylvania. |
| January 25, 1948 |
Following the
deaths of ten Jews and two Arabs killed
in a battle outside Jerusalem,
British authorities stated that 721
Arabs, 408 Jews, 19 civilians and
12 British policemen (a total of 1,160)
had been killed in an eight-week period
that 1,171 Arabs, 749 Jews, 13 civilians
and 37 British officers had been wounded. |
| 1948 |
Standard Oil of New Jersey and Socony-Vacuum (both now ExxonMobil) buy interest in Aramco; company headquarters moved from San Francisco to New York. |
