	A Chronology of Palestinian History
	BCE (Before Christian Era)
600,000 - 10,000	Paleolithic and Mesolithic period. Earliest human remains in the area (found south of the Lake of Tabariyya), date back to 600,000 BC.
10,000 - 5,000	Neolithic period. Establishment of settled agricultural communities.
5,000 - 3,000	Chalcolithic period. Copper and stone tools and artifacts from this period found near Jericho, Bi'r As-Sabi' and the Dead Sea.
3,000 - 2,000	Early Bronze Age. Arrival and settlement of the Canaanites (3,000 - 2,500 BC)
1,250	Israelite conquest of Canaan.
965 - 928	King Solomon (Sulayman), construction of the temple in Jerusalem.
928	Division of the Israelite state into the kingdom of Israel and Judah.
721	Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel.
586	Judah defeated by Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, deportation of its population to Babylon and destruction of the temple.
539	Persians conquer Babylonia, allows deportees to return and construction of a new temple.
333	Alexander the Great conquers Persia and Palestine comes under Greek rule.
323	Alexander the Great dies, alternate rule by Ptolemies of Egypt and Seleucids of Syria.
165	Maccabees revolt against the Seleucid ruler (Antiochus Epiphanes) and establish an independent state.
63	Incorporation of Palestine into the Roman Empire.
	AD (Anno Domini)
70	Destruction of the second temple by the Roman Emperor Titus.
132-135	Suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Jews barred from Jerusalem and Emperor Hadrian builds a pagan city on its ruins.
330-638	Palestine under Byzantine rule, Christianity spreads.
638	Omar ibn al-Khattaab enters Jerusalem and ends Byzantine rule.
661-750	Palestine administered by the Umayyad caliphs from Damascus who construct the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa in its current shape. (continues over ')
750-1258	Palestine administered from Baghdad by the'Abbasid caliphs.
969	Palestine administered by the Fatimids from Egypt as rivals to Baghdad.
1071	Saljuqs (originally from Isfahan) rule Jerusalem and parts of Palestine (officially still under the 'Abbasids).
1099	The Crusaders arrive and establish the "Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem".
1187	Salah al-Din al-Ayyoubi (from Kurdistan) conquers the crusaders in the battle of Hittin and frees Jerusalem. Palestine administered from Cairo.
1260	The Mamluks succeed the Ayyubis, continue to administer Palestine from Cairo and defeat the Mongols in the battle of 'Ayn Jaluut near An-Nasira.
1291	The Mamluks (Khalil bin Qalawuun) conquer the last crusader strongholds in Akka and Qisariya.
1516	Palestine incorporated into the Ottoman Empire and administered from Istanbul.
1832-40	Mohamed Ali Pasha (Egypt) rules Palestine, to be followed by Ottoman rule.
1876	First Palestinian deputies from Jerusalem attend the first Ottoman parliament.
1878	First Zionist settlement (Petach Tiqva) established under the guise of agricultural community.
1882	First wave of Zionists (25,000 strong) enters Palestine as illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe.
1882	French Baron E. de Rothschild starts backing Zionists activities in Palestine financially.
1887	Ottomans divide Palestine into three districts: Jerusalem, Akka and Nablus.
1895	The total population of Palestine reaches 500,000 of which, 47,000 are Jews who own 0.5% of the land.
1896	Theodor Hertzl, a journalist from an Austro- Hungarian origin publishes Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) advocating the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine or elsewhere (Argentina, Uganda). JCA (Jewish Colonisation Association) starts aiding Zionist settlements in Palestine.
1897	First Zionist congress in Switzerland issues the Basle Program "calling for a home for the Jewish people in Palestine" and establishes the WZO (World Zionist Organization) to that end.
1901	JNF (Jewish National Fund) set up by the 5th Zionist congress to acquire land (in Palestine) and 'make it Jewish'.
1904-14	Second wave (around 40000 strong) of Zionist illegal immigrants arrive in Palestine and increase the Jewish percentage to 6% of the total population.
1909	First Zionist Kibbutz (collective farm), establishment of Tel Aviv north of Yaafa.
1911	World War I begins.
1916	1916 Britain and France sign the Sykes Picot agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria was assigned to France, Jordan and Iraq to Britain and Palestine was to be internationalised.
1917	British government issues Balfour Declaration. Promising the Jewish people an independent Jewish state in Palestine. At that time the population of Palestine was 700,000 of which 574,000 were Muslims, 74,000 were Christian, and 56,000 were Jews.
1919	The Palestinians convened their first National Conference and expressed their opposition to the Balfour Declaration.
1920	The San Remo Conference granted Britain a mandate over Palestine and two years later Palestine was effectively under British administration. Sir Herbert Samuel, a declared Zionist, was sent as Britain's first High Commissioner to Palestine.
1922	The Council of the League of Nations issued a Mandate for Palestine. The Mandate favors the establishment of a homeland in Palestine for Jewish people.
1936	The Palestinians held a six-month General Strike to protest against the confiscation of land and Jewish immigration.
1939	London Round Table Conference produces a White Paper which promises Arabs that an independent Arab Palestinian state will be established in Palestine within 10 years, it also sets a limit to Jewish migration to Palestine of 1,400 per year until 1944, after which Jewish migration will cease.
1944-47	Jewish-British War. Jewish groups in Palestine try to expel Britain. Mainstream Jewish fighters under David Ben Gurion are called Hagana. They later become the Israeli army. Two separate military groups (Irgun Zvai Leumi led by Menachem Begin and Lehi or the Stern Gang led by Yitzhak Shamir) resort to assassination and bombings. Many British soldiers and Arab civilians are killed.
1947	Britain decides it cannot bring peace to Palestine and turns the matter over to the United Nations. In Resolution 181 the UN votes to partition Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states with an international enclave around Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Arab leaders reject the plan and insist on a united Palestine with a secular government. The UN decision would leave the Palestinians who make up 70% of the population and own 92% of the land with only 47% of the country in which they lived.
1948	Irgun terrorists led my Meheim Begin massacre 250 Arabs in their homes in the village of Deir Yassim. Approximate population of Palestine: 1,650,000 Palestinians and 750,000 Jews.
1948-50	Britain withdraws from Palestine. The state of Israel is established resulting in the 1948 War between Israel and the Arab countries. 846,000 Palestinians are driven out of their homeland or flee the fighting that accompanied the creation of a Jewish state. Only 160,000 Palestinians remain in Israel itself.
1949	A cease fire is agreed between the Arabs and the Zionists leaving the Jews with 77% of the land.
1964	The establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jerusalem.