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Timeline of British Rule in Palestine (1918-1947)

Return to Timeline of Jewish History: Table of Contents


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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

Egyptian revolution.

1919

Chaim Weizmann heads Zionist delegation at Versailles Peace Conference.

1919-1923

Third Aliyah, mainly from Russia.

1919

Emir Faisel wrote a letter to Felix Frankfurter supporting Zionism, “We Arabs...wish the Jews a most hearty welcome.”

1919-1943

Commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Mordechai Anilewicz.

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 (The Yishuv)to conduct its affairs.

1920

Keren Hayesod created for education, absorbtion and the development of rural settlements in Eretz-Israel.

1920

Chaim Weizmann is elected president of the World Zionist Organization.

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

British statesman Sir Herbert Samuel is appointed High Commissioner of Palestine.

1920

Henry Ford's newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, begins publishing its anti-Semitic propaganda, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Feb. 24, 1920

The first mass meeting of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) takes place at Munich's Hofbräuhaus.

April 1, 1920

Adolf Hitler is honorably discharged from the German Army.

1920

The San Remo Conference awards administration of the former Turkish territories of Syria and Lebanon to France, and Palestine, Transjordan, and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Britain.

1920

Second and third Palestinan National Congress' held.

1921

The Times of London pronounces the Protocols of the Elders of Zion a forgery.

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

Arab riots occur in Jaffa and other cities.

1921

Völkischer Beobachter (People's Observer), the official National Socialist newspaper, begins publication.

July 29, 1921

Adolf Hitler becomes the Nazi Party's first chairman with dictatorial powers.

1921

Kingdom of Iraq is established.

1921

First moshav, Nahalal, founded in the Jezreel Valley.

1921

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Rabbi Ya'akov Meir are elected the first two chief Rabbis of Eretz-Israel.

1921-1944

Famous Hungarian Jewish poet and paratrooper who fought in WWII, Hannah Szenes (Senesh).

1922

Britain granted Mandate for Palestine (Land of Israel) by League of Nations.

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

Mordecai M. Kaplan founds the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the cradle of the Reconstructionist movement.

1922

The United States Congress and President Harding approve the Balfour Declaration.

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

Lenin creates the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1922

Benito Mussolini establishes a Fascist government in Italy.

1922

Harvard's president proposes a quota on the number of Jews admitted. After a contentious debate, he withdrew the recommendation.

1922

League of Nations Council approves Mandate for Palestine.

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

Technion, first institute of technology, founded in Haifa.

1924-1932

Fourth Aliyah, mainly from Poland.

1924

Benjamin Frankel starts Hillel Foundation. The first Hillel House opens at the University of Illinois, offers religious and social services.

1924

Caliphate officially abolished.

May 11, 1924

The first conference of the General Zionist movement is held in Jerusalem.

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

Revisionist Movement founded by Zeev Jabotinsky.

1925

Hebrew University of Jerusalem opened on Mt. Scopus.

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

Hebron Jews massacred by Arab militants.

1929-1945

Anne Frank, Holocaust victim whose diary, written during the Nazi Occupation became famous.

1929-1939

Fifth Aliyah, from Germany.

1930

Hope-Simpson report, predecessor to Passfield White Paper, recommends and end to all Jewish immigration to Eretz-Israel.

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

'Abd al-Aziz Al Saud proclaims the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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

Assassination of Chaim Arlozorov.

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

Jewish rights in Germany rescinded by Nuremberg laws.

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

Official establishment of the Palestine Arab Party in Jerusalem; Jamal al-Husseini elected president.

1936-1939

Anti-Jewish riots instigated by Arab militants.

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

The first of the Tower and Stockade Settlements (Tel Amel) Nir David is erected.

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

Reform Jewish Columbus Platform.

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

Kristallnacht — German Jewish synagogues burned down.

1938

Charles E. Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest, launches media campaign in America against Jews.

1938

The Dominican Republic is the only country out of 32 at the Evian Conference willing to help Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany.

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

Jewish immigration severely limited by British White Paper.

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

Nazis establish ghettos in Poland.

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

Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Lehi) or Stern Gang underground movement formed.

May 15, 1941

Palmach, strike force of Haganah, set up.

1942

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise publicizes Riegner report confirming mass murder of European Jews.

1942

Biltmore Conference of American Zionists.

1942

Nazi leaders refine the "Final Solution" -- genocide of the Jewish people -- at Wannsee Conference.

1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

1943

Palmach parachutes into enemy lines in Europe.

1943

British deport illegal immigrants to Cyprus.

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

Jewish Brigade formed as part of British forces.

1944

FDR establishes War Refugee Board. For most victims of Nazism, it comes too late.

1944

Camp for Jewish war refugees is opened at Oswego, New York.

1939/1942-1945

The Nazi German Holocaust against Jews.

1945

International tribunal for war crimes is established at Nuremberg.

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

United Nations established.

1945

President Truman asks Britain to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine.

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

An R.A.F member is killed by gunfire in Jerusalem

October 8, 1946

Two British soldiers are 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 mines were found near Government House.

October 31, 1946

The British Embassy in Rome was damaged by a bomb, believed to have been placed by Jewish underground members. Irgun took responsibility for the bombing on November 4..

November 3, 1946

Two Jews and two Arabs are 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 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 landmine 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, monies and bonds. These raids signaled an end to a two-week truce during the World Zionist Congress.

1947

Partition of India and Pakistan.

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 District 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 Government 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 immigration 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 passengers 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 transport "Empire Lifeguard" in Haifa harbor as it was discharging 300 Jewish immigrants who had officially 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 officials 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 these sergeants in retaliation 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 received. 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 were destroyed by angry British citizens.

1947

UN proposes the establishment of Arab and Jewish states in the Land.

1947

Arab Higher Committee for Palestine rejects UN Partition Plan.

1947

Three Jews are hanged for involvement in Acre Prison break and two British sergeants are executed in reprisal.

1947

Scrolls dating from approximately 22 B.C.E. are discovered at Qumran, near the Dead Sea.

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

Jerusalem. 15 Arabs were killed after Haganah bombed the Semirarnis Hotel.

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.

Timeline of Jewish History