1901 – Jewish National Fund (JNF) set up by fifth Zionist Congress in Basle to acquire land for WZO; land acquired by JNF to be inalienably Jewish, and exclusively Jewish labor to be employed on it.
1904-1914 – Second wave of about 40,000 Zionist immigrants increases Jewish population in Palestine to about 6% of total. Since the inception of Zionism it has been claiming that Palestinian was an empty country, click here to read our rebuttal to this argument.
1909 – Establishment of the first kibbutz, based exclusively on Jewish labor. Tel Aviv founded north of Jaffa.
1914 – World War I starts.
1916, 30 January
Hussein-McMahon correspondence between Sharif Husayn of Mecca (leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans) and Sir Henry McMahon (British High Commissioner of Egypt) ends in agreement for postwar independence and unity of Arab provinces of Ottoman Empire.
16 May
Sykes-Picot Agreement secretly signed, dividing Arab provinces of Ottoman Empire between Britain and France. Agreement revealed by Bolsheviks in December 1917.
June
Sharif Hussein proclaims Arab independence from Ottomans. Arab Revolt against Istanbul begins.
1917, 2 November
Balfour Declaration. British Secretary of State Balfour pledges British support for “a Jewish national home in Palestine.”
One of the many problems with this declaration is:
- It referred to the Palestinians as the “existing population” not even naming them;
- It stated that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” an impossibility when you try to form a homeland on someone else’s homeland;
- A country that has no ownership of land has no right to impose such a declaration.
Interestingly, the British considered granting Uganda (another British colony at the time) as a homeland to the Jews of Europe but was dropped when the British citizens residing in Uganda rejected the idea of another group of people moving in large numbers along side them.
1918, September
Palestine occupied by Allied forces under British General Allenby.
30 October
World War I ends.