May 14, 1948: David Ben Gurion, a Zionist leader and the future prime minister of Israel, reads the Declaration of Independence in Tel Aviv during the ceremony founding the state of Israel. [GALLO/GETTY]
Published On 2 Sep 20102 Sep 2010
1948 - 1949: War between the nascent state of Israel and its neighbours forces nearly a million Palestinian Arabs to flee their homeland. Hundreds of thousands remain refugees today. [GALLO/GETTY]
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June 5, 1967: Israel responds to Egypt’s troop massing and closure of the Straits of Tiran with a pre-emptive attack. The occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights and West Bank begins. Israeli Jews gain access to the holy sites of East Jerusalem for the first time. [GALLO/GETTY]
1969: Yasser Arafat, centre, becomes chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He advocates armed resistance against Israel, and the Arab League recognises his PLO as the (***)sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people(***). [GALLO/GETTY]
September 5, 1978: Jimmy Carter, the US president, mediates a peace agreement between Israeli prime minister Menachim Begin, left, and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, right, at Camp David. Israel withdraws from the Sinai, and Sadat is assassinated two years later. [GALLO/GETTY]
December 8, 1987: The First Intifada breaks out after an Israeli army truck kills four Palestinians and injures seven, inflaming grievances against the occupation. It lasts for six years, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 Palestinians and more than 100 Israelis. [AP]
October 30, 1991: The United States and Soviet Union convene a conference in Madrid. Israel talks face-to-face with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians, but the PLO is not invited. The talks lead to the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. [EPA]
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September 13, 1993: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Arafat sign the Oslo Accords after Israel secretly negotiated with the PLO for the first time in Norway. The accords establish the Palestinian Authority and the right of Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank.
July 25, 1994: US president Clinton ushers in another handshake at the White House, as Jordanian king Hussein bin Talal, left, and Rabin agree on a peace deal. The following year, Rabin is assassinated by a radical Orthodox Jew who opposed the Oslo Accords. [www.knesset.gov.il]
June 1996: Binyamin Netanyahu, a conservative Likud politician shown here receiving morning prayers during his time as deputy foreign minister, becomes prime minister of Israel. Netanyahu came to power amid widespread suicide bombings by Palestinian fighters. [GALLO/GETTY]
October 23, 1998: Arafat and Netanyahu, right, meet at Wye River, Maryland, to discuss security and land transfers. The talks are viewed as a failure. Clinton reportedly viewed Netanyahu as untrustworthy, while Netanyahu would later call Clinton (***)radically pro-Palestinian(***). [GALLO/GETTY]
July 11, 2000: Arafat and Ehud Barak, right, the Israeli prime minister, meet at Camp David. They fail to resolve the conflict(***)s largest obstacles: how much territory Israel would relinquish, who would control Jerusalem, whether Palestinian refugees have a (***)right of return(***). [GALLO/GETTY]
September 28, 2000: Ariel Sharon, running for prime minister, visits the Temple Mount with hundreds of police, sparking the Second Intifada. Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli targeted killings follow. Israel begins constructing the West Bank separation barrier. [GALLO/GETTY]
June 4, 2003: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, US president George Bush, and Sharon, left to right, meet in Jordan to discuss the new (***)road map(***) for peace. The road map calls for a freeze on Israeli settlements and the creation by 2005 of an independent state of Palestine. [GALLO/GETTY]
January 2006: Ismail Haniyah, a senior Hamas leader, celebrates victory over rival the rival Fatah party in Palestinian legislative elections. Israel and the US say they will not negotiate with a government led by Hamas, considered by both to be a terrorist group. [GALLO/GETTY]
December 2006: Hamas and Fatah fail to agree to a coalition government, and fighting erupts. Hamas expels Fatah from its power base in the Gaza Strip, where to date Hamas maintains effective control and does not recognise the Fatah government in the West Bank. [GALLO/GETTY]
2007 - 2008: Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005, tightens its blockade of the Strip. Fighting between Israel, Hamas and other groups escalates with increased rocket attacks on Israel and more incursions into Gaza. Israel invades Gaza for several days in early 2008. [GALLO/GETTY]
December 2008: Israel launches a three-week offensive into Gaza, decimating the Strip’s infrastructure and leaving 13 Israelis and more than 1,000 Palestinians dead. A UN investigation by Jewish former South African judge Richard Goldstone finds that both sides committed war crimes. [GALLO/GETTY]
June 4, 2009: US president Barack Obama delivers a major speech in Cairo, declaring his support for the (***)road map(***) peace plan, including an independent Palestine and a halt to Israeli settlements. He says Hamas can "play a role" if it ends violence and recognises Israel’s right to exist. [GALLO/GETTY]
November 2009: Netanyahu, following a visit to Washington DC, announces a 10-month settlement freeze. It doesn(***)t apply to existing or already approved projects. A 1,600-unit settlement is embarrassingly announced in March during a visit by US Vice-President Joseph Biden. [GALLO/GETTY]
May: Eighteen months after Israeli-Palestinian talks ended with Israel(***)s Gaza offensive, former US senator George Mitchell, left, Obama(***)s special envoy to the Middle East, begins to shepherd indirect negotiations or (***)proximity talks(***) between Abbas and Netanyahu. [GALLO/GETTY]
August 20: Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announces that Israel and the Palestinians will resume face-to-face talks in Washington DC on September 1. (***)Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles,(***) she says. [GALLO/GETTY]
