📷 TOP: October 2023 [Ashraf Amra/Al Jazeera] 📷 BOTTOM: 1948 [History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images]
A couple weeks ago, I came across this photograph (top) of tents that reminded me of another photo (bottom.)
In the first photo, dozens of UNRWA tents set up for the thousands of recently displaced (again) Palestinians who have fled indiscriminate Israeli bombing and military invasion in the Gaza Strip. In the second image, a man looks over a refugee camp in the Jordan Valley, set up for Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948.
Here’s what I see beyond the captions: though these photos were taken 75 years apart, they’re nearly the same imagery. They’re exactly the same people (or their descendants) being forced into exile. They indicate the same lack of response from the world. They invoke the same deep sense of rage and grief in me.
In the last month, we have watched the people of Gaza face mass destruction. 60% (and rising) of housing units damaged or destroyed. At least 10,000+ Palestinians killed. Nearly gone are the precious life-sustaining resources of food, water, fuel, and electricity, withheld by Israel from reaching those in need. Hospital system collapse. Communication blackouts. Entire region risks escalation and dragged into war.
We can step back from this brink. But we’re going to have to look back almost 150 years to the rise of political Zionism and the cost of implementing this idea on Palestinian land and its people. We’re going to have to not just learn but realize what has happened during the vast space between the two photos from 1948 and 2023.
I'm just a regular person, a traveller who ended up in places I couldn’t see coming, meeting people I didn’t know I wanted to meet. It was there that I fell in love with a people, culture, language, and hope I didn’t know before. Something radically shifts when you get to spend time with people up close, over sage tea, over maqlooba, over a hundred cups of cardamom Arabic coffee. But maybe you haven’t had this opportunity so let me tell you what this love looks like.
This love compels me to believe Palestinians when they tell their stories and so I share them. This love compels me to embrace their struggles and resistance as my own. This love compels me to dream of a future where Palestine is free. And Israelis are free. And so, we’re all free. Our collective history is one. This love is what made me ask, so what really happened?
I do not know every single detail of this history. I’m not an academic or a historian or Palestinian myself, and I wasn’t even paying attention until about 10 years ago. This was not information I was aware of or had to face, and even if I had been more curious before that, the reality is that most available information and mainstream media does not support much of what I’m sharing today. In other words, it was news to me like it may be news to you today. But once I heard this, I couldn’t look away. I decided to look closer, go deeper, encounter more. And though I can’t fix it all by myself, I can tell you what I know. Awareness is the end of our ignorance, the beginning of our wisdom2.
I have learned this: not knowing the general context of Palestine and Israel before October 7 will lead us to – at worst – support the genocide of Palestinians – or at best – believe we can make peace with a ceasefire alone. It will allow us to think we can stop the violence if we could just go back to October 6 to when we didn’t have to pay attention and we’d never seen this image from 1948. We run the risk of oversimplifying solutions, ignoring our complicity, upholding the status quo, and compromising our solidarity if we don’t know the history.
Peace requires justice. Justice is only achievable by ending the Israeli military occupation, lifting the blockade on Gaza, returning refugees back to their homes, and fully dismantling the apartheid systems that have targeted and oppressed millions of Palestinians for generations, creating the exact pressure and conditions that inevitably lead to resistance.
What pressure and conditions exactly? These are the roots.
Here’s a timeline3 of events leading to October 7, 2023. This is not a comprehensive or exhaustive list of every event between 1880 and today (not even close, I have to draw the line somewhere), but rather my attempt at an overview of the Nakba and the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the implications of certain events. I’ve included key factors like major conflicts and uprisings, peace talk highlights, status of refugees, and involvement of the United States. I do my best withhold analysis in favor of facts in most cases.
I acknowledge that this timeline does not capture the full range of nuances or events in the context of wider geopolitics (for example, all of Israel’s engagement with its neighboring Arab states like Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt, or, another example, all Palestinian political efforts and factions of influence over the years), but is meant as a starting point for you to better explore Palestinian history through further learning and research.
Listen in with an open heart. Get curious and ask questions. Let your ideas be transformed.
1880’s | Zionism, the political ideology that calls for an exclusive Jewish national homeland, is born.
1917 | Palestine, formerly part the Ottoman Empire for 400 years, is conquered by the British at the end of WWI. The Balfour Declaration is created and the British Empire has promised a “Jewish national home” on Arab land. The British Mandate for Palestine (1917-1948) lays the groundwork for a Jewish state in Palestine to become a reality.
1947 | The United Nations adopts a Palestine partition plan where 54% of the land would become a Palestinian state, and 46% a Jewish state.
1948 | Great Britain terminates the Mandate over Palestine and Israel declares independence on May 15.The State of Israel is created after the Arab-Israeli War. Jordan annexes the West Bank. Palestinians resist the expulsion from Palestine, and Zionist Jewish militias massacre and remove Palestinians from their homes and villages. The United Nations passes a resolution affirming the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees.
1947–1949 The start of the Nakba The Nakba (“the catastrophe” in Arabic) has begun. Israel begins its occupation of Palestine and practices ethnic cleansing to colonize the land. An estimated 750,000-1,000,000 Palestinians are driven from their homes in Palestine and become refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Another 15,000 Palestinians are killed. 500+ Palestinian villages are destroyed. 80% of Palestinians in what becomes Israel are expelled and approximately 80% of Palestinian land is seized by Zionists.
1949 | The UN creates the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to provide for the needs of Palestinian refugees.
1950 | The Nakba continues.
1951 | The Nakba continues.
1952 | The Nakba continues.
1953 | The Nakba continues.
1954 | The Nakba continues.
1955 | The Nakba continues.
1956 | The Nakba continues.
1957 | The Nakba continues.
1958 | The Nakba continues.
1959 | The Nakba continues.
1960 | The Nakba continues.
1961 | The Nakba continues.
1962 | The Nakba continues.
1963 | The Nakba continues.
1964 | The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed.
1965 | The Nakba continues.
1966 | The Nakba continues.
1967 | During the Six-Day War, Israel conquers and occupies the rest of historic Palestine, including the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank from Jordan, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Another 400,000 Palestinian refugees are forced to flee to Jordan. Israel begins building Jewish settlements in the militarized West Bank and Gaza Strip. The settlements are illegal under international law.
1968 | The Nakba continues.
1969 | The Nakba continues.
1970 | The Nakba continues.
1971 | The Nakba continues.
1972 | The Nakba continues.
1973 | The Nakba continues.
1974 | The UN General Assembly and the Arab League recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
1975 | The Nakba continues.
1976 | Now known as “Land Day”, when in response to the Israeli government's announcement to designate thousands of acres of Palestinian land for state purposes, a general strike and marches are organized. In confrontations with Israeli forces, 6 unarmed Palestinians are killed, 100 wounded, and hundreds arrested.
1977 | The Nakba continues.
1978 | Israel and Egypt sign the Camp David Accords with U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a peace treaty that commits Israel to withdraw from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and evacuate settlements there. The treaty also says Israeli, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian governments are expected to negotiate the administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but this agreement is not implemented.
1979 | The Nakba continues.
1980 | The Nakba continues.
1981 | The Nakba continues.
1982 | During the wider Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975, Israel invades Lebanon all the way to Beirut with the intention of eliminating the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PLO withdraws from Lebanon in August. Shortly after, on 16-18th of September, 2,000-3,500 Palestinian civilians, including women, children, and elderly refugees, are massacred in Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut by a Lebanese Christian militia with help from the Israeli forces that surrounded the camp, trapping refugees inside the camp during the slaughter.
1983 | The Nakba continues.
1984 | The Nakba continues.
1985 | The Nakba continues.
1986 | The Nakba continues.
1987 | After 20 years of brutal military occupation, the First Intifada (Palestinian “uprising”) begins in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Hamas, a political party and resistance group, is formed in Gaza.
1987–1991/93 The First Intifada The First Intifada lasts from December 1987 until 1991 (Madrid Conference), although some date its conclusion in 1993 (Oslo Accords.) This uprising includes protests, civil disobedience such as boycotts and general strikes largely coordinated by women, and violence - most notably the throwing of stones, earning the uprising the moniker “Stone Intifada”. 1,300 Palestinians are killed, and 200 Israelis.
1988 | The Nakba continues.
1989 | The Nakba continues.
1990 | The Nakba continues.
1991 | Madrid Conference is a peace conference hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the United States and Soviet Union. It is an attempt to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, involving Israel and Palestinians, as well as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
1992 | The Nakba continues.
1993 | The PLO and Israel sign the first Oslo Accords at the White House with President Bill Clinton in a commitment to build a framework to end the conflict.
1994 | Considered part of the Oslo Accords, the Gaza-Jericho Agreement or the Cairo Agreement is signed and Israel commits to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is established to assume governing responsibilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1995 | After a year and a half of negotiations, Israel and the PLO sign the final Oslo Accord agreement providing Palestinians some autonomy in the West Bank, but Israel maintains control over the security of the region. The West Bank is divided into three non-contiguous divisions: Areas A, B and C. -Area A (roughly 15% of the land, red in the map below) is controlled and secured by the Palestinian Authority and includes eight Palestinian cities and no Israeli settlements. Israelis are forbidden to enter this area. -Area B (roughly 25% of the land, pink in the map below) is controlled by the PA (civil and security) and Israel (security only) and includes around 400 Palestinian villages and surrounding land, with no Israeli settlements. - Area C (the largest division at about 60%, white in the map below) is under exclusive Israeli military and civil control. In Area C, Palestinians are unable to travel on Israeli roads or build on their own farms or in their own existing villages due to Israeli restrictions. All of the illegal Israeli settlements can be found in Area C. Large sections, including East Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel and declared “state land”.
This map shows the fragmentation of the occupied West Bank once Areas were established.
Map credit: PalestinePortal.org
1993–1999 The Oslo Process The Oslo Accords declare temporary self-government for Palestinians in certain parts of the occupied territories and the Palestinian Authority is formed. The 5-year interim agreements of the Accords are put in place to eventually transfer autonomy to Palestinians and hold final negotiations between parties. Instead, the Accords and Israel’s own liberties with the enforcement of borders haphazardly divides the land into fragmented areas, cutting Palestinians off from one another, their jobs, their holy sites, and their properties. Israel continued to build illegal Jewish-only settlements and annex more land. Palestinians say this turned land into swiss cheese, the small holes being the only places Palestinians are “allowed” to live. The Accords fail to address permanent borders, Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. Critics of the Accords say it ultimately undermined bilateral security, prevented Palestinian statehood, and resulted in gridlock for the peace process.
1996 | Yasser Arafat becomes the first elected leader of the Palestinian people and is sworn in as president of the Palestinian Authority. Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu is victorious in the Israeli election to become Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu announces the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian occupied territories. Many fear his election will sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
1997 | The Nakba continues.
1998 | The Nakba continues.
1999 | The five year interim period of the Oslo Accords ends without a peace agreement or statehood for Palestine, and some elements of the Accords persist. Palestinian Authority and the Areas A, B, and C divisions become permanent in the West Bank.
2000 | U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Israeli Prime Minister and Palestinian President at Camp David, a summit to produce a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but no agreement is reached. In September, the Second Intifada begins.
2001 | The Nakba continues.
2002 | Israel begins building the separation wall in the West Bank. The barrier cuts deep into West Bank Palestinian territory and around settlements. Palestinians are cut off from Jerusalem, some Palestinian villages are sliced in half, so Palestinians are unable to get to work or school as a result of the barrier’s path. The wall, along with hundreds of checkpoints imposed on Palestinians, continues to impede their movement. 85% of the wall’s route is in occupied Palestinian territory, not along the 1949 Green Line, and is illegally annexing to Israel the areas that have seen the most colonization by the Israeli settlements. (The wall is still being built as of 2023.)
2003 | American activist Rachel Corrie is deliberately killed by an IOF bulldozer crushing her while protesting Israeli military demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
2004 | Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, dies. Following his death, the PLO executive committee appoints Mahmoud Abbas as Chairman of the PLO. Shortly after, he is elected as President of the PA. Abbas is viewed by some as a moderate and pragmatic politician who calls for negotiation rather than armed struggle. However, he is also perceived by many as primarily appeasing Israel rather than advocating for the rights of his people. Abbas remains the President of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Authority, and the Chairman of the PLO since 2004.
2005 | Palestinian civil society calls for a global campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (known as the BDS Movement) that would continue until Israel ends its military occupation, Palestinian refugees have the right of return, and Palestinian citizens of Israel are given full equality with Jewish citizens of Israel.
2000–2005 The Second Intifada Many Palestinians considered the Intifada to be a struggle of national liberation against Israeli occupation imposed on them since 1967. The Second Intifada is characterized by mass Palestinian protests and general strikes, and suicide bombing attacks and firing rockets into Israel. Israeli forces responded by conducting mass arrests and locking up Palestinians in administrative detention without charges. The IOF set up hundreds of checkpoints and built the barrier fence around the Gaza Strip and began the separation wall in the West Bank. During the Second Intifada, the airport in Gaza is destroyed when Israel bombs the communications towers and destroys the runway. Gaza borders are basically sealed. 4,000 Palestinians are killed, and 1,000 Israelis.
2006 | Hamas wins political election and takes over administration of the Gaza Strip, which includes healthcare, education, infrastructure, social welfare, law enforcement, and public employment. The United States and other countries suspend aid to Palestinians because they consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, sparking a five-week war. At least 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers, are killed. 1,000,000 Lebanese are displaced by the war, and 500,000 Israelis.
2007 | In response to Hamas takeover, Israel withdraws troops and settlers from Gaza and enforces a blockade by land, sea, and air. Israel controls its borders (other than the Gaza-Egypt border, controlled by Egypt) meaning it controls all Palestinian and foreigner travel, and all imports and utilities including building materials, food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid to Palestinians living there. This blockade effectively makes Gaza Strip an “open air prison.”
2008 | Israel attacks the Gaza Strip and results in a 3-week battle called “The Gaza War” or “Operation Cast Lead” where over 1,000 Palestinians are killed, and 13 Israelis.
2009 | Benjamin Netanyahu is reelected Prime Minister of Israel.
2010 | The Nakba continues.
2011 | The Nakba continues.
2012 | “Operation Pillar of Defense” is an 8-day operation carried out by Israel to impair the Hamas militia wing. 150+ Palestinians are killed, and 6 Israelis.
United Nations releases a report that says the Gaza Strip will become unlivable by year 2020 if the siege continues.
2013 | The Nakba continues.
2014 | The PLO and Hamas sign an agreement to form a unity government. Tensions remain and no unity government is formed. Gaza and the West Bank remain disconnected, and under the Israeli occupation. Israel launches “Operation Protective Edge”, an offensive that lasts for 50 days killing 2,000 Palestinians, and 71 Israelis.
2015 | The Nakba continues.
2016 | The Nakba continues.
2017 | U.S. President Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledges to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This move is heavily criticized throughout Palestine and the Arab world.
2018 | The “Great March of Return” demonstrations begin weekly at the Gaza border fence in March. Palestinians in Gaza gather in the tens of thousands each week to demand the end of the Israeli blockade, protest Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, to demand the right of return for refugees, and an end to 70+ years of displacement.
2019 | The “Great March of Return”, which began on March 30, 2018, ends on December 27, 2019.
2018–2019 The Great March of Return Great March of Return protests are largely non-violent, and still, Israeli military uses tear gas and live ammunition to discourage the march. 214 Palestinians, including 46 children, are killed. Over 36,100 Palestinians, including nearly 8,800 children, are injured. Accountability and justice for the victims of Israel’s use of force against protesters continues to be denied, and the blockade and denial of basic human rights remains unresolved.
2020 | President Trump publishes a 180-page Israeli-Palestinian peace plan called “Peace to Prosperity”, crafted by U.S. and Israeli diplomats without Palestinian input. Analysts criticize the plan as being one-sided, making impossible requirements for Palestinian statehood, and allowing further Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The Abraham Accords are signed. They are agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, and mediated by the United States, to normalize relations. The agreements recognize Israel's sovereignty, enabling full diplomatic relations with these Arab States.
2021 | Continued expulsion of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and IOF raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan spark conflict between Israel and Hamas. 300+ Palestinians are killed, and 19 Israelis.
2022 | Amnesty International, the renowned global human rights group, accuses Israel of apartheid. They point to discriminatory policies within Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, annexation of the West Bank, where it exerts total control and is actively building and expanding Jewish settlements that are considered illegal by international law. Amnesty joins Human Rights Watch and leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem in naming the apartheid regime. On May 11, Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for 25 years for Al Jazeera, is killed by an Israeli soldier while wearing a blue press vest and covering an IOF raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Even though killing journalists is a war crime, made illegal by international law, no one has been held accountable for her murder. Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu is elected to a sixth term as Prime Minister of Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden congratulates his reelection and reaffirms their partnership and his unwavering support for Israeli security.
2023 | This year alone, between January 1–October 6, 248 Palestinians were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces. IOF already held 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
The Palestinian land loss to the Israeli occupation has been enormous over the last 75 years, and it remains a tragic loss today. These aren’t just property lines and fluid boundaries, they’re Palestinian lives, families, farms, towns, homes, livelihoods, and futures.
As of October 6, 2023, there were already 6 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, making Palestinian refugees the OLDEST AND LARGEST refugee group in the world. Two million of those six million Palestinian refugees lived in the Gaza Strip. The people of Gaza have been living under collective punishment as a result of the 16-year blockade that continually has a devastating effect on their livelihood and survival. The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip was already around 50%, and over 80% of Gazans lived in poverty and were already dependent on food aid for survival.
Before the bombing. Before the new mass expulsion of over half the population. Before the electricity and water cuts. Before the information blackout. Before humanitarian aid was denied again and again. Before the world started paying attention. Before October 7.
Will they have to wait 75 more years for justice? I hope not.
Let us be the ones willing to learn and grapple with our shared history, and let us be the ones who promise to not look away. Let us be the ones who affirm Palestinian humanity and dignity. Let us be the ones who finally stand with Palestinians because they have struggled alone for far too long.
Let us be the ones who declare it does not have to be this way.
Let this timeline be a visual reminder that what we’ve witnessed in the last month did not occur in a vacuum nor is it a recent issue just because we weren’t looking closely enough before. Even if you just skimmed it, you can consider its length. You can consider the amount of time that has passed that Palestinians have been forcibly removed from their native land and killed for being Palestinian. You can consider the years where “nothing happened”, when the Nakba continued. You can consider how this is genocide, not a “war” or “conflict” between Israel and Hamas, who wasn't even on the scene until the late 1980’s, 100 years after the rise of Zionism.
You don’t have to remember all of the dates, but you can remember these two images. You can see their similarities. You can trace the history between them now.
Let this be a reminder that while we definitely should be calling on our governments to take action for a ceasefire, we ALSO absolutely should demand the ending of the violent occupation of Palestine, lifting the blockade on Gaza, dismantling apartheid systems throughout the land, and the returning of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
We should all be calling for the end of the Nakba.
P.S. Comments are open, but I will not tolerate any hate speech or trolling. We’re here to learn and grow, and end the genocide. If you have genuine questions or comments in that spirit, please feel free to engage the comment section below. Subscribers can also reply to this email to reach me directly and privately. I always respond to email replies!
Comments are open, but I will not tolerate any hate speech or trolling. We’re here to learn and grow, and end the genocide. If you have genuine questions or comments in that spirit, please feel free to engage this comment section. Subscribers can also reply to the email version of this post to reach me directly and privately.
Thank you Shelby 🫶🏻
Comments are open, but I will not tolerate any hate speech or trolling. We’re here to learn and grow, and end the genocide. If you have genuine questions or comments in that spirit, please feel free to engage this comment section. Subscribers can also reply to the email version of this post to reach me directly and privately.