The narrative around October 7 often overlooks the deep-rooted history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. This timeline reveals key events dating back to 1897, when the First Zionist Congress was held, through the Nakba in 1948, and decades of subsequent violence. The focus on a single day obscures a much longer story of displacement and systemic injustice that continues to affect Palestinians today.
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00:00After the horrific attacks of October 7th
00:02Think about October 7th
00:03What Hamas did in October 7th
00:05About what happened on October 7th
00:07October 7th, the days you've heard repeated over and over again.
00:13But here's the truth.
00:14The conflict between Israel and Palestine did not begin on October 7th
00:19nor did Israel's brutality against Palestinians.
00:25It's 1897.
00:27The first Zionist Congress is held.
00:29The first Zionist Congress convenes, led by Theodor Herzl,
00:33an Austro-Hungarian journalist seeking a Jewish homeland in Palestine,
00:38spurred by widespread antisemitism in Europe.
00:41Fast forward to 1917.
00:43The Balfour Declaration.
00:45A letter from the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Baron Rothschild,
00:50the wealthy figurehead of the British Jewish community,
00:53expresses support for the Zionist objectives to establish a national home
00:57for the Jewish people in Palestine,
00:59which was occupied by the UK after the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I.
01:051920. The creation of the Hakanah.
01:09A terrorist militia formed by Zionist settlers
01:11that conducted numerous massacres of Palestinians
01:14with the goal of driving them off their land by force
01:17and seizing their properties, paving the way for an Israeli state.
01:21Detention escalates.
01:231936. Jewish immigration into Palestine reaches its peak.
01:27More than 350,000 Jews had migrated to Palestine
01:31over the course of just a couple of decades,
01:33mostly from Europe, boosting the Jewish population in Palestine
01:37from roughly 3% in the late 19th century to over 30%.
01:42Pressure mounts as indigenous Palestinians deal with land dispositions
01:46and economic hardship due to the massive influx of Jews
01:50and subsequent demographic shift leading to the 1936-1939 Great Arab Revolt.
01:57Palestinians stage an uprising, fighting for their land and livelihoods,
02:02but face brutal suppression at the hands of British troops.
02:06Over 5,000 Palestinians are killed, nearly 15,000 wounded.
02:10British forces demolish Palestinian neighbourhoods
02:13and impose a harsh military occupation.
02:17By the 1940s, new Zionist terrorist militias, the Irgun and the Stern Gang, emerge.
02:23Alongside the Haganah, they target British forces and Palestinian civilians,
02:27using violence to force Britain's hand.
02:30In 1946, the Irgun bombs the Brits' administrative headquarters
02:34in Jerusalem's King's David Hotel, killing 96.
02:391947. The UN steps in with its partition plan.
02:43On November 29, 1947, the Intergovernmental Body proposes partitioning Palestine
02:49into two states, one Jewish and one Christian and Muslim Arab,
02:53but allocates over half of the land to the Jewish minority,
02:57which own less than 7% of Palestinian land, ignoring Arab opposition.
03:03In 1948, Zionist militias commit at least 30 documented massacres
03:08at the start of what becomes known as the Nakba, or the Catastrophe.
03:13The April 1948 Deir Yassin massacre is the most notorious among them.
03:18The Irgun and the Stern Gang slaughter more than 100 Palestinian men,
03:22women and children in the village of Deir Yassin.
03:25Two days later, the Haganah illegally occupies what remains.
03:30It's May 14, 1948. Zionist leaders declare the establishment of the State of Israel,
03:36and just one day later, the US recognises Israel as a state.
03:41The Nakba, 1948.
03:44Zionist militias, the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang violently expel over 750,000 Palestinians,
03:5180% of the Palestinian population at the time, from their land, stealing or destroying their homes.
03:58Over two years, more than 400 towns and villages are entirely destroyed.
04:0315,000 Palestinians are killed.
04:06Thousands more are left homeless and stateless, scattered across refugee camps throughout the region.
04:13In 1950, Israel's Knesset passes the Law of Return, granting every Jew around the world
04:19the right to settle in Israel while denying these same rights to Palestinians.
04:251953 marks one of Israel's first major attacks on Gaza.
04:29The assault on the Barij refugee camp kills at least 50 Palestinians in the Palestinian stronghold,
04:34where more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees had sought safety after the Nakba.
04:40In October 1956, the Suez Crisis erupts.
04:43As world attention focuses on Egypt, Israeli forces carry out brutal massacres
04:48under the cover of war in Khan Yunis and Rafah. Nearly 400 Palestinians were killed.
04:541967. The Arab-Israeli War.
04:57Israel launches surprise airstrikes on its neighbours, killing some 20,000 Arabs
05:02and achieving an overwhelming victory that leads to the further occupation
05:06and illegal confiscation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
05:12Nearly 400,000 Palestinians are evicted from the West Bank, half facing their second expulsion,
05:18and the number of Jewish settlers on occupied Palestinian land increases to more than 600,000.
05:24It's 1982. After invading Lebanon to weaken the Palestine Liberation Organisation,
05:29Israel teams up with the Falangists, a Christian militia which kills over 3,000 Palestinian refugees
05:36living in the Beirut neighbourhoods of Sabra and Shatila.
05:411987 to 1993. The First Intifada begins.
05:45Frustration among Palestinians living under Israeli occupation was reaching a breaking point
05:50and the death of four Palestinians in the car crash caused by an Israeli vehicle
05:55triggers a revolt against Israel that emerges in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp.
06:00More than 1,000 Palestinians and 100 Israelis are killed during the first Palestinian uprising.
06:07Fast forward to 1993. Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo Accords,
06:11effectively ending the First Intifada and supposedly meant to ensure peace
06:16and Palestinian self-determination. But the hope fades quickly.
06:221994. The Hebron Massacre.
06:24An Israeli terrorist settler kills 29 Palestinian worshippers inside al-Ibrahimi Mosque.
06:30This tragedy marks the bloodiest day since 1967.
06:34It's 2000. The Second Intifada erupts.
06:37In spite of signing the Oslo Accords, Israel continues its illegal occupation
06:42and the number of illegal settlers living on occupied Palestinian land
06:46doubles from almost 200,000 to 400,000 in just seven years.
06:51Ariel Sharon storms al-Aqsa Mosque with 1,000 soldiers on September 28,
06:56sparking the Second Intifada.
06:57For Palestinians, the uprising is about much more than just Sharon's provocative act.
07:03It's about years of broken promises, expanding illegal settlements
07:07and Israel's refusal to honour peace agreements.
07:09By the end of the Second Intifada, nearly 5,000 Palestinians have been killed,
07:14including over 1,200 children, and more than 5,000 homes are demolished.
07:20January 2002. Israel begins constructing a 70-kilometre separation wall
07:26in the occupied West Bank, later outlawed by the ICJ in 2004.
07:30Under the pretext of security, Israel expands the wall and stolen Palestinian land,
07:36separating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem
07:41and heavily restricting their movement.
07:43Today, the wall is over 700 kilometres long and growing.
07:48Between 2002 and 2007, Israel launches at least 12 military operations
07:54in the occupied West Bank towns of Ramallah, Tulkarem and Nablus,
07:58as well as in occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza.
08:01Thousands of Palestinians are killed.
08:03Hundreds of Palestinian homes are bulldozed
08:05and more than 5,000 Palestinians are incarcerated without clear charges or trials.
08:11In 2005, Israel withdraws its troops from Gaza.
08:15But by 2007, Tel Aviv imposes a full blockade on Gaza,
08:19accusing newly elected Hamas of terrorism.
08:21Israel cuts off access to Gaza by land, air and sea
08:25and fully controls its water, electricity, imports and border crossings.
08:30Between 2008 and 2021, Israel wages four wars on Gaza.
08:35Over 4,000 Palestinians are killed.
08:38Tens of thousands of homes, schools and historical sites are reduced to rubble.
08:43More than half of Gaza's population is internally displaced over the years.
08:48Rebuilding becomes nearly impossible as Israel's siege chokes off crucial imports.
08:54And on October 7, 2023, following Hamas' surprise attack,
08:59Israel begins indiscriminately bombarding the besieged enclave
09:03in a relentless onslaught that killed more than 40,000 Palestinians so far,
09:07including over 17,000 children,
09:10with many authorities around the world labelling it a textbook genocide.
09:15While Israel and its allies obsessively fixate on October 7
09:19as the day when the violence began,
09:21the real tragedy lies in decades of silence over the ongoing suffering of Palestinians,
09:27a suffering that started over 100 years ago
09:30and has been systematically ignored by the majority of the world
09:34as Israel continues its goal of erasing and exterminating Palestinians,
09:38their heritage, their culture and their future.