A historical timeline of Israel's brutality towards Palestinians
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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.