1876 - 1918 The
Last Days of Ottoman Rule 
Aqaba, 1917:Troops of the Arab Revolt,
"Before Their Diaspora"
* Chronology compiled from
sources in the Bibliography section
1876 - 1877
- Ottoman constitution promulgated.
Palestinian deputies from Jerusalem attend the first Ottoman parliament
in Istanbul, elected under a new Ottoman constitution.
1878
- Petah Tikva, the first modern Zionist
agricultural settlement, established in Palestine.
1881
- Ottoman government announces permission
for foreign Jews to settle throughout the Ottoman Empire, excluding Palestine.
1882
- First wave of 25,000 Zionist immigrants
enters Palestine, coming mainly from Eastern Europe.
- Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris
begins financial backing of Jewish colonization of Palestine.
- Ottoman government adopts policy
allowing Jewish pilgrims and businessmen to visit Palestine but not
to settle there.
- Ottoman government informs Jewish
leadership in Constantinople that it views Zionist colonization in Palestine
as a political problem.
1884
- Ottoman government decides to close
Palestine to foreign Jewish businessmen but not to Jewish pilgrims.
1887 - 1888
- Palestine divided by Ottomans into
the districts of Jerusalem, Nablus and Acre - the first was attached directly
to Istanbul, the others to the wilayet of Beirut.
1891
- German Jewish millionaire, Baron
Maurice de Hirsh, founds Jewish Colonization Association (JCA).
1892
- Ottoman government forbids sale
of state land to Foreign Jews in Palestine.
1893
- European powers pressure Ottoman
government to permit Jews legally residents in Palestine to buy land provided
they establish no colonies on it.
1896
- Jewish Colonization Association
(JCA) begins operations in Palestine.
- Theodore Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian
Jewish journalist and writer, publishes Der Judenstaat, advocating
establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine or elsewhere.
- Ottoman Sultan Abd-al Hamid II
rejects Herzl's proposal that Palestine be granted to the Jews.
- JCA starts assisting Zionist settlement
in Palestine.
1897
- First Zionist Congress in Switzerland
issues the Basle Program calling for the establishment of a "home
for the Jewish people in Palestine". It also establishes the
World Zionist Organization (WZO) to work to that end.
- In response to First Zionist Congress,
Abd-al Hamid II initiates policy of sending members of his own Palace staff
to govern province of Jerusalem.
- Commission headed by Muhammad Tahir
al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, appointed to scrutinize Zionist land acquisition
methods.
1898
- Arabic press reacts to first Zionist
Congress: Cairo journal al-Manar warns that Zionism aims
to take possession of Palestine.
1899
- Albert Antebi, JCA representative
in Jerusalem, observes that program of First Zionist Congress has adversely
affected relations between Palestinians and Jewish immigrants.
- Herzl sends letter to Palestinian
Mayor of Jerusalem hinting that, if Zionists not welcomed in Palestine,
they will go elsewhere.
1900
- Ottoman government sends commission
of inquiry to Palestine to study implications of Zionist mass immigration
and land acquisition.
1901
- Pressured by European powers, Ottoman
government allows foreign Jews to buy land in Northern Palestine.
- 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.
- Ottoman restrictions on Zionist
immigration to and land acquisition in Jerusalem district take effect.
- Administrative Council of Jerusalem
strongly objects to JCA 's attempts at acquiring in Jerusalem district.
- Palestinian farmers in Tiberias
region express alarm at extent of Zionist land acquisition.
1902
- JCA representative Antebi observes
that "the ill will of the local population coincides with the creation
of Zionism".
1903
- Second wave of Zionist mass immigration
to Palestine begins.
1904
- Death of Theodore Herzl.
- Tensions develop between Zionist
colonists and Palestinian farmers in Tiberias region.
1907
- First kibbutz, based on exclusively
Jewish labor, established.
- Report issued by Ottoman governor
of Jerusalem on Zionist evasion of Ottoman immigration and land-transfer
regulations.
1908
- Palestinian deputies from Jerusalem,
Jaffa, Nablus and Acre elected to Ottoman parliament of 1908 in Constantinople.
- Beginning of "Young Turks"
Revolution in Constantinople.
1909
- Tel Aviv founded north of Jaffa.
- Tensions and clashes between Zionist
colonists and Palestinian farmers near Nazareth.
- Zionists issue raised for the first
time in Ottoman parliament by Palestinian deputy from Jaffa.
1910
- Arabic newspapers in Beirut, Damascus
and Haifa express opposition to Zionist land acquisition in Palestine.
1911
- European powers pressure Ottoman
government to allow land acquisition in Palestine.
- Palestinian newspaper Filastine
begins to appear; addressing its readers as "Palestinians", it
warns about consequences of Zionist colonization.
- Two Jerusalem deputies open first
full-scale debate in Ottoman parliament on Zionism, charging that Zionist
aim is to create Jewish state in Palestine.
1912
- European powers renew pressure
on Ottoman government to facilitate Zionist land acquisition in Palestine.
1914
1915
- Correspondence between Sharif Hussein
of Mecca (leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans) and Sir Henry
McMahon (British high commissioner of Egypt) begins.
- Jemal Pasha, Ottoman military governor,
hangs 11 Arab nationalists in Beirut.
1916
- Hussein - McMahon correspondence
ends in agreement for postwar independence and unity of Arab provinces
of Ottoman Empire.
- Sykes - Picot Agreement secretly
signed, dividing Ottoman Empire between Britain and France. Agreement
revealed by Bolsheviks in December 1917.
- Sharif Hussein proclaims Arab independence
from Ottoman on basis of his correspondence with Mc Mahon. Arab Revolt
against Constantinople begins.
- Sharif Hussein proclaimed "King
of the Arab countries".
1917
- Balfour Declaration. British
Secretary of State Balfour pledges British support for a "Jewish national
home in Palestine".
- Surrender of Ottoman forces in
Jerusalem to Allied forces under General Sir Edmund Allenby.
1918
- Palestine occupied by Allied forces
under British General Allenby.
End of World War I.
[Chronology]
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