* 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

• World War I starts.

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.

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