1940

1947: UN General Assembly Resolution 181 calls for Palestine to be divided into
Jewish and Arab states and designates the city of Jerusalem as a separate entity.

1948: Israel accepts UNGA Resolution 181 and declares its independence. It repels
armies from nearby Arab countries that oppose its existence. UNGA Resolution 194
establishes Palestinians’ right of return.

1960

1967: Responding to a mobilization by Arab states, Israel launches preemptive

strikes and captures the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Gaza
Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula. UN Security Council Resolution 242 enshrines the
“land for peace” vision that becomes the basis of future Arab-Israeli negotiations.

1970

1973: During the Third Arab-Israeli War, the United States backs Israel against a
coalition of Arab states attempting to regain lost territory, arranges a cease-
fire, and launches the U.S.-led peace process.

1978–1979: U.S. President Jimmy Carter hosts Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David, where they lay out a framework
for peace in the Middle East that includes Palestinian autonomy. After further
negotiations, Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1980

1987–1993: The first intifada leads to widespread violence, resulting in the deaths
of several hundred Israelis and nearly two thousand Palestinians.

1988: Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat accepts UNSC

Resolution 242 as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiation.

1990

1991: The Madrid Conference, cohosted by the United States and the Soviet Union,
opens negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians for the first time.

1993: Secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations held in Norway result in the Oslo

Accords, which call for the withdrawal of Israeli troops in stages from the West
Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian self-government. The PLO recognizes Israel’s right
to exist, and Israel recognizes the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian
people.

1994: Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty brokered by the United States.

1995: The Oslo II Accords establish Palestinian self-government in Gaza and 40

percent of the West Bank.
2000

2000: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat attend a Camp David summit
convened by U.S. President Bill Clinton to discuss borders, settlements, refugees,
and Jerusalem, but talks end without an agreement. Clinton announces parameters for
an independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.

2000–2005: After the 2000 peace process collapses, mistrust on both sides sparks
the second intifada, in which one thousand Israelis and more than three thousand
Palestinians are killed.

2002: The Arab Peace Initiative offers Israel peace and normalized relations with
the Arab world after a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After
terrorist attacks inside Israel, its army retakes control of Palestinian-governed
territory in the West Bank and later begins building a security barrier around
settlement blocs in East Jerusalem.

2003: U.S. President George W. Bush announces a road map to end violence and
restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations leading to a Palestinian state.

2005: Israel withdraws from Gaza, including from all settlements there. President
Bush sends a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recognizing the reality
of settlement blocs in the West Bank.

2008–2009: After Hamas launches rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza,
Israel goes to war with the Palestinian militant group there. The weekslong
conflict kills over one thousand Palestinians and thirteen Israelis.

2010

2013–2014: The Barack Obama administration relaunches Israeli-Palestinian final

status negotiations, but talks break down over disagreements on settlements, the
release of Palestinian prisoners, and other issues.

2017: U.S. President Donald J. Trump announces his decision to relocate the U.S.
embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as Israel’s capital.

2018: The United States slashes bilateral aid to the Palestinians and the UN Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), closes the PLO office in
Washington, DC, and opens its embassy in Jerusalem.

2019: The Trump administration recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan
Heights and voices its disagreement with a decades-old State Department opinion
that says Israel’s West Bank settlements are inconsistent with international law.

2020

2020: President Trump announces his vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which
provides for Israel to annex 30 percent of the West Bank and for a smaller
Palestinian state. Later, his administration brokers deals for multiple Arab states
to normalize relations with Israel.