1978: Operation of the Martyr Kamal Adwan

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Khalil al-Wazir "Abu Jihad", a founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization "Fateh", started planning for the operation in 1977 and instantly after Zbigniew Brzezinski's, US National Security Advisor, important slogan "Bye-bye PLO". Abu Jihad chose the name of Kamal Adwan, who was killed by the Mossad in 1973 in Beirut, to be the name of the operation. Kamal Adwan was a PLO chief of operations, responsible for armed militant activities against Israel in the Palestinian occupied territories. As an act of revenge, Abu Jihad's plan was to imitate the Mossad style in murdering Kamal Adwan by sending a group of Fedayeen to Tel Aviv by sea. This group, called Deir Yassin, was consisted of 13 Fedayeen and their plan was to seize a luxury hotel on the coast of Tel Aviv and take tourists and foreign ambassadors hostage in order to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. During the time of the operation, Yassir Arafat "Abu Ammar", the President of the PLO, was in a visit to Moscow where he met with Andrei Gromyko, the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Soviet Union. The Russians were hesitating about the arms deal with the Palestinians and therefore, Abu Ammar was hoping for the Kamal Adwan operation to occur before his visit to the Soviet Union for the purpose of showing the Russians the real Palestinian need for the weapons.

The Group of Deir Yassin consisted of 13 Fedayeen, most notably Dalal Mughrabi (20), who was the Political Commissar and the only woman in the group. Most of the Fedayeen were Palestinians except for Hussein "Osama" Murad (15) and Amer "Tariq ibn Ziyad" Amireya (25) who were Lebanese and Mohammed "Abu Hussein" al-Shammari (18) and Abdel Raouf "Abu Ahmed" Ali (22) who were Yemeni. The Group leader was Mahmoud "Abu Hazza" Ali (19) but the group was actually led by Hussein Fayad (18). Other group members were Yahya "Abu Jalal" Skaf (18) who was the Deputy Commander, Abu al-Ramz (18), Kaled "Abu Salah" Ibrahim (18), Khaled "Abdel Salam" Yousef (18), Mohamed "Fakher el-Nahal" Musameh (19) and Mohammed "Wael" Shara'an (17).

The Group of Deir Yassin departed on March 9, 1978 taking a ship from Tyre, Lebanon heading to Tel-Aviv. Approximately 4 hours away from their destination, the group continued heading to Tel-Aviv using two inflatable boats. Because of the bad weather and navigation errors, the inflatable boats were deviated from their direction, and the group was lost in the Mediterranean Sea and was unable to reach Tel Aviv in the time agreed upon. In March 11 and After two days of fighting with the waves, the Fedayeen managed to reach land, but with a dire situation in which both Abdel Salam and Abu Ahmed drowned and died in the sea and Wael became unconscious.

While the group was resting and gathering its strengths, Dalal was able to discover that they were on the Palestinian land and somehow close to Tel-Aviv. The unit was now ready to start the operation and they started heading toward the main street. While getting closer, the team took cover when they found a car heading toward the beach. Abu Hussein, Abu Hazza and Abu al-Ramz entrusted Dalal to talk to the female driver and obtain information. After the discussion, Dalal discovered that they were on a military zone and they were only 90 km away from Tel-Aviv. Regardless of the team instructions, Dalal had to kill the American tourist to avoid revealing the identity of the team, or to be arrested before capturing any hostages.

The main priority of the Fedayeen now is to capture hostages. Therefore, the team suggested an alternative plan in which Abu Jalal and Abu Salah were both chosen to stop a bus on the main road to take them to Tel-Aviv. Being unable to stop any car, Abu al-Ramz opened fire on an Israeli soldiers carrier and forced it to stop. The team took control over the bus and ordered the driver to head to Tel-Aviv. On the way to Tel-Aviv, the team opened fire on another bus and forced it to stop and all the new hostages were taken to the first bus. The bus now have more than 90 hostages. At this point the Israeli police and army started pursuing and opening fire aiming randomly at the bus in an attempt to stop it. Wael, who was unconscious, suddenly wakes up and stand on his feet taking a fighting position and singing revolutionary Palestinian songs. The Israeli bus driver skillfully managed to pass through the Israeli barriers but he stopped the bus at the last barrier on the borders of Tel-Aviv and wasn't able to get in. After a long combat and exchanging fire between the Palestinian Fedayeen and the Israeli Army, the bus caught fire and many were killed including five on the Fedayeen; Abu Hazza, Abu Hussein, Fakher el-Nahal, Wael and Tariq ibn Ziyad. From the remaining six Fedayeen Dalal, Abu Jalal, Osama and Abu al-Ramz died in a combat outside of the bus. Abu Salah and Fayad were the only survivors of the Fedayeen.

According to official statistics, the Operation resulted in 37 Israeli deaths and 78 injuries. However, many sources claim that theses numbers only counts Israeli civilians, and that the actual deaths and injuries would much more exceed these numbers if the deaths and injuries resulted in the Israeli Army were added.

1909: Committee of Union and Progress

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The Second Aliyah occurred between 1904 and 1914, in which approximately 34,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, and particularly to the Galilee, after Sultan Abdülhamid permitted Jewish immigration to only the northern district of Palestine. In 1909, Zionist Jews of the Second Aliyah were able to establish their first Kibbutz community, named it Degania, which was founded near the Palestinian village of Umm Juni located on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Kibbutzim communities are different from Jewish settlements, in which, Kibbutzim societies rely solely on agriculture and are established as separate entities that act independently and does not follow local authorities laws or regulations. Regardless of Sultan Abdülhamid's orders in not permitting new Jewish immigrants to settle in Palestine except for the Galilee, Zionist Jews of the Second Aliyah managed to sneak to Jaffa and were able to form a new Jewish society, named Ahuzat Bayit, in which was later expanded to become the city of Tel-Aviv.

During this time, Zionists were not happy with the actions of Sultan Abdülhamid in allowing Jewish immigrants to settle only in the Galilee, since this would not go with their plans of taking over Palestine and converting it into a Jewish state. Therefore, Zionists decided to eliminate the Ottoman Empire by using their influences to penetrate into the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1909, this committee along with the Young Turks movement, succeeded in seizing power from Sultan Abdülhamid, and replaced him with his younger brother Mehmed Reşad. The Committee of Union and Progress reconstituted the parliament and put the power and decision-making in the hands of the new appointed thirteen ministers, leaving the new Sultan, Mehmed Reşad, with absolutely no political power. The Committee of Union and Progress, widely influenced by Zionists, assigned only one Arab minister out of the thirteen minsters, although Arabs represented more than half of the Ottoman Empire's population, while assigning three Jewish ministers. One of the earliest decisions that was made by the new government is to allow the Jewish Zionist colonists into Palestine.

Several Arab and Turkish revolts arose in an attempt to restore the power from the Committee of Union and Progress back to Sultan Abdülhamid. However, the Committee of Union and Progress was able to put down all the revolts with the help of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Jewish Freemason, who was also able to depose Sultan Abdülhamid and send him to exile in Selanik. Sultan Abdülhamid later explained that the reason behind his dethronement was his "determination to prevent the Jews from their determination on establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine"

1897: Zionism

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In 1896, Theodor Herzl, a German Jew, and the founder of Political Zionism, published his book, Der Judenstaat "The Jewish State" that announced the advent of Zionism to the world. Herzl's main objective, that was defined in his book, is to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. During this time, Max Nordau, a friend of Herzl, sent two rabbis to Palestine to see if the Zionist project could be implemented. Referring to Palestine, the rabbis wrote "The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man". Palestine wasn't as Herzl claimed "A land without a people for a people without a land", as a matter of fact, it was inhabited by Palestinians since thousands of years. Nevertheless, the Palestinians were not an obstacle for the Zionist movement. As Herzl state in his diaries, "We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border..." while another Zionist, Leo Motzkin, planned for the transfer of the Palestinians by stating that “the colonization of Palestine has to go in two directions: Jewish settlement in the country and the resettlement of the Arabs outside the country." In other words about Zionism, as Dror Etkes, a Jewish human rights activist, said "It's an international organization that is, simply put, stealing land."

A war broke out between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete. During this war, and because of the accumulated Ottoman debts, the Ottoman Empire was at stake and at a huge risk of bankruptcy. Herzl took the opportunity and offered Sultan Abdülhamid that he would contribute huge amounts of money that would cover up substantial portion of the Ottoman debts, in exchange for allowing the Jewish colonists to settle in Palestine. Sultan Abdülhamid rejected Herzl's offer, and replied "I can not give up a single inch of Palestine, because it is not mine but belongs to my people. The Palestinians fought for this land and irrigated it with their own blood."

In 1897, Theodor Herzl called for the first Zionist Congress which was held in Basel, Switzerland. The three main goals of the first Zionist Congress were to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, to facilitate the immigration of the Jews of the World to Palestine, and to gain the support and protection form the European powers. The first Zionist Congress was followed by a series of congresses, most notably, the second Zionist Congress, held in 1898, and aimed to establish a Jewish people's bank and to encourage the education of the Hebrew language, and the fourth Zionist Congress, held in the same year, which was able to convince Britain into supporting the Zionists and help them achieving their plans. Later in 1898, Britain placed pressures on Sultan Abdülhamid in an attempt to push him into allowing the Jewish colonists to settle in Palestine. Sultan Abdülhamid refused initially, but was later forced to allow Jewish colonists to settle in the Galilee, the northern district of Palestine.

1876: Abdülhamid II

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Following the deposition of Murad V in 1876, his brother Abdülhamid II succeeded to the throne. Abdülhamid was the last Ottoman Sultan to rule with absolute power. He was able to restore Palestine under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, restricting the Khedive rule to be only in Egypt. Abdülhamid organized the state, issued the Ottoman Constitution, established a parliament and Shura Council and allowed the Arabs to be involved in governance.

In 1878, illegal Jewish immigration from Europe has increased substantially until there were more than 15,000 Jews in Palestine. In the same year, the new illegal Jewish immigrants succeeded in establishing Petah Tikva, the first Jewish settlement in Palestine.

During this time, Russian Jews were planning for the assassination of Alexander II, Czar of the Russian Empire. Alexander survived the assassination attempts and, consequently, all the Russian Jews were blamed, and Alexander started a movement of repression and discrimination against the Jews of Russia. This movement became to be known as "Anti-Semitic". After Alexander was assassinated in 1881, discrimination laws against the Jews even increased and large numbers of Jews were expelled out of Russia. During this time, a Jewish movement called "Hovevei Zion" started using its wide influences in France and Britain making them as intermediaries into convincing the Ottoman Empire into allowing the Jewish immigrants in settling  in Palestine. However, Abdülhamid II allowed the Jewish immigrants to settle anywhere on the Ottoman Empire, except for Palestine, while he granted their right to visit their holy places as many times as they wish without settling in Palestine. As a result, 2.5 million Jews immigrated from Russia and Europe and settled in the Ottoman Empire between 1881 and 1914. Most of them settled in Turkey and in the north and south of Africa. Nevertheless, 155,000 Jews were able to sneak and settle in Palestine during this period. In Zionists terms, Zionist Jewish immigration to Palestine is referred to as Aliyah. The first wave of Zionist Aliyah occurred between 1882 and 1903 and resulted in 35,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine.

Although the new Russian and European Jewish immigrants enjoyed similar privileges to any Arab or Turk in the Ottoman Empire, the Zionist movement wasn't satisfied and was always looking for ways to establish a Jewish state. Leon Pinsker, the founder and leader of the "Hovevei Zion", anonymously published his famous pamphlet in 1882 entitled "Warning to His Fellow People, from a Russian Jew" and in which he urged the Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness.

During 1886 and afterwards, illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine kept increasing, and this time, conflicts arose between them and the Palestinians, since Jews started establishing new Jewish settlements and attempted to steal Palestinian inhabited and agricultural lands. In 1891, the Jewish German Baron Maurice de Hirsch created the Jewish Colonization Association aiming to facilitate the mass immigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries into Palestine. By this time, Abdülhamid II sent at Ottoman army to expel every illegal immigrant out of Palestine and issued a decree banning selling lands to illegal settlers.

1834: Rebellions in Palestine

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In 1831, Mehmet Ali, the ruler of Egypt, sent his army, led by his eldest son, Ibrahim Pasha, to occupy Bilad al-Shām (The Levant), which was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Ibrahim succeeded in occupying Jerusalem and the coastal regions of Palestine and Lebanon, most notably, Acre, after withstanding a severe siege, and Haifa, which was later used as a primary military base. Ibrahim Pasha's army was assisted by the European officers, who in return, helped increasing the Jewish influence in the region, and was also assisted by Suleiman Pasha, used to be known as Colonel Joseph Sève, who helped building the Egyptian army on the European model. Influenced by his father, Ibrahim Pasha imposed military conscription on the newly occupied territories, disarmed the population and raised taxes. Consequently, Palestinians questioned the legitimacy of the Egyptian occupation and provoked revolts against the rule of Mehmet Ali and his son.

In the spring of 1834, the rebellion against the Egyptian rule in Palestine spread from the Galilee in the north, to Gaza and the hills of Hebron (al-Khalīl) in the south. The rebels scored initial victories that compelled Ibrahim Pasha to withdraw to Jaffa and request reinforcements from Mehmet Ali. As soon as reinforcements arrived, Ibrahim Pasha waged military campaigns in in the hills of Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron. Although the Egyptian army succeeded in putting the uprising down within a few months, Mehmet Ali was not satisfied that he pursued the rebels who had fled to the Karak region east to the Jordan River and executed the most prominent rebel leaders, such as, al-Madi, al-Jarrar, Qasim al-Ahmad, al-Samhan, Al-'Amr and others. He also exiled the Palestinian Muslim scholars (Ulama) and notables from Jreusalem, Nablus, Nazareth and Hebron who had supported the rebellion, including those who did so secretly, without active participating.

Granting a permission from Mehmet Ali, a British vice-consulate was established in Jerusalem in 1838, and in 1841, it was upgraded to the status of consulate. In 1840, Palmerston, the British Minister of foreign affairs, wrote to his British ambassador in Istanbul to convince the Ottoman Sultan that Britain believes that the time is ripe to open Palestine for Jewish immigration. The main purpose of the British consulate was to facilitate the Jewish immigration into Palestine and grant protection to the future Jewish settlers.

1827: Moses Montefiore

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Moses Haim Montefiore was a British Jew who accumulated great wealth and became one of the most famous Jews of the 19th century. In 1827, Montefiore, accompanied by his wife Judith Cohen, traveled for the first time to Palestine. The couple became very attached to the Holy Land to the extent that they visited Palestine again in 1838, 1849, 1855, 1857, 1866, and 1875. During Montefiore's lifetime, he donated large amounts of money to support the Jewish minorities in the Muslim World by promoting their industry, education and health.

During his first visit to Palestine, Montefiore started planning for a campaign that would organize and promote Jewish settlements in Palestine. Although Jewish immigration to Palestine was restricted by the Ottoman Empire, as the Ottomans were aware of the Zionist plan in creating a Jewish state in Palestine, Montefiore used his wide influences in Britain and France to pressure the Ottoman Empire into allowing the Jews to settle in Palestine.

In 1857, Montefiore built a windmill outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, which later became a famous Jewish landmark, and twelve years later, in 1869, Montefiore Windmill, along with generous donation from the American Jew, Judah Touro, both assisted the new Jewish settlers into building their first Jewish neighborhood in Palestine. The neighborhood was called Mishkenot Sha'ananim. However, Montefiore Windmill proved to be a huge failure since it was designed for European conditions in which it couldn't generate enough wind power for operation and also since the wheat grinding machinery was designed for soft European wheat which was not compatible with local Palestinian wheat. Nevertheless, Mishkenot Sha'ananim, didn't fail in attracting new Jewish settlers to Palestine.

In between his visits to Palestine, and again, using his wide influences, Montefiore called upon the Jewish leaders in Britain, Italy, Romania, Morocco and Russia to collaborate with him into planning and making Palestine a homeland for the Jews of the world.

1805: Mehmet Ali Pasha

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In 1805, following Napoleon's withdrawal from Egypt, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Selim III, appointed Mehmet Ali as the governor of Egypt. Mehmet Ali was aware that the Ottoman Empire was heading toward destruction, and therefore, he was willing to build his own kingdom independently from the Turks. He started a military campaign against the Ottomans to expand his rule and he succeeded in including Palestine under his rule. After that, Mehmet Ali declared his fellowship and dependency on the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to evade facing the Ottomans. However, declaring his fellowship didn't change the fact that his new state was actually independent from the Ottoman Empire and only is subjected to Mehmet's orders.

Mehmet Ali imposed conscription on the Egyptians and Palestinians and raised taxes. Egyptians and Palestinians revolted against the rule of Mehmet Ali opposing his oppression and arrogance to the people, but Mehmet Ali was able to put down the all revolts.

1799: Siege of Acre

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Having seen the benefits of Britain’s profitable colonies and the political need to weaken Britain, Napoleon Bonaparte planned to invade Egypt, which was a province of the Ottoman Empire. Being able to occupy Egypt in a short period of time and with little efforts, in 1799, Napoleon decided to expand his campaign and started moving towards Syria and Palestine. The Syrian campaign was the first unmitigated disaster in Napoleon’s career. It was a military failure and it provided another dire example of European brutality in Palestine, in the bleak tradition of the crusades. Napoleon won several victories against the Turks, but Acre withstood a French siege of two months then forced a desperate retreat south through the Sinai desert and back to Egypt. The walled city of Acre was defended by newly created Turkish infantry elites under the command of Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar and his Damascene Jewish adviser and right hand man, Haim Farhi, who played a key role in the city’s defense.

During the siege of Acre, Napoleon prepared a proclamation declaring a Jewish state in Palestine, though he did not issue it. Some historians believe that the proclamation was intended purely for propaganda purposes, and that Napoleon was not serious about the creation of a Jewish state. Some believe that the proclamation was made in order to win the heart of Haim Farhi and to bring him over to Napoleon’s side, in the same way that Napoleon tried, one year earlier, to gain the support of the Egyptian population when he praised the precepts of Islam and issued proclamations that cast him as a liberator of the people from Ottoman oppression.

Whether Napoleon was or wasn’t serious about creating a Jewish state in Palestine, his declaration returned the hopes for the Jewish around the world and especially in Palestine, though there were only five thousands Jews in Palestine at the time, for having their own Jewish state.

1520: Suleiman the Magnificent

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In 1520, Suleiman the Magnificent, also known in the East as Suleiman the Lawmaker, became the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after the death of his father, Selim I. Suleiman is known as one of the greatest  Ottoman Sultans as he became the leader of the Islamic world and the legitimate successor to the Abbasid Caliphs after the conquest of Baghdad in 1534. In 1537, Suleiman rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, which are the current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, and has also restored the Dome of the Rock in 1538.

The official Ottoman policy regarding the plans of the Zionist Movement seeking a Jewish state in Palestine continued, during the administration of Suleiman, in preventing the Jewish from settling in Palestine. In spite of the awareness of the Zionist Movement plans, Suleiman, with his utmost Islamic tolerance and justice, allowed Jews that were expelled from Spain and persecuted in Europe to settle anywhere on the Ottoman land except for Palestine.