Timeline
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS SURROUNDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH NATIONAL HOME IN PALESTINE AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN
1589 - Francis Kett is burned alive by the Church for inferring that the Jews would one day return to the Promised Land, an opinion derived from reading the Bible.
1611 - Publication of the King James Bible.
1615 - Thomas Brightman (1562-1607), a theologian, seen as a founder of the idea of restoring Jews to the Holy Land, delivers the question in his posthumously published work : 'Shall they return to Jerusalem again?' to which he replies: 'There is nothing more certain: the prophets do everywhere confirm it and beat upon it.'
1621 - Sir Henry Finch's (1558-1625) book THE WORLD'S GREAT RESTORATION OR THE CALLING OF THE JEWS, AND OF ALL THE NATIONS AND KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH, TO THE FAITH OF CHRIST calls for the restoration of the Jews to the promised land. He invited Jews to re-establish their claim over the Promised Land, to be accompanied by their conversion to Christianity.
1649 - Ebenezer and Joanna Cartwright, Puritans of English origin residing in Amsterdam, dispatch a petition to the British Government calling for the ban on Jews settling in England to be lifted. Also assistance to enable them to be repatriated to Palestine.
1771 - Joseph Eyre publishes a scholarly essay entitled OBSERVATIONS UPON PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. He makes reference to biblical prophecies concerning the descendants of Abraham, whom he believes should occupy the land known as Palestine. With respect to the return of the Jews from the lands of their dispersion, Eyre quotes at length from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, which prophesies that the 'whole House of Israel' would experience a resurrection from the 'graves' of the Diaspora, and the tribes would come together 'bone to his bone . . . into the land of Israel.'
1795 - Charles Jerram, studying divinity at Cambridge, wins a prize for his work offering the opinion that there are grounds in the holy scriptures for the restoration of the Jews. He was one of the most lucid and powerful exponents of this view. He said it rested on the Covenant made between God and Abraham.
1809 - Foundation of the 'The London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews', known also as the 'London Jews' Society'. It was an interdenominational society which later went under different names. Its principal aim was the conversion of Jews to Protestant Christianity.
1838 - Lord Palmerston and Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley-Cooper) influenced the Turkish Government to permit the establishment of a British Consulate in Jerusalem.
1839 - Official opening of the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
1840 - Lord Shaftesbury persuades Lord Palmerston, British Foreign Secretary, to step up plans to return Jews to Palestine.
4 November 1840 - Lord Shaftesbury takes out full-page advert in THE TIMES addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe, calling for the restoration of the Jews to the Promised Land. It inspires Israel Zangwell and Theodore Herzl, the accepted founder of Zionism, as imagining Palestine as 'A land of no people for a people with no land'.
25 September 1840 - Lord Shaftesbury presents a paper to Palmerston calling for the 'recall of the Jews to their ancient land'. He insists that the Jews consider it time for their restoration to Palestine and that those responsible should strive 'to establish the principles and practices of European civilisation.'
2 March 1841 - a group of 320 Christians address a memorandum to Lord Palmerston which states: 'Your Memorialists beg leave ... to remind your Lordship that the land of Palestine was bestowed by the Sovereign of the Universe upon the descendants of Abraham as a permanent and inalienable possession nearly 4,000 years ago, and that neither conquests nor treaties among men can possibly affect their Title to it. He has also decreed that they shall again return to their country and that the Gentiles shall be employed as the means of their restoration.'
1841 - George Gawler (1796-1869), an English Christian of good standing, senior commander at the Battle of Waterloo and later Governor of Australia, starts to encourage Jewish settlements in the land of Israel.
1844 - Rev. Samuel Bradshaw, in his TRACT FOR THE TIMES, BEING A PLEA FOR THE JEWS, calls for Parliament to allot 4 million pounds for the Restoration of Israel, with another 1 million to be collected by the Church.
1844 - Pastor T. Tully Crybace convenes a committee in London for the purpose of founding a 'British and Foreign Society for Promoting the Restoration of the Jewish Nation to Palestine.' He urges that England secure from Turkey Palestine 'from the Euphrates to the Nile, and from the Mediterranean to the Desert'.
1849 - Gawler accompanies Sir Moses Montefiori on a trip to Palestine, persuading him to invest in and initiate Jewish settlements in the country. This is despite considerable opposition from orthodox Jews.
1865 - James Finn, the British Consul in Jerusalem and leading restorationist, establishes the Palestine Exploration Fund 'for the purpose of encouraging scientific exploration, archaeological research and the cartographic mapping of the Holy Land'. It offers 'advice and financial support to encourage Jews to emigrate to Palestine and form agricultural colonies'. Lord Shaftesbury later became President of the PEF, and stated: 'Let us not delay to send out the best agents ... to search the length and breadth of Palestine, to survey the land, and if possible to go over every corner of it, drain it, measure it, and, if you will, prepare it for the return of its ancient possessors, for I believe that the time cannot be far off before that great event will come to pass ...'.
1866 - Lionel de Rothschild becomes an MP, and Jews receive official status in England.
1868 - Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), most famous Jew of the nineteenth century, becomes Prime Minister. Queen Victoria makes him Lord Beaconsfield.
1880 - MP Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888) publishes a book entitled THE LAND OF GILEAD which expounds the Zionist cause, proposing settlement scheme of Jordan under British protection, while respecting Turkish sovereignty. He urges that the British Government support the repatriation of Jews to Palestine from Russia and Eastern Europe. Moreover, he proposes that the 'warlike' Bedouins be driven out, and the Palestinians be placed in reservations like the native Indians of America.
1882 - Bilus group of Jews, funded by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. They become first modern Jewish colonisers to enter Palestine.
1884 - famous Kattowitz conference of Chibath Zion (Lovers of Zion) - beginning of international recognition of Zionism.
1886 - Dr H.Grattan Guinness, in LIGHT FOR THE LAST DAYS, said: 'There can be no question that those who live to see this year of 1917 will have reached one of the most important, perhaps the most momentous, of these terminal years of crisis." The year 1917 we now know was the date both of the Balfour Declaration and the liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks by General Allenby. Very curious indeed. March 1891 - William E. Blackstone (1841-1935), an influential evangelist, financier and benefactor, lobbied the US President Benjamin Harrison and his Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, with a petition signed by 413 Jewish and Christian leaders including John & William Rockerfeller, calling for an international conference on the Jews and Palestine.
1894 - publication of THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO PALESTINE by Anglican priest William Hechler (1845-1931). He formulated his own exact date for the re-establishment of the Jewish state. The book saw the need for 'restoring the Jews to Palestine according to Old Testament prophecies'. Utilising biblical prophecies it predicted that the Holy Land would be restored to the Jews in 1897-1898. 1897 was the date of the First Zionist Congress.
1896 - Theodor Herzl's key book DER JUDENSTAAT (The Jewish State) published. March 1896 - Herzl meets Hechler.
1897 - First Zionist Conference. The founder of the Red Cross, Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant, first gentile to be tagged 'Christian Zionist' by Herzl, and one of only a few gentiles invited to the congress. 1897 - Jewish Colonial Trust, first Zionist funded bank founded.
1898 - Kaiser Wilhelm II received Herzl, the leading Zionist of the time, and promised to put in a good word with the Sultan of Turkey for a Jewish chartered company in Palestine under German protection.
1900 - Fourth Zionist Congress in London.
1902 - Uganda offered to Herzl and Jews, and later discussed at Sixth Zionist Congress of 1903.
1905 - Uganda proposal refused at 7th Zionist Congress.
1906 - Chaim Weizmann introduced to Lord Balfour.
1907 - Eighth Zionist Congress at the Hague - creation of commonwealth. Call for charter. 1907 - 80,000 Jewish settlers now in Palestine, mostly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, Safed, Jaffa and Haifa.
1914 - 100,000 Jewish settlers now in Palestine.
August 1914 - First World War begins. Weizmann put in touch with Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.
29 October 1914 - Turkey attacks Russian Black Sea bases and joins the Central Powers.
1915 - Chaim Weizmann offered job of synthesising acetone on behalf of the Naval office.
1916 - Lord Balfour becomes Foreign Secretary.
1916 - Sykes-Picot treaty. Mark Sykes works with French counterpart Georges Picot to carve up the Ottoman Empire between Britain, France and Russia after hostilities cease.
1916 - Sharif Hussein declares Arab revolt against Turks in Mecca. Proclaims himself king of the Hijaz. Recognised by British.
October 1916 - Germany's peace plan on table. Zionists offer to railroad US into war, if they are offered Palestine after Germany's defeat.
December 1916 - Lloyd George comes to power in Britain. Previously he had been Minister of Munitions.
17 Feb 1917 - first full-dress conference leading to the eventual Balfour Declaration. Two Rothschilds present.
22 March 1917 - Lord Balfour talks with Weizmann.
2 April 1917 - Congress votes that US join the war.
18 July 1917 - Lord Rothschild handed draft of Balfour Declaration by Balfour.
19 July 1917 - Lord Rothschild sees Weizmann.
21 July 1917 - Lord Rothschild sees Weizmann.
16 Oct 1917 - Col. Mandel House acting on behalf of American President Woodrow Wilson cables British Government pledging America's support for declaration. It is one of the most important factors in Britain's decision to issue the declaration.
2 November 1917 - Balfour Declaration signed.
2 December 1917 - celebration of the Balfour Declaration in the London Opera House. Lord Robert Cecil claims it marks not the birth of a nation, but '…the rebirth of a nation. I believe it will have far-flung influence on the history of the world and consequences than none can foresee on the future history of the human race'.
9 December 1917 - British troops occupy Jerusalem. General Edmund Allenby walks into Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate in order to identify with Jesus Christ.
1918 - Arabs asking some very disquieting questions regarding the Declaration.
June 1918 - Weizmann and Emir Feisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, meet in Aqaba and come to an agreement regarding a future Arab state.
October 1918 - Young Turks regime in Turkey collapses and Turkey surrenders to Allied Powers.
November 1918 - collapse of Central Powers. General armistice. German and Austro-Hungarian monarchies overthrown.
1919 - Feisal signs agreement with Weizmann and other Zionist leaders at Paris Peace Conference. It is accepted on condition that the British fulfil wartime promises of independence to Arabs, which are not kept.
1920 - Weizmann becomes president of World Zionist Organisation.
1920 - San Remo agreement. Draft Mandate for Palestine conferred on Britain by the League of Nations. It paves way for the establishment of a Jewish National Home. The Mandate obligates Britain, as Mandatory Power, (in the words of the preamble), to 'be responsible for putting into effect the Declaration originally made on 2nd November 1917 by the government of His Britannic Majesty and adopted by the said (Principal Allied) Powers in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.'
March 1920 - Feisal ibn Hussein proclaims himself king of Syria and Palestine.
Easter 1920 - Problems began on Nebi Musa, feast of Moses. Riots break out in Jerusalem. 6 Jews killed, many injured. Arab problem kicks off. It is felt that the riots will lead to a revision of policy regarding Jewish settlement in Palestine.
June 1920 - Feisal ibn Hussein defeated by French in Ante-Lebanon. This leads the way to the occupation of Damascus.
1921 - Feisal becomes King Fiesal I of Mesopotamia following his nomination by the British Government.
May 1921 - Arab riots, far more severe than those in Jerusalem, occur in Jaffa. They lead to the High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, temporarily suspending immigration of Jewish settlers.
Nov 1921- Haycroft report on riots of May 1921. Weizmann later claims that it contained the 'seed of much of our later trouble'.
1922 - Establishment of the Jewish National Homeland justified by Lord Balfour before the House of Lords. British now consider Palestine to be a serious liability, a country where Jews ride roughshod over 'the poor Arabs'.
1922 - Lord Balfour's name commemorated in Jezreel Valley.
Saturday, 24 July 1922 - British Mandate for Palestine ratified on last day of League of Nations council meeting in London.
September 1922 - the League of Nations and Great Britain decide that the provisions for setting up a Jewish National Home do not apply to the area east of the Jordan River, which constitutes three-fourths of the territory included in the Mandate. In 1923 it becomes the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
5 November, 1922 - Discovery of steps leading down to Tutankhamun's tomb.
26 November 1922 - Carter, Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Pecky Callendar enter tomb.
30 November 1922 - THE TIMES mentions that 'one of the boxes [found in the tomb] contained rolls of papyri which are expected to render a mass of information.'
1 December 1922 - Carnarvon writes letter to Budge stating that papyri have been found in the tomb. Writes also to Gardiner saying the same.
4 December 1922 - Lord Carnarvon returns to England.
18 December 1922 - Lord Carnarvon arrives back in Marseilles. Here he speaks to a TIMES correspondent and states once again that papyri have been found in the tomb.
1923 - British government offers Arabs an Arab agency as sort of compromise to Jewish agency, provided for in Mandate.
Feb 1923 - Weizmann in America.
Spring 1923 - Weizmann meets Felix Warburg at offices of Kuhn, Loeb and Co.
1924 - publication of Hitler's MEIN KAMPT. Outright declaration of war on the Jewish people.
March 1924 - Howard Carter walks into the offices of the High Consul in Cairo and threatens to reveal papyrus documents found in the tomb which provide 'a true account' of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
1925 - Violent demonstrations during Balfour's visit to Palestine.
1929 - Lord Passfield announces that further immigration and land purchase in Palestine by Jews is to be stopped.
11 Aug 1929 - first meeting of the Jewish Agency.
23 August 1929 - Palestine riots. Seen as being used to curb Jewish immigration into Palestine.
21 October, 1930 - British Government publishes simultaneously the Hope-Simpson Report and the Passfield White Paper. Latter rendered untenable by Zionists in Palestine. Weizmann resigns as president of Jewish Agency, which appoints a Cabinet Committee on Palestine policy a few days before the Passfield White Paper is issued.
7 August 1933 - Jews worldwide boycott German goods and services in order to ruin export trade.
1936 - Further Arab riots. Peel report on partition solution.
July 1937 - Partition solution offered to Zionists in White Paper. It is based on the Peel Report of this year which concludes that 'the primary purpose of the Mandate, as expressed in its preamble and its articles, is to promote the establishment of the Jewish National Home.' It advises severe restrictions on Jewish purchases of land and severe curtailment of Jewish immigration. First steps towards nullification of Balfour Declaration.
1939 - Actual nullification came with further White Paper. Mandate pronounced unworkable. Weizmann blames Arab riots. The White Paper stalls further Jewish immigration and land purchase.
1945 - full extent of the Holocaust realised.
1947 - British destroyers fire on the ship 'Exodus' carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi occupied Europe to the 'national home', killing three. Under the orders of the Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, the refugees are forcibly returned to German soil.
29 November 1947 - United Nations grants a Jewish state.
14 May 1948 - Israel declares independence. Termination of British Mandate for Palestine at midnight. Establishment of the Jewish state of Israel.
This time-table is for general information only. It should not be taken as a primary source of reference. For further information on the rise of Zionism and its relationship to the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 see TUTANKHAMUN: THE EXODUS CONSPIRACY by Andrew Collins and Chris Ogilvie-Herald. For more information click here.