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On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (II), by which the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was adopted, a plan which allowed for the creation of two separate states, one Arab, one Israeli – but the Arab Higher Committee, the Arab League and other Arab leaders and governments rejected it, claiming it violated the principles of national self-determination contained in the UN Charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny. -
A timeline of the most important historical events in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis since the UN-decreed partition in 1948 until the Yom Kippur War in 1973
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During the civil war, the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine clashed (the latter supported by the Arab Liberation Army made up from several Arab countries) while the British, who had the obligation to maintain order, organized their withdrawal and intervened only on an occasional basis. Their presence ended physically and formally on May 14, 1948. -
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the civil war fought under the British Palestine Mandate as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It began when a military coalition of Arab states entered the territory of British Palestine in the morning of 15 May 1948. It went through all the year until an UN-sponsored armistice was signed by Israel and the Arab combatants between February and July 1949. -
In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan and the last one Syria on July. 20. The Armistice Demarcation Lines, as set by the agreements, had Israel controlling over 78% of the territory comprising former Mandatory Palestine. It also signalled the end of the first Palestinian exodus or "Nakba", where more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Palestine's Arab prewar population – fled from their homes or were expelled by Israeli forces since May 1948.