JANUARY

01/01/1965

Al-'Asifa Fateh movement starts armed struggle against Israeli occupation.

Emir Faisal and Zionist leader Weizmann signed an agreement to develop joint interests in Palestine.

Emir Faisal ibn Husayn was the son of the Grand Sharif of Mecca of the Hashemite dynasty who reigned over the short-lived kingdom of Hejaz (1916-1924, later to be integrated into Saudi Arabia).

Although it was not specified that a Jewish state should ever exist, the agreement recognised zionism in Palestine. On the other hand Faisal was supposed to count on Zionist support to his scope of a kingdom in Syria. The agreement was indeed a deal between the Zionist hierarchy and an heir to a neighbouring Arab feudal dynasty.

The mandatory French authorities expelled Faisal from Syria and as the western powers failed to deliver on their promises to the Arabs, Faisal himself walked back from colluding with the Zionists and the agreement eventually ended up a bornstill piece of paper.

Even if it had worked, it was very optimistic of both men to believe that the Palestinians would have felt bound to a treaty selling out their country where their signature was missing. In this regard, the Faisal-Weizmann agreement was as illegitimate as the Balfour Declaration itself although contemporary Zionists sometimes still refer to it as an alleged proof of their goodwill to live harmony amongst the Arabs and as a title-deed to their so called rights over Palestine.

Weizmann (left) and Faisal (right)

Another Zionist leader – Ze’ev Jabotinsky – had his reservations over such pacts with non Palestinian Arabs:

“If it were possible (and I doubt this) to discuss Palestine with the Arabs of Baghdad and Mecca as if it were only some kind of small, immaterial borderland, then Palestine would still remain for the Palestinians not a borderland, but their birthplace, the centre and basis of their own national existence. Therefore it would be necessary to carry on colonisation against the will of the Palestinian Arabs, which is the same condition that exists now”.

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Haganah terrorist attack on Jaffa killing more than 40 and wounding 98 others, mostly civilians.

Haganah plants bombs in the Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem killing 20 among them Viscount de Tapia, the Spanish consul.

Over a dozen Palestinian civilians killed by Zionists in Jerusalem.

Gamal Abdul Nasser – Egyptian statesman - (1918-1970) was born as the son of a postman.

He served in the 1948 war against Israel as a major. In 1949 he joined the Free Officers’s faction which overthrew Egyptian King Farouk in 1952. Nasser was elected president of the newly-established republic and engaged in a land reform. In 1956 USA and Britain withdrew a promised support for the construction of a new Aswan Dam, and Nasser responded with nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, as he wanted to finance the construction of the dam with the income from tolls on the traffic on the canal. War broke out when the French and the British invaded the Canal Zone and Israel occupied the Sinai desert. The UN forced these western powers to withdraw and Nasser’s regime gained considerable prestige in the Arab World. Two years after Egypt merged with Syria into the United Arab Republic which was to be a first step towards Arab unity.

Egypt’s blocus on Aqaba port precipitated the 1967 Six Days’ War. Defeat was such a blow that Nasser offered to resign but popular demonstrations led him to decide to stay in office until he died in 1970, leaving the symbol of panarabism uncompromising with Israel.

Yasir Arafat became the first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people with 88.1 percent of the vote.

In defiance of United Nations resolutions, Israel declares Jerusalem its capital.