Facts & timeline.
What follows is the long view: a dated timeline of the events most often referenced in conversations about Palestine, and a short set of fact cards grounded in primary sources. We have tried to keep this honest, sourced, and as close to the documented record as we can get. If you spot an error, please email us.
What this page is. A reference companion to the homepage. Use it for context, for source links, and when you need to point someone at the history without rewriting it.
From the Mandate to the present.
Red dots mark the legal and humanitarian findings most directly relevant to the current call for an arms embargo and accountability.
British Mandate and the UN Partition Plan
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 commits Britain to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Three decades later, after WWII and the Holocaust, the UN General Assembly proposes partition into separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem under international administration.
Balfour Declaration (Yale Avalon) · UNGA Resolution 181 (1947)
The Nakba
The 1948 war forces the displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, more than half the Arab population of mandate Palestine. Hundreds of villages are depopulated and destroyed. The right of return for refugees is affirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and remains unimplemented to this day. The UN establishes UNRWA to provide relief to Palestinian refugees.
Six-Day War and the occupation
Israel captures the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai (later returned to Egypt). UN Security Council Resolution 242 calls for withdrawal from territories occupied in the war. The military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza begins and continues to this day in law and in fact, regardless of tactical changes on the ground.
UNSC Resolution 242 · UN OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Oslo Accords
Oslo I and Oslo II create the Palestinian Authority and divide the West Bank into Areas A, B and C with different degrees of Palestinian and Israeli control. Designed as five-year interim arrangements toward a permanent agreement, they remain the legal architecture of the West Bank thirty years later. The “final status” issues – Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements – have never been resolved.
Gaza disengagement and the blockade
Israel withdraws settlers and ground troops from Gaza in 2005 but retains control over its airspace, territorial waters, and most border crossings. After Hamas wins the 2006 legislative elections and takes control of Gaza in 2007, Israel and Egypt impose a comprehensive blockade. UN and human rights bodies consistently describe this as a form of collective punishment.
Hamas-led attack on southern Israel
Hamas and other armed groups carry out a coordinated attack on southern Israel. Approximately 1,200 people are killed, most of them civilians, and around 250 are taken hostage to Gaza. The attack is condemned by human rights organisations as a series of war crimes. Israel declares war on Hamas the same day and begins a sustained bombardment of Gaza.
South Africa files genocide case at the ICJ
South Africa institutes proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention. The application asks the Court to find that Israel’s acts in Gaza amount to genocide and to order Israel to stop. Many states later file declarations of intervention in support of the case.
ICJ orders provisional measures
The ICJ finds it “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide and orders Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide, including ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid. Further provisional measures follow in March and May 2024. These are binding orders. Israel has not complied.
The killing of Hind Rajab
Five-year-old Hind Rajab is killed in Gaza City by Israeli forces along with six members of her family and the two paramedics dispatched to rescue her. Forensic investigators later count more than 335 bullet holes in the vehicle and document evidence of Israeli tanks at the scene. The case becomes the basis for Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab.
Albanese: “Anatomy of a Genocide”
The UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT, Francesca Albanese, submits her report to the Human Rights Council finding “reasonable grounds to believe” that the threshold for the crime of genocide has been met.
Spain, Ireland and Norway recognise the State of Palestine
Three European states formally recognise Palestinian statehood on the same day, joining the majority of UN member states that recognise Palestine. Slovenia follows in June. A second wave in September 2025 (France, UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Portugal and others) brings the count above 155 of 193 UN members.
ICJ advisory opinion on the occupation
The International Court of Justice issues an advisory opinion finding that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, that it must end as rapidly as possible, and that all states have an obligation not to render aid or assistance to maintaining it.
ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a method of warfare. All 125 ICC states parties are legally obligated to arrest them on their territory.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch find genocide
Amnesty International publishes its 296-page investigation concluding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Two weeks later, Human Rights Watch publishes its report on the deliberate deprivation of water, concluding that Israel has committed extermination and acts of genocide. Both come from careful, conservative human rights organisations, and each reached its conclusion independently.
Madleen flotilla intercepted
The Madleen, a small civilian vessel carrying humanitarian supplies and activists including Greta Thunberg, is intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters en route to Gaza. Its crew is detained and deported.
Albanese: “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide”
Albanese’s second major report maps the corporate and state actors profiting from the occupation and from the war on Gaza, and the legal exposure of supplier states. The report names specific companies and recommends sanctions and embargoes. The Trump administration sanctions Albanese personally for her work.
UN Commission of Inquiry: this is genocide
After a two-year investigation, the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry finds “reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” The Commission finds four of the five genocidal acts defined in the Convention have been carried out, with genocidal intent established by senior officials’ own statements.
Bill C-233 introduced in the House of Commons
NDP MP Jenny Kwan tables the No More Loopholes Act, a private member’s bill that would close the U.S. export loophole that permits Canadian-made military components to reach Israeli warplanes, helicopters, and drones via American assemblers without permit, oversight, or human rights review.
Bill C-233 voted down 295–22
The House of Commons defeats the No More Loopholes Act on second reading. All NDP and Green MPs vote in favour. Fifteen Liberals break with their caucus to support the bill. Prime Minister Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anand vote no. The U.S. export loophole remains open.
CBC · Global News · CJPME
Things worth knowing before the conversation.
International law in plain language
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the UN’s principal judicial organ. It rules on disputes between states and issues advisory opinions. Its provisional measures (like those in the South Africa case) are binding on the parties.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a separate institution that prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression. Its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant create legal obligations for all 125 ICC member states, including Canada, to arrest them on their territory.
ICJ · ICC · Geneva Conventions
The humanitarian situation
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global authority on famine, has confirmed famine conditions in Gaza. UN OCHA, WHO, UNICEF and UNRWA consistently identify the primary cause as deliberate restrictions on humanitarian access: convoys turned back, fuel withheld, hospitals damaged or destroyed, water and sanitation infrastructure deliberately targeted.
IPC Gaza analyses · UN OCHA · WHO · UNRWA
Canada’s specific role
Canada is a party to the Genocide Convention, the Arms Trade Treaty, and the Rome Statute of the ICC. All three create obligations to prevent genocide, to refuse arms exports where there is a clear risk of serious violations, and to cooperate with ICC arrest warrants.
In practice: Canadian-made military components continue to reach Israel through the U.S. export loophole. The federal government has not joined the South Africa case at the ICJ. The defeat of Bill C-233 in March 2026 entrenched the status quo. There is no formal Canadian declaration of an arms embargo on Israel.
Global Affairs Canada · Arms Trade Treaty · Arms Embargo Now
Antisemitism and anti-Zionism
Antisemitism is hatred or discrimination against Jewish people. It is real, it is rising, and it must be opposed everywhere it appears. Anti-Zionism is opposition to a political ideology and to the policies of a state. The two are not the same.
Many Jewish organisations and scholars distinguish clearly between the two and oppose conflating them, including Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem. Conflating them shields a state from criticism by misnaming the critique.
The death toll
Gaza’s Ministry of Health publishes the official Palestinian casualty count. Its methodology has been independently reviewed by UN OCHA, by forensic researchers, by Israeli journalists reporting on leaked Israeli intelligence assessments, and by named identification of the dead. Peer commentary in The Lancet has argued the official toll likely undercounts the dead when indirect deaths from disease, starvation, and infrastructure collapse are factored in.
Protest and speech in Canada
Peaceful assembly on sidewalks and in public squares is protected by the Charter. Reasonable chanting is allowed. People may film in public. You are not required to provide ID to police unless legally required (for example while driving). You can ask whether you are being detained; if not, you are free to leave.
Be aware: surveillance of pro-Palestine activism in Canada has been documented. Coordinate with experienced organisers and do not give personal information to private investigators or self-appointed monitors.
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Page last updated 16 May 2026. Spot a broken link or outdated fact? Email us and we’ll fix it.