October 11, 1938 — Arab Congress Rejects Partition
The Peel Commission’s partition plan in 1937 called for a Jewish state closely aligned with the geography of Jewish settlements, which had not yet established a significant presence in the Negev.
Arab leaders meeting in Cairo adopt the Resolutions of the Inter-Parliamentary Congress, a response to the British Peel Commission’s 1937 proposal to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The Arabs reject partition and call for an end to Jewish immigration but accept the “sacrifice” of allowing Jews already in Palestine to remain. The British White Paper of 1939 largely adopts the Arab views on immigration and partition.
October 12, 1999 — Christian Extremists are Denied Entry to Israel
Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Mark Sofer (left) and Irish Ambassador to Israel Brendan Scannell dealt with the diplomatic fallout of the Irish pilgrims’ exclusion in 1999 and eventual admission in 2000. Left, Vice President’s Secretariat, Government Open Data License-India; right, Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
Israel refuses to let 26 Irish and Romanian tourists enter through Haifa for being members of an extreme Christian cult. The approach of the year 2000 raises fears in Israel about doomsday cults. In January 1999, Israel deported 14 members of Denver-based Concerned Christians who were suspected of planning violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites in Jerusalem. Concerned Christians’ mission includes converting all Jews.
October 13, 1969 — Allon Proposes Home Rule for West Bank
Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon (right), seeing off Prime Minister Golda Meir for her visit to the United States in September 1969, proposed home rule for West Bank Arabs the next month. By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, a retired general, reveals his plan for home rule for the roughly 650,000 West Bank Arabs who came under Israeli administration during the June 1967 war. They would have full autonomy in municipal affairs, education, religious policy, commerce and police. Only defense, foreign policy and communications would remain the purview of the Israeli military. The proposal gains no traction.
October 14, 1994 — Rabin, Peres are Awarded Nobel Prize
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Dec. 10, 1994. By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres are sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat for negotiating and signing the Oslo Accords in 1993. The committee hopes that “the award will serve as an encouragement to all the Israelis and Palestinians who endeavor to establish lasting peace in the region.”
October 15, 1894 — Second Prime Minister Moshe Sharett is Born
Moshe Sharett served as prime minister for less than two years because David Ben-Gurion came out of retirement and regained the leadership of the ruling Mapai party in mid-1955. By Hans Pinn, National Photo Collection of Israel.
Moshe Sharett, a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, the country’s first foreign minister and Israel’s second prime minister, is born Moshe Shertok to Zionist parents in Kherson, Ukraine. The family settles in Jaffa in 1906 in the parents’ second try at making aliyah. Sharett rises to be political director of the Jewish Agency by 1933 and forms the Jewish Brigade to fight alongside the British in World War II.
October 16, 1986 — Terrorists Capture Flyer Ron Arad
Batya Arad, the mother of captured Israeli flyer Ron Arad, speaks at the opening of the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Dec. 23, 1997. By Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ron Arad, 28, the navigator of an Israeli F-4 Phantom II, is captured by the Shia terrorist group Amal after bailing out over Lebanon. Amal demands $3 million and the release of 200 Lebanese and 450 Palestinians for Arad, and the negotiations fall apart. He instead is sold to the Iranians for $300,000 in December 1987. He is rumored to be executed in 1992, although reports in 2016 indicate that he was tortured to death in 1988.
October 17, 1880 — Ze’ev Jabotinsky is Born
Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, who died in New York in 1940, stipulated in his will that he should be buried in the Land of Israel only by a Jewish government there. His wish was fulfilled in 1964. National Photo Collection of Israel.
Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, the father of Revisionist Zionism, is born in Odesa, Ukraine. Pogroms in 1903 inspire his activism for Jewish self-defense and Zionism. He is central to the formation of the British army’s Jewish Legion during World War I, helps create the Betar youth movement in 1923, is a leader in organizing the defense of Jewish settlements in pre-state Palestine, and provides the intellectual foundation for Likud.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.