NOTE: This is just a little overview, an overall idea of the context and not an exhaustive telling of Palestinian history. Consider it an entrypoint to later dive deeper into.

What is Zionism: the belief that Jews should have a land of their own in Palestinian territories. It sees Jews not just as a religious group, but a nation who should have its own country in the land sacred to their religion.

The birth of modern Zionism:
in 1897, Theodor Herzl gives life to the zionist theory, along with Max Nordau
-> the idea is to make colonies in Palestine to give a land to Jews.
-> Why Palestine? It is considered the birthplace of Jewish history and religion. Other lands were also considered (like Uganda), but Palestine was the one that united Zionist theorists the most.
-> The problem: Palestine was not a land without people. Palestinians were living there.

The first colonies: 1882-1903 -> they were mostly Jews coming from Russia, escaping from the pogrom and growing anti-semitism
-> economically supported by Edmond de Rothschild, a Jewish-French man who came from a very rich and powerful family. He invested a lot of money to turn the Zionist idea into a reality.

The Balfour Declaration 1917: Arthur James Balfour was a conservative british polititian. His famous document ("The Balfour Declaration") claimed that Britain was in favor of the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
Why though?
-from 1917 to 1948 Palestine was under the British empire. Having it under control was an important strategy.
-> his motives were mostly political
-> this led to the Arab revolt between 1936-1939: Palestinian people were protesting against the British domination and the colonisation.

May 14th 1948; the UN creates Israel, by giving a big portion of the Palestinian territory to it and recognising it as Israel.
-> the day after, the Arab armies (Egypt, Syria and Jordan) invade Israel
-> Israel wins, and pushes almost 1 million of Palestinians to the borders of the country.
= this is called the Nakba ("catastrophe")

From here on, we have many notable events. A few are
-1956: the Sinai War (along Israel, we find France and the UK)
-1967: the Six Day War (Israel ends up occupying more territories, like Sinai)
-1973: the Yom Kippur War (it will lead to the Camp David Accords with democratic US president Jimmy Carter in 1978, which will make Isral give Sinai back to Egypt)
= These wars reinforce Israel and takes power away from Palestinians, reducing their country more and more.
-1987-1993: the First Intifada (“uprising”, “shaking off”. Palestians are rebelling against the unjustified presence of Israelian army in their territory and their violence)
-1987: hamas (which is an acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement", but can also mean "enthusiasm") is born during the first intifada
-2000–2005: the Second Intifada