This is the part people fear getting wrong. So here's a plain timeline of widely documented events. It won't settle every argument — but it'll give you the spine of what happened.
The land of Palestine is part of the Ottoman Empire, home to a large Arab majority and a small Jewish minority. The Zionist movement begins in Europe, calling for a Jewish homeland in Palestine — driven in large part by centuries of brutal antisemitic persecution in Europe.
Britain, in the Balfour Declaration, voices support for "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine — while it's still home to a large Arab majority. Britain soon rules the territory.
As Britain withdraws, the UN proposes splitting the land into two states. War follows. Israel is established in 1948. In the process, more than 700,000 Palestinians are expelled or flee their homes and are not allowed to return. Palestinians call this al-Nakba — "the catastrophe." It's the root of the refugee question that persists today.
In a six-day war, Israel takes control of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and more. The military occupation of these territories begins — and, in the West Bank, continues to this day.
Two Palestinian uprisings (intifadas) against occupation. Peace talks (the Oslo Accords in the 1990s) create the Palestinian Authority but never deliver a Palestinian state.
After Hamas takes power in Gaza, Israel and Egypt impose a blockade. Repeated wars follow over the years, with heavy civilian tolls, especially in Gaza.
There is still no Palestinian state. Settlements in the West Bank continue to expand. Millions of Palestinians live as refugees, under occupation, or in the diaspora — still asking the question the Nakba opened: when do we get to go home?
You'll hear this history told in sharply different ways. That's real — but the events above are broadly documented by historians across the spectrum. Disagreement is mostly about meaning and responsibility, not whether these things happened.
Next we'll defuse the vocabulary — the loaded words that make people afraid to speak.