Answer: Grand Orient of France

Question: What Grand Lodge had a withdrawal of recognition by the United Grand Lodge of England?


Answer: political tension between France and Britain

Context: A dispute during the Lausanne Congress of Supreme Councils of 1875 prompted the Grand Orient de France to commission a report by a Protestant pastor which concluded that, as Freemasonry was not a religion, it should not require a religious belief. The new constitutions read, "Its principles are absolute liberty of conscience and human solidarity", the existence of God and the immortality of the soul being struck out. It is possible that the immediate objections of the United Grand Lodge of England were at least partly motivated by the political tension between France and Britain at the time. The result was the withdrawal of recognition of the Grand Orient of France by the United Grand Lodge of England, a situation that continues today.

Question: What was a motivation of the Grand Lodge of England's objection?


Answer: Grand Orient de France

Question: Who disputed the Lausanne Congress of Supreme Councils?


Answer: during the 1720s

Context: At the dawn of the Grand Lodge era, during the 1720s, James Anderson composed the first printed constitutions for Freemasons, the basis for most subsequent constitutions, which specifically excluded women from Freemasonry. As Freemasonry spread, continental masons began to include their ladies in Lodges of Adoption, which worked three degrees with the same names as the men's but different content. The French officially abandoned the experiment in the early 19th century. Later organisations with a similar aim emerged in the United States, but distinguished the names of the degrees from those of male masonry.

Question: When were the first constitutions for Freemasonry printed?


Answer: James Anderson

Question: Who composed the first printed constitutions for Freemasonry?


Answer: women

Question: Which group was specifically excluded from Freemasonry in the printed constitutions?


Answer: Lodges of Adoption

Question: What was created for women as Freemasonry began to spread?


Answer: early 19th century

Question: When was the idea of the Lodges for Adoption abandoned?


Answer: during the 1720s

Question: When was the dawn of the Grand Lodge era?


Answer: James Anderson

Question: Who composed the first printed constitutions for Freemasons?


Answer: women

Question: Who is excluded from Freemasonry?


Answer: Lodges of Adoption

Question: What were lodges called that included women?


Answer: The French

Question: Who abandoned the including of women in Freemasonry experiment in the early 19'th century?


Answer: mysticism, occultism, and even Satanism

Context: In contrast to Catholic allegations of rationalism and naturalism, Protestant objections are more likely to be based on allegations of mysticism, occultism, and even Satanism. Masonic scholar Albert Pike is often quoted (in some cases misquoted) by Protestant anti-Masons as an authority for the position of Masonry on these issues. However, Pike, although undoubtedly learned, was not a spokesman for Freemasonry and was also controversial among Freemasons in general. His writings represented his personal opinion only, and furthermore an opinion grounded in the attitudes and understandings of late 19th century Southern Freemasonry of the USA. Notably, his book carries in the preface a form of disclaimer from his own Grand Lodge. No one voice has ever spoken for the whole of Freemasonry.

Question: What are some Protestant objections to Freemasonry?


Answer: rationalism and naturalism

Question: What are Catholic objections to Freemasonry?


Answer: No one voice

Question: Who is generally accepted as the voice of Freemasonry?


Answer: Albert Pike

Question: Who do the Protestant anti-Masons believe is the absolute authority on the use of mysticism, Satanism and occultism in Freemasonry?


Answer: late 19th century Southern Freemasonry of the USA

Question: What was Albert Pike actually more of an expert in?


Answer: Protestant

Question: What religion alleged Freemasons as Satanic?


Answer: Catholic

Question: What religion alleged Freemasons as unnatural and irrational?


Answer: Albert Pike

Question: Who was controversial among Freemasons?


Answer: No one

Question: Who has spoke for all Freemasons?


Answer: late 19th century Southern Freemasonry of the USA

Question: Albert Pike's opinions were grounded in what?


Answer: Parliamentary proclamation

Context: In 1799, English Freemasonry almost came to a halt due to Parliamentary proclamation. In the wake of the French Revolution, the Unlawful Societies Act 1799 banned any meetings of groups that required their members to take an oath or obligation. The Grand Masters of both the Moderns and the Antients Grand Lodges called on Prime Minister William Pitt (who was not a Freemason) and explained to him that Freemasonry was a supporter of the law and lawfully constituted authority and was much involved in charitable work. As a result, Freemasonry was specifically exempted from the terms of the Act, provided that each private lodge's Secretary placed with the local "Clerk of the Peace" a list of the members of his lodge once a year. This continued until 1967 when the obligation of the provision was rescinded by Parliament.

Question: What put English Freemasonry at risk?


Answer: meetings of groups that required their members to take an oath or obligation

Question: What did the Unlawful Socities Act ban?


Answer: 1799

Question: When was the Unlawful Socities Act implemented?


Answer: a list of the members of his lodge

Question: What was each private lodge required to provide to the Clerk of Peace every year?


Answer: Prime Minister William Pitt

Question: Who did the Grand Masters call upon to explain that Freemasonry was not an unlawful society?


Answer: 1799

Question: English Freemasonry almost came to a halt in what year?


Answer: Parliamentary proclamation

Question: Why did English Freemasonry almost come to a halt in 1799?


Answer: the Unlawful Societies Act 1799

Question: What act was made in 1799 banning any meeting of groups that had to take an oath or obligation?


Answer: Prime Minister William Pitt

Question: Who gave the Freemasons an exemption of the Act of 1799?


Answer: 1967

Question: What year did parliament rescind the exemption of 1799 given to the Freemasons?


Answer: antisemitism and anti-Zionism

Context: In some countries anti-Masonry is often related to antisemitism and anti-Zionism. For example, In 1980, the Iraqi legal and penal code was changed by Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath Party, making it a felony to "promote or acclaim Zionist principles, including Freemasonry, or who associate [themselves] with Zionist organisations". Professor Andrew Prescott of the University of Sheffield writes: "Since at least the time of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, antisemitism has gone hand in hand with anti-masonry, so it is not surprising that allegations that 11 September was a Zionist plot have been accompanied by suggestions that the attacks were inspired by a masonic world order".

Question: What are two things that anit-masonry usually associated with?


Answer: 1980

Question: What year did the Ba'ath Party make Freemasonry a felony?


Answer: Professor Andrew Prescott

Question: Who wrote that it was not suprising that the blame for 9/11 was trying to be blamed on a masonic world order?


Answer: Since at least the time of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Question: According to Professor Andrew Prescott, how long has antisemitism gone together with anti-masonry?


Answer: antisemitism and anti-Zionism

Question: In some countries, anti-Masonry is related to what?


Answer: Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath Party

Question: Who change the Iraqi legal and penal code in 1980?


Answer: Professor Andrew Prescott

Question: Who suggested the September 11 attacks on the United States were inspired by a masonic world order?


Answer: degree ceremonies

Context: The bulk of Masonic ritual consists of degree ceremonies. Candidates for Freemasonry are progressively initiated into Freemasonry, first in the degree of Entered Apprentice. Some time later, in a separate ceremony, they will be passed to the degree of Fellowcraft, and finally they will be raised to the degree of Master Mason. In all of these ceremonies, the candidate is entrusted with passwords, signs and grips peculiar to his new rank. Another ceremony is the annual installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge. In some jurisdictions Installed Master is valued as a separate rank, with its own secrets to distinguish its members. In other jurisdictions, the grade is not recognised, and no inner ceremony conveys new secrets during the installation of a new Master of the Lodge.

Question: What do most masonic rituals consist of?


Answer: Entered Apprentice

Question: What is the first degree of Masonry?


Answer: Fellowcraft

Question: What is the second degree of Masonry?


Answer: Master Mason

Question: What is the final degree of Masonry?


Answer: passwords, signs and grips

Question: What things come with each new degree in Freemasonry?


Answer: degree ceremonies

Question: The bulk of Masonic rituals consist of what?


Answer: the degree of Fellowcraft

Question: What comes after the degree of Entered Apprentice?


Answer: the degree of Entered Apprentice

Question: What is the first of degree ceremonies?


Answer: the degree of Master Mason

Question: What is the final degree in the Freemasons?


Answer: the annual installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge

Question: What annual ceremony do Freemasons have?


Answer: the 1720s

Context: English Freemasonry spread to France in the 1720s, first as lodges of expatriates and exiled Jacobites, and then as distinctively French lodges which still follow the ritual of the Moderns. From France and England, Freemasonry spread to most of Continental Europe during the course of the 18th century. The Grande Loge de France formed under the Grand Mastership of the Duke of Clermont, who exercised only nominal authority. His successor, the Duke of Orléans, reconstituted the central body as the Grand Orient de France in 1773. Briefly eclipsed during the French Revolution, French Freemasonry continued to grow in the next century.

Question: When did English Freemasonry arrive in France?


Answer: lodges of expatriates and exiled Jacobites

Question: Who were the first English Freemasons in France?


Answer: 18th century

Question: When did Freemasonry begin to spread to continental Europe?


Answer: Duke of Clermont

Question: Who formed the Grand Loge de France?


Answer: Duke of Orléans

Question: Who was the successor to the Duke of Clermont?


Answer: the 1720s

Question: When did English Freemasonry spread to France?


Answer: the 18th century

Question: When did Freemasonry spread to most of the Continental Europe?


Answer: the Grand Mastership of the Duke of Clermont

Question: The Grand Loge de France formed under who?


Answer: the Duke of Orléans

Question: Who was the successor to the Grand Mastership of The Duke of Clermont?


Answer: 1773

Question: When was the central body of the Grand Orient de France reconstituted?


Answer: provides a forum for most of these Grand Lodges and Grand Orients worldwide

Context: The majority of Freemasonry considers the Liberal (Continental) strand to be Irregular, and thus withhold recognition. For the Continental lodges, however, having a different approach to Freemasonry was not a reason for severing masonic ties. In 1961, an umbrella organisation, Centre de Liaison et d'Information des Puissances maçonniques Signataires de l'Appel de Strasbourg (CLIPSAS) was set up, which today provides a forum for most of these Grand Lodges and Grand Orients worldwide. Included in the list of over 70 Grand Lodges and Grand Orients are representatives of all three of the above categories, including mixed and women's organisations. The United Grand Lodge of England does not communicate with any of these jurisdictions, and expects its allies to follow suit. This creates the distinction between Anglo-American and Continental Freemasonry.

Question: Why was the Centre de Liasion et d'information des Puissances maconniques signataires de l'Appel de Strasbourg set up?


Answer: 1961

Question: When was CLIPSAS set up?


Answer: Anglo-American and Continental

Question: What are two major sections of Freemasonry?


Answer: Irregular

Question: What is the Continental Strand consideres to be by most of Freemasonry?


Answer: the Liberal (Continental) strand

Question: What strand is considered to be irregular by the majority of Freemasons?


Answer: 1961

Question: The CLIPSAS Organization was formed in what year?


Answer: 70

Question: How many Grand Lodges and Grand Orients are listed in the CLIPSAS list?


Answer: does not communicate

Question: Does the United Grand Lodge of England communicate with any of the 70 lodges on the CLIPSAS list?


Answer: the Roman Catholic Church

Context: The denomination with the longest history of objection to Freemasonry is the Roman Catholic Church. The objections raised by the Roman Catholic Church are based on the allegation that Masonry teaches a naturalistic deistic religion which is in conflict with Church doctrine. A number of Papal pronouncements have been issued against Freemasonry. The first was Pope Clement XII's In eminenti apostolatus, 28 April 1738; the most recent was Pope Leo XIII's Ab apostolici, 15 October 1890. The 1917 Code of Canon Law explicitly declared that joining Freemasonry entailed automatic excommunication, and banned books favouring Freemasonry.

Question: Whao has always opposed Freemasonry?


Answer: teaches a naturalistic deistic religion

Question: Why does the Catholic Church oppose the Freemasons so strongly?


Answer: Pope Clement XII

Question: Who issued the first Papal prounouncement against Freemasonry?


Answer: 28 April 1738

Question: When was the first Papal prounouncement against Freemasonry made?


Answer: Pope Leo XIII's Ab apostolici, 15 October 1890

Question: What was the most recent Papal prounouncement agasnst Freemasonry?


Answer: the Roman Catholic Church

Question: Who has the longest history of objection to Freemasonry?


Answer: The 1917 Code of Canon Law

Question: What law banned books favoring Freemasonry?


Answer: Masonry teaches a naturalistic deistic religion

Question: The Roman Catholic Church objection to Freemasons are based on what?


Answer: Pope Clement XII

Question: What pope first issued Papal pronouncements against Freemasons?


Answer: Pope Leo XIII

Question: What pope most recently issued Papal pronouncements against Freemasons?


Answer: cannot partake of the Eucharist

Context: In 1933, the Orthodox Church of Greece officially declared that being a Freemason constitutes an act of apostasy and thus, until he repents, the person involved with Freemasonry cannot partake of the Eucharist. This has been generally affirmed throughout the whole Eastern Orthodox Church. The Orthodox critique of Freemasonry agrees with both the Roman Catholic and Protestant versions: "Freemasonry cannot be at all compatible with Christianity as far as it is a secret organisation, acting and teaching in mystery and secret and deifying rationalism."

Question: What action is forbid by the Orthodox Greek Church to Freemasons?


Answer: cannot be at all compatible with Christianity

Question: What is the official stance on Freemasonry by the Greek Orthodox Church?


Answer: constitutes an act of apostasy

Question: What would happen if someone in the Greek Orthodox Church became a Freemason?


Answer: 1933

Question: When did the Orthodox Church of Greece proclaim being a Freemason was an act of apostacy?


Answer: Roman Catholic and Protestant

Question: Which other major religions hold the same beliefs, on Freemasonry, as the Orthodox Church of Greece?


Answer: 1933

Question: In what year did the Orthodox Church of Greece declare that being a Freemason constituted an act of apostasy?


Answer: Christianity

Question: Freemasonry cannot be compatible with what according to the Orthodox Church?


Answer: the Eucharist

Question: Freemason cannot partake in what until they repent according to the Orthodox Church of Greece?


Answer: belief in a Supreme Being

Context: In addition, most Grand Lodges require the candidate to declare a belief in a Supreme Being. In a few cases, the candidate may be required to be of a specific religion. The form of Freemasonry most common in Scandinavia (known as the Swedish Rite), for example, accepts only Christians. At the other end of the spectrum, "Liberal" or Continental Freemasonry, exemplified by the Grand Orient de France, does not require a declaration of belief in any deity, and accepts atheists (a cause of discord with the rest of Freemasonry).

Question: What belief is required of a candidate by the Grand Lodge?


Answer: few cases

Question: Are candadites required to express belief in a specific religion?


Answer: Continental Freemasonry

Question: Which branch of Freemasonry does not require a belief in a supreme being?


Answer: "Liberal" or Continental

Question: Which branch of Freemasonry accepts atheists?


Answer: Swedish Rite

Question: Which branch of Freemasonry only accepts Christians?


Answer: a Supreme Being

Question: Most Grand Lodges require a candidate to declare a belief in what?


Answer: Christians

Question: Freemasons most common in Scandinavia only accept who as members?


Answer: the Grand Orient de France

Question: What Freemason group accept atheists?


Answer: Liberal" or Continental Freemasonry

Question: The Grand Orient de France is considered what type of Freemasonry?


Answer: only one Grand Lodge will be recognised in any geographical area

Context: Exclusive Jurisdiction is a concept whereby only one Grand Lodge will be recognised in any geographical area. If two Grand Lodges claim jurisdiction over the same area, the other Grand Lodges will have to choose between them, and they may not all decide to recognise the same one. (In 1849, for example, the Grand Lodge of New York split into two rival factions, each claiming to be the legitimate Grand Lodge. Other Grand Lodges had to choose between them until the schism was healed.) Exclusive Jurisdiction can be waived when the two over-lapping Grand Lodges are themselves in Amity and agree to share jurisdiction (for example, since the Grand Lodge of Connecticut is in Amity with the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Connecticut, the principle of Exclusive Jurisdiction does not apply, and other Grand Lodges may recognise both).

Question: What is Exclusive Jurisdiction?


Answer: the other Grand Lodges will have to choose between them

Question: What happens if two Grand Lodges try to establish themselves in the same area?


Answer: Exclusive Jurisdiction can be waived

Question: What can happen if two over-lapping Grand Lodges are in Amity and decide to share jurisdiction?


Answer: recognise both

Question: If two over-lapping Grand Lodges are in Amity and decide to waive Exclusive Jurisdiction, who must the other Grand Lodges recognize?


Answer: choose between them

Question: What must other Grand Lodges do if two over-lapping Grand Lodges cannot agree to share the territory?


Answer: Exclusive Jurisdiction

Question: What concept only recognizes one Grand Lodge in a given geographical area?


Answer: 1849

Question: In what year did the Grand Lodge of New York Split into two separate rival factions?


Answer: when the two over-lapping Grand Lodges are themselves in Amity and agree to share jurisdiction

Question: When can Exclusive Jurisdiction be waived?


Answer: 17th–18th

Context: There is no clear mechanism by which these local trade organisations became today's Masonic Lodges, but the earliest rituals and passwords known, from operative lodges around the turn of the 17th–18th centuries, show continuity with the rituals developed in the later 18th century by accepted or speculative Masons, as those members who did not practice the physical craft came to be known. The minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 in Scotland show a continuity from an operative lodge in 1598 to a modern speculative Lodge. It is reputed to be the oldest Masonic Lodge in the world.

Question: From what centuries are the earliest passwords and rituals of Freemasonry known?


Answer: Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 in Scotland

Question: What is the oldest Masonic lodge in the world?


Answer: accepted or speculative Masons

Question: What were members who did not practice the physical craft known as?


Answer: show continuity

Question: When compared, how similar are the rituals and passwords from the turn of the 17 - 18 centuries to the ones from the later 18th century?


Answer: the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1

Question: What is the oldest Masonic Lodge in the world?


Answer: 1598

Question: When was the Lodge of Edinburgh started?


Answer: in the later 18th century

Question: When did rituals become similar between different Masonic Lodges?


Answer: refusal of early American lodges to admit African-Americans

Context: Prince Hall Freemasonry exists because of the refusal of early American lodges to admit African-Americans. In 1775, an African-American named Prince Hall, along with fourteen other African-Americans, was initiated into a British military lodge with a warrant from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, having failed to obtain admission from the other lodges in Boston. When the military Lodge left North America, those fifteen men were given the authority to meet as a Lodge, but not to initiate Masons. In 1784, these individuals obtained a Warrant from the Premier Grand Lodge of England (GLE) and formed African Lodge, Number 459. When the UGLE was formed in 1813, all U.S.-based Lodges were stricken from their rolls – due largely to the War of 1812. Thus, separated from both UGLE and any concordantly recognised U.S. Grand Lodge, African Lodge re-titled itself as the African Lodge, Number 1 – and became a de facto "Grand Lodge" (this Lodge is not to be confused with the various Grand Lodges on the Continent of Africa). As with the rest of U.S. Freemasonry, Prince Hall Freemasonry soon grew and organised on a Grand Lodge system for each state.

Question: Why was Prince Hall Freemasonry formed?


Answer: 1775

Question: When was Prince Hall Freemasonry formed?


Answer: U.S.-based Lodges were stricken from their rolls

Question: What happened when the UGLE was formed in 1813?


Answer: African Lodge, Number 1

Question: What did Africian Lodge, Number 459 become after they were removed from the UGLE?


Answer: became a de facto "Grand Lodge"

Question: What was Africian Lodge, Number 1 considered after they changed from Africian Lodge, Number 459?


Answer: Prince Hall Freemasonry

Question: What exists today because of the refusal of early American lodges to admit African Americans?


Answer: 1775

Question: In what year was Prince Hall admitted into the British military lodge?


Answer: 1784

Question: When was the African Lodge, number 459, formed?


Answer: 1813

Question: When was the UGLE formed?


Answer: the African Lodge, Number 1

Question: The African Lodge re-titled itself what?


Answer: 1882

Context: Maria Deraismes was initiated into Freemasonry in 1882, then resigned to allow her lodge to rejoin their Grand Lodge. Having failed to achieve acceptance from any masonic governing body, she and Georges Martin started a mixed masonic lodge that actually worked masonic ritual. Annie Besant spread the phenomenon to the English speaking world. Disagreements over ritual led to the formation of exclusively female bodies of Freemasons in England, which spread to other countries. Meanwhile, the French had re-invented Adoption as an all-female lodge in 1901, only to cast it aside again in 1935. The lodges, however, continued to meet, which gave rise, in 1959, to a body of women practising continental Freemasonry.

Question: When was Maria Deraismes initiated into Freemasonry?


Answer: allow her lodge to rejoin their Grand Lodge

Question: Why did Deraismes resign from Freemasonry?


Answer: Disagreements over ritual

Question: What led to exclusively female bodies of Freemasons in England?


Answer: Georges Martin

Question: Who, along with Maria Dersaismes, started a mixed gender masonic lodge?


Answer: Annie Besant

Question: Who brought the message of mixed gender, practicing masonic lodges to the English speaking?


Answer: Maria Deraismes

Question: Who resigned from the Freemasons for their lodge to rejoin their Grand Lodge?


Answer: Georges Martin

Question: Maria Deraismes and who else started a mixed masonic lodge?


Answer: 1882

Question: What year was Maria Deraismes initiated into the Freemasons?


Answer: 1901

Question: What year was an all-female masonic lodge created?


Answer: 1935

Question: What year was the all-female masonic lodge cast aside?


Answer: al-Masih ad-Dajjal (the false Messiah

Context: Many Islamic anti-Masonic arguments are closely tied to both antisemitism and Anti-Zionism, though other criticisms are made such as linking Freemasonry to al-Masih ad-Dajjal (the false Messiah). Some Muslim anti-Masons argue that Freemasonry promotes the interests of the Jews around the world and that one of its aims is to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. In article 28 of its Covenant, Hamas states that Freemasonry, Rotary, and other similar groups "work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions ..."

Question: What do Islamic anti-masonics link Freemasonry to?


Answer: rebuild the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem

Question: Why do muslim anti-masonics believe that the Freemasons want to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque?


Answer: Rotary

Question: What is another group that anti-masonic muslims link to zionism?


Answer: antisemitism and Anti-Zionism

Question: What are most of the arguements by anti-masonic muslims centered on?


Answer: Jews

Question: Who's interests are the muslin anti-masonics afraid that the Freemasons are protecting?


Answer: linking Freemasonry to al-Masih ad-Dajjal (the false Messiah)

Question: What do many Islamic and anti-Masonic argue about Freemasonry?


Answer: the interests of the Jews

Question: Some Muslims argue that Freemasonry promotes what?


Answer: article 28

Question: What article states that Freemasonry work in the interest of Zionism?


Answer: between 80,000 and 200,000

Context: The preserved records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the Reich Security Main Office) show the persecution of Freemasons during the Holocaust. RSHA Amt VII (Written Records) was overseen by Professor Franz Six and was responsible for "ideological" tasks, by which was meant the creation of antisemitic and anti-Masonic propaganda. While the number is not accurately known, it is estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were killed under the Nazi regime. Masonic concentration camp inmates were graded as political prisoners and wore an inverted red triangle.

Question: How many Freemasons are believed to have been killed under Hitler's Nazi Regime?


Answer: political prisoners

Question: What kind of prisioner was a Freemason considered to be?


Answer: inverted red triangle

Question: What identifier did the Nazis make the Freemason prisioners wear?


Answer: Professor Franz Six

Question: Who was responsible for creating antisemetic and anti-masonic propaganda?


Answer: The preserved records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the Reich Security Main Office)

Question: Where is most of the informaton about Freemasons persecuted in the Holocaust located?


Answer: Reichssicherheitshauptamt

Question: What is the Relch Security Main Office also called?


Answer: Professor Franz Six

Question: Who was responsible for ideological tasks of the written records?


Answer: between 80,000 and 200,000

Question: How many Freemasons were killed under the Nazi regime?


Answer: an inverted red triangle.

Question: What did Masonic concentration camp inmates have to wear?


Answer: local fraternities of stonemasons

Context: Freemasonry consists of fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft (or Blue Lodge) Freemasonry. Members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are usually administered by different bodies than the craft degrees.

Question: Where are the origins of Freemasonry?


Answer: regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients

Question: What were the fraternaties of stonemasons origionally responsible for?


Answer: the three grades of medieval craft guilds

Question: Where did the degrees of Freemasonry derived from?


Answer: Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason

Question: What are the degrees of Freemasonry?


Answer: the local fraternities of stonemasons

Question: Freemasons trace their origins to what?


Answer: three grades

Question: How many grades are there in medieval craft guilds?


Answer: Blue Lodge

Question: Craft Freemasonry is also known as what?


Answer: Freemasons or Masons

Question: Members of Craft Masonry are called what?


Answer: they are never invited

Context: Candidates for Freemasonry will have met most active members of the Lodge they are joining before they are initiated. The process varies between jurisdictions, but the candidate will typically have been introduced by a friend at a Lodge social function, or at some form of open evening in the Lodge. In modern times, interested people often track down a local Lodge through the Internet. The onus is on candidates to ask to join; while candidates may be encouraged to ask, they are never invited. Once the initial inquiry is made, an interview usually follows to determine the candidate's suitability. If the candidate decides to proceed from here, the Lodge ballots on the application before he (or she, depending on the Masonic Jurisdiction) can be accepted.

Question: How are Freemasons invited to join a lodge?


Answer: The onus is on candidates to ask to join

Question: How does one become a Freemason?


Answer: depending on the Masonic Jurisdiction

Question: Can women ask to be a member of the Masonic Lodge?


Answer: track down a local Lodge through the Internet

Question: How can you find a lodge to ask to be a member of?


Answer: will have met most active members of the Lodge they are joining

Question: Candidates for Freemasonry must do what before being initiated?


Answer: a friend

Question: Candidates are normally introduced to the lodge by whom?


Answer: the Internet

Question: Now days, many interested people find a Masonic Lodge using what?


Answer: never invited

Question: Candidates are never what to a Masonic lodge?


Answer: an interview

Question: What usually follows an initial inquiry of a candidate?


Answer: around six million worldwide

Context: Freemasonry, as it exists in various forms all over the world, has a membership estimated by the United Grand Lodge of England at around six million worldwide. The fraternity is administratively organised into independent Grand Lodges (or sometimes Grand Orients), each of which governs its own Masonic jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. The largest single jurisdiction, in terms of membership, is the United Grand Lodge of England (with a membership estimated at around a quarter million). The Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland (taken together) have approximately 150,000 members. In the United States total membership is just under two million.

Question: How large is the membership of Freemasonry?


Answer: United Grand Lodge of England

Question: What is the largest single jurisdiction of Freemasonry?


Answer: around a quarter million

Question: How many members does the UGLE have?


Answer: just under two million

Question: What are the membership numbers of the United States?


Answer: 150,000

Question: How many members does the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of Ireland have, together?


Answer: around six million worldwide

Question: How many members are in Freemasonry?


Answer: the United Grand Lodge of England

Question: What lodge has the single largest single jurisdiction of Freemasonry?


Answer: around a quarter million

Question: How many members are in the Grand Lodge of England?


Answer: approximately 150,000 members

Question: The Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland have how many member?


Answer: just under two million

Question: The United States has how many Freemason members?


Answer: Masons swear at each degree to keep the contents of that degree secret

Context: The idea of Masonic brotherhood probably descends from a 16th-century legal definition of a brother as one who has taken an oath of mutual support to another. Accordingly, Masons swear at each degree to keep the contents of that degree secret, and to support and protect their brethren unless they have broken the law. In most Lodges the oath or obligation is taken on a Volume of Sacred Law, whichever book of divine revelation is appropriate to the religious beliefs of the individual brother (usually the Bible in the Anglo-American tradition). In Progressive continental Freemasonry, books other than scripture are permissible, a cause of rupture between Grand Lodges.

Question: Are masons allowed to divulge the secrets of each degree?


Answer: on a Volume of Sacred Law

Question: How are oaths taken?


Answer: Progressive continental Freemasonry

Question: In what branch can books, other than scripture, be used for the purpose of oath taking?


Answer: whichever book of divine revelation is appropriate to the religious beliefs of the individual brother

Question: What can be considered a Volume of Sacred Law?


Answer: have broken the law

Question: Masons swear to protect their brethren unless they what?


Answer: Volume of Sacred Law

Question: Most lodges have the oath taken on what?


Answer: keep the contents of that degree secret

Question: Mason swear at each degree to do what?


Answer: Pennsylvania

Context: The earliest known American lodges were in Pennsylvania. The Collector for the port of Pennsylvania, John Moore, wrote of attending lodges there in 1715, two years before the formation of the first Grand Lodge in London. The Premier Grand Lodge of England appointed a Provincial Grand Master for North America in 1731, based in Pennsylvania. Other lodges in the colony obtained authorisations from the later Antient Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the Grand Lodge of Ireland, which was particularly well represented in the travelling lodges of the British Army. Many lodges came into existence with no warrant from any Grand Lodge, applying and paying for their authorisation only after they were confident of their own survival.

Question: Where were the earliest known American Logdes located?


Answer: 1715

Question: What is the earliest that lodges appeared in America?


Answer: 1731

Question: When was a Provincial Grand Master for North America appointed?


Answer: Antient Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the Grand Lodge of Ireland

Question: Where did other American Lodges obtain their authoriisations from?


Answer: after they were confident of their own survival

Question: When did the lodges without prior authorisations apply to be recognized?


Answer: Pennsylvania

Question: Where were the earliest lodges in America?


Answer: John Moore

Question: Who was the Collector for the port of Pennsylvania in 1715?


Answer: 1731

Question: A Provincial Grand Master for North America was first appointed when?


Answer: Pennsylvania

Question: The Provincial Grand Master for North America was base where?


Answer: as early as 1917

Context: Masonic lodges existed in Iraq as early as 1917, when the first lodge under the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) was opened. Nine lodges under UGLE existed by the 1950s, and a Scottish lodge was formed in 1923. However, the position changed following the revolution, and all lodges were forced to close in 1965. This position was later reinforced under Saddam Hussein; the death penalty was "prescribed" for those who "promote or acclaim Zionist principles, including freemasonry, or who associate [themselves] with Zionist organisations."

Question: How long have Masonic Lodges been in Iraq?


Answer: Nine

Question: How many lodges existed in Iraq in the 1950s?


Answer: the death penalty

Question: What is the greatest penalty that a Freemason in Iraq could face now?


Answer: 1965

Question: When were all the lodges in Iraq forced to close?


Answer: 1923

Question: When was a Scottish Lodge formed in Iraq?


Answer: 1917

Question: When did Masonic lodges start in Iraq?


Answer: the United Grand Lodge of England

Question: Who opened the first Lodge in Iraq?


Answer: 1923

Question: When was the first Scottish Masonic lodge opened in Iraq?


Answer: 1965

Question: All Masonic lodges were forced to close in Iraq in what year?


Answer: Saddam Hussein

Question: Who introduced the death penalty to Freemasons living in Iraq?


Answer: 1813

Context: The ritual form on which the Grand Orient of France was based was abolished in England in the events leading to the formation of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813. However the two jurisdictions continued in amity (mutual recognition) until events of the 1860s and 1870s drove a seemingly permanent wedge between them. In 1868 the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the State of Louisiana appeared in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, recognised by the Grand Orient de France, but regarded by the older body as an invasion of their jurisdiction. The new Scottish rite body admitted blacks, and the resolution of the Grand Orient the following year that neither colour, race, nor religion could disqualify a man from Masonry prompted the Grand Lodge to withdraw recognition, and it persuaded other American Grand Lodges to do the same.

Question: When was the United Grand Lodge of England Formed?


Answer: the 1860s and 1870s

Question: The Grand Orient de France and the United Grand Lodge of England continued in amity until when?


Answer: 1868

Question: What year did the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Louisiana appear in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana?


Answer: 1983

Context: In 1983, the Church issued a new code of canon law. Unlike its predecessor, the 1983 Code of Canon Law did not explicitly name Masonic orders among the secret societies it condemns. It states: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict." This named omission of Masonic orders caused both Catholics and Freemasons to believe that the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons may have been lifted, especially after the perceived liberalisation of Vatican II. However, the matter was clarified when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a Declaration on Masonic Associations, which states: "... the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion." For its part, Freemasonry has never objected to Catholics joining their fraternity. Those Grand Lodges in amity with UGLE deny the Church's claims. The UGLE now states that "Freemasonry does not seek to replace a Mason's religion or provide a substitute for it."

Question: In what year was a new code to the Canon Law issued by the church?


Answer: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Question: Who clarified the new code of Canon law of 1983?


Answer: Freemasonry has never objected to Catholics joining their fraternity

Question: Do Freemasons allow Catholics into their fraternity?


Answer: from 1999 to 2009

Context: Even in modern democracies, Freemasonry is sometimes viewed with distrust. In the UK, Masons working in the justice system, such as judges and police officers, were from 1999 to 2009 required to disclose their membership. While a parliamentary inquiry found that there has been no evidence of wrongdoing, it was felt that any potential loyalties Masons might have, based on their vows to support fellow Masons, should be transparent to the public. The policy of requiring a declaration of masonic membership of applicants for judicial office (judges and magistrates) was ended in 2009 by Justice Secretary Jack Straw (who had initiated the requirement in the 1990s). Straw stated that the rule was considered disproportionate, since no impropriety or malpractice had been shown as a result of judges being Freemasons.

Question: Judges and police officers had to disclose their Freemason membership in what years in England?


Answer: Justice Secretary Jack Straw

Question: Who ended the English Masonic disclosure policy in 2009?


Answer: the rule was considered disproportionate

Question: Justice Secretary Jack Straw ended the Masonic disclosure law on what grounds?


Answer: The Masonic Lodge

Context: The Masonic Lodge is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. The Lodge meets regularly to conduct the usual formal business of any small organisation (pay bills, organise social and charitable events, elect new members, etc.). In addition to business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a Masonic degree or receive a lecture, which is usually on some aspect of Masonic history or ritual. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Lodge might adjourn for a formal dinner, or festive board, sometimes involving toasting and song.

Question: What is the basic organizational unit of Freemasonry?


Answer: pay bills, organise social and charitable events, elect new members

Question: Name examples of usual formal business that Freemasons have at their lodge.


Answer: a formal dinner

Question: What usually happens at the conclusion of a lodge meeting?


Answer: During the ceremony of initiation

Context: During the ceremony of initiation, the candidate is expected to swear (usually on a volume of sacred text appropriate to his personal religious faith) to fulfil certain obligations as a Mason. In the course of three degrees, new masons will promise to keep the secrets of their degree from lower degrees and outsiders, and to support a fellow Mason in distress (as far as practicality and the law permit). There is instruction as to the duties of a Freemason, but on the whole, Freemasons are left to explore the craft in the manner they find most satisfying. Some will further explore the ritual and symbolism of the craft, others will focus their involvement on the social side of the Lodge, while still others will concentrate on the charitable functions of the lodge.

Question: When does a candidate swear to fullfil his obligations as a Mason?


Answer: usually on a volume of sacred text

Question: What does a candidate swear on?


Answer: three degrees

Question: How many degrees must a Mason swear to keep the secrets from outsiders?


Answer: Freemasons are left to explore the craft in the manner they find most satisfying

Question: Are Freemasons free to explore the craft?


Answer: Regularity

Context: Regularity is a concept based on adherence to Masonic Landmarks, the basic membership requirements, tenets and rituals of the craft. Each Grand Lodge sets its own definition of what these landmarks are, and thus what is Regular and what is Irregular (and the definitions do not necessarily agree between Grand Lodges). Essentially, every Grand Lodge will hold that its landmarks (its requirements, tenets and rituals) are Regular, and judge other Grand Lodges based on those. If the differences are significant, one Grand Lodge may declare the other "Irregular" and withdraw or withhold recognition.

Question: What concept is based on adherence to Masonic Landmarks, basic membership requirements, and tenets and rituals of the craft?


Answer: Each Grand Lodge sets its own definition

Question: Is each definition of regularity the same throughout all Masonic Lodges?


Answer: If the differences are significant

Question: When can a Grand Lodge declare another lodge as irregular?


Answer: Craft, or Blue Lodge Masonry

Context: All Freemasons begin their journey in the "craft" by being progressively initiated, passed and raised into the three degrees of Craft, or Blue Lodge Masonry. During these three rituals, the candidate is progressively taught the meanings of the Lodge symbols, and entrusted with grips, signs and words to signify to other Masons that he has been so initiated. The initiations are part allegory and part lecture, and revolve around the construction of the Temple of Solomon, and the artistry and death of his chief architect, Hiram Abiff. The degrees are those of Entered apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. While many different versions of these rituals exist, with at least two different lodge layouts and versions of the Hiram myth, each version is recognisable to any Freemason from any jurisdiction.

Question: All Freemasons are progressively initiated, passed, and raised in three degrees of what?


Answer: lecture

Question: The initiations are part allegory and part what?


Answer: Master Mason

Question: What is the final of the three steps of Freemasonry?


Answer: Hiram Abiff

Question: Who was the chief architect of the Temple of Solomon?


Answer: at least two

Question: How many versions of the Hiram myth are there?


Answer: GLE

Context: The first Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster (later called the Grand Lodge of England (GLE)), was founded on 24 June 1717, when four existing London Lodges met for a joint dinner. Many English Lodges joined the new regulatory body, which itself entered a period of self-publicity and expansion. However, many Lodges could not endorse changes which some Lodges of the GLE made to the ritual (they came to be known as the Moderns), and a few of these formed a rival Grand Lodge on 17 July 1751, which they called the "Antient Grand Lodge of England." These two Grand Lodges vied for supremacy until the Moderns promised to return to the ancient ritual. They united on 27 December 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).

Question: The Grand Lodge of England is also know as what?


Answer: 24 June 1717

Question: When was the Grand Lodge of England founded?


Answer: 17 July 1751

Question: The Ancient Grand Lodge of England was formed on what date?


Answer: 27 December 1813

Question: The United Grand Lodge of England was formed on what date?


Answer: the Moderns

Question: Lodges that could not endorse the GLE were later called what?


Answer: By the 1980s

Context: Widespread segregation in 19th- and early 20th-century North America made it difficult for African-Americans to join Lodges outside of Prince Hall jurisdictions – and impossible for inter-jurisdiction recognition between the parallel U.S. Masonic authorities. By the 1980s, such discrimination was a thing of the past, and today most U.S. Grand Lodges recognise their Prince Hall counterparts, and the authorities of both traditions are working towards full recognition. The United Grand Lodge of England has no problem with recognising Prince Hall Grand Lodges. While celebrating their heritage as lodges of black Americans, Prince Hall is open to all men regardless of race or religion.

Question: When did North American Masonic lodges recognize members of the Prince Hall Lodge?


Answer: Prince Hall is open to all men

Question: Who is the Prince Hall Lodge open to?


Answer: The United Grand Lodge of England has no problem with recognising Prince Hall Grand Lodges

Question: Does the United Grand Lodge of England recognize Prince Hall Lodges?


Answer: the 1890s

Context: In general, Continental Freemasonry is sympathetic to Freemasonry amongst women, dating from the 1890s when French lodges assisted the emergent co-masonic movement by promoting enough of their members to the 33rd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to allow them, in 1899, to form their own grand council, recognised by the other Continental Grand Councils of that Rite. The United Grand Lodge of England issued a statement in 1999 recognising the two women's grand lodges there to be regular in all but the participants. While they were not, therefore, recognised as regular, they were part of Freemasonry "in general". The attitude of most regular Anglo-American grand lodges remains that women Freemasons are not legitimate Masons.

Question: When did the French try to create co-masonic lodges?


Answer: 1999

Question: When did the United Grand Lodge of England recognize the two female Masonic lodges?


Answer: the 33rd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

Question: What did the french lodges promote to try to get women accepted into the Freemasons?


Answer: most regular Anglo-American grand lodges remains that women Freemasons are not legitimate Masons

Question: Do Anglo-American grand lodges accept women as members today?


Answer: Geoffrey Fisher

Context: Since the founding of Freemasonry, many Bishops of the Church of England have been Freemasons, such as Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher. In the past, few members of the Church of England would have seen any incongruity in concurrently adhering to Anglican Christianity and practicing Freemasonry. In recent decades, however, reservations about Freemasonry have increased within Anglicanism, perhaps due to the increasing prominence of the evangelical wing of the church. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, appeared to harbour some reservations about Masonic ritual, whilst being anxious to avoid causing offence to Freemasons inside and outside the Church of England. In 2003 he felt it necessary to apologise to British Freemasons after he said that their beliefs were incompatible with Christianity and that he had barred the appointment of Freemasons to senior posts in his diocese when he was Bishop of Monmouth.

Question: What English Archbishop was a member of the Freemasons?


Answer: Dr Rowan Williams

Question: What former Archbishop of Canterbury has reservations about the Freemasons?


Answer: 2003

Question: What year did Dr. Rowan Williams apologize to the Freemasons?


Answer: Bishop of Monmouth

Question: Dr. Rowan Williams was also Bishop of what?


Answer: Propaganda Due lodge

Context: In Italy, Freemasonry has become linked to a scandal concerning the Propaganda Due lodge (a.k.a. P2). This lodge was chartered by the Grande Oriente d'Italia in 1877, as a lodge for visiting Masons unable to attend their own lodges. Under Licio Gelli's leadership, in the late 1970s, P2 became involved in the financial scandals that nearly bankrupted the Vatican Bank. However, by this time the lodge was operating independently and irregularly, as the Grand Orient had revoked its charter and expelled Gelli in 1976.

Question: Freemasonry was linked to scandal in Italy due to what?


Answer: Grande Oriente d'Italia

Question: The Propaganda Due Lodge was chartered by who?


Answer: 1877

Question: When did the Grande Oriente d'italia charter the Propaganda Due Lodge?


Answer: P2

Question: The Propaganda Due Lodge was also know as what?


Answer: 1976

Question: When did the Grand Orient d'italia expel Licio Gelli and revoked the charter of P2?


Answer: 29 November 1947

Context: On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended the adoption and implementation of the Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This UN plan specified borders for new Arab and Jewish states and also specified an area of Jerusalem and its environs which was to be administered by the UN under an international regime. The end of the British Mandate for Palestine was set for midnight on 14 May 1948. That day, David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel," which would start to function from the termination of the mandate. The borders of the new state were not specified in the declaration. Neighboring Arab armies invaded the former Palestinian mandate on the next day and fought the Israeli forces. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula (1956–57, 1967–82), part of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), Gaza Strip (1967–2005; still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement) and the Golan Heights. It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed. Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the world's longest military occupation in modern times.[note 2]

Question: When did the UN recommend the Partition Plan?


Answer: midnight on 14 May 1948

Question: When was the end of the British Mandate set?


Answer: David Ben-Gurion

Question: Who was the executive head of the Zionist Organization?


Answer: Israel

Context: Israel (/ˈɪzreɪəl/ or /ˈɪzriːəl/; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל Yisrā'el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل Isrāʼīl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל Medīnat Yisrā'el [mediˈnat jisʁaˈʔel] ( listen); Arabic: دولة إِسْرَائِيل Dawlat Isrāʼīl [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a sovereign state in Western Asia. The country is situated in the Middle East at the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. It shares land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories (which are claimed by the State of Palestine and are partially controlled by Israel) comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. It contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel's financial and technology center is Tel Aviv while Jerusalem is both the self-designated capital and most populous individual city under the country's governmental administration. Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized.[note 1]

Question: What is the official State of Israel?


Answer: Middle East

Question: Where is Israel located?


Answer: Tel Aviv

Question: What's Israel's financial and technology center?


Answer: 8,476,600

Context: The population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2016 to be 8,476,600 people. It is the world's only Jewish-majority state, with 6,345,400 citizens, or 74.9%, being designated as Jewish. The country's second largest group of citizens are denoted as Arabs, numbering 1,760,400 people (including the Druze and most East Jerusalem Arabs). The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, with smaller but significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins; the rest are Christians and Druze. Other far smaller minorities include Maronites, Samaritans, Dom people and Roma, Black Hebrew Israelites, other Sub-Saharan Africans, Armenians, Circassians, Vietnamese boat people, and others. Israel also hosts a significant population of non-citizen foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia.

Question: What was the population of Israel in 2016?


Answer: 6,345,400

Question: How many citizens in Israel are Jewish?


Answer: 1,760,400

Question: How many citizens in Israel are Arab?


Answer: Jewish and democratic state

Context: In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2015[update]. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with the one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the fourth highest in Asia, and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Question: Israel defines itself as what?


Answer: 35th

Question: Where is Israel's economy ranked?


Answer: fourth

Question: Where is Israel's standard of living ranked in Asia?


Answer: a great-great grandson of Jacob

Context: The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel and the entire Jewish people respectively. The name "Israel" (Standard Yisraʾel, Isrāʾīl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ Israēl; 'El(God) persists/rules' though, after Hosea 12:4 often interpreted as "struggle with God") in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord. Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations, lasting 430 years, until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob, led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus". The earliest known archaeological artifact to mention the word "Israel" is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE).

Question: Who was Moses?


Answer: Moses

Question: Who led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus?"


Answer: Jacob

Question: What does the word "Israel" refer to?


Answer: Eretz Yisrael

Context: The notion of the "Land of Israel", known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the land to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people. On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE, and the first Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Subsequent Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently over the next four hundred years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.

Question: What is the "Land of Israel" known as in Hebrew?


Answer: three

Question: According to the Torah, God promised the land to how many people?


Answer: early 2nd millennium BCE

Question: When was the first Kingdom of Israel established?


Answer: Merneptah stele

Context: The first record of the name Israel (as ysrỉꜣr) occurs in the Merneptah stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BCE, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not." This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state; Ancestors of the Israelites may have included Semites native to Canaan and the Sea Peoples. McNutt says, "It is probably safe to assume that sometime during Iron Age a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'", differentiating itself from the Canaanites through such markers as the prohibition of intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.

Question: When does the first record of the name Israel occurs?


Answer: Semites

Question: Who did the ancestors of Israelites include?


Answer: intermarriage

Question: What did Canaanites prohibit?


Answer: 930 BCE

Context: Around 930 BCE, the kingdom split into a southern Kingdom of Judah and a northern Kingdom of Israel. From the middle of the 8th century BCE Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire. Under Tiglath-Pileser III it first split Israel's territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria (722 BCE). An Israelite revolt (724–722 BCE) was crushed after the siege and capture of Samaria by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sargon's son, Sennacherib, tried and failed to conquer Judah. Assyrian records say he leveled 46 walled cities and besieged Jerusalem, leaving after receiving extensive tribute.

Question: When did the kingdom split?


Answer: Samaria

Question: What was the name of the destroyed capital?


Answer: Assyrian king Sargon II

Question: Who captured Samaria?


Answer: King Nebuchadnezzar II

Context: In 586 BCE King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The defeat was also recorded by the Babylonians (see the Babylonian Chronicles). In 538 BCE, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and took over its empire. Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations (including the people of Judah) religious freedom (for the original text, which corroborates the biblical narrative only in very broad terms, see the Cyrus Cylinder). According to the Hebrew Bible 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubabel, returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple. A second group of 5,000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judah in 456 BCE although non-Jews wrote to Cyrus to try to prevent their return.

Question: Who conquered Judah?


Answer: 50,000

Question: How many Judeans did Zerubabel return to Judah?


Answer: 5,000

Question: How many Judeans did Ezra lead?


Answer: 167 BCE

Context: With successive Persian rule, the region, divided between Syria-Coele province and later the autonomous Yehud Medinata, was gradually developing back into urban society, largely dominated by Judeans. The Greek conquests largely skipped the region without any resistance or interest. Incorporated into Ptolemaic and finally Seleucid Empires, the southern Levant was heavily hellenized, building the tensions between Judeans and Greeks. The conflict erupted in 167 BCE with the Maccabean Revolt, which succeeded in establishing an independent Hasmonean Kingdom in Judah, which later expanded over much of modern Israel, as the Seleucids gradually lost control in the region.

Question: When did the conflict between Judeans and Greeks erupt?


Answer: Hasmonean Kingdom

Question: What was established in the Maccabean Revolt?


Answer: Judeans

Question: Who dominated the society?


Answer: 132 CE

Context: With the decline of Herodians, Judea, transformed into a Roman province, became the site of a violent struggle of Jews against Greco-Romans, culminating in the Jewish-Roman Wars, ending in wide-scale destruction, expulsions, and genocide. Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Nevertheless, there was a continuous small Jewish presence and Galilee became its religious center. The Mishnah and part of the Talmud, central Jewish texts, were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem. The region came to be populated predominantly by Greco-Romans on the coast and Samaritans in the hill-country. Christianity was gradually evolving over Roman paganism, when the area stood under Byzantine rule. Through the 5th and 6th centuries, the dramatic events of the repeated Samaritan revolts reshaped the land, with massive destruction to Byzantine Christian and Samaritan societies and a resulting decrease of the population. After the Persian conquest and the installation of a short-lived Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE, the Byzantine Empire reconquered the country in 628.

Question: When did the Jewish presence dwindle in the region?


Answer: Byzantine Empire

Question: Who conquered the country in 628?


Answer: Christianity

Question: What was evolving over Roman paganism?


Answer: Fatimid garrison

Context: During the siege of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099, the Jewish inhabitants of the city fought side by side with the Fatimid garrison and the Muslim population who tried in vain to defend the city against the Crusaders. When the city fell, about 60,000 people were massacred, including 6,000 Jews seeking refuge in a synagogue. At this time, a full thousand years after the fall of the Jewish state, there were Jewish communities all over the country. Fifty of them are known and include Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Gaza. According to Albert of Aachen, the Jewish residents of Haifa were the main fighting force of the city, and "mixed with Saracen [Fatimid] troops", they fought bravely for close to a month until forced into retreat by the Crusader fleet and land army. However, Joshua Prawer expressed doubt over the story, noting that Albert did not attend the Crusades and that such a prominent role for the Jews is not mentioned by any other source.[undue weight? – discuss]

Question: Who did the Jewish inhabitants fight side by side with?


Answer: 60,000

Question: How many people were massacred when the city fell?


Answer: 6,000

Question: How many Jews were seeking refuge?


Answer: 1165

Context: In 1165 Maimonides visited Jerusalem and prayed on the Temple Mount, in the "great, holy house". In 1141 Spanish-Jewish poet, Yehuda Halevi, issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to the Land of Israel, a journey he undertook himself. In 1187 Sultan Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and subsequently captured Jerusalem and almost all of Palestine. In time, Saladin issued a proclamation inviting Jews to return and settle in Jerusalem, and according to Judah al-Harizi, they did: "From the day the Arabs took Jerusalem, the Israelites inhabited it." Al-Harizi compared Saladin's decree allowing Jews to re-establish themselves in Jerusalem to the one issued by the Persian king Cyrus the Great over 1,600 years earlier.

Question: When did Maimonides visit Jerusalem?


Answer: Yehuda Halevi

Question: Who issued a call to the Jews to emigrate to the Land of Israel?


Answer: Sultan Saladin

Question: Who was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty?


Answer: 1211

Context: In 1211, the Jewish community in the country was strengthened by the arrival of a group headed by over 300 rabbis from France and England, among them Rabbi Samson ben Abraham of Sens. Nachmanides, the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and recognised leader of Jewry greatly praised the land of Israel and viewed its settlement as a positive commandment incumbent on all Jews. He wrote "If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms; but as for the land, we shall not leave it in their hands, nor in the hands of any nation, not in any generation."

Question: When was the Jewish community strengthened by rabbis?


Answer: Nachmanides

Question: Who was the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and recognised leader of Jewry?


Answer: "If the gentiles wish to make peace, we shall make peace and leave them on clear terms

Question: What did Nachmanides write?


Answer: 1260

Context: In 1260, control passed to the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. The country was located between the two centres of Mamluk power, Cairo and Damascus, and only saw some development along the postal road connecting the two cities. Jerusalem, although left without the protection of any city walls since 1219, also saw a flurry of new construction projects centred around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (the Temple Mount). In 1266 the Mamluk Sultan Baybars converted the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron into an exclusive Islamic sanctuary and banned Christians and Jews from entering, which previously would be able to enter it for a fee. The ban remained in place until Israel took control of the building in 1967.

Question: When was control passed to the Mamluk sultans of Egypt?


Answer: Cairo and Damascus

Question: What two centres of Mamluk power was the country located?


Answer: 1266

Question: When did the Mamluk Sultan Baybars convert to the Cave of Patriarchs?


Answer: Zion

Context: Since the existence of the earliest Jewish diaspora, many Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel", though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute. The hopes and yearnings of Jews living in exile are an important theme of the Jewish belief system. After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, some communities settled in Palestine. During the 16th century, Jewish communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities—Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed—and in 1697, Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of 1,500 Jews to Jerusalem. In the second half of the 18th century, Eastern European opponents of Hasidism, known as the Perushim, settled in Palestine.

Question: Many Jews have aspired to return to where?


Answer: Palestine

Question: Where did some Jewish communities settle after they were expelled from Spain?


Answer: 1,500

Question: Rabbi Yehuda Hachasid led a group of how many Jews into Jerusalem?


Answer: First Aliyah

Context: The first wave of modern Jewish migration to Ottoman-ruled Palestine, known as the First Aliyah, began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe. Although the Zionist movement already existed in practice, Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl is credited with founding political Zionism, a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, thus offering a solution to the so-called Jewish Question of the European states, in conformity with the goals and achievements of other national projects of the time. In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), offering his vision of a future Jewish state; the following year he presided over the first Zionist Congress.

Question: What was the first wave of modern Jewish migration to Ottoman-ruled Palestine known as?


Answer: 1881

Question: When did the First Aliyah begin?


Answer: Theodor Herzl

Question: Who is credited as founding political Zionism?


Answer: after the Kishinev pogrom

Context: The Second Aliyah (1904–14), began after the Kishinev pogrom; some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine, although nearly half of them left eventually. Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews, although the Second Aliyah included socialist groups who established the kibbutz movement. During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, that stated that Britain intended for the creation of a Jewish "national home" within the Palestinian Mandate.

Question: When did the Second Aliyah begin?


Answer: 40,000

Question: How many Jews settled into Palestine?


Answer: Orthodox Jews

Question: The first and second wave of migrants were mainly who?


Answer: a group primarily of Zionist volunteers

Context: The Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted, in 1918, in the British conquest of Palestine. Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the Haganah (meaning "The Defense" in Hebrew), from which the Irgun and Lehi, or Stern Gang, paramilitary groups later split off. In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews, and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians. The population of the area at this time was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11%, and Arab Christians at about 9.5% of the population.

Question: What is the Jewish Legion?


Answer: 1922

Question: When did the League of Nations grant Britain a mandate over Palestine?


Answer: The Defense

Question: What does Haganah mean in Hebrew?


Answer: 100,000

Context: The Third (1919–23) and Fourth Aliyahs (1924–29) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine. Finally, the rise of Nazism and the increasing persecution of Jews in 1930s Europe led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This was a major cause of the Arab revolt of 1936–39 during which the British Mandate authorities alongside the Zionist militias of Haganah and Irgun killed 5,032 Arabs and wounded 14,760, resulting in over ten percent of the adult male Palestinian Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled. The British introduced restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine. By the end of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine had increased to 33% of the total population. On July 22, 1946, Irgun attacked the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. 91 people of various nationalities were killed and 46 were injured. The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. The attack initially had the approval of the Haganah (the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine). It was conceived as a response to Operation Agatha (a series of widespread raids, including one on the Jewish Agency, conducted by the British authorities) and was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era (1920–1948).

Question: How many Jews did the Third and Fourth Aliyahs bring to Palestine?


Answer: July 22, 1946

Question: When did Irgun attack the British administrative headquarters?


Answer: 33%

Question: What was the Jewish population in Palestine by the end of World War II?


Answer: Britain

Context: After World War II, Britain found itself in intense conflict with the Jewish community over Jewish immigration limits, as well as continued conflict with the Arab community over limit levels. The Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors and refugees sought a new life far from their destroyed communities in Europe. The Yishuv attempted to bring these refugees to Palestine but many were turned away or rounded up and placed in detention camps in Atlit and Cyprus by the British. Escalating violence culminated with the 1946 King David Hotel bombing which Bruce Hoffman characterized as one of the "most lethal terrorist incidents of the twentieth century". In 1947, the British government announced it would withdraw from Mandatory Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews.

Question: What country experienced conflict with the Jewish community after World War II?


Answer: 1946

Question: When was the King David Hotel bombing?


Answer: 1947

Question: When did the British government announce it would withdraw from Mandatory Palestine?


Answer: United Nations Special Committee on Palestine

Context: On 15 May 1947, the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations resolved that a committee, United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), be created "to prepare for consideration at the next regular session of the Assembly a report on the question of Palestine". In the Report of the Committee dated 3 September 1947 to the UN General Assembly, the majority of the Committee in Chapter VI proposed a plan to replace the British Mandate with "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem ... the last to be under an International Trusteeship System". On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union as Resolution 181 (II). The Plan attached to the resolution was essentially that proposed by the majority of the Committee in the Report of 3 September 1947.

Question: What is the UNSCOP?


Answer: 15 May 1947

Question: When was the UNSCOP formed?


Answer: City of Jerusalem

Question: What was the last to be under an International Trusteeship System?


Answer: Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq

Context: The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq—entered what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War; Contingents from Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan joined the war. The apparent purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state at inception, and some Arab leaders talked about driving the Jews into the sea. According to Benny Morris, Jews felt that the invading Arab armies aimed to slaughter the Jews. The Arab league stated that the invasion was to restore law and order and to prevent further bloodshed.

Question: What four Arab countries entered British Mandatory Palestine?


Answer: 1948

Question: When was the Arab-Israeli War launched?


Answer: slaughter the Jews

Question: What were the invading Arab armies aim?


Answer: Israeli Immigration Department

Context: Immigration to Israel during the late 1940s and early 1950s was aided by the Israeli Immigration Department and the non-government sponsored Mossad LeAliyah Bet ("Institution for Illegal Immigration"). Both groups facilitated regular immigration logistics like arranging transportation, but the latter also engaged in clandestine operations in countries, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where the lives of Jews were believed to be in danger and exit from those places was difficult. Mossad LeAliyah Bet continued to take part in immigration efforts until its disbanding in 1953. An influx of Holocaust survivors and Jews from Arab and Muslim lands immigrated to Israel during the first 3 years and the number of Jews increased from 700,000 to 1,400,000, many of whom faced persecution in their original countries. The immigration was in accordance with the One Million Plan.

Question: Who aided the immigration to Israel?


Answer: One Million Plan

Question: The immigration was in accordance to what?


Answer: 1953

Question: When did the Mossad LeAliyah Bet disband?


Answer: two million

Context: Consequently, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958. Between 1948 and 1970, approximately 1,150,000 Jewish refugees relocated to Israel. The immigrants came to Israel for differing reasons. Some believed in a Zionist ideology, while others moved to escape persecution. There were others that did it for the promise of a better life in Israel and a small number that were expelled from their homelands, such as British and French Jews in Egypt after the Suez Crisis.

Question: The population of Israel rose from 800,000 to what between 1948 and 1958?


Answer: Zionist

Question: What ideology did some immigrants believe in?


Answer: 1,150,000

Question: Between 1948 and 1970, how many Jewish refugees relocated to Israel?


Answer: ma'abarot

Context: Some new immigrants arrived as refugees with no possessions and were housed in temporary camps known as ma'abarot; by 1952, over 200,000 immigrants were living in these tent cities. During this period, food, clothes and furniture had to be rationed in what became known as the Austerity Period. The need to solve the crisis led Ben-Gurion to sign a reparations agreement with West Germany that triggered mass protests by Jews angered at the idea that Israel could accept monetary compensation for the Holocaust.

Question: What were temporary camps known as?


Answer: over 200,000

Question: How many immigrants lived in these tent cities?


Answer: Ben-Gurion

Question: Who signed a reparations agreement with West Germany?


Answer: 1950

Context: In 1950 Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping and tensions mounted as armed clashes took place along Israel's borders. During the 1950s, Israel was frequently attacked by Palestinian fedayeen, nearly always against civilians, mainly from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip, leading to several Israeli counter-raids. In 1956, Great Britain and France aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal, which the Egyptians had nationalized (see the Suez Crisis). The continued blockade of the Suez Canal and Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, together with the growing amount of Fedayeen attacks against Israel's southern population, and recent Arab grave and threatening statements, prompted Israel to attack Egypt. Israel joined a secret alliance with Great Britain and France and overran the Sinai Peninsula but was pressured to withdraw by the United Nations in return for guarantees of Israeli shipping rights in the Red Sea via the Straits of Tiran and the Canal[citation needed]. The war resulted in significant reduction of Israeli border infiltration.

Question: When did Egypt close the Suez Canal to Israel?


Answer: Palestinian fedayeen

Question: Who was Israel frequently attacked by?


Answer: significant reduction of Israeli border infiltration

Question: What did the war result in?


Answer: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser

Context: Arab nationalists led by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser refused to recognize Israel, and called for its destruction. By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces. In May 1967, Egypt massed its army near the border with Israel, expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea[citation needed]. Other Arab states mobilized their forces. Israel reiterated that these actions were a casus belli. On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt. Jordan, Syria and Iraq responded and attacked Israel. In a Six-Day War, Israel defeated Jordan and captured the West Bank, defeated Egypt and captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, and defeated Syria and captured the Golan Heights. Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem, and the 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories.

Question: Who refused toe recognize Israel?


Answer: 1967

Question: When did Egypt mass it's army near the border with Israel?


Answer: Green Line

Question: What became the administrative boundary between Israel and occupied territories?


Answer: 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich

Context: Following the 1967 war and the "three nos" resolution of the Arab League, during the 1967–1970 War of Attrition Israel faced attacks from the Egyptians in the Sinai, and from Palestinian groups targeting Israelis in the occupied territories, in Israel proper, and around the world. Most important among the various Palestinian and Arab groups was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, which initially committed itself to "armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland". In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, including a massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers of the massacre, a bombing and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon.

Question: Where was the massacre of the Israeli athletes?


Answer: three nos

Question: What was the resolution of the Arab league?


Answer: armed struggle as the only way to liberate the homeland

Question: What did the ELO commit itself on?


Answer: 6 October 1973

Context: On 6 October 1973, as Jews were observing Yom Kippur, the Egyptian and Syrian armies launched a surprise attack against Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, that opened the Yom Kippur War. The war ended on 26 October with Israel successfully repelling Egyptian and Syrian forces but having suffered over 2,500 soldiers killed in a war which collectively took 10–35,000 lives in just 20 days. An internal inquiry exonerated the government of responsibility for failures before and during the war, but public anger forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to resign.

Question: When did the Egyptian and Syrian armies launch a surprise attack against Israeli forces?


Answer: 10–35,000

Question: How many lives were lost?


Answer: Prime Minister Golda Meir

Question: Who was forced to resign?


Answer: Israel

Context: The 1977 Knesset elections marked a major turning point in Israeli political history as Menachem Begin's Likud party took control from the Labor Party. Later that year, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made a trip to Israel and spoke before the Knesset in what was the first recognition of Israel by an Arab head of state. In the two years that followed, Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords (1978) and the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty (1979). In return, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967, and agreed to enter negotiations over an autonomy for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Question: Where did Anwar El Sadat make a trip to?


Answer: Camp David Accords

Question: What did Sadat and Begin sign?


Answer: Sinai Peninsula

Question: Israel withdrew from where?


Answer: 11 March 1978

Context: On 11 March 1978, a PLO guerilla raid from Lebanon led to the Coastal Road Massacre. Israel responded by launching an invasion of southern Lebanon to destroy the PLO bases south of the Litani River. Most PLO fighters withdrew, but Israel was able to secure southern Lebanon until a UN force and the Lebanese army could take over. The PLO soon resumed its policy of attacks against Israel. In the next few years, the PLO infiltrated the south and kept up a sporadic shelling across the border. Israel carried out numerous retaliatory attacks by air and on the ground.

Question: When did the Coastal Road Massacre occur?


Answer: Israel

Question: Who secured southern Lebanon?


Answer: south of the Litani River

Question: Where were the PLO bases located?


Answer: 1981

Context: Meanwhile, Begin's government provided incentives for Israelis to settle in the occupied West Bank, increasing friction with the Palestinians in that area. The Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel, passed in 1980, was believed by some to reaffirm Israel's 1967 annexation of Jerusalem by government decree, and reignited international controversy over the status of the city. No Israeli legislation has defined the territory of Israel and no act specifically included East Jerusalem therein. The position of the majority of UN member states is reflected in numerous resolutions declaring that actions taken by Israel to settle its citizens in the West Bank, and impose its laws and administration on East Jerusalem, are illegal and have no validity. In 1981 Israel annexed the Golan Heights, although annexation was not recognized internationally.

Question: When did Israel annex the Golan Heights?


Answer: Jerusalem

Question: What is the Capital of Israel?


Answer: Begin's government

Question: Who provided incentives for Israelis to settle in the occupied West Bank?


Answer: 7 June 1981

Context: On 7 June 1981, the Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's sole nuclear reactor, in order to impede Iraq's nuclear weapons program. The reactor was under construction just outside Baghdad. Following a series of PLO attacks in 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon that year to destroy the bases from which the PLO launched attacks and missiles into northern Israel. In the first six days of fighting, the Israelis destroyed the military forces of the PLO in Lebanon and decisively defeated the Syrians. An Israeli government inquiry – the Kahan Commission – would later hold Begin, Sharon and several Israeli generals as indirectly responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In 1985, Israel responded to a Palestinian terrorist attack in Cyprus by bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunis. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, but maintained a borderland buffer zone in southern Lebanon until 2000, from where Israeli forces engaged in conflict with Hezbollah.

Question: When did the Israeli air force destroy Iraq's sole nuclear reactor?


Answer: impede Iraq's nuclear weapons program

Question: Why did they destroy the nuclear reactor?


Answer: Kahan Commission

Question: What government inquiry held Begin?


Answer: 1987

Context: The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule, broke out in 1987, with waves of uncoordinated demonstrations and violence occurring in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Over the following six years, the Intifada became more organised and included economic and cultural measures aimed at disrupting the Israeli occupation. More than a thousand people were killed in the violence. During the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO supported Saddam Hussein and Iraqi Scud missile attacks against Israel. Despite public outrage, Israel heeded US calls to refrain from hitting back and did not participate in that war.

Question: When did the First Intifada break out?


Answer: More than a thousand people

Question: How many people were killed in the violence?


Answer: Saddam Hussein

Question: PLO supported who during the Gulf War?


Answer: Yitzhak Rabin

Context: In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister following an election in which his party called for compromise with Israel's neighbors. The following year, Shimon Peres on behalf of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO, signed the Oslo Accords, which gave the Palestinian National Authority the right to govern parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PLO also recognized Israel's right to exist and pledged an end to terrorism. In 1994, the Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel. Arab public support for the Accords was damaged by the continuation of Israeli settlements and checkpoints, and the deterioration of economic conditions. Israeli public support for the Accords waned as Israel was struck by Palestinian suicide attacks. Finally, while leaving a peace rally in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right-wing Jew who opposed the Accords.

Question: Who became the Prime Minister in 1992?


Answer: 1994

Question: When was the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace signed?


Answer: November 1995

Question: When was Yitzhak Rabin assassinated?


Answer: Benjamin Netanyahu

Context: At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron, and signed the Wye River Memorandum, giving greater control to the Palestinian National Authority. Ehud Barak, elected Prime Minister in 1999, began the new millennium by withdrawing forces from Southern Lebanon and conducting negotiations with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton at the 2000 Camp David Summit. During the summit, Barak offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The proposed state included the entirety of the Gaza Strip and over 90% of the West Bank with Jerusalem as a shared capital, although some argue that the plan was to annex areas which would lead to a cantonization of the West Bank into three blocs, which the Palestinian delegation likened to South African "bantustans", a loaded word that was disputed by the Israeli and American negotiators. Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks.

Question: Who led Israel in the 1990s?


Answer: Wye River Memorandum

Question: What did Benjamin Netanyahu sign?


Answer: Ehud Barak

Question: Who was elected Prime Minister in 1999?


Answer: Ariel Sharon

Context: After the collapse of the talks and a controversial visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, the Second Intifada began. Some commentators contend that the uprising was pre-planned by Yasser Arafat due to the collapse of peace talks. Sharon became prime minister in a 2001 special election. During his tenure, Sharon carried out his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and also spearheaded the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier, ending the Intifada. By this time 1,100 Israelis had been killed, mostly in suicide bombings. The Palestinian fatalities, by 30 April 2008, reached 4,745 killed by Israeli security forces, 44 killed by Israeli civilians, and 577 killed by Palestinians.

Question: Who visited the Temple Mount?


Answer: 2001

Question: When did Ariel Sharon become prime minister?


Answer: 4,745

Question: How many Palestinian fatalities were they by 30 April 2008?


Answer: 6 September 2007

Context: In July 2006, a Hezbollah artillery assault on Israel's northern border communities and a cross-border abduction of two Israeli soldiers precipitated the month-long Second Lebanon War. On 6 September 2007, the Israeli Air Force destroyed a nuclear reactor in Syria. In May 2008, Israel confirmed it had been discussing a peace treaty with Syria for a year, with Turkey as a go-between. However, at the end of the year, Israel entered another conflict as a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed. The Gaza War lasted three weeks and ended after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire. Hamas announced its own ceasefire, with its own conditions of complete withdrawal and opening of border crossings. Despite neither the rocket launchings nor Israeli retaliatory strikes having completely stopped, the fragile ceasefire remained in order. In what Israel described as a response to more than a hundred Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities, Israel began an operation in Gaza on 14 November 2012, lasting eight days. Israel started another operation in Gaza following an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas in July 2014.

Question: When did the Israeli Air Force destroy a nuclear reactor in Syria?


Answer: Hamas

Question: Who announced its own ceasefire?


Answer: eight days

Question: How long did the operation in Gaza in November last?


Answer: East of the central highlands

Context: The sovereign territory of Israel (according to the demarcation lines of the 1949 Armistice Agreements and excluding all territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War) is approximately 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 sq mi) in area, of which two percent is water. However Israel is so narrow that the exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean is double the land area of the country. The total area under Israeli law, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is 22,072 square kilometers (8,522 sq mi), and the total area under Israeli control, including the military-controlled and partially Palestinian-governed territory of the West Bank, is 27,799 square kilometers (10,733 sq mi). Despite its small size, Israel is home to a variety of geographic features, from the Negev desert in the south to the inland fertile Jezreel Valley, mountain ranges of the Galilee, Carmel and toward the Golan in the north. The Israeli Coastal Plain on the shores of the Mediterranean is home to 57 percent of the nation's population. East of the central highlands lies the Jordan Rift Valley, which forms a small part of the 6,500-kilometer (4,039 mi) Great Rift Valley.

Question: Where does the Jordan Rift Valley lie?


Answer: Israeli Coastal Plain

Question: What's home to 57% of the nation's population?


Answer: 20,770 square kilometers

Question: How big is the sovereign territory of Israel?


Answer: Jordan River

Context: The Jordan River runs along the Jordan Rift Valley, from Mount Hermon through the Hulah Valley and the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the Earth. Further south is the Arabah, ending with the Gulf of Eilat, part of the Red Sea. Unique to Israel and the Sinai Peninsula are makhteshim, or erosion cirques. The largest makhtesh in the world is Ramon Crater in the Negev, which measures 40 by 8 kilometers (25 by 5 mi). A report on the environmental status of the Mediterranean basin states that Israel has the largest number of plant species per square meter of all the countries in the basin.

Question: What river runs along the Jordan Rift Valley?


Answer: Ramon Crater

Question: What is the largest makhtesh in the world?


Answer: plant species

Question: Israel has the largest number of what per square meter in the basin?


Answer: Jordan Rift Valley

Context: The Jordan Rift Valley is the result of tectonic movements within the Dead Sea Transform (DSF) fault system. The DSF forms the transform boundary between the African Plate to the west and the Arabian Plate to the east. The Golan Heights and all of Jordan are part of the Arabian Plate, while the Galilee, West Bank, Coastal Plain, and Negev along with the Sinai Peninsula are on the African Plate. This tectonic disposition leads to a relatively high seismic activity in the region. The entire Jordan Valley segment is thought to have ruptured repeatedly, for instance during the last two major earthquakes along this structure in 749 and 1033. The deficit in slip that has built up since the 1033 event is sufficient to cause an earthquake of Mw~7.4.

Question: What is the result of tectonic movements within the Dead Sea Transform?


Answer: high seismic activity in the region

Question: What does the tectonic disposition lead to?


Answer: Mw~7.4.

Question: The deficit can cause an earthquake of what magnitude to occur?


Answer: 31 BCE, 363, 749, and 1033 CE

Context: The most catastrophic earthquakes we know of occurred in 31 BCE, 363, 749, and 1033 CE, that is every ca. 400 years on average. Destructive earthquakes leading to serious loss of life strike about every 80 years. While stringent construction regulations are currently in place and recently built structures are earthquake-safe, as of 2007[update] the majority of the buildings in Israel were older than these regulations and many public buildings as well as 50,000 residential buildings did not meet the new standards and were "expected to collapse" if exposed to a strong quake. Given the fragile political situation of the Middle East region and the presence there of major holy sites, a quake reaching magnitude 7 on the Richter scale could have dire consequences for world peace.

Question: When did the most catastrophic earthquakes occur?