1982 - Lebanon invasion
In 1982 Israel launched
an invasion of Lebanon aimed at wiping out the PLO presence there. By
mid-August, after intensive fighting in and around Bayrut, the PLO
agreed to withdraw its guerrillas from the city.
Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon, however, and the cost of
the war and subsequent occupation drained the already troubled Israeli
economy.
1982 - PLO leave Beirut
Some of the 1,500
Palestinian fighters forced to leave the war-torn city of Beirut give
victory signs to supporters gathered to greet them at the harbour gate
in Larnaca , Cyprus. In further attempts to destroy guerrillas bases,
Israeli jets had bombed Moslem West Beirut, despite appeals for
restraint from the US government. The guerrillas were allowed to go
with one gun each, leaving behind grenade-launchers and other
sophisticated weaponry .
1985 - Falasha airlift stopped
Ethiopia in 1985 forced
the Israeli government to stop its covert airlift of Falasha -
Ethiopian Jews - to Israel. Since beginning the airlift in 1974 (when
persecution of the Falasha increased after the fall of Ethiopian
emperor Haile Selassie), Israel had airlifted some 12,000 members of
the ancient Jewish sect, which had existed in isolation from the rest
of the Jewish world since about the second century BC. Israel resumed
the airlift in 1989, and within $a few years most of the approximately
14,000 remaining Falasha had emigrated.
1987 - The Intifada
Relations between Israel
and the Palestinians entered a new phase in the late 1980s with the
intifada, a series of uprisings in the occupied territories .
Included demonstrations, strikes, and rock throwing attacks on Israeli
soldiers. The harsh response by the Israeli government drew criticism
from both the United States and the UN.
1988 - Jordan gave up the West Bank
On 15th of November
1988, Jordan gave up the West Bank, in favour of the Palestinian people.
West Bank had still a strong majority of Palestinians.
The West Bank was also under boundless Israeli control, which it had
been since the occupation of 1967.
1988 - Palestine State
On 15-11-1988 , The PNC
meeting in Algiers declared the State of Palestine as outlined in the
UN Partition Plan 181 , and a flag for the new state is presented. The
new state is recognized only by states that have not recognized Israel.
On 14-04-1988 , Abu Jihad, Palestinian leader, was gunned down in his
home in Tunis by the Israeli Mossad.
On 09-12-1988 , British Junior Foreign Minister William Waldegrave met
with Bassam Abu Sharif President Arafat's adviser, thus upgrading
Britain's relations with the PLO.
Following the US government refusing President Arafat a visa to enter
the US, the UN General Assembly held a special session on the question
of Palestine in Geneva.
Full text
of Declaration of Independence
1989 - Madrid Conference
On June 28, 1989 , EEC
Madrid Conference issued a new declaration calling for the PLO to be
involved in any peace negotiations.
On August 3, 1989 , Fateh, the mainstream PLO organization, at their
5th Conference endorsed the PLO strategy adopted at the PNC in Algiers
in November 1988.
1990 - Arafat addressed UN
Arafat addressed the UN
Security Council In Geneva after the massacre in which he called for
the deployment of a UN emergency force to provide international
protection for Palestinian .
The US vetoed a motion which called for the Security Council to send a
fact finding mission to the area. At the end of their hunger strike,
Palestinian leaders in the Occupied Territories decided to boycott the
US.
The Arab Summit in Baghdad pledged support fort he Palestinian Intifada
and strongly denounced the settlement of Soviet Jews with in the
Occupied Territories.
On 20-05-1990 , Seven Palestinian workers from Gaza were massacred by
an Israeli gunman near Tel Aviv.
On 20-06-1990 , The US suspended its dialogue with the PLO after the
PLO refused to denounce a military operation in the sea by the PLF.
On 26-06-1990 , The EEC in Dublin issued a new declaration on the
Middle East which condemned Israeli human rights violations and the
settlement of Soviet Jews in the Occupied Territories. It also doubled
its economic aid programme to the Occupied Territories.
On August-1990 , The Gulf Crisis erupted.
On 20-12-1990 , UN Security Council adopted Resolution 681.
Full
text of UN Resolution 681
1991 - Peace Talks
The first comprehensive
peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the
Palestinians and neighboring Arab states began in October 1991.
After Likud lost the parliamentary election of June 1992, Labor party
leader Yitzhak Rabin formed a new government .
1993 - Deported Palestinians
In Jan'93 , Israel
deported 415 Palestinian men to a buffer zone in southern Lebanon on
Dec. 17, 1992. This occurred during Israel's peace talks with Arab
states and led to a temporary breakdown in the negotiations.
Southern Lebanon had frequently been a staging area for attacks on
Israel's northern settlements. The deported Palestinians were said by
Israeli authorities to be active members of the militant Islamic
resistance movement known as Hamas. Late in January, Israel's High
Court ruled that the deportation was legal. The government of Israel
nevertheless announced that all the deportee would be allowed to return
home within a year.
1993 - OSLO I
Events in the Middle
East took a surprising turn in 1993. After secret negotiations, Prime
Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat flew to Washington, D.C.,
and agreed to the signing of an historic peace agreement.
Israel agreed to allow for Palestinian self-rule, first in the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, and later in other areas of
the West Bank that are not settled by Jews .
In Sept,93 , At a ceremony in Washington, D.C., representatives of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed an
agreement designed to end 45 years of confrontation between the
Israelis and Palestinians. The actual signing was done by Israel's
foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and PLO foreign policy spokesman,
Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and PLO leader
Yasser Arafat met and shook hand on the White House lawn, as President
Bill Clinton of the United States and 3,000 guests looked on. The
agreement was limited in scope; it provided for transfer of the Gaza
Strip and Jericho to Palestinian rule within a few months. But the
accord was regarded as a first step in resolving years of violent
conflict between Jews and Palestinians. The agreement had been worked
out secretly in Oslo, Norway, with the mediation of Norway's foreign
minister, Johan Jorgen Holst. Following the signing, a long process of
negotiation began on the means of transferring power in the occupied
lands.
Full text
of OSLO I agreement
1994 -
Hebron mosque massacre
In Feb.1994 , An
American-born Jewish settler in Hebron , Baruch Goldstein , opened fire
in a al-Haram al-Ebrahime crowded mosque, killing 29 Muslims and
wounding 150 more. Additional Muslims were crushed to death in the
panic to flee the mosque and in rioting that followed. The attacker
used an assault rifle to shoot at more than 400 Muslims, who were in
the mosque for early morning prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.
The mosque itself was part of a complex of buildings sacred to both
Jews and Muslims, because it was believed to contain the 4,000-year-old
burial tomb of Abraham & his wife Sarah.As such, the place had long
been a site for religious confrontations. News of the massacre
immediately led to riots in Hebron and the rest of the occupied
territories. The crime called into question the possibility of
continuing the peace talks between Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan,
and Syria. In late 1993 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation
Organization had signed an agreement designed to bring peace between
the two group.
1994 - Withdrew from
Jericho and Gaza
In May'94 , At a
ceremony in Cairo, Egypt, attended by 2,500 guests, Yasser Arafat,
chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Yitzhak
Rabin, prime minister of Israel, signed the final version of the
Declaration of Principles that had been signed in Washington, D.C., on
Sept. 13, 1993.
The accord was regarded as a start toward bringing peace between
Israelis and Palestinians after 45 years of conflict. Within 24 hours
of the signing, Israeli military forces were scheduled to leave the
Gaza Strip and Jericho, ending 27 years of occupation of those
territories. A Palestinian police force was ready to move into the
areas to keep order. Among the foreign visitors at the ceremony were
Secretary of State Warren Christopher of the United States, Foreign
Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev of Russia, and Foreign Minister Koji
Kazikawa of Japan. In spite of the accord, Jewish and Palestinian
extremists in Israel vowed to prevent its full implementation.
Full text of the Economic protocol
Full text of Gaza Strip and Jericho
Agreement
Full text of Transfer of the power
Agreement
1994
- Jordan-Israel peace
In July PM Mr. Rabin & King
Hussein of Jordan signed a peace agreement ending 46 years of war and
strained relations, signed at the White House in the presence of U.S.
President Bill Clinton.
1994 - Arafat returns to
Palestine
In July 1, Yasser Arafat, head of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), returned to Palestine for the
first time in 33 years. Israel's control of Palestine had prevented his
visiting the region because he was a sworn enemy of Israel and, in
turn, was regarded by Israelis as a terrorist. The agreement between
Israel and the PLO, signed in September 1993, had made possible
Arafat's return. He went first to Gaza City in the Gaza Strip , he was
welcomed by a crowd estimated at 200,000. Three days later he flew by
helicopter to the city of Jericho.Both areas had been granted
Palestinian rule by the treaty.
1994 - Nobel peace prize
awarded
In
Oct.14 , The Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway, announced that the peace
prize was being awarded to Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and to Yasser Arafat ,leader of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The award came one year after
a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the PLO following
decades of mutual hostility and violence. There was some controversy
among members of the committee making the award: committee member Kare
Kristiansen resigned, saying Arafat's violent past should have
disqualified him from receiving the award.
1995 - Martyr bombs kill 19 in
Israel
In
Jan.23 , Nineteen Israelis died and more than 60 others were wounded
when two martyr bombs exploded at a crowded bus stop near Netanya,
north of Tel Aviv. Most of the dead and wounded were soldiers. The
militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, the
sixth such incident since April 1994. During that time, Islamic
guerrillas killed 54 people and wounded nearly 200 in their efforts to
derail the fragile peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli President Ezer Weizman denounced the bombings and called for a
halt in talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, though Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his cabinet decided to continue negotiations
for a peace settlement.
1995 - Summit in the Middle East
In
Feb.2 , In an effort to make progress in the stalled Middle East peace
talks, Egypt invited representatives from Israel, Jordan, and the
Palestine Liberation Organization to a summit meeting in Cairo. The
meeting was the first regional summit in which an Israeli official
participated. After nearly six hours of talks, the leaders issued a
joint statement in which they agreed to forge ahead with efforts for
peace, condemned political violence, and called for more international
assistance for the Palestinian Authority, the governing body in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. The peace talks, which began in 1992, had
been threatened by increasing Islamic militant attacked against
Israelis.
1995 - Six killed in Gaza martyr bombing
In
April 9, Two militant Muslim groups launched a pair of martyr car
bombings against Israelis in the Gaza Strip, killing eight people and
wounding more than 45. In the first attack, which took place near Kfar
Darom, an Israeli settlement about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest
of Gaza City, a van loaded with explosives was detonated next to a
passenger bus, killing seven soldiers and one American tourist,and
wounding more than 40 others, Two hours later, several people were
injured when a martyr bomber drove a car-bomb into an Israeli convoy on
the road to the settlement of Netzarium, about 6 miles (10 kilometers)
away from the site of the first attack. The Islamic militant groups
Hamas and Jihad (Holy War) claimed responsibility for the bombings .
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin denounced the attacks and warned
that unless the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) worked to crush
the militant groups operating in its territory, Israel would oppose
expanding Palestinian self-rule.
1995 - Martyr bomb rips through bus
near Tel Aviv
In
July 24 , A Palestinian martyr bomber set off a crude pipe bomb aboard
a bus making its way through morning rush hour in a suburb of Tel Aviv,
Israel, killing himself and six others. More than 32 passengers were
wounded in the attack. The bombing was the first major instance of
attacks against Israel in more than three months, and it came one day
before negotiators from Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization were to have reached an agreement on extending Palestinian
self-rule in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin vowed
that the attacks would not stop the talks from moving forward, and he
credited Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority for taking
positive actions to prevent such attacks from taking place
1995 - Martyr bomber kills five in Jerusalem
In
Aug. 21 , In the second such attack in a month, a Palestinian martyr
bomber attacked a crowded bus in West Jerusalem, killing five Israelis
and himself. More than 107 others were injured in the blast. The
attacks was denounced by the Israeli government and Palestinian
leaders, and both sides vowed to keep fragile peace negotiations on
track. Hamas, the Islamic group opposed to the peace process, claimed
responsibility for the attack. Israeli authorities arrested more than
60 Hamas members between Aug'23 and Aug'27, charging them with planning
the July 24 and August 21 bombings.
1995 -
Oslo II
In
Sept. 24 , Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
officials meeting in Taba, Egypt, finalized agreement on the second
stage of eventual Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands. Under the
pact, which was officially signed on September 28 in Washington, D.C.,
Israeli forces were scheduled to be removed from six Arab cities and
400 villages in the West Bank by early 1996, after which elections
would be held for a 82-member Palestinian council, which would possess
legislative and executive power in the West Bank and Gaza.
Special arrangements were agreed upon for the West Bank city of Hebron,
where Israeli soldiers will remain to protect the 450 Jewish settlers
living there. Disagreement over the status of Hebron almost scuttled
the agreement, and it took almost a week of non-stop negotiations
between PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres to resolve the issue.
The pact was the second stage in a three-step process agreed upon in
the Declaration of Principles, a framework for eventual Palestinian
autonomy signed by the PLO and Israel in September 1993. The first
phase in the process was finalized in May 1994, when an accord was
signed in Cairo, Egypt, for the pullout of Israeli troops from the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho and the handing over of
administrative duties to the Palestinian National Authority, led by
Arafat. The third stage will tackle such contentious issues as the
status of Jerusalem, the fate of Israeli settlers, and the final
borders between Israel and the Palestinian state that many analysts
believe is close to becoming a reality. Negotiations concerning the
last phase of the peace process were scheduled to begin in May 1996,
with any agreement to be implemented before the end of the century.
1995 - Israeli Prime Minister Rabin
assassinated
In
Nov.4 , Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in Tel
Aviv by a right-wing extremist who considered Rabin's crusade for peace
a betrayal of the Jewish state. The prime minister was shot three times
as he was getting into his car to leave a peace rally 9:30 PM local
time . He was rushed to nearby Ichilov Hospital but had no heartbeat or
blood pressure when admitted to the emergency room. Doctors tried
without success to revive Rabin, but he was pronounced dead at 11:10
PM. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres took over leadership of the
Labor government upon Rabin's death.
1996 - National
elections
January
1st - PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, urges Palestinians to vote for the
best candidate in the coming election even if it means not voting for
him.
3rd - Elections in Jerusalem are viewed by worldwide critics as being
fraudulent and rigged by Yasser Arafat after a further three contenders
withdraw their candidacy.
7th - More than 100,000 people attend the funeral in Jerusalem of one
of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas , Yehiya Ayyash , who was
recently assassinated.
10th - Israel starts to release Palestinian prisoners in accordance
with a deal negotiated with the PLO.
21st - Palestinians in East Jerusalem are deterred from voting at the
first ever Palestinian elections, where Yasser Arafat claims victory.
February
8th - The Prime Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, announces a general
election for May.
25th - Hamas, the Islamic group , detonate two bombs, one in Jerusalem
and the other in Ashkelon, killing 25 people.
26th - The Israeli Government urges Yasser Arafat to help put a stop to
the bombings by Muslim militants.
March
1st - The militant Islamic Hamas group announces they will cease
attacks if Israel releases Palestinian prisoners.
3rd - Another bomb explodes on a bus in Jerusalem, killing 19 people;
the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, claims responsibility.
5th - A bomb explodes in Tel Aviv , Israel , the fourth bomb in nine
days by the Hamas movement; 14 people are killed.
6th - Israel storms Palestinian villages and arrests suspected bombers.
11th - The Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, announces he has
arrested three key figures of the Hamas movement.
12th - Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank warn they will shoot if
Israel enters their towns.
21st - Israeli soldiers blow up three houses belonging to the families
of Palestinian martyr bombers.
27th - Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s murderer is
sentenced to life imprisonment.
29th - The military in Israel arrest hundreds of Palestinians in order
to find Hamas movement members.
April
1st - Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, announces he may hold a
referendum before signing peace agreements with the Palestinians.
9th - The Islamic Hezbollah movement fires rockets into a Jewish
village bordering Lebanon.
11th - Israeli ships and helicopters fire at southern Lebanon.
14th - Dozens of villages in Lebanon are evacuated due to heavy
fighting by the Israelis and Hezbollah guerrillas.
16th - The US Government intervenes in the Israel/Lebanon crisis,
asking leaders to cease all rocket attacks.
25th - The PLO announces it will excise calls for Israel’s destruction
from its founding charter.
27th - The US Secretary of State helps Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon
Peres, and Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafic Hariri, agree to a cease-fire
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
May
2nd - Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton meet for Middle East talks at the
White House.
2nd - The Israeli Government announces it will go ahead and pull troops
out of the West Bank city of Hebron.
3rd - Yasser Arafat wants the United Nations to take on a more
effective role in the Middle East peace talks.
5th - The Israeli Government and the PLO begin peace talks.
19th - The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, threatens to take
revenge on Israel for arresting a top Hamas member.
28th - National elections are held in Israel.
30th - Right-wing Likud Party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to
become the new Prime Minister of Israel.
31st - Former Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, announces he will
not serve in a government with newly-elected Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
June
1st - In a very close result, Benjamin Netanyahu is named Israel's
newest prime minister. Meanwhile Yasser Arafat fears the
newly-appointed leader may endanger the Israel/PLO peace process.
5th - Following a summit in Jordan, Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
step up efforts to continue peace negotiations in the Middle East.
6th - Israeli Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu confirms he will
not consider dividing Jerusalem for the Palestinians.
20th - The Islamic Hamas resistance movement offers Israel's Government
a cease-fire if they promise to stop attacks, release Hamas prisoners
and open up the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
22nd - Cairo, Egypt, holds a two-day summit for 13 Arab leaders and
eight other countries to discuss the new Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's peace plans.
23rd - Arab leaders attending a summit in Cairo say that Israel should
declare a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as the capital.
24th - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces he will not
give up land for a Palestinian State.
July
10th - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits with US
President Bill Clinton primarily to talk about continuing the peace
process in the Middle East.
24th - Talks between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli
Foreign Minister David Levy on continuing the Middle East peace process
prove positive.
26th - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat holds hopeful peace talks
with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.
August
3rd - Palestinians condemn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
decision to lift bans on Jewish settlements in occupied lands.
16th - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asks US President Bill
Clinton for assistance to stop Israel from expanding Jewish settlements
in the West Bank.
25th - Israeli President Ezer Weizman offers to hold peace talks with
PLO President Yasser Arafat, after Arafat told him he was upset over
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Middle East peace
process.
29th - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat claims that Israel is doing
nothing to restore peace by announcing plans for Jewish settlements on
the West Bank.
September
5th - Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu, meets with the Palestinian
leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, to discuss the peace process. As a
consequence of the meeting, there are threats of revolt within Mr
Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.
9th - US President, Bill Clinton, arranges to meet Israeli Prime
Minister, Mr Netanyahu, as America is keen for Israel to take more
positive measures to improve Israeli-Palestinian relations.
11th - In Israel three Jewish extremists are found guilty of
assassinating former Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin.
13th - The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu, wants to alter an
agreement to hand over parts of the town of Hebron in the West Bank to
the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
20th - Israel announces that it intends to build 2,000 new homes in the
Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
27th - Israel announces a state of emergency in the Palestinian
territories, as Jerusalem’s police force is doubled.
28th - Fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces continues, as
the Israeli Government stands firm and offers no hope of an end to the
crisis.
29th - Israel warns that it will re-occupy self-governing Arab cities
and disarm Palestinian police if the fighting between Palestinians and
Israelis continues.
30th - Palestine and Egypt rebel against the United States’ plans for a
Middle East peace summit, as Yasser Arafat requests a postponement of
talks with Israeli Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu until the weekend.
October
1st - The Palestinian and Israeli leaders, Mr Yasser Arafat and Mr
Benjamin Netanyahu, depart for a peace summit in the US, but prospects
for a successful outcome look grim, as both sides are unwilling to
compromise their positions.
2nd - Israel’s Prime Minister, Mr Netanyahu, Palestine’s leader, Mr
Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and American President Bill Clinton hold
a cordial meeting at the White House to discuss the Middle East peace.
3rd - As Palestinian officials return home, they claim that the peace
summit held in Washington, US between Israel and Palestine was a
failure, after the Israeli Prime Minister refused to compromise and
fears of violence escalated.
8th - The Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, arrives in Israel
for talks with Israeli President Mr Ezer Weizman.
12th - It is announced that Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin
Netanyahu, wishes to withdraw nearly all Israeli forces from the West
Bank town of Hebron.
17th - Jewish people in the West Bank town of Hebron caution that they
will use private troops to protect them from Palestinian attacks if
Israeli forces are withdrawn.
20th - Talks are delayed again between Israel and Palestine on the
Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank town of Hebron.
November
11th - The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, calls on a European
Union delegation to convince Israel to implement its plan to remove
troops from the West Bank town of Hebron.
14th - Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, postpones a
trip to the US so he can take control of discussions on the withdrawal
of troops from the town of Hebron on the West Bank.
15th - In Israel, the High Court allows the secret police the power to
torture an Islamic groups members to glean information about a attacks
against Israel .
Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron celebrate the forthcoming
withdrawal of Israeli troops.
22nd - Palestinian authorities claim that they are prepared to fight
against the Israeli expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
25th - Egypt, Syria and Jordan announce their disapproval of Israeli
plans to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
27th - The American Administration claims that the Israeli Prime
Minister Mr Netanyahu is endangering the Middle East peace talks by
proposing to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
28th - Nearly 126 UN member countries demand an end to the Israeli
expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
December
2nd - Despite widespread denouncement of Israeli expansions of Jewish
settlements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives the
go-ahead for houses to be built in the Jordan Valley.
5th - Israeli and Palestinian authorities agree to meet to discuss the
stalemate over Hebron in the West Bank.
11th - Israeli authorities release plans to expand the Jewish
settlements in Arab east Jerusalem, which causes outrage among
Palestinians.
19th - Two Palestinian men are jailed for life and a third is given a
15-year jail sentence for murdering a Jewish settler and her son.
25th - Israeli-Palestinian talks over Israel's withdrawal from the West
Bank town of Hebron anger Jewish settlers, who occupy two buildings in
Hebron's Arab casbah area.
27th - Members of Israeli Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu's cabinet
threaten to withdraw their support in protest against the plan to
remove Israeli troops from the West Bank town of Hebron.
29th - Israel and Palestine seem likely to sign an agreement on the
West Bank town of Hebron, as Israel reopens the Hebron University after
its closure ten months ago.
30th - Israel and Palestine prepare to sign an historic agreement on
the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Hebron in the West Bank.
1996
Palestinian Calender
1997 - No progress in the peace
negotiations
January
On January 15, Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached an
agreement for an Israeli redeployment from the West Bank city of Hebron.
February
On February , Israel government release of the women prisoners.
On February 26, Israeli government announced that they had approved
plans for a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, a predominantly
Arab area.
March
On March 3, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had a meetings with U.S.
President Bill Clinton and other U.S. officials .
On March 4, Israel ordered four Palestinian organizations to close
their offices in East Jerusalem.
On March 7, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to increase the West
Bank lands under Palestinian authority control by 9 percent. The offer
has been rejected by the Palestinian authority .
On March 13, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of Israeli
schoolchildren near the Israeli-Jordanian border, killing seven.
On March 15, Arafat called for an emergency conference in the Gaza
Strip. Several European countries and the United States attended the
conference. Arafat called the conference to pressure on Israel to
abandon the Har Homa project.
On March 18, Israeli workers began construction at the Har Homa site.
On March 21, a bomb exploded in a sidewalk cafe in Tel Aviv , killing
the bomber and three other people. Dozens more were wounded.
On March 7 and 21, the United States vetoed a United Nations (UN)
Security Council resolution that described the new settlement as
"illegal." The United States routinely vetoes Security Council
resolutions it perceives as biased against Israel.
On March 27, when U.S. mediator Dennis Ross returned to the region for
meetings with Arafat and Netanyahu.
On March 30, in a show of solidarity with Arafat, members of the
22-nation Arab League voted on March 30 to recommend that its members
suspend ties with Israel.
June
On June 3, members of Israel's Labor Party selected former army chief
of staff Ehud Barak, 55, as the new party leader .
July
On July 30,Two martyr bombers exploded themselves in a crowded market
in Jerusalem, killing themselves and at least 13 others, and wounding
more than 150 people. Hamas, took responsibility for the bombings.
August
On August 21, retaliating for Israel's choke hold on the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority began enforcing a partial boycott
of Israeli goods.
September
On September 4, Three martyr bombers evidently acting in concert set
off bombs on a popular shopping promenade in Jerusalem on Thursday,
killing four passers-by and themselves.
On September 9, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
arrived in Israel the first stop on a weeklong Middle East tour aimed
at generating new momentum for the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace
process.
On September 19, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets at stone-throwing
Arabs until Palestinian police intervened to stop the protests in the
West Bank town of Hebron on Friday. No one was hurt in the
demonstration by about 50 Palestinians against an Israeli government
deal letting Jewish seminary students stay in Arab East Jerusalem
buildings in place of the Jewish families who occupied them.
October
On October 1, Sheik Ahmed Yassin the 61-year-old founder of the
militant Islamic group Hamas was released from Israeli prison , as part
of a prisoner swap touched off by a failed Israeli assassination
attempt in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
On October 8, The long-frozen peace process thawed somewhat as
Netanyahu and Palestinian National Authority 'PNA' President Yasser
Arafat met for the first time since February 1997.
December
On December 11, Palestinian census takers stand in the rain, knocking
on people's doors in traditionally-Arab east Jerusalem. But many
residents literally hide behind their closed doors, fearing a census
which anywhere else would be an exercise in basic civics. Even
answering questions as simple as "Do you have central heating?" can be
risky. East Jerusalem's Palestinians do not allow themselves to be
photographed, for fear that Israeli authorities will revoke their
residency cards and evict them from the city where their families have
lived for centuries. The first-ever Palestinian census turned into a
tug-of-war over Jerusalem when Israel's government pushed a bill
through Parliament blocking Yasser Arafat's census-takers from
operating in the disputed city.
1997
Palestinian Calendar
1998 - Peace
process up and down
January
On 6'th of January , U.S. envoy Dennis Ross held talks with Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, the mission aims mainly for preparing the ground for
meetings in Washington in 20th of this month .
On 18'th of January , Israeli Cabinet delays West Bank redeployment
decision until after 20th on January summit in Washington between
Netanyahu and Clinton.
On 20'th of January , Clinton and Netanyahu met in Washington and
failed to come up with a new strategy to move ahead with the
implementation of limited Palestinian autonomy.
On 21'st of January , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in
Washington. Arafat met Albright and planned to meet President Bill
Clinton for talks Thursday at the White House.
On 22'nd of January , Clinton held two long meetings with Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat . Clinton introduced the concept of parallel
processes of implementation of both parties commitments , Israel to
carry out credible and significant withdrawal from the West Bank and
the Palestinian to moves against guerrilla activity .
February
02.02.1998 , Israel and the Palestinian Authority will reportedly send
envoys to the U.S. next week for a new round of talks on the Mid-East
peace process.
25.02.1998 , Israeli troops searched refugee camps in the West Bank
Tuesday night and arrested six Palestinians on suspicion of attacks
against Israel, an army spokeswoman said Wednesday.
March
11.03.1998 , Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians at an
army checkpoint near the West Bank town of Hebron .
11.03.1998 , Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers and burned
tires in the West Bank town of Hebron Wednesday to protest the killing
of three Arab laborers by Israeli troops on Tuesday.
12.03.1998 , The Israeli military has release the three soldiers
arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of three Palestinians
in the West Bank Tuesday.
12.03.1998 , Clashes flared on the West Bank Wednesday as thousands of
mourners buried three Palestinian laborers killed by Israeli troops.
13.03.1998 , Four Palestinians were slightly injured Friday in
Jerusalem when explosives detonated near a market stall on the Nablus
Road in the eastern part of the city.
14.03.1998 , At least seven Palestinians were wounded in clashes Friday
between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank
town of Hebron .
19.03.1998 , British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook completed his tour of
the Mideast .
20.03.1998 , Israel said Thursday the United States had offered ideas
for breaking a year-old deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and
an Israeli newspaper said Washington might go public with them as early
as next week.
23.03.1998 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet
ministers are in unanimous opposition to a reported U.S. proposal
calling for Israel to withdrawal from 13 percent of the West Bank.
27.03.1998 , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected a
U.S. proposal for Israeli soldiers to withdraw from 13 percent of the
West Bank.
28.03.1998 , U.S. presidential envoy Dennis Ross held four hours of
talks Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a new
bid to break a deadlock on handing more West Bank land to the
Palestinians.
April
02.04.1998 , A funeral procession for the chief Hamas bomb maker on
Thursday in the West Bank included thousands of enraged Palestinians
chanting "revenge, revenge" and shaking their fists. Islamic militants
say that Mohiyedine Sharif, who topped Israel's most-wanted list, was
assassinated by Israel. Israel has denied involvement and said Sharif
died when a car bomb exploded prematurely in a Hamas bomb factory.
02.04.1998 , Palestinian police said Wednesday a suspected master
bomber from the Islamic militant group Hamas had been shot and killed
and his body dumped beside a car that blew up in the West Bank Sunday.
03.04.1998 , Thousands of Palestinians buried a master bomb maker from
the Muslim militant group Hamas Thursday with calls for attacks on
Israel.
06.04.1998 , A Palestinian inquiry has determined that Hamas master
bomb maker Muhyideen al-Sharif was killed in a power struggle within
the militant Muslim group . But Hamas rejected the findings as lies and
renewed promises to launch revenge attacks against Israel.
08.04.1998 , Hundreds of Palestinians took part in a march yesterday in
Jerusalem as part of the funeral proceedings for Bilal al-Salaymeh, a
Palestinian who was shot by Israeli police Monday.
10.04.1998 , Palestinian officials announced Thursday they arrested
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi after the group issued a leaflet
demanding the resignation of officials in Yasser Arafat's Palestinian
Authority.
20.04.1998 , British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday the United
States would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to peace talks in London on May 4.
24.04.1998 , U.S. Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross expects to pin
down precisely how much West Bank land Israel will cede to Palestinians
in talks starting this weekend .
24.04.1998 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened
Thursday to annex parts of the West Bank if Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat unilaterally declares an independent Palestinian state.
29.04.1998 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, backed by Jordan and
Egypt, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday to
accept a U.S. peacemaking initiative in key London talks next week.
May
04.05.98 , Crucial Middle East peace talks went into overtime Monday
with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright staying in London for a
second round of separate meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian
leaders. American and Palestinian officials said there was no sign of a
breakthrough, but the fact that both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat both arranged to
spend another night in London raised hopes of progress.
05.05.98 , The United States is tightening the screws on hard-line
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a determined effort to
revive long-stalled Middle East peace negotiations. After two days of
indirect talks in London, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
announced that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had accepted U.S.
proposals for rescuing the peace process and challenged Israel to do
the same.
06.05.98 , Talks between U.S. Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat ended in London yesterday with no progress on Mideast peace
talks having been made.
08.05.98 , U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross met Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, hoping to arrange a White House
summit for Monday and break a 14-month-old Middle East peace deadlock.
Their meeting at the prime minister's office, closed to news media,
lasted little more than an hour, Netanyahu's spokesman Shai Bazak said.
11.05.98 , U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross returned to Washington today
after failing to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to
attend a Mid-East peace summit in the U.S. the U.S. had set the return
of control of more of the West Bank to Palestinians as a condition for
the talks, which were to be held today.
12.05.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to
meet with U.S. Sec. of State Madeleine Albright in Washington tomorrow
to continue ongoing efforts aimed at re-starting the Mid-East peace
process.
13.05.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington
Wednesday to lobby against the U.S. Middle East peace plan, as
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright prepared to try to sell it to him.
14.05.98 , U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met yesterday in Washington to discuss
prospects for restarting the Mid-East peace process. further meetings
are planned for today.
A "million man march" held by Palestinian leaders Thursday to mourn the
creation of the state of Israel turned into the bloodiest day of
violence on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in almost two years. Israeli
troops killed at least eight Palestinians during the protests that
marked 50 years of Palestinian exile and dispossession. Hundreds of
thousands took to the streets to vent rage and frustration fueled by a
14-month stalemate in the Middle East peace process.
15.05.98 , Talks between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington yesterday ended
with no breakthrough concerning Mid-East peace talks.
19.05.98 , Talks between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat ended yesterday in London
with no progress being made on the resumption of the Mid-East peace
process.
22.05.98 , Israeli officials yesterday rejected a proposal for a new
Mid-East peace conference from Egypt and France.
25.05.98 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called Tuesday for an
Arab summit on stalled Middle East peace efforts and said his people
would keep striving to set up their own state. "From the house of the
Arabs, I direct a call to convene an urgent Arab summit," Arafat said
at the Cairo-based Arab League. He was speaking at a commemoration to
mark what Arabs call the Nakba (Catastrophe) - the creation of Israel
50 years ago and subsequent expulsion of many Arabs from their homes.
Arafat said he welcomed recent efforts to break the deadlock.
June
01.06.98 , Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat says his proposal to hold
an Arab summit to address the Mid-East peace process has been accepted
by most Arab states. A data for the summit has not been announced.
02.06.98 , Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Defense
Minister Yitzhak Mordechai discussed ways to revive deadlocked Middle
East peace efforts Tuesday.
08.06.98 , Israeli ministers debated Monday whether to allow the
founder of the Muslim militant Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, to
return to the Gaza Strip.
10.06.98 , An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
yesterday that a public vote on a U.S. proposal for expanded troop
withdrawals from the West Bank is being seriously considered.
11.06.98 , The Palestine Liberation Organization has protested to the
United Nations over Israeli archaeological and settlement activities in
East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
15.06.98 , Israeli authorities demolished three Palestinian homes
Monday which they said were built without permits in Arab East
Jerusalem.
17.06.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday
that Israelis and Palestinians may never reach a final peace agreement
if the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem is not dropped.
18.06.98 , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday a
program to strengthen Israel's hold on Jerusalem, including plans to
tighten ties between the city and nearby West Bank Jewish settlements.
24.06.98 , Reports say Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has accepted
the resignation of his cabinet and plans to name new ministers within
two weeks.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Palestinian Hamas movement,
left a military hospital in Cairo on Wednesday for Gaza, security
sources said. "He left this afternoon by land," one source said.
July
02.07.98 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said yesterday that
Palestinians would defend Jerusalem against Israeli plans to expand
Jerusalem's municipal boundaries. Arafat was addressing a special
session of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
03.07.98 , Israeli soldiers and Palestinians were locked in a tense
standoff along a main road in the Gaza Strip Thursday over rights of
passage for Palestinian vehicles, witnesses said. Palestinian officials
said Israeli forces early in the day had closed the coastal road
between the southern town of Rafah and Gaza City to the north in
violation of interim peace deals, and Palestinians then blocked several
intersections in protest.
06.07.98 , Branding Benjamin Netanyahu a liar, the head of Israel's
main opposition party told parliament on Monday the prime minister was
leading the country towards war with the Palestinians.
08.07.98 , The U.N. General Assembly voted yesterday to pass a
resolution upgrading the status of Palestinians in the international
body. changes the status of the Palestinian observer mission to that of
"non-voting member." the U.S., Israel, Micronesia, and the Marshall
Islands all voted against the measure.
10.07.98 , Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pressed Israelis and
Palestinians Friday to negotiate directly on Middle East peace issues
and renewed her warning that the current impasse cannot continue
indefinitely.
13.07.98 , Reports say a bomb exploded this morning outside the
Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) headquarters in mostly-Arab
East Jerusalem.
14.07.98 , Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have reportedly agreed
to resume direct peace talks after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
returns from China tomorrow, according to the U.S. State Department.
An Arab-sponsored United Nations resolution that would have condemned
Israel's recently announced plans to expand the borders of Jerusalem
was downgraded to a warning yesterday after repeated objections to the
original resolution by the U.S.
15.07.98 , Israeli leaders have denied that the U.N. has any
jurisdiction concerning the decision to expand the boundaries of
Jerusalem.
16.07.98 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat says China's support for
the establishment of a Palestinian state was secured during his recent
three-day trip to China.
17.07.98 , Israel said Friday it would hold its first high level
meeting with the Palestinians in months in the hope of breaking a
16-month-long deadlock in Middle East peacemaking.
20.07.98 , Israel and the Palestinians lowered expectations Monday of
any immediate breakthrough after their first peace talks in months
elicited agreement only to go on negotiating.
22.07.98 , Israeli officials are reportedly seeking to expand the scope
of the current round of peace talks with Palestinians to include issues
other than Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
23.07.98 , Israel is trying to arrange a summit between Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, officials
from both sides said on Thursday. They said the head of Netanyahu's
parliamentary coalition, Meir Sheetrit, raised the idea in talks with
Arafat in Gaza on Thursday.
27.07.98 , Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says talks with Israeli
officials this week will not constitute negotiations on the handing
over of West Bank land to the Palestinians. . Erekat says the talks
will center on ways to revive stalled Middle East peace negotiations.
30.07.98 , The Israeli parliament voted 60-6 yesterday to support a
preliminary measure aimed at forcing early elections in the Mid-East
nation. analysts say the vote was, in part, a protest over Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Mid-East peace process.
August
03.08.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on
Palestinians Monday to stop threatening to cut off peace talks and to
keep negotiating over U.S. proposals to salvage Middle East
peacemaking. "I would propose to stop using the language of ultimatums.
The negotiations are progressing with the good will of Israel, and, I
want to believe, also of the Palestinians," Netanyahu said. The
Palestinian Authority has called present talks a "waste of time" and
warned Sunday it would sever contacts if Israeli negotiators failed to
bring new ideas to the latest round of talks on Monday evening.
04.08.98 , Palestinian official Hassan Asfour said yesterday that peace
talks with Israel could be halted due to what he characterized as
Israel's refusal to present acceptable proposals for ending a 16-month
deadlock in the peace process.
05.08.98 , Gunmen shot dead two Jewish settlers in the West Bank
overnight and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded
Wednesday with defiant backing for more construction on occupied land.
Tuesday night's ambush at Yitzhar settlement near Nablus put fresh
strain on faltering peace moves between Israel and the Palestinians,
with hard-line Israeli politicians calling for a halt to the
negotiations. The two men, aged 18 and 24, were on a security patrol at
the settlement when the gunmen opened fire on their car.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat announced a long-awaited cabinet
reshuffle on Wednesday but stunned legislators by keeping ministers
they had wanted sacked for alleged corruption and mismanagement. "The
old ministries will remain the same," Arafat said before naming 10
additional ministers to an expanded cabinet amid catcalls from members
of the 88-seat Legislative Council. Arafat accepted the resignation of
his 18-seat cabinet in June, when lawmakers agreed to hold off a
no-confidence vote to give him more time to appoint a new team.
12.08.98 , Instability has returned to the Middle East because of
Israel's refusal to implement peace accords and this has opened the way
for the return of war there, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said
Wednesday. "It (Israel) has challenged international legitimacy and its
resolutions and opened the door wide for the return of violence,
anarchy, war and destruction," Arafat told a joint sitting of South
Africa's two houses of parliament. Arafat said Palestinians had
fulfilled their obligations, but that Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's government had turned its back on peace deals struck in
Oslo and Madrid.
17.08.98 , Authorities in Palestinian controlled West Bank town of
Jericho are reported to be conducting a house to house search for Imad
Awadallah, a former leader of the Islamic group Hamas, who escaped from
prison on Saturday. Awadallah was arrested in April by Palestinian
police.
21.08.98 , Israeli troops sealed off the West Bank city of Hebron
Friday while searching for a suspected Palestinian assailant who
stabbed a Jewish settler to death and torched his home. The army said
it was barring Palestinians from entering and leaving the volatile city
following the late-night killing of Rabbi Shlomo Raanan, 63-year-old
grandson of a spiritual leader of Israel's settler movement. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a holiday in northern Israel,
announcing he would return to Jerusalem in the afternoon for
consultations in the face of tensions in Hebron and in Lebanon where
Hizbollah guerrillas killed two Israelis.
24.08.98 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Monday that Israeli
troop withdrawal proposals could be "a beginning" towards resuscitating
the deadlocked 5-year-old peace process. But Arafat, attending a
commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Oslo peace accords, also
accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of policies in the
past two years that had fostered "despair, hate and violence." Arafat
said Israeli proposals on troop withdrawals from the West Bank in
return for Palestinian moves against anti-Israel guerrillas would be
acceptable if they had full access to all designated area, something
Israel opposes.
25.08.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that
a deal on a long-elusive Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank
depended on Palestinian action against "murderers" of Jews. He spoke as
one of his aides said Israel sensed that Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat was sounding a "new tone" on peacemaking, but that it remained
to be seen if Arafat would meet key Israeli demands to seal a
U.S.-brokered withdrawal deal. "Progress is linked to the Palestinian
fight and actions against the kind of murderers who acted here,"
Netanyahu said.
27.08.98 , A bomb exploded in the heart of Tel Aviv Thursday, injuring
21 people on a busy street near the city's main synagogue in an attack
police said was the work of suspected Palestinian militants. There was
no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first in Tel
Aviv since a martyr bomber killed three Israeli women in a cafe in
March 1997. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the blast and the
recent killings of three Jewish settlers in the West Bank, said he
would not sign any deal to cede more West Bank land to the Palestinian
Authority unless it fought "murderers and terror."
Sptemebr
08.09.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed hope
yesterday that a visit to the Middle East by U.S. envoy Dennis Ross
would help achieve an agreement between Israel and Palestinians on the
partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.
10.09.98 , Reports from Israel say U.S. envoy Dennis Ross is expected
to stay in Israel this weekend in an attempt to broker a deal for
handing over more of the West Bank to Palestinians. Ross met with
Palestinian leaders yesterday and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu today.
11.09.98 , The Islamic movement Hamas vowed Friday to send martyr
bombers into Israel to avenge the killing of two leading Hamas
militants. Israel sealed its borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip
and put its troops on alert to guard against attacks by the group whose
bombers have killed scores of Israelis. Israeli troops killed the two
Palestinian brothers Imad and Adel Awadallah during a West Bank clash
Thursday. Israel long had sought both of them as leaders of the Hamas
military wing.
18.09.98 , U.S. President Bill Clinton's special envoy extended his
Middle East peace mission Friday, saying he was making headway towards
ending a 19-month-old deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians.
While envoy Dennis Ross pursued a land-and-security deal, Israeli
soldiers firing rubber-coated metal bullets wounded 10 Palestinians
during unrest in the West Bank, witnesses said. "We had a very good
discussion and I think we are making headway," Ross said after meeting
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Gaza. It was Ross's most
optimistic assessment since he arrived in the region.
19.09.98 , Reports say a Palestinian teenager was killed yesterday in a
shooting incident involving Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
23.09.98 , Secretary of State Madeleine Albright planned to meet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday in a fresh attempt
to bring peace negotiations with the Palestinians to closure. Officials
said U.S. mediator Dennis Ross had made "modest" progress on a mission
to the Middle East last week. This has raised hopes that protracted
negotiations on a deal giving Palestinians control over 13% more West
Bank land could be wrapped up in the next five or six days when
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat are in New York for
the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.
President Yasser Arafat has rejected the resignation of top Palestinian
peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official said
Wednesday. Erekat, who has steered Palestinian negotiations on a
further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, asked to be relieved of
his post as chief negotiator over differences with other officials on
the handling of talks. Hassan Asfour, another negotiator and a minister
of state in Arafat's cabinet, said he had attended a meeting between
Arafat and Erekat in Gaza Tuesday at which the Palestinian leader
turned down Erekat's resignation.
25.09.98 , Reports say both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will travel to Washington next
week for Mid-East peace-related talks with President Clinton.
28.09.98 , Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat addresses the U.N. General
Assembly Monday as he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
appear close to agreement on key points in the long-stalled Middle East
peace process. His speech is considered crucial following requests from
U.S. officials that he not repeat his pledge to declare unilaterally a
Palestinian state on May 4. That is the date when the 1993 Oslo peace
accords that provide the framework for a Middle East agreement expire.
Such a declaration in the United Nations, which would make it official,
would enrage Israel and Netanyahu has warned it could scuttle the peace
talks.
29.09.98 , President Clinton met with Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat Tuesday in a bid to narrow differences to reach accord on a
controversial new round of Israeli troop withdrawals from the West
Bank. Clinton met jointly with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and invited them to return in about two
weeks for a summit designed to nail down the timetable for the troop
pullout. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton was
prepared to become directly involved in the mid-October summit with
Arafat and Netanyahu.
Security forces clashed with Arab protesters in northern Israel Tuesday
during a general strike against land confiscation and alleged police
brutality. Witnesses said paramilitary police fired rubber-coated
bullets and tear gas at hundreds of stone-throwers in Umm al-Fahm and
Nazareth, the two biggest Arab towns in Israel. In Umm al-Fahm, the
scene of unrest since Sunday, President Ezer Weizman met local
officials to try to calm tension before the start on Tuesday evening of
Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
30.09.98 , Eleven Palestinians and nine Israeli soldiers were wounded
Wednesday in explosions and shooting in the divided West Bank city of
Hebron, witnesses and security officials said. The Israeli army
announced it had imposed a curfew on the center of the city and said
the incident began with a grenade attack on one of its patrols by a
Palestinian assailant. Palestinian residents of Hebron, a frequent
flashpoint, blamed Jewish settlers for the violence, which flared in
the heart of the city close to one of their enclaves. Details were
unclear.
October
01.10.98 , Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse
around 200 Palestinian demonstrators who lobbed rocks and petrol bombs
in the volatile West Bank town of Hebron Thursday, witnesses said. They
said at least six protesters were wounded before the troops and
Palestinian police pushed demonstrators back into
Palestinian-controlled areas of the city. It was the second day of
violence in Hebron since a Palestinian threw two hand grenades at a
patrol in the Israeli-controlled part of the city close to a Jewish
settler enclave on Wednesday. At least 11 Palestinians and 13 Israeli
soldiers and border police were wounded in the grenade attack and
subsequent shooting.
07.10.98 , Israeli and Palestinian leaders met with U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright yesterday in Gaza to discuss the upcoming
Mid-East summit in Washington. the summit is scheduled for later this
month.
09.10.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named Ariel
Sharon as the nation's new foreign minister.
15.10.98 , A four-day summit begins today in the U.S. at which
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said he was optimistic and Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will work with U.S. President Bill
Clinton toward reaching a Mid-East peace deal.
21.10.98 , Jordan's King Hussein joined U.S. President Bill Clinton,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat in ongoing Mid-East peace talks in the U.S. yesterday.
the summit will continue for its seventh day today.
26.10.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat signed at peace-for-land agreement Friday at the
conclusion of negotiations in the U.S. the agreement calls for Israel
to relinquish control of portions of the West Bank in return for active
measures to be taken by Palestinians against terrorism.
November
03.11.98 , The Israeli cabinet has postponed its ratification of the
recent Mid-East peace deal pending assurances that 30 suspected
Palestinian are jailed for allegedly killing Israeli citizens.
04.11.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed
consideration of the recent Mid-East peace deal by his cabinet, saying
he has not received sufficient assurance from Palestinians on security
issues.
06.11.98 , Two men were killed and 21 others injured in an apparent car
bombing near a Jerusalem street market this morning. the two men killed
were the bombers themselves, according to reports. Israeli authorities
say they are attempting to confirm an anonymous claim of responsibility
for the attack in the name of the Islamic group Hamas. the Israeli
cabinet has suspended consideration of the recent Mid-East peace
agreement pending investigations into the bombing, which has been
condemned by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
12.11.98 , Israel's cabinet yesterday approved the recently-reached
Mid-East peace agreement with Palestinians. the approval included
provisions against implementation in the event of a declaration of an
independent Palestinian state and the requirement that a clause in the
Palestinian charter advocating the destruction of Israel be removed.
18.11.98 , The Israeli Parliament voted 75-19, with nine abstentions,
yesterday to ratify the recently-reached Mid-East peace deal with
Palestinians.
19.11.98 , Israel's cabinet has voted to approve a first round of troop
withdrawals from the West Bank, as called for in the recently-reached
Mid-East peace agreement. the U.S. will reportedly pay Israel $1.2
billion to cover the costs of the withdrawal.
20.11.98 , Israel this morning handed over control of 195 square miles
of land in the West Bank to Palestinian control and released 250
Palestinian prisoners. the moves were called for in the
recently-reached Mid-East peace agreement.
24.11.98 , With a broad grin, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
inaugurated Gaza International Airport Tuesday, hailed by Palestinians
as a commercial lifeline and a symbol of the sovereignty they seek.
Egyptian, Moroccan, Jordanian and Spanish airliners landed at the $250
million airport, the first on Palestinian-ruled soil. "God willing,
airplanes will fly from this airport carrying pilgrims to Jerusalem,"
Arafat said at the airport near Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
Palestinian police and civilians danced reels of joy to the music of a
brass band as the planes landed on the 3,380-yard runway, long enough
to land a jumbo jet.
December
03.12.98 , Israel has asked that President Clinton not land at the
newly opened Palestinian airport, saying this would boost Palestinian
claims to independence, a senior Israeli official said Thursday. The
Clinton administration is considering the request, said a U.S. official
who spoke on condition of anonymity. Clinton is to arrive in Israel on
Dec. 12 and is to fly to the Gaza Strip on Dec. 14 to usher in the
second stage of the Wye River land-for-peace agreement he helped
negotiate. A possible Clinton landing at Gaza International, which
opened last week as part of the agreement, had been considered by the
White House.
04.12.98 , Israel has suspended its troop withdrawal from the West Bank
following an attack by Palestinians on two Israelis.
09.12.98 , Palestinians held a general stroke yesterday throughout the
West Bank to mark the 11th anniversary of the Palestinian uprising
against Israeli occupation.
10.12.98 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday
announced an Israeli crackdown on Palestinian unrest in preparation for
U.S. President Bill Clinton's upcoming trip to the Mid-East.
14.12.98 , In a historic day stirring Palestinian passions for
statehood, President Clinton stood witness Monday as hundreds of
Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.
Clinton urged "legitimate rights for Palestinians, real security for
Israel." The Palestinian vote - registered with a show of hands and
applause - removed a contentious issue dating back to 1964 from the
crisis-shrouded Mideast peace process. The action appeared to have
cleared the way for a three-way meeting among Clinton, Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At
stake was the revival of the Wye River land-for-security accord,
nearing collapse with Israelis and the Palestinians accusing each other
of violating the deal .
15.12.98 , President Clinton failed Tuesday to persuade Israel to
resume the West Bank troop withdrawals called for under the Wye River
peace accord, but he held out hope the pull back would take place soon.
"We will have fits and starts but we will get through this just fine,"
he said. Speaking to American reporters after a 90-minute meeting with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat at this border outpost, Clinton called his three-day Mideast
trip a success. In remarks to reporters later, Sandy Berger, the
president's national security adviser, qualified Clinton's remark about
the peace process being back on track. "It's a bumpy track," he said
with a smile .
21.12.98 , The Israeli cabinet voted yesterday to suspend
implementation of Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank as
called for in the Wye River land-for-security deal. Palestinian
non-compliance with provisions of the accord was cited as the reason
for the suspension. the Israeli parliament is scheduled to vote today
on the suspension.
22.12.98 , The Israeli parliament yesterday approved the first reading
of a bill calling for early general elections. the vote followed the
passing of a resolution of non-support for Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's peace policies.
29.12.98 , The Israeli parliament's Constitution and Law Committee
today passed a resolution calling for national elections to be held May
17, 1999
1998
Palestinian Calender
1999 - End of the century events
January
04.01.99 , Israeli
officials say two Israeli women were shot and wounded this morning in
the West Bank town of Hebron by Palestinian gunmen.
05.01.99 , The Israeli parliament yesterday granted final approval to
plans for early general elections to be held May 17.
06.01.99 , Former Israeli army chief Amnon Lipkin-Shahak this morning
declared his candidacy for the office of prime minister in the nation's
upcoming general elections.
A Palestinian carrying what turned out to be a toy pistol near a Jewish
enclave in Hebron was shot Wednesday by Israel soldiers and died
several hours later, the army said. Hebron, home to 130,000
Palestinians and 450 Jewish settlers, is one of the tensest spots in
the West Bank. The new violence in Hebron comes at a time when the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process is on hold. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Palestinians of violating the Wye
River peace agreement and has said he would not hand over more West
Bank land, as required by the accord, until the Palestinians meet their
obligations.
11.01.99 , Israeli military officials say they intend to end a week-old
curfew in the Palestinian controlled part of the city of Hebron.
12.01.99 , A Palestinian was seriously wounded in a knife attack in
Jerusalem Tuesday, an assault police said may be linked to eight other
stabbings blamed on a Jewish extremist. The 50-year-old victim was
found during morning rush hour in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish
neighborhood of Mea Shearim. He was taken into surgery at Hadassah
Hospital, said police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo. Toledo said a bloody
knife was found in the area at about 6 a.m., but despite a search of
the area, the victim was not found until a passer-by came upon him 90
minutes later. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Police
Chief Yair Yitzhaki said the attack may be linked to the stabbings of
eight other Palestinians in Mea Shearim since November 1997.
14.01.99 , Israeli army officials say an Israeli border guard was
killed and a Palestinian seriously wounded yesterday in attacks near
the West Bank town of Hebron.
25.01.99 , Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai will reportedly
leave his position today after being fired for planning a move to an
opposition political party. Reports from Israel say three other former
officials of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party will join
Mordechai in forming a new centrist opposition party: former army chief
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, former finance minister Dan Meridor and former Tel
Aviv Mayor Roni Milo.
26.01.99 , Israel razed an Arab-owned home in Jerusalem Tuesday, and
helmeted troops protecting the demolition equipment fired rubber
bullets at Palestinian protesters who hurled stones toward the house.
Four Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, including one who was
in serious condition. A fifth was treated for bruises after being
clubbed by Israeli troops. One of the injured, Zaki Obeid, fell to the
ground bleeding profusely after being struck in the face by a rubber
bullet. He lay motionless for a few moments before being carried away
to the cries of "Allah u Akbar!" or "God is great."
27.01.99 , One day after winning his party's nomination for prime
minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has put together a team he hopes will help
him win re-election. It wasn't easy. As he watched his opponents gain
supporters, Netanyahu mostly counted deserters. His former defense
minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, has joined forces to lead a new centrist
party with a charismatic general, a popular former Tel Aviv mayor and a
finance minister who quit Netanyahu's government. Under the slogan "One
Nation," Ehud Barak, the leader of the opposition Labor party, is
gaining support from smaller parties. At a news conference, Netanyahu
introduced his partners, right-wing Likud veteran Moshe Arens, who was
to replace Mordechai as defense minister, and hawkish Foreign Minister
Ariel Sharon.
28.01.99 , A Palestinian man died Thursday from wounds suffered when
Israeli troops shot him in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet,
a hospital spokeswoman said. Zaki Obeid was critically injured Tuesday
during a clash between Israeli riot police and Palestinians protesting
the demolition of an Arab home in east Jerusalem. Obeid died Thursday
afternoon from the bullet that lodged in the rear of his brain, Hadassa
hospital spokeswoman Yael Bosom said.
February
01.02.99 , The deadline for an Israeli-Palestinian land-for-security
deal passed yesterday with key provisions of last year's Wye River
accord not yet implemented. Among measured not yet implemented: the
release of 750 Palestinian prisoners, the opening of a route between
the West Bank and Gaza, and Israeli withdrawal of troops from 14% of
the West Bank.
03.02.99 , Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is scheduled
to meet today and tomorrow with U.S. Secretary of State and President
Bill Clinton in Washington.
08.02.99 , King Hussein's funeral brought together sworn enemies
Monday, including a PLO guerrilla leader who approached Israel's
president, praised him as a man of peace, and shook his hand. The scene
involving Nayef Hawatmeh and Ezer Weizman was witnessed by Weizman's
adviser, Arieh Shumer, who said it was a random encounter. Weizman took
Hawatmeh's outstretched hand and told him the time had come to make
peace with Syria and Lebanon.
10.02.99 , Israel rejected a U.N. General Assembly call for an
international conference on Israeli settlement expansion in the West
Bank, charging Wednesday that it violates peace accords with the
Palestinians. By a vote of 115-2 with five abstentions, the General
Assembly Tuesday called for a conference of the signatories of the 1949
Geneva Conventions to consider measures to stop Israeli settlement
activity.
12.02.99 , In a surprise move, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Friday
revived an idea for forging a confederation between Jordan and a future
Palestinian state. Arafat's proposal won a cool reception in Jordan,
where an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any
decision on a confederation must wait until the West Bank and Gaza
Strip are under full Palestinian control.
19.02.99 , Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with Pope John Paul II
Friday and renewed his invitation for the pontiff to visit Bethlehem in
the year 2000.
March
11.03.99 , Palestinian riot police fired in the air Thursday in Gaza to
disperse stone-throwing youths protesting the killing of two people in
riots the day before. The two youths died in protests sparked Wednesday
when a Palestinian military court sentenced a security agent to death
for his role in a shootout that killed another agent.
15.03.99 , Campaigning among Jewish settlers Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu
promised to turn this isolated West Bank community into a high-tech
center and expand settlements throughout the area.
16.03.99 , Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that
Israel regarded as "null and void" a 1947 United Nations resolution
calling for the internationalization of Jerusalem.
18.03.99 , Foreign diplomats and Palestinian officials met at the
headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Arab East
Jerusalem yesterday, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's stated intention to put an end to such meetings in that
location.
22.03.99 , Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright in Washington to discuss the possibility that
Palestinians will declare an independent state on May 4.
25.03.99 , Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has asked the United States
to submit a formal proposal for postponing a Palestinian declaration of
statehood and setting a new deadline for a final peace agreement with
Israel, a senior PLO official said.
29.03.99 , Stepping up the battle over Jerusalem, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered three Palestinian Authority offices closed
in the disputed city Monday, including that of the official Palestinian
news agency.
30.03.99 , Dozens of Palestinian youths protesting Israeli land
confiscation hurled stones at Israeli troops Tuesday, who responded
with rubber bullets and tear gas. One demonstrator was hurt.
April
04.04.99 , Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington on Friday. Talks
will center on the stalled Mid-East peace process.
05.04.99 , Israeli police served closure orders against three
Palestinian offices in Jerusalem yesterday, saying that, under interim
peace agreements, the Palestinian Authority has no right to conduct
operations in the city. Palestinian officials characterized the move as
a pre-election "stunt" by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
08.04.99 , Japan's prime minister urged Yasser Arafat not to declare
Palestinian statehood before restarting talks with Israel, a government
official said. Japan has been pushing Arafat not to jeopardize the
Middle East peace process with such a declaration May 4.
13.04.99 , The Palestinian leadership will decide April 27 whether to
declare a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip a week later or heed
the world's advice and wait . The final decision will be up to the
Palestinian Central Council, a 124-member PLO body stacked with
loyalists of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
16.04.99 , Israeli officials have confirmed the capture of the village
of Arnoun in southern Lebanon by Israeli forces.
19.04.99 , Palestinian Cabinet secretary-general Ahmad Abdul-Rahman
said that Palestinians want written assurance that the U.S. will back
Palestinian statehood in exchange for a delay in the declaration of
such a state.
23.04.99 , Israel's decision to close Palestinian headquarters in
Jerusalem smacks of electioneering and could provoke a violent response
. Israeli security chiefs met to consider deploying more police in the
contested city. The Palestinian compound, known as the Orient House, is
a small, century-old hotel that was already serving as Palestinian
political headquarters before Israel and the Palestinians started
signing peace agreements in 1993. The government moved to shut down the
Orient House Thursday, after Faisal Husseini, the top Palestinian
official in Jerusalem, invited European consuls to the offices.
28.04.99 , Palestinian Liberation Organization Central Council leaders
agreed to postpone a declaration of an independent Palestinian state
until at least after Israel's upcoming general election.
May
05.05.99 , The Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords expired yesterday
without the declaration of a Palestinian state.
10.05.99 , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered three offices in
the PLO's Jerusalem headquarters closed , setting up a showdown with
the Palestinians just a week before Israeli elections. Palestinian
leaders and Israeli security officials warned that police action
against the headquarters, known as the Orient House, could trigger
Palestinian riots.
11.05.99 , Israel say that nation's High Court has ordered the
government to delay the closing of the PLO's offices in Jerusalem for
one week.
Barak,
Ehud
18.05.99 , Winning a
crushing victory over hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud
Barak promised Tuesday to forge a secure peace with the Palestinians,
pull troops out of Lebanon in a year and heal the deep divisions among
Israelis. After three years at Israel's helm, a tearful Netanyahu
gracefully conceded defeat and said he would step down as leader of his
Likud party. In an emotional speech, Barak, Israel's most decorated
soldier, promised tens of thousands of supporters that he would
continue the path of peace forged by former Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin. He spoke in Rabin Square - the plaza in Tel Aviv where Rabin was
gunned down in 1995.
20.05.99 , Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak said yesterday that
he intends to head the nation's defense ministry himself. Barak said
the move is intended to allow himself greater control over both
political and security facets of future Israeli-Palestinian peace
initiatives.
27.05.99 , In the first violent confrontation since the Israeli
election, club-wielding Israeli police charged into a crowd of
Palestinian protesters to keep them away from a Jewish neighborhood
under construction in disputed east Jerusalem. Police, some on
horseback, pushed and shoved protesters and beat a bodyguard for Faisal
Husseini, the top PLO official in Jerusalem. Husseini also was slightly
injured in the scuffle.
28.05.99 , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday
that he would give up his seat in Israel's parliament and leave
politics.
June
01.06.99 , The Israeli-supported South Lebanon Army withdrew from
outlying areas in the Jezzine region of southern Lebanon this morning.
04.06.99 , Thousands of Palestinians are reported to have taken part in
protests against the expansion of Jewish settlements. At least 18
Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were injured in protest-related
clashes in the West Bank and Gaza.
14.06.99 , Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered
the government to bring thousands of Jews left behind in Ethiopia to
Israel quickly. Some 2,500-3,500 Jews in the Quara region of Ethiopia
were left behind when some 21,500 others came to Israel years ago, and
have been trying to reach the Jewish state ever since.
22.06.1999, The Palestinian Liberation Organization has reportedly
postponed a meeting of its central committee to discuss the declaration
of a Palestinian state until after the formation of a new Israeli
government
26.06.1999 , Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat met yesterday to discuss Mid-East peace efforts.
06.07.1999, Ehud Barak took office as Israel's new prime minister.
Barak announced that he would be meeting with Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Sunday in a bid to
revive the Mid-East peace process.
July
11.07.1999 , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat met to discuss the expansion of Jewish settlements in the
West Bank and Gaza. This was the first Israeli-Palestinian summit in
seven months.
14.07.1999, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suggested that the U.S.
should scale back its role as "policeman and judge" in the Mid-East
peace process. Barak, who is on his premier visit to the U.S., said it
is up to those parties involved to push the peace process forward.
18.07.1999, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that he expects to
determine within 15 months if Israel can achieve a major breakthrough
in Mid-East peace negotiations.
20.07.1999, Reports say Palestinian President Yasser Arafat could meet
as early as this month with leaders of two Syria-based PLO groups long
opposed to his peace deals with Israel. This would involve meetings
with the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
29.07.1999, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, general secretary of the cabinet of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said that areas under Palestinian
control could "explode" if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak fails to
fully implement the Wye River land-for-security accord.
August
01.08.1999, A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak indicated
that withdrawals of Israeli troops from the occupied West Bank would
begin on October 1 .
06.08.1999 , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has appointed Israel's
first Arab deputy foreign minister. Nawaf Massalha is expected to play
key roles in future peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
09.08.1999 , Palestinian President Yasser Arafat yesterday agreed to an
Israeli proposal to begin implementing the Wye River land-for-security
deal in September. Some aspects of implementation, however, are still
under discussion, such as the timetable for turning over control of the
West Bank to Palestinians.
09.08.1999, At least six Israeli soldiers were injured when a
Palestinian man drove his car into a group of soldiers at an
intersection between Jerusalem and Gaza.
15.08.1999, Reports say Palestinians and Israelis failed to reach an
agreement concerning implementation of the Wye River land-for-security
peace deal following six hours of negotiations .
25.08.1999, Palestinian authorities said that they had reached a
compromise with Israeli negotiators over the timetable for the final
withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank. Negotiations
concerning the release of at least 500 Palestinian prisoners from
Israeli jails are still ongoing.
30.08.1999, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are continuing work
today to resolve issues which have prevented the full implementation of
last year's Wye peace accord.
september
01.09.1999 , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian
President are scheduled to fly to Egypt tomorrow where they will meet
with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to discuss the ongoing
Middle East peace process.
03.09.1999, Palestinian officials say an agreement has been reached
with Israel concerning the release of Palestinian prisoners. Such
release was a major point of contention in negotiations concerning the
implementation of the Wye River peace accord.
07.09.1999 , The latest version of the Wye River land-for-security
Mid-East peace agreement, signed by Palestinian and Israeli leaders,
calls for continued negotiations to begin next Monday and end by
September 12, 2000.
09.09.1999 , Israel began the process of freeing Palestinian prisoners
this morning as part of the recently renewed Mid-East peace process.
199 prisoners were released today.
10.09.1999, Israel transferred administrative control of 7% of the West
Bank to the Palestinian Authority this morning. The move came after
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat approved the designation of areas
to come under Palestinian civil administration.
13.09.1999 , Israeli and Palestinian negotiators formally launched
talks on a final peace settlement that is expected to be achieved
within one year.
21.09.1999, Reports say Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met with
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak this morning to discuss the latest
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
22.09.1999, Reports say Jordanian security officials detained three
leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas this morning. Khaled
Meshal, Musa Abu Marzook, and Ibrahim Ghosheh were taken into custody
when they arrived at Amman's international airport.
October
05.10.1999 , Israel and the Palestinians agreed Tuesday to establish
the first open land link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -
seen by Palestinians as a vital step toward eventual statehood. Prime
Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approved the
deal, which would allow Palestinians for the first time to move
relatively freely between the areas, traveling on a fixed set of
highways across the breadth of Israel. The so-called "safe passage"
route will provide Arafat with one of the key underpinnings of the
state he has long sought, and is the most significant achievement of
the newly revived peace process.
11.10.1999 , The Israeli cabinet gave Prime Minister Ehud Barak the
power yesterday to close unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank
. In the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday
approved the building of 2,600 new apartments in West Bank settlements.
- Barak said, however, that unauthorized Jewish settlers will not be
allowed to remain in the territory.
15.10.1999 , Israel freed 151 Arab security prisoners Friday, moving
its peace agreement with the Palestinians back on track after minor
delays. Cheering relatives greeted convoys of buses at drop-off points
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Prisoners leaned out of windows,
flashing victory signs, their hands still tied with plastic cuffs.
"Mother, he's out," a teen-age boy shouted into a cellular phone when
he saw his brother on one of the buses. Prisoner releases are an
emotional issue . Palestinians consider the inmates heroes in the
struggle for independence.
25.10.1999 , Israel opened a 27-mile safe passage route along existing
roads this morning that connects the Palestinian areas of West Bank and
Gaza.
26.10.1999 , Israel tore down the home of three Palestinian families in
east Jerusalem on Monday despite a promise to slow the pace of such
demolitions. Israel's police minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, opposes
demolishing Palestinian homes built without permits and has been
re-examining the practice. Since moderate Prime Minister Ehud Barak
took office July 6, only four homes have been razed. The owner of the
house destroyed Monday, Fouwad Khader, said he had been warned by
police that his home would be demolished and obtained a court order in
an effort to block the action.
November
01.11.1999 , President Clinton said Monday he hopes to inject "renewed
energy" into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and encouraged both
sides to move quickly toward agreement on a final treaty within 10
months. "This is the hard part, the really hard part, and we all need
to support them," Clinton told reporters during a question-and-answer
session with Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.
04.11.1999 , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton ended two days of peace
talks in Oslo, Norway.
08.11.1999 , Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began negotiations on
a final peace treaty today in the West Bank town of Ramallah. - two
hours of talks were held this morning despite a bomb attack that
wounded at least 30 people in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya
yesterday.
10.11.1999 , Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Cabinet Wednesday approved a
troop withdrawal from 5% of the West Bank, hours after Israeli troops
dragged hundreds of Jewish settlers, some kicking and others hurling
red paint, out of a key encampment. The confrontation at Havat Maon was
one of the most dramatic between settlers and the government since
1982, when Israel leveled the Yamit settlement in the Sinai Peninsula
as part of its peace treaty with Egypt. The eviction was followed by
the Cabinet's 17-1 vote to approve next week's Israeli troop withdrawal.
15.11.1999 , Reports say Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have
failed to finalize a plan for the turnover of an additional 5% of the
West Bank to Palestinian control. - the exchange was to have been made
this morning.
15.11.1999 , The 11th Palestinian independence day had all the right
ingredients - cheering crowds, boy scouts and military parades. But for
many Palestinians, Monday's celebration was a painful reminder of what
they are missing - a state of their own. The mood was also dampened by
the delay of an Israeli troop pull back from 5% of the West Bank,
originally scheduled for Monday. The two sides disagreed over the pull
back, with the Palestinians saying the areas Israel offered to hand
over were too sparsely populated and failed to connect the isolated
enclaves already under Palestinian control.
17.11.1999 , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. President Bill
Clinton are expected to discuss the stalled hand over of West Bank
territory to Palestinian control when they meet today in Istanbul,
Turkey.
23.11.1999 , Reports say about 15 Jewish settl |
