H i s t o r y
o f P a l e s t i n e - 1996
1997
- No progress in the peace negotiations
January
1997
January
15, Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached an agreement
for an Israeli redeployment from the West Bank city of Hebron.
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February
1997
February
1, Israeli government release of the women prisoners.
February 26, Israeli government announced that they had approved
plans for a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, a
predominantly Arab area.
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March
1997
March 3,
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had a meetings with U.S.
President Bill Clinton and other U.S. officials .
March 4, Israel ordered four Palestinian organizations to close
their offices in East Jerusalem.
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 .
March 13, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of Israeli
school children near the Israeli-Jordanian border, killing seven.
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 .
March 18, Israeli workers began construction at the Har Homa
site.
March 21, a bomb exploded in a sidewalk cafe in Tel Aviv ,
killing the bomber and three other people. Dozens more were
wounded.
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.
March 27, when U.S. mediator Dennis Ross returned to the region
for meetings with Arafat and Netanyahu.
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.
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June
1997
June 3,
members of Israel's Labor Party selected former army chief of
staff Ehud Barak, 55, as the new party leader.
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July
1997
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.
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August
1997
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.
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September
1997
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.
September 9, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
arrived in Israel the first stop on a week-long Middle East tour
aimed at generating new momentum for the stalled
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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.
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October
1997
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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.
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.
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December
1997
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.
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