H i s t o r y
o f P a l e s t i n e
- 1999
1999
- End of the century events
January
1999
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
attack 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
1999
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
1999
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
1999
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
1999
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.
|
Bild:
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
1999
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.
-
July
1999
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.
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
1999
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
1999
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
1999
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
1999
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 settlers occupied a new
site in the West Bank this morning in protest against Israeli
policies that are removing such settlements. - the settlement is
near the Palestinian-controlled town of Bethlehem.
-
December
1999
01.12.1999
, Israel's proposals for surrendering West Bank land to
Palestinian control topped the agenda of Wednesday's talks
between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat. Speaking to reporters before leaving Cairo to
return to Gaza, Arafat said discussions focused on the current
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Palestinian objections to
the maps of a proposed Israeli troop withdrawal from 5% of the
West Bank and Jewish settlements in the territory. The
withdrawal was scheduled to take place Nov. 15 under the
Israeli-Palestinian accord signed in September after U.S.
mediation. But the Palestinians rejected Israel's proposed
redeployments, saying they vacated areas that were too thinly
populated and not contiguous.
02.12.1999 , Palestinian lawmaker Mouawiyah al-Masri, who was
wounded by a gunman yesterday, suggested today that he was shot
because he signed a leaflet accusing Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat of encouraging corruption.
15.12.1999 , Peace talks between Israel and Syria resume today
in Washington, DC, following a four years break. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara
will meet with U.S. President Bill Clinton this morning.
29.12.1999 , After several weeks of delay, Israel Wednesday
released 26 Palestinian security prisoners as part of the latest
interim peace accord with the Palestinians. Buses carrying the
26 inmates left two prisons in the southern Negev Desert and the
coastal city of Ashkelon Wednesday afternoon. The releases had
been held up for several hours by a Supreme Court appeal filed
by relatives of Israelis killed in attacks. In the end, the
justices refused to stop the releases. The release is the third
and final one under an interim peace accord signed in September.
In the two earlier releases, 350 Palestinians convicted of
anti-Israel offenses were set free. The Palestinians complained
that many of those freed Wednesday have only a few months left
to serve. They had demanded that a much larger number of
prisoners be released, including those sentenced to long terms.
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