Chronological Review of Events/July 1994 – DPR review

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS

RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

July 1994

Monitored from the press by the

Division for Palestinian Rights

1 July PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, after 27 years of exile, made a historical return to the Gaza Strip, crossing into the self-ruled area via the Rafah crossing point from Egypt.  He then arrived at Gaza city where he spoke for an hour to tens of thousands of Palestinians.  In his speech he reaffirmed his commitment to the Gaza-Jericho agreement and was quoted as saying, "I say to the Israeli people with whom we have signed a peace of the courageous:  The peace needs more courage from all of us in order to hold up, and we must uphold this peace, just so we have signed and said to the heroes, `The promise and oath are upheld'".  Some hours later he summoned members of the Palestinian Authority to his hotel for a working meeting.   (The New York Times)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed the visit of Mr. Arafat to Gaza and said that the visit was a confirmation of the peace agreement between Israel and the PLO.  (Ha'aretz)

Hundreds of angry Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem to protest PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's arrival in Gaza.  Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Chairman of the opposition Likud party, was quoted as saying that "Arafat made it clear that he is not coming to Gaza and Jericho but rather he is coming to establish a Palestinian state and to conduct jihad".  (Ha'aretz)

2 July In his second day in the Gaza Strip, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat visited the refugee camp of Jabaliya, one of the largest in the strip and the birthplace of the intifadah (uprising).  Mr. Arafat appealed to friends and foes alike to help him make the new Palestinian self-rule work.  (The New York Times)

In a show of strength by Israel's rightist opposition, thousands of people jammed for the second day the center of Jerusalem in a raucous demonstration, protesting the visit of Mr. Arafat to Gaza, and vowing to block any pilgrimage he should make to Jerusalem.  The demonstrators, many of them religious Jews and settlers from the West Bank, waved banners and held up signs denouncing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for entering into a pact with the PLO.  (The New York Times)

3 July Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin lashed out at his Israeli rightist opponents and accused them of using negative tactics to undermine the peace process with the PLO.  After the weekly cabinet meeting, several ministers accused the opposition of abusing democratic freedom and inciting Israelis to rebellion.  (Ha'aretz)

5 July A leading Israeli Arab, Knesset Member Tufik Ziad, was killed in an automobile crash while returning from a meeting with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Jericho.  Mr. Ziad served, until his death, as mayor of the city of Nazareth  and was one of the leading figures of the Democratic Front Party.  (DPA)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat arrived in Jericho aboard an Egyptian helicopter for an emotional reunion with the West Bank Palestinians after 27 years in exile.  In a speech before a large crowd, he vowed to build a Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital.  He requested Israel to redeploy its troops out of Palestinian population centers in the West Bank by August to allow Palestinian elections in mid-October.  Later in the day, Mr. Arafat took his oath of office on the Koran and then swore in 12 members of the Palestinian Authority, a de facto cabinet.  Chairman Arafat met in Jericho with Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, leader of Naturei Karta, an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, that rejects zionism and its espousal of Israel as a Jewish State.  Hirsch, who has been Arafat's adviser on Jewish affairs, told reporters, "This is the beginning of the end of the Zionist State".  (The Los Angeles Times)

6 July Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat launched a critical new phase of the peace process by opening talks in Paris on self-rule for areas of the West Bank other than Jericho, as well as on the fate of Palestinian refugees and some 7,000 prisoners (elsewhere 5,000) still held by Israel.  Arafat, Rabin and Peres were in Paris to receive the UNESCO Peace Prize for their breakthrough agreement last year.  Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State and head of the UNESCO prize jury, handed out the awards worth almost $50,000 to each winner.  Earlier in the day, President François Mitterrand of France held separate meetings with Chairman Arafat as well as Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Peres.  He urged the West to come up with financial assistance swiftly to make the Palestinian autonomy work and was quoted as saying that, "A failure of the Middle East peace  process as a result of a lack of financial means would see a drama".  (Reuters)

7 July In a press conference in Paris, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin said that talks between his Government and the PLO on further Palestinian autonomy will continue in Cairo next week. Chairman Arafat and Foreign Minister Peres said that they were happy with the results of their first stage negotiations which stretched into the night a day earlier.  The negotiations had reached an agreement on the composition of three working groups who are due to look at problems during the second stage of talks.  Chairman Arafat announced that he intends to move the Palestine National Council to Gaza in the next few months.  (DPA)

France has signed an agreement with the PLO to donate 60 million francs ($11 million) to the Palestinian Authority to improve water supplies and for police equipment.  (DPA)

8 July The Israeli army clamped a strict curfew on the city of Hebron and carried out sweeping searches for a suspected Palestinian who a night earlier shot and killed a Jewish settler schoolgirl in a drive-by shooting.  The shooting incident was preceded by the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli soldier whose body was discovered in a village near Ramallah.  Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin convened a consultation with his top security experts to discuss the attacks.  (DPA)

9 July PLO chairman Yasser Arafat met in Jeddah with Saudi King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz to discuss the peace process and their bilateral relations.  The meeting was attended by Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz and Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal.  Mr. Arafat was accompanied by Dr. Nabil Shaath and Mr. Yasser Abed Rabbo.  Saudi Arabia is one of the international donor countries which have pledged $2.4 billion in aid last October for the rebuilding  of  the Palestinian infrastructure over a period of five years.  (DPA)

11 July Israeli and PLO negotiators met in Cairo after a two-month break to discuss the expansion of the Gaza-Jericho self-rule to the rest of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.  The negotiators, headed by General Danny Rothschild for Israel and Nabil Shaath for the PLO, discussed the formation of a special subcommittee to deal with the preparations for general elections in the Palestinian self-rule areas, possibly to be held next October.  (DPA)

Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in Nablus city after the troops raided a house in Yasmina area.  The troops launched anti-tank missiles at the house and completely destroyed it.  The city of Nablus was placed under curfew.  (The Jerusalem Press)

The Israeli army clamped a complete closure on the Gaza Strip after thousands of workers rioted at the main crossing point into Israel.  (DPA)

12 July PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat returned to settle permanently in the Gaza Strip to lead the Palestinian Authority of the self-rule areas.  Prior to his arrival, he presided over farewell ceremonies for the PLO Headquarters in Tunis, where it had been based since it departed from Lebanon in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of 1982.  (DPA)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed Arafat's return to Gaza, urging  him  to    tackle  pressing economic problems of the self-rule areas.  (AFP)

The Multilateral Coordination Working Group, which was set up as part of the Middle East peace process, convened its sixth session in the Tunisian coastal city of Tabarka.  In addition to the Palestinian and Israeli delegations, the meeting was attended by the United States and Russia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Canada, Japan, the European Union and Norway. (DPA)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that he intends to meet Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Jordan on 20 July, two days after Israel and Jordan resume their peace talks.  It will be the first time an Israeli official will set foot openly on Jordanian soil after years of secret visits.  (Reuters)

13 July Israel expelled four Palestinians who had entered the Gaza Strip a day earlier in PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's motorcade, accusing them of planning past terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.  The discovery that the four had entered Gaza with Mr. Arafat touched off an uproar among Israeli politicians.  Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was quoted as saying, "I believe they have to learn that they cannot cheat".  It was reported that Palestinian officials  in  Gaza  did not defend the move and tried to defuse criticism.  (The Washington Post News Service)

14 July PLO Chairman and head of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat received for the first time the United States Ambassador to Israel in his office in Gaza.  Ambassador Edward Djerejian led a delegation with US Aid officials to sign an agreement  for  a US-funded house construction project for the  Gaza  Strip.  (AFP)

17 July In the worst outbreak of violence since the Palestinian self-rule began in Gaza, Israeli troops and Palestinian police exchanged fire during a riot at Erez crossing point by thousands of Palestinians unable to get to their jobs in Israel.  Two Palestinian labourers were killed and 90 others were injured, including 25 Palestinian policemen, during the four-hour rioting, in which Palestinians set a gas station on fire and torched buses on a parking lot.  According to Palestinian sources, unemployment rate in Gaza has reached 60 per cent and only 21,000 of the 60,000 Palestinians working in Israel were allowed to enter Israel.  (AP)

18 July Israeli cabinet ministers approved legislation outlawing the opening of offices in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem by the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.  A judicial committee will put final touches to the bill before sending it to Israel's Parliament for final approval.  Under the Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the PLO in September 1993, the status of Jerusalem  will be negotiated at a later stage of implementing  the  accord.  (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrived in Israel for a week-long tour during which he will visit Syria and Jordan, and meet PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.   (Reuters)

Israeli and Jordanian negotiators met on their common border to launch their first public talks in their home region.  It was reported that the historic talks are aimed at setting a common border, achieving mutual security and sharing scarce water resources.  (DPA)

Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron during clashes with protesters for the killing of two Gazans the day before.  Israel closed the Gaza Strip indefinitely and blamed Moslem militants for inciting riots at Erez crossing point a day earlier.  (AP)

19 July Jordan and Israel agreed, after two days of talks, on ways to handle their border and water disputes.  In a joint statement at the Jordan-Israel border, they announced they would resume their talks on 8 August in Israel at the Dead Sea and would expand their discussions to include economic cooperation, the environment and energy. (AP)

Islamic guerrillas from the fundamentalist Hamas movement killed an Israeli soldier in an ambush near the border with Egypt, apparently in retaliation for the killing of two Palestinians at Erez crossing point two days earlier.  Israel and the PLO denounced the act by Hamas and pledged to cooperate against similar attacks.        (Reuters)

20 July Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres became the highest-ranking Israeli official to set foot publicly in Jordan where he met for two hours with Jordan Prime Minister Abdul Salam Majali and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher at the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.  Reading a final communiqué after the meeting, Mr. Christopher said that Israel and Jordan would work on a plan for developing the Jordan Valley and that they affirmed their goal of peace. (Reuters)

21 July US Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City, the first American cabinet member to visit the self-rule areas since the Israeli withdrawal in May.  It was reported that at the top of their agenda was the Palestinian frustration with the delays in promised economic aid.  (AP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres arrived in Cairo for talks with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.  Mr. Peres was expected to brief Mr. Mubarak on the outcome of his visit to Jordan a day earlier.  (DPA)

22 July Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man and injured 8 others in the West Bank city of Nablus. The army said that the man was killed after soldiers opened fire on a vehicle fleeing from police but that they were investigating the incident.  In Hebron, 17 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops which spread to several parts of the city.  (Reuters)

Some 7,000 Palestinians gathered at Gaza City's soccer stadium to protest against the Palestinian Authority's plan to crack down on opponents of the peace process.   (Reuters)

Israel, for the second time in a week, barred a member of the Palestinian Authority from entering Jerusalem.  Earlier in the week, Mr. Ahmed Korei, in charge of the Economic Department of the Palestinian Authority, accused Israel of jeopardising its May peace accord with the PLO by barring him from entering Jerusalem to address an economic conference. (Reuters)

Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli army patrol near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, injuring a soldier.  A leaflet found at the scene claimed that the attack was carried out by the Islamic Jihad group.  (AP)

23 July The Palestinian Authority, in its first full meeting, endorsed an operational plan to be implemented by year's end.  The plan outlines the work of each department in the self-rule administration.  (Reuters)

24 July Israeli Finance Minister Abraham Shohat met in Jericho with Mr. Ahmed Korei, in charge of the Palestinian economy, to follow up the economic aspects of the self-rule agreement.  Mr. Shohat was quoted as saying that his country's economic agreement with the PLO could be amended to accommodate Jordan, but only with Palestinian agreement.  Mr. Shohat said that Israel would immediately transfer seven million Shekels ($2.5 million) to the Palestinian Authority representing customs duties Israel had collected from Palestinians.  (Reuters)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opened talks with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Damascus to break a deadlock in peace negotiations between Syria and Israel.     (Reuters)

25 July Jordan's King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sealed the end of a 46-year-old state of war between their countries with a handshake and a declaration to pursue peace and friendship.  At the White House ceremony, the two leaders signed a joint declaration as US President Clinton presided over.  In his speech, King Hussein said that "What we have accomplished and what we are committed to is the end of the state of war between Jordan and Israel".  Mr. Rabin said, "We have gone a long way towards a full treaty of peace". President Clinton was quoted as saying that, "From this day forward they pledge to settle their differences by peaceful means.  Both countries will refrain from actions that may adversely affect the security of the other and will thwart all those who would use terrorism to threaten either".  The joint declaration also acknowledged Jordan's key religious role as guardian of Islamic holy sites in East Jerusalem, a move that one Jordanian official said was likely to anger some Arab and Moslem Governments.  (Reuters)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gave his blessings to the peace making between Jordan and Israel and was quoted as saying that, "This is a continuation of the peace process in the long march to achieve a comprehensive peaceful solution in the whole area, and we hope we will have the same on the Syrian and the Lebanese tracks".  (AP)

After three days of meeting, delegations of the PLO, Jordan and Israel agreed in Oslo to form a joint committee to conduct a Norwegian-funded study of the legal and technical issues involved in managing water.  Control of water is seen as a key to lasting peace in the arid Middle East.  (AP)

26 July The European Union welcomed the Washington Declaration and paid tribute to what it called the vision and courage of the Jordanian and Israeli leaders who had made possible the Washington direct talks and the signing of an agreement ending the state of war between their two countries.  (Reuters)

The United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, welcomed the signing of the declaration in Washington ending the state of war between Jordan and Israel, and hoped it would accelerate the achievement of a comprehensive Middle East peace.     (Reuters)

27 July PLO chief negotiator with Israel Nabil Shaath accused Israel of dismembering Palestinian territory by giving Jordan (in the Washington Declaration) religious supremacy over Jerusalem and demanded that the Arab League reassert that the city is the capital of Palestine.  (Reuters)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat telephoned some Arab leaders to enlist their support on Jerusalem after Israel and Jordan agreed on the special role for Jordan in the holy places of the city. (Reuters)

The Syrian Government daily newspaper said that separate peace deals can only harm the Arabs and that rapid moves by Jordan and Israel would not force Syria to make concessions in its own talks with Israel.  (Reuters)

28 July Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have concluded draft agreements that would give Palestinian control over health and education in all of the West Bank.  The implementation of the agreements is pending the final approval by the leaderships of Israel and the PLO.  (AP)

Palestinian police banned distribution of a pro-Jordan newspaper in the Gaza Strip.  The ban on the daily An-Nahar, a long-time supporter of Jordan's King Hussein,  brought outcries from Palestinians and others against  censorship.  (AP)

30 July A summit meeting took place in the Egyptian resort of Taba between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  The meeting of the two leaders came after Mr. Mubarak visited Syria on 24 July and last week's signing of the Israeli-Jordanian Declaration.

Jordan's Prime Minister Abdul Salam Al Majali said that King Hussein's jurisdiction over Moslem shrines in Jerusalem was not a stumbling block to the PLO's  quest  to  make  the  holy  city  the  capital of  a  Palestinian State. (Reuters)

31 July The Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Hamid Al-Gabid, urged Israel and its Arab peace partners to determine the final status of Jerusalem within the PLO-Israel peace accord.  He was quoted as saying, "We would like to underline the crucial importance for the entire Islamic Ummah of the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif whose final status must be defined at a later stage of negotiations, in accordance with provisions of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement".  (Reuters)

Delegations of 20 countries, including Israel and most of the Arab States, began a two-day meeting in Cairo as part of the multilateral talks on the environment in the Middle East.  Syria and Lebanon are boycotting all the multilateral talks on the grounds that bilateral peace must come first.  The meeting, chaired by Japan, is taking place to draft an environmental code of conduct for the region based on international agreements.  (Reuters)

*   *   *