CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS
RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE
Monitored from the media by the
Division for Palestinian Rights
1 April The Palestinian Authority issued the first Palestinian diplomatic passport to one of its officials, with the signature of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. (Reuter)
An Israeli official from the Housing Ministry reported that several hundreds of Israeli settlers are illegally squatting in empty houses in the occupied West Bank. 156 settlers have taken over empty homes built with public funds, while 300 others have occupied houses they have purchased without obtaining the necessary permits. (AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City and discussed the peace process. Mr. Kozyrev handed Mr. Arafat a letter from President Boris Yeltsin, expressing understanding for the Palestinian leader's difficulties in implementing self-rule and encouraging him to face the challenges. Later in the day Mr. Kozyrev met his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres. (Reuter)
2 April Seven Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured when a huge explosion ripped through an apartment building in Gaza City. It was reported that members of the Hamas military wing Izzadin al-Qassam, were among those who died. An investigation by Palestinian police revealed that the explosion occurred while Hamas members were preparing a bomb. A spokesman of Hamas denied the police accusation. (Ha'aretz)
3 April Saudi Arabia has officially recognised the new passport issued by the Palestinian Authority for Palestinians residing in the self-rule areas. Saudi Arabia is the first Arab country to recognize the Palestinian passport. (Reuter)
4 April Mr. Said Atta Abu Kirsh, an official from the Palestinian Authority's agriculture department, and the Saudi Arabian Trade Minister Sulaiman al-Salim, reached a trade agreement for Palestinian agricultural products. Exports to Saudi Arabia will begin soon via Egypt and Jordan. (AFP)
5 April According to Palestinian police, Israeli troops shot and wounded a Palestinian as he tried to enter Israel illegally. The incident took place at the Erez crossing point. (AFP)
Jewish settlers from Maale Amose in the West Bank, uprooted some 1,500 olive, fig and almond trees belonging to Palestinian farmers. (AFP)
The board members of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) met in Jerusalem for the first time. Lawrence Summers, Under-Secretary for International Affairs at the US Treasury proposed a similar bank for the Middle East. The idea was suggested by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the economic conference in Casablanca in November 1994. (Reuter)
6 April The first Palestinian radio station, called "Peace and Love", was set up in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah by six Palestinians. The station's programme is a mixture of light entertainment, which avoids politics, and is capturing a large number of listeners among the Palestinians. (AFP)
The Israeli Housing Ministry has drawn up a plan to build more than 5,000 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Housing Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer announced that he would present the plan on 9 April to a ministerial committee in charge of construction work in the occupied territories. Under the plan 3,000 housing units will be built in Maale Adumim in East Jerusalem, 1,300 in Mattityahu near Ramallah, 800 in Givat Zeev, and dozens more in Karnei Shomron near Nablus. (AFP)
9 April Six Israeli soldiers and an American woman were killed and 30 others injured in a car bomb attack on a bus near Kfar Darom settlement, South of the Gaza Strip. Several hours later, a second car-bomb attack took place near Netzarim settlement in the center of the Gaza Strip, killing one Israeli border-guard and injuring five others. The first attack was claimed by the Islamic Jihad and the second one was claimed by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the attack and called the killers "enemies of peace". (AFP)
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that no settlement would be dismantled before negotiations with the Palestinians on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are held, which are due to begin by May 1996. Rabin's declaration came following Minister Yossi Sarid's call to dismantle the Netzarim settlement. (AFP)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) urged Arab finance and economic ministers to reject proposals for a Middle East bank to fund regional development. UAE Minister of State for Financial and Industrial Affairs, Ahmad Ben Hamaid al-Tayer, repeated his opposition to the proposal saying it would hurt Arab economies, affect joint Arab action, and serve only Israel's interests. (AFP)
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has proposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. He outlined his proposal before parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee and said that in return for a sovereign state, the Palestinians might relax demands for an Israeli army redeployment in the West Bank as envisaged in the Declaration of Principles. But PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has rejected the offer and said the plan violates the Declaration of Principles. (Ha'aretz)
Following the two car-bomb explosions, Palestinian police arrested 150 members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. It was also reported that the Palestinian military court sentenced a Palestinian, who trained young children to be suicide bombers, to 15 years in prison. (AFP)
10 April The first ambassadors of Israel and Jordan presented their diplomatic credentials in parallel ceremonies in Amman and Jerusalem. (AFP)
11 April PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat vowed to disarm Moslem militants as clashes broke out with Palestinian police during a massive security sweep in the Gaza City after two suicide bombings. Arafat also urged Israel to cooperate in preventing the introduction of arms into the self-rule areas. He charged that many of the weapons circulating in the Gaza Strip were Israeli. (AFP)
Israeli President Ezer Weizman called for the suspension of the peace process with the Palestinians in response to the two suicide bombings which took place in the Gaza Strip, killing seven Israeli soldiers and an American student. (AFP)
12 April The Israeli Meretz Party called for the immediate dismantling of four Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Netzarim, Kfar Darom and Morage settlements in the Gaza Strip as well as the settlement in the heart of Hebron in the West Bank. (Reuter)
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat urged donor countries to deliver their pledged economic aid to the Palestinians in order to prevent further attacks by militant groups in the Gaza Strip. He said there can be no political solution to violence without "an economic recovery". (AFP)
13 April The Israeli Government decided to close the West Bank and the Gaza Strip at the start of the 10-day holiday of Passover. The full closure would be imposed from 13 to 16 April.
Israeli troops shot and injured two Palestinians who failed to stop their car at a roadblock between the towns of Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank. Later in the day, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian gunman who reportedly opened fire at an Israeli building site by the Dead Sea. (AFP)
Palestinian police arrested two journalists from the Gaza Strip, hours after their newspaper "Al-Watan" appeared with an editorial comparing a crackdown on Palestinian militants to Israeli repression. (Reuter)
Mahmud al-Zahhar, a leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and about 20 members of other opposition factions met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in a reconciliation effort. The Islamic Jihad was not represented in the meeting. A draft declaration calling for the release of all detainees, an end to the crackdown and steps toward starting a dialogue between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, was signed by representatives of the sides, including Fatah Movement, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine. (AFP)
15 April Israeli troops shot dead a Jordanian man who tried to enter the West Bank illegally from Jordan. Israeli Radio said the man was unarmed, and was carrying a Koran. (AFP)
Mr. Nabil Shaath, in charge of planning and external cooperation in the Palestinian Authority, said international donors agreed to finance the Palestinian Authority's 1995 budget deficit and pledged to cover last year's remaining deficit. Donor countries also pledged 2.4 billion over five years to help build the Palestinian economy. (Reuter)
16 April A first aviation agreement was signed between the Palestinian Authority and Qatar. The agreement was signed in Doha by Mr. Abdel Aziz Mohammad al-Naimi, director of civil aviation, and his Palestinian counterpart Mr. Faez Zidan. Qatar pledged to help the Palestinians build an airport in the Gaza Strip and provide them with light aircrafts in the future. (AFP)
A twenty-two member Japanese delegation visited the Middle East to assess whether Japan should send its troops for United Nations peacekeeping in the Golan Heights. During their tour the Japanese delegation met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip and assured him of more aid for the self-rule areas. (AFP)
17 April Israeli soldiers beat Palestinian demonstrators and arrested 13 in the West Bank town of Ramallah during a march for the release of thousands of prisoners held by Israel. The demonstration was one of several protests organized throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Prisoners Club to mark the annual Prisoners Day. (Reuter)
Arab businessmen, including Palestinians and Gulf investors, met with Israeli businessmen in Italy and France to discuss the issue of buying Israeli settlements. Small settlements such as Netzarim and Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip were on the top of a shopping list. The settlements would be used to house Palestinian refugees, police and civil servants and save the heavy cost of building new homes. (AFP)
Eighteen Jewish extremists were arrested by Israeli police after they tried to force their way into the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques in East Jerusalem. (AFP)
Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians from Hebron, one believed by the Israelis to be a key gunman of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. The three men were sitting in a car, allegedly preparing to mount an attack against Israel, when they were ambushed by a special border police unit. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat charged that the Israeli army had murdered the three in cold blood. (AFP)
The French aid group Equilibre sent, with the support of the French Government, a "peace convoy" to the Gaza Strip. The convoy carried 100 tonnes of goods ranging from school and sports equipments, wheelchairs, hospital beds and three mobile dental surgeries. The organizers said they hope to alert world opinion to the urgent need to help the Palestinians and prevent a breakdown in the peace process. (AFP)
18 April Israeli authorities deported two Palestinian prisoners to south Lebanon but Lebanese troops refused to allow them entry at the Harma crossing point. The two men, who belong to the PLO Fatah group and who hold Jordanian passports, were placed in the custody of UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon. (Reuter)
Tunisian Deputy Foreign Minister Said Ben Mustafa held talks with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. Mr. Ben Mustafa, the first official envoy from Tunis to visit the Gaza Strip, told Yasser Arafat that his Government would soon be opening a representative office in Gaza City. (AFP)
19 April Mr. Mohammad al-Ajnaf, Tunisian representative to the Palestinian Authority presented his credentials to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at his Headquarters in Gaza City. Mr. al-Ajnaf became the third representative of an Arab country to the Palestinian Authority after Morocco and Egypt. (Reuter)
Egypt and the Palestinian Authority agreed in Cairo to grant each other preferential trading status. The agreement was signed by Ahmad Korei, in charge of the economic department in the Palestinian Authority and his Egyptian counterpart Mahmud Mohammad Mahmud. Egypt and the Palestinian Authority also decided to call upon the Israeli authorities to open the border post at Rafah, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, to facilitate trade. (AFP)
20 April The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad condemned the car bombing in Oklahoma City in the United States, while PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sent condolences to President Bill Clinton. (AFP)
22 April The Palestinian military court jailed two Palestinian militants charged with inciting anti-Israeli attacks. The military court has judged nine people since it was established two months ago. (AFP)
23 April About 200 Palestinian truck drivers and their supporters protested limits on trucks entering Israel in a sit-in outside the office of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Demonstrators carried placards urging an end to the Israeli security measures which limited the number of trucks to about a dozen a day. (AFP)
24 April Israeli soldiers lifted the closure on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after a ten-day closure imposed as a precaution against attacks during the Jewish holiday. A military spokesman said 26,000 Palestinians with work permits were allowed to enter Israeli territory. (AFP)
25 April A Palestinian prisoner, Abed al-Samed Harizat, from Hebron, died in Hadassah Ein Kerem, an Israeli hospital. Harizat had been detained a week earlier and during the interrogations he was dispatched to the hospital with brain damage reportedly inflicted by the secret police. Two Israeli and an Irish doctors hired by Harizat's family confirmed that Abed al-Samed died because of head injuries and not natural causes. Police said Israel's Justice Ministry was investigating the case. (Reuter)
26 April The Israeli army started the evacuation of three military training camps in the West Bank as a first step of Israeli army's redeployment in the West Bank. The military camp "four", a major training site for new recruits near the settlement of Beit El, Ramallah area, was one of the three to be evacuated. (AFP)
27 April The Israeli Housing Ministry announced that about 131 acres of Palestinian-owned land in East Jerusalem will be expropriated to be used for building a new Jewish neighbourhood. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said that this confiscation of land violated the Declaration of Principles. The Palestinian Authority decided to form a high level committee headed by Yasser Arafat to confront such measures. The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations asked the UN Security Council to take action against the Israeli decision. (AFP)
Amnesty International accused the Palestinian Authority of violating basic human rights by trying Moslem militants in a military court. Christopher Avery, an international human rights lawyer sent by the London-based group to investigate the Palestinian Authority state security court in the Gaza Strip, said that he was not allowed to attend a court hearing, and see copies of the charge sheets or trial transcripts. In response to the Amnesty report, PLO Chief negotiator Nabil Shaath said "that the state security court is a message, not a venue for the future behavior of the Palestinian Authority". (Reuter)
Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians from the West Bank in separate incidents. The first Palestinian, from Biddu village near Jerusalem, was killed at a roadblock near Ramallah when soldiers opened fire on his car. The second one was killed while hiding inside a house after he drove through an army roadblock near Tulkarm fleeing to the nearby Arab village of Qalanswa, inside Israel. (AFP)
Representatives of donor countries, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, met in Paris and agreed to finance the Palestinian Authority's 1995 budget deficit estimated at $136 million. Jan Egeland of Norway, Chairman of an ad hoc committee coordinating the aid, said that donors would mobilize close to $60 million very soon. (AFP)
28 April The United Arab Emirates (UAE) donated $10 million to the World Bank's aid fund for the Palestinian Authority as a contribution for the 1995/96 financial year. (AFP)
30 April Palestinian Police Chief General Naser Yussef accused Israel of smuggling guns into the occupied West Bank in order to foment clashes between Palestinians. He urged Palestinians not to resort to violence. (AFP)
