Chronological Review of Events/January 1996 – DPR review

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS

RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

January 1996

Monitored from the media by the

Division for Palestinian Right

1 January The Israeli cabinet met and discussed a Palestinian claim to

compensation for damages by Israel during  its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.  Prime Minister Shimon Peres rejected the claim and proposed a change in the law to protect Israel from being liable for its practices particularly during the years of the intifadah (uprising).  However, Mr. Peres agreed to give a lump sum payment to the Palestinian Authority.  No decision was made.  (Reuter)

European Union (EU) observers issued a statement protesting the delay in the official campaign for the Palestinian election.  The head of the EU electoral unit, Carl Lidbom, complained that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat had arbitrarily shortened the campaign from 22 to 14 days and called on him to take urgent steps to build public and international confidence in the election process.  (AFP)

2 January Israel and the Palestinian Authority inaugurated the first

International Business Center in Erez, the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.  The center is aimed at promoting investments in the Palestinian territories and attracting Israeli, Palestinian, and foreign investors.  (AFP)

The Palestinian Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that campaigning for the Council election would begin immediately.  The announcement came after European and US election observers criticized the Palestinian Authority's decision to delay the official start of the election campaign.  (AFP)

3 January Thirteen Palestinians expelled from Libya and carrying Syrian

travel documents were prevented from entering Egypt joining 192 other Palestinians stranded in Salloum village at the Libya-Egypt border.  (AFP)

4 January British Deputy Foreign Minister Jeremy Hanley met with PLO

Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City and announced more than $2 million in aid to Palestinian security forces.  Mr. Hanley exchanged letters of protocol for two projects which would provide communications equipment for Palestinian police in the West Bank and a training programme for police in the Gaza Strip.  Officers from the Scottish Police Training College would grant an additional $280,000 for the continuation of a training programme for Gaza police.  (AFP)

Israeli Minister of Justice David Libai met with the head of the Palestinian Planning and Cooperation Department, Nabil Shaath, and agreed to release more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners before the Palestinian elections.  The prisoner release would be part of the Interim Agreement signed in September 1995 between Israel and the PLO.  (AFP)

Delegations representing Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and Jordan resumed their sixth round of talks in Haifa in search for a solution to the  Palestinian refugees who were displaced during the 1967 war.  The two-day meeting ended with no agreement, but it was reported that they will resume in Cairo in February.  (AFP)

 

5 January Yehiya Ayyash, a leading member of the Islamic Resistance

Movement, Hamas, was killed after a rigged portable phone exploded in his face at his uncle's home in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip.  Mr. Ayyash was believed by Israel to have masterminded at least seven suicide bombings in Israel.  Palestinians believed that the Israeli Security Service Shin Bet was behind the killing.  Israel neither confirmed nor denied Israeli responsibility but expressed satisfaction at Ayyash's death.  While PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat accused Israel of killing Ayyash, calling it a violation of the Israeli-PLO peace agreement, Hamas vowed revenge.  (The Washington Post)

6 January More than 100,000 Palestinians, many of them Hamas supporters,

attended the funeral of Yehiya Ayyash.   Leaders of Islamic groups and Palestinian Authority officials led the mourners in a 90-minute march from a Gaza City mosque to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.  (The Washington Post)   

8 January PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met with French Prime Minister Alain

Juppe in Paris and signed an agreement under which the French Government would donate to the Palestinian Authority 77.5 million francs ($15.5 million).  Most of the money would be devoted for a study on the construction of a sea port for the Gaza Strip.  Later in the day, Mr. Arafat attended the funeral of the former President, François Mitterrand, and paid his respects to the latter's family.  (Reuter)

9 January More than 50 countries and international organizations attended a

donors conference in Paris and pledged $865 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority.  The biggest pledges came from the European Union for $120 million, $100 million from Saudi Arabia, $90 million from the World Bank, and $71 million from the United States.  Dutch and German pledges were made in kind to help in improving the port of Gaza.  PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak, and the donors represented by the Foreign Minister of Norway, Bjorn Godal, were among the participants who came to sign an updated version of their 1995 Tripartite Action Plan on the use of the aid.  (Financial Times)

A group of 120 Israeli settler families (about 800 people), who live in the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the West Bank, expressed their willingness to leave the settlement and move to Israel.  A resident, Simha Mizrahi said she had organized an association of families who want to claim compensation from the Israeli Government. The Israeli Government said it would not consider aiding those families until a final peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority has been reached.  (Reuter, AFP)

The head of European Union observers to the Palestinian elections, Carl Lidbom, expressed concern that Israel's closure of the West Bank and Gaza could restrict candidates campaigns.  He called on Israel to give the necessary permits to allow candidates and their supporters to travel for their election campaign from the Palestinian self-rule areas to Jerusalem City.  (Reuter)

10 January King Hussein of Jordan visited Israel and met with Prime Minister

Shimon Peres in Tel-Aviv.  The latter hailed the King's visit as an expression of a new atmosphere of peace and regional development.  King Hussein dedicated a trauma center named for Mr. Yitzhak Rabin at Ichilove Hospital, where he died on November 4, 1995 after he was shot by an Israeli opposed to the peace process.   (The New York Times)

The Israeli Government freed 812 Palestinian prisoners.  Israeli Justice Minister David Libya said that 230 prisoners jailed for attacks on Arabs who aided Israel would be freed on 11 January but would be barred from Israel until their sentences elapsed.  (The New York Times)

11 January Israel reopened its borders with the Palestinian self-rule areas

in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after a week-long closure ordered following the assassination of Yehiya Ayyash.  Nevertheless, the Israeli army ordered that the West Bank city of Nablus remain closed to Israelis because of a rally planned by Hamas.  (AFP)

Mr. Hisham Abdelrazek, a Palestinian Authority negotiator on the issue of prisoners, accused Israel of violating agreements on the release of Palestinian prisoners by freeing mostly non-political detainees.  He said that according to an agreement reached between Nabil Shaath and Yossi Beilin, Israel pledged to free 1,200 Palestinian prisoners being held for their political activities.  It was reported that after the latest releases, some 2,800 Palestinians would remain in Israeli jails, but independent humanitarian sources estimated the figure to be closer to 3,800.  (AFP)

     

12 January President Hafez al-Assad of Syria agreed to a new and expanded

round of peace talks with Israel in Maryland later this month.  US Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced that the Syrian leader assented to a proposal to include military experts from both sides when the negotiations resume.  (The Washington Post)

Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded when a bomb exploded near a roadblock in the Gaza Strip.  (AFP)

UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali named Mr. Peter Hansen, from Denmark, as the new Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). (Reuter)

13 January US Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with PLO Chairman

Yasser Arafat in Gaza City and discussed the Palestinian elections scheduled for 20 January.  While Mr. Christopher reassured Mr. Arafat of continuing American economic support for the Palestinian Authority, the latter pledged to try to stop  acts of violence against Israel by some Palestinian groups.  (Reuter)

14 January The Palestinian CEC tested padlocked ballot boxes and placed

voting slips under police guard as they made final preparations for the Palestinian elections.  About 1,700 polling stations were readied in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, mostly schools and clubs without political affiliations.  In East Jerusalem, five post offices would be used for the elections.  (AFP)

Israeli police attacked Palestinian election candidates in East Jerusalem who tried to confront strict curbs on campaigning in the city.  An independent candidate, Samir Jumaa, was detained while on his way into the city.  Human rights activist Hanan Ashrawi said Israeli police clashed with her, beat up her supporters after handcuffing them, and detained several of them to prevent them from campaigning in East Jerusalem.  (Reuter)  

15 January Electricité de France (EDF), Delma of the United States and the

Palestinian Authority signed a preliminary agreement for the construction of a 175-megawatt plant.  The companies projected that the project would be completed by 1997 and would bring down the cost of electricity by 30 per cent compared to what the Authority currently pays Israel.  (AFP)

Canada and Israel have reached a tentative agreement on free trade.  The agreement, which would also apply to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, would eliminate all tariffs on manufactured goods and would include agriculture and fisheries in a package involving goods of export interest to each country.  The agreement would go into effect on 1 July after approval by both Governments. (Reuter)

 

16 January More than 100 armed Israeli police officers evicted about 100

Jewish settlers from 50 apartments which they had occupied near Kiryat Arba in the West Bank.  The Israeli Government intended to use the apartments to house Israeli police officers who would remain after most of the area has been handed over to the Palestinian Authority.  (The New York Times)

Palestinian gunmen ambushed and killed two Israeli soldiers near Hebron, reportedly in revenge for the assassination of Yehiya Ayyash.  There was no immediate claim of responsibility.  (The New York Times)

Jordan and Israel signed a transportation pact including air, sea, and land links.  The agreement, which would come into effect in February, is aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries and would give Jordanian goods preferential access to the Israeli market.  (Financial Times)

US Vice-President Al Gore visited Jericho and met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and a group of Palestinian businessmen and discussed the Palestinian elections and economic development in the area. (AFP)

According to Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert, talks on the final status of Jerusalem began ahead of schedule.  Reportedly, the talks, which are taking place in different European capitals,  aimed at setting a framework for negotiations that would begin in May.  It was also reported that Yossi Beilin, Israeli Minister in charge of the peace process, was overseeing the talks to prepare agreed principles for holding future negotiations.  Israel was represented by two university lecturers, Yair Hirshfeld and Ron Pundak, while the Palestinian Authority was represented by Faisal Husseini, head of the Orient House, the PLO Headquarters in East Jerusalem.  An Israeli official confirmed that informal contacts were taking place.  (AFP)

17 January Israeli soldiers withdrew from their headquarters in Abu Dis town

near Jerusalem and turned over the building to the Palestinian Authority.  (AFP)

18 January The Israeli authorities decided to seal the West Bank and the Gaza

Strip, from 19 to 21 January, the period of the Palestinian elections and barred Israeli citizens from entering the self-rule areas.  It was reported that Israel would deploy thousands of policemen in East Jerusalem to prevent right-wing Jews from disturbing the elections.  (AFP)

Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat unveiled the foundation stone for a seaport in  the Gaza Strip to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority.  The ceremony took place on the beach near the village of Sheikh Ijlin, south of Gaza City.  The project is financed by a $25 million contribution from the Netherlands, $20 million from France, and a donation of $15 million from Germany.  (Reuter)

B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported that Israel prevented Palestinian candidates in East Jerusalem from conducting a free and democratic campaign for their first general elections.  According to a B'Tselem official, Israel forbade outdoor election rallies, restricted the number of election notices and barred candidates residing in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from entering Jerusalem.  (Reuter)

19 January Israeli soldiers shot and killed three armed Palestinian men in a

car during an exchange of gunfire in which one Israeli soldier was also shot and injured.  The shooting took place near Jenin in the West Bank.  A joint Palestinian-Israeli police team was investigating the incident.  (The Washington Post)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat with the attendance of representatives from Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority, laid the first stone for an airport in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.  The airport complex, estimated to cost $50 million, would be three kilometers (1.8 miles) long and would spread over more than 210 hectares (518 acres).  An Egyptian construction company would carry out the work, supervised by a Moroccan firm, and financed by the National Bank of Egypt and the Credit Foncier Egyptien.  (AFP)

  

20 January Thousands of Palestinian voters  in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip,

and East Jerusalem took part in large numbers in the first Palestinian elections.  The Palestinian Central Election Commission reported that the voters turnout had been 74 per cent in the West Bank and 85 per cent in the Gaza Strip.  In some districts, the turnout was as high as 90 per cent.  In East Jerusalem, where international observers complained of disruption by some Israeli obstacles and logistical problems, the turnout was reported at 40 per cent.  (Reuter)

More than 5,000 Israeli settlers demonstrated to protest the Palestinian election in East Jerusalem.  Protesters complained that the election undermined Israel's sovereignty over East Jerusalem.  About 51 Palestinians and Israelis were arrested in Jerusalem during the voting process in connection with stone-throwing, attacks on police and attempts to disrupt the elections.  (AFP)

21 January Initial results of the Palestinian elections showed that PLO

Chairman Yasser Arafat has won about 88 per cent of the votes for the post of Ra'ees.  In a joint statement, the European Union and heads of other observer delegations declared that the elections in the self-rule areas, including East Jerusalem, were fair despite some irregularities.  They also urged the Palestinian people to establish democratic institutions and to strengthen the rule of law and respect for human rights.  (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres called on the Palestinian Authority to amend the article of the Palestinian Charter calling for Israel's destruction.  Mr. Peres stated that the Israeli Government would allow the return of members of the Palestine National Council (PNC) to the self-rule areas if PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat would keep his promise to cancel articles of the PLO charter.  (Reuter)

The Israeli authorities lifted the two-day closure of the Palestinian territories imposed on the eve of the Palestinian elections.  However, a ban on Israeli citizens entering the Palestinian self-rule areas was kept until further notice.  (AFP)

 

22 January The Palestinian  CEC reported that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has

won 88.1 per cent of the votes to the Ra'ees post while his sole opponent, Mrs. Samiha Khalil, has obtained 9.3 per cent.  It was also reported that 65 of the 88 elected Council members were affiliated with the Fatah movement, the main political faction of the PLO, including 50 who were on the movements slate.  The rest ran for the elections independently.  Twenty-one other independent candidates gained seats, including five members considered affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.  Five seats were won by women, two of whom were affiliated with Fatah.  The leader of the small ancient Samaritan community in Nablus won one reserved seat.  (Al-Sharq al-Awsat)

World leaders extended their congratulations to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat on his election to the Presidency of the Executive Authority of the Palestinian Council and on the election of the Councils 88 members.  Mr. Peres said that the Palestinian elections crowned the 1993 Declaration of Principles agreement between Israel and PLO.  (Reuter, AFP)

23 January A survey conducted by the Center for Palestine Research and

Studies (CPRS) in cooperation with the Washington-based International Republican Institute, showed a majority of Palestinian voters believe human rights and press freedom take precedence over national security issues.  About 40 per cent of the 2,775 Palestinians interviewed said that they would place important decision-making in the hands of the newly elected Council while 30 per cent would leave them up to the Ra'ees.  (Reuter)

24 January The newly-elected Ra'ees of the Executive Authority of the

Palestinian Council, Yasser Arafat, met with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Erez, a main crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.  Both leaders discussed the final status of the peace negotiations.  Mr. Peres stated that Israel  insisted not to resume the final-status talks unless the PLO removed articles in its charter referring to the destruction of Israel. Mr. Arafat pledged to amend the PLO charter within two months of the inaugural session of the new Palestinian Council, expected to be held in late February.  (AFP, Reuter)

25 January Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdul-Karim al-Kabariti met with the

Palestinian Ra'ees Yasser Arafat and opened a Jordanian mission in Gaza City.  Mr. al-Kabariti reiterated Jordanian support for the establishment of a Palestinian State and said any eventual confederation with Jordan has to be decided in a referendum in both countries.  (Reuter)

 

The Israeli Government decided to permit all members of the Palestine National Council in exile to return to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.  Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that the decision was necessary so that the Palestinians could fulfill their pledge to amend certain articles of the PLO charter that call for the destruction of Israel.  (The Los Angeles Times)

26 January The Israeli authorities banned Palestinians from the Gaza Strip

from entering Jerusalem to attend the first Friday prayers of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan.  The measures also affected Palestinian residents from the West Bank who were under 30-years- old.  About 30 Israelis from the right-wing tried to enter the site of the Mosques while some 160,000 Palestinian Moslems were praying but they were turned back by Israeli security forces.  (Reuter)

The Palestinian Authority and Jordan signed a series of accords for bilateral cooperation, including administration, education, banking, trade, transportation, communications, culture and information.  Details of the agreements would be discussed by the Palestinian Minister of Finance, Mohammed Zohdi Nashashibi and his Jordanian counterpart during Mr. Zohdi's visit to Jordan sometime next week.  (AFP)

 

27 January The Ra'ees of the Executive Authority of the Palestinian Council

Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met in Cairo and discussed the last and most crucial phase of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Arafat agreed to establish a joint Egyptian- Palestinian committee to deal with bilateral economic and cultural relations.  Later on in the day,  Mr. Arafat met in Amman with King Hussein of Jordan and discussed with him similar issues and agreed to activate the joint Jordanian-Palestinian working group.  (Reuter)

28 January Advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres raised the

prospect for an early election in Israel after opinion polls showed that the latter has gained 23 per cent points ahead of Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party.  The poll also showed that 59 per cent of Israelis support the Oslo peace process with Palestinians compared to 24 per cent who oppose it.  (Financial Times)

The Ra'ees of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, met with leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and reached a reconciliation agreement.  Under the agreement, Mr. Arafat will permit Hamas to open offices and an official newspaper in the Gaza Strip.  He also decided to release 15 prisoners, members of Hamas.  Both sides also agreed to establish a joint committee to resolve differences and prepare for municipal elections tentatively scheduled for May.  (AFP)

A Palestinian man from Samua Village in the West Bank was killed in an explosion, reportedly while he was making a bomb, which went off prematurely.  (Reuter)

An activist of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Khaled Dawoud, reported that about 200 Palestinians, many of them women and children, who were stranded on the Egyptian-Libyan border, would soon become a humanitarian disaster if no immediate solution was found.  EOHR and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) condemned the inhuman conditions of the group who has suffered under poor conditions due to icy storms and has been plagued by disease and hunger.  The group remained stranded in tents since last September when Libyan leader Muammer Qathafi ordered 30,000 Palestinians out of Libya.  EOHR would send another fact-finding mission to prepare detailed reports on the camp residents to highlight their hardship to the outside world.  (Reuter)

  

30 January A 19-year-old Palestinian youth from Jenin stabbed and killed an

Israeli soldier in a West Bank liaison office of Qabatiyeh used by Israeli and PLO security forces.  Israeli police arrested the attacker, believed to be a member of Hamas.  No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.  (Reuter)

The Palestinian Ra'ees Yasser Arafat arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, to attend a ceremony where a peace prize in honor of Olaf Palme was given to young Israelis and Palestinians.  During his visit, Mr. Arafat met with the Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson and with Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen and discussed the Middle East peace process. It was reported that Sweden, represented by the former Swedish Foreign Minister, would act as a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the future of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.  (AFP)

31 January The Israeli army closed off the West Bank town of Ramallah to

Israeli citizens after several incidents during which  Palestinians threw stones at passing Israeli cars.  The closure would be limited to Israelis until further notice.  (AFP)

The Israeli authorities prevented about 230 PLO policemen arriving from Libya from entering the Palestinian self-rule areas despite an earlier agreement between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority.  It was reported that Israel halted the operation at the Rafah crossing point from Egypt after two unauthorized Palestinians slipped into the Gaza Strip with a first batch of 54 policemen. (AFP)

During a meeting of a donors committee held in Gaza City, the UN coordinator for the Palestinian self-rule areas, Terje Rod Larsen,  urged international donors to fulfil their financial pledges to the Palestinians.  Representatives of 26 countries and the Palestinian Authority attended the meeting.  Mr. Larsen stated that donor countries still had $300 million to pay to meet their commitments.  (AFP)

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