Chronological Review of Events/April 1998 – DPR review

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Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

Monthly media monitoring review

April 1998

 1

Israel’s Ministerial Committee for National Security said Israel accepts UN Security Council resolution 425 (1978).  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for help in implementing the security cabinet’s decision. (AFP, AP, DPA, FWN/UPI, Reuters)

 2

The Lebanese Government formally rejected an Israeli proposal for a conditional troop withdrawal from south Lebanon as a "violation" of its sovereignty. (AFP)

 3

Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafik al-Hariri said that Lebanon would cooperate with Israel on border security arrangements if Israel signed a peace agreement with Lebanon. (Reuters)

 4

The Israeli troops shot and wounded six Palestinians in clashes in Abu Dis, an East Jerusalem neighbourhood.  The Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets and tear-gas at the some 200 Palestinians protesters mourning the death of a Hamas member. (Reuters)

 5

Saeb Erakat, a top Palestinian negotiator, criticized the United States for not making public the details of its proposal aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. (AP)

 6

A Palestinian farmer, Ali Mohammed Ahmed Saad, was in serious condition after Jewish settlers beat him with sticks in a dispute over land near the West Bank settlement of Kfar Etzion. (AFP)

 7

Two Palestinians were wounded when the Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets at demonstrators near a West Bank refugee camp, army officials said.  The clash took place when dozens of young Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers posted around the Kalandia camp north of Jerusalem.  The soldiers fired rubber bullets at the demonstrators to disperse them. (AFP)

Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested building an elevated highway or flyover to link Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, his top aide said.  David Bar-Illan said that the flyover could be considered only as part of final agreement with the Palestinians. (AP)

 8

Prime Minister Netanyahu met with his top ministers to discuss what Israel Army Radio said was a new compromise proposal for the West Bank withdrawal. (DPA, XINHUA)

Jewish settler leaders said they were preparing a contingency plan in case PA President Arafat declares an independent Palestinian State if no final peace settlement is reached by the May 1999 deadline set in interim Israel-Palestinian agreements.  The settlers were lobbying government ministers and lawmakers to pass a bill saying that if the PA President makes such a declaration, Israel would annex all territory under Israeli security control, Israel Army Radio said.  In addition, the settlers would try to seize as much territory as possible by setting up trailers. (AP)

Nine Israeli peace groups signed a letter addressed to President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealing to them to take a more active role in the peace process.  The groups that signed the letters include Peace Now, Bat Shalom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Gush Shalom, Physicians for Human Rights, and Social Workers for Peace and Social Welfare. (The Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert said that nothing would stop Israel from building in Jerusalem.  “Har Homa is within Jerusalem's jurisdiction and what lies within the jurisdiction of Jerusalem is not a subject for negotiation,'' he said.  “Har Homa is an inseparable part of Jerusalem and it will be built despite everything, whether the delay is long or short.” (AP)

 9

Israel officially informed UN Secretary-General it intended to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon after establishing “appropriate security arrangements” in that area.  Israel said it was accepting Security Council resolution 425 (1978).  The letter was also transmitted to the members of the Security Council. (DPA)

11

The PA sent letters to 81 US senators who had urged President Clinton not to put public pressure on Israel regarding peace moves, said Seab Erakat, a top Palestinian negotiator.  A letter to President Clinton, sent earlier in April, had been signed by 81 Republicans and Democrats and had expressed concern at reports that a disagreement between the US Administration and the Israeli Government might result in the United States presenting a peace plan opposed by Israel. (AP, Reuters)

12

In his traditional Easter Sunday “Urbi et Orbi” address to 50,000 Roman Catholic faithful in St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II called for peace throughout the world and prayed "particularly" for the Holy City of Jerusalem.  The Pontiff said he prayed that the Easter message of peace would "be an inspiration to the leaders of the nations and to every person of good will, especially in the Middle East and particularly in Jerusalem, where peace is put at risk by dangerous political decisions." (AFP, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

13

In an interview with Al-Hayat, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Amre Moussa called for an Arab countries’ action if Israel fails to withdraw from the West bank by mid-1998. (XINHUA)

14

Norway hoped to push the Middle East peace forward at a meeting of The Socialist International to be held in Oslo on 17-19 May.  Norway’s Labour Party leader Thorbjørn Jagland, a former Prime Minister, said his party had invited former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, PA President Yasser Arafat, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and other top social democrats to the Oslo meeting. (AP)

The population in Jewish settlements in the West Bank's Jordan Valley has grown by 10 per cent in the past year and agricultural lands have been expanded to keep up with the influx.  “There is intensive absorption and growth,” said David Levy, head of the Jordan Valley regional council.  Levy said that since the beginning of 1997, 60 new families have joined the 590 families already living in the valley.  The trend was in contrast to the 2 per cent average growth rate of previous years. (AFP, AP)

15

The Palestinians began a drive to gather one million signatures on a petition calling on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners held in its jails.  The drive aims to gather signatures from one million Palestinians on a petition to be sent to the leaders of the United States and Russia, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Pope John Paul II. (AFP)

President Mubarak called on the United States to release its own proposals for pushing forward the stalled Middle East peace process. (AP)

16

In a meeting with King Hussein of Jordan held in Eilat, Prime Minister Netanyahu assured him that he was ready move ahead quickly in peace talks with the Palestinians, but would not endanger Israeli security. (AP)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Al-Ahram that his Government would do all it can to advance the Middle East peace process during its presidency of the European Union. (AP)

17

France and Norway urged the United States not to be discouraged and to keep working to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. (Reuters)

Palestinians jailed in Israel marked an annual day in their honour with a hunger strike and urged their leaders not to advance in the peace process until they are freed.  Representatives of the some 3,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails issued a statement calling on the Palestinian Authority to continue to fight for their freedom. (AFP)

18

“The year 1999 will see the announcement of a Palestinian State, God willing,” PA President Arafat said in the interview with the Arab Orbit satellite TV channel.  “We will adhere to the date set five years after the signing of the (4 May 1994) Oslo agreement.  The date can't some soon enough," he said.  David Bar-Illan, a spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu responded by warning the Palestinian side against announcing a State at the end of the five-year interim period laid out in the self-rule accords. (AFP, DPA)

Ten Palestinian protesters were injured and 20 others arrested in East Jerusalem during clashes with Israeli soldiers while marking the Palestinian Prisoners Day.  According to the Palestinian police, the injured included Hatem Abdel Qader and Ahmad Batsh, two members of the Palestinian Council.  Several hundred Palestinians staged a protest in Salah A-Deen Street of the Old City in East Jerusalem, calling on Israel to release all Palestinians held in Israeli jails.  The demonstration led to clashes with Israeli soldiers. (AP, XINHUA)

19

British Prime Minister Tony Blair pressed Israel to accept US proposals for resolving the deadlock in negotiations with the Palestinians and offered to host a peace summit to seek a breakthrough.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint press conference after two hours of talks with Mr. Blair that he had agreed to attend such a summit but he declined to go into detail.  Israel Radio said Mr. Blair had proposed a summit in London on 4 May between Prime Minister Netanyahu, PA President Arafat and US Secretary of State Albright. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)

20

PA President Arafat told Prime Minister Blair that he was ready to go to London to discuss US proposals to break the deadlock in peace talks with Israel. (Reuters)

Israel ordered Jewish settlers to evacuate two caravans they had illegally erected on a West Bank hilltop.  Roughly 15 men, women and children from the nearby Jewish settlement of Ma'on, some armed with machine-guns and surrounded by dogs, policed the caravans and began clearing the land on the hilltop for cultivation. (Reuters)

The US State Department said that the US Secretary of State would meet separately in London with Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President Arafat on 4 May. (The Jerusalem Post)

A EU-PA security agreement was signed in Gaza City by the British Prime Minister Blair and PA President Arafat.  The agreement "reflects the joint determination of both parties to strengthen the peace process and intensify the fight against terrorism," the EU said in a statement.  It also set up a joint committee, through which Europe will provide the Palestinian security forces with "practical assistance to help in fulfilling its security obligations to combat terrorism."  The committee would also provide "a channel for contact and rapid exchange of information at times of crisis," and advise the Palestinian security forces on protecting human rights. (AFP)

21

Ministers and ministerial representatives from 11 Mediterranean nations called on Israel to carry out a “believable, satisfactory and adequate withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories.”  The call was made in the concluding document approved by delegates to the two-day Mediterranean Forum held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.  Delegates backed recent efforts to restart the Middle East peace process with talks in London in May between US Secretary of State Albright, Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President Arafat.  The Forum members are France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Malta and Algeria. (AP, DPA, Reuters)

22

Israel’s security cabinet held a new debate over how much additional West Bank land Israel would be willing to cede in the next withdrawal phase. (AFP)

23

At the end of a three-day international conference in Nicosia entitled “Water and Food Security in the Middle East,” sponsored by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict Cooperation, Israeli and Arab academics warned that limited water supplies and Israel's use of groundwater in the West Bank were leading to a severe water shortage in the Palestinian territories.  Jad Isaac of the Palestinian Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem warned that restrictions on Palestinian use of water were “so severe and pervasive as to thwart sustainable development and food security for the Palestinian people, calling into question the prospect of a sustainable peace.”  Eran Feitelson of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that signs of a water crisis “are already evident in the Palestinian territories.” (AP)

In its annual “Strategic Survey,” the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said President Clinton must not let himself be put off by Israeli obduracy or domestic congressional support for Israel.  “The patience that the United States has shown in its diplomacy towards the region is at risk of being transformed from a virtue into a vice,” IISS Director John Chipman said in presenting the report.  “If the US allows itself to be put off it will have lost much of its remaining credibility and influence in the region.  That credibility is already being dissipated,” the Survey said.  The IISS warned that the year-long stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations was becoming dangerous and said that if talks were not restored with a minimum of trust, “increasingly serious violence is almost certain to break out.” (AP, Reuters)

24

In response to a reporter's question at a news conference in Bonn, PA President Arafat said that the Palestinians had the right, under international agreements, to declare an independent State as of May 1999.  “We will hold ourselves to this date,” he said.  German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel interjected by saying that “the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State could make things more and more critical.” (DPA)

25

US special Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross and Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk began a new mission aimed at reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. (AFP, AP, Reuters)

26

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres supported the establishment of a Palestinian State by May 1999 after talks in Gaza City with PA President Yasser Arafat.  "We have to work all of us so that by May 1999 we have a permanent agreement between the Palestinian people and ourselves.  I hope that by then we will recognize the establishment of a Palestinian State," Peres said.  "My view is that only solution possible is to have two different States.  For Israel to remain Jewish we need a Palestinian State as well, otherwise we will have a binational State or binational tragedy," Mr. Peres told journalists. (AFP)

27

Holy See representatives met a PLO delegation and established a joint commission.  “The meeting decided upon the setting up of a 'Bilateral Working Commission' between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organisation …,” a joint statement read.  “The Commission, which will meet periodically, will have the task of studying and defining together matters of mutual interest, including bilateral agreements, with a view to strengthening and developing further the official cooperation established between the parties on 25 October 1994.”  The Palestinian delegation was led by Emile Jarjoui, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and a member of the Palestinian Council.  Monsignor Celestino Migliore, Under-Secretary for Relations with States, led the Holy See delegation. (Reuters)

28

The World Economic Forum said it had suspended plans for its annual Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Economic Summit because of political uncertainty in the region. (Reuters)

29

PA President Arafat said in Gaza City he had made enough concessions in settling for an Israeli troop withdrawal from 13 per cent of the West Bank as proposed by the United States and would not accept anything less. (AP)

Israeli soldiers raided three villages outside Hebron, arresting at least 30 Palestinians.  The soldiers arrested a number of Palestinians in several sweeps in Yattah during the past 11 days after a Jewish settler was shot in an dispute, which also left one Palestinian severely injured. (AFP)

30

A British Foreign Office spokesman told reporters there were still big differences between Israel and the Palestinian side ahead of talks in London and said a breakthrough would be very difficult. (Reuters)

Speaking in an interview with Britain's ITN television, Prime Minister Netanyahu commented on the upcoming talks in London.  “I can't tell what will happen in London because I know there is willingness on our part to compromise and we've stretched ourselves to the limit and beyond,'' he said. (Reuters)

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CR16/01.05.98