Chronological Review of Events/June 1996 – DPR review

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS

RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

June 1996

Monitored from the media by the

Division for Palestinian Rights

4 June The UN Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, Terje Larsen, called on Israel to lift its closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and proposed that Israel increase the number of Palestinians working in Israel to at least 70,000 by the end of June.  (Reuter)

5 June Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu was officially declared as the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel. The declaration was formally announced by the Central Elections Committee following the elections on 29 June when he garnered 50.3 per cent of the vote.  (Reuter)

King Hussein of Jordan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat met in Jordan to coordinate policy towards the newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister.  At a press conference after the summit, President Mubarak announced that they have agreed to wait for the formation of the new Israeli Government before judging its stand on the Middle East peace process.  (AFP)

6 June Israeli police killed a Palestinian man and wounded another in East Jerusalem, hours after Israeli soldiers killed another Palestinian in the Gaza Strip.    A police spokesman said a border police unit patrolling the Ran el-Amud neighbourhood in East Jerusalem before dawn saw three Palestinian men who they felt were behaving suspiciously.  The troops opened fire when they believed one of the men was pulling out a pistol.  In the other shooting incident, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian reportedly running towards a soldiers outpost near a Jewish settlement.  Palestinian police said the unarmed man ventured into a restricted zone and failed to respond to warning shots by the soldiers.  (The New York Times, AFP)

7 June Yasser Arafat met with senior officials of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to discuss the future of the peace process after the Israeli elections.  The meeting also reviewed the results of the mini-summit in Aqaba, Jordan on 5 June between Arafat, President Mubarak of Egypt and Jordan's King Hussein.  (AFP)

A Palestinian attacked an Israeli with a pickaxe on Friday in the Christian quarter of Old Jerusalem.  The Israeli  Police have launched a manhunt for the attacker in East Jerusalem.  (AFP)

Several hundred Palestinians demonstrated at the entrance to Bethlehem against the building of a bypass road for Jewish settlers.  The demonstration was organized by the Land Defence Committee which declared that since 1967, a total of 61 per cent of  the land in the Bethlehem area has been confiscated or declared a military zone by the Israeli authorities.  Work on the 5.5 kilometer (3.5 miles) road was started by the Israeli army on 2 June on a 150-hectare area.  (AFP)

9 June Suspected Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli couple from the Kyriat Arba settlement  near Hebron.  The couple was shot inside their car on an isolated road southwest of Jerusalem as the attackers sprayed their car with gunfire.  Their one-year-old child was found unhurt at the back of the car.  No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.  (The New York Times, Reuter, AFP)

11 June Israeli soldiers prevented 20 members of the Palestinian Council from traveling to the West Bank from Gaza after they refused to undergo a personal search.  It was the second day in a row that the Gaza deputies to the 88-member Palestinian Council were turned back at Erez, a crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.  (AFP)

Faisal Husseini, PLO senior official, met with  the representatives of the consulates of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Greece and the Vatican at Orient House, the PLO's headquarters in Jerusalem. The event immediately drew a reaction from Mr. Netanyahu who warned that his Government will not tolerate Palestinian political activities in East Jerusalem.   (AFP, Reuter)

12 June The World Bank signed a $40 million credit agreement with the Palestinian Authority for the  development of  a municipal infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  The World Bank said in a statement that the project was part of a newly-developed programme known as the Municipal Infrastructure Development Project aimed at supporting the rehabilitation and maintenance of high priority village and municipal roads as well as water and sanitation networks.  It would also help support institutional, financial and managerial reform in local government. (Reuter)

15 June Hanan Ashrawi, Jerusalem's representative on the Palestinian Council, was appointed by Yasser Arafat as a minister for higher education in the Executive Authority.  Mr. Arafat split the education portfolio, held by Yasser Amr, into two parts to accommodate Mrs. Ashrawi's new post.  (AFP)

A Palestinian man who was held up by Israeli army at Erez cross point died later from a heart attack. According to the Gaza Association of Human Rights report, Ibrahim Mohammad al-Sarsawi, 44, who had a heart condition, was scheduled to be transferred to a hospital in Tel Aviv  when the ambulance carrying him was held up for three hours by Israeli soldiers.  (AFP)

   

16 June Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his security policies in a Guidelines of the Government of Israel, the first official version of his governments  foreign policies.  The declaration included a vow to continue negotiating with the Palestinian Authority and laid down a set of principles that  narrowing the definition of  Palestinian autonomy and limiting the outcomes of future talks.  It declared that Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and that the new government would oppose the establishment of any Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.  (The Washington Post)

A Palestinian gunman shot dead an Israeli policeman and wounded his wife in an attack in the West Bank village of Bidiya.  The attack occurred inside a toy shop where the gunman opened fire before fleeing.  (AFP)

17 June A Moroccan military transport plane flew 14 tonnes of medical and food supplies into the Gaza Strip, the first aid flight to land at the Palestinians new airport.  The supplies were presented as a gift from Morocco's King Hassan II.  (AFP)

18 June Benjamin Netanyahu took the oath of office as Israel's new Prime Minister after winning a parliamentary vote of confidence for his coalition government.  The Parliament (Knesset) voted 62 to 50 by a show of hands to approve a 16-member cabinet presented by Netanyahu earlier in the day.  (AFP)

20 June The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a conditional cease-fire offer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  In the offer they  demand a halt to all offensive Israeli actions against Palestinians and  the  release of Palestinian prisoners.  It also called on Israel to lift the closure imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.   (AFP)

21 June More  than  1,000  Palestinians participated in  a demonstration  against the construction of a bypass road on seized Palestinian land south of Hebron.  The protesters set a car and four trucks and bulldozers used for the project on fire.  There were no Israeli soldiers  around during the demonstration.  (AFP)

Israeli soldiers arrested four Palestinians in Hebron after two petrol bombs were thrown at an Israeli patrol.  (AFP)

Saudi Arabia has donated  $10 million for UNRWA development projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of the Saudi Governments programme of assistance to the Palestinian people.  (AFP, UNRWA press release)

23 June Twenty-one Arab countries  ended a two-day summit in Cairo, Egypt.   The summit in its final communiqué reaffirmed the participants commitment to peace and issued a warning to the new government of Israel to adhere to the land-for-peace principles as the basis for peace negotiations.  The Arab leaders insisted that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights, south Lebanon and Palestinian territory, including annexed East Jerusalem, and allow the creation of a Palestinian State.  (The Financial Times, The New York Times, AFP)

25 June Benjamin Netanyahu met with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the first time since his election as Prime Minister of Israel.  It was reported that Mr. Christopher has secured a commitment from Mr. Netanyahu that Israel resume the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority.  During the meeting Mr. Netanyahu did not commit Israel to any troop withdrawal from Hebron which was postponed by former Prime Minister Peres after a series of suicide bombings in Israel.  (AFP, Reuter)

26 June Three Israeli soldiers on patrol duty were ambushed and two others were wounded near Jordan's borders with the West Bank.  A Syrian-based Palestinian group, Al-Intifada, claimed responsibility for the attack to protest the Israeli- Palestinian peace accords.   (The New York Times, AFP)

27 June The Palestinian Council, following a long debate, has approved the cabinet and its programme as it was presented by Mr. Yasser Arafat to the council.  Following the vote, Mr. Arafat pledged to pursue peace negotiations with the new government in Israel aimed at the establishment of a Palestinian state.  (FP)

28 June Dore Gold, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met secretly with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, in Gaza.   Israeli Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh said that the meeting was part of a dialogue Israel wanted with Mr. Arafat but he said that the main message was Israel's expectation that the Palestinian Authority fight terrorism. (Reuter)

30 June Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop what he called governmental activity in Jerusalem which violates the interim peace agreed with the previous Israeli Government.  The demand specifically cited activities at the Orient House, which became the headquarters of Palestinian peace negotiators during  the 1991 Madrid peace conference.  The Palestinian Authority condemned the renewed Israeli pressure to prevent diplomatic activities at the Orient House and viewed it as a threat to the peace process.  (AFP, Reuter)

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