Chronological Review of Events/September 1998 – DPR review

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Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

Monthly media monitoring review

September 1998

 1

Jewish settler leaders in the West Bank said a Defence Ministry plan to erect security fences around 21 settlements would limit their ability to expand.  Israel’s Defence Minister Mordechai directed the IDF to have exposed settlements fenced after the killings of three settlers in August. (AP, Reuters)

According to the Palestinian Council Speaker Ahmed Qorei, despite disagreements over further Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinians have not broken off their secret talks.  "There are contacts, but there is no agreement," he told The Associated Press.  The low-key talks have been conducted by Mr. Qorei and Yitzhak Molcho, an attorney and confidant of Prime Minister Netanyahu. (AP)

The CIA station chief in Tel Aviv held "exploratory" talks with top Palestinian security officials in an effort to reach common ground on a security accord with Israel to accompany an eventual agreement on the further Israeli redeployment in the West Bank.  US officials say that so far the Palestinians have not been receptive to their ideas. (AFP, XINHUA)

PA Minister of Local Government Saeb Erakat said the Palestinians had prepared an alternative to the current Israeli proposal, which specified a 13 per cent withdrawal from Area C in the West Bank, with 3 per cent of that designated as a nature reserve that will remain under Israeli control.  The Palestinians would be able to carry out limited construction.  "We refused the Israeli proposal and prepared an alternative Palestinian proposal and sent it to the US and Israel for consideration," he said. (The Jerusalem Post)

 2

The PA said Israel was preventing hundreds of Gazan students from travelling to universities in the West Bank.  According to the PA Ministry of Higher Education, 500 Gazans had been denied permits to travel to the West Bank for studies in the coming academic year.  It said another 500 had remained illegally in the West Bank since the end of the last semester after Israel refused to grant them permits to return to Gaza. (Reuters)

Morocco's state-run Airport Authority has contributed 10.7 million dirhams (US$1.1 million) to a fund in support of the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, the official Moroccan news agency MAP said. (Reuters)

 3

PA Minister of Local Government Saeb Erakat accused Israel of giving Jewish settlers in Hebron the “green light to commit criminal actions against the Palestinian residents of the city.”  Israel imposed a 10-day curfew on the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron after a Jewish settler had been killed on 20 August.  During the curfew, Palestinian residents of the town were assaulted by the settlers, who threw stones at them, damaged their property and overturned stalls in the Palestinian market. (DPA)

Israel has set down new rules for dealing with attacks on Palestinians and other criminal acts by settlers.  A document drawn up by Attorney General Rubinstein and published outlined procedures to be followed by police, the IDF and the Shin Beth for dealing with settler extremism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  The document also contained a secret annex, revealed by Ha’aretz, which lists flashpoints between Israelis and Palestinians and warns of possible violent actions by extremist settlers.  The annex specifically charges police with responsibility for countering criminal actions by the settlers, while the army retains authority over Palestinians in the occupied territories. (AFP)

The PA accused Israel of violating agreements on Hebron by conducting an archaeological dig near a Jewish settler enclave in the centre of town.  Israeli archaeologists have been conducting the excavations just outside the Tel Rumeida settlement. (AP)

The regional structural plan of Israel for the year 2020 includes increasing the number of settlers in the West Bank to 310,000.  Israeli Defence Ministry demands increasing the number to one million. (Al-Quds)

At the request of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat, President Clinton and Secretary Albright decided to send Dennis Ross back to the region to help narrow the differences between the parties. (AFP, Reuters, U.S. Newswire)

 4

France and Egypt are determined to organize an international conference over the Middle East.  French Foreign Ministry said a preparatory meeting at the high officials level will be held in Paris in September to make arrangements for the conference. (Al-Quds)

PA President Arafat presided over a weekly meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Hebron, which discussed the preparation of the announcement of an independent Palestinian State on 4 May 1999, the end of the five-year interim period.  The meeting decided to set up preparation committees both in the Palestinian territories and abroad to contact the Arab nations and Israeli organizations supporting the peace process to win their support for an independent Palestinian State. (XINHUA)

 5

At least five Palestinians and five Israeli policemen were wounded when Israeli troops fired rubber-coated bullets at stone-throwing residents of Shufat refugee camp north of East Jerusalem.  Four Palestinians were hospitalised and several others were slightly hurt. (AFP, Al-Quds, AP, Reuters)

 6

Israel said it had given the Palestinians the all-clear to drill 17 artesian wells in the West Bank to overcome chronic water shortages afflicting the area.  "We have agreed to a Palestinian Authority plan drawn up a just over 10 days ago to overcome the most urgent water shortage problems in the region," said Shlomo Dror, coordinator for Israeli activities in the occupied territories. (AFP)

 7

According to Israel’s Interior Ministry figures, the settler population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip grew by 3.3 per cent from 163,881 to 169,339 in the first six months of 1998.  At the end of June 1998, 163,173 settlers lived in the West Bank and 6,166 in the Gaza Strip.  According to the report, 86,202 settlers live in nine of the 144 settlements, including Ma'aleh Adumim, Ariel, Givat Ze'ev, Efrat, Kiryat Sefer and Betar.  The biggest increase in population in the past 18 months was registered in the ultra-Orthodox settlements of Kiryat Sefer (55 per cent) and Betar (35 per cent). (AP, XINHUA)

Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) said settlers in Hebron had stepped up attacks on Palestinians in the city.  In particular, settlers are now conducting increased verbal and physical attacks against Palestinians, and are also increasingly damaging Palestinian property, TIPH said.  The findings were included in a TIPH report covering the period of April-July 1998.  TIPH also noted in its report that its relations with the settlers have deteriorated. (DPA)

 8

PA President Arafat announced that Turkey was willing to return certain documents, including some on property ownership in the Palestinian territories, dating back to the days of the Ottoman period. (AFP)

Palestinian security chiefs and CIA officials met in Ramallah to discuss possible changes to a draft security agreement worked out with Israeli officers late in 1997. (AFP)

 9

US Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross arrived in Israel to put peace negotiations back on track and finalize an agreement on further Israeli redeployment in the West Bank.  He held his first meeting with PA President Arafat in Ramallah.  Following the meeting, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said at a joint press conference with Mr. Ross that the PA President stressed on dealing with the US initiative as a whole package without fragmenting it.  He said the American initiative should not be restricted to the first and second stages of redeployment but should include an Israeli commitment to carry out the third stage, to stop unilateral decision, endorse the MOU on security issues, carry out all outstanding interim agreements, and accept a binding timetable for implementing what has been agreed upon. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian houses in Obaydiyye village in Bethlehem. (Al-Quds)

10

Israeli construction crews began work on a new settlement neighbourhood of Maoz Tsur, adding 200 homes to the settlement of Beit El, north-east of Ramallah. (Al-Quds)

Weeks after the Israeli army demolished Ata Jaber's home outside Hebron, troops uprooted scores of fruit trees on the land he cultivated.  Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's military administration in the West Bank, said Mr. Jaber's orchard of olive, fig, almond and apple trees was uprooted because it had been illegally planted on "state-owned land."  He acknowledged that the orchard was not new and could not explain why the army destroyed the crops now. (AFP)

Support for the peace process with Israel has fallen among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to a poll conducted on 27 and 28 August 1998 by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC), an independent Palestinian group.  JMCC found that 55.6 per cent of those polled expressed strong or lukewarm support for the peace process with Israel.  Despite the falling trust in the peace process in general, 63 per cent of the Palestinians continued to support the specifics of the Oslo agreements.  The poll was conducted via face-to-face interviews with 1,192 adults throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip and had a margin of error of three per cent. (AFP)

11

The Israeli authorities, following the killing in the Hebron area of two members of HAMAS on 10 September, imposed a total closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, Reuters)

12

More than 100 Palestinians were hurt by Israeli gunfire during violent protests in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron against the assassination by Israeli troops of two HAMAS members on 10 September.  Some 200 youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers guarding a settlement near El-Bireh, drawing heavy volleys of fire with rubber-coated bullets.  Ninety-four protesters were wounded at the site, four of them seriously, by rubber-coated bullets in the head or chest. (AFP, Reuters)

13

Five Palestinians, including a seven-year-old girl, were injured in clashes with IDF near Bethlehem during protests over the killings of the HAMAS members.  About 150 Palestinians took part in the protest. (AFP, AP, Reuters)

14

Officials from France and Egypt met in Paris to further a plan to hold a Middle East conference, announced last May by the two countries, the idea is to organise a meeting of countries backing the peace process to explore ways of reviving negotiations between Israel and the Arabs.  The Franco-Egyptian "meeting is aimed at specifying the contents of the initiative," said French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret. (AFP)

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Dan Naveh and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat met at US Ambassador Edward Walker's residence to discuss a number of issues, such as the opening of the Palestinian airport and safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza.  The committees working on these issues had broken off their work four months ago and only resumed on 13 September. (The Jerusalem Post)

15

Late on 14 September, the Israeli Defence Forces announced some easing of the closure of the occupied territory, stating that 7,000 Palestinians would be allowed to enter Israel to work – 5,000 from Gaza and 2,000 from the West Bank.  Director-General of the Palestinian Labour Ministry, Mr. Said al-Mudalal, said the permits which Israel had given his office late on 14 September night did not arrive in time to enable most of the labourers to get to work the next day.  He added that permits were only issued for workers over the age of 28 who have worked continuously in Israel for the last two years.  Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the interim peace accords stipulated that 130,000 Palestinian workers should be allowed into Israel. (Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)

Some 1,000 Jewish far right activists met in Jerusalem hoping to rebuild the Jewish Temple in the place of Al-Aqsa Mosque.  They gathered for the annual congress organized by the far-right Hai Vekayam group at Jerusalem's Convention Center. (AFP)

A "quiet deportation" of Palestinians from East Jerusalem is being conducted by Israel’s Interior Ministry and the National Insurance Institute, according to a report released by the B'Tselem and Hamoked human rights organizations.  The report accuses the Government of trying to ensure a strong Jewish majority in Jerusalem by revoking Palestinians’ right to residency, including access to NII social benefits. (The Jerusalem Post)

16

Speaking at the LAS Foreign Ministers conference in Cairo, PA President Arafat appealed in Cairo for Arab and international support, including support by peace-loving forces in Israel, to help counter any attempt by Israel to foil plans to declare a Palestinian State in 1999.  He called for a special League summit to give impetus to the Middle East peace process and urged the US to exert more pressure on Israel. (AFP, DPA)

An 81-year old Palestinian has been sentenced to 1,000 days in an Israeli jail for building a second story on his East Jerusalem home.  Ahmad Hamdan, who is partially paralysed and suffers from kidney failure, was incarcerated in a prison hospital on the orders of a Jerusalem court. (AFP, DPA)

Speaking at a press conference in Gaza City, Mohammad Nashishibi, PA Minister of Finance, protested against Israel's successful test launch of the Arrow-2 missile and called on the US to stop funding the project. (AFP)

The IDF raided the house of Palestinian legislator Abbas Zaki in Sair, near Hebron.  His house was searched and some furniture destroyed.  Two of his aides, who were at the house at the time, were arrested. (DPA)

Norwegian Foreign Ministry acting spokesperson Hanne-Marie Kaarstad confirmed in Oslo that Terje Rød Larsen travelled to the region, at the request of Israel and the Palestinians, asked to help resolve the deadlock in the Middle East peace negotiations.  She said that the assignment of Larsen had “the full support” of the US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross. (DPA)

17

Prime Minister Netanyahu approved the ten-fold expansion (600 houses) in Yitzhar, a militant West Bank settlement, east of Nablus.  The Israeli project, to be built on 75 hectares (165 acres) of land belonging to four Palestinian villages, also calls for construction of a major complex of public buildings including two synagogues, clinics, schools, sports centres and a restaurant. (AFP)

A Jewish settler shot Iyad Hashem, a Palestinian teenager, to death and wounded four others in a clash near Ramallah.  The settler was said to have opened fire without reason at the schoolboys near Ein Areek-Beitunia intersection, south west of Ramallah.  A second teenager, Issa Mahmud Jabarin, 15, was in serious condition with a bullet in the abdomen. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)

The Arab League called on the Holy See to provide clarification on the Agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See, signed on 10 November 1997, in Jerusalem, saying an initial answer was "insufficient." (AFP)

Arab foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, voiced their support for the Palestinian stance in the ongoing negotiations with Israel.  The ministers also urged the US to pressure Israel to implement the agreements it had signed with the Palestinians.  The Council denounced Israel's policy as being based on "procrastination and manoeuvres to impose new facts on the final status negotiations with the Palestinian party." (XINHUA)

18

Israel announced a full closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, to last until the end of the Jewish New Year holiday on the night of 22 September.  The decision was taken after consultations between Defence Minister Mordechai and military officials, and followed fears that Islamic militants would try to attack Israelis in the coming days. (AFP, DPA, Itar-TASS, Reuters, XINHUA)

US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross began a new round of talks with Israelis and Palestinians after deciding to extend his mission by one day and hold "additional technical meetings" with both sides. (AFP, Reuters)

Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian State "by all means."  "I don't advise him to take this path.  It will bring nothing, either to them or us," he said in an interview with Yediot Aharonot..  "A unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State will free us from our pledge towards the (peace) accord, and we will in turn be able to begin unilateral actions," he added.  "I repeat to Arafat:  'You had better not declare the creation of a State'." (AFP, AP)

19

US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross ended his 11-day visit to the Middle East by meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but was unable to bring about an agreement on further Israeli redeployment in West Bank.  Mr. Ross met, late that day, with PA President Arafat in Gaza City and then with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem, but neither side reported any real progress in the talks. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)

Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets in a second day of clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank town of El-Bireh.  The clashes broke out as several hundred demonstrators took part in a march organized by the students' union of nearby Bir Zeit University to protest the recent killings of a secondary school student and two leaders of HAMAS.  There were no reports of casualties. (AFP)

20

A survey published in the Maariv found that 61 per cent of Israelis oppose the creation of a Palestinian State with any kind of link to East Jerusalem.  Thirty-three per cent of those queried agreed to a formula granting Palestinians "a presence in East Jerusalem," while six per cent had no opinion.  When asked if they would support a final peace agreement, which would give control over most of the West Bank to its Palestinian inhabitants, Israelis were evenly divided with 46 per cent for and 46 per cent against.  The survey was conducted among 550 adult Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.5 per cent. (AFP)

21

Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel Radio that he did not rule out annexing most of the West Bank if a Palestinian State was declared.  "Nothing will stop us from proclaiming the land under our control (Israeli) and which in any case is not populated by Arabs," he said. (AFP)

23

Israel partially eased its closure of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, an IDF spokesman said.  The spokesman said 17,000 Palestinians from the West Bank would be allowed to enter Israeli territory, as would 5,000 businessmen and traders.  However, they had to be at least 28 years of age, married and employed in Israel for at least two years.  The spokesman added that trucks could travel to Gaza unimpeded. (AFP, DPA, XINHUA)

A Beit El military court ruled that a 1982 order confiscating 3,500 dunums of land (part of which is planted with olive trees) in the village of Sourif (Hebron) was final and will be implemented. (WAFA)

The Israeli authorities have installed a military checkpoint near the village of Bourin in the vicinity of Nablus since the announcement of the expansion of the settlement of Yitzhar, south of the city.  Israeli patrols have been patrolling the village streets and armed settlers have appeared in the village.  The Israeli military liaison has informed several residents of the confiscation of 900 dunums of land for the expansion of Yitzhar. (JMCC)

24

Israel and the US urged the PA President Arafat not to launch a new offensive for the unilateral creation of a Palestinian State at the UN General Assembly.  "A unilateral declaration or a call for the creation of a State would signal the end of the peace accords," Prime Minister Netanyahu told Israel Radio in New York.  "I advise Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority not to go down this path because Israel will be forced to take similar measures," he said.  "We oppose a unilateral statement of that kind just like we have opposed many unilateral actions that both sides have taken in recent months," US State Department spokesman James Rubin said following talks in New York between Mr. Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Albright. (AFP)

25

The Palestinian Cabinet, meeting in Gaza City, said that PA President Arafat would declare a State on 4 May 1999 – the end of the five-year interim period of autonomy – with or without Israel's agreement.  “At the end of the interim period, it (the Palestinian Government) shall declare the establishment of a Palestinian State on all Palestinian land occupied since 1967, with Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Palestinian State,” the cabinet statement said.  The Cabinet also said a future Palestinian State “will be committed to the UN Charter and to international decisions.” (AP)

The World Economic Forum cancelled plans to organize its fifth annual Middle East business summit this year due to the crisis in the peace process. (AFP)

A new set of secret instructions, disclosed by Maariv, orders Israeli security forces not to use live bullets or steel-coated rubber pellets to disperse protests by Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Israeli security forces routinely use rubber bullets and sometimes live ammunition to break up riots by Palestinian stone-throwers.  Etty Eshed, spokeswoman for the Israeli Justice Ministry, said there was a set of instructions for dealing with all rioters, Israeli and Palestinians alike.  She confirmed that there was a secret annex, but did not give details.  Maariv quoted from the secret annex written by Attorney General Rubinstein.  It said the security forces must take into account that the settlers face increasingly difficult conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, because of their “uncertain security situation.”  Rubinstein instructed Israeli police only to use water cannons and tear gas to break up settler protests. (AP)

26

"The proposal to create a nature reserve on 3.1 per cent of the 13.1 per cent of the West Bank land is American," Wolfgang Schüssel, Austria's Foreign Minister said in an interview published by Al-Hayat.  "It's not Netanyahu's idea," said Mr. Schüssel, whose country currently holds the presidency of the European Union. (AFP)

28

UNRWA called on donor countries to increase contributions to help the Agency overcome its budget deficit.  At a meeting for representatives from host and donor countries held in Amman, UNRWA officials cited their Agency's grave financial difficulties and called on the international community in general and the donor countries in particular to boost their donations to UNRWA.  UNRWA's Commissioner General, Peter Hansen, said that UNRWA's budget deficit was US$62 million for this year, adding that without any extra donations, the agency will be unable to continue the same flow of help to Palestinian refugees. (DPA)

President Clinton said he, Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA President Arafat had made progress during their meeting in the White House in breaking the 18-month deadlock in the Middle East peace process but there was more work to be done.  He said Secretary of State Albright and peace envoy Dennis Ross would return to the Middle East in early October to try to reach a breakthrough in peace talks.  Another summit meeting in Washington will be held in mid-October in order to seal an agreement on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and launch talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)

29

Israel's army said it would seal off the West Bank and Gaza Strip on 29 and 30 September to prevent possible militant attacks during Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  As of 2:00 p.m., on 29 September, Palestinians will not be allowed to enter Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip except for humanitarian emergencies, an IDF spokesman said.  The closure will end at 1 a.m. on 1 October. (AFP, AP)

30

Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli troops in the West Bank after the funeral of a HAMAS member killed on 29 September in car explosion in the vicinity of Beitunia near Ramallah.  Some 300 to 400 Palestinians marched from Biddu village towards a nearby Jewish settlement following the burial and began throwing stones.  Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and teargas and at least five Palestinians were slightly wounded, they said. (AFP, Reuters)

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