Chronological Review of Events/October 1994 – DPR review

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS

RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

October 1994

Monitored from the media by the

Division for Palestinian Rights

1 October Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier in Hebron.  The army imposed a curfew on the city.  (Reuters)

Israel and Tunisia agreed to post permanent economic liaison officers in each other's countries as a first step towards achieving full diplomatic relations.  The agreement was worked out by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and his Tunisian counterpart, Habib ben Yehiya in New York.  (AP)

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) announced in New York that it would end a secondary and tertiary boycott against Israel and would support any move within the Arab League to abolish a ban on direct trading with Israel.  The secondary aspect refers to an Arab League ban on trading with companies that deal with Israel.  The tertiary part bans deals with companies that trade with those companies or their subsidiaries.  The GCC members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,  Bahrain,  Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman.  (Xinhua)

2 October Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan conferred in New York in preparation for joint talks with President Clinton in Washington the following day. (Reuters)

The Palestinian Authority in Gaza declared that all employees of the Islamic holy sites and institutions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are under its jurisdiction.  A week earlier, Jordan renounced its religious links with the West Bank but maintained its spiritual claim to East Jerusalem.  (Reuters)

3 October Israeli police arrested two more Jewish settlers suspected of involvement in an anti-Arab underground group.  Their arrest raised to 15 the number of Israelis detained in the case. Seven have been released.  (Reuters)

Syria criticized the six Gulf Cooperation Council states for partially lifting the Arab League's economic boycott of Israel and branded it as a "deviation from the united Arab stand".  Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz said the GCC move was the result of U.S. pressure aimed at creating rifts among the Arabs while the Middle East peace process is underway.  (AP)

President Clinton met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan at the White House for further negotiations on the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.  Mr. Clinton told reporters after the meeting that the two countries had agreed on a series of joint ventures on economy, environment and tourism.  It was reported that the two parties were close to formalizing a peace treaty between their countries.  (AP)

4 October The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would provide technical assistance to the Palestinian self-rule areas.  Officials of the agency said they would start work soon and identify projects in the Gaza Strip for technical assistance.  (Reuters)

King Hassan of Morocco has named a palace aide, Col. Mohamed Sinaceur, as chief of the Moroccan liaison office in Gaza.  It was reported that he will represent the King before the Palestinian Authority.  (Reuters)

5 October Delegations from Israel, the PLO and several Arab States met to discuss the problem of scant water resources in the Middle East as part of the multilateral peace talks.  The two-day meeting was held in Oslo and hosted by the Norwegian Government.  (Reuters)

An Israeli soldier shot dead a Palestinian man who the Israelis said tried to stab a soldier in downtown Hebron.  (Reuters)

Two Jewish settlers suspected of involvement in an anti-Arab underground group were charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and illegal possession of arms.  The anti-Arab ring, in which at least 15 Israelis have been detained, has been widely compared in Israel to a Jewish underground group in the early 1980s which carried out bombings against Palestinian  leaders  and  planned  to  blow  up the  al-Aqsa  Mosque.  (Reuters)

7 October A young Palestinian from Hebron was shot dead by Israeli border police after  he tried to pour acid on two policemen near the Ibrahimi Mosque.  (Xinhua)

After months of talks between the Saudi authorities and Mr. Faisal Husseini, a leading PLO figure in East Jerusalem, the Saudi Government agreed to provide a $40 million fund to run Palestinian projects in East Jerusalem and to help the Palestinian Authority cover the cost of running the Islamic Wakf (endowment) in the West Bank and Jerusalem.  (Xinhua)

8 October Israel's peace activists from Gush Shalom (Peace Block) held a joint demonstration with Palestinians against the confiscation of Palestinian land in the vicinity of East Jerusalem. The Palestinian lands in Abu Ghneim, southeast of Jerusalem, are threatened with confiscation by Israeli authorities for the purpose of building on them an exclusively Jewish neighbourhood to be named "Har Mohem".  (Xinhua)

9 October Mr. David Hunt, Minister of Science and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, met in Gaza with Chairman Arafat and pledged a substantial British aid to build a civil administration for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.  He also said that Britain was ready to offer money and expertise in promoting international investment in Gaza, helping with scientific and technical research and establishing a Palestinian Standards Institute.  Mr. Hunt was the first British cabinet member to meet with Mr. Arafat at his Headquarters in Gaza.  (The Financial Times)

Two Arab gunmen affiliated with Hamas opened fire indiscriminately in the Nahalat Shiva pedestrian mall in West Jerusalem, killing two people and injuring 13 others.  After firing some hundreds of rounds of automatic fire from their submachine guns, the two gunmen were killed by Israeli police.  It was reported that the two gunmen came to Jerusalem from Gaza but one of them, Jawhari, was an Egyptian who entered Israel in July on a one-month tourist visa.  (The Washington Post)

10 October The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which was established in 1992, announced that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan will share the institution's 1994 award in recognition of their efforts to bring peace to the Middle East region.  The foundation announced that the three leaders were to be presented with their awards at separate ceremonies this autumn.  (Reuters)

Mr. Faisal Husseini, the highest-ranking PLO leader in East Jerusalem, condemned the attack by Hamas gunmen a day earlier in downtown West Jerusalem, which left two people dead and 13 wounded.  In his statement, he expressed "strongest condemnation and denunciation of all acts of violence against innocent Palestinians and Israelis alike". (Xinhua)

According to Mr. Yasser Abed-Rabbo, head of the information department in the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and the PLO have agreed to coordinate policy regarding the eventual settlement of more than 800,000 Palestinians displaced during the 1967 war. Mr. Abed-Rabbo's statement came after his meeting with Jordanian officials in Amman. (Reuters)

11 October Members of Hamas abducted Nachshon Waxman, an Israeli soldier, near Tel Aviv airport and threatened to kill him in two days unless the Israelis released from prison the ailing leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and 200 other Hamas prisoners.  Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, under mounting domestic pressure to clamp down on terrorism, reacted by sealing Israel's border with the self-rule area of Gaza Strip and placing "full responsibility" for the soldier's life on Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, and suspending negotiations with the PLO in Cairo.  It was reported that Mr. Arafat condemned the abduction as a challenge to the Palestinian Authority and telephoned the kidnapped soldier's parents "to express his concern".  (The New York Times)

The Supreme Security Council of the Palestinian Authority announced in Gaza that it took a decision to investigate and search for the captive soldier.  It also said that more extreme measures will be taken whereby a wave of arrests of Hamas activists will start until the Palestinian Authority arrived at the truth as to how Waxman was kidnapped and as to where  he was being held.  (The Guardian)

12 October Mr. Saeb Erekat, the PLO chief negotiator with Israel over the elections in the Palestinian self-rule areas, said that Israel's suspension of talks with the PLO over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, was uncalled for and he hoped it would not delay Palestinian elections even further.  Earlier in the day, the Israeli team cut off the talks with the Palestinian side upon an order by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in Amman with King Hussein to discuss the peace treaty between the two countries.  (Ha'aretz)

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin spoke over the phone with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and told him that Israel knew with certainty that the abducted Israeli soldier was being held in the Gaza Strip, which members of the Palestinian Authority denied.  (Ha'aretz)

13 October Palestinian police launched a massive search in the Gaza Strip and Jericho for the kidnapped Israeli soldier.  Some 200 Hamas members and their supporters were arrested in the Gaza Strip in the early morning hours.  (Reuters)

14 October Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher held tripartite talks on the Middle East peace process in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.  (Xinhua)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Price for 1994 to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, for "their efforts to create peace in the Middle East".  The committee concluded that "by concluding the Oslo Accords (between Israel and the PLO), and subsequently following them up, Arafat, Rabin and Peres have made substantial contributions to a historic process through which peace and cooperation can replace war and hate".  (Reuters)

The Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by the Hamas group near Tel Aviv on 11 October, was killed along with one of the rescuers and three members of Hamas, when Israeli troops tried to rescue him from a hideout in the West Bank village of Beit Nabala. (Ha'aretz)

U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Israelis and Arabs to maintain the Middle East peace process in spite of the crisis created by the death of the kidnapped Israeli soldier by the Hamas group. (Reuters)

15 October About 1,000 Palestinian students, supporters of Hamas, marched in Gaza to demand that the Palestinian Authority release around 300 Hamas activists arrested earlier for questioning about the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.  A PLO official in Gaza said that the pressure the kidnapping had put on the Palestinian Authority had soured relations with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  (Reuters)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres praised Chairman Arafat for the action of Palestinian police to crack down on Hamas members in efforts to find the abducted Israeli soldier. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin admitted his miscalculation when he insisted that the soldier was being held in Gaza and consequently holding Mr. Arafat responsible  for  the  soldier's  safe return to Israel.  (Xinhua)

Israeli troops shot and injured two Palestinians during a confrontation with protesters in Nablus.  (Reuters)

16 October Hundreds of students from the Islamic University in Gaza rioted near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip and threw stones at an Israeli checkpost protecting the settlement.  The Israeli soldiers manning the post withdrew several hundred yards towards the settlement while the Palestinian police dispersed the students without any casualties. (Reuters)

The Israeli Government decided to resume peace talks with the PLO, which were broken off a few days earlier following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas.  (Reuters)

Israeli troops shot dead a young Palestinian in Hebron.  It was reported that the young man was looking for archaeological artifacts near Hebron when he encountered the troops.  He was shot while fleeing, refusing the soldiers' order to stop.  (Reuters)

17 October The Working Group of the multilateral talks on arms control and regional security of the Middle East concluded a meeting in Paris in which delegations from Israel and 12 Arab States participated.  The group decided on the establishment of a center for the resolution of regional crises to be located in the region.  The United States and Russia chaired the meetings.  A plenary meeting of the talks on arms control is scheduled in Tunisia for December during which a draft document on the proposed center is expected to be approved. (Israel Information Service)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his Jordanian counterpart Abdul-Salam al-Majali, initialled, in Amman, a draft peace treaty between their countries.  It was reported that the peace treaty will be officially signed next week.  (Reuters)

 18 October The Working Group of the multilateral talks on water concluded a two-day session in Muscat, Oman, with a proposal to establish an international research center on water desalination in Oman.  The proposal will be finalized during the meeting of the full multilateral group on water which was scheduled for next month in Greece.  (Reuters)

 19 October A  bomb  tore  apart a bus in the centre of Tel Aviv, killing at least 22 people and wounding 48, in one of the bloodiest bomb attacks on Israel in recent years.  A preliminary investigation revealed that a suicide bomber entered the bus carrying explosives. Apparently, when the bus came to a stop along its route in Dizengoff Street, the explosives were detonated.  The Voice of Palestine radio, based in Jericho, said that it received an anonymous call claiming responsibility for the bombing in the name of Izz-aldin al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas.  Israel Radio also said that it received a phone call claiming  responsibility  in  the  name  of  Hamas.  (Reuters)

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters that he received a call from Chairman Arafat "offering his condolences and his help to get on the tracks of the people that may have done it".  Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin cut short a two-day visit to Britain to return to Tel Aviv.  Before leaving London, Mr. Rabin said that the bombing was "a continuation by those who are the enemies of peace, the extreme Islamic groups, the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad".  Following the bombing, Israel sealed  off the  West Bank  and the Gaza Strip  until  further  notice.  (Ha'aretz, Reuters)

United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali strongly condemned the bombing of the bus in Tel Aviv and hoped it would not disrupt negotiations between Israel and the PLO.  (Reuters)

20 October The Israeli Cabinet decided to take new measures aimed at curbing Hamas following the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv a day earlier.  The measures include the indefinite closure of its border with the Gaza Strip and the sealing off of the West Bank, preventing thousands of Palestinian workers from reaching their jobs in Israel.  The Cabinet also agreed on unspecified measures to give the security forces greater freedom to confront the Hamas group.  A spokesman for the PLO in Gaza said that the new Israeli measures would punish two million Palestinians for the actions of a handful of militants and would breed more hatred and instability.  (The Financial Times)

In a press conference, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that Israel needed to demarcate a border between itself and the Palestinians as "this is the only way to end the violence."  "We can't keep having the mixture of Jews and Arabs…  There has to be a separation, not just a technical closure," he said.  He was also quoted as saying that "such a border would not be the 1967 border, but violence would continue as long as Israel continues to occupy another nation".  (Xinhua)

U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been in contact with Israel over private American funding for Hamas and other Moslem groups.  (Reuters)

22 October The PLO permanent representative to the Arab League in Cairo submitted to the League's Assistant Secretary- General for Political Affairs a request for the omission of Article 9 of the Jordanian-Israeli draft peace treaty which states that Jordan is entitled to have jurisdiction over Islamic sanctuaries in Jerusalem.  The PLO request claims that Article 9 contradicts United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and also contradicts the PLO-Israeli Declaration of Principles signed in September 1993.

23 October Israel and the PLO opened a meeting of their Joint Liaison Committee with sharply different views on how to respond to the threat to their agreement by Hamas and other Islamic militant groups following the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv a few days earlier.  PLO chief negotiator Nabil Shaath said that Israel has to end its closure of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank which "threatens all the peace process … economically and politically". But Israeli Foreign  Minister  Shimon  Peres  said that Israel  expects  the  PLO  to  crush  Hamas  and  other Islamic groups.  (Reuters)

The Jordanian and Israeli army laid a bridge across the Jordan River that will give the Kingdom closer access to Israel's Mediterranean port of Haifa.  The 80-meter Sheikh Hussein  Bridge will carry lorries and cars  within  a  few  days  after  Israel  and  Jordan  sign a peace  treaty.  (Reuters)

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who stabbed and lightly wounded a soldier at a checkpost in the occupied town  of  Hebron.  The army imposed a curfew on the town. (Reuters)

24 October Israeli environment minister Yossi Sarid arrived in the Gulf island state of Bahrain to attend a session of the multilateral working group of the Middle East peace talks on environment. He was the first Israeli official to ever visit Bahrain.  Mr. Sarid was accompanied by a 40-person team to the talks.    (Reuters)

25 October The seventh round of the multilateral working group on environment in the Middle East opened in Manama, Bahrain.  A joint Israeli-Jordanian- Egyptian proposal for combatting pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba was expected to be approved by the working group. (Ha'aretz)

The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) overwhelmingly approved the peace treaty with Jordan to be signed by both countries a day after the approval.  The treaty was approved by a vote of 105 to 3, with 6 abstentions and 6 absentees.  (Ha'aretz)

The Vatican announced that it was establishing official relations with the PLO.  A Holy See communiqué said that the PLO would open an office in the Vatican City while the Papal Nuncio in Tunis would be tasked with establishing contacts with Palestinian leaders.  (AFP)

An agreement was reached between Israel and Morocco to import on a trial basis a shipment of oil shale for testing in Israeli installations for the production of electricity.  This was the first cooperative venture between the two countries in the field of energy.  In a survey prepared by the Israel Export Institute economists, trade with Morocco was established to reach $220 million for each of the next three years.  It was reported that the major export potential for Israel would be in the areas of agriculture, irrigation equipment, hi-tech electronics, constructive equipment, and professional services. (Ha'aretz)

26 October Jordan and Israel signed a historical peace treaty at the Arava Border Crossing, in a ceremony burying 46 years of hostility between both countries.  The treaty was signed by Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel-Salam al-Majali and his Israeli counterpart, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin.  U.S. President Bill Clinton also signed the document, as did U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.  (The New York Times)

U.S. President Bill Clinton met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Cairo to discuss the peace process between Israel and the PLO.  In a press conference after the meeting, President Clinton said that he was satisfied that PLO Chairman Arafat would make good on a pledge to fight militant Palestinian groups to preserve the agreement with Israel.  The President added that he would lead an international effort to help Israel and the PLO move into the next phase of the peace process.  (Reuters)

More than one million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem went on strike and held a "day of mourning" to protest the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.  The strike was called jointly by the PLO Fatah movement, Hamas and the Democratic Front. The Palestinians have condemned reference in the treaty to Jordan's special role in administering the Moslem sites in Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of the future State of Palestine.  (AFP)

Arab countries and Israel have reached an agreement on environmental protection during a meeting of the multilateral working group on environment held in Manama, Bahrain.  The accord, which was called the "Bahrain Environmental code of Conduct for the Middle East", was signed by a number of Arab countries and Israel, and endorsed unanimously by all 41 delegations to the conference.  The Bahrain Code includes agreement to work together to eradicate poverty and narrow gaps of living standards in Middle East countries as "indispensable requirements of sustained development".  It sets principles such as the use of natural resources on a sustainable, fair and just basis.  (Xinhua)

27 October U.S. President Bill Clinton, while visiting with Israel, decided not to tour East Jerusalem and its holy places.  The cancellation of the tour was decided upon in order to avoid a political crisis concerning the status of East Jerusalem, which is considered by Israel as part of its land, but is held by Palestinians as the capital of their future independent state. Mr. Faisal Husseini, the senior PLO official in Jerusalem, was quoted as saying that the cancellation has confirmed that "these places are under occupation and are not part of the territories under Israeli sovereignty".  The mayor of West Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, was quoted as saying that the tour cancellation was "an affront to the city's honor".  (Reuters)

28 October King Hassan II of Morocco met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Rabat ahead of the Casablanca economic summit.  Moroccan Prime Minister Abdellatif Filali also attended the meeting which focused on the Middle East peace process and the summit which was scheduled for 30 October.  Mr. Peres and seven other Israeli ministers arrived in Morocco two days earlier for the Casablanca economic summit and the opening of an Israeli liaison office in Rabat.  (AFP)

30 October A Middle East Economic Summit opened in Casablanca, Morocco with the participation of over 2,000 business and political leaders from around the world.  The summit was convened at the invitation of King Hassan II of Morocco and with the support and endorsement of Presidents Clinton of the United States and Yeltsin of the Russian Federation.  Representatives of 61 countries (including representatives from the United States, Germany, Japan, the European Community, many Arab States, Israel and the PLO) and 1,114 business leaders from all regions of the world attended the conference.  At the opening, King Hassan II declared that "peace is here", adding that the conference is aimed at "strengthening peace and transforming it into a lasting peace".  U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher declared at the summit that the region is "now open for business" and told the gathering that "Madrid opened the pathway for peace.  Here this week, let us declare that the Casablanca conference will open the pathway to economic ties and growth".  (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in Casablanca before the opening of the economic summit there.  During the meeting, Prime Minister Rabin announced an easing of the Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip beginning 1 November.  (Yediot Ahronot)

31 October According to Israeli sources, Israel will soon launch official ties with Oman and Qatar after breaking down barriers at the Casablanca economic summit.  The same sources indicated that Israel has also established contacts with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates during the conference.  It was also reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in Casablanca with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Hamed Ben Jassem al-Thani, and discussed an Israeli project to import Qatari natural gas.  (AFP)

Israeli Environment Minister Yossi Sarid met in Tunis with his Tunisian counterpart upon the latter's invitation.  It was reported that the two discussed plans for an exchange programme involving experts in environmental science, and both expressed their confidence that their countries could be successful partners in bilateral and regional environmental projects.  (Ha'aretz)

A Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the international border with Egypt as the Palestinian Authority took joint control with Israel of travel into and out of the Gaza Strip. "Welcome to the Palestinian Authority", read a new sign in English, Arabic and Hebrew. According to the 4 May autonomy agreement between Israel and the PLO, Israel retains final control over the borders of Rafah and at the Allenby Bridge into Jordan.  (AFP)

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