Chronological Review of Events/February 1998 – DPR review

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Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

Monthly media monitoring review

February 1998

 1

PA President Arafat met in Ramallah with US Secretary of State Albright and agreed to consider new US ideas for breaking the deadlock in peace negotiations with Israel. (AFP)

US Secretary of State Albright said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority would send representatives to Washington, D.C. for more talks on how to end the deadlock in the peace process making. (Reuters)

Jewish settlers at the West Bank settlement of Reihan began building a road linking their settlement to Israel.  The Israeli radio quoted Reihan settlers as saying they wanted the road built ahead of an eventual army withdrawal from the region under peace accords with the Palestinians. (AFP)

 2

Israeli soldiers hit a Bethlehem girls’ school with tear gas during the fourth straight day of clashes with stone-throwing Palestinian youths.  Several gas canisters fired by Israeli soldiers trying to disperse the protesters landed in the yard of a nearby girls middle school, sending the students fleeing.  A number of girls had to be taken to hospital after being overcome by gas, they said. (AFP)

 3

The Israeli army destroyed the home of a Palestinian near Ramallah while a tour of the Knesset deputies looked on.  A bulldozer, accompanied by Israeli troops, demolished the unfinished three-room home belonging to Ali Samhan, located near a road leading to a Jewish settlement outside the village of Ras Karkar. (AFP)

 4

The Israeli Ministry of the Interior authorized the construction of 132 Jewish homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud.  The Ministry had already authorized the building of 70 homes in the same neighbourhood in July 1997.  The building of the settler homes in the neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud “is an act of extreme provocation and incitement,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a Jerusalem delegate to the Palestinian Council and PA Minister of Higher Education.  “There must be immediate action to prevent this,” she added. (AFP)

PA President Arafat called on the European Union to put pressure on Israel to break the deadlock in the Middle East peace process.  “We want more European Union action and more initiative to advance the peace process,” Mr. Arafat told reporters in Madrid.  He said Europe had a right to demand a greater role in the peace process because of its important economic relationship with Israel. (Reuters)

 5

According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Netanyahu is preparing to grant new financial incentives to residents of more than 30 settlements in the occupied territories.  The plan would give the settlements the status of “confrontation line” communities, reserved until now to towns and villages on Israel's borders with Lebanon, Jordan and on the Syrian Golan.  Residents of confrontation-line towns benefit among other things from a reduction in income taxes of 15 to 20 per cent, compared to a seven per cent exemption for other settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Haaretz said 30-40 settlements would benefit from the change, mostly those located near Palestinian towns and villages. (AFP)

Seven Israeli border police were under investigation, accused of abducting and beating three Palestinian 12- and 13-year-olds in East Jerusalem, officials said.  The border police allegedly stopped the Palestinians, forced them into their van, where the youths were beaten for several minutes and then tossed onto a vacant lot, according to an Israeli Ministry of Justice account of the incident.  One of the three was sent to hospital and the two others lodged a complaint with Israeli police, who launched an investigation. (AFP)

The Israeli Government vowed to block any construction in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud, following an Interior Ministry decision to permit the construction of 132 homes there.  David Bar-Illan, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's communications adviser, said that "the Government can prevent anything it wants.  Period.  The invoking of public order and national interest is the prerogative of the Prime Minister, and he can do it any time that he wants.  It overrules everything else." (The Jerusalem Post)

Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, left for his first official visit to the Middle East in search of a bigger European role in the region.  Mr. Santer was scheduled to meet the leaders of Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. (The Financial Times)

According to a report released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, between 80,000 and 100,000 Palestinians are currently working in Israel, the highest number in several years, according to a report on the economic relations with the Palestinian Authority released by the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.  Israel employs 57,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip with work permits.  In addition, the report claims, 20,000-40,000 Palestinians from the West Bank cross the Green Line illegally.  The report also contains information on the relations between  Israel allows 7,500 Palestinian businessmen from the West Bank and 4,500 from the Gaza Strip to cross the Green Line.  Bilateral trade between Israel and the PA totals US$2 2.5billion. a year. (The Jerusalem Post)

7

A Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam reported that a US proposal to resuscitate the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process outlined an Israeli troop withdrawal from some 25 per cent of the West Bank and security demands of the Palestinians.  The proposal reportedly outlined a 16-week, step-by-step plan, by which Israel would withdraw from the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian fulfilment of Israel's security demands. (AFP)

 8

The Israeli army destroyed two structures being built by Palestinians near a Jewish settlement just outside the city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

 9

EU Commission President Jacques Santer met with PA President Arafat and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders alike to stop evading full implementation of their peace agreements. (AFP)

A special envoy of PA President Arafat said in Cape Town he hoped South Africa would intervene to promote peace in the Middle East. (Reuters)

10

European Commission President Jacques Santer met with Prime Minister of Jordan Abdel Salam Majali and discussed the status of the Middle East peace process. (AFP)

Israeli military bulldozers accompanied by troops demolished three Palestinian homes in the West Bank town of Dahariya near Hebron. (AFP, Reuters)

11

Israeli authorities announced the lifting of restrictions on the number of Palestinians authorized to work in Israel.  “We are putting an end to the policy of quotas, from now on the number of Palestinians working in Israel will be determined only by the demand from employers,” said General Yaacov Orr, coordinator of Israeli activities in the occupied territories.  Orr said during a press conference for foreign journalists that Israelis wishing to hire Palestinians would simply submit requests to local employment offices. (AFP)

Israeli and Palestinian representatives held a brief face-to-face meeting with US mediators but the State Department said no progress was made to revive the peace process.  Israeli Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat took part in the meeting chaired by the State Department's coordinator for the Middle East, Dennis Ross. (AFP)

12

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) decided to set up a fund that will provide US$25 million in financial aid to farmers and fishermen in Palestinian-controlled areas.  The IFAD Fund for the West Bank and Gaza Strip was unanimously approved by the 130 member nations of the specialist UN agency, which is holding its 21st Governing council meeting in Rome.  “We are going to

act quickly, and we hope to present to the IFAD council from April projects worth 25 million dollars” over three years, said Theodore Van Der Pluijm, Director of IFAD's Middle East section. (AFP)

14

Speaking at a banking and finance conference in Monaco, PA Finance Minister Mohamed Zuhdi Nashashibi said that any restrictions on Palestinian economic development would hinder a genuine and comprehensive peace process with Israel. (Reuters)

15

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that it would be a "tragedy" for Jews and Arabs if no Palestinian State was created.  "If a Palestinian State is not created, the Jewish State will transform itself into a bi-national State, and this will be a tragedy for everyone," Peres said at a youth meeting in Tel Aviv. (AFP)

16

The Israeli army demolished a Bedouin camp in the West Bank some five kilometres (three miles) from a Jewish settlement at Maaleh Adumim, but no reason was given for the move.  Three dozen tents and shacks belonging to members of the Jahalin tribe were knocked down by bulldozers. (AFP)

17

The PA said it expected the US to present a new plan to revive the stalled peace process with Israel.  “The Americans told us today that the American peace team will today present Madeleine Albright with the official American inititative to resume the peace process,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.  “We hope that the American administration will base its initiative on the basis of signed peace agreements,” he said in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Council was meeting. (AFP)

18

Senior Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met the US ambassador to Israel to discuss outstanding issues of the interim agreement.  Marwan Kanafani, PA President’s spokesman, said that the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli cabinet secretary Danny Naveh met US Ambassador Edward Walker, as agreed after their talks with US officials in Washington the week before. (Reuters)

21

Some 300 Palestinians and Israelis demonstrated at the West Bank village of Kfur Qaddum to protest the bulldozing of land for Jewish settlements.  The protest was organised by the National Islamic Committee and an Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Bloc. (AFP)

24

Prime Minister Netanyahu renewed a proposal for a US-brokered summit with PA President Arafat to discuss core issues in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.  “We would shut ourselves off someplace, I don't know if this would be in the bungalows of Camp David or any other place.  We would need to sit and see, really, where the compromise would come, between the Palestinians' demands and Israel's vital needs,” Netanyahu told Channel One Television. (Reuters)

25

Fierce clashes erupted at the Kalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank after the Israeli forces had six people arrested during an overnight raid and blockaded the entrance to the camp.  Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers who retaliated with tear gas, and sporadic fist fights broke out on the main road between Jerusalem and Ramallah.  Several Palestinians were beaten and two were arrested and taken away by Israeli security forces. (AFP)

26

The Palestinian population in the occupied territories is 2.9 million, according to a Palestinian census published, higher than previous estimates.  Palestinians number 1.7 million in the West Bank, one million in the Gaza Strip and 210,000 in annexed East Jerusalem, according to the census conducted in December by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.  Previous estimates put the Palestinian population in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 at 2.5 million to 2.6 million, including 180,000 in East Jerusalem. (AFP)

Israel and the PA signed a UNESCO-sponsored agreement in Ramallah, on cooperation in the fields of culture, education and science.  “(The agreement) aims to allow Palestinians and Israelis to contribute to building a peaceful future by working together on cooperative projects under UNESCO's auspices," said Daniel Janicot, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO.  The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that UNESCO would supervise and fund 11 projects covering education on peace, medical research and the publication of an anthology of Israeli and Palestinian literature. (AFP)

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CR14/02.03.98