This is the html version of the file http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/mitejmes/Chronology%20of%20a%20Conflict.pdf. Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web. Page 1 THE PALESTINIAN ISRAELI CONFLICT A CHRONOLOGY (1947-2007) Page 2 Burhan Karkoutly, Jerusalem is ours, circa 1977, Courtesy of owner Saleh Barakat Page 3 A CHRONOLOGY OF CONFLICT 1947-2007 Leila Farsakh November 29, 1947: UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (the Partition of Palestine) Calls for the establishment of two states in Palestine: A Jewish and an Arab State • The Jewish State would include 56% of British Mandate Palestine (although Jews owned 7% of the land and represented 33% of the population) • The Arab State would include 43% of British Mandate Palestine (although the Christian and Muslim Arabs in Palestine owned 93% of the land and represented 37% of the population) • Jerusalem was to be corpus separatum, i.e. under international administration. May 14, 1948: The State of Israel is declared. May 15 , 1948, the British Mandate is ended and war erupts between the Zionist forces and the Arab armies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. September 1, 1948: Formation of All-Palestine Government in Gaza. It collapsed by December 1948 December 11, 1948: UN Gen. Assembly Res. 194 (III) which confirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return, restitution and compensation. February- July 1949: Rhodes armistice agreements, signed between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel had by then captured 78%, and not 54%, of British Mandate Palestine. April 24, 1950: Annexation of the West Bank and Kingdom of Jordan; The Gaza Strip comes under Egyptian administration. October 29, 1956: The Suez Crisis: Tripartite invasion into Egypt by Israel, Britain and France: Israel retreats from the Sinai and Gaza by March 1957 January 1959: Fatah is established by Yasser Arafat and Khalil al-Wazir [Abu Jihad]. It issues in Lebanon the clandestine Fatah magazine Filastinuna [our Palestine] June 2, 1964: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Fatah is founded. January 1, 1965: First military operation of Fatah inside the armistice line. Page 4 June 5, 1967: The Six Day War: Israel attacks the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies in a “pre-emptive war”. June 10, 1967 ceasefire announced: Israel occupies East Jerusalem, West Bank the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. November 22, 1967, UN Security Council Resolution 242: It enshrines the principle of “land for peace” for peace talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It does not include any direct reference to the Palestinians. The West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights are under military Occupation. March 21, 1968: Al-Karameh Battle: Fighters of the Palestinian resistance and Jordanian army confront and force the retreat of the Israeli army in the village of Al-Karameh in the Jordan River Valley. January 1969: Fatah proclaims its objective of creating a democratic, secular state in Palestine. February 1969: Yasser Arafat is elected chairman of a new executive committee of the PLO. The Palestinian resistance [al-Muqawama al-Filistiniya] becomes the predominant component of the PLO institutions. December 1970 Roger plan: US Sec. of State William Rogers outlines US proposal for an Israeli-Arab peace settlement based on indirect negotiations for the recognition of Israel by Arab states in exchange for land return. October 6, 1973: October war: Ramadan War/ Yom Kippur War. October 22, 1973: UN Security Council Resolution 338: Called for direct negotiation on the basis of 242 (242 does not mention direct negotiation). December 21, 1973: First Geneva peace conference: Included Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the US and USSR (excluded Syria who refused to participate, as well as the PLO). Negotiations collapsed after one day. Oct 28, 1974: Rabat Arab League Summit recognises the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Nov 13, 1974: Arafat addresses the UN General Assembly. April 13, 1975: Lebanese Civil war erupts. April 12, 1976: First West Bank municipal election under Israeli occupation. A sweeping victory for nationalist/PLO supporters list. March 16, 1977: United States President Jimmy Carter endorses the idea of a “Palestinian homeland”. He seeks another international Mid-East conference in Geneva. Page 5 July 17, 1977: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt announces willingness to accept Israel after signing a peace treaty. November 19, 1977: President Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem. During this first decade of the Naksa a total of 35 settlements were built in the West Bank and Gaza including East Jerusalem, hosting a total of 38,000 settlers. March 14,1978: Operation Litani: Israel invades South Lebanon March 19, 1978: UN Sec. Council Res. 425 calls for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and establishes a UNIFIL force to be dispatched to southern Lebanon. March 22, 1979: UN Sec. Council Res. 446 calls on Israel to dismantle settlements “having no legal validity” in Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem. September 17, 1978: Camp David Peace Accords: They consisted of 2 agreements based on UN resolutions 242 and 338. The first dealt with the future of the Sinai and peace between Israel and Egypt. The second was a framework agreement establishing a format for the conduct of negotiations for the establishment of an autonomous regime in the West Bank and Gaza. March 26, 1979: A Peace Treaty is signed between Israel and Egypt. Egypt was subsequently dismissed from the Arab League. December 14, 1981: Israel annexes the Golan Heights. June 6, 1982: Israel invades Lebanon in “Operation Peace for Galilee” leaving close to 20,000 civilians dead. On August 21 st 1982 the PLO starts to retreat from Beirut and moves to Tunis. Between September 16 and 18 the Sabra and Shatila Massacre take place. More than 2,000 residents of these Palestinian Campes are believed to have been killed. September 1982: Reagan Peace Plan: called for peace in the area on the basis of the Camp David accords and proposed “self-government for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan”. September 1982, Fez Peace Plan Announced at the Fez Arab League Summit: It offered implicit Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for: • Israeli withdrawal from all the Occupied Territories • Dismantling of settlements established on Arab territories after 1967. At the time they amounted to a total of 92 settlements in 1982, up from 35 in 1977. • The declaration of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. December 9, 1987: First Intifada erupt in Gaza and the West Bank against 20 years of Israeli occupation. By the end of 1987, a total of 131 Jewish settlements Page 6 had been built in occupied Palestinian Territories with a total population of 190,000 settlers. December, 1987: Hamas is formed by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin of the Gaza wing of the Muslim Brothers in the Occupied Territories. July 31, 1988: King Hussein announces disengagement from the West Bank. November 15, 1988: Palestinian Independence Declaration at the 19 th Palestinian National Council, Algiers. December 3, 1988: PLO leader, Yassir Arafat, denounces terrorism and accepts UN resolution 242 and 338 at the UN General Assembly that convened in Geneva. The United States opens direct negotiations with the PLO in Tunis. August 2, 1990: Iraqi troops invade Kuwait. January 17, 1991: US invasion of Iraq in “Operation Desert Storm”. Israel imposes a territorial closure policy for the first time on the West Bank and Gaza. October 29, 1991: Madrid Multilateral Peace Negotiations launched under the auspices of the US and Russia, with the participation of Israel, its Arab neighbours and a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation. September 13, 1993: The Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP) os signed at White House ceremony by Israeli FM Peres and PLO official Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). A hand-shake between Arafat and Rabin symbolically launches the Oslo Peace process, based on UN resolution 242 and 338. It excludes all talks on final status issues and focuses on what came to be known as interim status issues. These entailed the establishment of an elected Palestinian authority and the gradual redeployment of the Israeli army from Palestinian areas. By end of 1993, a total of 149 settlements had been constructed in the Palestinian occupied territories (including east Jerusalem) with a total population of 162,000. February 25, 1994: Hebron Massacre: 29 Palestinian killed by US-born settler Baruch Goldstein who opens fire on Muslim worshippers at Haram al-Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. April 6, 1994: A car bomb explodes at bus stop in Afula, killing 8 Israelis and injuring 44. Hamas claims it was in reprisal for the Hebron Massacre. This marks the beginning of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel. July 1, 1994: Arafat returns to the Palestinian homeland crossing the Rafah border. October 26, 1994: A Peace Treaty is signed between Israel and Jordan. Page 7 September 28, 1995: The PLO and Israel sign the Interim Agreement, known also as “Oslo 2” Agreement on the second stage of Palestinian autonomy. January 20, 1996: First Palestinian elections take place in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. January 17, 1996: The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron is announced. October 23, 1998: Wye River Memorundum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to implement the Interim Agreement July 2000: Final Status Negotiations in Camp David, between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority’s Chairman Yasser Arafat. The negotiations fail. The number of settlements has reached a total of 178 settlments with a total of 360,000 settlers, up from 162,000 settlers by end of 1993. September 29, 2000: eruption of Al-Aqsa Intifada. March 28, 2002: Beirut Declaration on Saudi Peace Initiative: The Arab States’ offer official recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel’s full retreat from to pre June 4, 1967 lines and the establishment of a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. April 30, 2003: A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is announced. It specifies the steps that the two parties need to implement to reach a full settlement of disputes, and a timeline for doing so, under the auspices of the Quartet - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia June 24, 2002: US President Bush Rose Garden Speech which is the first US official stand on a “vision of two states living side by side in peace and security” as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. August 15, 2005: Israeli Disengagement from Gaza. November 11, 2004: Arafat dies in Paris after suffering from brain hemorrhage and coma. January 26, 2006: Hamas wins parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza and is democratically elected as the government of the Palestinian Authority. July 12, 2006: Sixth Israeli war on Lebanon. A UN brokered ceasefire goes into effect on august 14, 2006. June 14, 2007: Hamas takes over Gaza and Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, dissolves the government and the power sharing agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Page 8 November 27, 2007: Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference. ________________________________________________________ SOURCES Charles D. Smith Palestine and the Arab- Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents (Boston: Bedford/St Martin, 2006), Bickerton and Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 2003), Foundation for Middle East Peace, at www.fmep.org, accessed December 6 , 2007). Useful Websites for primary documents and data: - Foundation for Middle East Peace, at www.fmep.org - United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine at http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/ - PASSIA at www.passia.org - Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/peace%20process/reference%20documents/ Page 9
