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THE PALESTINIAN ISRAELI CONFLICT
A CHRONOLOGY (1947-2007)
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Burhan Karkoutly, Jerusalem is ours, circa 1977, Courtesy of owner Saleh Barakat
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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/
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