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October 1991
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The
Madrid Peace Conference takes place in Madrid, Spain. The conference
includes delegations from Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and
the Palestinians. The Madrid conference marks the first time most
of the Arab parties (except for Egypt) and Israel sat down at a table
together. The conference is organized along bi-lateral [involving
or participated in by two nations] lines as well as multilateral [participated
in by more than two nations] lines. |
January–September 1993
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Secret talks between Israeli and Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) negotiators begin in Oslo, Norway. On September
13, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin sign a Declaration of Principles in Washington on
the basis of the negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian teams
in Oslo, Norway.
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An Israeli Perspective
Israel recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and
gave them limited autonomy (in the occupied territories of the West
Bank and Gaza) in return for peace.
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A Palestinian Perspective
The PLO in turn gave up its claims to Israel’s territory as
defined by its borders before the 1967 war. The Palestinians also
agreed to end the Intifada and establish security in the West Bank
and Gaza.
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The trade-offs made became known as "land for peace."
Because they could not resolve all the issues right away, the two
sides agreed to make gradual steps towards a final settlement of
the conflict. The process by which the two sides would gradually
exchange land for peace and work out the more difficult issues standing
in the way of a final agreement became known as the "Oslo peace
process."
What was significant about Oslo is that it ended the existential
[of, relating to, or affirming existence] conflict between the Israelis
and Palestinians. The two sides were no longer claiming that the
other did not have the right to exist as a state or peoples on that
land and both pledged to work towards a final agreement that would
settle all outstanding issues between them.
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In February a militant Jewish
settler kills 29 Palestinians praying at the main mosque in Hebron,
the West Bank. In May, Israel and the PLO reach the "Cairo Agreement,"
which included an Israeli military withdrawal from about 60% of the
Gaza Strip (Jewish settlements and their environs are excluded) and
the West Bank town of Jericho. Further Israeli withdrawals were anticipated
during a five year period in which a permanent resolution would be
negotiated on the issues of Jerusalem, settlements, Palestinian refugees
and Palestinian sovereignty.
On July 1, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat makes a triumphal return
to Gaza to take up his new position as head of the new Palestinian
self-rule Authority (PA), after nearly 12 years of running the PLO
from Tunisia. On October 26, a comprehensive peace treaty between
Israel and Jordan is signed. The peace treaty ended the conflict between
the two countries that dated back to the war of 1967, when Israel
gained control of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. |
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On September 28, Arafat and Rabin sign the Taba agreement (known as
Oslo II) in Washington to expand Palestinian self-rule in the West
Bank and Gaza and allow Palestinian elections (held on January 20,
1996). However, on November 4, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
is assassinated by Yigal Amir, an orthodox Jewish student opposed
to Israeli withdrawals from the occupied West Bank. Shimon Peres becomes
Prime Minister of Israel. |
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A series of Hamas suicide bomb
attacks kills 57 Israelis. Shimon Peres suspends negotiations with
Syria. Hamas is an Islamist political group founded in 1988 that opposes
Israel and rejects the Oslo peace process and other negotiations.
Hamas is not an abbreviation but a nickname, and comes from Arabic
for "zeal." The full name is Harakatu Mujawamati Islamiya,
or Islamic Resistance Movement. |
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In May, Likud candidate Binyamin
Netanyahu wins the election for prime minister, defeating incumbent
Shimon Peres, of the Labor party. Netanyahu had campaigned against
the Labor party’s approach to the peace process, promising that
he would provide "Peace with Security." Yet in September,
violence claims the lives of 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers over
Israel’s opening of an archaeological tunnel site close to Muslim
shrines in Jerusalem. |
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Under the leadership of Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel hands over 80% of the West Bank
town of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but holds on to the remainder,
where several hundred Jewish settlers live among 20,000 Palestinians.
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu signs the Wye River Memorandum outlining further Israeli
withdrawals from the West Bank. The Wye River Memorandum resulted
from meetings between President Bill Clinton and Netanyahu at the
Wye Plantation in Maryland. The U.S. had been pressuring Israel to
end 18 months of stagnation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. |
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On May 19, Labor Party leader
Ehud Barak is elected Prime Minister of Israel, defeating Likud party
incumbent Binyamin Netanyahu. Barak campaigned on a platform of bringing
an end to all of Israel’s conflicts with all its neighbors, Syria,
Lebanon, and the Palestinians. On September 5, 1999, Israel and the
Palestinian Authority sign a revised deal based on the stalled Wye
River accord, aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process. On
November 8, 1999 final status talks resume between Israel and the
Palestinians. |
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In February a summit between
Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat breaks up over a disagreement
on a promised Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank under the revised
Wye accord. Final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians
are deadlocked as the deadline for a framework agreement (basic guidelines
for an eventual final agreement for peace between Palestinians and
Israelis) is missed. In March, Israel hands over part of the West
Bank to Palestinians as part of a land transfer agreed to at the Wye
River conferences of 1998. The land amounted to 6.1% of the total
of the West Bank.
On May 23, 2000, Israel unilaterally withdraws from the area of Lebanon
it was occupying since 1982. And in July, a peace summit between Palestinian
and Israeli leaders and negotiators at Camp David ends deadlocked
over competing claims to Jerusalem and the issue of Palestinians refugees.
Palestinians and Israelis accused each other of not being willing
to make the compromises necessary for an agreement. |
An Israeli Perspective
Israel believes its offer of handing over 95% of the West Bank
and Gaza to Palestinians for the formation of a Palestinian state
to be generous.
Israel views its condition of maintaining control over settlements
and security zones in the West Bank to be not only reasonable but
also necessary for its national security.
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A Palestinian Perspective
Palestinians believe they should not have to accept less than 100%
of the West Bank and Gaza because the total of both territories
only comprises 22% of what was originally Palestine.
Palestinians also view the Israeli proposal as unacceptable because
it would divide the Palestinian state into disconnected regions;
a situation that would not free them from Israeli occupation and
would not make for a truly independent state.
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In this atmosphere of stalemate
and recrimination, on September 28, 2000 Ariel Sharon, the leader
of Likud (Israel’s right-wing political party), visits the Temple
Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) with
1,000 Israeli soldiers. A Palestinian protest of Sharon’s visit
turns violent and sparks demonstrations and violence that have continued
until today. |
Sharon and his supporters state that the Palestinian
violence was planned before his visit to the Temple Mount and that
the Palestinians are only using his visit to the Mount as an excuse
for their attacks.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has used the term "Terror
Intifada" to describe the violence committed by Palestinians
since September 2001.
Israelis point to Palestinian attacks on Joseph’s
tomb (in West Bank town of Nablus) on October 8th, 2000 and Rachel’s
tomb (in West Bank town of Bethlehem) as proof that Palestinians
do not respect Jewish holy sites and therefore should not be granted
sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
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Because Jews do not normally visit the Temple Mount
except as tourists and because Sharon made his visit accompanied
by 1,000 soldiers during a delicate part of the peace process, Sharon
has been criticized for trying to provoke a Palestinian reaction
that would undermine the peace process.
Palestinians term their demonstrations and attacks
the "al-Aqsa Intifada," in the name of the mosque on the
Haram al-Sharif and state that the Intifada is fueled by frustration
over continued Israeli occupation of the majority of the West Bank
and parts of the Gaza Strip.
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The Al Aqsa Intifada is significant
because it marks the first time Palestinian citizens of Israel have
participated in protests and demonstrations against Israel in solidarity
with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. |
Israelis cite the participation of Arab Israelis in
the recent Intifada as a reason not to allow Palestinian refugees
to return to live in Israel.
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Arab Israelis have stated that they are protesting
the continued occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as
well as the treatment of Arab Israelis within Israel. According
to the Nazareth-based Arab Association for Human Rights, there are
huge gaps in local government budgets for Jewish and Arab towns
and municipalities.
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In October, President Clinton
presides over a summit between Palestinians and Israelis at the Egyptian
resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The summit attendees announce a cease-fire
and plans to bring an end to the Palestinian-Israeli violence but
the cease-fire comes undone soon after it is formed. With his governing
coalition teetering on the edge of collapse, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak gives his resignation to the country’s president on
December 10, stating that he wants to seek a new mandate from the
Israeli people. In other words, he hoped to get re-elected on the
platform of continuing to work towards a final peace agreement with
the Palestinians, and thereby regain the authority to take the steps
necessary to achieve such an agreement. Barak ran as the Labor Party’s
candidate against Likud Party candidate Ariel Sharon. |
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Likud Party (Israel’s right
wing) candidate Ariel Sharon is elected as Prime Minister of Israel,
beating Ehud Barak by more than 20 percentage points. Sharon campaigned
on the platform of "Peace with Security," and promised that
he would take a different approach to the Palestinian conflict than
the Oslo Peace Process approach. Palestinians are long-time critics
of Ariel Sharon because of his role in Israel’s 1982 invasion
of Lebanon, and his support of Israel’s settlement activity. |
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Following the deaths of eight soldiers and civilians
killed when a Palestinian bus driver ploughed his vehicle into a
waiting line of passengers, Israel reimposes a total blockade on
the occupied territories.
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Palestinians claim that the blockades prevent medical
and humanitarian supplies from reaching Palestinians and prevent
Palestinians from attending their jobs in Israel and traveling between
towns in the occupied territories.
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On March 7, Ariel Sharon formally takes office as Israeli prime
minister, heading a fragile seven-party coalition and a government
team comprising a third of the 120-member Knesset. Veteran Labor
leader Shimon Peres serves as Foreign Minister, after talking his
party into joining Ariel Sharon’s rightwing government of national
unity. In April, Israeli troops seize territory controlled by the
Palestinians for the first time since the start of the Oslo process.
Israeli troops seize the Gaza Strip and divide the territory into
three parts.
In May, the Mitchell Commission calls for an immediate ceasefire,
to be followed by confidence building measures and ultimately by
renewed peace negotiations. Mitchell also calls for a freeze on
expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Additionally,
the European Union accuses Israel of using "disproportionate"
force in the occupied territories and calls on it to dismantle Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In June, a suicide
bomber kills 19 young Israelis at a nightclub in Tel Aviv. Yasser
Arafat orders his forces in the occupied territories to enforce
a ceasefire.
The next month, on July 4, 2001, the Israeli security cabinet votes
to give the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) a broader license to target
Palestinian terrorists. Formerly, the IDF was only permitted to
assassinate terrorists actually on their way to committing an attack.
The new guidelines allow the IDF to act against known terrorists
even if they are not on the verge of committing an attack.
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Israel has stated that it must undertake preventive
action against imminent terrorist threats and that in the small
minority of cases where arrests are impossible (mostly due to the
lack of Israeli jurisdiction in PA areas), it is forced to carry
out other types of preventative operations it terms "active
self-defense."
Israel states that international law in general, and the law of
armed conflict in particular, recognize that individuals who directly
take part in hostilities cannot claim immunity from attack or protection
as innocent civilians. Israel states that it only acts in a manner
that is in compliance with the principles and practice of armed
conflict, and makes every effort to avoid involvement of innocent
civilians.
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Palestinians have taken issue with Israel’s policy
of "targeted assassinations," stating that these killings
constitute extra-judicial executions, where the victims have been
killed without trial and without the chance of a fair legal process
designed to examine the allegations brought forward against them.
Palestinians state that under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel
as the Occupying Power has the right to arrest and bring to trial
those suspected of violent hostile activities. However, under the
same Convention, extra-judicial executions are willful killings,
which constitute war crimes and are subject to universal jurisdiction.
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On August 10th, in retaliation for a Jerusalem suicide bombing
on the previous day, Israeli warplanes fire missiles at and level
the headquarters of the Palestinian police in the West Bank city
of Ramallah. The militant Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility
for the bombing. Israeli Special Forces also seize the offices of
the Palestine Liberation Organization at Orient House in East Jerusalem.
Several days later, Israeli tanks move into the West Bank city of
Jenin and open fire on the Palestinian police station, destroying
it. This is the biggest incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory
since 1994. The move is strongly criticized by Washington, which
is coming under increasing international pressure to step up its
intermediary role in the region. Nevertheless, on August 28, 2001
Israeli troops move into the West Bank town of Beit Jala, near the
southern outskirts of Jerusalem. The U.S. and Britain strongly condemn
the Israeli action. Throughout the late Summer and Fall Israel occupies
major Palestinian cities for various lengths of time, including
Jerico, Ramallah and Tulkarm.
Though the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated since the
October 17th, 2001 assassination of the Israeli hard-line Tourism
Minister Rehavam Zeevi by Palestinian militants, there are positive
signs of a renewed interest in peace talks. In a speech to the United
Nations on November 15th, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
spoke of Israeli support for Palestinian independence and a Palestinian
state.
Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. of
September 11th, the Bush administration has shown more of an interest
in bringing Israel and the Palestinians to negotiations, greatly
in response to requests from Arab and Muslim governments that are
supporting the U.S. war against terrorism. On October 2, Bush announced
a dramatic break with his administration’s previous Middle
East policy by stating that he is prepared to back the creation
of a Palestinian state and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
is expected to outline a new American initiative for restoring negotiations
between Israel and Palestine.
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