4.4.99 President Yasser Arafat meets with Jordan's King Abdallah 11 in Amman, a meeting that Arafat described as "positive and constructive."
9.4.99 U.s. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with Israeli foreign minister ArieI Sharon in Washington. She told the minister that Washington was "concerned" about Israel's policy of expanding Israeli settlements.
14.4.99 As part of the "Campaign to end ID confiscation in Jerusalem," some 50 persons take part in a demonstration organized by several Palestinian and Israeli human-rights organizations near the New Gate in Jerusalem. The protesters included prominent Palestinian politicians Hanan Ashrawi, Faisal Husseini and MK Azmi Bishara.
16.4.99 In a letter addressed to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, South African President Nelson Mandela says "yes" to becoming a member in the international committee for Bethlehem 2000. A number of world leaders and presidents have already joined the committee.
17.4.99 Palestinian Minister of State Ziad Abu-Zayyad is expelled from Jerusalem after Israeli police stop him in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz and escort him to his home in Bethany. Abu-Zayyad, along with other Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials, was banned from entry into Jerusalem last month in reprisal for a meeting of Palestinians with European diplomats at Orient House in East Jerusalem.
19.4.99 Israeli bulldozers demolish three houses allegedly built without Israeli permits in East Jerusalem's Issawiya village.
21.4.99 PLO senior leader in Jerusalem, Faisal Husseini, meets with foreign diplomats to discuss Israeli measures in the city. Europe does not recognize Israel's claim that Jerusalem is the "eternal capital" of Israel. Netanyahu had threatened to take punitive measures against Palestinian officials who met with foreign diplomats at Orient House.
21.4.99 The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London issues a statement about house demolitions and ID cards confiscations in Jerusalem in which the office expressed concern about the recent increase in house demolitions and settler activity in Jerusalem.
22.4.99 The Israeli High Court gives the Government of Israel three months to explain its policy regarding the residency rights of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem in the wake of the revocation by the Israeli Interior Ministry of residency rights of Palestinians who spent lengthy periods abroad or outside the Jerusalem municipal borders.
23.4.99 Foreign diplomats of several countries, including the U.s. and the EU, tum down Israeli
foreign minister Ariel Sharon's invitation to tour the occupied territories under his guidance. According to the Israeli daily Ma'ariv, 81 representatives rejected Sharon's proposition to give foreign diplomats a "close look at Israel's security needs" before final-status negotiations.
27.4.99 The Central Council of the PLO meets to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood proposed for May 4. The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) boycotted the meeting. Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Ismail Abu Shanab, from Hamas, attended as observers. The U.s. had proposed the expansion of the negotiations for one more year in "accelerated" talks, based on the cessation of unilateral acts, including a Palestinian declaration of state and Jewish settlement building.
28.4.99 The Israeli Communications Ministry decides to allocate 059 as area code to the Palestinian cellular phone company PalCel.
3.5.99 In a meeting in Jericho between chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and the director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Eitan Ben Tsur, the mandate of the international observers in Hebron is extended.
3.5.99 Israel warns the PNAagainst upgrading its diplomatic missions in foreign countries to an ambassadorial level, claiming it is a violation of the Oslo Accords.
3.5.99 Israeli Housing Minister, Meir Porush, inaugurates a new Jewish settlement to accommodate 1,000 Israeli families in the Nablus area. Palestinian sources claim this is the 19th settlement to be established since the signing of the Wye River agreement.
6.5.99 In a statement published in the Jordanian newspaper Al-'Arab, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin admits that Palestinians would stop resistance actions and "agree on permanent solutions" if Israel agrees to return all Palestinian land occupied in 1967. He denied allegations that Hamas and the PNAare "enemies."
7.5.99 Five hundred Israeli personalities, including two former ministers, Knesset members and 53 professors, sign a manifesto sponsored by Gush Shalom (the Peace Bloc) supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state in all the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem serving as capital of both Israel and Palestine.
7.5.99 Palestinian intelligence agents arrest four students from Al-Najah University in Nablus. The four are suspected of being members of the Islamic Jihad group.
8.5.99 A Gaza military court convenes to try Kamal and Hussam Hammad (the former in absentia) for having collaborated with Israel to assassinate top Hamas activist Yahya Ayyash in January 1996. The military prosecutor for the PNA demanded the death penalty for Kamal Hammad.
9.5.99 The Israeli cabinet ratifies a resolution to offer a grant of NIS 20,000 to Israelis who buy housing units in the new settlement planned on Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) in East Jerusalem. The cabinet also decided to allocate NIS 400 million to "developing the infrastructure of East Jerusalem." Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu: "Our main goal is to ensure that Jerusalem remains the capital of the Jewish people."
9.5.99 Hundreds of Jewish settlers move 15 mobile homes to a hilltop in the village of Burqin, southwest of Nablus, with a view to establishing a yeshiva there.
10.5.99 Israeli sources confirm that the Israeli Ministry of Transport has allocated a budget to build airports in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip.
11.5.99 The Israeli Internal Security Ministry hands Orient House an order demanding the closure of the office of Faisal Husseini, the Maps and Surveys Office and the International Relations Office. The order is appealed by a group of Israelis from Jerusalem, and an injunction is issued by the High Court postponing the case until after the Israeli elections. Later, the Barak government stopped harassing Orient House.
17.5.99 In the Israeli general elections, Labor's Ehud Barak defeats Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu 56% against 44%. Seven weeks later Barak announced the formation of a broad coalition government of 7 parties, controlling 75 Knesset seats, from the rightist National Religious Party to the leftish Meretz, without any of the Arab parties. (For detailed election results see Documents in PI! Vol. VI No. 2, 1999, p. 120.)
20.5.99 Palestinian special envoy to the UN, Nasser al-Qidwa, calls on the Security Council to halt all Israeli construction in Ras al-Amoud and Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) in East Jerusalem. The letter to the president of the Council and to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that "the current Israeli government has decided to proceed with the construction of the settlements in total contempt of international law and the unequivocal position of the international community in this regard."
20.5.99 Minister of Finance Muhammad Nashashibi and the European Investment Bank (EIB) sign in Gaza an agreement for an $11 million loan to finance community development projects in infrastructure, schools, hospitals, roads and the maintenance of old buildings.
22.5.99 PNA police arrest two Hamas activists, Khalil al-Sukeini and Sa'ad al-Arabid. The latter is believed to be the right-hand man of Muhammad Deif, who heads the list of wanted underground Hamas activists.
23.5.99 A pregnant woman from the vi1lage of Deir Qadees in the Ramallah area miscarries after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers. The vi1lage residents were trying to stop Israeli bulldozers from construction work just outside the village.
24.5.99 The PNA and France sign in Gaza a cooperation agreement for the financing of the Bethlehem 2000 project and infrastructure projects in West Bank towns.
26.5.99 King Abdallah 11 of Jordan visits Gaza for the first time, in a gesture of support from Jordan to President Yasser Arafat.
27.5.99 Israeli soldiers and police use force against journalists, camera crews, Palestinian Legislative Council members Hanan Ashrawi, Ahmad al-Batsh and Hatem Abdel Qader, and other participants in a peaceful assembly in Ras al-Amoud in East Jerusalem, against Israel's i1legal settlement activities in Jerusalem. Nine journalists and cameramen are injured.
30.5.99 Palestinian President Arafat meets with the Fateh Central Council to discuss Israeli settlement policy. Later, Arafat called for a "day of rage" on June 3 in protest against Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
3.6.99 The Palestinian cultural center, Beit el-Shi'r, (House of Poetry) boycotts the International Poetry Festival to be opened on June 5th in West Jerusalem. The reasons: the June 5 date which marks the anniversary of the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the choice of Jerusalem as venue which the Palestinians and Arabs consider an occupied city.
5.6.99 The World Bank and the PNA sign in Gaza a $21-mi1lion soft loan agreement for waterwaste and water projects in the Bethlehem and Hebron districts. The agreement is signed by Muhammad Nashashibi, minister of finance, and Joseph Saba, World Bank representative to the Palestinian area.
7.6.99 Palestinian and Israeli security officials meet at the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to discuss civilian issues. This is the first meeting between the two sides since last January when Israel froze the implementation of the Wye River Memorandum. It is also the first meeting to be held since the election of Ehud Barak, the new prime minister of Israel.
10.6.99 The Executive Council of UNESCO adopts a unanimous decision on Jerusalem, calling for the appointment of an international figure to prepare a report on conditions in the Holy City, in terms of violations of the Hague and Geneva conventions pertaining to lands under occupation.
13.6.99 Member of the Palestine National Council and Fateh Revolutionary Council, Mohammed Daoud Odeh (Abu Daoud), is denied entry into Israel following a warrant for his arrest by Germany on grounds of his involvement in the 1976 hijacking and killing of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich.
15.6.99 Commander of the Palestinian security forces, Abdel Razzaq Majaideh, issues an order banning Palestinian builders from working in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. The ban applies only to settlement construction and not to other work such as agriculture or textiles.
17.6.99 At a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, U.s. President Bill Clinton pledges the U.S. will exert all possible efforts to support the peace process.
18.6.99 Israeli PM-elect Ehud Barak tells the Israeli daily Ha'aretz he intends to implement the safe passage linking the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after he takes office. The 4-lane bridge is to be 47 kilometers long, and is to connect the town of Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza, with the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron.
18.6.99 Israeli PM-elect Ehud Barak announces the formation of a "peace cabinet" composed of former generals and headed by former head of Mossad Dani Yatom.
18.6.99 The Israeli army discovers a secret tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The tunnel, located near Rafah, is eight meters below ground and includes a railway, carriages, and the necessary infrastructure for transferring goods and people.
19.6.99 Jewish extremists seize a Palestinian house in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem while the owner is abroad.
19.6.99 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat issues an urgent decree to transfer $2 million to the Ministry of Health, to deal with the Ministry's gaping financial deficit. Arafat stressed the priority the health sector holds in PNA programs and plans.
19.6.99 A two-day conference in Sweden with unofficial Palestinian and Israeli teams meets to discuss possible scenarios in future negotiations. Former chief of the Shabak, Karmi Gilon, MKs Dan Meridor, Michael Eitan and Meir Shitreet represented the Israeli side; PLO executive committee member Faisal Husseini, Riyad Malki, Manuel Hassassian and Ghassan Khatib represented the Palestinian one.
20.6.99 In the wake of the G8 countries' meeting in Cologne, Germany, G8 leaders call on Israel and the Palestinians to conclude final-status negotiations within one year, to immediately and fully implement the Wye River agreement, and to halt any unilateral activities which may preempt the results of final-status negotiations.
21.6.99 The Palestinian Ministry of Trade and Industry signs an agreement with the Peres Peace Center in Tel Aviv for the promotion, locally and internationally, of the industrial zones in the Palestinian areas.
24.6.99 Katyusha rockets fired by HizbuIlah guerrillas in South Lebanon kill two Israelis in the Upper Galilee town of Kiryat Shmona. Israeli retaliatory air strikes hit a power generator near Beirut as well as north-south connecting bridges, killing 8 Lebanese and injuring 67. This is an escalation in the ongoing military clashes in the area.
In this period, in the occupied territories two Palestinians are killed by the Israeli security forces and one Israeli is killed by Palestinians within the Green Line.
Above figures from B'Tselem