PARIS, Sept 10: A chronol ogy of 45 years of tension, war and negotiation between Israel and Its Arab neighbours is as follows, reports AFP.
November 29, 1947: The UN General Assembly adopts a plan to partition British-mandated Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish states. Jerusalem was to be put under international control as a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christiana
Fighting breaks out between Jews and Arabs, leaving 1.700 dead
May 14. 1948: Hours before the end of the Britain mandate, David Ben Gurion proclaims Israel s Independence. It Is immediately recognised by the United Slates, followed by the Soviet Union. The foltowing day Arab armies Invaded ihe new Jewish state
January 7, 1949. The first Arab-Israeli War ends with Israel tn possession of more ter ritory than had been allotted to it under the UN partition plan Jerusalem is divided into two sectors. Armistice agreements are signed In Rhodes. Greece, between February and July establishing the new borders be Iwas the Jewish sates, which controls 70 per cent of former Palestine and its Arab neighbours. around 850.000 Palestinians rrc forced Into ex lie
May 11. 1949: Israel becomes a member of the United Nations.
December 13. 1949: The Israeli parliament declares West Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
April 24. 1950: King
Abdallah annexes the West Bank to the Trans Jordan, creating the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
October 29. 1956: The second Arab-Israeli War erupts Into an International-crisis. The Israeli army Invades the Sinai peninsula three months after Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal. Israel, joined by French and British forces, halts its offensive after condemnation from the United States and Soviet Union. Israel withdraws In March 1957 and Is replaced by UN peacekeeping forces. Israel returns to Its 1949 borders.
May 28. 1964: The Palestine LiberaUon Organisation (PLO) Is formed in Jerusalem and draws up a national charier. The charter. revised In 1968. slates that the Armed struggle Is the sole means of liberating Palestine'' and caffs for the 'elimination of Zionism In Palestine,’ Yasser
Arafat becomes head of the PLO in 1969
June 5. 1967: After the withdrawal of UN,troops from the Sinai and Egypt s blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, Israel launches its "Six-day war", seizing East Jerusalem, The Sinai. Gaza, the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
Israel now occupies land four times larger than In 1949. Il annexes East Jerusalem on June 27.
November 22. 1967: The UN Security Coupcil adopts Resolution 242 calling for the "wilhdrawrfl of Israel armed forces from terrilories occupied in the recent conflict. The French version of the resolution reads "... from the territories occupied ...". The resolution also calls for "Guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and pollt leal independence of every stale in the area, through measures Including the establishment of
September 17-27, 1970: "Black September" in Jordan -at least 3,000 are killed after a government crackdown on Palestinian guerillas backed by Syria trying to overthrow the
government, in July 1971, the last Palestinian fedayeen" are expelled from the kingdom. Lebanon becomes their main base.
October 6-25. 1973: Onyom Kippur (the Jewish day of atonement). Egypt and Syria launch a surprise offensive in the Sinai and on the Oolan to recapture land tost In 1967. After heavy fighting, the operation fails to gain new land. But Israel signs a disengagement agreement with Syria on the Golan In May 1974.
In September 1975. Israel sings a similar accord with Egypt on the Sinai
December 21-22. 1973 Arabs and Israelis, except Syria and the Palestinians, hold their first direct negotiations In Geneva.
November 13. 1974: Yasser Arafat addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. I have come bearing an olive branch in one hand and a free-dom-fighter's gun in the other," he told the delegates. "Don't let the olive branch fall from my
April 13. 1975: CMl war breaks out In Lebanon after
around 30 Palestinians are shot dead on a bus driving through a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut In the latest of a series of clashes between Christian and Muslims.
November 19, 1977:
Ei^ptinn President Anwar Sadat travels to Jerusalem and addresses the Israeli parliament on the first visit to Israel by an Arab leader.
September 17, 1978: The Egyptian-Israeli Camp David accords arc signed In the United States, under the Auspices of US President Jimmy Carter, providing for the return of the Sinai to Egypt and autonomy for the occupied territories. Israel hands back most of the Sinai in 1982, but the autonomy plans never proceed.
March 26. 1979Cgypt becomes the first — and to date the only — Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in Washington. Sadat is assassl naled by Muslim fundamentalists in October, 1981
July 30. 1980: The Knesset, Israeli parliament, proclaims the whole of Jerusalem Reunified capital of Israel-. It to not recognised by the Interna-
tional community.
IXvcmbcr 14. 1981: Israel announced its annexation of the Golan I leights.
April 25. 1982: Israel hands back to Egypt all of the Sinai peninsula except for the Taba enclave, which it gives back In March 1989.
June 6, 1982: Israeli troops Invade Lebanon. Operation Peace In Galilee" Is officially meant to protect Israel's north cm border against attacks and Infiltration by Palestinian groups.
August 31,1982: After the siege of Beirut by the Israeli army, PLO leader Yasser Arafat leaves the Lebanese capital, which had been the Palestinian headquarters since 1971. ac companled by some 15.000 Palestinian guerillas
September 16-18. 1982: 1,500 Palestinian civilians are massacred by Lebanese Christian militiamen In the Sabra and Shatlla refugee camps outside Betrut. The mill tlamen were under the control of Israeli occupying forces. An Israeli investigative commission acknowledges the Israelis "Indirect responsibility."
October 1. 1985: More than 170 Palestinians hnd Tunisians are killed or wounded tn an Israeli raid oh the PLO Headquarters near Tunis. Arafat, whose office ts completely destroyed, narrowly escapes death.
December 9, 1987: Beglnn ing of the Palestinian uprising known as the "Intifada" In the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
November 15, 1988: The Palestine National Council (PNC), the exiled parliament, proclaims In Algiers the creation of an Independent Palestinian state and accepts UN Security Council Resolution 242 and the partition of Palestine, Imphcttly recognising the existence of Israel. The PNC rejects all forms of terrorism including terrorism by the state.
May 2. 1989: Arafat declares the PLO charter "obsolete."
August 1990 February 1991: During the Gulf crisis triggered by Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait, the PLO side* with Baghdad whose forces launch Scud missiles against Israel.
October 30. 1991: Star of the Middle East peace talks in
Madrid between Israel and all Arab countries tn direct conflict with ft. namely Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, as well as the Palestinians. During the talks Israel refuses any direct participation by the PLO. but closes Its eyes to contacts between Palestinian delegates and the PLO.
1993: January 19: The 1986 Law forbidding those living within Israeli jurisdiction to haw any contact with Terror-1st organisations is abolished. But the Israeli government continues to consider the PLO a Terrorist organisation."
April 9: Israel accepts for the first time the inclusion of Faisal Husseini. a leading nationalist from the occupied territories who ts also close to Arafat, in the Palestinian delegation to the talks.
August 29: Israel announces an agreement In principle with the PLO on autonomy for the Qaxa Strip an Jericho.
August 30: The autonomy accord. concluded by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO officials in Oslo on August 19 after a series of secret meetings. Is approved by the Israeli cabi-
Sept 9: Israel and the PLO reach an agreement on mutual recognition.