1999 in the Palestinian territories
Appearance
Events in the year 1999 in the Palestinian territories.
Incumbents
Palestinian National Authority (non-state administrative authority)
- Yasser Arafat (Fatah), President, 5 July 1994 – 11 November 2004
Events
- The Palestinian Central Council decided on 29 April to put off declaring independence until after the Israeli elections, triggering riots in the territories[1]
- 3,000 Palestinians participated in a "Day of Rage" on 3 June, protesting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank[2]
- The Palestinian Authority joined the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States upon its inception on 17 June in Iran
- PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak signed the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, an interim peace agreement, on 4 September[3]
- The Israeli government pre-emptively handed civilian control of 7% of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority on 10 September, the first transfer of legal authority in 1999, in preparation for peace talks later that week[4]
- Bilateral negotiations over Palestine's final status are conducted from 13 September-3 October, but no deal was signed due to disputes over Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, and travel rights between Gaza and the West Bank[5]
- Unemployment in the West Bank was estimated at 9.6%[6]
- Unemployment in Gaza was estimated at 17%[6]
Deaths
- Mohammed Shreiteh, father of eight who allegedly sustained terminal injuries stemming from police beating him a day earlier while he was in custody, died on 10 September in Hebron[7]
- Mahmoud Mohammed al-Bajjali, father of three who died in prison after serving five years in prison without trial, died on 3 December in Ramallah[7]
See also
References
- ^ A Political Chronology of the Middle East. Europa Publications. 2006. p. 186.
- ^ Patrick Cockburn (11 June 1999). "Palestine officers denounce Arafat". The Independent.
- ^ Ahmed Qurie (2008). Beyond Oslo, the Struggle for Palestine: Inside the Middle East Peace Process from Rabin's Death to Camp David. p. 88.
- ^ "Israel hands over more West Bank land to Palestinians". CNN. 10 September 1999.
- ^ Derek Brown (20 September 2001). "Middle East timeline: 1999". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Saree Makdisi (2010). Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 157.
- ^ a b As'ad Ganim (2002). The Palestinian Regime: A "Partial Democracy". Sussex Academic Press. p. 125.