| January
9:
Lecturers at the universities begin a general strike and demand
the doubling of their salary.
January
13: Chief of the Central Command, Nehemia Tamari, his
aide-decamp, and two other pilots are killed in a helicopter
crash.
January
16: US President Bill
Clinton and Syrian President Hafez
al-Assad in Geneva.
January
17: Israel wants a referendum to decide upon the withdrawal
from the Golan
Heights.
January
30: PLO leader Yasser
Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres negotiate in Davos, Switzerland, and agree that the
self-adminstration area around Jericho will constitute 50 square
kilometers.
February:
Stocks in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchanges fall sharply following
reports of stock manipulation by bank officials and others.
Investors occur heavy losses.
February
2: The rightist Tzomet party splits. Three of its MKs
form a new movement, Ye'ud (Vocation), with a similar ideology.
February
6: Minister of Health Chaim
Ramon resigns in protest against the government's rejection
of the national health law that he has proposed.
February
7: A Hezbollah
ambush in southern Lebanon causes 4 IDF fatalities and 5 wounded.
February
10 - 13: A series of violent terrorist acts include
the murder of a citrus grower in Rehovot by a Palestinian worker;
the murder by Islamic Jihad terrorists of a taxi driver; and
the murder of Shabak operative Noam Cohen by a Hamas terrorist
in Ramallah.
February
16: The Jerusalem district court delivers its verdict
in the Bankers' Trial (the bank-share manipulation of 1983):
14 senior benk executives are convicted and 2 are acquitted.
February
25: A settler from Kiryat Arba, Dr.
Baruch Goldstein, fires indiscriminately at Palestinians
praying at the Makhpelah Cave, killing 29 and wounding many
others. After being subdued with a fire extinguisher, Goldstein
is beaten to death by survivors. Shock is registered in Israel.
The Arabs in the occupied territories, in Israel and in the
Arab world are incensed. Arabs riot in Jaffa, the Galilee, and
the Negev. The peace talks with the PLO and with Syria are in
crisis. Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders call for "new dimensions
of revenge." Yasser Arafat condemns the massacre and proclaims
the way of peace and justice. He demands the removal of the
settlers from Hebron.
February
27: The government announces the formation of a commission
of inquiry into the massacre of Hebron, headed by Chief Justice
Meir
Shamgar.
March
4 - 5: A weekend of unrest in the occupied territories
passes in the wake of the massacre in Hebron.
March
8: The commission of inquiry on the Hebron massacre
convenes, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Meir Shamgar
and composed of Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Goldberg, former
chief of staff Moshe Levy, District Court Judge Abd al-Rahman
Zu'abi, and President of the Open University Prof. Menahem Ya'ari.
March
17: Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin has an audience with Pope John
Paul II in the Vatican.
March
18: The UN Security Council censures
the massacre in Hebron.
March
23 - 25: The Rabbi Uzi Meshulam affair begins. A group
of Yemenites barricade themselves in a house in the town of
Yehud and shoot at anyone who approaches. They demand the establishment
of a commission of inquiry into the disappearance of Yemenite
Jewish children in the early days of the state.
March
29: Three rabbis regarded as eminent halakhic authorities
in the religious Zionist camp (Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira,
Rabbi Moshe-Zvi Neria of the Bnei Akiva movement, and Rabbi
Shaul Yisraeli) rule that IDF soldiers must disobey orders to
evacuate Jews from Hebron should sich orders be issued.
April
3: The university lecturer strike ends. Students at
several universities refuse to resume studies unless academic
requirements for the semester are eased in light of the three-month
strike.
April
6: A booby-trapped car explodes near a bus in Afula,
killing eigth passengers and wounding many others.
April
6: The government decides to implement a prolonged
closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
April
6: The IDF hands over an installation to Palestinian
control in Gaza, marking the start of a gradual evacuation.
April
13: A suicide bomber explodes a device in a bus in
Hadera, killing five passengers and wounding 30.
April
24: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin arrives in Moscow
and is received with a full military ceremony.
April
26: The dollar breaks through the 3-shekel mark.
April
29: In Paris, Israeli and Palestinian representatives
sign a "Protocol
on Economic Relations between the Government of Israel and the
PLO".
Mai
4: Israel and the PLO sign an agreement
in Cairo implementing Palestinian self-administration in the
Gaza Strip and Jericho.
May
7: Former chief of staff Chaim
Bar Lev dies aged 70.
May
10: The police trap and capture Rabbi Uzi Meshulam.
His followers surrender the next day after a gunfight. A large
store of weapons is discovered in the group's home base in Yehud.
May
13: Jericho is turned over to Palestinian control.
May
17: The evacuation of the IDF from the Gaza Strip is
completed.
May
21: An Israeli force in Lebanon kidnaps a leader of
the Shi'ite Amal movement, Mustafa
Dirani, responsible for handing over Israeli navigator Ron
Arad to the Iranians.
May:
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange continues to fall.
June
1: The Knesset ratifies the appointment of Dr.
Ephraim Sneh as minister of health.
June
2: Israeli planes attack Hezbollah bases in Lebanon.
They respond by firing Katyusha missiles at the Galilee.
June
4: Maccabi
Haifa wins the country's soccer game championship. It has
won 39 games consecutively.
June
26: The Shamgar Commission investigating the Hebron
massacre publishes its findings: Baruch Goldstein acted alone
and, moreover, his actions could not have been predicted. The
commission recommends the separation of Jews and Arabs worshippers
at the cave.
July
1: PLO chairman Yasser
Arafat arrives in Gaza for his first visit.
July
5: Chaim
Ramon is elected the 11th chairman of the Histadrut.
July
5: Yasser Arafat arrives in Jericho.
July
5: MK Tawfiq
Zayyad of Hadash is killed in a car accident on his way
back from the reception for Arafat in Jericho.
July
5: The IDF and the South Lebanon Army (SLA) are attacked
repeatedly in southern Lebanon.
July
7: In two terrorist incidents, the body of a soldier
who had been kidnapped and murdered is discovered. A young girl
is shot and killed near Kiryat Arba.
July
12: Arafat, his wife, and high-ranking PLO
leaders relocate to Gaza from Tunis.
July
17: Mass rioting erupts among Palestinian workers at
the Erez checkpoint at the entrance to the Gaza Strip as a result
of the long waiting time to pass into Israel due to rigorous
searches for terrorists. Two Palestinians are kileld and some
100 are wounded; one Israelis killed and some 20 are wounded;
150 buses are torched. Israeli and Palestinian forces exchange
fire.
July
25: A summit meeting at the White House in Washington
is attended by President Bill
Clinton, Prime Minister Rabin,
and King
Hussein of Jordan. They sign the Washington
Declaration and with it he state of belligerency between
Israel and Jordan is ended.
July
26: A booby-trapped car explodes near the Israeli embassy
in London, wounding 13 persons. All Israeli embassies are place
on alert.
August
3: King Hussein of Jordan flies over Israel escorted
by three Israeli Air Force fighter planes in an aerial salute.
August
5: A barrage of 20 Katyusha missiles lands in the Western
Galilee, resulting in three persons wounded and heavy damage.
August
8: The first border crossing point between Israel and
Jordan is inaugurated in the Arava region north of Eilat.
August
14: One Israeli is killed and seven others are wounded
in a terrorist attack at the Kisufim junction near the Gaza
Strip.
August
16: The government and the Bank of Israel announce
that stock market profits will be taxed. The move elicits harsh
criticism for its timing with the market at a low point.
August
18: Prof. Yeshayahu
Leibowitz, one of the country's most eminent thinkers, dies
aged 91.
August
24: An agreement
is signed in Cairo handing over authority for health, education,
as well as other areas to the Palestinians in the West Bank
and in Gaza.
August
26: Hamas terrorists employed at a construction site
in Ramleh without a work permit murder two Israeli co-workers.
September:
Terrorist incidents in southern Lebanon continue.
September
10 - 20: Golan settlement leaders hold a hunger strike
in Gamla to protest the government's intention to return the
Golan to Syria if a peace treaty is concluded with that country.
September
29: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of
Jordan meet at the king's palace in Aqaba to discus security,
border, and water issues. Present are Chief of Staff Ehud
Barak, Jordanian Prime Minister Abd al-Salam al-Majali,
and high-ranking government figures from both sides.
October
31: he Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel
where his late mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg is honoured
as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish
families from the Nazis in Athens, during World War II.
October
9: Two Palestinian terrorists shoot at pedestrians
indiscriminately in the Nahlat Shivah quarter in Jerusalem,
killing two - a woman soldier and an Arab resident from East
Jerusalem - and wounding 12. Israeli forces kill the two terrorists
and capture a third.
October
9: A soldier, Nahshon
Wachsman, is kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and held as a
hostage. A video is received in Israel on October 11 demanding
the release of terrorist leaders held by Israel. The deadline
given is October 14 at 9 p.m.
October
14: An attempt to rescue Nahshon
Wachsman, who is held in a village near Ramallah, fails.
The kidnappers kill him at the start of a gunfight, during which
an Israeli commando officer, Nir Poraz, is also killed.
October
19: A disaster occurs in Tel Aviv when a suicide bomber
blows himself up on a No. 5 Dan bus near Dizengoff Square, causing
24 fatalities and the wounding of dozens of other persons. (Prime
Minister Rabin's remarks
on the bombing.)
October
26: The Israeli-Jordanian
peace agreement is signed in a ceremony at Ein-Evrona along
the border north of Eilat in the presence of US President Bill
Clinton.
October
27 - 28: President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton visit
Israel.
October
29: A Hezbollah force attacks and penetrates an IDF
fortification in southern Lebanon, killing one Israeli soldier
and wounding two.
November
3: Turkish Prime Minister Tansu
Ciller visits Israel.
November
7: The Khalil Al-Rahman Mosque (Makhpela cave) reopens
for worshippers for the first time since the massacre in late
February. Security arrangements are extensive.
November
10: King Hussein pays his first public visit to Israel.
November
11: A suicide bomber attack at the Netzarim junction
results in the death of three reserve officers.
December
10: The Nobel Peace Prizes for 1994 are rewarded in
Oslo, to Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin, PA Chairman Yasser
Arafat, and Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres.
December
11: Israel and Jordan open embassies in Amman and Tel
Aviv, respectively.
December
14: An IDF reserve soldier loses his way in Ramallah,
becomes entangled in a Palestinian street parade, and narrowly
escapes being lynched. The fact that he avoided using his weapon
elicits mixed reactions in Israel.
December
19 - 23: A series of terrorist incidents in southern
Lebanon claim the lives of 4 IDF soldiers, with 11 wounded.
December
25: A suicide bomber blows himself up alongside a bus
carrying Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, resulting in 13 wounded.
December:
Inflation in 1994 is higher than in the preceding two years:
14.5%.
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