| January
1: Lieut. General Amnon
Lipkin-Shahak replaces outgoing Chief of Staff Ehud
Barak.
January
1: A tax on stock market profits is announced, evoking
widespread criticism.
January
6: A Palestinian terrorist kills a young woman on the
road to Elon Moreh in the West Bank.
January
8: The government decides to establish a commission
of inquiry into recurring charges that children from Yemen
disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the early years
of the state.
January
19: Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin and Chairman Yasser
Arafat meet to talks. Israel commits itself to freezing
construction in the occupied territories.
January
22: Two suicide bomber incidents at the Bet-Lid junction
near Netanya result in the death of 21 Israelis, most of them
soldiers.
January
30: Prime Minister Rabin annuls the stock market tax,
overriding the opinion of the minister of finance. The market
soars.
February:
Terrorist incidents by Hamas
and the Islamic
Jihad continue, as do attacks from Lebanon.
February
2: A four-way summit takes place in Cairo between Prime
Minister Rabin, chairman Arafat, King Hussein, and Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak to discuss implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian
agreement.
February
7: The Palestinian Authority establishes the Higher
State Security Court which quickly develops into an instrumement
for suppressing the opposition.
February
13: The Palestinians promise, in talks in Washington,
to fight terror in their midst.
February
27: The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange sinks again, reaching
a low of 146.8 points.
March
5: US Secretary of State Warren
Christopher shuttles between Jerusalem and Damascus to advance
peace talks between Israel and Syria.
March
19: Terrorists shoot at an Israeli bus near Hebron,
killing two passengers.
March
31: The Mapam daily "Al Hamishmar" closes
after 52 years of publication.
April
5: The Ofek 3 research satellite is launched successfully.
April
9: Two explosions of booby-trapped cars near Kfar Darom
in the Gaza Strip result in the death of 6 IDF soldiers.
April
16: IDF troops kill 3 Hamas activists near Hebron.
April
18: Remarks by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres referring
to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights up to the international
boundary arouse indignation in the public.
April
26: An announcement by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
about the impending evacuation by the IDF of three bases in
the West Bank evokes criticism.
May
8: A crisis develops in relations between Israel and
the Arab states in the wake of an announcement by Israeli authorities
regarding land expropriation in East Jerusalem.
May
11: Poet David
Avidan dies aged 60.
May
14: The government announces that no more land will
be expropriated in East Jerusalem.
May
20: Former chief of staff Ehud Barak announces his
decision to enter political life.
May
22: A political storm erupts following a motion for
a vote of no-confidence in the government proposed by the Arab
parties over the issue of land expropriation in Jerusalem. The
Likud supports the motion.
May
22: An IDF soldier opens fire in a church in Jaffa,
engendering rioting by Arabs in the city.
May
22: Demonstrations are mounted by settlers in the Golan
Heights against government plans for withdrawal from the region.
June:
The IDF begins redeploying in the West Bank. The Right and the
settlers in the West Bank are agitated.
June
15: Katyusha missiles fired into the Galilee wound
eight.
June
18: MK David
Levy leaves the Likud after confrontations with party leader
Benjamin
Netanyahu and begins to organize a new political party.
June
18: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin denies the existence
of plans to uproot settlements in the occupied territories.
June
23: Katyusha missiles are fired in the north, killing
one resident and wounding nine.
June:
A wave of bank holdups takes place in Tel Aviv and elsewhere
in the country.
July
2: A massive forest fire breaks out in the Jerusalem
corridor, causing extensive damage.
July
3: Incidents occur in the southern Lebanon, taking
a toll of two IDF fatalities.
July
6: IDF soldiers serving in the Hesder program request
their rabbis to rule on the proper response to orders that negate
their principles. The IDF fears disobedience by religious soldiers
regarding orders to evacuate army bases in the occupied territories.
July
6: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser
Arafat agree upon the main points of the Interim Agreement.
July
10: The Council of Settlements in the West Bank and
Gaza threatens to declare a civil rebellion.
July
12: Fifteen rabbis rule that any order to evacuate
IDF bases in Judea and Samaria must be disobeyed. Reactions
in the country are turbulent.
July
15: The Israeli-Syrian talks in Washington are at a
crisis.
July
16: Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai
Gur takes his own life by gunshot after a prolonged battle
with cancer.
July
18: Two new ministers join the cabinet: Ehud
Barak (interior) and Yossi
Beilin (economy and planning).
July
18: A tragedy occurs at the annual pop music festival
in Arad when a crowd of tens of thousands trample three teenagers
of death, with over 100 others injured.
July
18: Two hikers are murdered in Wadi Kelt east of Jerusalem.
The perpetrators flee to Jericho. Arafat orders their arrest
and trial.
July
24: A suicide bomber blows himself up in a bus in Ramat
Gan, causing the death of five passengers and a large number
of wounded. A closure is imposed on the occupied territories.
Thousands of Israelis demonstrate at the site of the incident.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak
who arrive at the site, are derided by the crowd.
August
6: A headline in the daily "Maariv" reads:
"Security Around Rabin is Heightened. The Shabak fears
an Assassination."
August
10: Two IDF pilots are killed in a plane crash caused
by the blockage of thye engine by birds.
August
11: The Israeli-Palestinian Oslo 2 accords are initialed.
Arafat commits himself to altering the PLO
Charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
August
13: The new president of the Supreme Court is Justice
Aharon Barak, who replaces retiring Justice Meir Shamgar.
August
21: A suicide bomber blows himself up in a bus in Jerusalem
which damages a second bus as well. Five passengers are killed
and over 100 are wounded. Agitated anti-government demonstrations
are held in Jerusalem and elsewhere throughout the country.
August
29: Government ministers receive threats by right-wing
extremists. Likud Chairman Netanyahu denounces them.
August:
Richard Wagner's opera "The Flying Dutchman" is broadcast
on Israel radio during prime time.
September:
Regional radio stations begin operating throughout the country.
September:
The People-to-People
Program is established in the Oslo II agreement: Article VII.
(Interim
Agreement)
September
1: Schools fail to open as scheduled in protest against
inadequate anti-terror security measures. They open the following
day.
September
4: The trimillenial
celebration year for the city of Jerusalem begins. The US ambassador
is absent from the ceremony.
September
19: A steward hijacks a plane in Iran and lands it
at the Uvdah airport north of Eilat. Israel returns the plane
and its passengers to Iran and detains the steward for trial
in Israel.
September
24: Israeli and Palestinian representatives agree on
the Oslo II accords (Washington or Interim Agreement for the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip.)
October
25: On the eve of the signing of the
Israel-Jordan trade agreement, the spokesman of the Ministry
of Trade and Industry issues a statement
explaining the nature of the agreement, its background and highlights.
September
27: Israeli composer Sasha
Argov dies at age 81.
September
28: The Israeli-Palestinian Oslo
II Accord is signed in Washington after a series of delays
and crisis. The Right holds turbulent demonstrations protesting
the accord as "traiterous". Rabin is excoriated in
print, orally, and at rallies where he appears.
October
5: The Knesset ratifies the Oslo II accord by a narrow
marjority. Rightist demonstrators attack Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin's and Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's cars.
October
10: A new phase of the IDF evacuation from the West
Bank begins. The first point to be evacuated is the town of
Salfit.
October
11: The Shabak is reported to have heightened security
for government ministers and senior officials in light of threats
and violence.
October
12: An ambush by Hezbollah of a Golani Brigade convoy
in southern Lebanon results in three soldiers killed and six
wounded.
October
15: An ambush kills six more soldiers from the same
battalion.
October
22: The Israeli and Jordanian air forces hold a joint
"peace flypast."
October
24: The US Congress votes by a large marjority to transfer
the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The US Administration
is opposed. A compromise is worked out whereby the transfer
is deferred to 1999.
October
25: The leader of the Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shkaki,
is shot and killed in Malta. Foreign sources claim he was eliminated
by the Mossad.
November
4: Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin is murdered by Yigal
Amir, a radical rightist, while leaving a mass rally at
Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The country is in shock.
November
6: The funeral
of Yitzhak Rabin is held at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, in the presence
of world
dignitaries, including US President Bill
Clinton, King
Hussein of Jordan, Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, Prime Minister John
Major of Great Britain, and Chancellor Helmut
Kohl of Germany.
November
6: Yigal Amir, who has admitted killing Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, says at a court hearing "the murder
was my obligation according to religious law." Meanwhile,
Israeli police announce they are holding Amir's brother, Hagai,
as a possible accomplice.
November
7: Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres announces that
planned Israeli troop withdrawals from West Bank towns will
continue on schedule.
November
8: The government decides to establish a commission
of inquiry into the circumstances of the assassination,
headed by former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Meir Shamgar.
The public is shocked by the security oversights that facilitated
the act.
November
8: Israeli police arrest Avishai Raviv, leader of the
right-wing group Ayal to which Rabin assassin Yigal Amir belonged,
and are searching for Raviv's deputy, Natan Levi. The Amir family
issues a letter of apology "to the Rabin family and all
the people of Israel."
November
9: Palestinian National Authority President Yasser
Arafat, on his first known visit to Israel, calls on Leah Rabin,
widow of the slain prime minister, to offer his condolences.
Meanwhile, Israeli police, calling the assassination the result
of an apparent conspiracy, arrest two more suspects and say
they had uncovered a weapons cache at the home of Yigal Amir.
November
12: A massive memorial rally is held at Kings of Israel
Square in Tel Aviv, which is to be renamed Yitzhak Rabin Square.
November
12: Israel's internal Shin Bet security service acknowledges
it has received information on religious-nationalist agitator
Yigal Amir prior to the assassination.
November
12: Secretary-General of the Histadrut Haim
Ramon returns to the Labor Party.
November
12: The High Court of Justice rules, giving "de
facto" recognition to Reform and Conservative conversions
performed in Israel for the purposes of civil issues, such as
population registration. It rules that the Religious Community
(Conversion) Ordinance giving the Chief Rabbinate [Orthodox]
sole authority over Jewish conversions only applies in cases
of personal status [marriage, divorce], i.e. not civil status.
Only the Knesset can legislate to decide what sort of conversions
are valid or to change who controls personal status registration;
at present, these converts will be unable to marry in Israel.
In effect, the High Court does not explicitly recognize Israeli
Reform and Conservative conversions, but recommends that the
guidelines already in use for recognition of overseas converts
who wish to come to Israel under the provisions of the Law of
Return, which has been recognized as valid since 1989.
November
15: President Ezer Weizman assigns Shimon
Peres the task of forming a new government.
November
19: The Shamgar Commission begins its investigation
of the circumstances of the assassination. The public is shocked
to learn that the head of the radical rightist Eyal organization,
Avishai Raviv, is a Shabak undercover agent.
November
22: The government formed by Peres is approved by the
Knesset. Peres is prime minister and defense minister; Ehud
Barak - foreign affairs; Chaim Ramon - interior; Moshe
Shahal - internal security; Yehuda
Amital - minister without portfolio. The rest of the previous
cabinet remains as it was.
November
22: An earthquake in Israel and neighboring countries
measures 6.2 on the Richter scale, causing large-scale damage
in Eilat.
November
26: Two rabbis are questioned on suspicion of granting
religious sanction to the murder of Rabin.
November
28: An intensive Katyusha missile barrage targets the
north of the country, wounding dozens of residents.
November:
An IDF evacuation from additional cities in the West Bank, starting
with Jenin, begins towards the end of the month.
December:
Strict security measures are adopted during the month to guard
Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
December:
America applies pressure on Israel and Syria at the start of
the month to begin serious peace talks.
December
1: Shimon Peres states: "Israel must pay Syria
the full price for a full peace."
December
10: The IDF evacuates from Tul Karm.
December
11: The IDF evacuates from Nablus in haste a day before
schedule in an atmosphere of tension and public hostility.
December
19: The trial
of Rabin assassin, Yigal Amir, begins in the Tel Aviv district
court. The judge reads out the charges while the suspect smiles.
The trial is scheduled to resume on January 1, 1996.
December
19: A video of the assassination filmed by an amateur
photographer, Roni Kempler, is broadcast on TV. The public is
shocked by the ease of access that the murderer had and by the
security gaps.
December
21: The IDF evacuates Bethlehem.
December
21: The representive rate of the dollar to the shekel
climbs rapidly. It reaches 3.17 shekels during approximately
one month, a rise of 5%.
December
24: The Uman knitwear plant in Ofakim closes and its
230 workers are dismissed. The town is in a uproar.
December
27: High-ranking Israeli and Syrian delegates begin
peace talks in the US.
December
29 - 30: Two Katyusha barrages targeting Kiryat Shmonah
cause heavy damages.
Inflation
in 1995 is the lowest in 26 years: 8.1%.
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