|
Gaza Timeline
17/08/2005 06:59 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Israeli police and soldiers were on Wednesday to begin expelling Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip after a midnight deadline passed for them to leave voluntarily. The following are some of the key dates since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled his disengagement plan:
2003
- Dec 18: Sharon says he will embark on a unilateral separation plan, which would involve the evacuation of unnamed settlements, within months if there is no progress in the bilateral peace process.
2004
- Feb 2: Sharon says in an interview with the Haaretz daily that Israel is to dismantle its Gaza Strip settlements, saying there is no future for Jews in the territory.
- April 14: Following a meeting with Sharon at the White House, US President George W Bush hails the so-called disengagement plan as "historic and courageous" and gives his de facto support for Israel to retain control of its large West Bank settlement blocs.
- May 2: Sixty percent of members of Sharon's right-wing Likud party reject disengagement in a referendum despite polls showing the project has the support of a majority of the Israeli public.
- June 6: The Israeli cabinet agrees in principle for the phased evacuation of the 21 Gaza settlements and four in the northern West Bank. Sharon fashioned a majority by sacking two ministers while a third resigned after the vote.
- July 25: Around 130 000 people form a human chain stretching from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem's Old City in the first mass protest against disengagement.
- Aug 18: The Likud convention passes a motion against Sharon inviting the centre-left Labour party into a new expanded coalition in order to ensure disengagement is enacted. The prime minister vows to ignore the outcome.
- Oct 26: Parliament adopts the principles of Sharon's plan, paving the way for the first evacuation of Israeli settlers from occupied Palestinian territory. The vote is only passed with the help of Labour and the smaller left-wing Meretz party.
- Nov 11: Sharon's arch enemy, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, dies in Paris. Sharon had initially justified his unilateral plan on the grounds that Arafat could not be considered as a partner in the peace process.
- Dec 1: Sharon, already without a parliamentary majority for some six months, loses his last remaining coalition partner when the secular Shinui party votes against the budget.
2005
- Jan 10: The moderate former prime minister Mahmud Abbas proffers "the hand of peace" to Israel after being elected Arafat's successor.
On the same day Sharon finally wins parliamentary approval for a new cabinet line-up that gives him a working majority to implement disengagement.
- Feb 16: The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, approves legislation to compensate settlers who are to be uprooted from their homes.
- Feb 20: The cabinet approves the overall disengagement plan by a large majority. It also endorses a final route of the West Bank barrier.
- March 28: The Knesset rejects a bid to put the disengagement plan to a nationwide referendum.
- May 9: The withdrawal, which had been due to begin in July, is postponed to mid-August.
- June 9: The supreme court rejects a petition contesting the legality of the disengagement plan.
- July 12: Talks to coordinate the pullout are suspended after a suicide bomber from the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad, kills five Israelis in Netanya, near Tel Aviv.
- July 18: Tens of thousands of settlers and their supporters rally in the southern Israeli town of Netivot to voice their opposition to disengagement. The security forces block their efforts to march towards the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza.
- July 20: The Knesset rejects a series of motions put forward by right-wing MPs to delay the withdrawal for up to a year.
- August 4: A young Jewish extremist who deserted the army in opposition to the withdrawal plan, shoots dead four Arab Israelis on a bus in the north of the country. He is subsequently lynched by furious locals.
- August 7: The cabinet gives its final approval to the evacuation of a first group of three settlements in Gaza. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigns in protest.
- August 15: Pullout formally begins after presence of Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territory is outlawed. Sharon says the pullout is "good for Israel" but calls on the Palestinians to show they want peace.
- August 17: Deadline passes for Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip to leave voluntarily, paving the way for their forcible evacuation by troops and police.
- AFP
|
News
