Chronologies Chronology of Events in Israel Appendices and Palestine In Israel, 2019 is a year with an elec- iteinu. And the other is the centrist can- the hope of avoiding a possible trial toral focus, with the country holding two didate Kajol Lavan (Blue and White) and, in turn, refloating negotiations to legislative elections. The economic formed by Benny Gantz’s centrist Ho- form a government, given that the three slowdown, the corruption scandals in- sen L’Israel (Resilience for Israel), Yahir court cases constitute one of the main volving the Prime Minister and Likud Lapid’s Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) stumbling blocks. However, after the leader Benjamin Netanyahu and the and Moshe Yaalon’s Telem (National hearings, in November the public pros- relentless divisions in the most con- Statesmanlike Movement). A draw in ecutor decides to officially indict Net- servative coalition government in Is- the elections, with both alliances taking anyahu for accepting bribes, fraud and Chronology in Events of Israel and Palestine raeli history formed by Likud (Consoli- 35 seats each, forces Netanyahu to ne- breach of trust. At the end of December, dation, conservative), Kulanu (All of Us, gotiate a coalition government again the sitting Prime Minister announces his centre-right), HaBayit HaYehudi (Jew- with the ultra-Orthodox and extreme intention to file an appeal before the ish Home, ultra-nationalist), Yahadut right-wing parties. An agreement is not Knesset in order to safeguard his par- Hatorah (United Torah Judaism, ultra- forthcoming, and so on 29 May new liamentary immunity. orthodox Ashkenazi) and Shas (World- elections are scheduled for 17 Septem- The successive demonstrations of the wide Association of Torah-Observant ber. These second elections once again Great March of Return in the occupied Sephardim, ultra-Orthodox), lead to confirm the deadlock which began in territories of the West Bank and on the early elections being held on 9 April, April, with the Blue and White Alliance border between Israel and the Gaza 369 seven months before the end of the winning 33 seats and Likud 32. After Strip have also been one of the year’s government’s term in office. There are Netanyahu’s offer to form a national major events. Since they began, in two specific triggers that lead to the unity government comes to nothing, es- March 2018, the demonstrations have decision to hold elections: firstly, the sentially due to Gantz’s demand that protested against the recognition of Je- resignation in November 2018 of the the Likud leader renounces parliamen- rusalem as the capital of Israel by the Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman tary immunity and accepts being sec- US and claim the rights of Palestinian following Netanyahu’s decision not to ond in an eventual rotation as head of refugees to return to their homes prior launch a major offensive against the government, Netanyahu gives up his to the creation of the State of Israel in Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) task to form a government thereby giv- 1948. This sustained period of tension in the Gaza Strip in response to the ing the responsibility to Gantz, who is further aggravated by the US Presi- launching of 460 missiles into southern obtains the backing of Israel’s main dent Donald Trump’s decision in March Israel. The resignation leads to the with- Arab parties in the hope of preventing 2019 to officially recognize Israel’s sov- drawal of Lieberman’s party, the Zionist Netanyahu from serving another term in ereignty over the Golan Heights, oc- Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home, right- office. However, Gantz is also unable cupied by Israel since the 1967 war wing) from the government, leaving the to gather together the support needed and annexed since 1981. coalition government with the support to form a government, and the country The alignment of the Trump Administra- of just 61 of the 120 members of the is thus set on the path to a third elec- tion’s new foreign policy with the inter- Knesset (Parliament); and secondly, the tion, called on 12 December and ests of the Israeli government, and also 2020 failure, in early January 2019, to pass scheduled for 2 March 2020. with Benjamin Netanyahu’s electoral the law on drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews With regard to the court investigations perspectives, leads to the establish- for military service, supported espe- into corruption involving Benjamin Ne- ment, throughout 2019, of new settle- cially by Zionist and secular parties, as tanyahu, known as cases 1000, 2000 ments and the extension of existing well as the Supreme Court, which, in a and 4000, in February, Israel’s Attorney settlements in Area C of the West Bank ruling in 2017, set 15 January 2019 as General Avichai Mandelblit indicts the and the Golan Heights, as well as oth- a deadline for approving the legal text. Prime Minister. At the beginning of Oc- er measures, such as the decision not There are two major alliances in the 9 tober, Netanyahu becomes the first Is- to renew the mandate of the observer Mediterranean Yearbook April elections. The first is led by Likud, raeli head of government to appear mission of the Temporary International Med. Med. which has the support of Yisrael Be- before the state prosecutor’s office in Presence in Hebron (TIPH), present in IE the city since the Cave of the Patriarchs renew the lease agreement with Israel of Gaza and the West Bank. A close massacre in 1994. for both territories. confidant of the President Mahmoud In June, the Commission of the Great On a regional level, the outgoing Is- Abbas and key figure in both the nego- March of Return and Breaking the raeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and tiations with Israel and in Fatah’s po- Appendices Seige calls a general strike in all the the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu litical apparatus, Shatyyeh represents Palestinian territories, coinciding with confirm in January 2019 the direct in- an increase in Fatah’s control within the the US-sponsored Manama summit as volvement of the Israeli army in the Syr- Palestinian administration. As a conse- part of the peace initiative set up by the ian conflict with thousands of attacks in quence, the move is rejected by Hamas, US President’s son-in-law and adviser 2018 on Iranian and Syrian army tar- which has to deal with increasing pro- Jared Kushner, dubbed by its propo- gets. In addition, on 13 January, Israel tests in Gaza over the economic situa- nents the “Deal of the Century.” The announces the end of Operation North- tion and claims the appointment lacks Palestinian National Authority (PNA) ern Shield, launched on 4 December national consensus and is damaging for rejects the initiative considering it a 2018 to locate and destroy tunnels dug the reconciliation process. In light of bribe to get Palestine to renounce its by the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah this situation, Egypt resumes its efforts historical rights in exchange for money. to penetrate into Israeli territory. Iran to reactivate talks between the factions On 25 July, the Palestinian President and Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syr- in July 2019, and on 1 October Mahmoud Abbas announces that the ian conflict is a constant cause of ten- Mahmoud Abbas forms a committee for PNA will stop complying with the sion throughout 2019, with Israel con- holding elections throughout Palestine, agreements with Israel, a move that demning Tehran’s use of this territorial a pledge made by the Palestinian Pres- particularly has an impact on security in presence to plot actions against the ident during the United Nations Gen- the West Bank amid high tension in the security of the Israeli State from Syrian eral Assembly in September. For its Chronology in Events of Israel and Palestine region. and Lebanese territory. Another note- part, Hamas announces it is ready to In connection with the Great March of worthy event related with Iran is the take part in a general election and even Return protests, the tit-for-tat attacks 11-year prison sentence handed down elections for the Palestinian National between Israel and the Palestinian fac- to the former Israeli Minister of Energy Council (PNC), the supreme legislative tions in the Gaza Strip also continue and Infrastructure between 1992 and body of the Palestinian Liberation Or- unabated throughout 2019. In this re- 1995, Gonen Segev, for spying for the ganization (PLO), which the Islamist spect, at the end of January Israel sus- Islamic Republic. movement is not a member of. pends a Qatari funds transfer to Pales- As regards Palestine’s interior politics, 370 tine over the violence at the Gaza 2019 begins with Hamas taking control border, and in March the Palestinian of the border between Gaza and Egypt January 2019 missile attacks from Gaza, attributed to following the withdrawal of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, target Tel Aviv, for the first National Authority civil servants amid Israel time since 2014. In December, Israel reports that hundreds of them are being announces it has killed Baha Abu Al- harassed and detained. Since 2017, the • On 1 January the Zionist Union, a Ata, the leader of the al-Quds Brigades, PNA had taken back control of the bor- party formed in 2014 from the fusion of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, in an der as part of the attempts of the Egyp- the Israeli Labor Party and the Hatnua airstrike on Gaza City. Islamic Jihad tian mediation to try and revive inter- Party ahead of the 2015 elections, is responds with intense rocket fire into Palestinian negotiations, which brought dissolved with a view to the elections southern and central Israel.