| As I sit and read the announcements from today's first discussions from Annapolis, all I can see is another dismal failure for peace and another year long "negotiation" process that like Oslo, Camp David, the 'road map' all lead to the same place. That place, as so clearly denoted by the late Tanya Rinehart, is nowhere. |
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Today in Palestine
Saturday, 1 December 2007
Outpost funding would violate Israel's promises, report warns
The author of a highly influential government report on illegal outposts in the West Bank has recently warned the government against approving a new justice ministry proposal that would allow state funding for outposts. The ministry's proposal, which will come up for discussion in 10 days, advocates cementing Jewish ownership of land that is owned by Palestinians. A major contention for Sasson is a clause stating that settlements would be allowed to realize old building plans that have been approved by former governments. "This allows expanding settlements by letting them form a new 'neighborhood' several kilometers away from the main settlement," Sasson says. "These so-called neighborhoods will in fact become new settlements."
Will peace cost me my home? – by Ghada Ageel
Sixty years ago, my grandparents lived in the beautiful village of Beit Daras, a few kilometers north of Gaza. They were farmers and owned hundreds of acres of land. [In 1948] we became refugees, queuing for tents, food and assistance, while the state of Israel was established on the ruins of my family's property and on the ruins of hundreds of other Palestinian villages. Some people may tire of hearing such stories from the past. But for me, the line between past and present is not so easily broken. I raise this story today because it remains profoundly relevant to the Middle East peace process -- and to help convey the deep-seated fears of Palestinian refugees that we will be asked to exonerate Israel for its actions and to relinquish our right to return home. That cannot be allowed to happen. All refugees have the right to return. This is an individual right, long recognized in international law, that cannot be negotiated away. Palestinian refugees hold this right no less than Kosovar or Rwandan or any other refugees.
Gillerman to U.N.: "Stop eternalizing the past"
As Hamas officials called for the United Nations to rescind the partition plan that was adopted in 1947, UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman on Thursday urged it to stop "eternalizing the past" and work toward a better future. [This is a joke, right? Who eternalizes the past more than Israel?]
Claims of chemical weapon use in Gaza
Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor (Response, November 30) denies Israel used chemical weapons in Gaza. Claims and counterclaims about the use of such weapons have a long history and are often hard to verify. Mr Prosor's denial must be judged against the reports by health workers in Gaza of injured Palestinians suffering from "severe convulsions, muscle spasms, vomiting, amnesia or partial memory loss" after exposure to Israeli gas attacks (multiple references available).
250 Palestinians to be allowed to leave Gaza on Sunday
for work, study, and medical treatment, in the first such transfer since June. Oce the Gaza residents have passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez border crossing at the northern end of the coastal territory, the group will be transferred to the West Bank and beyond. The transfer will take place under the supervision of the Ramallah-based, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, not the Hamas-controlled government of the Gaza Strip. The full list of 250 can be found on Ma'an's Arabic language website.
Haniyeh appeals to Egypt to open Rafah crossing
to allow medical patients and Muslim pilgrims headed for Mecca to leave the Gaza Strip. Israel, with the cooperation of Egypt and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, has maintained a near-total closure of Gaza's border crossings since June. Also, Mushir Al Masri, a Hamas-affiliated member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than a dozen Palestinians this week, were the outcome of Tuesday's Annapolis meeting.
Hamas boycotts Palestinian census
"We have not been able to begin census-taking in the Gaza Strip because Hamas has prevented us from doing so," said Loai Shabana,the head of the Palestinian statistics office, in Ramallah. In contrast, the census did begin in the West Bank, and is expected to last 16 days. The most recent Palestinian census numbers, published two years ago, put the total population of the West Bank and Gaza at 3,762,000 people. Of that, 2,372,000 people lived in the West Bank and 1,390,000 in Gaza. Nearly half of the population -- 46 percent -- was less than 15 years old, and 42 percent lived below the poverty line.
Five Al-Qassam Brigades
fighters killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza
Medical sources confirmed the death of Mohammed Abu Anza, his brother Ziad, Ibrahim Albraim, Jihad Qudaih, Tamer Abu Jama and injury of three others while trying to save those injured in the airstrike. Local sources reported that the Israeli warplanes targeted the fighters with three air-to-surface missiles at 12:50 am on Saturday before resuming firing another batch of missiles on the same area. The sources told the PIC reporter that the Israeli warplanes opened fire indiscriminately from their machine guns on the area to prevent the access of Palestinian rescue workers and ambulance crews to reach and rescue the injured.
Death toll rises to six as
Israeli warplanes assassinate Al-Quds Brigades fighter
An Israeli airstrike killed one member of Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades and injured three others in Jabalia Refugee Camp, raising Saturday's death toll to six in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Aqsa Brigades fighters survive sea and air attack on Friday
According to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Israeli naval forces fired automatic weapons and an Israeli airplane fired a missile at the group while it attempted to launch a homemade projectile at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, just after 6am local time. The fighters said the attack took place near the headquarters of the Palestinian naval forces on the shore north of Gaza City. They also said that they succeeded in launching the projectile, but it landed in the Mediterranean.
Al-Aqsa Brigades claim two a
ttacks on Israeli targets Saturday morning
In one attack, the group said it launched one projectile at the Israeli town of Zikim, which borders the Gaza Strip. They claimed that the rocket caused material damage. Separately, the Brigades claimed they launched four projectiles at an Israeli military installation at Kisufim, also near the Gaza Strip. The group said that these attacks were a response to Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians/
Haaretz Video: Viagra, antidepressants in high demand as Palestinians seek to forget distress
The flow of weapons from Sinai into Gaza has recently drawn threats from Israel's security establishment of a large military operation. The smuggling of Viagra and antidepressant painkillers to the coastal strip is less of a prominent issue, but according to smugglers it is also highly lucrative. Palestinians describe in the video how the drugs aid them in dealing with the distress of unemployment, civil war and ongoing conflict with Israel.
Gaza, Ramallah –
Torn apart in the same country – by Lama Hourani
It is a very strange feeling to leave Gaza and come to Ramallah. It is as if one were emigrating. For a while we forget that we are talking about the same country, Palestine, and are the same people, Palestinians. Well, usually under normal conditions, in normal countries, when people decide to move from one city to another in the same country it's not that difficult or that strange. We have not been able to bring any of our belongings except for the very personal ones. We were not allowed to bring even books because of the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip. We were allowed only a 12 hour permit that allowed us to come to the West Bank without returning back. We had to cut all the bridges with the city that we chose to live in 13 years ago.
Palestinian ambulances start service in E. Jerusalem
Geneva: Five Palestinian ambulances have entered service for the first time in East Jerusalem, following an agreement between Israeli authorities and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, officials said yesterday. The US immediately welcomed the breakthrough, reached at an international conference of the Red Cross, saying it hoped that its "co-operative spirit" would continue.
Palestinians: Settlers throw stones at boy, steal his donkey
The incident reportedly occurred after some 150 left-wing activists marched in protest against the long route Palestinian children are forced to take to get to school from their South Hebron Hills village. Children from Tuba go to school in Twane, a nearby village, via a lengthy and indirect path, in order to avoid harassment from residents of the Havot Ma'on settlement. The Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership activists, upon receiving word of the settler aggression, marched to Havot to retrieve the donkey, but were stopped at the settlement entrance by police.
Marda village placed under 'curfew' Friday afternoon during yet another (typical) invasion
Israeli soldiers invaded the village at approximately 2pm, with four jeeps shooting sound bombs, tear gas, and live ammunition to force the villagers off the streets. One youth was randomly abducted as he attempted to make his way home at the announcement of the curfew. Hammed, aged 16, and a student at the Lutheran High School in Jerusalem, was home to visit his family for the first time in three weeks. Before releasing him, soldiers took his permit to enter Jerusalem to attend school and destroyed it - tearing it into pieces. Hammed is unsure as to how long it will take to acquire another permit, or if indeed it will be possible at all. In the meantime he will be unable to pass through the checkpoint at Qalandia, and as such unable to attend school.
Israeli forces seize 13-year-old boy in Marda, West Bank, on Saturday morning
Witnesses said five Israeli military vehicles entered the town, blocking people from leaving their houses before abducting the child. Residents of the village said the boy, Muhammad Hamad, was accused of throwing stones at Israeli cars. [Marda is squeezed between the huge settlement of Ariel and a settler road.]
Israeli forces abduct two
Palestinians from Qabalan village near Nablus on Saturday
Witnesses said that least thirteen Israeli military vehicles invaded the town. Israeli troops broke into several houses, searching for 'wanted' Palestinians. Local sources said that the soldiers abducted 40-year-old Muhammad Abed Al Jalil Abu Zahra and 33-year-old Bilal Muhammad Ahmad Al Az'ar.
Israeli soldiers attack peaceful
demonstrators in Ramallah village of Beit U'r
After reaching the settlement road known as road 443 and conducting the Friday prayers there, the group was confronted by Israeli soldiers who were deployed in the area and attacked the protesters with batons. More than fifteen people were injured including a Palestinian legislator and associated press journalist. Two protesters were detained.
Nativity scene recast with security barrier for 'Kitschmas'
The walled nativity set, launched this week as part of a range of alternative Christmas gifts, is intended to be a reminder of the 230-mile, six-metre-high wall topped with barbed wire and lined with guard towers, that encircles the Palestinian land and Bethlehem. The message, according to its manufacturers, the Amos Trust, is that in 2007 the wise men would not have made it to the stable. The sets, priced at £12 for the small version and £50 for the large one, have been made from olive wood by Palestinian craftsmen, and all proceeds from the sales will be donated to Palestinian projects.
Palestinian reporter hospitalized
after torture by PA intelligence officers
The reporter was identified as Mohammad Halaiqa, a cameraman for the Al-Aqsa Satellite News Agency, affiliated with Hamas. A family member said that more than seven security officers attacked Mohammad, punched and slapped him for an extended period before kicking him until he fell unconscious.
Ma'an political editor on PA 'Annapolis attacks': "I cried until even my pen was wet"
I cried when I saw those pictures of the repression and beatings of participants in the mass marches in West Bank cities, which resulted in the death of the young Hisham Al Barad'i from Hebron. Dozens were wounded, including journalists. Perhaps most viewers were crying when they saw pictures of my colleague, Al Jazeera reporter Wael Shoyoukhi, whose arm was broken when he was beaten by security forces. Perhaps we can be reassured by Fatah's official condemnation of those attacks and the formation of a commission of inquiry.
Israel delays Palestinian prisoner release
Israel will delay until Monday the release of more than 400 Palestinian prisoners who had been slated to be freed on Sunday, the head of the prison administration said. "The release of the prisoners has been put off until Monday morning," Yaron Zamir said on Saturday, adding that they will be freed from Kesiot prison in the Neguev Desert. He did not say why the move had been delayed.
Twilight Zone / One in a shroud, the other on crutches – by Gideon Levy
The prisoners went to sleep after the evening roll call. At 2 A.M. they woke in a panic when hundreds of armed warders from the Masada and Nahshon units of the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) raided their tents.
Israel's dumping ground – by Amira Hass
Every day, dozens of Israeli drivers continue to bring Israeli waste to the western part of the West Bank, to an area that is under full Israeli responsibility, via Israeli military checkpoints. The managers of the unlicensed sites continue to accept the Israeli waste and garbage completely unhindered. What a difference between the helplessness of the Civil Administration here, to judge by the results at least, and its energetic activity against the villages northwest of Jerusalem, which are searching for an orderly dump site sufficiently distant from homes and schools, where they could dispose of their waste.
Haaretz Editorial: A halt, not a suspension
When Ehud Olmert warns that the world could impose a "South African solution" on Israel if two states are not created, side by side, he is tacitly admitting that expansion of the settlements is making Israel look increasingly like an apartheid regime. The agreement to withdraw, or to make "painful concessions," as it is sanctimoniously called, is therefore less painful than any other alternative.
Democracy Now: Mustapha Barghouti and Daniel Levi on Annapolis
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, the only official thing that came out of this is the statement, the joint statement, and in that statement, the Palestinian delegation failed to present any of the Palestinian demands. And basically the whole document and the whole outcome of the meeting has practically met every Israeli need or demand.
The 'never-never' peace conference – by Sonja Karkar
But, the world does have to look hard at itself and ask why it has allowed a man-made human catastrophe to go on relentlessly for 60 years without a whimper of protest against Israel. Even a cursory look at the last 16 years of peace talks, beginning with the Oslo preliminaries, would show that Annapolis is nothing more than another delaying tactic that is intended to allow Israel to establish its Jewish state in all of Palestine . Experience tells us that this latest process will probably be as drawn out as all the others. And that about sums up a meeting that will now enter the realms of the "never-never" peace talks.
Abbas says Annapolis conference achieved its goal
"The main goal of the Annapolis conference was to launch negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and this is in fact what happened," Abbas told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "Some had been under the illusion that the negotiations would actually start in (Annapolis) or that a deal would be struck," he said.
Report: Rice compares life in U.S. south to Palestinians' plight
She told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli envoys in Annapolis this week that her childhood in the segregated U.S. south helped her to understand the plight of Palestinians and the fear felt by Israelis. "I know what its like to hear that you can't use a certain road, or pass through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to feel discriminated against and powerless," Rice was reported as saying. [See also
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929499.html
U.S. withdraws Mideast resolution
UNITED NATIONS -- The United States withdrew a Security Council resolution Friday endorsing this week's agreement on Middle East peace negotiations, after it became clear that the U.S. ambassador had introduced it without fully consulting Israeli and Palestinian diplomats -- or, apparently, even his boss.
Washington: There is no place yet for Syria in peace process
WASHINGTON - U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said Thursday it is difficult to see how Syria can fit into the renewed peace process. "Syria is a state that supports terror, including Hezbollah and Hamas," Hadley told students in a speech at Johns Hopkins University's international studies school in Washington.
T-shirt trial divides a nation
Seven Danes face long jail terms for plan to donate to groups in Palestine and Colombia – In the eyes of Denmark's ministry of justice, Preben Mikkelson, the 56-year-old grandfather cheerfully grilling half a dozen different kinds of sausages by the roadside earlier this week is at the very least a terrorist sympathiser. Alongside Schultz and five other Danes, Mikkelson could be in jail by Christmas for his part in one of Europe's most curious court cases: the so-called T-shirt terror trial. His crime was sticking a poster up in his van for a brand of T-shirts bearing the logos of two groups classed by the EU as terrorist organisations: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
1948, 20 May: Count Folke Bernadotte was appointed as UN mediator in Palestine.
1948, 22 May: UN Security Council called for a ceasefire and a truce was held between 11 June and 8 July
1948, 26 May: At the meeting of the Mapam’s Political Committee, Eliezer Prai, editor of the party’s daily newspaper, Al Hamishmar, charged that there were elements in the Yishuv carrying out a ‘transfer policy’ by ‘blood and fire’, aimed at emptying the Jewish state of its Arab inhabitants. “It has already been said that Weitz gave an order to expel the Arabs from Western Galilee…This is the policy and thinking behind [the destruction of the Arab villages in the area]”, he said.
1948, 28 May: Yosef Weitz met with Moshe Shertok (Sharrett), the newly appointed Foreign Minister, and proposed that the Cabinet appoint himself, Elias Sasson, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Affairs Department, and Ezra Danin “to hammer out a plan of action designed [to achieve] the goal of transfer”. According to Weitz, Shertok congratulated him on his initiative. Shertok’s “view also is that this momentum [of Arab flight] must be exploited and turned into an accomplished fact,” but the Foreign Minister wanted first to consult with Ben-Gurion and Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan.
1948, 30 May: Weitz, Danin, and Sasson met to outline the ‘Transfer’ committee’s prospective work in spite of the fact that there was no official Cabinet appointment.
1948, 4 June: “The [transfer] committee that had appointed itself”, as Weitz referred to it in his diary, met in Tel Aviv to discuss ‘the miracle’ of the Arab exodus “and how to make it permanent”. The committee concluded, “The return of the Arabs must be prevented”. Weitz agreed to “allocate £ 5,000 to Ezra [Danin] in order to begin destruction and renovation activities in the Beit Shean Valley and in the Sharon [the Coastal Plain]”. Destruction of Arab villages meant that the refugees would have nowhere to return to; renovation meant readying the sites for Jewish settlement.
1948, 5 June: Weitz met with Ben-Gurion and submitted to him a memorandum entitled “Retroactive Transfer, A Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Question in the State of Israel”. The memorandum outlined proposals for action aiming at preventing the Arabs from returning to their towns and homes.
According to Weitz, “Ben-Gurion agreed to the whole line”, but thought there was an order of priority. According to Weitz, Ben-Gurion wanted destruction of villages, settlement on abandoned sites, and prevention of Arab cultivation. Weitz told the Prime Minister that he had already given orders to begin destroying villages.
Ben-Gurion proposed that a committee of three – composed of representatives of the JNF, the JA settlement department, and the Agency’s treasury department – be set up to oversee “the cleaning up of the [Arab] settlements, cultivation of their [fields] and their settlement [by Jews], and the creation of a labour battalion to carry out this work”. Ben-Gurion, like Weitz, stressed that it would not be the government carrying out these activities, but they would be carried out by the ‘National Institutions’.
1948, 6 June: Weitz sent Ben-Gurion a detailed list of the abandoned villages and towns, with the appropriate population figures. In a covering note, he confirmed the meeting held in the previous day as well as Ben-Gurion’s approval that the destruction of Arab villages and prevention of cultivation of Arab fields will begin immediately. Weitz continued: “In line with this, I have given an order to begin [these operations] in different parts of the Galilee, in the Beit Shean Valley, in the Hills of Ephraim and in Samaria [meaning the Hefer Valley].”
1948, 7 June: Weitz spent the day talking with Danin about how to go about destroying the abandoned villages – where would the money come from, the tractors, the dynamite, the manpower?...
1948, 17 June: Bernadotte met with the Israeli Foreign Minister to discuss the situation of the refugees. Sharett was evasive with regard to the return of the refugees.
1948, 7-18 July: The IDF captured the towns of Lydda and Ramle. Dozens of Palestinians were massacred in the Dahmash Mosque in Lydda. Most of the inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle marched under the sun after being ordered to go to King Abdullah. Three hundred fifty lost their lives on the way through dehydration and sunstroke.
1948, 16 July: The town of Nazareth fell into Israeli hands. A delegation of Christian clerics came out to meet the conquerors. Their request that the civilian population should not be forced to evacuate was granted. When Abraham Yaffe, an Israeli officer, entered Nazareth, he met a man whom he had driven out of another town in the Galilee. “Have you come to turn us away again?” the Arab inquired. “No, not in Nazareth,” Yaffe answered, “Nazareth is a holy place, a holy town. The world is watching us. You are not going to be a victim here.”
Israeli behavior in Nazareth was different from their behavior in the other Palestinian towns and villages. They realized that expulsion of Christian Arabs in one of the holiest Christian locations would produce unfavorable headlines all over the Western world. And so the 14,000 people of the town were allowed to remain.
There were clear orders to the Israeli forces to restraint in the hometown of Jesus. Chaim Laskov, the Israeli commander, recalled, “We had specific instructions not to harm anything, which meant that we had to take Nazareth by stratagem”.
Indeed, Ben-Gurion ordered that when the town was taken unauthorized soldiers should not be allowed into Nazareth and that the army should avoid 'any possibility of looting and desecration of churches and monasteries.'
“Nazareth was the exception that proved the rule”.
1948, 20 July: Stolen Palestinian lands were distributed among Jewish settlements. Arabs who did not leave the country were placed under Military Government, and their freedom to move freely outside their villages was severely curtailed. The Military Government and local IDF units found it simplest to forbid in toto Arab cultivation of fields. At the same time, Jewish settlements began to cultivate fields of Arabs who had remained in the State.
1948, 24 July: Ignoring the cease-fire ordered by UN Security Council Resolution # 54, Operation Policeman (mivtza shoter) was launched against the ‘little triangle’ of the three villages of Jaba, Ijzim and Ein Ghazal about 20 kilometers south of Haifa. Small units of the Golani, Carmeli and Alexandroni brigades captured the three villages on 26 July, with almost all the inhabitants being forced to leave.
1948, 16 August – early October: Negev and Yiftach brigades attacked and expelled Bedouins and inhabitants of villages in the Negev.
1948, 24-28 August: Giv’ati brigade launched Operation Nikayon (cleansing) and occupied coastal area west of Yibna and North of Isdud.
1948, 15 September: Bernadotte submitted his report to the UN Security Council.
1948, 17 September: Bernadotte was assassinated by the Stern Gang. The triumvirate that ordered the assassination of the UN mediator included Yitzhak Shamir, the future Prime Minister of Israel. Bernadotte was replaced by his deputy Ralph Bunche.
1948, 20 September: Bernadotte’s proposals to end the conflict were published. He made it clear that “no settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the Arab refugee to return to his home”.
1948, 15 October: Israel broke the cease-fire and launched an attack on the Egyptian forces in the south, which ended with Israel in control of the entire Negev.
1948, 29 October: Operation Hiram was launched to occupy the remaining parts of upper Galilee and drive out its inhabitants. A massacre was committed in the Palestinian village of Safsaf were 70 civilians were killed in cold blood one after the other. The Israeli forces conducted looting, rape, and forcible expulsion of women, children and the elderly.
1948, 30 October: The Israeli forces entered Eilaboun. Its 750 people, all of whom were Christian, took refuge in the two local churches where yellow and white flags of submission were flown. Marcos Daoud, the Greek Catholic priest, approached the Israelis saying “I put my village under the protection of the State of Israel”. The Israeli answer was as follows: Thirteen young men were murdered, the surviving young men were taken as prisoners, the women and children were marched off to the Lebanese border under severe conditions that resulted in many casualties, and looting and desecration of the churches followed the evacuation of the village.
1948, 16 November: The Security Council resolution # 62 called upon the parties directly involved in the conflict in Palestine to seek agreement for an armistice.
1948, 11 December: UN General Assembly resolution # 194 was adopted, which resolved that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return”. Moreover, the resolution established a Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC) to assume the functions given to Bernadotte.
On 1 April 1949, the PCC set up a Technical Committee on Refugees to workout measures for implementation of the provisions of UN resolution # 194 and called for an international conference at Lausanne where, under the PCC chairmanship, the parties could discuss the whole range of issues – refugees, Jerusalem, borders, recognition – and hammer out a comprehensive peace settlement.
1948, 22 December:Operation Horev was launched to drive the Egyptian forces out of Palestine and to compel the Egyptian government to negotiate an armistice. The Israeli troops surged forward, expelled the Egyptians from the southeastern flank of the Negev, brought strong pressure to bear on the Gaza Strip, but failed to liquidate the Egyptian enclave in Faluja. Mass murder and flight of the civilians was repeated in this operation. A massacre was committed in Dawayma where 100 - 150 people, including women and children, were slaughtered without mercy in the mosque of the village.
1949, 4 January: Egypt announced her readiness to begin armistice negotiations. The UN-decreed cease-fire went into effect on 7 January, marking the formal end of the war. Armistice negotiations between Israel and the neighboring Arab states got under way with the help of the UN acting mediator, Dr Ralph Bunche, at the Roses Hotel in Rhodes.
Armistice Agreements were signed with Egypt on 24 February, with Lebanon on 25 March, with Transjordan on 3 April, and with Syria on 20 July1949.
As a result of the war, 530 villages were bulldozed, 11 urban neighbourhoods were destroyed, about 10,000 Palestinian Arabs were killed, about 30,000 were wounded, and over 750,000 were ethnically cleansed and became refugees.
1949, 5 March: One day after the start of the official armistice negotiations with Jordan, Israel launched Operation Uvda (Fait Accompli) to extend its control of the southern Negev down to Eilat.
1949, 26 April: The PCC conference was opened in Lausanne, Switzerland.
1949, 11 May: Israel was admitted to UN membership.
1949, 12 May: The Arab states and Israel signed a protocol stating that the UN Partition Resolution and the partition map included in it constituted the basis for negotiations.
1949, 29 May: Ben-Gurion explained to his cabinet members that time had worked to Israel’s advantage with respect to borders, refugees and Jerusalem. He stated that, with the passage of time, the world would get used to Israel’s existing borders and to Israel’s position with respect to the Palestinian refugees. He added that the same was true for Jerusalem and people are beginning to see the absurdity of establishing an international regime over the city.
1949, 6 July: Israeli Consul General in New York, Arthur Lourie, transmitted a copy of a letter from American journalist Drew Pearson, whom Lourie said, “expressed anxieties characteristic of a large section of American opinion on whose support we have hitherto been able to count.”
Pearson had written that “in preventing Arab refugees from returning to their native land, the Jews may be subject to the same kind of criticism for which I and others have criticized intolerant Gentiles… Now we have a situation in which the Jews have done to others what Hitler, in a sense, did to them!”
1949, 14 July: Ben-Gurion recorded in his war diary that Abba Eban, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, “sees no need to run after peace. The armistice is sufficient for us; if we run after peace, the Arabs will demand a price of us – borders or refugees or both. Let us wait a few years.”
1949, 18 July: In an interview with Kenneth Bilby, the correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune, Ben Gurion stated, “I am prepared to get up in the middle of the night in order to sign a peace agreement-but I am not in a hurry and I can wait ten years. We are under no pressure whatsoever.”
1949, 12 September: The PCC Lausanne conference ended without any results.
1949, December: UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that called for treating Jerusalem as a separate entity and placing it under UN rule. In response, Ben-Gurion decided to move the Knesset and the government offices from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.