Occupied Palestine/Israel: Herut party ends convention after electing P. M. Shamir party chairman, Ariel Sharon chairman of the party central committee, Moshe...
Fierce fighting continues between Muslim militias and Lebanese Army throughout West Beirut; Mourabitoun occupies Union National Building, engage nearby Army garrison in...
Israel/ Occupied Territories: US envoy Habib and Prime Minister Begin hold 90 minute meeting during which Habib presents Begin with letter from Reagan; Defense Minister...
After day of quiet, renewed artillery exchanges in Tripoli, coastal road cut 20 miles south of city; IDF announces 4 Katyusha rockets found in South Lebanon.
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Social/Economic/Political
Occupied Palestine/Israel: Herut party ends convention after electing P. M. Shamir party chairman, Ariel Sharon chairman of the party central committee, Moshe Arens party secretary, and David Levy deputy party chairman [NYT 3/31]. Inside the green line, marches and rallies in 'Arrabah, Umm al-Fahm, and Rahat mark Land Day [FJ 4/3]. Israeli forces are unsuccessful in attempt to break almost total commercial strikes in cities throughout the W. Bank and Gaza Strip [FJ 4/3]. Lydda military court sentences to life imprisonment 2 Palestinians convicted of being members of Fateh and carrying out a series of bombings [FJ 4/3]. Israeli Ministry of Defense coordinator of activities for W. Bank and Gaza, Shmuel Goren, threatens imposition of strict restrictions on exports to Jordan if weapon smuggling continues [FJ 4/3].
Military Action
Occupied Palestine/Israel: At least 1 Palestinian is wounded by army gunfire during Land Day demonstration at Jabaliyyah; in Janin another is shot in the leg by Israeli civilian who shot at crowd that was stoning his car [BG 3/31; FJ 4/3].
Military Action:
Fierce fighting continues between Muslim militias and Lebanese Army throughout West Beirut; Mourabitoun occupies Union National Building, engage nearby Army garrison in rifle and RPG battle; Lebanese Army barracks at Fahr al-Deen, and positions at Murr Tower and Holiday Inn attacked; Druze militia occupies Holiday Inn; French Embassy compound hit by rockets, French convoy ambushed; British convoy attacked at Galerie Semaan crossing; Italian positions hit; 3 US Marine positions come under fire, respond with rifles, machine guns; hooded gunmen occupy points along Green Line; long-range artillery fire hits West Beirut; US aircraft carrier Eisenhower, other warships move to within 5 miles of shore.
Casualties:
4 French military personnel killed, 4 wounded in Beirut attacks; most Beirut shops closed, electrical blackouts frequent, lines form to buy bread, drinking water; 4 Ansar prisoners wounded when IDF opens fire after guards hit by stones.
Political Responses:
Israel/ Occupied Territories: Begin tells Likud coalition his decision to retire as PM and Herut party leader is final; process of selecting new Herut leader begins; McFarlane, in Jerusalem, obtains commitment to postpone IDF withdrawal from Chouf for few more days.
Palestinians/ Lebanese: Lebanese government officials and Muslim leaders meet.
US and Other Countries: Reagan tells Congress Marines will remain in Lebanon, resists pressure to invoke provisions of War Powers Resolution requiring withdrawal of troops in 60-90 days without Congressional approval; White House says US troops are not conducting combat operations; West German Chancellor Kohl postpones visit to Israel.
Political Responses:
Israel/ Occupied Territories: US envoy Habib and Prime Minister Begin hold 90 minute meeting during which Habib presents Begin with letter from Reagan; Defense Minister Sharon postpones departure to Zaire, takes 100 Herut Party members on tour of Israeli military positions in Lebanon, Sharon meets Saad Haddad in Marjayoun, says any peace agreement will have a role for Haddad as he is trustworthy friend of Israel; Sharon holds afternoon press conference in Kiryat Shemona, simultaneously with official press conference announcing agreement on Lebanon talks agenda, creating tension with Foreign Minister Shamir, Sharon notes de facto normalization has preceded diplomatic normalization, that since Nov. 15, 12,000 people and 1,100 vehicles have entered Ilsrael from Lebanon and 1,100 Israeli vehicles transported goods to Lebanon; Labor Party political bureau approves Histadrut companies involvement in construction of settlements in occupied territories; Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai urges strong posture on US pressure, says control of Judea and Samaria is vital for security; Civil Administration declares as state land 20,000 dunums in Dahariya, south of Hebron, gives Palestinians 21 days to appeal, area planned for land reserve along 1967 green line; 30 Kach members break into Hebron home of Moshe Levinger, demanding that Meir Kahane's Kach settlement nearby receive support and services from Kiryat Arba as does Levinger's group in Hebron.
Palestinians/ Lebanese: PLO Chairman Arafat in Moscow press conference releases communique that Soviet Union shows understanding of the PLO position on confederation on the basis of voluntarity between an independent Palestinian state and Jordan; following Habib-Begin meeting, Israel and Lebanon, in talks held in Kiryat Shemona, agree on agenda for talks (including concurrent discussion on "termination of the state of war; security arrangements; framework for mutual relations, including issues such as liaison, ending hostile propaganda, the movement of goods, products and persons, communications, etc.; program of complete withdrawals, conditions for Israeli withdrawal, within the context of the evacuation of all foreign forces; possible guarantees"); Lebanese Parliament delegation visits Amman seeking Jordanian support in talks with Israel.
Arab Governments: Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, at non-aligned conference in Nicaragua, says Syria will resist any agreement which does not call for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories and does not recognize inalienable rights of Palestinians.
US and Other Countries: Pentagon refuses to sign draft agreement on US access to Israeli military data due to unreasonable restrictions; secret plan revealed for mini-Rapid Deployment Force in Jordan to guard internal stability, respond to emergencies in friendly Gulf States, and possible use in inter-Arab wars; Henry Kissinger says Lebanon crisis has consequences helpful to prospects for peace, shows USSR can supply arms but not solutions, rout of PLO restores US military credibility; Representative Council of French Jewry protests French Middle East policy, says Foreign Minister Cheysson's recent statements show anti-Israel bias, asks government to close PLO Paris office and expel PLO representative Ibrahim Suss.
Military Action:
After day of quiet, renewed artillery exchanges in Tripoli, coastal road cut 20 miles south of city; IDF announces 4 Katyusha rockets found in South Lebanon.
Casualties:
UNRWA asks IDF for protection from Palestinian refugees in Sidon protesting delay in distribution of kerosene heating stoves, cement and winter clothing; 16-tent school operating in Ain el-Hilweh; 625 building plots cleared and allocated by UNRWA, 590 plots cleared by refugees, 850 plots allocated in Tyre; 40 killed, more wounded, large sections of Tripoli without electricity, water, telephone and basic food, hospitals short of supplies, many civilians living in shelters.
Political Responses:
Israel/ Occupied Territories: IDF spokes-man announces Syria is building 2 bases for Soviet SA-5 missiles, warns USSR not to deploy missiles in Syria; President Yitzhak Navon begins 2 week visit to US, will meet Reagan with Shultz, Kissinger, AFL-CIO, Jewish groups; Mapam MK Elazar Granot introduces motion in Knesset that Sharon be removed as Defense Minister and be replaced in Lebanon negotiations because of his leak about a separate agreement with Lebanese leaders and distortion of the facts of the war from its beginning; Foreign Minister Shamir charges that Lebanese Muslim leaders opposed to normalization with Israel are agents of foreign interests, and reiterates commitment to Eretz Israel, calling on international convention delegates to invest all efforts in aliya; Moshavim Herut and Mismeret will close illegal camps for Arab workers who will have to return to Gaza to sleep; Yitzhak Rabin, touring settlements, says Labor Party firmly opposed to any withdrawal to 1948 green line, that Camp David accord includes change in frontier to incorporate Jerusalem and Jordan Valley; Peace Now distributes document of military government which says Science and Technology Minister Yuval Ne'eman and his assistant MK Hanan Porat helped establish supervisory teams of settlers to guard state lands and may be used to deport Palestinians; Peace Now charges that Kiryat Arba council intends to pressure and persuade Arab shop-owners to leave Hebron; at his courtmartial, IDF paratrooper and Deputy Commander of Judea District Major David Mofaz, one of seven defendants, excuses his beating of Palestinian students at Hebron's Islamic University by charging that District Commander Lt. Col. Shalom Lugassi instructed soldiers to beat, pester and break watches of demonstrators, that Sharon said Arab rioters should have their testicles ripped off; West Bank Military Commander Yaakov Hartabi testifies soldiers acted properly and according to written and oral orders.
Palestinians/ Lebanese: Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan calls Syrian Prime Minister Abdel Raouf al-Kassem, appealing for security measures to end fighting in Tripoli; Rashid Karami goes to Damascus; local Tripoli leaders Mohammed Ali Dannawi of Muslim Salvation Front and Farouk Mokaddam of October 24 Movement call for withdrawal of Syrian troops from Tripoli.
US and Other Countries: US Special Envoy Philip Habib summoned from vacation to Washington as President Reagan prepares a new initiative to break Lebanon stalemate.
