The Palestine Chronology

PM Barak's chief of staff Danny Yatom says that Israel is prepared to restart talks with Syria fr. the point at which they left off in 3/96, as Syria demands, but disagrees with Syria about what that point is. Syria claims that fmr. PM Yitzhak Rabin had agreed to withdraw to the 6/4/67 border. Israel claims the 6/4/67 discussion was only hypothetical. (NYT 7/23; WT 7/24)

In Israel, PM Barak receives Spanish PM Aznar for talks on the peace process, Aznar's mtg. with Asad on 7/19. Aznar says that Syria asked him to relay "some specific issues" to Israel but does not elaborate publicly. Barak asks Aznar to convey messages to Arafat, Asad. (MM 7/22; RNE-1 Radio 7/22 in WNC 7/23; NYT, WT 7/23; MA 7/23 in WNC 7/26) (see 7/19)

Israel's Interior Min. refuses to renew the Jerusalem residency card of respected Palestinian prof. Musa Budeiri, gives him 30 days to leave Israel. (Guardian [Internet] 8/5; CSM 8/12; MEI 8/20) (see 7/20)

Iran captures 2 Turkish soldiers inside its territory. (VIRI 7/23, ATL 7/25 in WNC 7/26; HUR 7/26, 7/27 in WNC 7/28; WP 8/10) (see 7/18)

A joint mtg. of the donors's Joint Liaison Comm., Local Aid Coordination Comm. is held in al-Barid, nr. Jerusalem. (AYM 6/30 in WNC 7/1; AYM 6/30, 7/1 in WNC 7/6)

Arafat meets with King Abdallah in Amman for talks on the peace process, coordinating positions in advance of final status talks; also reportedly undergoes medical checkup. (RMC 6/29 in WNC 6/30; al-Ra'i 6/20 in WNC 7/2)

In Washington, Egyptian pres. Mubarak meets with Secy. of State Albright, encourages U.S. to support 7/14-15 mtg. of the signatories to the Fourth Geneva Convention. U.S. says it still opposes the mtg. (NYT, WT 6/30; MEI 7/16)

IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz announces that outgoing DM Arens has issued instructions to the IDF to ignore the 1996 April understandings, suspended Israel's participation in the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group (ILMG), claiming that Hizballah's 6/24 rocket attacks on n. Israel voided the 4/96 agmt. The April understandings, which ended Israel's 1996 Grapes of Wrath campaign against Lebanon, called on all parties in s. Lebanon to avoid harming civilians. (RL, RMC 6/29 in WNC 6/30; MM, WT 6/30; RL 6/30 in WNC 7/1; RL 7/3 in WNC 7/6; MM 7/5; JP 7/9)

Turkish court finds PKK leader Ocalan guilty of treason, a charge that automatically carries a death sentence and is automatically appealed. Turkey has not carried out an execution since 1984. Public response is muted as the verdict was widely expected. (AFP, ATL, La Une Radio [Brussels], LPA, MTI [Budapest], NTV [Moscow], RAI Televideo [Rome], RNE-1 Radio [Madrid], SAPA [Johannesburg], Xinhua [Beijing] 6/29 in WNC 6/30; CSM, MM, NYT, WP, WT 6/30) (see 6/21)