In the US – Israel-Syria talks about peace talks begin ...
Monday 24: In Israel – Members of Knesset, YAEL DAYAN (One Israel Party) and NAOMI HAZAN (Meretz Party), issue a bill to enable unmarried cohabiting couples, including homosexuals, to adopt children. The current Israel law qualifies only "man and wife" as fit to adopt children, while the new proposition suggests that the definition be changed to "spouses."

The Israeli government's Ministry of Absorption approves a major project to aid Ethiopian migrants to Israel, co-sponsored by the Chicago-based International Fellowship for Christians and Jews.
The predominantly Christian organization, which works to foster better relations between Jews and Christians, is donating $10 million over 2-3 years to be spent mainly on job training, educational programs and assistance to needy families of Ethiopian immigrants. MICHA FELDMAN, a former Israeli diplomat in Ethiopia who was instrumental in initiating the program, said that "the Jewish world should know that Christians are concerned about Jews and Israel."

London – Writer DAVID IRVING who had sought to sue DEBORAH LIPSTADT for describing him as a Holocaust denier, begins his court action. (see April 11, 2000).

Thursday 27: TONY BLAIR, British prime minister, appoints this day as an annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

Friday 4: In Austria – JOERG HAIDER's far-right 'Freedom Party' becomes part of the coalition government with control of the ministries of Justice and Defence. Israel and the United States immediately recall their ambassadors, and members of the European Union begin reviewing their relationship to Austria.

Tuesday 15: In Orlando, Florida, USA – New York Orthodox Jewish rasbbi SHOLAM WEISS is convicted on 78 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy, in absentia in absentia to 845 years' incarceration after having jumped bail and fled the country to Austria with many of the stolen assets, including over $450 million from National Heritage.

Wednesday 8: In Jerusalem, Israel – In a majority decision Israel's Supreme Court rules against direct and indirect Jewish discriminatory practice –

Thursday 16: In Palestine – Palestinian Authority Chairman YASSER ARAFAT sends a wooden chest decorated with oriental ornaments to Tekoa's Rabbi MENACHAM FRUMAN, and a gold necklace and bracelet to his daughter SHULAMIT, for her wedding on Sunday. Rabbi FRUMAN met with ARAFAT as head of a delegation of settlers and religious Jews who extended greetings to ARAFAT at his office in Gaza in honour of the Muslim feast of Id al-Adha. FRUMAN told ARAFAT that it is possible to create a religious foundation between the two peoples, as –

In a letter to ARAFAT, Chief Sephardic Rabbi ELIAHU BAKSHI-DORON stressed the obligation of both religious communities to strive for peace. Efrat Rabbi SHLOMO RISKIN wrote that there is no reason that Jewish settlers cannot live together with Palestinians, extend mutual respect and build a socio-economic future together.

The letters from the rabbis are read to ARAFAT in Arabic and in return he expresses his gratitude in Hebrew.

In Israel – Political party 'Gesher – National Social Movement' (Teno'a Hevratit Le'umit) withdraws from Israel's government coalition in protest at its announced plan to withdraw Israeli military forces from Lebanon.

Tuesday 11: In London – DAVID IRVING looses his court case against historian DEBORAH LIPSTADT and is described by the British high court judge as "persistently and deliberately misrepresenting and manipulating historical evidence" for his own "ideological reason", is "an active Holocaust denier", "anti-semitic", "racist", and that he "associates with right wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism."

Tuesday 2: In West Jerusalem – Israel Minister of the Interior, NATAN SHARANSKY, calls upon Prime Minister EHUD BARAK in a letter to establish a public committee to study problems faced by Israel citizens who cannot marry under Jewish law. SHARANSKY explained that there are many citizens not considered Jewish under Jewish law, but who have no other religion. SHARANSKY recently recognized marriages conducted at foreign consulates in Israel, but noted that such recognition served as only a partial solution. He added that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive solution
Monday 8: On the eve of its 52nd independence day, Israel's population numbers 6.3 million, up from 6.076 million last year. There are currently –

63% of the Jewish population were born in Israel (among them, 43% are second generation Israelis). According to data published today by the Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 3 million citizens immigrated to Israel, 1 million of whom arrived from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s.
             Of the 1.1 million Israeli Arabs –

Monday 15: In Israel – The Israel High Court of Justice orders the Government to set up arrangements within six months for a group called "Women of the Wall" to pray communally at the Western (Wailing) Wall area (Kotel) or Buraq Wall. The petition was submitted five years ago by two Israeli women, ANAT HOFFMAN and CHAYA BEKERMAN, along with an American-Jewish organization, The International Committee for the Women at the Kotel.
Israel Government Minister of Religious Affairs COHEN said he would appeal against the decision, adding that the Shas Party would propose a law to cancel it. (See September 4, 2000).
In an agreement brokered by Cabinet Secretary YITZHAK HERZOG members of the Conservative Movement will be allowed to pray on Shavu'ot in the vicinity of Robinson's Arch, adjacent to the Western Wall, for a trial period of one year. They will be allowed to conduct morning services once a week, as well as on the Ninth of Av and other religious days, pending prior approval. Chief Sephardic Rabbi ELIAYU BAKSHI-DORON and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Responsible for Diaspora and Social Affairs MICHAEL MELCHIOR support the agreement.

According to a population census taken by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Research, 650,000 people currently reside in Jerusalem, 450,000 Jews and 200,000 Arabs. The census was made public on the 33rd anniversary of Israel's conquest of East Jerusalem. The rate of population growth in the Arab sector is three times higher than that of the Jewish sector. Thirty percent of the city's population is Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, although due to an increase in housing costs, more Ultra-Orthodox are leaving the city than moving to it.

Tuesday 27: In Israel – Members of the Reform movement from Israel and abroad, consisting of several dozen men and women, hold a prayer service at the Western Wall plaza. The morning prayer service is conducted behind police barricades, with no interaction between members of the group (largely members of a Florida congregation from the US) and Orthodox Jews praying nearby.
"The State of Israel is the inheritance of the entire Jewish people, and the Kotel (Western/Wailing Wall) belongs to all Jews," said PHILIP MELTZER, president of the Reform Movement's Zionist branch in New York. "Our hope is that all Jews can pray according to their beliefs." Calling the prayer service both "a most moving experience" and "a sad one" because of the police presence, ANN TURNOFF, a woman cantor who wore a tallit and kippa, said that the fact that the prayer service passed quietly bodes well for the future.

Wednesday 28: Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi ELIYAHU BAKSHI-DORON supports continued Palestinian administration of the Temple Mount even after a permanent settlement is reached. BAKSHI-DORON conveyed his position in a letter to Christian and Muslim Palestinian clerics stating, "for peace, we shouldn't let the holy sites become a reason for quarrel and fighting. They must not turn into a weapon in the hands of those fighting against the peacemakers." The letter was submitted to the Palestinian clerics by BAKSHI-DORON's representative in a recent interfaith meeting in Milan sponsored by the European Union. The Israeli delegation to the meeting also proposed the establishment of an interfaith council in Jerusalem to supervise the holy sites. Prime Minister EHUD BARAK ordered a meeting in his office to discuss security arrangements on the Temple Mount in the wake of protests against construction being carried out by the Muslim Waqf (religious trust). The meeting, scheduled for today or Thursday, will address recommendations to halt the development and improvements underway and to block the entrance of construction materials and heavy equipment such as tractors and trucks until the Waqf agrees to coordinate its activities with the Antiquities Authority. The Antiquities Authority has been restricted from supervising the construction along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. The recommendations being considered were proposed by the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and Attorney-General ELYAKIM RUBENSTEIN. The ISA warned BARAK about radical Jews who may try to break into the Temple Mount area and about extremist Muslims who may attempt to seize the eastern parts of the Mount as additional prayer areas. DANNY YATOM, Chief-of-Staff of the Prime Minister's Office said today that Israel would maintain the status quo at the Temple Mount and that the Waqf could continue its works there, under the supervision of archaeologists. Jerusalem Mayor EHUD OLMERT criticized the Government for complying with the police recommendations to allow the Waqf to continue construction. He called the decision a grave mistake that would turn the Mount into a Muslim site (as if it wasn't such already), and added it would aid in "effacing the Jewish heritage." The entrance of trucks to the site, he said, could be easily stopped.

At Camp David in the US – The summit between BARAK and YASSER ARAFAT, the president of the Palestinian Authority, aimed at reaching a 'final status' agreement, fails after ARAFAT refuses to accept a proposal drafted by the US and Israeli negotiators.
Wednesday 5: In Israel – An expanded panel of 11 Supreme Court justices resumes the hearing on whether to recognize non-Orthodox Jewish conversions for ID registration purposes. The hearing addresses the State of Israel's appeal against Jerusalem District Court President Judge VARDI ZIELER's decision to recognize Jewish conversions performed by the Reform movement in Israel and abroad for registration purposes, and on the petitions submitted by the Reform and Conservative movements and the Naamat woman's organization on the matter. The State of Israel argues that the status quo ante (denial of recognition) should be restored to enable a solution. Three months prior when representatives of the State Attorney's Office presented the Interior Ministry's position, they had said that every candidate for conversion in Israel must have approval of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate before they can be registered as a Jew.
Thursday 6: A Reform Jewish community activist is woken this morning by a bang, and finds a window smashed and the word "Satan" sprayed across the entranceway of the Hebrew Union College and temple. The Hebrew Union College is the Jewish Reform movement's centre in Jerusalem.  This incident is the third attack in recent weeks on non-orthodox religious buildings – the same blasted window was smashed by vandals three weeks earlier. A special police unit has been created to investigate the series of defacements.
Thursday 13: Israel's President EZER WEIZMAN resigns amid accusations of corruption that he received around US$450,000 (about ZAR3,2-million) as "gifts" from French millionaire EDOUARD SAROUSSI in the 1980s, when Weizman was an MP and minister.
Monday 31: Iranian-born Jew MOSHE KATSAV is chosen as President of the State of Israel. (See January 24, 2007).

Saturday 5: In Israel – Leading Rabbi OVADIA YOSEF preaches that Jewish victims of the Holocaust were –

(A week later in attempting to clarify, Rabbi YOSEF cites 16th century Jewish mystic, Isaac Luria, who had written:

However, his comment in his sermon is widely seen as implying that the victims of the Holocaust deserved it.)

Monday 21: In Israel 11 cell members of an extremist Islamic organization headed by Saudi-born terrorist OSAMA BIN LADEN are arrested by the Israel and Palestinian security agencies, and are continuing to search for explosives believed to have been in their possession. Members of the cell planned to carry out a series of attacks against Israeli targets, including suicide-bomb attacks inside of Israel and the launching of anti-tank missiles at communities in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israel Security Agency fears that a recent increase in the number of Palestinians traveling to Pakistan for 'religious studies,' is part of a recruitment and training program by Islamic international terrorist organizations.

University Professor ERIC COHEN forwards to the Prime Minister the results of a survey showing that 60% of Jewish and 58% of Arab respondents are in favour of the recognition of non-religious marriage and without constraint of nationality.
Minister of Justice, YOSSI BEILIN presents a proposal for a partnership law for individuals giving recognition of the status of 'couple' as opposed to official religious character of 'married', but with the same rights.

Monday 4: The Government of Israel, by a unanimous vote of their cabinet, approves the closing of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by the end of the month. Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of Religious Affairs YOSSI BEILIN is appointed to head a ministerial committee to implement the closing of the Ministry. BEILIN says that the ministry has been allocating resources based on "partisan or ideological" interests and that transferring its services will ensure that decisions will be made based on more professional criteria. Prime Minister EHUD BARAK described the decision as "a first and important step in the social-civil reform" he had announced last month.

Friday 14: In Israel – The Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile is tested successfully, with the warhead destroying a live incoming missile fired at the Israeli coast. The test took place at 11:55 at the Palmahim missile testing range, south of Tel Aviv. "Initial results indicate that all components of the weapon system, the Green Pine radar tracking, the Citron Tree fire control centre and the Arrow 2 interceptor, performed as planned," an official statement said. "All the test objectives were achieved and the target was destroyed." Prime Minister EHUD BARAK said that the successful testing was a testament to the excellence of Israel Aviation Industries and that the Arrow missile is a critical aspect of Israel's deterrence capabilities.

Tuesday 26: In the light of the religious bias of the State of Israel, RUTH GABIZON (Professor, Law Faculty at Hebrew University, Jerusalem) and Rabbi YA'AKOV MADAN (Gush Etzion Yeshivat Hesder – an institution combining religious studies with army service) draft a covenant addressing the relationship between religion and state. The covenant proposes that individuals be permitted to register themselves as Jewish if they identify with Judaism. The registration, however, will not necessarily have legal effect. The report also states that Israelis wishing to register their nationality as "Hebrew" instead of "Jewish" (the current status-quo), will be able to do so.
Other proposals call for altering the Law of Return and separating the right to make Aliyah from the right to receive citizenship. The covenant also suggests that civil marriages and divorces should be legalized, and the need for the establishment of civil cemeteries offering a non-religious burial procedure. It further suggests dismembering the religious councils and establishing a national authority to provide religious services. A similar solution is offered on the issue of Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), in which a single authority will supervise and grant Kashrut permits.
Regarding the Sabbath, the covenant proposes to allow public transportation on a limited scale. It calls for authorities to continue prohibiting commerce on the Sabbath, but to allow cultural institutions as well as restaurants, cafes and other entertainment facilities to remain open. The covenant is the latest attempt to create a basis for redefining the relations between religion and state in Israel and was initiated by ISRAEL HAREL, formerly the head of the Yesha Council. The formation of the covenant took approximately one year and a half, and many experts from relevant fields – both secular and religious – contributed to the final draft.

Saturday 30: In Gaza – 12-year-old MUHAMMAD AL-DURRAH is shot dead and his father wounded during a Palestinian protest, while taking refuge behind a concrete sewage pipe, most probably by gunfire from an Israeli military tower according to information supplied by the cameraman of France 2 (France's largest public TV network) who took the photo (left).
In sworn testimony he states that –

"the child was intentionally and in cold blood shot dead and his father injured by the Israeli army". (See photo left)

Reported by Franco-Israeli journalist for France 2, Charles Enderlin (born of a Jewish Austrian family who moved France after its Nazi annexation to Germany).

In the United States – Israel offers to withdraw from 89-90% of the occupied West Bank, to give the Palestinians sovereignty in a few non-contiguous neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, and, to annex to the State of Israel Jewish settlements housing 80% of the 200,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and 100% of the 170,000 settlers in East Jerusalem.
This resulting Palestinian "state" would thus be broken up into three almost completely non-contiguous sections in the West Bank, each connected only by a narrow thread of land and each surrounded by Israeli territory, plus Gaza. This so-called state would in effect be a colony, with no real independence, no ability to defend itself, no control over its borders, no control over its water resources, no easy way even for its citizens to reach one section from another, and a capital made up of separate neighbourhoods not contiguous to each other or to the rest of the state.
The Palestinians understandably reject Israel's 'offer'. Unfortunately, the world is misled into seeing the Israeli offer as generous and, with American help, YASSER ARAFAT is blamed for the failure of the summit.

September 28: Al-Aqsa Intifada breaks out in response to the deliberately provocative visit to Temple Mount and its Al Aksa mosque by the Israeli opposition leader ARIEL SHARON with his security officers. (See February 6, 2001).

In Israel – The military is authorised to implement a policy of 'targeted killings' (assassinations) of perceived threats.

A Jewish Sabbatical Year begins, according to rabbinic tradition (Babylonian civil new year in contradiction of the religious new year in March which God had commanded for Israel for all aspects of their society).
Monday 2: In Germany – A Dusseldorf synagogue is firebombed by neo-nazis.
Palestinians riot against ARIEL SHARON's deliberate violation of the Al Aksa Mosque on Temple Mount (Haram esh-Sharif) to assert Jewish rights to the site. Palestinians respond with stoning and many are killed by Israeli troops retaliation.
Sunday 8: In Nazareth, Israel, – A large crowd of Jews violently attack the Israeli Arab sector of the town.
Monday 9: Israel commemorates Yom Kippor (Day of Atonement) amidst continuing violent clashes with Palestinian demonstrators across the country.
Thursday 12: Israel's helicopter gunships fire missiles into Ramallah and Jericho to punish Palestinian violence.
Israeli Prime Minister BARAK invites rightwing hardliner ARIEL SHARON to join his government.
Friday 13: Israel seals off all Palestinian towns in order to try and contain the violence.
The PLO and the Israel Government reach agreement on a truce at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

The conflict continues with Palestinians, with disturbing racial undertones for Arab Israelis (See 'Israel's Right to Palestine').
Israel's water company, Mekorot, announces that it will  terminate routine pumping of water from the Sea of Galilee in order to stop the decline in its water level. The water level is 213.73 meters below sea level, 28.74 inches below the Red Line – the mark from below which water should not be pumped. Mekorot will draw water only on weekends and will provide water only to the Haifa district. The Minister of Finance, AVRAHAM SHOHAT has decided to begin buying water from Turkey. Negotiations on this matter will include an Israeli request for an annual amount of 15-25 million cubic meters of water with the possibility of doubling the amount for a period of 5-10 years.
Tuesday 7: A fishing boat loaded with explosives blows up near the Israel Defence Forces Dabur vessel on patrol off the coast of Rafiah in the Gaza Strip. No injuries or damage are reported. According to IDF officials, the suicide bomber is believed to have been Palestinian.

Monday 27: In West Jerusalem – The Knesset further entrenches the State of Israel's control of Jerusalem. It passes a Basic Law that in future will require a majority of 61 Members of Knesset to concede authority in any part of Jerusalem to a so-called foreign body. The bill is approved by a margin of 84-19. All the factions in the Knesset support the bill with the exception of two parties. This Basic Law on Jerusalem forbids the transfer of any powers, national or municipal, in Jerusalem into the hands of any organization or body that does not fall under the jurisdiction of the State of Israel. Any future Government that wishes to transfer parts of the capital to the Palestinian Authority will need the support of at least 61 lawmakers to annul the relevant articles of this new law. (See 1967 annexation).
Prime Minister EHUD BARAK, at the Balfour Declaration 83rd anniversary dinner, announces new proposals toward a permanent peace with the Palestinians. These confidence-building measures are –

France – A Commission is established to compensate war-time deportees to Germany (principally Jews) by the Vichy regime. (See: 16 February 2009).

The violence continues in Israel-Palestine...
Monday 4: In Israel – AMI AYALON, former leader of Shin Beth, Israel's domestic security agency, says that –

and in a broadcast by Israeli public radio he also voiced concern that Israel had refused to release prisoners from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction "with which we signed peace", but that instead in exchange for soldiers it had freed "terrorists" – members of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerilla movement in Lebanon.
AYALON also warns against economic separation between Israel and the Palestinians, something Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has now put back on the political agenda after a two-month spiral of deadly violence in the Palestinian territories.

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