1999 in the Palestinian territories

← 1998 1997 1996 1999 in the Palestinian territories → 2000 2001 2002
Centuries:	20th 21st
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
See also:	Other events of 1999 List of years in the Palestinian territories Timeline of the history of the region of Palestine

Events in the year 1999 in the Palestinian territories.

Incumbents

Palestinian National Authority (non-state administrative authority)

• Yasser Arafat (Fatah), President, 5 July 1994–11 November 2004

Events

• The Palestinian Central Council decided on 29 April to put off declaring independence until after the Israeli elections, triggering riots in the territories^[1]
• 3,000 Palestinians participated in a "Day of Rage" on 3 June, protesting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank^[2]
• The Palestinian Authority joined the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States upon its inception on 17 June in Iran
• PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak signed the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, an interim peace agreement, on 4 September^[3]
• The Israeli government pre-emptively handed civilian control of 7% of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority on 10 September, the first transfer of legal authority in 1999, in preparation for peace talks later that week^[4]
• Bilateral negotiations over Palestine's final status are conducted from 13 September-3 October, but no deal was signed due to disputes over Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, and travel rights between Gaza and the West Bank^[5]
• Unemployment in the West Bank was estimated at 9.6%^[6]
• Unemployment in Gaza was estimated at 17%^[6]

Deaths

• Mohammed Shreiteh, father of eight who allegedly sustained terminal injuries stemming from police beating him a day earlier while he was in custody, died on 10 September in Hebron^[7]
• Mahmoud Mohammed al-Bajjali, father of three who died in prison after serving five years in prison without trial, died on 3 December in Ramallah^[7]

See also

• 1999 in Israel

References

1. A Political Chronology of the Middle East. Europa Publications. 2006. p. 186.
2. Patrick Cockburn (11 June 1999). "Palestine officers denounce Arafat". The Independent.
3. Ahmed Qurie (2008). Beyond Oslo, the Struggle for Palestine: Inside the Middle East Peace Process from Rabin's Death to Camp David. p. 88.
4. "Israel hands over more West Bank land to Palestinians". CNN. 10 September 1999.
5. Derek Brown (20 September 2001). "Middle East timeline: 1999". The Guardian.
6. Saree Makdisi (2010). Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 157.
7. As'ad Ganim (2002). The Palestinian Regime: A "Partial Democracy". Sussex Academic Press. p. 125.