Israel's History:
1995

1995:
by Shira Grossman, 2003 Israel Affairs IGB

• There are 200 Jewish settlements and civilian land use sites in the West Bank, 40 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, 24 in the Gaza Strip, and 25 in East Jerusalem. (April 1994)
• Population: 5,050,850 (July 1994 est.) Note: includes 110,500 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, 14,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, 4,500 in the Gaza Strip, and 144,100 in East Jerusalem (1994 est.)
• Ethnic divisions: Jewish 83%, non-Jewish 17% (mostly Arab)
• Religions: Judaism 82%, Islam 14% (mostly Sunni Muslim), Christian 2%, Druze and other 2%
• Chief of State: President Ezer WEIZMAN (since 13 May 1993) election last held 24 March 1993 (next to be held NA March 1999); results - Ezer WEIZMAN elected by Knesset head of government: Prime Minister Yitzhak RABIN (since NA July 1992)
• Knesset: elections last held NA June 1992 (next to be held by NA 1996); results - percent of vote by party NA; seats - (120 total) Labor Party 44, Likud bloc 32, Meretz 12, Tzomet 8, National Religious Party 6, Shas 6, United Torah Jewry 4, Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) 3, Moledet 3, Arab Democratic Party 2; note - in 1994 three new parties were formed, Yi'ud (from Tzomet), Histadrut List (from the Labor Party), and Peace Guard (from Moledet), resulting in the following new distribution of seats - Labor Party 41, Likud bloc 32, Meretz 12, National Religious Party 6, Shas 6, Tzomet 5, United Torah Jewry 4, Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) 3, Yi'ud 3, Histadrut List 3, Moledet 2, Arab Democratic Party 2, Peace Guard 1
• Political parties and leaders:
• Members of the Government: Labor Party, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; MERETZ, Minister of Communications Shulamit Aloni not in coalition, but voting with the government: SHAS, Arieh Deri; Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), Hashim Mahamid; Arab Democratic Party, Abd al Wahab Darawshah; Histadrut List, Haim Ramon
• Opposition parties: Likud Party, Binyamin Netanyahu; Tzomet, Rafael Eitan; National Religious Party, Zevulun Hammer; United Torah Jewry, Avraham Shapira; Moledet, Rehavam Ze'evi; Yi'ud, Gonen Segev; Peace Guard, Shoul Gutman
• Note: Israel currently has a coalition government comprising 3 parties that hold 56 seats of the Knesset's 120 seats
• Other political or pressure groups: Gush Emunim, Jewish nationalists advocating Jewish settlement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Peace Now, critical of government's West Bank/Gaza Strip and Lebanon policies
• Member of: AG (observer), CCC, CE (observer), CERN (oberver), EBRD, ECE, FAO, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, OAS (observer), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
• Telecommunications: most highly developed in the Middle East although not the largest; good system of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay; 1,800,000 telephones; broadcast stations - 14 AM, 21 FM, 20 TV; 3 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 2 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT and 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT
• MILITARY: males age 15-49 1,257,345; females age 15-49 1,280,899; males fit for military service 1,026,699; females fit for military service 1,049,998; males reach military age (18) annually 47,297 (1994 est.); females reach military age (18) annually 45,214 (1994 est.); both sexes are liable for military service
• International disputes: separated from Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank by the 1949 Armistice Line; differences with Jordan over the location of the 1949 Armistice Line that separates the two countries; the Gaza Strip and Jericho, formerly occupied by Israel, are now administered by the Palestinian Authority; other areas of the West Bank outside Jericho are Israeli occupied; Golan Heights is Israeli occupied; Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since June 1982; water-sharing issues with Jordan.
• The National Health Insurance Law, in effect from January 1995, provides for a standardized basket of medical services, including hospitalization, for all residents of Israel. All medical services continue to be supplied by the country's four health care organizations.

Terrorist attacks
The overall number of anti-Israeli attacks instigated by Palestinians declined to 33 in 1995 from 79 in 1994 due to a change in the nature of attacks, that is, to less frequent but more lethal suicide bombings. Casualty figures remained high, with 45 Israeli soldiers and civilians and two US citizens killed and nearly 280 persons wounded in 1995, compared to 55 persons killed and more than 150 wounded the previous year. The increased lethality of the attacks was due mainly to Palestinian extremist groups' increased use of suicide bombings, which killed 39 and wounded 252.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) conducted five major anti-Israeli attacks in 1995 as part of its campaign to derail the peace process. The group claimed responsibility for three devastating suicide bombings, including the bombing on 21 August of a bus in Jerusalem's Ramat Eshkol neighborhood that resulted in the death of a US citizen, Joan Davenny, and three Israelis, and the wounding of more than 100 civilians. Following that operation, HAMAS temporarily suspended its military activities and entered into talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), in which HAMAS discussed the possibility of ending anti-Israeli attacks and participating in the Palestinian elections on 20 January 1996. There were no major HAMAS attacks against Israelis from the August suicide bus bombing through the end of 1995.

Other Palestinian groups that reject the peace process also attacked Israelis. The Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ)-Shaqaqi Faction claimed responsibility for five suicide bombings that killed a total of 29 persons and wounded 107. One bus bombing on 9 April killed a US citizen, Alisa Flatow, and seven Israelis and wounded 41 other persons. Although the group suffered a strong blow when its leader, Fathi Shaqaqi, was assassinated in Malta on 26 October, it remained capable of striking at Israeli targets. On 2 November, the PIJ carried out two suicide bomb attacks against Israeli targets in Gaza to retaliate for Shaqaqi's murder, which the group believes Israel sponsored. No Israelis were killed in the attacks. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also claimed responsibility for several attacks against Israelis that occurred outside Palestinian Authority (PA) held areas in the West Bank.

The PA increased its effort to rein in Palestinian violence against Israelis in 1995. The PA security apparatus stepped up its campaign to register and confiscate weapons, thwart terrorist plots, and convict Palestinians responsible for anti-Israeli acts. The PA thwarted a PIJ attack planned for 10 June. In August, the Palestinian Police Force arrested a HAMAS terrorist who was preparing a bomb to be set off in Israel. Arafat and other senior PA officials regularly condemned acts of terrorism as they occurred, especially the Rabin assassination. Israel's vigilant border security appeared to effectively prevent infiltrations from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Israeli troops on 12 August, for instance, captured a heavily armed guerrilla attempting to infiltrate into Israel from Jordan. Hizballah and Palestinian rejectionist groups continued to launch occasional - nine times in 1995 - Katyusha rocket salvos into northern Israel from southern Lebanon. The most serious rocket attacks occurred in November, when militants in Lebanon fired 30 to 40 Katyushas into northern Israel over a two-day period, wounding six Israeli civilians.

Yigal Amir, a Jewish extremist associated with the little-known "Fighting Jewish Organization" (EYAL), assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a propeace rally in Tel Aviv on 4 November. Amir claimed to have acted alone, but Israeli security forces charged several other alleged conspirators. Israel also stepped up its investigations of EYAL and other extremist groups that may have had a hand in the murder. Kach and Kahane Chai - which Israel outlawed as terrorist groups after the Hebron massacre in February 1994 - remained active in 1995, though they maintained lower profiles.