2000 in Israel - Events

Events

• January 3–10 – Shepherdstown Summit: Israel and Syria hold peace talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak led the Israeli delegation and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa led the Syrian delegation. The Peace Conference finally came to a dead end and was later on followed by failed negotiation attempts to renew it.
• January 28 – Yes, the sole satellite television provider (DBS) in Israel, begins its broadcasting.
• March 12–26 – Pope John Paul II visits Israel, and thus becomes the second pope to visit the Jewish state. During his stay, the Pope visits Yad Vashem (the Israeli national Holocaust memorial) and the Western Wall (the holiest site in Judaism) placing a letter inside it in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews in the past.
• March 14 – Israel formally deploys its Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system.
• March 28 – A police investigation recommends that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife be indicted on criminal charges of fraud, bribery, theft of state gifts and obstruction of justice.
• May 25 – Israel withdraws IDF forces from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon, in compliance with U.N. Resolution 425, to the international border after 22 years in which the area was occupied by Israeli forces. Several thousand members of the South Lebanon Army (and their families) withdraw to Israel as well with the Israeli forces. Syria and Lebanon insist that the withdrawal is incomplete, claiming the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese and still under occupation. The UN certifies full Israeli withdrawal.
• March 27 – An Israeli Air Force F-16D-30F of 109 Sq based at Ramat David Airbase, crashes into the Mediterranean Sea during a training flight 17 nmi (31 km) off the coastal village of Atlit in northern Israel. The pilot, Major Yonatan Begin, was a grandson of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. Neither he nor his co-pilot, Lt. Lior Harari, had notified their ground controllers of any problems.
• June 16 – Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years of it issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Shebba farms.
• July 13 – Ezer Weizman resigns as president. Knesset Speaker, Avraham Burg is appointed as acting president.
• July 31 – The Israeli Knesset elects Moshe Katsav as the eighth president of the State of Israel, by a majority of 63 to 57, against Shimon Peres, to assume office on August 1, 2000.
• August 1 – Moshe Katsav assumes office as the eighth president of the State of Israel.
• September 3 – Former leader of Israel's Shas Party Aryeh Deri starts his three-year jail sentence after his appeal is rejected.
• October 1–9, 2000: Solidarity demonstrations held by Arab citizens of Israel escalate into clashes with Israeli police and Israeli Jewish citizens. Twelve Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian Arab from the Gaza Strip are shot and killed by the Israeli police. One Israeli Jewish civilian was killed by a rock thought to have been thrown by an Arab citizen.
• October 7 – 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid: Three Israeli soldiers are abducted by Hezbollah while patrolling the Israeli administered side of the Israeli-Lebanese border and Northern Israel is shelled in an attempt to ignite the Israeli-Lebanese border too, but Israelis decide on limited response.
• December 10 – Prime minister Ehud Barak announces his resignation as prime minister, and states that an election for the post would be held soon.