1979 in Israel

The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty of 1979 did not emerge from a vacuum. Its immediate foundation was the Camp David Accords, signed on September 17, 1978, after intensive negotiations among Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter.[1] Those accords produced two frameworks: one addressing a bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace and another addressing future territorial and political arrangements concerning the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and the Gaza Strip.[2]

The Camp David process had been set in motion by Sadat's unprecedented visit to Jerusalem in November 1977.[2][3] In March 1979, Carter traveled to Israel for three days of intensive talks; he addressed the Knesset on March 12, and the Knesset debated the proposed peace treaty on March 20.[4][5] The treaty was signed later that month.

On March 26, 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed the Treaty of Peace between Egypt and Israel on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C.[6] Egypt became the first Arab state to establish diplomatic normalization with Israel, ending a thirty-year state of war.[7] At the ceremony, Begin praised Sadat's "human value that can change history — civil courage."[8]

The treaty consisted of a preamble and nine articles, supplemented by annexes covering security arrangements, Israel's withdrawal from Sinai, and the normalization of political, economic, and cultural relations.[6] Arabic- and Hebrew-language versions were signed alongside the English version.[6] Under Article I, the state of war would formally end upon the exchange of instruments of ratification. Israel committed to withdraw its armed forces and civilians from Sinai, while Egypt would resume full sovereignty over the peninsula as the withdrawal was implemented.[9]

The permanent Israel–Egypt boundary was defined as the recognized international boundary between Egypt and the former mandated territory of Palestine, without prejudice to the status of the Gaza Strip.[9] The security arrangements divided Sinai and adjoining Israeli territory into limited-force zones monitored by United Nations forces and observers; neither party could unilaterally request the withdrawal of those personnel.[9] Israel was to complete its withdrawal in two stages: an interim pullback within nine months of ratification and final withdrawal no later than three years afterward.[9]

The normalization provisions included full diplomatic recognition, an exchange of ambassadors, the termination of economic boycotts, and the removal of discriminatory barriers to the movement of people and goods.[9] Israeli ships and cargoes were guaranteed free passage through the Suez Canal, while the Strait of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba were recognized as international waterways open to navigation and overflight by all nations.[9] Mutual access to religious and historical sites was also guaranteed.[9]

The Knesset approved the treaty by a wide margin, with 95 members voting in favor — greater support than the Camp David Accords had received.[10] The treaty was intended both to settle the Egyptian-Israeli conflict and to contribute to a just, comprehensive, and durable resolution of the broader Middle East conflict.[2]

The treaty's practical consequences for Israel were enormous. More than 7,000 Israelis were uprooted from their homes and businesses in Sinai; more than 170 military installations, airfields, and army bases had to be relocated; and Israel relinquished 1,000 miles of roads as well as homes, factories, hotels, health facilities, and agricultural villages.[3]

The Alma oil field in Sinai, transferred to Egypt in November 1979, had become Israel's largest single source of energy, supplying roughly half of the country's energy needs. Israel estimated its untapped reserves at $100 billion and projected that continued development could have made the country energy self-sufficient by 1990.[3] These figures were estimates reported by the cited source rather than independently measured valuations.

Redeploying Israeli forces and constructing new air bases in the Negev cost an estimated $5 billion.[11] To help offset the burdens, the United States provided Israel with $3 billion in aid in 1979, of which $2.2 billion consisted of high-interest loans rather than grants.[11]

The withdrawal began soon after the treaty's signing. About two months later, Israel evacuated El-Arish, described as the first site in Sinai returned after twelve years of Israeli rule.[10] On May 20, 1979, approximately 60 residents of Neot Sinai and their children barricaded themselves in the settlement's central building to resist the evacuation of the 2,000-dunam Gan HaYerek agricultural plot. Several hundred Israeli soldiers were deployed, and negotiations continued for four days before the residents agreed to leave. It was the first evacuation of civilians from an Israeli settlement in Sinai.[12] Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai on April 25, 1982, extending the process well beyond the calendar year.[12]

On April 2, 1979, Menachem Begin became the first Israeli prime minister to visit an Arab capital, traveling to Cairo as a follow-up to the peace agreement.[13] Egyptian officials greeted him with Israel's national anthem, "Hatikva," and Begin and Sadat agreed to further talks in El-Arish and Beersheba on opening the border and advancing the peace process.[13]

The treaty's regional reception was sharply negative. Most Arab League members severed ties with Egypt, and the League moved its headquarters out of Cairo, contributing to nearly a decade of Egyptian diplomatic isolation from much of the Arab world.[14]

The treaty did not resolve the Palestinian dimension of the conflict. The Camp David framework separately proposed Palestinian self-government in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, while attached treaty letters called for the withdrawal of Israel's military government and the establishment of an elected self-governing authority.[15] Subsequent negotiations on Palestinian autonomy failed to bridge Egyptian and Israeli differences, and Palestinian representatives refused to participate.[4] The U.S. Department of State characterizes the treaty as the high-water mark of the Arab-Israeli peace process during the Carter presidency while emphasizing its bilateral rather than comprehensive character.[4]

The resulting Egyptian-Israeli relationship became known as a "cold peace." Formal relations and ambassadorial exchanges continued, and Israeli shipping passed through the Suez Canal, but trade remained limited, cross-border movement was sparse, and governmental relations were generally cool.[14]

On October 22, 1979, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigned from the Israeli government because of disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over the conduct of negotiations on Arab autonomy.[16] Dayan had served as foreign minister since 1977 and played a central role in negotiating the Camp David Accords and the peace treaty.[17]

In his resignation letter, Dayan wrote: "It is no secret to you that I differ over the technique and the substance whereby the autonomy negotiations are being conducted."[16] Dayan objected in part to Begin's intention to assert Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. He had privately proposed negotiations concerning East Jerusalem and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, proposals that Begin rejected.[16]

Begin replaced Dayan with Yitzhak Shamir, who had previously served as speaker of the Knesset and was characterized by the source as taking a harder line.[16] The appointment came as post-treaty negotiations on Palestinian self-government were faltering.

One of 1979's most symbolically charged episodes unfolded in Hebron in April, when Jews from Kiryat Arba entered Beit Hadassah, a former medical clinic in the city's historic Jewish Quarter. The group consisted of ten women and 35 children who entered at approximately 4 a.m. by climbing ladders, cutting wires, and reaching the building through its windows.[18] They brought cooking equipment, water, a refrigerator, and a chemical toilet, and remained while awaiting government authorization.[18]

When an Israeli soldier asked a four-year-old girl how the group had entered, she reportedly answered: "Jacob, our forefather, built us a ladder, and we climbed in."[18] Their presence generated political conflict over settlement policy and Palestinian-Jewish relations in Hebron.

The Israeli Cabinet later narrowly authorized the establishment of a yeshivah in Hebron. After a Shabbat service, several dozen people walking to Beit Hadassah came under fire and grenade attack from a nearby rooftop; six Israeli men were killed.[18] A building subsequently named Beit HaShisha, the "House of the Six," was established to commemorate them.[18] The episode helped pave the way for the renewal of a Jewish community in Hebron.

On October 22, 1979 — the same day Dayan submitted his resignation — the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the dismantlement of the Gush Emunim settlement of Elon Moreh in Judea and Samaria after Arab landowners challenged its establishment.[19]

A five-judge panel led by Supreme Court President Moshe Landau found insufficient evidence that the settlement had been established for genuine security reasons, the justification used to authorize construction on privately owned Arab land.[19] The settlers were given 30 days to evacuate.[19] The ruling was the first in nine years of such cases in which the Supreme Court ruled against Jewish settlers, demonstrating that the judiciary would scrutinize security justifications for settlement construction.

On April 22, 1979, a four-member Palestinian Liberation Front cell arrived by sea from southern Lebanon and launched a terrorist attack in Nahariya.[20] The terrorists killed police officer Eliyahu Shahar, entered an apartment building, and took Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat hostage. Danny Haran, Einat, and Haran's two-year-old daughter Yael were killed during the attack.[20]

Two terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire, while Samir Kuntar and Ahmad Abras were captured.[20] Kuntar was sentenced to five life terms and 47 additional years in prison. Abras was released in the 1986 Jibril prisoner exchange, while Kuntar remained imprisoned until July 16, 2008, when he was released in an exchange involving the remains of Israeli reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.[20]

At the victims' funerals, Prime Minister Begin quoted Haim Nahman Bialik: "The vengeance of a little child's blood — the Satan has not yet created."[20] The attack became one of the most painful episodes of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians from that era.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran produced a major shift in Israel's strategic environment. Before the revolution, Israel maintained a large diplomatic mission in Tehran and imported 40 percent of its oil from Iran in exchange for weapons, technology, and agricultural produce.[21]

The revolution ended that partnership. Israel did not recognize the new Islamic Republic, whose authorities characterized Israel as an occupier of Jerusalem and accused it of responsibility for the genocide of Palestinians.[21] Although informal commercial links reportedly persisted for a period, Iran changed from one of Israel's most important non-Arab partners into an adversarial power openly hostile to the Jewish state.[21]

On March 31, 1979 — five days after the peace treaty signing — Israel hosted the Eurovision Song Contest at Jerusalem's Binyanei HaUma.[10][22] It was the first Eurovision contest held in Israel; a contemporary retrospective described it as the first hosted outside Europe. It was also among the first Israeli television programs broadcast in color.[22]

Gali Atari and Milk and Honey won with "Hallelujah," written by Shimrit Or and Kobi Oshrat, giving Israel its second consecutive Eurovision victory with 125 points.[22] The result was close: Israel was initially one point behind Spain, but Spain's final allocation of 10 points gave Israel the victory.[23]

Turkey withdrew its selected entry because it did not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and declined to participate in an event held there. The decision came after Turkey's name had appeared in the contest logo and its performers had rehearsed and prepared to travel.[22] "Hallelujah" subsequently became a widely recognized Israeli music classic.[23]

Several other developments left marks on Israeli society and institutions. In May 1979, the title "Kol Israel" was reintroduced for the Israel Broadcasting Authority's radio services.[24]

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem returned to its rebuilt pre-1948 campus on Mount Scopus in 1979.[25] Jerusalem's population stood at 398,200: 287,400 Jews and 110,800 Arabs and others, representing shares of 72.2 percent and 27.8 percent. The years beginning in 1979 were also characterized by negative migration balances and increased movement to satellite settlements in the Jerusalem region.[26]

Israel's first Gay Pride event took place in 1979 as a protest in what is now Rabin Square.[27]

Ethiopian Jews in Israel demonstrated on January 1 and October 30, protesting what they viewed as insufficient efforts by the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency, and world Jewish leadership to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel.[28] Prime Minister Begin subsequently met Ethiopian Jewish leaders and pledged his support for rescuing and bringing their relatives to the country.[28]

The first Merkava tanks were supplied to the Israel Defense Forces in 1979 after nine years of development.[29] The same year, Israel built its first solar-powered power plant at Ein Bokek, using a solar pond alongside the Dead Sea.[29]

The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty ended the state of war with Egypt and transformed Israel's southern strategic front. The relationship remained a cold peace, but the bilateral agreement endured from its signing in 1979.[1][2]

The treaty's implementation reshaped Israeli society. The evacuation of Sinai settlers, relocation of military infrastructure, loss of the Alma oil field, and cost of rebuilding defense capacity in the Negev illustrated the material price Israel accepted for peace.[3][11] Begin and Sadat had received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for the Camp David agreement that laid the treaty's foundation.[3]

The year also demonstrated the limits of bilateral diplomacy. The Palestinian autonomy framework envisioned at Camp David was not implemented as planned and was rejected by Palestinian and other Arab actors.[15] Egypt's isolation from much of the Arab world underscored that peace between two states did not automatically produce regional acceptance.[14] The Beit Hadassah episode and the Elon Moreh ruling showed that disputes over settlement and land policy remained unresolved after the Egyptian agreement.[18][19]

The fall of the Shah and the rise of the Islamic Republic removed a major oil supplier and strategic partner and replaced it with an adversarial government.[21] Dayan's resignation and his replacement by Shamir reflected continuing disagreement within Israel over the autonomy negotiations.[16] In this sense, 1979 closed the era of war with Egypt while opening a more complex period in Israel's regional and domestic politics.

Historical accounts broadly treat the treaty as a landmark but emphasize different aspects of its significance. The U.S. Department of State calls it the high-water mark of the Carter-era peace process while stressing that it remained a bilateral agreement.[4] The Anti-Defamation League describes it as both a watershed and the foundation of a continuing cold peace.[2] Israeli-oriented accounts give greater attention to the civilian, military, and energy costs of withdrawing from Sinai; figures such as the reported value of the Alma oil field should therefore be understood as source-specific estimates.[3]