Anwar Sadat's 1977 Visit to Jerusalem

By late 1977, Middle East diplomacy was deadlocked. The Carter administration had been working to reconvene the Geneva peace conference, a multilateral forum established after the 1973 war, but procedural disputes and disagreement over Palestinian representation blocked substantive progress. Sadat became increasingly frustrated with the stalled process.[5]

Behind the scenes, secret contacts were already underway. Documents released by the Israel State Archives indicate that Prime Minister Menachem Begin conveyed through Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu in late August 1977 that Israel sincerely desired peace.[7] Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan subsequently met Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Hassan Tuhami in Morocco, establishing a backchannel between the governments.[7] Despite these contacts, the public diplomatic process remained frozen.

On November 9, 1977, Sadat addressed the Egyptian People's Assembly and, near the end of his remarks, set aside his prepared text. He declared that he was ready to travel anywhere—including to Israel—to protect Egyptian lives and said that Israel would be surprised to hear him offer to go to the Knesset itself.[3][8] Sadat later explained that months had been wasted on procedural disputes and that direct engagement was intended to overcome the psychological barrier of suspicion between Arabs and Israelis.[5][9]

Begin welcomed the proposal. After Sadat insisted on receiving a formal written invitation, Begin's office announced on November 10 that Sadat would receive appropriate honors if he came to Jerusalem.[7] Begin's letter—stating, "In the name of the Government of Israel, I have the honor to submit to you our heartfelt invitation to come to Jerusalem and visit our country"—was transmitted through U.S. Ambassador Hermann Eilts five days later.[7] Sadat accepted before departing for Israel.

Not everyone welcomed the initiative. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy opposed it and resigned shortly before the visit.[3] In a November 14 satellite interview with journalist Walter Cronkite, Sadat said that he was awaiting a proper invitation and wanted to address all 120 members of the Knesset; Begin responded that he would receive Sadat at the airport, accompany him to Jerusalem, and present him to the Israeli parliament.[10] Sadat's proposed itinerary was transmitted to Israeli officials through U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis on November 17, with arrival requested for November 19.[11]

Sadat's aircraft landed at Ben Gurion Airport at approximately 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 19, 1977, while Egypt and Israel were still formally at war.[11][12] Israel received him with a 21-gun salute, and the Egyptian and Israeli national anthems were played.[2] Waiting on the tarmac were Israeli President Ephraim Katzir, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, government ministers, senior officials, and former Prime Minister Golda Meir, who had led Israel during the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War.[11]

The visit had been organized on extremely short notice, and the security operation was immense. Israel designated the security plan "Operation Gate"; thousands of police officers and soldiers participated.[11] Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan instructed officials to invite Palestinian figures from Jerusalem and the West Bank—known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria—to welcome Sadat at the airport.[8] Several pro-PLO mayors declined, including Bassam Shak'a of Nablus, Karim Khalaf of Ramallah, and Fahd Qawasmeh of Hebron. Attendees included Bethlehem mayor Elias Freij, Beit Jala mayor Farah Al-A'raj, Mustafa Dudeen, two Nablus leaders, and former Hebron mayor Sheikh Muhammad Ali Al-Ja'bari.[8]

Approximately 3,000 journalists, broadcasters, and television personnel came to Israel to cover the event, and the airport ceremony was broadcast live in the United States.[7][7] Israeli public reaction was highly enthusiastic despite the recent trauma of the Yom Kippur War.[7] From the airport, Sadat traveled with Begin to Jerusalem's King David Hotel. During their first meeting, Begin proposed that Egypt and Israel resolve their disputes peacefully, and the leaders publicly expressed the understanding of "No more war" and "No more bloodshed."[3]

Sadat's visit lasted approximately 36 hours, from November 19 to November 21. He stayed at the King David Hotel and visited both the Israeli and Arab sections of Jerusalem.[2][12] Egyptian and Israeli flags were displayed together throughout the city, giving visible expression to the diplomatic reversal underway.[1]

On November 20, Sadat prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and paid his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial.[2][2] Israeli officials treated the planned prayer at Al-Aqsa as a major security concern, both because of a possible assassination attempt and because King Abdullah I of Jordan had been assassinated there in July 1951.[8] Security planners initially considered excluding worshippers but ultimately admitted up to 1,500 Arab Muslim worshippers after searches.[8] When Sadat entered the compound, the crowd reportedly cheered: "Long live the hero of peace, we shall sacrifice our blood and life for you, O Sadat."[8]

During the visit, Sadat also met Palestinian figures, including Anwar Al-Khatib of Jerusalem and Hikmat Al-Masri of Nablus.[8] After returning to Egypt, he reportedly remarked: "In Jerusalem I met the real Palestinians."[8] His visits to a mosque, a church, a Jewish memorial, and Israel's parliament gave the journey symbolic resonance across Jerusalem's religious and political landscape.

On November 20, 1977, at 16:00, Sadat addressed the Knesset in Arabic during the forty-third sitting of the Ninth Knesset, a special session convened in Jerusalem.[9] It was the first address to the Israeli parliament by an Arab head of state.[1]

Sadat opened with a declaration of purpose: "I come to you today on solid ground, to shape a new life, to establish peace."[1] He described the visit as a personal risk taken to prevent further wars: "I have come to you so that together we shall build a durable peace based on justice to avoid the shedding of one single drop of blood by both sides."[13] He said that he had come with an open heart and mind, not to maneuver or win a diplomatic round, but to pursue "the battle of permanent peace based on justice."[14] Referring to four Arab-Israeli wars in thirty years, he declared: "Any life lost in war is a human life, irrespective of its being that of an Israeli or an Arab."[9] He argued that missiles, warships, and nuclear weapons could not establish true security and called for the wars of the past to be the last wars.[9]

Sadat recognized Israel as an existing political fact and stated that Egypt accepted Israel's presence in the region. He accepted international guarantees for Israel's security and said that Israel could live with its Arab neighbors in security, within its borders and with agreed guarantees.[9] At the same time, he insisted that peace could not be built on occupation and demanded complete Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war, including what he called Arab Jerusalem.[9] He described Jerusalem as a city of peace and coexistence among Muslims, Christians, and Jews, opposed treating it through annexation or expansionism, and called for it to remain free and open to believers of all three faiths.[9]

Sadat identified the Palestinian issue as central to the conflict, declaring that "the Palestinian problem is the core and essence of the conflict" and that "there can be no peace without the Palestinians."[14] He said that he had not come merely to sign a separate Egyptian-Israeli agreement, a temporary end to belligerency, or another limited disengagement arrangement.[14] His five-point framework called for ending Israel's occupation of territories occupied in 1967; recognizing Palestinian self-determination and the right to establish a state; guaranteeing secure borders for every state in the region; settling disputes under the principles of the United Nations Charter and the non-use of force; and ending the state of belligerency.[13]

Begin answered Sadat from the same podium. He welcomed the Egyptian president's courage, called for a peace treaty, and stated that issues connected to the Arab-Israeli dispute were open to negotiation.[1][2] Begin presented peace as encompassing diplomatic relations and a lasting end to warfare, while the two speeches also made clear that major disagreements remained over territory, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian question.

At the end of the visit on November 21, Begin and Sadat issued a joint communiqué calling for continued Israeli-Egyptian dialogue leading to peace treaties at Geneva, with the aim of working toward agreements with neighboring Arab states as well.[15] At the accompanying press conference, Begin described the central achievement as a "momentous agreement": "no more war, no more bloodshed, no more attacks, and collaboration to avoid any event which may lead to such tragic developments."[15] Sadat similarly said that disputes should be resolved through talks rather than war.[15]

The press conference also made clear that significant differences remained. The leaders acknowledged disagreements over security, territorial withdrawal, Palestinian representation, and the meaning of a Palestinian state.[15] Sadat said that the sides agreed on the principle of security but differed over its practical meaning; Begin emphasized security as the protection of Israel's population.[15] No immediate diplomatic relations were established, and no reciprocal visit by Begin to Cairo was arranged. Both matters were deferred.[15]

The visit broke a major psychological barrier created by decades of Egyptian-Israeli warfare, suspicion, and nonrecognition, but it did not immediately resolve the central disputes.[4][15] Direct Egyptian-Israeli talks began in December 1977, although they produced little substantive progress, and the United States resumed a more prominent mediating role by January 1978.[5] A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs retrospective states that the Palestine Liberation Organization did not attend the Cairo peace conference initiated by Sadat in December 1977 and did not participate in the subsequent Egyptian-Israeli discussions over Palestinian autonomy.[16]

President Jimmy Carter invited Sadat and Begin to Camp David, where thirteen days of intensive negotiations in September 1978 produced two framework agreements, including provisions for Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank.[5][5] The accords established the basis for the bilateral treaty signed in Washington on March 26, 1979, ending the state of war between Egypt and Israel.[5][17] Under the treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, the countries established mutually recognized international boundaries, and freedom of navigation for Israel through the Suez Canal was confirmed.[11][17] Egypt became the first Arab state to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.[4]

Sadat later characterized the Jerusalem initiative as "a unique and historic event" that challenged thirty years of accumulated hostility.[6] He stated: "Without that initiative the Camp David summit would never have materialized."[6] The visit created the direct diplomatic opening that developed into the Camp David negotiations and the peace treaty.[1][5]

While the visit was praised internationally and celebrated enthusiastically by much of the Israeli public, it was received very differently across much of the Arab world.[4] Arab governments strongly opposed Sadat's initiative and subsequent agreement with Israel.[12] His decision earned him the enmity of most other Arab governments, and Egypt was expelled or suspended from the Arab League before being readmitted in 1989.[18]

Israel's military leadership also remained cautious in the immediate aftermath. A General Staff meeting on November 22, 1977, only hours after Sadat returned to Egypt, included discussion of whether the initiative was genuine. Chief of Staff Motta Gur said that the operational message he had received was to prepare reserve equipment depots for war—a striking contrast to Sadat's effort to demonstrate that his peace offer was serious.[19]

Sadat was assassinated in Egypt in October 1981 by radical Islamists opposed to his policies, including his peace with Israel.[4] His death demonstrated the intensity of the domestic opposition generated by his political course, while the treaty itself survived and continued to govern Egyptian-Israeli relations.

Sadat's November 1977 journey was one of the most consequential diplomatic gestures in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. As the first official visit to Israel by an Arab head of state since Israel's founding in 1948, it created a new strategic reality.[2] Egypt was the largest Arab state and one of Israel's principal wartime adversaries; its voluntary departure from the cycle of warfare altered the regional balance.[16]

The visit demonstrated the effect of direct communication across entrenched hostility. Sadat concluded that the Geneva process had become trapped in procedural deadlock and instead addressed Israel's leaders, elected representatives, and public directly.[5] The enthusiastic Israeli reception, despite the recent memory of the Yom Kippur War, confirmed that there was substantial public support in Israel for negotiations with Egypt.[7]

The transformation proceeded rapidly. From Sadat's Knesset speech on November 20, 1977, to the peace treaty signed on March 26, 1979, Egyptian-Israeli relations moved from formal belligerency to recognized peace in less than seventeen months.[17] The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, established mutually recognized boundaries, and confirmed Israeli navigation rights through the Suez Canal.[11][17] It established a precedent for resolving an Israeli-Arab conflict through direct negotiation and a formal peace treaty.[4]

The Camp David framework also contained provisions for Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank, keeping the Palestinian question within the broader diplomatic process even though the bilateral treaty did not resolve it.[5][5] Sadat and Begin received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in reaching the Camp David Accords.[1]

Sadat's Knesset address combined acceptance of Israel's existence and security with demands firmly rejected by Israel's government at the time: complete withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, including what Sadat called Arab Jerusalem, and Palestinian self-determination including statehood.[13][9] Jerusalem remained a major point of contention during the Camp David negotiations.[20] Sadat's later position held that Arab Jerusalem was an integral part of the West Bank and should come under Arab sovereignty, while the holy places could be administered by representatives of their respective faiths. He also proposed an equal Israeli-Arab municipal council intended to keep the city administratively undivided.[20]

Accounts differ mainly in emphasis when explaining Sadat's decision. U.S. diplomatic history stresses the stalled Geneva process and negotiating deadlock.[5] Sadat's own Knesset address similarly emphasized months lost to procedural disputes but placed particular weight on the need to destroy the psychological barrier of suspicion and rejection between Arabs and Israelis.[9] Together, these accounts present the visit as both a response to diplomatic failure and a deliberate effort to change public perceptions through direct engagement.