By Sarah Saad
APRIL 25, 1982, was a remarkable day in the conflict between Egypt and Israel. In fact, this day was one episode in the long series of this conflict which culminated in the restoration of all Egyptian territories after a significant victory by the Egyptian military.
Armed struggle
• Sinai witnessed the first steps on the road to liberation in June 1967 before the fierce War of Attrition. The war
caused severe losses to the Israeli occupier which tried to make up for them by targeting civilians in the Abu Zaabal Iron and Steel Factory in Cairo and pupils in Bahr El-Baqar Primary School in Sharqia.
• The Rogers Plan was an American attempt to boost the occupation of Egyptian territories. However, the Egyptian political leadership agreed to the ceasefire in its bid to complete the construction of the missile wall and prepare – with training and equipment – for the recapture of the occupied land.
• Six years passed after the 1967 defeat, before the October 6, 1973 war erupted, during which the Egyptian Armed Forces crossed the Suez Canal and regained full sovereignty over the canal, along with part of occupied Sinai. This paved the road for ensuring the return of navigation in the Suez Canal in June 1975.
The October War paved the way for signing the Camp David Accords in September 1978, following late President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel in November 1977.
Negotiations
Sixteen days on the beginning of the October 6 War, the second phase of completing the liberation of Sinai started, but this time through negotiation. Resolution No. 338 was issued, stipulating the cessation of all military activities as of October 22, 1973.
In the Kilometre 101 Talks (October and November 1973), an agreement was reached to pave the way for negotiations on a permanent settlement in the Middle East. The agreement was signed on November 11, 1973. It included a commitment to a ceasefire, the arrival of daily supplies to Suez, and the deployment of international emergency forces to monitor the road. The agreement also stipulated the exchange of prisoners and wounded. It was considered an important initial step on the road to establishing a permanent and just peace in the
Middle East.
First (January 1974) and second (September 1975) disengagement agreements
• In January 1974, the first disengagement agreement between Egypt and Israel was signed. It specified the
line to which Israeli forces would withdraw. This was an area 30 kilometres east of the Suez Canal and the lines of
the separation zone between the forces where the international emergency forces would be stationed.
• In September 1975, the second disengagement agreement was signed, through which Egypt advanced to
new lines, reclaiming about 4,500 kilometres of land in Sinai.
In November 1977, President Sadat told Egyptian MPs that he was ready to go to Israel.
Oval Office meeting in 1975
• The initiative then proposed the following principles on which peace would be based:
• Withdrawing Israeli forces from the Arab territories they occupied in 1967
• Granting the Palestinians their basic rights and the right to self-determination, including the right to establish their own state.
• The right of all regional states to live in peace within secure and guaranteed borders through agreed-upon measures that achieve appropriate security of international borders.
• Regional states are committed to the management of their relations in accordance with the objectives and principles of the United Nations Charter, especially refraining from resorting to force and resolving their disputes in a negotiated manner Ending the state of war in the region In the Camp David conference, which began on September 5, 1978, Egypt and Israel agreed to the American proposal to hold a tripartite conference at Camp
David.
An agreement was announced on September 17, 1978. The Camp David document was signed at the White House on September 18, 1978. The agreement contains two important documents for the achievement of a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
First document
Framework for Peace in the Middle East It stated that the provisions of the United Nations Charter and other rules of international law and legitimacy now provide acceptable levels for the conduct of relations between all countries, achieving a peaceful relationship and conducting negotiations in the future between Israel and any
neighbouring country.
Second document
Framework of the agreement for the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel Egypt and Israel signed the
peace treaty on March 26, 1979, having been convinced of the urgent need to establish peace between them and Israel’s complete withdrawal of its forces and also civilians from Sinai to beyond the international borders
between Egypt and Palestine.
Egypt would resume the exercise of its full sovereignty over Sinai.
Return of Sinai
The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel led to a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian sovereignty over Egypt’s entire territory was restored and a timetable was set for the phased Israeli
withdrawal from Sinai. On April 25, 1982, the Egyptian flag was raised on Egypt’s eastern border
in the city of Rafah in northern Sinai and Sharm El-Sheikh in southern Sinai, completing the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai after a 15-year occupation. This day was declared as a national Egyptian holiday that commemorates the liberation of every grain of sand in Sinai, except for Taba, a problem created by Israel in the last days of its withdrawal from Sinai. This opened the door for the beginning of a seven-year diplomatic battle for the liberation of this precious spot.
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