April 30, 2003 â Framework for Peace Is Unveiled
The Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations issues its Roadmap for Peace, a framework for talks to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan comes during the Second Intifada. Israel lists 14 main concerns with the Roadmap but, like the Palestinian Authority, commits to trying to make it work. Hamas rejects it. Talks under the plan make no progress.
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May 1, 1956 â Eshkol Approves Building Ashdod
Finance Minister Levi Eshkol, a future prime minister, authorizes the establishment of the city of Ashdod on the site of a former Palestinian village, Isdud, along the Mediterranean coast between Tel Aviv and Ashkelon. The name of Ashdod comes from an ancient city less than five miles away that was one of the centers of Philistine power. The first official Israeli residents, Jewish immigrants from North Africa, arrive in November 1956.