Sharm El Sheikh Summit of 2005


The Sharm El Sheikh Summit of 2005 took place on 8 February, when four Middle Eastern leaders gathered at Sharm El Sheikh, in the Sinai Peninsula, in an effort to end the four-year Al-Aqsa Intifada. The four leaders were Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Sharon and Abbas explicitly undertook to cease all violence against each other's peoples, marking a formal end to the Al-Aqsa Intifada and to move on in the Road map for peace process. Sharon also agreed to release 900 Palestinian prisoners of the 7,500 being held at the time, and to withdraw from West Bank towns. However, the violence continued into the following years, though suicide bombings decreased significantly. By the spring of 2005, 500 of the prisoners had been released, but after Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot on 5 May, Sharon stopped the release of the remaining 400, saying the Palestinian Authority needs to rein in the militants.

Background to the summit

The Al-Aqsa Intifada, which began in September 2000, left over 5,000 Palestinian and Israeli casualties and took extensive toll on both economies and societies. The cycle of violence persisted throughout this period, except for the short-lived Hudna in mid-2003.
Neither side was willing to negotiate until there was a halt to violence. Yasser Arafat, the man thought by many to have engineered the intifada and to have kept it alive, died in November 2004. The Palestinian presidential election to elect Arafat's successor was held on 9 January 2005 and confirmed Mahmoud Abbas as President of the Palestinian Authority. His initial efforts were to bring order to the anarchy of the Palestinian territories and halt attacks against Israel. Ariel Sharon changed his attitude towards negotiations and ordered a significant reduction of Israeli military activity in the Palestinian territories and took many measures to help Palestinian civilians.
These trust-building steps, together with renewed security coordination between the two sides and the backing of the United States, Jordan and Egypt led to agreement on holding of the summit.

The summit

The summit began with a series of meetings between Sharon and Mubarak, King Abdullah and Abbas. Later, all leaders except King Abdullah read statements reaffirming their commitment to continued efforts to stabilize the situation and to move on in the Road map for peace process.
Sharon and Abbas explicitly included an intended cessation of all violent activity against each other's peoples in their closing statements, marking a formal end to the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Sharon also agreed to release 900 Palestinian prisoners and to withdraw from West Bank towns.

Media coverage post-summit

A 2007 report entitled "Quiet, We're Disengaging! Israeli Media Coverage of the Tense Ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority Following the Sharm El Sheikh Understandings" by the Israeli media monitoring NGO :
The report also notes:

Arab–Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties