November · This Day in Africa
November 19
1977 — Sadat's Historic Visit to Israel
On November 19, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat landed in Israel — the first Arab head of state to make a public visit while the two nations were still at war. Before 2,000 journalists, he addressed the Knesset in Arabic, calling for withdrawal from occupied lands and a homeland for the Palestinian people, and said he hoped the 1973 war would be the last. The image alone — an Egyptian president speaking in Israel's parliament — broke with everything that had come before it.
The bold visit shattered a decades-long taboo, opening the road to Camp David and the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Sadat and Menachem Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.
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