Historical Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty photos released on 40th anniversary of accord
WASHINGTON – Dozens of four-decade-old photographs documenting the surprisingly warm relationship between Israel's then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat as the two leaders negotiated the 1979 landmark peace agreement between their two countries have been released by the National Library of Israel.
The release of the behind-the-scenes photographs comes on the 40th anniversary of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty, in which Egypt became the first Arab country to recognize Israel. On March 26, 1979, the deal paved the way for Israel's military withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and an end to hostilities sparked by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
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"The unique contribution of these photographs is that they provide an unmediated look at the remarkable personal relationship between Begin and Sadat," said curator Hezi Amiur. "Other striking images in the collection show the reactions in Israel to the nation's first peace agreement with an Arab country, which only a few years before had been a bitter foe."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Historical Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty photos released on 40th anniversary of accord
