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Oslo Accords 25 years on: from hope to deadlock
PARIS, Sept 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Sealed with a handshake beamed across
the world, the 1993 Oslo Accords were the first agreements between the rival
Israelis and Palestinians and promised to end decades of deadly conflict.
The deal’s architects — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and Israel’s
premier Yitzhak Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres — won the Nobel
Peace Prize for “their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.”
The all-smiles image of Arafat shaking hands with Rabin was a moment of
hope, but 25 years after that bright day in Washington, relations between the
two sides have soured and the deal — which envisaged eventual Palestinian
autonomy — is deadlocked.
Here is a look back at the landmark Oslo Accords.
– Around one table –
In 1991, with a bloody Palestinian intifada uprising against Israeli
occupation having raged for four years, Washington and Moscow call a meeting
in October in Madrid.
For the first time Israelis and Palestinians sit around one table
together, although via a Jordanian delegation as Israel refuses the direct
participation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
The meeting opens the path to Oslo: bilateral and multilateral
negotiations follow in various countries although there is no real progress
until 1993.
– Secret talks –
In January 1993, Israel removes a major obstacle to further negotiations
by lifting a 1986 ban forbidding Israeli contact with the PLO.
At the same time Norway offers to host fresh talks, guaranteeing utmost
secrecy away from the media spotlight.
Oslo, which espouses mediation of international conflicts, leans on its
long-running contact with Arafat and close links between its ruling Labour
Party and that of Israel.
From January to August the feuding sides hold at least 14 under-the-radar
meetings in the Norwegian capital.
– A deal –
The first public sign of a breakthrough comes on August 29 when Israel
announces a groundbreaking agreement allowing limited Palestinian autonomy in
parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which had been occupied by Israeli
forces.
Then on September 10 Israel for the first time officially recognises the
PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.
These are the pillars of the Oslo Accords.
The “Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements”,
set to last five years, also states that the Israeli government and PLO agree
to work to end their conflict.
According to the text, both sides will “recognize their mutual legitimate
and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual
dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace
settlement”.
– Historic handshake –
The deal is signed by its chief negotiators, Peres and PLO official
Mahmoud Abbas, in Washington on September 13.
But the heroes of the day are Arafat and Rabin: at an official ceremony
on the White House lawn the same day — with US president Bill Clinton and
some 3,000 invited guests watching — the old foes stand side-by-side, Arafat
puts out his hand, Rabin hesitates then does the same.
The handshake was hailed by many as a vital breakthrough in a conflict
that had already lasted nearly a half-century, but there was also criticism
from Palestinian and Israeli quarters and some Arab countries.
– Derailed –
In May 1994 the transitional Palestinian autonomy begins.
Two months later Arafat returns to the Occupied Territories after 27
years in exile. He forms the Palestinian Authority, which is to oversee the
road to aspired Palestinian statehood.
In September the following year a new intermediary accord, known as Oslo
II, is signed, on the extension of the autonomy in the West Bank.
But on November 4, 1995, a right-wing Jewish extremist opposed to the
accords assassinates Rabin. It is a major blow to the deal.
Arafat progressively becomes the bete noire of the Israelis, who blame
him for a second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
The last direct — but ultimately fruitless — negotiations sponsored by
the US take place in 2013.
Twenty-five years on the Oslo Accords are deadlocked: the West Bank
remains occupied while the Gaza Strip is in the hands of Islamist movement
Hamas and under Israeli blockade.
BSS/AFP/RY/1728 hrs