Oslo Accord and the two state solution
Fahid Fayaz Darangay
The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993 and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995.
The Oslo Accords marked the start of the Oslo process, a peace process aimed at achieving a peace treaty based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and at fulfilling the “right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” The Oslo process started after secret negotiations in Oslo, resulting in the recognition by the PLO of the State of Israel and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in negotiations.
The Oslo Accords created a Palestinian Authority tasked with limited self-governance of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and acknowledged the PLO as Israel’s partner in permanent-status negotiations about remaining questions.
The most important questions relate to the borders of Israel and Palestine, Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem, Israel’s military presence in and control over remaining territories after Israel’s recognition of Palestinian autonomy, and the Palestinian right of return. The Oslo Accords, however, did not create a Palestinian state. The Accords were strongly opposed by a large portion of the Palestinian population; philosopher Edward Said famously described them as a “Palestinian Versailles”
The Oslo accord, helped by then president Bill Clinton, was a treaty signed by Israel and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). It main purpose was to try and negate violence in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. It set up government in the area for Palestine, resolved the border issues, Israeli settlements in the Palestine area, and Jerusalem’s status.
The Oslo Accords were meant to last five years. But two decades later, there has been virtually no progress. The Accords transferred control of major Palestinian cities and towns in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to a newly-created Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim structure meant to oversee administration and internal security in these urban areas.
A second agreement stemming from the Oslo negotiations, signed in 1995, divided the occupied West Bank into three non-contiguous regions: Areas A, B and C. Area A initially comprised three percent of the West Bank and grew to 18 percent by 1999. In Area A, the PA controls most affairs. Area B, meanwhile, represents about 21 percent of the West Bank.
In both areas, while the PA is in charge of education, health and the economy, the Israelis have full control of external security, meaning they retain the right to enter at any time – typically to detain an individual or sometimes to conduct an extra-judicial execution.
Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and construction. The transfer of control to the PA has never happened.
Decades after Arafat and Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn, the dream of Palestinian statehood remains elusive.
This in the 1930s and 1940s would have been akin to an offer to decolonize India by partitioning it between a British India and local India or to propose the decolonization of Algeria by dividing it between a French Algeria and a local Algeria. Neither the Indian anti-colonial movement nor the Algerian one would have ever consented to such a post-colonial arrangement; nor did the British and French dare to offer it when they reconciled with the fact that they will have to leave their colonial empires and go back to Europe.
Final-status negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders have repeatedly failed. The Palestinian leadership has accused Israel of not offering them a viable state, but rather a non-contiguous entity devoid of the natural resources necessary for a functioning economy.
Meanwhile, Israeli leaders have called for the annexation of the entire West Bank, ignoring the rights of its 2.5 million Palestinians living under occupation, along with nearly 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip living under Israeli siege. If those Palestinians are denied a state of their own, Israel would have to consider incorporating them into its own state, a development many Israeli politicians believe constitutes a grave “demographic threat”.
As negotiations stall, Palestinians are increasingly turning to international courts for assistance. Meanwhile, Israel continues to illegally expand its settlements in the occupied West Bank, undermining the compromises Palestinian leaders made during the Oslo negotiations. The Oslo Accords, now expired, continue to weaken Palestinian hopes for a state.
(The author holds a Masters in Financial Economics from Madras School of Economics, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)
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