What were the terms of the oslo accords?

What were the terms of the oslo accords?

What Were the Oslo Accords?

The Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and Palestine in 1993, were supposed to end the decades-old fight between them. Hesitation on both sides, however, derailed the process, leaving the United States and other entities once again trying to mediate an end to the Middle East conflict.

BACKGROUND

The Jewish state of Israel was founded in 1948 when the United Nations partitioned an area for Israel out of the former British holdings of the Trans-Jordan regions. Some 700,000 Palestinians found themselves displaced.

Palestinians and their Arab supporters in Egypt, Syria, and Jordan immediately went to war with the new state of Israel, which won the war and validated its right to exist.

In major wars in 1967 and 1973, Israel occupied more Palestinian areas including:

  • The Gaza Strip, near the Israeli border with Egypt
  • The West Bank (of the Jordan River), which Israel insists is necessary for its own security
  • The Golan Heights near Israel's border with Syria
  • The Sinai Peninsula, which Israel later returned to Egypt

PALESTINIAN LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) formed in 1964. In 1969, Yasser Arafat became the PLO leader. Arafat long denied Israel's right to exist. However, by the late 1980s he reluctantly accepted the fact of Israel's existence.

SECRET MEETINGS IN OSLO

Several factors contributed to the new negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace: Arafat's new position toward Israel; Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979; Arab cooperation with the

United States in defeating Iraq in the Persian Gulf War of 1991; willingness of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin to explore new avenues of peace. Norway offered to provide a place where Israeli and Palestinian diplomats could hold secret meetings. In a secluded, wooded area near Oslo, diplomats gathered in 1992. President Bill Clinton presided over the negotiations.

OSLO ACCORDS

The negotiators emerged from the Oslo woods with a "Declaration of Principles," or the Oslo Accords. They included:

  • Israel recognized the PLO as Palestine's official representative
  • The PLO renounced the use of violence
  • The PLO recognized Israel's right to exist
  • Both sides agreed to Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the Jericho area by 2000
  • A five-year interim period would facilitate further Israeli withdrawals from other unspecified areas of the West Bank.

Rabin and Arafat signed the Accords at the White House in September 1993.

DERAILMENT

The PLO moved to validate its renunciation of violence by changing its name to the Palestinian Authority. Israel also began giving up territory in Gaza and the West Bank.

But in 1995, an Israeli radical, angry over the Oslo Accords, assassinated Rabin. Palestinian "rejectionists" began terrorist attacks on Israel. Hezbollah, operating out of southern Lebanon, began a series of attacks against Israel.

Those incidents scared Israelis, who then elected the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu to his first term as prime minister. Netanyahu did not like the Oslo Accords, and he put no effort into following up on their terms.

Source: What Were the Oslo Accords?
By Steve Jones © ThoughtCo.com

Also referred to as the Oslo Agreements, or, simply, "Oslo." The Oslo Accords are a series of agreements that launched the Oslo Process, aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Oslo Process was unveiled with the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, and was the first peace agreement signed by Israelis and Palestinians. It was preceded by a series of backchannel meetings begun by academics under the aegis of the Norwegian government, which, over a period of months, became official, though still secret. Israel recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative body of the Palestinian people and the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace and security. The DOP called for a phased peace process that would lead to a permanent settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on United Nation Resolutions 242 and United Nations Resolution 338. The agreement did not directly address the key "permanent status" issues of water, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements and borders, but set up a structure for them to be negotiated at a later stage of the process, once trust was built. It also led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement. The Oslo Process was set back with the assassination of Rabin in November 1995, and by a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings as well as an Israeli attack on Lebanon in 1996. The election of Benjamin Netanyahu (who opposed the Oslo Accords) as Israeli Prime Minister in May 1996 made continuing the Process more difficult. Additionally, Israel expanded settlements and erected more checkpoints after the start of the Oslo Process, causing many Palestinians (even ones who has supported the Process initially) to feel the occupation was becoming even more entrenched under Oslo. After the failure of the Camp David (II) Summit in 2000 and the subsequent outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Oslo Process collapsed. In retrospect, majorities of both sides tend to see the Process as a mistake, with each side convinced the other had no real intention of making peace. There are many criticisms of the Accords themselves, including that the text never mentioned nor promised an independent Palestinian state. See "The Morning After," Edward Said, London Review of Books, October 21, 1993; and "Arafat's Camel," Avi Shlaim, London Review of Books, October 21, 2003. See also "It's now clear: the Oslo peace accords were wrecked by Netanyahu's bad faith,"; Avi Shlaim, The Guardian, Sept 12, 2013; and "The Oslo Accords, 20 Years Later," Institute for Middle East Understanding, Sept 11, 2013.

Here’s a look at what you need to know about the Oslo Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and the Palestinians signed in the 1990s.

Oslo I is formally known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP). The pact established a timetable for the Middle East peace process. It planned for an interim Palestinian government in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank.

After the signing, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shook hands.

The United States was not actively involved in the negotiations.

The meetings were carried out in secret over several months in 1992 and 1993.

Oslo II, officially called the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza, expanded on Oslo I. It included provisions for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from six West Bank cities and about 450 towns. Additionally, the pact set a timetable for elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

April 1992 - Terje Rod-Larsen, head of a Norwegian research institute, suggests to Israeli politician Yossi Beilin that Norway act as an intermediary between Israel and the PLO.

September 10, 1992 - At a secret meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, Norwegian State Secretary Jan Egeland formally offers his country’s help.

December 1992 to April 1993 - Fourteen meetings are held, in London and Norway, between Professor Yair Hirschfeld and Ahmed Qorei, of the PLO.

April 1993 - After several months, Qorei insists on meeting with someone officially representing Israel’s government. Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Uri Savir takes over for Hirschfeld. Qorei and Savir meet 11 more times between April and August.

August 19, 1993 - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres secretly flies to Oslo, Norway, and meets with Qorei. He witnesses the signing of the agreement between Savir and Qorei.

September 10, 1993 - The PLO reaffirms its recognition of Israel’s right to exist, and in turn, Israel recognizes the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

September 10, 1993 - US President Bill Clinton announces a resumption of talks between the United States and the PLO. This clears the way for Arafat to travel to the United States.

September 13, 1993 - The Oslo Accords (referred to as Oslo I at this point) are signed by Peres and Mahmoud Abbas, and witnessed by Rabin and Arafat, in Washington, DC.

October 1994 - Arafat, Peres and Rabin are awarded the Nobel Peace prize.

September 28, 1995 - A second significant agreement is signed in Washington, DC. This agreement is often referred to as Oslo II.

November 4, 1995 - Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally.

July 25, 2000 - Clinton’s efforts to achieve a final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians end in failure at Camp David. Both sides blame each other for intransigence, though there is a shared sense that none of the parties were properly prepared.

September 28, 2000 - Clashes erupt between Israeli forces and Palestinians following a visit by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem’s most important holy site, sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The violence escalates to include waves of suicide bombings and becomes known as the Second Intifada, or uprising.

November 11, 2004 - Arafat dies in Paris.

September 30, 2015 - Abbas accuses Israel of not committing to the Oslo Accords and declares that Palestinians “cannot continue to be bound by these agreements.”

September 28, 2016 - Peres dies at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv after suffering a massive stroke two weeks prior.

January 14, 2018 - Abbas calls on the PLO to “revise all the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel because Israel has brought these agreements to a dead end,” and accuses Israel of ending the Oslo agreement. This criticism comes six weeks after US President Donald Trump announces that Washington recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Declaration calls for:
- Israel to withdraw from Jericho and Gaza, and eventually the West Bank.
- Five years of limited autonomy for Palestinians in those areas.
- Election of Palestinian Legislative Council within nine months.
- Establishment of a Palestinian police force.
- The question of Jerusalem was left undecided.