Sebastian Osterhus's List: Oslo Accords

• • Really good stuff on the oslo accords. 

• The peace process began with the Oslo accord of 1993. It ended with the last negotiating sessions at Taba, Egypt, in 2001. Over seven years, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators struggled to reach an agreement that could end the 100-year Middle East conflict. In the many carefully negotiated agreements there were positive developments, but also severe setbacks.

   

  Deeper and deeper mistrust grew on both sides. Palestinians accused Israel of failing to stop expanding Jewish settlements and stalling on agreed withdrawals from West Bank territory. Israel accused Arafat and the Palestinian security forces -- which were established by Oslo -- of not cracking down on militant groups that were trying to sabotage the peace process.

  • Distrust and no true peace with each other, from 1993 - 2001 they have worked together to establish peace between Israel and Palestine.

  • - 1993 there were negotiations set up in Oslo, Norway, to talk negotiate the terms between Israel and Palestine.
    - The Oslo Accord also created the Palestinian Authority

• This was an historic turning point in Arab-Israeli relations. Hammered out in complete secrecy in Oslo, Norway, by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators acting without intermediaries, the Oslo Accord forced both sides to come to terms with each other's existence. Israel agreed to recognize Yasser Arafat as its partner in peace talks, and agreed to recognize Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by beginning to withdraw from the cities of Gaza and Jericho -- essentially exchanging land for peace. The Palestinians in turn recognized Israel's right to exist while also renouncing the use of terrorism and its long-held call for Israel's destruction. (A year later, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the Oslo accord.)

   

  Oslo sketched out a peace process with a two-phase timetable. During a five-year interim period, Oslo envisioned a series of step-by-step measures to build trust and partnership. Palestinians would police the territories they controlled, cooperate with Israel in the fight against terrorism, and amend those sections of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) charter that called for Israel's destruction. Israel would withdraw almost entirely from Gaza, and in stages from parts of the West Bank. An elected Palestinian Authority would take over governance of the territories from which Israel withdrew.

   

  After this five-year interim period, negotiators then would determine a final peace agreement to resolve the thorniest issues: final borders (see map), security arrangements, Jerusalem, whether the Palestinians would have an independent state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian refugees' claims to land and property left behind when they fled Israel.

  • srael agreed to recognize Yasser Arafat as a partner in the peace talks
    The Palestinians had agreed to recognize Israel's right to exist, while also renouncing terrorist’s attacks on Israel, which have been long planned.
    

• After 18 months of stalemate in the peace process and increasing violence, President Clinton pushed to get Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make good on the promises made five years earlier in Oslo. The U.S. convened a summit at Maryland's Wye River Plantation. After a rocky start, Clinton's marathon 21-hour session with Yasser Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu, and senior negotiators produced the Wye River Memorandum.

   

  The agreement allowed for the building of an international airport in the Gaza Strip. Israel agreed to pull back from an additional 13 percent of the West Bank and to release 750 Palestinian security prisoners. (Ultimately, only half of the pull-back is done and only 250 prisoners are released.) The Palestinian Authority agreed to combat terrorist organizations, arrest those involved in terrorism, and to collect all illegal weapons and explosives. (Little or none of this is ever done.)

  • Shattered Dreams of Peace: The Negotiations. n.d. Web. 17 May 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/negotiations/>
    
    

  • - Israel was also supposed to return the 750 P.A prisoners but that was never sought through and only about 250 were returned

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