25 Years After the Oslo Accords, Independence Remains More Elusive than Ever for Palestinians

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1671 ... September 21, 2018
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25 Years After the Oslo Accords, Independence Remains More Elusive than Ever for Palestinians

Rashid Khalidi

September 13, 2018, marks 25 years since the first of the Oslo Accords was signed by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn amid great fanfare. Many Palestinians hoped that they would finally be free of Israel’s then-quarter-century-old military rule and have a state of their own.

Having taken part for two years in the Madrid and Washington Palestinian-Israeli negotiations preceding the Oslo accords, and having seen the obduracy of the Shamir and Rabin governments about allowing the Palestinians anything resembling self-determination, independence, and statehood, I had few hopes for Oslo. Sadly, my pessimism proved all too well-founded.
Under Oslo, Palestinians saw their freedom, their land, and their dreams for an independent state shrink, while Israel deepened its control over their lives. More than 100 Israeli settlements and some 600,000 settlers are now spread throughout occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Oslo established a Palestinian Authority (PA), which was supposed to be an interim self-governing entity on the way to independence in five years. But Israel blocked that goal through its systematic colonization of the West Bank, and the PA has de facto become an instrument of Israel’s occupation.