The Oslo Accords are a set of agreements signed between the governments of Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Oslo in the year 1993 to build confidence and create trust between the Israelis and Palestinians and maintain peace in the region. There are several identifiable reasons for the failure of the Oslo Accords to fulfill “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” Israelis and Palestinians recognized each other as national communities. Palestinians bound themselves to a two-state solution in the year 1988. On the other hand, the Israelis recognized the legitimacy of an independent Israeli state. Signing an agreement with such a nation symbolized a dramatic breakthrough. Also, until the emergence of the Oslo Accords, Israel refused to admit the existence of the Palestinians. After the Oslo Accords, no Palestinian state came into existence; however, the locus of the Palestinian authority and the decision-making process moved to the Palestinian territories for the first time.
The architects of the Oslo Accords did not mention about the possibility of suicide bombers, settlers on a rampage, or violent Israeli occupation forces to disentangle the process. The result was violence, which scoured the confidence of the public in the process of peace. Since the beginning, the Palestinian Authority persistently denied to accolade its codified agreement to deport the Arab terrorists to Israel. Though the Oslo Accords said nothing about the provisions for terrorist extradition, the Palestinian Authority was bound to surrender or prosecute terrorist murderers according the rules of the international law. The provision, which meant to bring the benefits of peace to both Israel and Palestine to sustain their confidence proved fatal. As Israel’s economy grew rapidly after the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian economy contracted leading to unemployment, fall in the income and shut down of businesses in Palestine due to restrictive Israeli policies.
The ultimate consequence is the dependence of the Palestinian economy on Israel’s goodwill and international munificence. The Oslo Accords failed to deliver the expectations. Firstly, the Oslo was a phased approach which led the opponents to take advantage of the lag time and weaken the agreement. Palestine was weak and had no leverage. The United States could have applied pressure on Israel to favor the Palestinians. After the Oslo Accords, there was no immediate improvement in the lives of the people of the two communities. It was only Israel, which benefitted at the end, causing more trouble to the Palestinians. The Palestinians expected the Oslo Accords to halt the construction and settlement of the Israelis on the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
The Oslo Accords put aside international legality and compromised the fundamental rights of the people of Palestine. The Accords failed to advance genuine Palestinian self-determination as it meant freedom, equality, and sovereignty rather perpetual servility to Israel. The Oslo Accords could not withdraw the Israeli forces from the occupied territories of Palestine and failed to pave the way to the statehood of Palestine. The framers of the Oslo Accords did not establish any mechanisms to monitor the violations, which led to mistrust and violence between the Israelis and Palestinians. Another reason that led to the failure of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination was the lack of clear legal protections for economic activities in Palestine. The policy of Israel in severing the economic, political and social links between East Jerusalem and the West Bank led to serious deterioration in the living conditions of the Palestinians.
The Israeli settlements in Palestine account to 43 percent of the West Bank, resulting in a population of 520,000, which is more than double the population at the time of the Oslo Accords. The Oslo Accords led to historical injustice regarding the national, historical and natural rights of the Palestinians. The Oslo Accords failed to concentrate on the right of the Palestinian people to self- determination, including the right to establish a separate Palestinian state according to the 1967 lines and the right of the refugees to return and compensation, based on the resolution of the United Nations. The major reason was that the Oslo Accords were independent of the United Nations and other international organizations, which led to lack of control.
Works Cited
Bauck, Peter. The Oslo Accords: A Critical Assessment. American University in Cairo Press, 2013.
Beilin, Yossi. Touching Peace: From the Oslo Accord to a Final Agreement. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999.
Brown, Nathan J. Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine. University of California Press, 2003.
Ganim, Asʻad. Palestinian Politics After Arafat: A Failed National Movement. Indiana University Press, 2010.
Kimmerling, Baruch. Clash of Identities: Explorations in Israeli and Palestinian Societies. Columbia University Press, 2010.
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, Be-tselem. Human rights in the Occupied Territories since the Oslo Accords. The Group, 1996.
Usher, Graham. Dispatches from Palestine: The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace Process. University of Alberta, 1999.
Watson, Geoffrey R. The Oslo Accords: International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreements. Oxford University Press, 2000.
