The Oslo Accords, The Road Map, The Gaza Disengagement: 1993-2006 October 14, 1994: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. September 28, 1995: In Oslo II or the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, Israel is scheduled to withdraw from Palestinian population centers, which will now be governed by the PA. The West Bank and Gaza are divided into Areas A, B and C. Areas A and B include Palestinian population centers. Israel completes the withdrawal from population centers in December 1995. Oslo II also calls for the creation of a Palestinian police force of 30,000 men to keep order and control militant factions. Israel agrees to provide arms for the new police force. The PLO again agrees to stop incitement, amend the PLO Charter that still calls for Israel’s destruction and to guarantee respect for Jewish holy sites in its territory. November 4, 1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an Israeli extremist who rejects any concessions to Palestinians, and Shimon Peres becomes Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Barak, President Clinton and Chairman Arafat at Camp David, 2000.
October 23, 1998: The Wye River Memorandum is drafted to clarify each side’s ongoing obligations and to address Palestinian violations of previous agreements to end incitement, amend the PLO Charter and dismantle terrorist groups. Further Israeli withdrawals are tied to Palestinians fulfi lling these obligations. July 11-25, 2000: Camp David Negotiations to resolve Final Status issues. President Bill Clinton acts as mediator. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers 95 percent of a contiguous West Bank, 100 percent of Gaza, a capital in eastern Jerusalem, the removal of Jewish communities from those areas and $30 billion to help resettle Palestinian refugees. Palestinians do not respond to the offer. PLO offi cials later claim that Barak’s offer would have given them only disconnected enclaves. Israeli and U.S. offi cials dispute this claim.
“You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion…. I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews.” Yasser Arafat to an Arab audience in Stockholm, Sweden, January 30, 1996 2
Map Reflecting Actual Final Proposal at Camp David
Palestinian Characterization of the Final Proposal at Camp David Haifa
The final proposals made to the Palestinians “couldn’t be a floor for negotiations. It couldn’t be a ceiling. It was the roof.… Those who say there were cantons, completely untrue. It was contiguous.” —Dennis Ross, U.S. envoy and negotiator3
Haifa
Sea of Galilee
Jenin
Currently disputed territory (West Bank and Gaza)
Jordan River
Currently disputed territory (West Bank and Gaza)
Israeli Security Border (15% of Border with Jordan)
Tulkarm
Nablus Qalqilya
West Bank
Ramallah
Ramallah
Jericho
ISRAEL
Jerusalem
Jericho
ISRAEL
Maale Adumim
Jerusalem
Bethlehem
Hebron
Hebron
Gaza
Gaza
Dead Sea
Gaza Strip
Dead Sea
T
EGYP
Palestinian leaders claim the offer they rejected at Camp David for a Palestinian state was a nonviable series of cantons (left). U.S. Middle East envoy and negotiator Dennis Ross asserts that Israel’s Camp David proposal was contiguous (right) and far-reaching. (Maps from Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace, 2004.)
JORDAN
Gaza Strip
Maale Adumim Bethlehem
JORDAN
22
Tel Aviv
West Bank
T EGYP
January 22-28, 2001: Taba Conference, where Prime Minister Ehud Barak makes another offer, including 97 percent of the West Bank. Again, no deal is reached. Barak’s offer is rescinded as Israeli elections approach and terrorist attacks against Israel escalate.
Jenin
Tulkarm
Nablus Qalqilya
Tel Aviv
September 28-30, 2000: Violence erupts, marking the start of the Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada, a campaign of Palestinian terrorism, which effectively ends the Oslo Process. Though at the time Palestinians claim Ariel Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount triggered the violence, Palestinian leaders (including the Palestinian Minister of Communication, Imhad Falouji) later admit publicly that the Intifada had been planned since the end of the Camp David negotiations.4
Sea of Galilee
Land ceded for new Palestinian State
Land ceded for new Palestinian State
Jordan River
March 1997: Violent demonstrations break out in Hebron and Bethlehem when Israel begins building Har Homa, a new Jewish neighborhood in southern Jerusalem that Palestinian critics claim should be part of their future state.