Shimon Peres, Israel's Foreign Minister, who would later play a key part in the Oslo negotiations, described the comments as a 'cunning exercise in public relations'.īut Arafat pressed on. The New York Times reported that Arafat's statement, 'which he presented as a milestone, was immediately dismissed in Israel and greeted coldly by the United States'. Speaking in Stockholm in December 1988, Arafat said that the PLO “accepted the existence of Israel'' and ''declared its rejection and condemnation of terrorism in all its forms'. That left the PLO as the biggest representative of Palestinian interests in the region with which Israel was potentially ready to negotiate. His position was boosted in July 1988 when Jordan, which had previously laid claim to the West Bank, cut its administrative ties and recognised the PLO’s ambitions so it could focus on affairs within its own borders. Yasser Arafat, who was faced with losing control over events in Palestine, wanted to talkĪrafat, who was faced with the prospect of losing control of events in Palestine, wanted to talk. The US had one condition: the PLO needed to reject violence and recognise Israel’s right to exist. Washington had past form in this area: in 1978, then-President Jimmy Carter negotiated the Camp David Accords, which led to the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty (and for which the signatories also won the Nobel Peace Prize).īut Shultz and the Americans had one condition: the PLO needed to reject violence and recognise Israel’s right to exist. George Shultz, the US Secretary of State, was keen to build upon the peace process and end the violence of the intifada. Israel faced international condemnation for its crackdown on the demonstrations, which killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.

Israeli forces throw teargas at Palestinians in January 1988 in El-Ram, north Jerusalem (AFP)So both sides were caught unawares by the start of the First Intifada in December 1987, when young Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank protested against the Israeli occupation. Israel was still paying the price for Operation Peace for Galilee, its disastrous invasion of Lebanon from 1982 until 1985, during which thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians, as well as hundreds of Israeli soldiers, were killed.ĭuring that same war the PLO, led by its chairman Yasser Arafat, was driven out of Lebanon, where it had been for more than a decade, and into exile in Tunisia. How did the accords come about?ĭuring the late 1980s, the leaderships of both Israel and the PLO, the main group which represented the Palestinian people, felt besieged. They were, many hoped, a first step towards agreeing a settlement that would secure a lasting regional peace and an independent Palestinian state.īut the Oslo Accords, the first of which was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Washington on 13 September 1993, are now remembered as a bid for peace that, while delivering some benefits, ultimately failed. Three of their signatories went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. They were heralded with a historic handshake on the lawn of the White House.

Ozzle accords