Oslo Accords

Oslo Accords, set of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that established a peace process for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a mutually negotiated two-state solution. The agreements resulted in limited self-governance for Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip through the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Although the goal of the accords was to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by May 1999, the complexities that underlay decades of hostilities ultimately derailed the process and left the most challenging issues to smolder in the 21st century.

Oslo I

The Oslo I Accord (formally the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian Self-Rule) was the fruit of secret negotiations that began in January 1993 between representatives of Israel (led by Shimon Peres) and representatives of the PLO (led by Mahmoud Abbas) in Oslo. The agreement set as its basis:

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two-state solution: Oslo peace process

1. United Nations Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it occupied in the Six-Day War (1967)
2. United Nations Resolution 338, which reaffirmed UN Resolution 242 amid the hostilities of the Yom Kippur War (1973)

These resolutions, and their land-for-peace formulation, had been enshrined earlier in the Camp David Accords (1978) as the foundation of a broader Arab-Israeli peace process. After an exchange of letters in September 1993 affirming Israel’s right to exist and the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chair Yasser Arafat attended the accord’s signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., days later on September 13.

In exchange for recognition of Israel and its citizens’ right to live in peace, the declaration of principles negotiated in Oslo centred on the process of establishing Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The framework for the process included the following provisions:

• Withdrawal or redeployment of Israeli security forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
• Immediate transfer of authority to the Palestinians over matters of education, health, social welfare, taxation, and tourism
• Commencement of a five-year transitional period for Palestinian self-governance, including negotiations on outstanding issues such as:

  • Jerusalem’s status
  • Palestinian refugees
  • Israeli settlements
  • Security arrangements
  • Defined borders
  • Foreign relations
• Creation of a strong Palestinian police force
• Democratic elections for the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
• Arrangements for coordination between the PLO and Israel on issues of security and economic development

On May 4, 1994, an agreement concluded in Cairo arranged for the first stage of withdrawal of Israeli security forces and their transfer of authority to the newly created Palestinian Authority. Within weeks the withdrawal from the cities of Gaza and Jericho was completed, and the PA soon began carrying out civilian functions in those areas.

Oslo II

Negotiations continued despite attempts by religious nationalists on both sides to disrupt the process set out by the Oslo I agreement. On September 28, 1995, Rabin, Peres, and Arafat signed the Oslo II Accords (formally Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), which detailed the expansion of Palestinian self-rule to population centres other than Gaza and Jericho. The provisions of this new agreement, which are far more comprehensive and detailed than those of Oslo I, included the following measures:

• Elections for a chair and council to govern the PA, including the participation of Palestinians in Jerusalem in the election process
• Redeployment of Israeli security forces from the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, as well as some 440 villages, before elections were to be held
• Specifications for the redeployment of Israeli security forces in Hebron, a West Bank city with both Palestinian and Israeli communities
• Delineation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into three types of territory in the interim period:

  • Area A: areas under Palestinian administration and security
  • Area B: areas under Palestinian administration but joint Israeli-Palestinian security
  • Area C: areas under Israeli administration and security
• Prevention of acts of terrorism, crime, and hostilities directed against each other
• Arrangements for safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
• Guarantees that negotiations on outstanding issues (i.e., Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, and borders) would commence no later than May 4, 1996
• A deadline of May 4, 1999, for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to arrive at a permanent resolution

Breakdown in the Oslo process

The redeployment of Israeli security forces and elections for the PA as specified in the Oslo II agreement were carried out as planned. But the Oslo process confronted its first major hurdle on November 4, 1995, when Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist after attending a peace rally. Israel’s 1996 election, reflecting the growing concerns of the Israeli public over national security, brought to power Benjamin Netanyahu, an outspoken critic of the Oslo Accords.

Netanyahu took a hard line on curbing violence. He initially refused to meet with Arafat or implement Israel’s prearranged redeployment in Hebron, but he eventually agreed to the redeployment in 1997. Still, relations remained strained, and in 1998 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton intervened to conclude the Wye River Memorandum, which made the resumption of the Oslo process contingent on actions by the PA to crack down on violence. The agreement led to division within Netanyahu’s coalition, leading to the suspension of the agreement only weeks after it was concluded and, ultimately, the call for an early election.

Although the Oslo process resumed later that year under the new prime minister, Ehud Barak, distrust and tension had already been mounting. The Palestinians, who had been promised self-governance within a timeline of five years, felt unjustly deprived by the whims of Israeli politics, while Israelis were increasingly suspicious of the PLO’s ability to prevent attacks. In mid-2000 Jerusalem proved to be the most contentious of the outstanding matters. After talks broke down, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Temple Mount (where Al-Aqṣā Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, stands). The visit ignited an uprising from the Palestinians, and the new intifada (often dubbed “Al-Aqṣā intifada”) brought the Oslo process to a halt. Although attempts were made years later to revive the Oslo process, Israeli and Palestinian leaders were never able to put it back on track.

Learn more

To learn more about the circumstances surrounding the Oslo Accords, take a look at the following articles:

• For the historical context behind the Oslo Accords, see two-state solution.
• For more on the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, see Arab-Israeli wars.
• To see how Jerusalem remains a complex issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, see Jerusalem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Whose capital is it?
• To learn how Egypt set the stage for the Oslo Accords, see Camp David Accords (written by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, the accords’ broker).
• To read about the decision by Arafat and the PLO to accept Israel’s right to exist, see Yasser Arafat: Toward diplomacy.
• For more about the developments in Israel, the Middle East, and the world that brought Israel to the negotiating table, see Israel: The intifada and subsequent sections.
• To learn what happened to the Oslo process during and after the Al-Aqṣā intifada, see two-state solution: Progress stalled.