(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #234 - Middle East: Oslo and how Israel has perpetuated the occupation (fr, pt)

Twenty years after the Oslo Accords of 1993, the conclusion is clear: the compromise 
desired by Yasser Arafat was a fool's bargain. Colonization has never stopped. The 
Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) is the new path chosen by the Palestinians and 
Palestinian women in their struggle. ---- The Oslo peace process actually began in Algiers 
in 1988. The Liberation Organization (PLO) had suffered terrible defeats: Black September 
in Jordan (1970) and expulsion from Lebanon (1983) under the joint blows of Syrian and 
Israeli armies. The Palestinian people had spontaneously triggered the Intifada suppressed 
with great violence by a... Yitzhak Rabin. For Arafat, there was the hope that by limiting 
the demand for a Palestinian state with 22% of historic Palestine conquered since 1967, it 
would have the support of the international community. He thus recognized (unrequited) 
Israel within its pre-1967 borders.

From the beginning, it was very strongly criticized by the Palestinian left (including 
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP), by Palestinian intellectuals 
such as Edward Said and a booming movement: Hamas. The act of Arafat left the refugee 
without hope-es, Palestinians in Israel and even those of Jerusalem.

In Israel, the settlement was planned since 1967 with a current "national-religious" 
booming who provided the early settlers. Counting "new neighborhoods" in East Jerusalem 
annexed since 1967, the colonists were already nearly 200,000 in 1990. Israel is now 
facing a severe economic crisis caused both by the departure of Palestinian workers 
dismissed during the Intifada and the cost of immigration of Soviet Jews.

A fool's bargain

In Oslo, the PLO recognized Israel within its pre-1967 borders, but the Israeli government 
is merely to recognize the PLO also replaced by a "Palestinian Authority" whose primary 
role was to ensure occupant safety. Nothing has been signed on the establishment of a 
Palestinian state. Arafat dreamed of a "peace of the brave". However, if the Zionists may 
differ on how to marginalize Palestinians, they all have the same goal. After the attack 
the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994 (29 Palestinians killed), Rabin sent 2,000 soldiers in 
Hebron to protect fundamentalist settlers. During the two years that separated the Oslo 
Accords of his murder, he has installed 60,000 new settlers. He signed with Arafat 
division of Palestine into three zones (A, B and C), anteroom its transformation into 
Bantustans. His successor Peres multiplied deadly provocations (murder Yahia Ayache Gaza 
bombing of Qana in Lebanon) and legitimizing discourse of right and promoting his return. 
The "peace process" then became a farce. In 2001, Ehud Barak and Clinton ordered Arafat to 
sign the capitulation as a final act of Oslo. Arafat refused and he was made to bear the 
responsibility for the failure by proclaiming that "there was no partner for peace." Since 
Oslo, in 20 years, the number of settlers has tripled.

Palestine divided

The very generous compromise initiated by the Palestinians in 1988 (and thus the 
"two-state solution") is definitely dead. We went to an apartheid situation where 50% of 
the population is Palestinian and is deprived of the most basic rights. Palestinians are 
no longer fighting for a small few unviable cantons state, but for universal claims are 
those of the World 2005 call for boycott, divestment and sanctions: ending the occupation 
and colonization, liberation prisoners, equal rights and the right of return of refugees es.

What remains of Oslo is the division of Palestine did not state but has two rival 
governments. Is the fact that these "governments", including the Palestinian Authority, 
maintain a fiction that allows colonization forward at full speed. It is time that the 
solidarity movement draws a line under the tragic myth that the Oslo process could lead to 
a just peace.

Pierre Stambul