3 sept 2019

In a step seen to defy Israel’s control over Area C, which makes up over 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Ahmad Ghoneim, said today that his ministry is in the process of coming up with an action plan for the implementation of a government decision to do away with the Oslo classification of West Bank land into areas A, B and C, especially with regard to areas classified as C.
Area A, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords, is composed of the Palestinian cities and comes under full Palestinian control, even though Israeli troops often raid it and in 2002 Israel re-occupied it. It makes 18 percent of the area of the West Bank where 55 percent of the people live.
Area B, which is the hundreds of villages spread throughout the West Bank, is under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security rule. Palestinian police cannot reach it without coordinating with the Israeli army. It makes 21 percent of the area of the West Bank where 41 percent of the people live.
Area C includes the scarcely populated areas such as the Jordan Valley and the agricultural and arid open lands and is under total Israeli military rule.
It makes 61 percent of the area of the West Bank where only 4 percent of the Palestinian population lives. Israel keeps talking about the possibility of annexing this area, which would kill any chance of having a viable, sustainable, sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
The Ministry of Local Government issued a circular to local authorities calling on them to exercise their powers and responsibilities to expand the structural plans of their villages and towns to accommodate their natural population growth and urban development, without any regard to the classification of land under the Oslo agreement. This means expanding into Area C around them.
"We understand that a high degree of wisdom and awareness is required of all measures that the Israeli occupation authorities may take to impede the Palestinian Authority from exercising its powers. This requires that we have a support system that contributes to the protection of citizens’ property, investments and projects," Ghoneim told WAFA.
“The issue requires a high degree of resilience by all components of society - government and the public - and awareness of the financial requirements of this policy.
We have completed a study on this support system and we will present it to the cabinet," he said without explaining what mechanism the government will establish to compensate any damages that may be caused to people by building or investing in areas C if Israel decides to demolish or seize them or force developers for pay high fines.
Ghoneim explained that the implementation of the decision will be in three stages; the first is to expand the structural plans in these areas, the second is planning, and the third to complete support for the implementation of this policy to ensure protection for the peoples’ interests.
He stressed that the government's policy on work in area C is "implementable", pointing to Jerusalem as a model where Jerusalemites built about 23,000 housing units in defiance of the Israeli authorities.
"We will set free the hands of people in Area C and see how many housing units will be built. We will not stand by watching while the occupation robs us of our land, builds settlements, and redefines land concepts sometimes as disputed, other times as under Israeli law, and then annexed," he said.
“All these concepts aim to steal the Palestinian land. We will not stand idly by in front of this policy. We must have an integrated vision to confront the occupation authorities and prevent them from achieving their goals. We are convinced that this project could be achieved."
Ghoneim explained that the circular of the Ministry of Local Government comes in response to the decisions of the government as expressed by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and which considered the areas referred to as C as part of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
He said that to implement this policy, “we as a ministry have utilized our powers, both procedural and technical, in the field of town planning at three levels: the Higher Planning Council, the regional planning committees, and local councils, and we demanded that these councils exercise their powers according to the laws in force, without any restrictions related to the titles and classifications.
Ghoneim stressed that the occupying power does not have the right to urban planning in Area C, whether under the Oslo Accords, applicable laws, or international law.
He said that Article 17 of the Oslo Accords defined Area C as Palestinian areas that will be gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority 18 months after setting up the Legislative Council. As a result, he said, Israel has no authority over these areas for a long time.
At the same time, the Urban Planning Law No. 79 for the year 1966 is still valid and applicable and explains the powers of the three planning authorities and covers the entire Palestinian territory, including Area C, after the transfer of these three powers to the Palestinian Authority.
He added that the Israeli authorities that make demolition and construction decisions are irrelevant, whether politically or legally. The so-called Civil Administration of the Occupying Power was dissolved after the Oslo Accords and was only revived by a unilateral Israeli military decision.
Ghoneim also said that the Occupying Power has no jurisdiction in urban planning in Area C, as all relevant international resolutions confirm that any action taken by the Occupying Power is null and void.
Area A, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords, is composed of the Palestinian cities and comes under full Palestinian control, even though Israeli troops often raid it and in 2002 Israel re-occupied it. It makes 18 percent of the area of the West Bank where 55 percent of the people live.
Area B, which is the hundreds of villages spread throughout the West Bank, is under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security rule. Palestinian police cannot reach it without coordinating with the Israeli army. It makes 21 percent of the area of the West Bank where 41 percent of the people live.
Area C includes the scarcely populated areas such as the Jordan Valley and the agricultural and arid open lands and is under total Israeli military rule.
It makes 61 percent of the area of the West Bank where only 4 percent of the Palestinian population lives. Israel keeps talking about the possibility of annexing this area, which would kill any chance of having a viable, sustainable, sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
The Ministry of Local Government issued a circular to local authorities calling on them to exercise their powers and responsibilities to expand the structural plans of their villages and towns to accommodate their natural population growth and urban development, without any regard to the classification of land under the Oslo agreement. This means expanding into Area C around them.
"We understand that a high degree of wisdom and awareness is required of all measures that the Israeli occupation authorities may take to impede the Palestinian Authority from exercising its powers. This requires that we have a support system that contributes to the protection of citizens’ property, investments and projects," Ghoneim told WAFA.
“The issue requires a high degree of resilience by all components of society - government and the public - and awareness of the financial requirements of this policy.
We have completed a study on this support system and we will present it to the cabinet," he said without explaining what mechanism the government will establish to compensate any damages that may be caused to people by building or investing in areas C if Israel decides to demolish or seize them or force developers for pay high fines.
Ghoneim explained that the implementation of the decision will be in three stages; the first is to expand the structural plans in these areas, the second is planning, and the third to complete support for the implementation of this policy to ensure protection for the peoples’ interests.
He stressed that the government's policy on work in area C is "implementable", pointing to Jerusalem as a model where Jerusalemites built about 23,000 housing units in defiance of the Israeli authorities.
"We will set free the hands of people in Area C and see how many housing units will be built. We will not stand by watching while the occupation robs us of our land, builds settlements, and redefines land concepts sometimes as disputed, other times as under Israeli law, and then annexed," he said.
“All these concepts aim to steal the Palestinian land. We will not stand idly by in front of this policy. We must have an integrated vision to confront the occupation authorities and prevent them from achieving their goals. We are convinced that this project could be achieved."
Ghoneim explained that the circular of the Ministry of Local Government comes in response to the decisions of the government as expressed by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and which considered the areas referred to as C as part of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
He said that to implement this policy, “we as a ministry have utilized our powers, both procedural and technical, in the field of town planning at three levels: the Higher Planning Council, the regional planning committees, and local councils, and we demanded that these councils exercise their powers according to the laws in force, without any restrictions related to the titles and classifications.
Ghoneim stressed that the occupying power does not have the right to urban planning in Area C, whether under the Oslo Accords, applicable laws, or international law.
He said that Article 17 of the Oslo Accords defined Area C as Palestinian areas that will be gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority 18 months after setting up the Legislative Council. As a result, he said, Israel has no authority over these areas for a long time.
At the same time, the Urban Planning Law No. 79 for the year 1966 is still valid and applicable and explains the powers of the three planning authorities and covers the entire Palestinian territory, including Area C, after the transfer of these three powers to the Palestinian Authority.
He added that the Israeli authorities that make demolition and construction decisions are irrelevant, whether politically or legally. The so-called Civil Administration of the Occupying Power was dissolved after the Oslo Accords and was only revived by a unilateral Israeli military decision.
Ghoneim also said that the Occupying Power has no jurisdiction in urban planning in Area C, as all relevant international resolutions confirm that any action taken by the Occupying Power is null and void.
23 july 2019

The demolition of 10 buildings by Israeli forces in the Sur Baher neighborhood in East Jerusalem yesterday, totaling around 70 apartments, is a grave breach of international humanitarian law and sets a dangerous precedent, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said today.
The majority of the structures are located in Areas A and B, which fall under Palestinian civil control, including for planning and building matters, as designated by the Oslo Accords.
“Israel’s security arguments to justify these demolitions sets a dangerous precedent that leaves thousands at heightened risk,” said NRC’s Palestine Country Director, Kate O’Rourke. “The commission of grave breaches of international humanitarian law must be challenged by the international community.”
An Israeli military order issued in 2011 designated a buffer zone of 100 to 300 meters on both sides of the separation barrier in Sur Baher and prohibited construction in the Wadi al-Hummus area of the neighborhood as a security measure. While the number of structures facing similar risk is difficult to estimate, local residents say that roughly 100 additional buildings could be at heightened risk of demolition in Sur Baher alone.
Sur Baher land in Area A, B, and C remain part of the West Bank, but the route of Israel’s separation barrier left them on the Israeli side, preventing the Palestinian Authority from accessing or delivering services to these areas. Nonetheless, the Palestinian Authority still issues building permits to the residents as permitted under the Oslo Accords.
Residents, represented by attorney Saher Ali and the Society of St. Yves, a Jerusalem-based human rights organization and local NRC partner, petitioned the Israeli High Court to request the cancellation of the military order prohibiting construction or, alternatively, a reprieve from demolishing the structures. On 11 June, the court dismissed their petitions.
The developments in Sur Baher come amid renewed momentum to further entrench and tighten Israeli control over key locations across East Jerusalem. Since the beginning of the year, Israeli authorities have demolished 140 Palestinian-owned structures in the city, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Together with an increase in eviction cases, these demolitions point toward an intent to accelerate forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and alter the demographic composition of the city.
“Israel’s destruction of property in Sur Baher breaches its obligations under international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of international law, including the duty to maintain territorial integrity and the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force,” said NRC.
The majority of the structures are located in Areas A and B, which fall under Palestinian civil control, including for planning and building matters, as designated by the Oslo Accords.
“Israel’s security arguments to justify these demolitions sets a dangerous precedent that leaves thousands at heightened risk,” said NRC’s Palestine Country Director, Kate O’Rourke. “The commission of grave breaches of international humanitarian law must be challenged by the international community.”
An Israeli military order issued in 2011 designated a buffer zone of 100 to 300 meters on both sides of the separation barrier in Sur Baher and prohibited construction in the Wadi al-Hummus area of the neighborhood as a security measure. While the number of structures facing similar risk is difficult to estimate, local residents say that roughly 100 additional buildings could be at heightened risk of demolition in Sur Baher alone.
Sur Baher land in Area A, B, and C remain part of the West Bank, but the route of Israel’s separation barrier left them on the Israeli side, preventing the Palestinian Authority from accessing or delivering services to these areas. Nonetheless, the Palestinian Authority still issues building permits to the residents as permitted under the Oslo Accords.
Residents, represented by attorney Saher Ali and the Society of St. Yves, a Jerusalem-based human rights organization and local NRC partner, petitioned the Israeli High Court to request the cancellation of the military order prohibiting construction or, alternatively, a reprieve from demolishing the structures. On 11 June, the court dismissed their petitions.
The developments in Sur Baher come amid renewed momentum to further entrench and tighten Israeli control over key locations across East Jerusalem. Since the beginning of the year, Israeli authorities have demolished 140 Palestinian-owned structures in the city, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Together with an increase in eviction cases, these demolitions point toward an intent to accelerate forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and alter the demographic composition of the city.
“Israel’s destruction of property in Sur Baher breaches its obligations under international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of international law, including the duty to maintain territorial integrity and the prohibition on acquisition of territory by force,” said NRC.
22 july 2019

Israeli authorities have proceeded with the demolition of 10 Palestinian buildings, containing some 70 apartments, in Wadi al Hummus, part of Sur Baher neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
The majority of the buildings are located in Area A and B of the West Bank where, according to the Oslo Accords, all civil issues are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s settlement policy, including actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes, is illegal under international law.
In line with the EU’s long-standing position, we expect the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the ongoing demolitions.
The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace and seriously jeopardizes the possibility of Jerusalem serving as the future capital of both States.
The majority of the buildings are located in Area A and B of the West Bank where, according to the Oslo Accords, all civil issues are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
Israel’s settlement policy, including actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes, is illegal under international law.
In line with the EU’s long-standing position, we expect the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the ongoing demolitions.
The continuation of this policy undermines the viability of the two-state solution and the prospect for a lasting peace and seriously jeopardizes the possibility of Jerusalem serving as the future capital of both States.
7 apr 2019

Two Palestinian villages in the West Bank received demolition orders Sunday from Israeli authorities, one in Hebron district, and the other in Bethlehem district, according to Wafa News Agency.
9 residential structures, in addition to caravans and animal barns, have been ordered to be destroyed in the village of Tuwanah, in the southern occupied West Bank region of Masser Yatta.
The landowners Ra’ed, Morad, Amer, Mahmoud and Mohammad Hamamdeh, supposedly lack the necessary Israeli permit for the structures. The occupation authorities ostensibly have the right to destroy their property.
Local rights activist Rateb Jabour told Wafa that officials from the Israeli ‘Planning and Construction Committee’ entered Tuwanah village alongside the Israeli military, to deliver the notices.
Locals of Beit Jala town, northwest of Bethlehem also reported similar notices from Israeli forces for the demolition of animal barns, citing again the lack of permits.
The Israeli authorities have long made it difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank to obtain a ‘permit’ to build, forcing many to build without. The Israeli regime intends to displace the indigenous Palestinian people to replace them with illegal colonists.
Israel provides roughly 550,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank with housing, roads, electricity, water, and sewage systems, in contrast to denying Palestinians the same, in a racially discriminatory manner.
This double standard is especially pronounced due to the fact that the Israeli colonial settlers are living on land that was illegally seized from its Palestinian owners.
Under the Oslo Accords of 1993 & 1995, 60% of the area of the West Bank came under absolute Israeli military control, both Tuwanah and Beit Jala villages are both in area C.
‘Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and construction. The transfer of control to the PA has never happened.’ – Al Jazeera : Oslo Accords : The Price of Oslo
“Oslo was the greatest idea Israel ever had. It let them continue the occupation without paying any of the costs.” – Mustafa Barghouti : Palestinian National Initiative
9 residential structures, in addition to caravans and animal barns, have been ordered to be destroyed in the village of Tuwanah, in the southern occupied West Bank region of Masser Yatta.
The landowners Ra’ed, Morad, Amer, Mahmoud and Mohammad Hamamdeh, supposedly lack the necessary Israeli permit for the structures. The occupation authorities ostensibly have the right to destroy their property.
Local rights activist Rateb Jabour told Wafa that officials from the Israeli ‘Planning and Construction Committee’ entered Tuwanah village alongside the Israeli military, to deliver the notices.
Locals of Beit Jala town, northwest of Bethlehem also reported similar notices from Israeli forces for the demolition of animal barns, citing again the lack of permits.
The Israeli authorities have long made it difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank to obtain a ‘permit’ to build, forcing many to build without. The Israeli regime intends to displace the indigenous Palestinian people to replace them with illegal colonists.
Israel provides roughly 550,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank with housing, roads, electricity, water, and sewage systems, in contrast to denying Palestinians the same, in a racially discriminatory manner.
This double standard is especially pronounced due to the fact that the Israeli colonial settlers are living on land that was illegally seized from its Palestinian owners.
Under the Oslo Accords of 1993 & 1995, 60% of the area of the West Bank came under absolute Israeli military control, both Tuwanah and Beit Jala villages are both in area C.
‘Area C represents 60 percent of the West Bank. Under the Oslo Accords, control of this area was supposed to be handed over to the PA. Instead, Israel retains total control over all matters, including security, planning and construction. The transfer of control to the PA has never happened.’ – Al Jazeera : Oslo Accords : The Price of Oslo
“Oslo was the greatest idea Israel ever had. It let them continue the occupation without paying any of the costs.” – Mustafa Barghouti : Palestinian National Initiative
13 sept 2018

By Ramzy Baroud
Yossi Beilin is back. This unrepentant Israeli ‘peacemaker’ is like the mythical phoenix, continually resurrecting from its ashes. In a recent article in Al-Monitor, Beilin wrote in support of the idea of a confederation between Israel and Palestine.
A confederation “could prevent the need to evacuate settlers and allow those interested to live in Palestine as Israeli citizens, just as a similar number of Palestinian citizens could live in Israel,” he wrote.
Bizarrely, Beilin is promoting a version of an idea that was pushed by Israel’s extremist Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
The difference between Beilin and Lieberman is in how we choose to perceive them: the former was the godfather of the Oslo Accords 25 years ago, a well-known political ‘dove’ and the former Chairman of the ‘left-leaning’ Meretz party. Lieberman, on the other hand, is purportedly the exact opposite.
When Lieberman suggested population transfer and territorial swaps, all hell broke loose. When Beilin did it, his efforts were perceived as an honest attempt at reviving the dormant ‘peace process.’
That is the brilliance of Beilin, his followers and the whole ‘peace process’ that culminated in the Oslo Accords and the famous White House handshake between the late PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, and the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, in September 1993. They successfully branded this hideous infringement on international law as a sincere effort at achieving peace between two conflicting parties.
The Donald Trump Administration has long surpassed Oslo and its tired clichés of ‘peace process’, ‘painful compromises’ and ‘trust building’ exercises, etc., as it is promoting something else entirely, the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’.
But Oslo will not go away. It remains a problem because the intellectual foundation that led to its conception is still firmly in place – where only Israel matters and the aspirations of the Palestinian people are still inconsequential.
While Beilin is no longer an influential politician, there are many Yossi Beilins who are still lurking, playing the role of ‘peacemakers‘, meeting behind closed doors, on the sideline of conferences, offering their services as interlocutors, wheelers and dealers, and saviors.
The late Palestinian Professor, Edward Said, was not prophesying when he warned of the disastrous future consequences of Oslo as it was being signed. He was dismissed by mainstream media and pundits as radical, lumped with the other ‘enemies of peace’ on ‘both sides’. But, he, like many other Palestinians, was right.
“Labor and Likud leaders alike made no secret of the fact that Oslo was designed to segregate the Palestinians in noncontiguous, economically unviable enclaves, surrounded by Israeli-controlled borders, with settlements and settlement roads punctuating and essentially violating the territories’ integrity,” he wrote in the Nation.
The colonization of Palestine, for the first time, was accelerating with the consent of the Palestinian leadership. The PLO was turned into a local body with the inception of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. The rights of millions of Palestinian refugees in the diaspora were relegated. The West Bank was divided into areas A, B, and C, each governed by different rules, mostly under the control of the Israeli military.
The ‘Palestinian revolution’ turned into an agonizing process of ‘state-building’, but without state or even contiguous territories. Palestinians who rejected the horrific outcomes of Oslo – protracted expansion of Jewish colonies, continued violent Occupation, normalized through ‘security coordination’ between Israel and the PA – were often abused and deemed extremists.
Meanwhile, successive US administrations continued to fund and defend Israel, unconcerned about its self-tailored job title as the ‘honest peace broker.’
The PA played along because the perks were far too lucrative to be abandoned on principle. A new class of Palestinians had risen, dependent on Oslo for its wealth and affluence.
Even when the Trump Administration cut off the Palestinian Refugees Agency, UNRWA, of all funds, and scrapped the $200 million in humanitarian aid to the PA, the US still released 61 million dollars to the PA to maintain its ‘security cooperation’ with Israel. ‘Israel’s security’ is just too sacred a bond to be broken.
This is why Oslo remains dangerous. It is not the agreement itself that matters, but the mindset behind it – the political and diplomatic discourse that is wholly manufactured to serve Israel exclusively.
In January 2017, Daniel Pipes of the pro-Israel Middle East Forum came up with what seemed like a puerile idea: a ‘way to peace’ between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the simple declaration that Israel has won.
The new strategy requires little by way of negotiations. It merely entails that Israel declares ‘victory’, which Pipes defined as “imposing one’s will on the enemy, compelling him through loss to give up his war ambitions.’
As unconscionable as Pipes’ logic was, a few months later, Congressional Republicans in the US launched the “Israel Victory Caucus.” The co-Chair of the Caucus, Rep. Bill Johnson, ‘predicted’ in April 2017 that Trump would soon be heading to Israel to announce the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Since then, the US is following a blueprint of a strategy in which the US advances Israel’s ‘victory’ while imposing conditions of surrender on defeated Palestinians. Despite its more diplomatic and legal language, that was also the essence of Oslo.
Trump, to the satisfaction of Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may think that he has single-handedly destroyed the Oslo Accords or whatever remained of it. However, judging by his words and actions, Trump has indicated that the spirit of Oslo remains alive: the bribes, the bullying and the fighting for that coveted and final Israeli ‘victory.’
Oslo is not a specific legal document that can be implemented or rejected. It is a spectrum in which the likes of Beilin, Lieberman, and Pipes have more in common than they may think, and in which the fate of the Palestinian people is left to inept leaders, incapable of thinking outside the permissible space allocated to them by the Israelis and the Americans.
Unfortunately, Abbas and his Authority are still reveling at the expense of the space that is Oslo, not the ‘accords’ – provisions, stipulations and heaps of paper – but the corrupt culture – money, perks and unmitigated defeat.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.
Yossi Beilin is back. This unrepentant Israeli ‘peacemaker’ is like the mythical phoenix, continually resurrecting from its ashes. In a recent article in Al-Monitor, Beilin wrote in support of the idea of a confederation between Israel and Palestine.
A confederation “could prevent the need to evacuate settlers and allow those interested to live in Palestine as Israeli citizens, just as a similar number of Palestinian citizens could live in Israel,” he wrote.
Bizarrely, Beilin is promoting a version of an idea that was pushed by Israel’s extremist Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
The difference between Beilin and Lieberman is in how we choose to perceive them: the former was the godfather of the Oslo Accords 25 years ago, a well-known political ‘dove’ and the former Chairman of the ‘left-leaning’ Meretz party. Lieberman, on the other hand, is purportedly the exact opposite.
When Lieberman suggested population transfer and territorial swaps, all hell broke loose. When Beilin did it, his efforts were perceived as an honest attempt at reviving the dormant ‘peace process.’
That is the brilliance of Beilin, his followers and the whole ‘peace process’ that culminated in the Oslo Accords and the famous White House handshake between the late PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, and the late Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, in September 1993. They successfully branded this hideous infringement on international law as a sincere effort at achieving peace between two conflicting parties.
The Donald Trump Administration has long surpassed Oslo and its tired clichés of ‘peace process’, ‘painful compromises’ and ‘trust building’ exercises, etc., as it is promoting something else entirely, the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’.
But Oslo will not go away. It remains a problem because the intellectual foundation that led to its conception is still firmly in place – where only Israel matters and the aspirations of the Palestinian people are still inconsequential.
While Beilin is no longer an influential politician, there are many Yossi Beilins who are still lurking, playing the role of ‘peacemakers‘, meeting behind closed doors, on the sideline of conferences, offering their services as interlocutors, wheelers and dealers, and saviors.
The late Palestinian Professor, Edward Said, was not prophesying when he warned of the disastrous future consequences of Oslo as it was being signed. He was dismissed by mainstream media and pundits as radical, lumped with the other ‘enemies of peace’ on ‘both sides’. But, he, like many other Palestinians, was right.
“Labor and Likud leaders alike made no secret of the fact that Oslo was designed to segregate the Palestinians in noncontiguous, economically unviable enclaves, surrounded by Israeli-controlled borders, with settlements and settlement roads punctuating and essentially violating the territories’ integrity,” he wrote in the Nation.
The colonization of Palestine, for the first time, was accelerating with the consent of the Palestinian leadership. The PLO was turned into a local body with the inception of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. The rights of millions of Palestinian refugees in the diaspora were relegated. The West Bank was divided into areas A, B, and C, each governed by different rules, mostly under the control of the Israeli military.
The ‘Palestinian revolution’ turned into an agonizing process of ‘state-building’, but without state or even contiguous territories. Palestinians who rejected the horrific outcomes of Oslo – protracted expansion of Jewish colonies, continued violent Occupation, normalized through ‘security coordination’ between Israel and the PA – were often abused and deemed extremists.
Meanwhile, successive US administrations continued to fund and defend Israel, unconcerned about its self-tailored job title as the ‘honest peace broker.’
The PA played along because the perks were far too lucrative to be abandoned on principle. A new class of Palestinians had risen, dependent on Oslo for its wealth and affluence.
Even when the Trump Administration cut off the Palestinian Refugees Agency, UNRWA, of all funds, and scrapped the $200 million in humanitarian aid to the PA, the US still released 61 million dollars to the PA to maintain its ‘security cooperation’ with Israel. ‘Israel’s security’ is just too sacred a bond to be broken.
This is why Oslo remains dangerous. It is not the agreement itself that matters, but the mindset behind it – the political and diplomatic discourse that is wholly manufactured to serve Israel exclusively.
In January 2017, Daniel Pipes of the pro-Israel Middle East Forum came up with what seemed like a puerile idea: a ‘way to peace’ between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the simple declaration that Israel has won.
The new strategy requires little by way of negotiations. It merely entails that Israel declares ‘victory’, which Pipes defined as “imposing one’s will on the enemy, compelling him through loss to give up his war ambitions.’
As unconscionable as Pipes’ logic was, a few months later, Congressional Republicans in the US launched the “Israel Victory Caucus.” The co-Chair of the Caucus, Rep. Bill Johnson, ‘predicted’ in April 2017 that Trump would soon be heading to Israel to announce the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Since then, the US is following a blueprint of a strategy in which the US advances Israel’s ‘victory’ while imposing conditions of surrender on defeated Palestinians. Despite its more diplomatic and legal language, that was also the essence of Oslo.
Trump, to the satisfaction of Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may think that he has single-handedly destroyed the Oslo Accords or whatever remained of it. However, judging by his words and actions, Trump has indicated that the spirit of Oslo remains alive: the bribes, the bullying and the fighting for that coveted and final Israeli ‘victory.’
Oslo is not a specific legal document that can be implemented or rejected. It is a spectrum in which the likes of Beilin, Lieberman, and Pipes have more in common than they may think, and in which the fate of the Palestinian people is left to inept leaders, incapable of thinking outside the permissible space allocated to them by the Israelis and the Americans.
Unfortunately, Abbas and his Authority are still reveling at the expense of the space that is Oslo, not the ‘accords’ – provisions, stipulations and heaps of paper – but the corrupt culture – money, perks and unmitigated defeat.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle.