Oslo Accords 1993: Rabin, Arafat and the Israeli-Palestinian Deal

The Oslo Accords were agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the first of which, the Declaration of Principles, was signed at the White House on 13 September 1993. Negotiated in secret in Norway, they brought the first mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and created a Palestinian self-governing authority. The handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat became an iconic image of hope, but the process stalled before reaching a final peace.

Background

Since the Six-Day War of 1967 Israel had occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, home to around two million Palestinians by the early 1990s. Israel regarded the PLO, led by Yasser Arafat, as a terrorist organisation and banned contacts with it, while the PLO’s charter called for Israel’s destruction.

Several changes opened the way to talks. The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising from December 1987, showed that the occupation carried heavy costs. In 1988 the PLO accepted UN resolutions implying recognition of Israel. After the Gulf War of 1991 the PLO was weakened and isolated, having sided with Iraq, and the end of the Cold War gave the United States great influence in the region. The Madrid Conference of October 1991 began formal negotiations, though without the PLO directly at the table. In June 1992 Yitzhak Rabin’s Labour Party won Israel’s election, and in January 1993 the Knesset repealed the ban on contacts with the PLO.

The secret Norwegian channel

The Oslo channel began in January 1993 when two Israeli academics, Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak, met PLO official Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) in Norway. The talks were facilitated by Terje Rød-Larsen, head of the Norwegian research institute Fafo, his wife Mona Juul, a diplomat, and Norway’s foreign minister Johan Jørgen Holst. Meetings took place in country houses and hotels in and near Oslo, out of sight of the press.

Once progress seemed real, Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres upgraded the talks by sending officials, including Uri Savir and the lawyer Joel Singer. A draft was initialled in Oslo in August 1993. On 9-10 September Arafat and Rabin exchanged letters: the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and renounced terrorism, and Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

The signing at the White House

On 13 September 1993 the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements was signed on the South Lawn of the White House. Peres and Mahmoud Abbas signed for the two sides, with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev as witnesses. President Bill Clinton gently encouraged a reluctant Rabin to shake Arafat’s outstretched hand. In his speech Rabin said, “Enough of blood and tears. Enough.”

What the accords contained

The Declaration set out a five-year interim period. Israel would withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho first, and an elected Palestinian council would take over many civil responsibilities. Negotiations on the permanent status were to begin no later than the third year and cover the hardest issues: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements and borders.

Further agreements followed. The Gaza-Jericho Agreement of May 1994 created the Palestinian Authority, and Arafat returned to Gaza on 1 July 1994. The Interim Agreement, often called Oslo II, signed in September 1995, divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C with differing levels of Palestinian and Israeli control. Palestinians elected Arafat president and chose a Legislative Council in January 1996. Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in October 1994.

Opposition and stalling

The accords faced fierce opposition. Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected recognition of Israel and carried out suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. In February 1994 an Israeli settler, Baruch Goldstein, killed 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Israeli right-wing groups accused Rabin of betrayal, and on 4 November 1995 he was assassinated by an Israeli extremist.

Benjamin Netanyahu, a critic of Oslo, won the 1996 election, and implementation slowed amid mutual accusations. Settlement building continued, and the final-status deadline of May 1999 passed. The Camp David summit of July 2000 between Ehud Barak and Arafat ended without agreement, and the Second Intifada broke out in September 2000, effectively ending the Oslo era.

Assessments and debate

The Oslo process has been judged very differently. Supporters argue that it achieved something that had seemed impossible: the two national movements recognised each other, Palestinians gained their first self-governing institutions on their own soil, and the idea of a negotiated two-state solution entered the mainstream on both sides. Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel and wider contacts between Israel and Arab states followed directly from it.

Critics on the Palestinian side, including the scholar Edward Said, argued that the PLO had accepted interim arrangements without any guarantee of statehood, an end to settlement building or a solution for refugees, leaving Israel in control of borders, water, movement and most of the land. Critics in Israel argued that the deal had brought an armed PLO leadership back into the territories and that the wave of suicide bombings showed Palestinian leaders could not or would not prevent attacks.

Many historians stress the structure of the agreement itself. Because the most difficult issues were postponed, each side could pursue facts on the ground during the interim years. The Israeli settler population in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, grew from roughly 110,000-120,000 in 1993 to around 200,000 by 2000, while Israeli closures of the territories after attacks damaged the Palestinian economy. Trust eroded as each side accused the other of violating commitments, and the Palestinian Authority itself was criticised for corruption and authoritarian rule under Arafat.

Intermediate deals kept the process alive for a time. The Hebron Protocol of January 1997 divided control of the city of Hebron, and the Wye River Memorandum of October 1998 provided for further Israeli withdrawals in exchange for security commitments, though it was only partly implemented. The story of the secret Norwegian channel was later dramatised in the play Oslo by J. T. Rogers (2016).

Key people

• Yitzhak Rabin – Israeli Prime Minister, a former army chief who embraced negotiations.
• Yasser Arafat – PLO Chairman and first president of the Palestinian Authority.
• Shimon Peres – Israeli Foreign Minister who championed the Oslo channel.
• Mahmoud Abbas – PLO official who signed the Declaration; later Palestinian president.
• Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul – Norwegians who hosted and facilitated the secret talks.

Timeline

• 1987, December: The First Intifada begins.
• 1991, 30 October: The Madrid Peace Conference opens.
• 1993, January: Secret Israeli-PLO talks begin in Norway.
• 1993, 9-10 September: Israel and the PLO exchange letters of mutual recognition.
• 1993, 13 September: Declaration of Principles signed at the White House.
• 1994, 4 May: Gaza-Jericho Agreement creates the Palestinian Authority.
• 1995, 28 September: Oslo II Interim Agreement signed in Washington.
• 1995, 4 November: Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in Tel Aviv.
• 2000, July: The Camp David summit fails.

Why it matters

The Oslo Accords remain the foundation of the institutions that govern Palestinian life today, including the Palestinian Authority and the division of the West Bank into administrative areas. They proved that Israelis and Palestinians could recognise each other, yet their unfinished design left the core questions of the conflict unresolved.