The Oslo Accords: What Happened?

How the Oslo Accords nearly brought peace to the Middle East, but failed.

Hot History

Oct 30, 2023

Article voiceover

1×

0:00

-12:44

Oslo Accords

In 1993, the Oslo peace accords were signed on the White House lawn. Both Palestinians and Israelis agreed that it was time to end their decades of conflict. Peace was in the air. As promised, Israel handed over Jericho and Gaza to the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian opponent of Israeli occupation for thirty years, returned from exile to lead the newly founded Palestinian Authority. Israel’s prime minister was Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin and his foreign minister, named Shimon Peres, received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Arafat. However, there were people on both sides that hated peace. Some Palestinians had a bloodthirsty desire to destroy Israel, not coexist with it. Some Israelis distrusted Arafat, and believed that the lands of ancient Judea and Samaria, in what is now the West Bank, should be theirs. To them, Rabin’s policy of exchanging land for peace was dangerous appeasement.

Rabin’s assassination

On November 4, 1995, after a peace rally in Tel Aviv, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist. Two days later, the deceased head of state was mourned by nations around the world. For many Arab leaders, the funeral was the first time they ever set foot in Israel. “Your prime minister was a martyr for peace, but he was a victim of hate,” President Clinton told the Israelis. For security reasons, Arafat was not able to attend the funeral. He watched it on TV from his home in Gaza. Rabin was succeeded by Peres. Once the father of Israel’s nuclear program, the 72-year-old man now had the daunting task of negotiating peace. A month later, Peres met with Arafat to reaffirm Israel’s commitment to the Oslo Accords. Israel agreed to release a thousand Palestinian prisoners, and withdraw from five major Palestinian cities. Peace seemed closer than ever. But to some opponents within Israel, these concessions were a dangerous mistake. The Palestinians were elated. An independent Palestinian state seemed more likely than ever. Peacefully, they received sovereignty from the Israeli occupiers.

Terror of Hamas

Not all Palestinians were willing to accept the peace. An Islamic fundamentalist group rose to prominence. It was called Hamas. They gained the support of the Palestinian populace by controlling mosques, and providing food and education to the impoverished. Hamas obstinately refused any negotiations with Israel. The military wing of the party, called Izadin el Kasam, vowed to destroy Israel through a campaign of terror, notably suicide bombings. Its chief bomb maker was a man named Yehiya Ayash, number one on Israel’s Most Wanted List. This terrorist was hiding in Gaza, prompting Israel to preempt the situation. On January 5, 1996, Ayash was assassinated by Israel. Palestinians were outraged, and they declared him a martyr. Amid this unrest, the Palestinian Authority held its first elections, as stipulated by Oslo. If Arafat won the election, it would mean peace. But Hamas didn’t want peace. To the religious zealots, any negotiation with Israel was blasphemy. Suicide bombers were unleashed on Israel, leaving 46 dead and hundreds wounded. If Arafat was unable to crack down on terrorism, the Israelis feared, negotiations were futile. Peres and the peace process came under increased attack. The Israeli government responded by taking matters into their own hands, cracking down on Hamas. Thousands of terrorists were jailed. It was a crushing blow to the Islamist militia. Many dissatisfied Israelis began to rally around a new prime minister, named Benjamin Netanyahu. Fearing a collapse of the peace process, outside nations took an unprecedented move. Under the auspices of the US and Egypt, world leaders convened at Sinai. Calling themselves the Summit of Peacemakers, they hoped to influence the Israeli electorate to rally behind Peres. Arafat boldly condemned Hamas, and distanced himself from the terrorist organization.

Netanyahu years

Just six weeks before elections, violence broke out along Israel’s northern border. It was done by Hezbollah, an extremist Shiite movement based out of Lebanon. Hezbollah was aligned with Hamas, and shared its disdain for peace. The terrorists fired missiles into Israel’s towns and villages. Israel was goaded into retaliation. It responded by bombarding Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon. On April 18, 1996, the Israelis accidentally struck a UN compound near the village of Kana, where civilians were hiding from the attacks. Over a hundred were killed. It severely alienated the Arab population of Israel, many of whom boycotted the election. As a result, the 47-year-old Netanyahu was able to narrowly defeat Peres in the election. Israel’s new prime minister, along with his Likud party, was deeply skeptical of Oslo. Three months later, the peace process was stalled. Washington sent Secretary of State Warren Christopher to pressure Netanyahu into negotiating with Arafat. A month later, Netanyahu and Arafat met at the Israel-Gaza border. Tensions were high. The Israeli prime minister had dismissed Arafat as a terrorist just months before. But the two men still shook hands. It was a symbol of hope. The peace was short-lived. Netanyahu opened up a tunnel along the Western Wall, which triggered Palestinian protests. The Israelis responded with a crack down. Cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces brought an end to the fighting. Thanks to Clinton’s charms, Netanyahu and Arafat agreed to resume talks. After four months of tense negotiations, Israel agreed to withdraw from Hebron, leaving behind only a small group of Jewish settlers. Now, Arafat held sovereignty over all the major cities of the West Bank and Gaza. Angry Jews protested by ritually cutting their clothes. In 1997, Netanyahu authorized construction of settlements in contested land. The cycle of terrorist suicide bombings was revived. Israel responded with a crack down. Restrictions grew tighter in the territories. To manage the crisis, the White House sent State Secretary Madeleine Albright. Terrorism continued. Netanyahu refused to cede any more land to the Palestinians. He ordered Mossad to assassinate Hamas leaders hiding in Jordan. But the plan went embarrassingly wrong, which threatened relations between Israel and Jordan. Jordan demanded the release of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and religious inspiration behind Hamas, after nine years in an Israeli prison. It became a triumph for the extremists.

Wye Accords

In October of 1998, the US attempted to resurrect the peace process with a summit in Maryland. Prior to that, Israeli and Palestinian security forces had already opened up negotiations regarding counter-terrorism. But the political leadership on both sides were much more distrustful. Netanyahu made several demands, including revisions to the PLO’s charter calling for Israel’s destruction. Six days into the meeting, the Israelis abruptly broke off talks. But they were quickly pressured back into the talks by the US. Arafat sent flowers, and personally called the prime minister. President Clinton was determined to finalize the long-awaited peace process. After 21 hours of negotiations, the two sides finally agreed to the Wye Accords. Everything seemed to be going well. Netanyahu demanded the release of an American-born Israeli spy named Jonathan Pollard, but Clinton was unable to secure this. Nevertheless, the peace agreement came through. It allowed for the construction of an international airport for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel agreed to pull back from the West Bank, and released some more prisoners. The Palestinian Authority agreed to crack down on terrorism. To shore up the agreement, President Clinton visited Arafat in Palestine. It gave him powerful diplomatic legitimacy. In Clinton’s presence, Arafat’s Authority made a bold step to rescind the part of the PLO’s charter calling for Israel’s destruction. Peace seemed more palpable than ever, but it was fragile. Hamas extremists continued their violent terrorist activity, and stubbornly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Meanwhile, back in Israel, some of Netanyahu’s support base began to turn on him too. In 1999, Ehud Barak, the leader of Israel’s Labor Party, won a landslide electoral victory against Netanyahu. He became the new prime minister. Barak made his first official visit to Egypt, the most powerful Arab state which had been at peace with Israel for over two decades. He enlisted Egypt’s help to accelerate the peace process. Egypt was run by President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak’s government was somewhat skeptical of the Palestinian Authority, but was willing to support Israel’s path for peace. Barak envisioned a two-state solution that would finally conclude the conflict. After five weeks of negotiations with Arafat’s government, a timetable was agreed upon. Suicide bombers assaulted Haifa and Tiberia. Miraculously, there were no casualties. Despite this, Barak released 199 Palestinian prisoners as planned. The Clinton administration attempted to broker peace between Israel and Syria, but efforts broke down after two months. Arafat was skeptical of Israel’s talks with Syria, fearing it would undercut his own negotiating power. The biggest problem was the three million Palestinian refugees, who demanded a right to return. This threatened to overflow and transform the Jewish state. Barak ended Israel’s twenty-two year occupation of southern Lebanon. He had hoped to do so under an agreement with Syria, but was unable. So he chose to act unilaterally. But this only emboldened Hezbollah and other Palestinians to use terrorism, rather than negotiations. Barak’s moves were controversial. He was unable to strike a deal with Syria, had pulled out of Lebanon, and could not contain the terrorist problem. He appealed to Clinton to hold a summit to resolve the crisis once and for all.

Camp David

On July 10, 2000, a summit was hastily prepared at Camp David. There, Clinton met with Arafat and Barak. The American president proposed a compromise. Israel would cede almost all of the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to some other small land exchanges. They would jointly control Jerusalem. Using Clinton’s plan as a starting point, Barak suggested several changes. Arafat refused to accept any Jewish control over the Temple Mount. He walked away from what was arguably the best deal the Palestinians could have gotten. Arafat returned home to Palestine as a hero. Many Palestinians instigated for violent resistance. But when Arafat agreed to visit Israeli minister Ariel Sharon, the two men had a very friendly exchange. Peace seemed back on the table. However, Sharon’s controversial visit to Al Aqsa Mosque was met with violent uprisings. It was the beginning of a new Intifada. Riots spread quickly throughout Gaza and the West Bank. The killing of a 12-year-old boy named Muhammad al-Durrah shocked the world. Israeli police cracked down harder than ever. By the end of the week, fifty Palestinians and five Israelis were dead. Many Israelis turned against Barak’s government. Negotiations seemed more futile than ever. By late January of 2001, the game was over. Clinton was out of office, and Barak stood for reelection. Sharon won a landslide electoral victory. Now, the leaders of Israel and Palestine were two men who deeply disliked each other. Palestinian suicide bombers became an almost daily event. Israeli retaliation left hundreds dead. On March 29, 2002, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. With overwhelming force, the Israelis reoccupied the Palestinian territories, hunting down terrorists and obliterating vital infrastructure. Arafat was captured and jailed. Although the Israelis eventually pulled back, all hopes for peace seemed dashed.