Oslo Accords Signed
The Oslo Accords (secret negotiations in Oslo, signed Washington September 1993) were the first direct recognition between Israel and the PLO: Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people; the PLO recognised Israel's right to exist and renounced terrorism. The Declaration of Principles established the Palestinian Authority, which would exercise limited self-government in Gaza and parts of the West Bank in an interim arrangement pending a permanent-status agreement on Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and settlements within five years. The five-year deadline was never met. Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank accelerated throughout the Oslo period. Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize; Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli nationalist in November 1995. The Oslo process collapsed at Camp David (July 2000), where Clinton failed to broker a final-status agreement. The Second Intifada (September 2000) and Hamas's 2007 takeover of Gaza divided Palestinian politics into two competing authorities, making the 'two-state solution' that Oslo was designed to produce increasingly difficult to implement in practice.
- Year: 1993 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
