The Oslo Accords and the assassination of Rabin
Israel and the PLO recognise each other and agree on interim Palestinian self-rule; two years later a Jewish extremist murders Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
- Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo I) — Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, United Nations Peacemaker (1993)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
- Remarks at the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles, White House, 13 September 1993 — Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993)
The Madrid conference of 1991 brought Israel and its Arab neighbours to the table, but the real breakthrough came in secret. In early 1993 Israeli academics and then officials met PLO representatives in Norway. On 9 September Israel and the PLO exchanged letters of mutual recognition: the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist in peace and renounced terrorism; Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
- Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo I) — Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, United Nations Peacemaker (1993)
On 13 September 1993, on the White House lawn, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands, with Bill Clinton’s arm around them, after the signing of the Declaration of Principles. Rabin, the old soldier, said: “Enough of blood and tears. Enough!”
- Remarks at the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles, White House, 13 September 1993 — Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993)
- Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo I) — Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, United Nations Peacemaker (1993)
What it did, and did not, do
The Declaration created a five-year interim period of Palestinian self-government, starting in Gaza and Jericho, after which “permanent status” talks would settle Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security and borders. It did not mention a Palestinian state. In 1994 the Palestinian Authority was set up and Arafat returned to Gaza to cheering crowds. The 1995 Oslo II agreement split the West Bank into Area A (Palestinian cities), Area B (Palestinian civil control, Israeli security control) and Area C (full Israeli control), a temporary arrangement that became permanent.
- Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo I) — Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, United Nations Peacemaker (1993)
- Area C of the West Bank: Key Humanitarian Concerns — UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA oPt), United Nations (2017)
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
Violence on both sides
Opponents on both sides tried to wreck the process. In February 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a settler, shot dead 29 Muslim worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Hamas and Islamic Jihad answered with suicide bombings on buses and in cities, killing scores of Israelis.
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
- Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001 — Benny Morris, Vintage (2001)
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
The assassination
On 4 November 1995, after a peace rally of more than 100,000 people in Tel Aviv where he had sung the “Song for Peace”, Rabin was shot dead by Yigal Amir, a young religious Jewish extremist who believed giving up land violated Jewish law. The square is now Rabin Square, and his memorial day is a moment of national reflection, though Israelis argue over what lesson to draw.
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
After Rabin
A wave of Hamas bombings in early 1996 helped Benjamin Netanyahu, an opponent of Oslo, narrowly win that year’s election. Talks dragged on, settlements grew, and the deadline for a final deal passed. In July 2000 Ehud Barak and Arafat met at Camp David with Bill Clinton and failed to agree; two months later the second intifada began.
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
- The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace — Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
- Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors — Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Review of Books (2001)
For Palestinians, Oslo is remembered with bitterness: it built an authority, but not a state, and they lived to see the number of settlers grow. For many Israelis, it is remembered as the moment they offered peace and received buses blown up. Both memories are true to the people who hold them.
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
- Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor — Yossi Klein Halevi, Harper (2018)
Supporters saw a brave gamble that ended Israel's rule over Palestinian cities and won it new friends abroad. Opponents, led by the Likud and settlers, saw a dangerous concession to a terrorist organisation, and point to the suicide bombings that followed as proof.
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
Many welcomed the return of Arafat and the hope of a state. Critics such as Edward Said called the deal "an instrument of Palestinian surrender", because it deferred Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements, and recognised Israel without any recognition of Palestinian statehood.
- The Morning After — Edward W. Said, London Review of Books (1993)
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
Accounts of why Oslo failed differ: US negotiator Dennis Ross largely blamed Arafat's failure to confront violence and make final-status decisions; others, such as Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, point to continued settlement, delays and mistrust on both sides.
- The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace — Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
- Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors — Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Review of Books (2001)
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
Why it matters today
Oslo was the high point of Israeli hope for peace, and Rabin's murder by a Jewish extremist its darkest moment. Its collapse into the bombings and the second intifada persuaded many Israelis that land for peace had failed; for the left, the assassination is when the country lost its way.
Oslo created the Palestinian Authority, brought the PLO leadership home and divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, the map Palestinians still live in. Many now see it as a trap that let settlements grow while statehood never came.