When the Isreali-Palestinian war will end – Part 2

In their journey to statehood, Arab Palestinians recorded a giant stride on November 15, 1988 when Palestinian National Council met in Algiers, Algeria and declared Palestine an independent state, designating Jerusalem as the capital. The Palestinian declaration of independence, proclaimed by Yasser Arafat cited United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 as the basis. Resolution 181 is the 1947 UN resolution that brought about termination of British Mandate, partitioning of the territory and establishment of Jewish and Arab independent states.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO, the hitherto leadership the Palestinian people then became government in exile because from 1948 to 1994 PLO did not exercise control over any territory. The declaration claimed the entire territory of the former British Mandate including the State of Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip. The declaration, explicitly failed to recognise the State of Israel.

The first attempt to establish an independent Palestine was in September 1948, during the first Arab-Israeli war, when All-Palestine Government was declared in Gaza Strip whereas Gaza was an Egyptian protectorate. Several years later, Egypt dissolved the All-Palestine Government.

On September 13, 1993, Israel, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organisation, led by Yasser Arafat, signed a bilateral agreement called Oslo I Accord in Washington to kick-start a peace process in pursuit of mutually negotiated two-state solution. Oslo I brought about the creation of Palestinian interim self-government in parts of West Bank and Gaza Strip and withdrawal of Israeli Defence Force from the cities of Gaza and Jericho in 1994.

The Palestinian Authority is the creation of Oslo Accords. The Gaza-Jericho agreement of 1994 played a role also. Oslo II Accord was signed in September 1995. Among other objectives, it intended to achieve permanent resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict and address conclusively all issues of common interest to Israel and Palestine within a deadline of 4th May 1999. The Oslo accords encountered implementation challenges that derailed the peace process. Some interest groups in both Israel and Palestine opposed the Oslo peace process. There were rising concerns among Israeli nationals about their national security. Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who was championing the peace initiatives, on 4th November 1995, was assassinated by a Jewish extremist upon his return from a peace rally for a singular reason that he signed the Oslo accords.

Five years deadline within which peace and security of all and autonomy of Palestinians in their territory (West Bank and Gaza Strip) were supposed to be achieved passed and the crises remained. Retrospectively, one can say that the demise of Yitzhak Rabin was a huge loss to the world. Had he remained alive, he could have conclusively solved the question on Palestine. He had the vision, passion and commitment.

Final status settlement was not accomplished between Israel and Palestine within five years of implementation of Palestinian Authority as stipulated in the Oslo accords. U.S. government wanted to mediate resolution of the crisis and invited Prime Minister of Israel and Chairman of Palestinian Authority to Camp David, U.S., for a two-week summit commencing 11th July 2000.

For reasons best known to U.S. government and the Prime Minister of Israel they adopted an approach of all-or-nothing such that nothing was considered agreed and binding unless and until all was agreed. The summit ended and failed to produce the much anticipated final status agreement. Who is to blame for the failure of Camp David Summit? All three parties, namely: U.S. government, Israel and Palestine take a share in the inability of the summit to yield the intended result.

The Camp David negotiations of July 2000 and the sequel up until February 2001 were very significant in that they boldly highlighted all the issues or otherwise grievances of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israelis and Palestinians, for the first time in history, reached an understanding of what it takes to end their conflict and enthrone a lasting peace and security. All matters were brought up for discussion and were all discussed.

In furtherance of efforts to achieve a two-state solution, the quartet on Middle East comprising Russia, EU, U.S. and UN jointly published a peace plan in April 2003 called The Roadmap for Peace. The roadmap was a performance-based and goal-driven plan. Its implementation required good faith efforts of the parties and compliance with agreed obligations under the plan. There were three phases in the plan. Shortly after implementation of the roadmap began, while still on phase I, it reached a deadlock due to noncompliance of both Israel and Palestine. The quartet roadmap was therefore not implemented.

In a very dramatic turn, in 2005, Israel unilaterally, decided to disengage from Gaza Strip. George W. Bush, then U.S, President described Israeli disengagement from Gaza as “a bold and historic initiative that can make an important contribution to peace”.

Withdrawal of Israeli settlements and dismantling of military installations commenced August 15 and was completed on September 12, 2005 to end 36 years of occupation. As part of the disengagement policy, Israel also withdrew from four settlements in northern West Bank.

The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was significant in redefining the landscape and establishing borderlines in the territories formerly called mandatory Palestine. During the six-day war of 1967, Israeli forces occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank and subsequently, the government of Israel built settlements in the occupied territories. As at 2005, Gaza Strip had 21 settlements and over 9,000 Israeli settlers whereas there were 1.3 million Palestinians living in the territory.

In 2006, Palestinian Authority held second set of Parliamentary elections in its history and Hamas won majority of the seats in Gaza. Consequently, violent conflict arose between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza Strip leading to Hamas taking over control of Gaza Strip in June 2007 whereas Fatah maintained the lead and control of West Bank.

Hamas opposed the Oslo peace negotiations as well as the roadmap. On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a catastrophic attack on Israel that led to a large scale war, the Israeli-Hamas war.

To be continued tomorrow.