Failure of Oslo Peace Process - Essay Example

? Failure of Oslo Peace Process Israel and the Palestinians conflict Before European colonized Palestine in1800, there was no Israel-Palestine conflict. Replacement and subsequent immigration of the Zionist into the Palestine land to make it their own resulted to increasing alarms and escalating waves of violence and fighting broke out. The conflict has been over borders, water rights, security, Palestinian freedom of movement, control of Jerusalem and solving refugee problem. Zionist claims that they returned to claim their ancestral land from Palestinians (Gelvin, 2007, p. 7). Complete dispossession of the Palestinian-Arabs from the land so that Israelis could inhabit and make it a Jewish state become completely impossible. 1947-1949 war which Israel outnumbered Palestine on the land of Palestinians and the continued massacres resulted to continued war up-to-date. Israel over time has forcefully acquired private land in West Bank and taken control of Gaza where Palestinians have little control over their lives, are oppressed and discriminated. Oslo peace process begun as a clandestine negotiation in a house that was secluded and owned by Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1990 in the Oslo outskirts. The negotiation was to initiate peace process and even at the time of conducting the meeting it was done in secrecy since house occupants were informed that it was an academic working (Williams, 2009, p. 77). It was illegal for Israel citizens to come into any meeting with members of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Publicizing of the peace process resulted to a serious preparation on both sides to come into an agreement with a long time enemy. This was not taken lightly by the Israelites where an assassination was made on Israel Prime Minister Rabin in 1995. The Oslo Accord comprised of a series of understandings and agreements reached upon and accepted in the initial secret bilateral negotiations conducted between PLO and Israel. It had aspects of mutual recognition and declaration of principles. Every detail of historical undertakings and the failure of the process will be the focus of this paper. Initiation of the process After several centuries of bloodshed, conflicts, unending war, discrimination and inhuman activities, leaders led by Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yaasser Arafat begun negotiations that were meant to resolve the conflict. A mutual recognition was granted and declarations of principles were initiated agreeing to establishment of Palestinian self-government in parts of Gaza strip and West bank (Selby, 2003, p. 182). The accord was agreed upon and signed in 1993 where timetables and frameworks of Palestinians transition to self-rule and address border issues, Jerusalem and Israeli settlements and establishment of Palestinian state. Agreement of transfer of responsibility and powers was reached upon in1994 and a treaty of peace was established. These accords were established for the purpose of keeping peace and maintaining justice throughout the operations between Israel and Palestine. President Clinton, Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat after the signing of the Peace Accord. Source: http://janmeador.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/america-adding-sin-to-sin/ Success of Oslo Peace process Control of most parts of Gaza and Jericho was transferred to Palestinians. Israel forces were therefore within a short time conducted an accelerated withdrawal from the areas specified. Responsibility was given out to over 9,000 Palestinian police force but Israel retained West Bank and most areas of the Jewish settlement in 1994 (Efrat, 2006, p. 201). Transfer of authority was also done on culture, education practices, social welfare, health, tourism and the entire taxation process. Borders between Jordan and Israel were defined and a peace treaty established leading to normalization of existing relations. Later on in 1995, further transfer of powers was done on labor, all economic activities, local government and statistics. Success of this peace process was due to the urge and effort placed in by leaders in the both governments to establish an everlasting peace between the two countries (Brown, 2003, p. 7). Even at the middle of heated conflict and mistrust of the parties involved to liberalize Palestine, both agreements were signed and implementation of the accords begun (Ghazi-Bouillon, 2009, p. 6). Source:http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1644149_1644147_1644129,00.html Downfall of Oslo process Liberalization of Palestinians was sought in every way by both leaders, yet still, the peace process did not take long before failing to deliver the promise. Mistrust existed between the political leaders of both countries hence leading to failure (Enderlin, 2002, p. 112). Failure itself was primarily as a result of lack of implementation of the accords placed for the purpose of peace and justice. Liberal conflict resolution mechanism was entirely not implemented due to breakdown of mutual trust between Israel and Palestinian leaders involved in the negotiation process. Further negotiation styles were poorly conducted. In 1993 Rabin decided to replace the leaders involved in the peace process by the IDF officers. This really damaged the stability of the negotiation team and the initial trust that had been developed. His subsequent assassination also becomes one of the great contributing factors. Most other leaders on the side of Israel like Netanyahu deliberately sought to undermine the mutual trust that had been developed. He expanded settlements deliberately and forced to postpone fulfillment of any of the Israeli commitments. Barak did not respect Arafat and even undermined him (Paul, 2010, p. 21). This resulted to damaging the confidence of the Palestinians. Continued terrorist attacks between 1993 and 1995 questioned the peace process and they started planning for separation barriers increasing and allowing an influx of foreign workers for the sake of replacing Palestine’s and subsequent refusal to implement the Liberal model of economic integration (Ma'oz, et al., 2002, p. 115). Conclusion Oslo peace process established in 1990 was supposed to bring a resolution to the conflicts and war that has dominated between Israel and Palestine. Several accords and agreements were made and partly implemented at the beginning of the negotiations which had been secret until they were officially made public. Success of the peace process was necessitated by the close association of the leaders who initiated the peace process. As heated debate continued, both parties embraced the need for a change and liberalization of Palestine. Intervention of U.S was perceived by Palestine’s as in support of Israel and described as dishonest brokers hence worsening the process (Aruri, 2003, p. 238). Economic integration was proposed as vital to peace keeping process and its continued sustenance hence producing a reservoir of support for the peace process. Integration did not work and so a new face of political conflicts and intensified security dilemma. The economic gains enjoyed for a few years in 1967-1967, Israel hegemony collapsed resulting to disappearance of economic gains and destabilizing the peace process. Intensified ethnic conflicts erupted both in the existing military and political terms. Political terms were as a result of the inability of policy-makers to develop the trust which was essential in creation of Liberal peace. Therefore, it is important to understand that Oslo peace process failed due to lack of implementation of the agreements signed. It was necessitated by the replacement of the initial members of the negotiation team and subsequent assassinations of Rabin. List of References Aruri, N., 2003. Dishonest Broker: The Role of the United States in Palestine and Israel. Cambridge MA: South End Press. Brown, N. J., 2003. Palestinian Politics after the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine. Berkeley: University of California Press. Efrat, E., 2006. The West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Geography of Occupation. 1st ed. New York: Taylor & Francis. Enderlin, C., 2002. Shattered Dreams. New York: Other Press, LLC. Gelvin, J. L., 2007. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. 1st ed. U.S.A: Cambridge University Press. . Ghazi-Bouillon, 2009. Understanding the Middle East Peace Process: Israeli Academia and the. Madison AV, New York: Taylor & Francis. Ma'oz, M., Rothstein, R. L. & Shikak, K., 2002. The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Oslo and the Lessons of Failure. Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press. Paul, C., 2010. Dana Live Dual Edition Test. Madison, New York: Taylor & Francis. Selby, J., 2003. Water, Power and Politics in the Middle East: The Other Israel-Palestine Conflict. New York: I.B.Tauris. Williams, A., 2009. Conflict and Development. Madison, New York: Taylor & Francis. Read More