Ramallah- When the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel signed the Oslo Accords on this day 31 years ago, the Palestinians wanted it to be a stepping stone towards establishing their independent state, but Israel, in return, worked in every way to prevent the establishment of this state, and its most prominent weapon was the annexation of more lands and settlement expansion.
In parallel with the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip entering its 12th month, the occupation in the West Bank imposed more facts on the ground, leaving the Palestinians with bitter choices: killing, displacement, and acknowledging the occupation, in implementation of the Israeli government’s program based on “resolving the conflict,” according to a Palestinian politician.
On September 13, 1993, the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed an agreement to form a “Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority” known as the “Oslo Accords” in the White House garden in Washington, DC, under which the Palestinian National Authority was established on 22% of the land of Palestine.
The document stipulates the formation of a transitional Palestinian governing authority represented by an elected Palestinian council that exercises powers and authorities in specific and agreed-upon areas for a transitional period of 5 years.
Imposing facts
Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yousef says land confiscation and colonial settlement construction have been on the rise since the signing of the Oslo Declaration of Principles.
He added, “It is quite clear that there is exploitation of everything available to impose facts on the ground, and the terms of the agreement have not been adhered to by any of the successive Israeli governments. Rather, those governments have continued to ignore everything related to the possibility of establishing an independent state that is geographically contiguous.”
While the war of extermination on Gaza enters its 12th month with American partnership, Abu Yousef tells Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the occupation “openly speaks about its refusal to establish a Palestinian state on Palestinian land. Not only that, but the current government’s program is based on 3 points to “resolve the conflict”: kill the Palestinian or arrest him, expel him, or live under the occupation’s spears.”
He pointed out that the “Nation-State Law” passed by the Israeli Knesset in 2018, which states that “Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people,” denies any rights to the Palestinian people, and therefore “the issue of displacement remains before the occupation government, thus eliminating any possibility of talking about a Palestinian state.”
A golden opportunity
For his part, the land and settlement expert in Jerusalem, Khalil Al-Tafakji, says that Israel was able, through the Oslo Agreement, to implement all the projects that were present and frozen within its plans, including the settlement plans in all of the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip at that time.
He pointed out that the number of settlers increased from 110,000 in 1993 to about 516,000 in the West Bank in 2024, in addition to 230,000 settlers inside Jerusalem.
Al-Tafkaji continued in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the Israeli side exploited the Oslo Agreement to implement projects that were not implemented, including projects to establish settlement outposts as part of calls to occupy the hills, and Military Order No. 50 on roads issued in 1983, which is to establish bypass roads that were frozen before Oslo.
He added, “In Oslo, the Israeli side was able to build longitudinal and transverse streets inside the West Bank, in a way that would strangle all Palestinian communities.”
As for the separation wall, which began in 2001, Al-Tafakji said that it began inside the West Bank under the pretext of security, but in practice it aims to demarcate the borders according to the Israeli vision of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “the largest amount of land with the smallest number of residents.”
Within this vision, groundwater areas were seized and Palestinian cities were rendered militarily collapsed, according to the Palestinian expert, who pointed to the spread of pastoral settlement outposts, estimated today at about 170 outposts.
Although the Oslo Accords kept about 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and classified as Area C, Israel recently made a decision to subject Area B, which is supposed to be under the Palestinian Authority’s civil control, to Israeli civil and military control, according to the Palestinian expert.
At the same time, Al-Tafkji pointed out what is happening today in terms of the displacement of Bedouin communities from Area C, coinciding with the Knesset’s decision not to establish a Palestinian state, which affected 28 communities, according to the Palestinian Wall Authority.
control and influence
Regarding Jerusalem, Al-Tafakji says that settlement has increased with the aim of merging West and East Jerusalem, cutting off Palestinian neighborhoods with infrastructure, tunnels, and bridges, and expanding the current borders of the Jerusalem municipality to constitute about 10% of the area of the West Bank, “and thus imposing a fait accompli that makes the city the capital of only one state, the Hebrew state.”
The Palestinian expert pointed to a project to establish the largest airport in the Nabi Musa area, east of Jerusalem and south of Jericho, within the West Bank, accommodating 35 million passengers and two million tourists, along with railways, roads, and other things.
He said that the reality in the West Bank is that Palestinian communities are connected to each other through tunnels or bridges, while the settlements are increasing greatly and are even becoming geographically connected cities.
Although Israel has declared about 40% of the West Bank as state property administered by its government, the influence of Israeli settlements exceeds 60% of the West Bank, even though the built-up area does not exceed 1.6% of its area, according to Tafakji.
The Palestinian expert concludes that the Israeli side had projects before Oslo, but they were not implemented, and it began implementing them gradually.
According to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Israeli settlement sites and military bases in the West Bank at the end of 2022 in the West Bank reached 483 sites, “including 151 colonies and 25 populated outposts that were considered neighborhoods affiliated with existing colonies, 163 colonial outposts, and 144 sites for other classifications, including (industrial, tourist and service areas and camps for the occupation army)”.