Oslo Agreement Research Articles

Towards a New Arab Moment

Towards a New Arab Moment

The Oslo Agreement in the Peace Process and the Role of the United States in Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

This paper aims to find out the history or background of the Oslo agreement, the direction of policies and the efforts made in the peace of both parties and the results of the Oslo agreement. The results obtained by the author regarding the Oslo agreement are that the Oslo agreement occurred in 1993 against the background of land disputes in the West Bank and the Gaza Peninsula. Where the Israeli side asked Palestine to be officially recognized as the state of Israel. Meanwhile, Palestine asked to establish authority/self-government (occupied territory) in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but the relationship between the two sides continued to be damaged by the prolonged conflict, which resulted in losses for the surrounding population. So there was a negotiation for peace called the Oslo agreement. The Oslo Agreement is one of the important peace processes between Israel and Palestine that aims to resolve the prevailing conflict.

Mahmoud Darwish’s Political Views After the Oslo Agreement in the Poetry “Khilaf Ghayru Lughawi, Ma’a Imri al-Qais”: A Semiotics Study

This study attempted to analyse Mahmoud Darwish’s political ideas in his book Khilaf Ghairu Lughawi Ma’a Imri’il Qais. He wrote the poem in 1995, two years after the signing of the Oslo Agreement. It was born out of Darwish’s disappointment with the political decision of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he considered having neglected the priorities of the struggle for independence and territorial claims to the security of Palestinian refugees abroad. This study relied on the qualitative approach to get the intended research results. This study relied on the method of analysis by semiotic analysis of Michael Riffaterre. The results of this study are many uses of Darwish’s metaphorical expressions in his poem, as an irony for policymakers and people were considered deviants from the scale of national priority. His views embodied the disappointment of a political decision of the Palestine Liberation Organization from the hands of Yasser Arafat. He believed Arafat had included Israeli requirements and advantages in that agreement to facilitate the affairs of the Palestinians and the efforts of the victims of past wars.

Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Existing scholarship has largely focused on the violence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) when analyzing their response to the Oslo Agreement and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in the 1990s. The Islamist opposition’s contribution to Palestinian political thought has largely been ignored, however, although the prospects of Palestinian self-rule confronted the two movements with fundamental questions about social organization, governance, and the permissibility of democracy. I offer an analysis of key Hamas and PIJ texts from this period to demonstrate that Hamas and PIJ fundamentally differ in their analysis of the state and the organization of just society. While Hamas outlines a state-centric approach to governance through which Islamic values are enforced from above, PIJ perceives the state to be the greatest threat to the just organization of society. This article consequently dispels the myth that the two Palestinian Islamist movements had no significant ideological differences in the 1990s.

دور حرکة الجهاد الإسلامي في الحياة السياسية الفلسطينية (1987-2019)

تعتبر حرکة الجهاد الإسلامي أحد أبرز حرکات الإسلام السياسي في فلسطين، وهي جماعة تنتهج الفکر السلفي الجهادي، وتسعى إلى تطبيق الإسلام في کافة مناحي الحياة. والحرکة کغيرها من معظم حرکات الإسلام السياسي خرجت من تحت عباءة الإخوان المسلمين، لکنها اختلفت معها بترکيزها على خيار المقاومة المسلحة، وتقديمه کأولوية على الجانب الدعوي والاجتماعي. وباعتبارها أول تنظيم إسلامي وطني يتبني الجهاد والمقاومة ضد الکيان الإسرائيلي. وتتبني الحرکة برنامجا سياسيا معارضا لأية حلول سلمية مع کيان الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، وترفض الاعتراف بوجوده، وترفض کل اتفاقيات السلام معه، ومن ضمنها اتفاقية أوسلو التي عارضتها بقوة. وذلک استنادا إلى الاعتبارات الفکرية والأيديولوجية للحرکة، التي تعتبر أرض فلسطين أرض وقف إسلامي لا يجوز التخلي أو التنازل عن أي شبر منها. لذلک، اختلفت الحرکة مع منظمة التحرير وفصائلها المختلفة، من حيث الرؤى والمنطلقات وفي نظرتهم للقضية الفلسطينية والصراع مع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي ومشاريع التسوية والمقاومة المسلحة، والتبعية الفکرية والأيديولوجية. ورأت أن برنامجها السياسي ورؤيتها لحل الصراع مع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، غير قادرة على تحقيق هدف المشروع الوطني في التحرر والاستقلال. فالحرکة رفضت عملية التسوية السلمية والتفاوض مع الاحتلال، واعتبرت الصراع معه صراعا حضاريا ووجوديا. لذلک رفضت الحرکة الدخول في إطار منظمة التحرير بصيغتها ومواقفها السياسية القائمة، ورفضت المشارکة في الانتخابات التشريعية والرئاسية ومؤسسات السلطة. تمسک الحرکة وتشددها بمواقفها فيما يتعلق بوجود الکيان الصهيوني وسبل مواجهته، ومعارضتها لعملية التسوية ومخرجات اتفاقية أوسلو، وانتماؤها لمحور المقاومة، وبروزها في ميدان المقاومة المسلحة ضد الاحتلال والتصدي لاعتداءاته، واتخاذها مواقف حيادية في الخلاف والانقسام الداخلي الفلسطيني وتوسطها لحله، وعدم زج نفسها في صراعات جانبية، وتزايد حضورها في ميدان العمل الاجتماعي والخيري، منحها مصداقية في الشارع الفلسطيني، ولدى القوى والفصائل الفلسطينية المختلفة، ومکنها من تعزيز وجودها وثقلها السياسي على المستوى المحلي والإقليمي، بالإضافة إلى تزايد حضورها الشعبي. کما أخذت في السنوات الأخيرة تتصدر المشهد السياسي على المستوى الفلسطيني، نتيجة لدورها المتنامي إلى جانب حرکة حماس في مشهد التصدي للاعتداءات والحروب التي يشنها الاحتلال الإسرائيلي على الشعب الفلسطيني في قطاع غزة، على الرغم من تعرض الحرکة إلى تحديات ومصاعب کبيرة في نطاق نشاطها السياسي وعلاقاتها الخارجية. Abstract: Islamic Jihad is one of the most prominent movements of political Islam in Palestine, a group that adopts Salafist jihadist ideology and seeks to apply Islam in all aspects of life. The movement, like most of the movements of political Islam, emerged from under the cloak of the Muslim Brotherhood, but differed with it by focusing on the option of armed resistance, and presenting it as a priority on the advocacy and social side. And as the first national Islamic organization to embrace jihad and resistance against the Israeli entity. The movement adopts a political program opposed to any peaceful solutions with the Israeli occupation entity, refuses to recognize its existence, and rejects all peace agreements with it, including the Oslo agreement, which strongly opposed it. This is based on the ideological and ideological considerations of the movement, which considers the land of Palestine as the land of Islamic settlement. Therefore, the movement differed with the PLO and its various factions, in terms of visions and perspectives in their view of the Palestinian cause and the conflict with the Israeli occupation and settlement projects and armed resistance, intellectual and ideological dependence. And considered that its political program and vision to resolve the conflict with the Israeli occupation, is unable to achieve the goal of national project in the liberation and independence. The movement rejected the process of peaceful settlement and negotiation with the occupation, and considered the conflict with him a civilizational and existential conflict. Therefore, the movement refused to enter the framework of the PLO as it stands and its political positions, and refused to participate in the legislative and presidential elections and institutions of power The movement maintains and emphasizes its positions regarding the existence of the Zionist entity and the means to confront it, its opposition to the settlement process and the outcome of the Oslo Accords, its affiliation to the axis of resistance, its emergence in the field of armed resistance against the occupation and the response to its aggression, and taking neutral positions in the internal Palestinian dispute and division, And its increasing presence in the field of social and charitable work, giving it credibility in the Palestinian street, and in the various Palestinian factions and factions, and enabled it to strengthen its presence and political weight at the local and regional levels, Her popular involvement. In recent years it has also taken the lead in the Palestinian political scene as a result of its growing role alongside Hamas in confronting the attacks and wars waged by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip

Core-city climate leadership in metropolitan contractual management agreements

ABSTRACT Metropolitan governance and planning increasingly are understood as essential in managing urban growth and fostering a sustainable and climate-friendly metropolitan development. Lately, a contractual turn can be observed in metropolitan governance, in which traditional coordination tools are supplemented by contractual management tools between governmental layers and sectors. This article analyses two cases of metropolitan contractual management agreements, one in the Oslo region and one in the Gothenburg region. The article finds that both agreements build on regional strategies and plans to commit national authorities to invest in infrastructure in these metropolitan areas. The Oslo agreement has more layers than the Gothenburg case, in trying to align national, regional and local authorities’ efforts in both land use and mobility politics. The agreements require advanced leadership competence from the core-city, curbing centre-periphery tensions in metropolitan areas and building local alliances to pressure national authorities in agreement negotiations. We argue that this requires a co-creational leadership role, which, in a multilevel governance setting, must be extended to include dimensions such as distributional balance sensitivity, delineation sensitivity and upward pressure.

Achievements and barriers of renewable energy in Palestine: Highlighting Oslo Agreement as a barrier for exploiting RE resources

Oslo agreement was signed in 1993 between the Palestinians and the Israelis as a gesture of hope for the autonomy of the Palestinians on their lands. Palestinians lands was divided into three administrative regions: Areas A, B, and C. These divisions were signed as a temporary transitional period of 5 years, during which the transfer of control over areas C and B to the Palestinian National Authority, was not implemented until the time of writing this research. This work aims to shed light on the impact of the geopolitical division on the possibility of exploiting renewable energy resources on C areas, and the role of that in achieving the Palestinian vision of reducing total dependency on the Israeli side as a net importer of Energy. To conclude, 96% of the total potential of solar energy is in West Bank, while Gaza has only 163 MW. Area C obsesses over 62% of solar energy potential, while about 75% of the potential in area (A + B) is upon the roof tops. It is expected, 98% of the total renewable energy potential is solar energy potential. Only 0.12% of the total A and B lands are suitable for producing solar electricity.

The Oslo Agreement: A Study of the Conflict Peace Process Arabic-Israel

The Oslo Agreement is one of the most important peace processes between Israel and Palestinians aimed at resolving the prevailing conflict. Although this agreement can be seen as an ongoing process, the conflict remains the most troubling issue in the Middle East. This article describes the conflict identification and literature review related to the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (DOP) and the process of formalizing the Oslo Agreement. The conversation between the two parties involved, among others, interpreting rights, boundaries, housing and others. There are different perspectives and views regarding this agreement. Instead, this article analyzes the Oslo Accords including Oslo I and II which were signed in 1993 and 1995 to achieve security in the Middle East.

Game Theory in Israel’s Relation with the Palestinian Authority: Study of Israel’s Withdrawal to Borders of the Year 1967, a Model (1993-2018)

This study examines the concept of game theory, its objectives and its elements. It also reviews the Israeli Palestinian treaties and the international resolutions related to the issue of the Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories on the basis of borders of 4 June 1967 including Jerusalem, as one of the core issues for reaching a final status agreement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, the declaration of the establishment of a Palestinian state, ending the state of conflict between the two sides and reaching the stage of peaceful coexistence. The review involves clarifying the instruments and the techniques upon which Israel propped in applying this theory in its relation with the Palestinian Authority, and analysing the extent of gains or less achieved by both sides in this issue, in accordance with the concept of zero theory, or non- zero theory based games. The study had deduced that Israel confined in its strategy to employing the method of zero game with the Palestinian National Authority considering itself the stronger party who is able to exerting its pressures to achieve the greatest amount of gains, but the Palestinian leadership could not, till this moment achieve any gains rather the relinquishment it made by signing the Oslo Agreement were followed by subsequent relinquishment.

The Violent Rise of Palestine’s Lost Generation

The ‘Oslo generation,’ the youth of Palestine born after the 1993 Oslo Agreement, is Palestine’s lost generation. They have experienced a near complete exclusion from ordinary political participation, dominated by the elders of the Palestinian national movement. Their trust in the parent generation and the Palestinian National Authority has been undermined equally. The vacuum created by the weakened parental and national authority has been filled with youths who first and foremost follow their age peers. The protests and knife attacks seen in the West Bank during the autumn 2015 were obviously a protest against the Israeli occupation. However, they were also an expression of a clash of generations and the rise of a lost generation.

The Implications of Israel's Demand to Be Recognized by the Palestinians as a “Jewish State”

This article argues that the discourse of “Jewishness” was refashioned after the Oslo agreement and intensified by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu to serve as a major pillar for the demand of recognition. The Netanyahu government has its own hidden geopolitical agenda and significantly disadvantages the Palestinian side in their quest for a state of their own. It also blocks any genuine possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict. Significantly, from the territorial perspective, asking the Palestinians to recognize Israel's pre–June 1967 borders as a “Jewish” state means relinquishing a total of 77 % of the historical homeland of Palestine, in a kind of self-exit from this portion of the country, and, in effect, handing this land over to the Israeli political class to dominate the territory. Self-exit from this portion of Palestine also means that the “Palestinian right of return,” grounded in relevant UN resolutions and international law, would be abrogated, nullified by the Palestinians the...

Yitzhak Rabin: A Political Biography, by Leslie Derfler

Yitzhak Rabin: A Political Biography, by Leslie Derfler. New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014. 240 pp. $105.00 US (cloth). Resurrection is principal theme of this biography; Yitzhak Rabin's return in 1992 as prime minister of Israel twenty-five years after a three-year period (1974-77) that he himself considered a failure. Nine of eleven chapters review roles that Rabin filled during fifty years that preceded his reascent in 1992, when he led Labor Party to victory at polls. The first three chapters are Soldier, Hero (of 1967 Six Day War), and Ambassador (to United States). The next three deal with his first round as prime minister, political and personal issues leading to an early end to that term in office, and seven-year Interment of 1977 to 1984 (the title of chapter six), during much of which the nine o'clock news served as Rabin's chief source of daily information (p. 83). In 1984 Rabin became minister of defense, serving until 1990 demise of coalition in which Labor Party shared power with right-wing Likud. Chapters seven and eight examine Rabin's policies during those six years, including his tough approach to Intifada (Palestinian uprising) that erupted at end of 1987. The last three chapters cover Rabin's resurrection in 1992, 1993 Oslo Agreement over which he presided with long-time rival Shimon Peres, and his assassination in November 1995. Derfler writes that his biography shows admiration of Rabin but also tarnishes his image (p. viii). This sounds odd, for a researcher should not hesitate to criticize, and his study of Rabin is fair and balanced. Thus, Derfler points to Rabin's part in escalation that led to 1967 war and share in responsibility for disparagement of Arabs that contributed to Yom Kippur War of 1973. At same time, he acknowledges Rabin's capacity for both diplomatic flexibility and strategic adaptation. Rabin as second-time prime minister dealt with both Washington as ally and Palestinians as adversary in ways in which Likud's Yitzhak Shamir, his immediate predecessor, was simply incapable. Derfler emphasizes his inclusion of material from articles translated from Hebrew that were not available to earlier biographers. Evidence of a synthesis based on these sources appears in his treatment of facets of Rabin's policies and political relationships to which others have accorded less attention. Peres, minister of defense from 1974 to 1977, presented himself as principal realist in first Rabin government. The author notes that Rabin was therefore flabbergasted that Peres in mid-1975 proposed a withdrawal from strategic passes in Sinai peninsula that would leave neither Egypt nor Israel in control but place there a joint US-Soviet garrison (p. 56). Derfler describes Rabin's seven years (1977-1984) as a backbencher in Knesset (Israel's parliament), when his involvement in security matters was limited to a place on legislature's foreign affairs and defense committee. …

Violence and Statebuilding in a Borders Conflict Context: A Study of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

ABSTRACTViolence, while conceived of and defined as objective, is in reality a subjective phenomenon that takes on myriad forms (political, physical, and psychological). From a constructivist perspective, the identification of violence is contingent on conflicts to signify actions as legitimate; in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the experience of different forms of violence has meant that violence has come to acquire multiple meanings. This violence is legitimate from both Israeli and Palestinian points of view, and it creates and fulfils a cycle that perpetuates intractable conflict. This article aims to demonstrate how strongly this culture of violence has affected the state-formation process in this area, and it calls attention particularly to ongoing statebuilding processes in Palestine. The paper will also explore the intricacies related to violence and border definition in terms of ‘mapping practices’ and territoriality, and examine how, in the wake of the Oslo agreement, the Palestinian statebuilding process is created under the ruling power of the Israeli military force, restraining Palestinian capacity to create state bodies capable of establishing and retaining the monopoly of violence.

Rethinking Palestine: settler-colonialism, neo-liberalism and individualism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

The 1967 occupied Palestinian territories have undergone three major types of development since the Oslo agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel was signed in 1993 and the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994. These developments have brought far-reaching structural changes in Palestinian politics and society. They have rendered Palestinian communities – inside historic Palestine and outside - very vulnerable, and made collective action against collective colonial repression (including a third intifada) more difficult. The three developments are identified as: the emergence of a political discourse that evicts Palestinians from history and geography and denies them a national identity; the escalation of collective repression, and settler-colonization; and the localization of Palestinian politics and the atomization of Palestinian society (in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and probably elsewhere) under the impact of settler-colonialism and neo-liberalism.

COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY ENACTMENTS IN PALESTINE: ROOTS AND CURRENT MANIFESTATIONS

This article describes enactments of community‐centered work and a master's program at Birzeit University as manifestations of community psychology in Palestine. The early roots of community psychology may be traced back to the community organizing and grassroots activism evident during the first Intifada in 1987. These early enactments affirmed community voice and supported national liberation receded in the post‐1993 Oslo Agreement era when international donor funding and institutional arrangements privileged the establishment of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), focusing on Palestinian victims of military violence. These enactments tended towards unreflexive individualized modalities of community psychology. In contrast, the Birzeit program is positioned as an attempt to continue and develop the spirit and substance of the critical enactments contained in the first Intifada. This article embodies a case for the development of critical community psychology in Palestine given its history of prolonged colonial occupation and disenfranchisement.

A geopolítica e o conflito Palestino-Israelense: dos Acordos de Oslo à Primavera Árabe

O artigo procura interpretar a continuidade do conflito no Oriente Médio, tendo o intervalo entre as Conferências de Oslo e Camp David como referência. Questiona sobre os motivos que levaram a OLP e Israel a realizar uma drástica revisão de suas doutrinas e, mesmo assim, não terem conseguido fechar um acordo em 2000, apesar da relativa estabilidade política. A análise é tecida em duas etapas. Na primeira, apresenta um histórico diplomático das negociações intermediadas pela Noruega entre palestinos e israelenses. Na segunda, detalha as doutrinas e as estratégias políticas que guiaram as ações dos dois protagonistas desde a década de 1940 e como estes interagiram com o contexto internacional. Argumenta que os acordos de Oslo foram motivados pelo fim da Guerra Fria e as consequências regionais da primeira Guerra do Golfo de 1990. As revisões doutrinárias realizadas por Arafat e Rabin, no entanto, perderam fôlego no final da década de 1990, quando o sistema político regional sofreu uma crise de deslegitimação causada pela permanente crise social. Ausentes do cenário político, o pan-arabismo e a esquerda marxista propiciaram o fortalecimento do fundamentalismo islâmico, passando este a assumir o papel de força aglutinadora de oposição no mundo árabe. Em Israel, uma tendência similar ocorreu com a hegemonia dos partidos ultraconservadores, inimigos declarados dos acordos de Oslo. Palestinos e israelenses mergulham num intervalo de extrema violência, a "segunda Intifada", uma reedição das lutas existenciais da década de 1940. Todavia, as mudanças estruturais na vida política, originadas pela "primavera árabe", abrem hoje uma nova janela que favorece o pleito dos moderados palestinos e das forças progressistas no mundo Árabe. Conclui-se indagando se a esquerda israelense terá ambição e força suficientes para retomar a iniciativa política e negociar um fim pacífico para o conflito.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WEST BANK, PALESTINE

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories that occurred post Oslo Agreement. The paper has two main objectives: first, to examine with empirical evidence the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth; second, to explore the effect of two control variables on the relationship — checkpoints and international aid — which are unique to this particular study. Using data spanning over a course of sixteen years, various statistical methods were applied to explain the effect of variant levels of entrepreneurial activity on GDP and unemployment. The results show that contrary to a reservoir of research, entrepreneurship appeared to have no significant impact on economic growth. This can be explained by the fact entrepreneurial activity is expected to decrease as a result of growth in the economy as new jobs are created.

Effective aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

The Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, otherwise known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), have been a test case for international aid policies and practices for many years, especially since the Oslo agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993. Yet in many ways, the OPT are unique since they are not a state, not even a fragile state, therefore rendering the applicability of aid principles, as captured by the Paris Declaration, somehow problematic. Despite substantial aid flows over the last years, the problem of the absence of statehood is a fundamental block to development. Moreover, many aid programmes have been, partially at least, instrumentalised to stabilise the occupation. In the meantime, social and economic conditions have deteriorated. Although there are many reasons for that deterioration, we argue that the perpetuation of the Israeli occupation is the most important factor since it reproduces the social, political and economic dislocation of the OPT. This persisting occupation of the OPT, and the consequent external control over land, security, borders and so many other key elements of governance and sovereignty, explain the fact that the many attempts to make aid more ‘effective’, in the spirit of the aid effectiveness principles of the OECD, have failed.

The Palestinians in Israel: The Challenge of the Indigenous Group Politics in the ‘Jewish State'

The Palestinians in Israel are those Palestinians who remained on their land during the Nakba in 1948, and later became Israeli citizens. The political discourse of Palestinians in Israel has moved during the last two decades, since the Oslo agreement, from the individual achievements level to the politics of rights on the collective level, and to the politics of identity. This discourse is considered of utmost importance in the politics of indigenous marginalized groups within colonial entities. Similarly, it represents a change in the evolution of the political discourse of Palestinians in Israel throughout the last two decades. In the following article we will analyze the main political changes that occurred among the Palestinian minority in Israel since 1948 and the main challenges that they raise for the Palestinians in facing the “Jewish state”.

Do collective actions clear common air? The effect of international environmental protocols on sulphur emissions

This paper considers the effects of voluntary international environmental protocols on emissions, in particular the effect of the 1985 Helsinki Protocol and the 1994 Oslo Protocol on the reduction of sulphur oxides. The analysis employs panel data from 30 European countries over the period between 1960 and 2002. We divide all countries into ‘signatories’ and ‘controls’, i.e., those that have signed and ratified a specific protocol and those that have not. Using a difference-in-difference panel data regression model, including yearly dummies and country-specific quadratic growth trajectories, we find no significant effect of either the Helsinki or the Oslo agreement in reducing sulphur emissions.