The Oslo Accords

Abstract

On 13 September 1993, on the White House lawn in Washington and under the triumphant, patronising gaze of President Clinton, Yassir Arafat, leader of the PLO, shook hands with Shimon Peres, foreign minister of Israel. That day what became known as the Declaration of Principles (DoP) was signed by Peres, Abu Mazan (Mahmoud Abbas, a PLO official), on behalf of the Palestinians, and Johan Joergen Holst, the Norwegian foreign minister. This was a peace agreement providing for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho, the handing over of these two areas to Palestinian authority, and a lesser degree of self-rule for the remainder of the West Bank. It was hailed by President Clinton as a giant step forward from the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt in 1978. Although internationally welcomed as a breakthrough, it was greeted with hostility by many Palestinians and Israelis.