Learning from the Oslo Accords to foster a new rights-based approach to peace for Palestinians and Israelis
A quarter of a century since the signing of the first of the Oslo Accords, the ‘peace process’ has seen a crippled Palestinian economy, a quadrupling of the number of settlers in illegal Israeli settlements, the entrenchment of the 52-year Occupation and no genuine prospects for peace for Palestinians, Israelis or the wider region. Young Palestinians – and especially women – are carrying the burden of these failures.
This paper draws on interviews conducted in 2019 with a broad range of Palestinian, Israeli and other front-row observers of the Oslo process. It focuses on the wider aspects of Palestinian and Israeli engagement in negotiations, and the impact of the Accords as experienced today.
As the international community reflects on the 26 years of the Oslo process, there is an opportunity to develop a new, inclusive, principled and rights-based approach to building peace. Key actors must take urgent concrete steps to end the stalemate and foster peace under new and clear paradigms.