by Claire Snegaroff
JERUSALEM, Dec 29 (AFP) - After 15 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and with a political resolution only the faintest of hopes, the Oslo accords of 1993 seem a distant memory, though they made their mark in history.
For those who are opposed to the agreements ever seeing the full light of day, they remain unfulfilled, with little hope of success.
Responsibility for that rests first and foremost with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who bluntly declared in October that the (Oslo) agreements were "dead."
However, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority still insists on the accords being put into effect, while the Palestinian opposition, headed by the Islamist movements, reputes any value they may have.
The agreements,signed in Washington on September 13, 1993 by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), set out a formula for the Palestinians and Israelis to reach a final agreement on the status of the Palestinian territories by May 1999, on the basis of mutual recognition.
In September 1999, a new agreement signed in Sharm el-Sheikh by Labour Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat laid down the groundwork for a final agreement to be reached by September 13, 2000.
In the meantime, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations conducted under the auspices of then US president Bill Clinton ran aground over the controversial issues of the status of Jerusalem and the refugee issue.
Then, at the end of September 2000, the intifada erupted. For the architect of the Oslo accords, Labour deputy Yossi Beilin, the failure of the Oslo process is laid squarely at the door of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996 to 1999.
"I would not say that the Palestinians bear no responsibility for the failure but Benjamin Netanyahu did everything possible to kill the Oslo process," he told AFP.
Mutual confidence, which formed the backbone of the agreement, was shattered.
Even before the outbreak of the intifada, the Palestinians complained that Israel had reneged on its side of the deal by increasing its settlements, with the number of settlers doubling from the 1993 figure to over 200,000.
Despite their expansionism, many Israelis claim to doubt Palestinian intentions, accusing Arafat of failing to renounce the goal of destroying the Jewish state.
"The Oslo principle based on trust was a mistake," says political analyst Ghassan Khatib.
"We were expecting people to fall into one another's arms prior to resolving the root causes of the conflict, while what was needed was to address the central issues."
The Oslo process has nevertheless left imprints that even the rightwing, albeit opposed to the agreeements, cannot wholeheartedly contest.
In 1994, Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza after 27 years of exile.
Elected to the presidency, he heads the Palestinian Authority, which today controls fully or partially 42 percent of the West Bank and more than 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Even if Yasser Arafat is considered "irrelevant" by the Sharon government, which has placed him under virtual house arrest in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority he heads is still the only negotiating partner for Israel.
And even if military incursions have become commonplace since Sharon's arrival in power in February, no Israeli government has dared question the border issue with the Palestinian territories, nor seek to suppose a permanent return by the Jewish state's army into autonomous Palestinian lands.
cls-ms/rp/al AFP
Copyright (c) 2001 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 12/28/2001 09:55:24
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