When Israel Abolishes Oslo... The Fall of the Illusion that Bound Palestinians for Thirty Years

It is shocking irony that today the Israeli right, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, is demanding the annulment of the Oslo Accords, the Hebron Agreement, and the Wye River Agreement, while some Palestinians still cling to these agreements as a political reference or a national achievement... Israel itself, after more than thirty years, clearly announces that the phase during which it needed Oslo has ended, and that the agreements which granted it time, cover, and calm are no longer necessary.

The truth that many avoid saying is that Oslo was never a liberation project; rather, it was a project to reorganize the occupation in a manner less costly for Israel and more costly for the Palestinians... Oslo reproduced the occupation in a new form... an occupation without direct friction, without full administrative burdens, and without daily responsibility for the population, while the land, crossings, water, economy, borders, and sovereignty all remained in Israel's hands....

The most dangerous outcome produced by Oslo was not only the division of land into areas (A, B, C), but rather the creation of a complete political reality based on illusion... the illusion of a national authority that appeared in form as a political entity, while in essence it was a limited self-management under the roof of occupation.

The Palestinian Authority was not established as an embodiment of independence, but as part of the security and political system that Israel arranged after the first Intifada... Instead of bearing the direct cost of occupation, a Palestinian entity was created to manage the population, pay salaries, organize civil life, and regulate internal security, while Israel remained in control of the final decision in everything.... even the simplest details of Palestinian life remained tied to the will of the occupation... crossings, movement, economy, taxes, population registry, imports, exports, communications, and energy... Thus, the authority turned into a body without true sovereignty, besieged by agreements, and constrained by security coordination, and financially and politically beholden to Israel and donors...

Through a comprehensive view of what has happened and is happening in the aftermath of Oslo, we notice that this agreement entrenched settlement rather than ending it... When Oslo was signed, it was marketed as a transitional phase leading to a Palestinian state.... But what actually happened? The settlement multiplied several times... the West Bank was torn apart by barriers and bypass roads. Israeli control over Jerusalem expanded.

And the Palestinian areas turned into isolated islands... Oslo did not stop the settlement project, but rather provided the ideal environment for its growth... While Palestinians were busy building the authority and the institutions of self-rule, Israel was building realities on the ground, reshaping the geography in a way that made any future Palestinian state almost impossible... the result is that Palestinians gradually lost land while they were waiting for negotiations for the final solution that never came...

The effects of Oslo did not stop at the West Bank, but extended to the Gaza Strip, which during the years of Oslo transformed into a battleground of repeated wars and ongoing aggression. Since the signing of the agreement until today, Gaza has witnessed a long series of wars, incursions, sieges, and destruction, culminating in the last genocide against the strip, while the Oslo Authority appeared helpless even to possess a real political or field decision to confront what is happening, due to the structural, political, and security constraints imposed by the agreements themselves... It has become clear that the authority, which was presented as a nucleus of the state, was unable to protect its people or defend Gaza against the Israeli war machine, but found itself shackled by commitments of coordination and political and financial ties that placed it outside the equation of actual confrontation.

Over the years, security coordination has ceased to be just a clause within the agreement; it has turned into a political and security doctrine governing the relationship with the occupation. Here, the harshest face of Oslo emerged... Instead of the authority being a tool to protect the Palestinian people from the occupation, it was shackled by a security coordination system that became part of the structure of the agreement itself... This reality created a deep division within the Palestinian consciousness, as large sectors felt that Oslo was no longer just a failed political agreement, but had transformed into a constraint on resistance and on Palestinian capacity to confront the occupation... Even the authority, in the eyes of many, gradually turned into a security agent managing the stability required by Israel, by pursuing resistance, besieging its popular environment, and drying up its social, cultural, and political incubators, serving the security of the occupation more than the Palestinian national project. Thus, many Palestinians no longer view Oslo as a faltering peace process, but as a phase that contributed to weakening the national project and dismantling the tools of Palestinian struggle...

As for Jerusalem, which should have been the essence of the political and national struggle, it became one of the greatest victims of this path during the years of Oslo. Since the file of Jerusalem was postponed to the negotiations for the final solution, Israel exploited the time to entrench the policy of isolation and Judaization and to impose realities on the ground. Settlements around the city expanded unprecedentedly, and Jerusalem was separated from its Palestinian surroundings by walls, barriers, and security control, while Palestinians faced policies of identity removal, home demolitions, and economic, social, and religious restrictions... Over time, the city became gradually isolated from its national and political extension, while the processes of "Israeliization" and "Judaization" targeting the Arab, Islamic, and Christian identity of Jerusalem deepened... The Islamic and Christian holy sites were not spared from the repercussions of this path, as Al-Aqsa Mosque witnessed continuous escalation in incursions and attempts to impose temporal and spatial division, alongside repeated attacks on churches and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. Amid all this, the Palestinian Authority remained incapable of changing the realities or protecting the city and its holy sites, after the cause was drained of elements of actual strength and transformed into an open bet on negotiations that produced nothing but more Israeli control.

As for the refugees, which historically represented the core of the Palestinian issue, it was also relegated to what was called final status negotiations, becoming over time a postponed and politically marginalized file... Millions of Palestinian refugees remained outside of any real solution, while Israel invested the years of Oslo to entrench its refusal of the right of return and to end any political horizon related to this issue. Thus, one of the most important Palestinian national rights was left hanging without a horizon, while the status of the refugee issue gradually declined in official political discourse under the pressure of the agreements and the new international and regional realities.

In light of this reality and these facts, the most important question that arises is... why does Israel want to dispose of Oslo now...? I believe the answer becomes clear that Israel has achieved most of what it wanted from it... that Oslo served its Israeli function... politically ended the first Intifada... transferred the burden of the Palestinian population to the authority... granted Israel official Palestinian recognition... opened the door to international and regional normalization... and weakened the idea of comprehensive liberation in favor of the project of the delayed state...

From here, the Israeli right sees that it no longer needs even the political cover provided by the agreements... The balance of power tilts completely in its favor, the settlement has expanded, the Palestinian division prevails, and the world is no longer pressing as it did in the 1990s... Therefore, the project to annul Oslo appears as a clear declaration that Israel considers the transitional phase to have ended, and that it wants to entrench the reality of permanent control without any political commitment towards the Palestinians.

In the glaring conclusion, we can say that the established equation now states that the fall of Oslo means the fall of the illusion... and the great irony is that Israel, which benefited from Oslo more than any other party, is the one that today practically announces the death of the agreement... This reveals the truth that many have tried to ignore... Oslo did not establish a Palestinian state; it managed the conflict in a way that serves the occupation... It did not end Israeli control; it rearranged it... It did not grant Palestinians sovereignty; it granted them limited management under Israeli domination... Therefore, the discussion today should not be about saving Oslo, but about a comprehensive review of the entire stage... How did the Palestinian cause transform from a national liberation issue into a civil administration under occupation? How did the Palestinian become required to protect the stability that protects the occupation itself...?

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the project to annul Oslo is that it not only announces the end of a political agreement, but reveals after three decades the extent of the illusion that this entire path was built upon....