Palestinians after the Oslo Accords

Reviewed by: Dr Hisham Khatib

The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace

Cheryl A. Rubenberg

USA, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003

xv + 485 pp., 23 maps, 14 tables, 1 figure

This book, published last year in the United States, is authored by Cheryl Rubenberg, an independent analyst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and former associate professor of political science at Florida International University.

The author explains that after living for more than three-and-half decades under occupation by Israel - and ten years after the Oslo Accords were heralded as the first step towards the resolution of a century of conflict - the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza struggle daily with conditions of severe economic, social and psychological deprivation.

Rubenberg tries to explain the dismal failure of the post-Oslo peace process, and also what propels the prolonged and devastating upheaval known as Al Aqsa Intifada. The author's forceful, penetrating critique of the Oslo Accords and its aftermath points to the starkly contrasting objectives of Israel and the Palestinians.

Rubenberg conveys how Israeli policies have eroded Palestinian commitment to a peace process, how US intervention has affected the region, and how pervasive corruption within the Palestinian government has played a role. Her sombre conclusion supports the contention that peace in the region, while hoped for by many, depends entirely on unlikely shifts in policy and objectives on all sides; which leaves the Palestinians further from realising their aspirations for self-determination than at any time since 1967.

In very frank and lucid analysis, Rubenberg explains that after the September 1993 Oslo Accords, many people thought that this was the first step of the Palestinians' journey to statehood. It is the author's thesis, however, that Israel never intended to withdraw from the occupied territories based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 or to permit the emergence of a territorially contiguous, genuinely independent Palestinian state. Moreover, she contends that the eruption of Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000 (the second Palestinian uprising) was a direct result of the failure of the Oslo peace process.

Rubenberg argues that the Oslo process was doomed to fail from the outset because of the two-stage structure of the process, the fact that Israel's interests were specifically protected while the rights of the Palestinians were either left open to interpretation or omitted, and the absence of an impartial ombudsman. Moreover, the Oslo Accords were based on conflicting and mutually exclusive objectives.

The Palestinians believed that the peace process would culminate in a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Israelis believed that the process could serve to terminate the conflict with the Palestinians while still maintaining Tel Aviv's basic aims - including retention of the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, preventing the return of refugees, preserving Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, and continuing control over water, external borders, economic issues, security and so on.

Chapter 2 of the book also examines in detail the issue of refugees and the right of return as a substantive illustration of the fatal flaws in the Oslo Accords.

Chapter 5 focuses on Jerusalem, illuminating Israel's efforts to de-Arabise the city so as to ensure its permanent character and status as a sovereign Jewish entity. It also looks at Jerusalem from a geopolitical perspective - as the fulcrum from which roads and infrastructures have been created to bind together settlement blocs in the northern, central and southern West Bank, ensuring a permanent Israeli presence and carving up into isolated cantons the geographic area that would be Palestine.

Chapter 7 considers the US role in the Oslo process and contextualises it in the history of US policy towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. US support for Israel, at least since 1967, has been constant, steadfast and unwavering. Many US policy makers believe that Israel serves as a valuable strategic asset to US interests in the Middle East; the US-Israeli partnership is also the result of the widespread perception among US citizens that Israel and the United States have common values and democratic institutions. Thus, acceding to Israel's wishes, US policy has been consistent in its rejection of basic Palestinian rights and aspirations.

In the view of the author, the responsibility of the United States for the failure of Oslo is major and must be recognised.

Chapter 8 contemplates Al Aqsa Intifada as an expression of the despair and impoverishment of the Palestinians after years of unfulfilled promises and dramatically worsening life situations. It also considers Israel's political and military responses to the Palestinian uprising and the cycle of violence that has ensued.

By way of conclusion, in Chapter 9, the author considers the current Palestinian condition, looking at the complete Israeli reoccupation of the West Bank and its partial reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. It is a situation of humanitarian disaster, widespread collective punishment, fears of mass expulsion, total absence of a peace process and unmitigated despair and hopelessness. It concludes on a hopeful note, with a discussion of the multiple grassroots movements from around the globe, including Israel, that is working on behalf of the Palestinians. Rubenberg prays and hopes that their collective energy, courage and commitment may well prove to be a countervailing force to the traditional dictum that "might makes right".

Monday, June 7, 2004