Ever since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, attempts at peace between Israel and the Palestinian people have been made without much success. According researchers T. Dana and A. Jabarwi, one of the main reasons for the multiple failures of peace-making policies and accords is the pursuit of colonisation in the West Bank by Israel.
The failure of the Oslo Accords
After the first Gulf War in 1991, the Bush administration insisted on solving the « middle eastern problem » by convincing both parties to accept a compromise In the meantime, Norway facilitates the formation of a channel of discussion between members of the Israeli government and of the Palestinian intellectual elite, who negotiate a treaty signed in 1993 : the Oslo Accords. They create the Palestinian Authority as an autonomous authority, allow the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) to return to the occupied territories and allow Y. Arafat to become the President of the PA. The latter takes control of certain areas of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Furthermore, they provide for the division of the West Bank and Gaza territories into three temporary zones. However, they leave open several issues that are largely responsible for the tensions between the two parties today: the status of East Jerusalem, the question of the right of return of Palestinians, the question of the final borders between the PA and Israel, and the future of the Jewish settlements formed after 1967 in the West Bank.
The consequence of the expansion of settlements
The main issue is that the settlements are protrusions into West Bank territory, typically where there are resources. Their presence makes a potential Palestinian state unviable. Moreover, settlements have also expanded, well beyond the wall built by Israel to separate itself from the West Bank, which already did not respect the internationally recognised borders. This has created an increasingly violent movement in the Palestinian territories, the second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. And protests movements still take place today, as we witnessed it in may 2022 following the death of the Palestinian and American journalist S. Abu Akleh.
Colonisation : an obstacle to peace
Colonisation poses many problems on the Israeli side, because the settlers consider that it is their right to settle on this land, and on the Palestinian side, where the populations do not accept the installation of settlers. But it also poses a problem from the point of view of the international community, because, as it is carried out today, this colonisation is illegal under international law. Attempts at peace have been made, but without much success, because the issue of settlement is at the centre of Israeli and Palestinian concerns, and therefore also at the heart of the interests of the governments of both parties, on which the populations put pressure, thus preventing any peace process from succeeding.
Sources :
Avi Shlaim : War and peace in the Middle East et The iron wall: the history between Israel and the Arab World
Edward Said: Peace and its discontents
Michel Warchawski : La frontière Ilan Pappe : A History of Modern Palestine: one land, two people
Tariq Dana and Ali Jabarwi : A century of setller colonialism in Palestine : Zionism’s entangled project
“Des heurts éclatent entre Palestiniens et policiers israéliens en Cisjordanie” (23/07/2021), France 24
“Colonies israéliennes en Cisjordanie : près d’un demi-siècle d’occupation illégale” (31/07/2018), Le Monde
“Cinquante ans d’occupation illégale en Cisjordanie : comment la colonisation n’a cessé de s’étendre” (29/01/2020), Le Monde
“Israël et l’“ annexion rampante” des colonies” (12/11/2018), Le Monde
“Tant que la question palestinienne ne sera pas réglée, le conflit reviendra régulièrement sur le devant de la scène” (17/05/2021), Le Monde
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