Oslo and its impact on the Palestinian people

(CHICAGO 09/12/2013) -- Friday marks 20 years since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Peace Accords on the White House lawn, thereby

cementing an agreement that guaranteed perpetual degradation of nearly all aspects of Palestinian life. 

Oslo entrenched the occupation and absolved Israel from its economic ramifications, which has enabled it to invest in and expand Jewish settlements on Palestinian land exponentially. In addition, Oslo created the Palestinian National Authority, a virtual puppet government that, among other things, has established a state security apparatus that acts as a proxy for Israeli police and military forces. No longer can Palestinians move freely in their own land. Nor can they find meaningful and self-sustaining jobs. They are incarcerated, hounded, harassed and threatened at every turn by the IOF, the PA and militant Jewish settlers. 

The accords which, when signed in 1993, were to have created a Palestinian state within five years, have deceived and betrayed the Palestinian people. They contained a timeline that laid the path to peace, release of prisoners, Israeli withdrawal from Palestinians lands and self-determination for the Palestinians. Within two months, on Nov. 25, 1993, Rabin had reneged on the first deadline to withdraw troops from Gaza and the Jericho region, saying “the date was not sacred,” according to former Time Jerusalem Bureau Chief Donald Neff. Since then Israel has broken every deadline and reneged on most elements in the accords with impunity and with support from the United States. 

 But instead of stopping settlement construction, the number of settlers living illegally in the West Bank has at least tripled since 1993. Instead of releasing political prisoners, tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children have been incarcerated in Israeli prisons illegally. Instead of statehood, Palestinians have lost their freedom of movement and are isolated into Bantustans by the Apartheid Wall, checkpoints, bypass roads and buffer zones. Instead of unification, the Palestinian people are fragmented in the Diaspora, Gaza, the West Bank and within Israel. 

Secretary of State John Kerry convened a new round of peace talks that promise nothing but the status quo. With the appointment of former AIPAC employee Martin Indyk as special envoy, the US has once again shown we are not an honest broker in the Middle East. Our unconditional diplomatic, political and financial support of Israel has hurt our standing in the Arab and Muslim worlds, has made incredible our claims of moral guidance and also has damaged or own national security.

On this, the 20^th anniversary of this dark day in Palestinian history, the American Muslims for Palestine unequivocally denounces the Oslo Accords and the suffering they have wrought. We also call upon President Barack Obama, Secretary Kerry and members of Congress to hold Israel accountable for its continued and flagrant violations of international law. The US must immediately withhold aid to Israel until it ends its siege on Gaza, ends the occupation, ceases settlement construction and returns that land to Palestinians and allow Palestinian refugees the right of return. After 20 years, negotiations to nowhere must end and action to rectify decades-long injustice against the Palestinian people must begin.