The Oslo I Accord was adopted by the Israeli government on August 30, 1993, which was thirty years ago.
The meeting’s minutes were kept “top secret” until the State Archives made them available to the public on Tuesday.
The minutes reveal the government ministers’ worries about the course they are going to take, including Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Oslo Accords were an effort to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs by giving Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, authority over territories under Israeli control (beginning with a portion of the Gaza Strip and the Jericho region).
The opponents of the accords cautioned that Arafat would not betray his past as the man who gave rise to modern terrorism.
Their warnings turned out to be accurate since Arafat unleashed an unparalleled wave of terrorism against the Israeli people, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews.
At the discussion, which was also attended by 17 other members of the government and the then-IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, Rabin expressed his misgivings while publicly rejecting the warnings of Oslo’s critics and standing up for the accords.
According to the minutes, Rabin stated at the opening that “this is a difficult deal.” Of course, the language would have been much better if we had been bargaining with ourselves. Although some of the wording is cold, we must nevertheless treat everyone.
Additionally, nothing was expected of the other team, according to Rabin. “There is very little commitment on their part,” he claimed.
Shimon Peres, the foreign minister of Israel, reportedly informed Rabin that the Palestinians would make a declaration about putting an end to terrorism. He did, however, follow up by saying, “I do not know how it is formulated or to what extent it is part of the deal.
Interjecting, Peres said, “Cessation of violent actions.” “I sincerely hope that this is a situation, and we must ascertain what the statement is. Is that a text? Who makes this declaration? Is it also written down somewhere? in the appendix?
This isn’t airtight, according to Rabin.
In his 1993 book, The New Middle East, Peres, who spoke after him, predicted a messianic future for the area.
He cautioned attendees at the gathering that “there is a possibility that the whole PLO business will fall apart and there will be a kind of Hamas-Iran here.
Both Rabin and Peres adopted the position that the government was limited in its options if it wished to pursue a peace settlement.
According to Rabin, there is a good probability that negotiations involving the Americans and the Syrians will result in an agreement.
According to Peres, there were no further collaborators on the other side. What would happen if the PLO suddenly vanished? To whom will we speak? What will we bargain over? Who will we bargain with?
“I’ve detected very serious problems with implementing the security aspect of this agreement,” declared Barak, who would later make significant concessions to Arafat in his capacity as prime minister.
“Palestinian police officers who received their training in Jordan already exist.
They could bring additional personnel, such as members of the Palestine Liberation Army or other similar groups who have experience in military or paramilitary Palestinian organizations, the man stated.
Barak questioned if the IDF and Palestinian police could work together to extradite wanted individuals or prevent a terrorist strike in territory under Palestinian authority.
“It won’t be easy to properly act against it when we have knowledge about wanted individuals in Jabaliya or a terrorist assault being planned in one of the refugee camps.
There is always a chance that Palestinian police field agents will provide information to individuals preparing a terrorist assault, the official said.
Then-Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of the religious Shas party asserted that, despite the strong pro-peace sentiments of his party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas voters were “quite right-wing,” placing importance on cities like Nablus (Shechem) and Hebron (both of which would later come under Palestinian control). “The public finds it very challenging to accept this.”
Despite the opposition of the government, the Oslo Accords were approved by 16 votes, with two abstentions coming from Deri and Labor Party Minister Shimon Shetreet. On the White House lawn, in front of American representatives, Rabin and Arafat signed the Oslo Accords two weeks later, on September 13, 1993. Bill Clinton is the president.
The protocol still has certain classified sections. The first 20 years’ worth of it will be published, as will the remaining 60.
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