The Oslo Accords were series of interim agreements reached between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel starting in 1993, which led to a US-brokered “peace processs” that was purported to lead to Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. Although the Oslo process broke down by 2000, many of its interim measures—including the formation of the Palestinian Authority and the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C—remain in place today. Throughout the Oslo period Israel was in constant breach of its commitment not to “initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip”,[1] by continuing its expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. From 1993 to 2000 the population of these settlements rose dramatically from 263,000 to 357,000.[2]
Sources
- Oslo II Accord. 1995. Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip Art.XXXI
- Sum of West Bank and East Jerusalem figures in B'Tselem. 2010. Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank. p10
