Israel Mulls Revoking Oslo Accords In Response To Palestinian UN Bid
By KUNA
Israel is looking into calling off the Oslo Accords in response to the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral plan to gain United Nations recognition for an independent state, Haaretz Israeli daily reported on Monday.
The Prime Minister’s Bureau confirmed yesterday that The Israeli National Security Council (NSC) was discussing many alternatives ahead of September, and would be presenting them to the political echelon for a decision when it was done, it added.
Israeli officials did confirm that recent discussions held by head of NSC Yaakov Amidror had mentioned the option of voiding the Oslo Accords. However, this is not considered a leading alternative, they said. “It is one of the options that will be presented to the political echelon,” a source said.
Meanwhile, the PA is continuing its preparations ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in September. Palestinian ambassadors who met in Istanbul over the past two days were informed that a meeting on the final draft of the UN resolution would be held in Doha, Qatar, with representatives of the PA, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on August 4, the newspaper mentioned.
The resolution will call on the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as a full UN member, it stated. The Palestinian diplomats were instructed to launch a public relations campaign among international Jewish communities, in an attempt to explain the significance of the move.
Meanwhile, Israel is working to rally support from states to oppose the UN move. It is also making preparations for the “day after.” A senior Israeli official said that three weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Amidror to start drafting day-after plans with other government bodies. These include recommending a potential Israeli political response, it added.
In 1993, the government of the state of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) began a series of secret discussions on relations between the two groups called the Oslo Accords in hopes of resolving the deep-seated tensions between them.
The accords reached at Oslo set forth a process by which Israel would transfer portions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the control of a new body, the Palestinian Authority, which would be elected by the Palestinian people.
On 13 September 1993, the DOP was formally signed. United States President Bill Clinton hosted the official signing ceremony.
September 1995, the Oslo Accords were followed up with an interim agreement (Oslo II).
