Summary
The bilateral-negotiations process conceived at Madrid in 1991, which Razek argues “has instead consolidated a dire reality for Palestinians of permanent occupation by a nuclear military power with an ever-expanding settler-colonial enterprise” rather than bringing a just peace (Thirty Years On: The Ruse of the Middle East Peace Process, lines 141, 189).
Details
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Its framework is direct bilateral negotiations based on Liberal negotiation theory; Razek argues that framing, in a liberation struggle under military occupation, is “thoroughly iniquitous” and doomed to fail, serving only to consolidate Israel’s settler-colonial agenda (lines 143, 193).
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Its three structural failures, in Razek’s account: no mutual terms of reference or good faith; imbalance with no clear timeline, the interim period leveraged as a permanent process; and no honest third-party broker or accountability mechanism, the US being Israel’s military and diplomatic supporter (lines 145-161).
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Its only documented outcome is the Oslo Accords, which remain the only framework in place despite expiring in 1999 (lines 211, 241).
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Israel perpetuates it, in Razek’s account, by creating facts on the ground, narrative manipulation and victim blaming, and bullying the international community (lines 253-285).
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Razek’s prescription is that the international community “Recognize the futility and unsuitability of the MEPP framework” and center a political process on the fulfilment of human rights (lines 171, 293).
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Nimer gives the process’s discursive mechanism: the framing of Palestinian rejectionism dominated how the international community dealt with Palestinians during the peace process years, whose talks were always, first and foremost, about securing Israeli interests without concern for Palestinian rights, so Palestinian challenges to demands such as inequitable land swaps were continuously painted as outright rejections to peace (The Enduring and Racist Trope of Palestinian Rejectionism, line 161).
Related pages
Thirty Years On: The Ruse of the Middle East Peace Process, Madrid Conference, Oslo Accords, Liberal negotiation theory, Two-state solution, Palestinian Authority