Summary
Author of Chapter 20 of From the River to the Sea, “The Oslo illusion” (first published in Jacobin, 21 April 2013, updated and extended for the ebook, 8 December 2023), arguing that Oslo’s real aim was not ending the occupation but deepening Israeli control while cultivating a Palestinian social base invested in the status quo (From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, lines 1488-1581).
Details
- “There was no contradiction between support for the “peace process” and deepening colonization—the former consistently worked to enable the latter.” (line 1510)
- The Palestinian Authority’s dependence is structural: under the Paris Protocol Israel controlled all external borders and imports/exports, and between 1995 and 2000, 60 percent of total PA revenue came from indirect taxes collected by Israel (lines 1527-1531).
- A Palestinian capitalist class formed through fusion of Gulf “returnee” capitalists, historic large landowners and occupation interlocutors, drawing wealth from proximity to the PA — monopolies, exclusive permits and customs exemptions — with accumulation tied to Israeli consent (lines 1541-1547).
- His conclusion, restated in the 2023 postscript, is a single democratic state across historic Palestine, argued on class and imperial grounds rather than liberal citizenship alone: “Oslo may be dead, but its putrid corpse is not one that any Palestinian should hope to resuscitate.” (lines 1567-1579)
Related pages
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, Oslo Accords, Palestinian Authority, Paris Protocol, One-state solution, Edward Said