Summary
The July 2000 summit at which Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak met Yasir Arafat at President Clinton’s invitation; Makdisi answers the repeated claim of a generous Israeli offer rejected by Arafat from the published accounts of Israeli, American and Palestinian negotiators: no offer was formally presented in writing (Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, PDF p.134-135).
Details
- What was discussed would have given Palestinians nominal sovereignty over most of the West Bank, with dozens of settlements and a formidable Israeli military presence remaining, the Jordan Valley and the eastern third of the West Bank under Israeli military control, and borders, airspace, water and the settler road network under Israeli control and off-limits to Palestinians (PDF p.135).
- The proposed Palestinian “capital” would have been in Abu Dis, a Jerusalem suburb, rather than in Jerusalem proper; 10 percent of the West Bank’s most fertile land would have been annexed to Israel, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians there stateless or forced to move (PDF p.135).
- In reality Palestinians were offered physical access to somewhat over half of the West Bank — the Oslo “interim solution” made permanent and irreversible (PDF p.135).
- Jimmy Carter, in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, quoted by Makdisi: “There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive,” yet official statements from Washington and Jerusalem placed the onus for the failure on Arafat (PDF p.135).
- Pappe’s account of the same breakdown, centred on the Right of Return Oslo had excluded, is kept on the Oslo Accords page.
Related pages
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, Oslo Accords, Ehud Barak, Yasir Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Second Intifada