Peace as we know it in Europe has never existed in Israel and Palestine. There have been some periods of low intensity or latent violence. In others, the most common, the conflict became bloody and deadly, reaching high levels of cruelty. happened Israel’s five major bombing campaigns LoopHamas bus attacks, wars with Arab countries, intifadas or popular uprisings… Systematic oppression and blockade continued in the West Bank and Gaza even during periods of apparent peace when the issue disappeared from Western television.
But there were also brief periods when peace seemed possible. The most obvious of these was after the Oslo Accords in 1993. Israeli leftist Labor Party Isaac Rabin and historical Palestinian leader, Yasser ArafatHe went to Washington to seal the rapprochement by shaking hands in front of a man’s eyes. Bill Clinton smiling.
“As soon as those agreements were signed and the first withdrawal movements of the Israeli army from the occupied areas began, There was enthusiasm among the Palestinian peoplewith. I especially remember the city of Bethlehem [en la Cisjordania palestina]“People went out into the streets, threw flowers and shouted with joy in a classical Arabic song,” he explains to this newspaper. Teresa ArangurenHe is someone who has personally experienced this entire process as a journalist. “They really thought the occupation was over. They were told that the process would end with the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem within five years.”
The exiled armed group, the Palestine Liberation Organization, renounced armed struggle. In return, Israel It will allow the return of its leader Yasser Arafat, who entered Palestine via Gaza before walking to Ramallah, which is very close to Jerusalem, establishing the Palestinian National Authority thereit was to become the embryo of the future State of Palestine. In return, a five-year window to negotiate a permanent agreement was undertaken. Fundamental issues such as Israel’s military presence in the West Bank, the return of Palestinians expelled by Israel in the last century, the disintegration of Israeli colonies or the status of Jerusalem were left unresolved.
Hamas opposition and Rabin assassination
The public’s enthusiasm did not last long. The Palestinian people were dedicated. According to polls conducted at the time, at least two-thirds of the public supported the peace initiative. However, both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist group, and fledgling Islamist organization Hamas, they felt that too much had been given and that there was no guarantee that the proposals would be followed through. The agreement was based on goodwill and the aim was to first create a dialogue dynamic and then see.
On the Israeli side, there was even more division. Isaac Rabin was portrayed as a neo-Nazi on posters for major demonstrations against the agreement. Right-wing leaders, including the current prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu cheers ultra-Orthodox crowd and ultra-nationalists.
His anger subsided. On November 4, 1995, after a demonstration in support of the Oslo Accords, Jewish ultranationalist Yigal Amir approached Rabin in Tel Aviv’s Kings of Israel Square and He fired three shots with a semi-automatic pistol. until you kill him. Yasser Arafat went secretly to convey his condolences to Leah Rabin, the widow of the assassinated prime minister. The most radical sections of Zionism had succeeded in putting an end to Rabin’s pragmatic vision of the need for a change of course in Israel’s future, away from the eternal use of force to guarantee Israel’s security. The Israeli politician told the world: “Enough blood and tears!” he shouted.
A year and a half later, Benjamin Netanyahu came to power and declared the agreements to be a dead letter. Since then, life for Palestinians has systematically worsened: more blockades, less movement, less land. Completely isolated and impoverished, Gaza and the West Bank have been reduced to a series of isolated enclaves in a sea of illegal Israeli settlements. Meanwhile, Arab Jerusalem is experiencing a systematic plan to expropriate Palestinian homes handed over to Jewish settlers.
Tourist hotels in Gaza
“I remember being in Gaza in 1996, when Netanyahu was in power. I stayed in a hotel on the Riviera, on the Gaza coast. There were four or five great hotels designed for tourism,” Aranguren recalls. “There were rich Palestinians living there or abroad, going on holiday. They started to invest a lot in Gaza. He thinks that peace could be the beginning of a new phase in which tourism can develop. But when I went it was already empty. “I was the only guest.”
Later, opportunities for peace arose, but none of them yielded results. In 2000, Bill Clinton tried again at a peace summit with the then Israeli Minister of Labor at Camp David (one of the residences of the president of the United States). Ehud Barakand Palestine Arafat. A definitive agreement could not be reached.
The next more or less serious attempt was the Annapolis Conference (United States) in 2007. This time there were two right-wing leaders; George W. Bush and Ehud Olmertseen together Mahmoud AbbasHe succeeded Arafat after his death under mysterious circumstances and remains the leader of the Palestinian National Authority today. Olmert fought a bloody war against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year, but later corrected course and drew closer to the Palestinian leader, whom he considered another head of government, at his official residence in Jerusalem.
But Olmert’s popularity has waned, partly because Campaigns organized by the Israeli right and was amplified by newly created media backed by American millionaire Sheldon Adelson. A few years later he was found guilty of corruption and went to prison.
There have been no serious peace initiatives between Israelis and Palestinians since Annapolis.