Jun 10, 2018

At one point during the Oslo process, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres felt a breakthrough with the Palestinians was necessary in order to move forward. As a first step, Rabin and Peres decided to offer the PLO autonomous rule in Gaza and Jericho. If accepted, negotiations on the rest of the West Bank would follow suit. PLO leader Yasser Arafat agreed. The Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed on Sept. 13, 1993, in Washington, with Arafat de facto ruling Gaza and Jericho as of July 1994. The Israeli goal was to launch a peace process and to halt the first intifada, which began in 1987.

This same concept could be applied today, aiming to relaunch the peace process and prevent another intifada or another Gaza war.

A senior PLO official close to President Mahmoud Abbas told Al-Monitor that Abbas would like the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take civilian control over Gaza along with many of the security responsibilities, especially at the border crossing points. The official said that given the catastrophic crisis in Gaza, a first political move to stabilize the Strip is necessary. He proposed a political process similar to that of Oslo, with Gaza first again. But this must be considered as a first step toward a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Facing the crisis in Gaza, the PLO has been conducting ongoing deliberations, in which several steps were considered.

According to the PLO official, the Palestinian leadership discussed the revival of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. Such reconciliation should enable the PA to take over Gaza government offices and enhance the deployment of its security forces at the Gaza Strip border crossing points with Israel and Egypt. Hamas would have to partly demilitarize, while maintaining an armed police force similar to what Fatah has in the West Bank.