According to Israeli sources, some high-level officials in the Israeli cabinet have suggested that Israel should call off the 1993 Oslo Agreement with the Palestinians, if the Palestinian Authority moves ahead with a bid for statehood at the United Nations in September.The Oslo Accord created the Palestinian Authority, and put certain parts of the West Bank and Gaza into the control of the newly-created Authority, with the plan to expand Palestinian control and reduce Israeli military occupation over a period of five years. This never happened, and the Israeli occupation remains in place over the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, although some checkpoints were lifted in the last two years.
Israeli National Secuity Advisor Ya’akov Amidror is reportedly preparing the Israeli response to the Palestinian Authority’s upcoming bid for statehood, along with representatives from the defense, finance, foreign and trade ministries, and one plan is to void the Oslo Accord and resume full military occupation in every Palestinian city and town.
A spokesperson for Amidror told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that this possibility is just one of several being considered, adding, ‘It is one of the options that will be presented to the political echelon’.
After years of failed negotiations, the Palestinian Authority announced earlier this year that they would ask the United Nations in September to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 border with Israel.
If the Oslo Accord is nullified, the Palestinian Authority would likely be dismantled. Although the Palestinian Authority is subservient to Israeli military occupation forces in the Palestinian Territories, it does play a key role in the lives of many Palestinians: providing pensions for the elderly, medical care for all Palestinians, municipal budgets for local governance and employment for over 200,000 Palestinian workers.
