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The late Yasser Arafat

GAZA/RAMALLAH. – As Palestinians mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo peace accord with Israel today, local analysts say the peace deal brings both negative and positive results.
The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the peace agreement in Washington in 1993 to end decades of conflict between the two sides.

Although the Palestinian National Authority was established and a series of peace talks were held following the deal, the main goal of the Palestinians hasn’t been achieved.

Mekhemer Abu Se’da, a political science professor at al-Azhar University in Gaza city, told Xinhua that one of Oslo peace accords’ positive results was the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, a transitional entity for the Palestinians, “which provided health, education and social services to the people.”

“The return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza and to the West Bank, was a good achievement, the agreement itself had helped the Palestinians go for a second step and gain a non- member observer state in the United Nations,” he said.

In spite of the Israeli policy of expanding settlement, Oslo accords also empowered the people’s steadfastness on the Palestinian lands, which were occupied by Israel in 1967 and helped release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

However, “The cons (negative) of the agreement is that it didn’t end the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and it didn’t stop settlement activities.

These are the two major problems facing the Palestinians at the moment and in the future,” added Abu Se’da.
Since there are no signs that Israel would halt settlement, in addition to the ongoing internal division between Hamas movement and the PNA, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials repeatedly said that if the peace process with Israel fails, the Palestinians have other alternatives.

One of the options included applying again to the United Nations and demand a full recognition of an independent Palestinian State.
“The other alternatives is either to go for a third Palestinian Uprising or Intifada, or dissolve the Palestinian Authority and hold Israel fully and legally responsible for the Palestinians and the Palestinian territories,” Ahmed Awad, a political analyst from Ramallah told Xinhua.

“After 20 years, I believe that Oslo is dead due to the Israeli policies of keeping the military occupation, expanding settlements, keeping the Gaza Strip under blockade and dividing the West Bank into cantons,” he contended. — Xinhua.