Between 1993 and 1999, the PLO and Israel signed a number of agreements that are known collectively as the ‘Oslo Agreements’ creating a transitional period during which the permanent status issues would be resolved. The Sadaka Briefings available provide information on key aspects of those negotiations.
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Agreement on Movement and Access
The Agreement set down arrangements that were supposed to operate after the Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza in August 2005. Under it, for example, Israel agreed to keep the crossings between Israel and Gaza operating “continuously”. It didn’t. ...more Agreement on Movement and Access

In November 2005, Israel signed the Agreement on Movement and Access. The Agreement set out the arrangements that were supposed to operate to maintain and develop the economic life of Gaza, in the wake of the Israeli “disengagement” in August 2005, and to pave the way for the creation of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

These arrangements included:
(1) a crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah for the export of goods and the transit of people
(2) continuous operation of crossings between Israel and Gaza for the import and export of goods and the transit of people
(3) reduction of obstacles to movement within the West Bank
(4) bus and truck convoys between the West Bank and Gaza
(5) the building of a seaport in Gaza
(6) re-opening of the airport in Gaza


The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) compiles fortnightly reports on the implementation of the Agreement. These reports, now over a hundred in number, are available on the OCHA OPT website.

To put it mildly, Israel hasn’t fulfilled its obligations under this Agreement. Because of its restrictions on the import of goods – even humanitarian supplies – into Gaza the 1.5 million Palestinians there have been driven to the edge of starvation. And Gaza’s economy has been destroyed, because of the almost total ban on exports.

Click for more information - the Briefing Document.

The Road Map
The Road Map, agreed by Israel in May 2003, set down a framework for negotiations between Israel and the PLO about the establishment of a Palestinian state. Under it, Israel was supposed to freeze all settlement activity, prior to the start of negotiations. It refuses to do so. ...more The Road Map

The Road Map is the internationally approved framework for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians about the creation of a Palestinian state. Its full title is A performance-based roadmap to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [1]. The Road Map was drawn up by the US and approved by the Middle East Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN Secretary General) in 2003. It was accepted by Israel and by the PLO on behalf of Palestinians – and later endorsed by the Security Council. President Obama assured the PLO that the Road Map would be the framework for negotiations he was seeking to initiate between Israel and the PLO.

Pre-conditions on Israel The Road Map requires Israel to take a number of well-defined steps prior to the start of negotiations. These include:

• “Israeli leadership issues unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel”
• “GOI [Government of Israel] immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001”, and
• “Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)”.

An independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state?
When Obama came to power, it looked as if as if he intended to make Israel fulfil the Road Map conditions prior to another round of negotiations.
At the outset, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wasn’t prepared to use the word “state” to describe the Palestinian entity that might be the outcome of negotiations, let alone make a public commitment to an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state as the objective of the negotiations. After pressure from Obama, he did allow the word “state” to pass his lips in a speech on 14 June 2009 [6], but he said that the security needs of Israel demanded “clear commitments” from the US that “in a future peace agreement, the territory controlled by the Palestinians will be demilitarized”, by which he meant:
'without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory - real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today. And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts. Without this, sooner or later, these territories will become another Hamastan.'

A settlement freeze?
At the outset, both President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made unusually blunt demands that Israel cease settlement activity. As a result, expectations were raised in the Arab world and further afield that at last the US was going to use its considerable muscle to halt the Jewish colonisation of the occupied Palestinian territories, contrary to Security Council resolutions, that has gone on since 1967. For example, on 27 May 2009, Clinton laid down the law in the following terms:
'With respect to settlements, the President was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. … That is our position.'


Eating the pizza
Settlement negotiations between Israel and Palestinians are no nearer success today than they were nearly two decades ago, when they began. The trigger for these negotiations was the PLO’s recognition in 1988 of Israel’s right to exist within its 1967 borders and its adoption of the objective of establishing an independent Palestinian state in the remaining 22% of Palestine. This “historic compromise” led to the Oslo agreement in August 1993 and to a series of negotiations under that agreement, culminating in the unsuccessful Camp David talks in July 2000.

Click for more information - the Briefing Document.

Palestine Liberation Organisation Negotiations Primer
A simple, yet comprehensive overview of the ‘permanent status issues’ to be addressed in the political negotiations between Palestine and Israel, including Jerusalem, and the settlements. Published by the PLO Negotiations Department in 2009, it provides historical information and sets the context for future negotiations by looking back at agreements made under Oslo and Camp David.  The Primer looks at the issues of borders and natural resources.  Essentially, this provides a comprehensive overview of the situation on the ground and the political context to political negotiations in an 'easy read' format.