Oslo, 30 years later — where to look when the very idea of peace is gone?
The signing of the Oslo Accords thirty years ago was followed by a failure that set back the very idea of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A look back at this historic episode and the lessons we can learn from it today.
Thirty years ago to the day, I was standing in Jerusalem's Old City, near the Jaffa Gate. Two young Palestinians were putting up a poster of Yasser Arafat when an Israeli guard appeared.
Everyone froze in fear, thinking a confrontation was about to happen. But the soldiers went on their way without a care in the world for the young Palestinians. Arafat's face appeared on a wall in Jerusalem.
A few hours later, thousands of miles away, on the White House lawn, the famous handshake took place between the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, overseen by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
They had just signed the Oslo Accords, which they hoped would put an end to a century of conflict — just like the scene of détente I had witnessed in Jerusalem.
The Oslo Accords were based on a simple principle: mutual recognition, Palestinian autonomy for five years, with the most complex issues — the permanent borders of the two future states, the fate of refugees and the status of Jerusalem — to be settled at the end of this period.
But it didn't work, and the Middle East is still paying the price to this day.
As a correspondent for the French daily Libération in Jerusalem at the time, I can testify to the fact that a majority of both sides believed that the time for peace had arrived. So many obstacles were underestimated.
Yossi Beilin, one of the Israeli negotiators, admits that the core mistake was undoubtedly to leave the difficult issues to the end, when at the beginning it might have been possible to make bolder leaps. Yet once the shock effect had worn off, the opposition to this historic compromise was reawakened.
This opposition occurred on both sides. On the Palestinian side, the Islamists of Hamas embarked on a bloody terrorist campaign, ruining confidence in the peace process. On the Israeli side, an extreme religious right wanted to kill an agreement providing for the return of the occupied territories.
In 1994, there was the Hebron massacre committed by a Jewish settler that killed 29 Muslim worshipers; then on November 4, 1995, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a young Jewish religious fanatic. This double terrorist attack destroyed a process already undermined by a lack of trust.
The failure of Oslo has set back the very idea of peace between Israelis and Palestinians for years. The colonization of the territories continued, as did the rampant violence.
Paradoxically, the arrival in power of an ideological right-wing — led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, linked to those who had sabotaged the Oslo Accords — has put the spotlight back on the Palestinian question. Yet it arrives now with a transformed equation, since the two-state option has become impossible.
In the midst of the bitter political battle taking place in Israel, one part of the population is wondering how to find the path to a peace that cannot be found, while the other part is dreaming of apocalypse and annexation.
Is there room for a reinvented process, and actors for such a scenario? The memory of September 13, 1993 remains, proving one thing: conflict is not inevitable.
— Pierre Haski / France Inter
• Kim Jong-un meets Putin in Russia as missiles launch from North Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has offered Russian President Vladimir Putin his country’s “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests. The comments came as the pair met on Wednesday at a Russian cosmodrome during Kim’s first foreign trip in four years. Coinciding with the summit, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles from an area near the capital, Pyongyang, into the sea.
• Death toll in Libyan floods at 6,000: The death toll from devastating floods in Libya’s eastern city of Derna has risen to an estimated 6,000, according to local officials. The figure is expected to rise as rescue operations continue in the coastal city that was hit by Storm Daniel.
• Residents trapped in deadly Hanoi apartment blaze: An overnight fire in an apartment block in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, has killed at least 8 people, with local media reporting the toll may be more than 30, including a number of children.
• India’s Kerala declares containment zones after Nipah virus deaths: Authorities in Kerala, India have closed down schools and offices and declared more than seven villages as containment zones in the southern state after it recorded two deaths from the rare and deadly brain-damaging Nipah virus. An adult and a child are still infected and in hospital, and more than 130 people have so far been tested for the virus, which is transmitted to humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs or other people.
• Mexico migrant route world’s deadliest: According to U.N. migration agency figures, the U.S.-Mexico border is the world’s deadliest land migration route with hundreds losing their lives attempting to make perilous desert crossings. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) documented 686 deaths and disappearances among migrants on the frontier last year, but the actual figure is likely higher due to missing data.
• New JFK assassination details come to light: Six decades later, new details are coming to light in the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Paul Landis, an 88-year-old former Secret Service agent who witnessed the president's death at close range, says in an upcoming memoir that he picked up a bullet from the car after Kennedy was shot, and then left it on the former president's stretcher at the hospital.
• In a galaxy far, far away: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope may have discovered evidence of a sign of life on a faraway planet, as it reportedly detected a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which — on Earth at least — is only produced by life. The researchers said that the detection on the planet 120 light years away is "not robust" and more data is needed to confirm its presence.
Casablanca-based daily Le Matin dedicates its front page to the visit of King Mohammed VI to victims of the deadly 6.8 earthquake that occurred on Sept. 8 in Morocco. The king went to the Mohammed VI University Hospital Center in Marrakech to talk to injured people and donate blood. At least 2,900 people died from the catastrophe and more than 5,500 were injured.
9
American country-pop icon Taylor Swift won big at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards held in Newark, New Jersey yesterday. IN addition to artist of the year, Swift also went home with “video of the year” and “song of the year” awards for her song “Anti-Hero” as well as “best album of the year” for her album Midnights, for a record-equalling total of nine statuettes. She also became the first artist ever to win “video of the year” two years in a row.
Lithium mining: How the clean energy rush repeats old cycles of global exploitation
The search for clean energy is essential in an age of alarming climate change. Lithium extraction represents a great opportunity, but the maltreatment of communities affected by this extraction must be considered if we want to interrupt the vicious cycle of wealthy countries exploiting resource-rich countries, writes Carmen Contreras Tellez in Spanish online media Ethic.
⛏️ The largest sources of lithium in the world are found in brine deposits in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, making them the focus of attention for investors. But indigenous communities that depend on these territories and the resources found there demand prior dialogue and informed consultation before allowing the extraction of the mineral. "To us, the salt flat represents our entire life," explains Lesley Muñoz Rivera, a representative of the Colla community in Copiapo, Chile.
🔋 "Before, there wasn't much connection between the mining discussion and the energy equation, but now the energy transition has given a strong boost to mining activity because renewable energies require more technology and are mineral-intensive. So, that's a first component, that there is more demand," says Juan Luis Dammert, director of the Institute for Natural Resource Governance in Latin America.
🤝 The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, announced a National Lithium Strategy, which proposes the creation of a state-owned company, but with public-private participation. It includes not only development and scientific research but also allows communities and indigenous people in the area to participate in joint dialogues with all stakeholders. The first meeting was already held in early June.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
“Extreme politics at its worst.”
— Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, criticized House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s call on his committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into the U.S. President Joe Biden. “House Republicans have been investigating the President for nine months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing,” Sams wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The House-led GOP investigations shed light on business dealings by the president's son Hunter Biden, who is currently under federal investigation for possible tax crimes, but have yet to provide direct evidence that Biden financially benefited from his son’s career overseas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shows Kim Jong-un around the Vostochny cosmodrome as part of the North Korean leader’s visit to Russia. — Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Michelle Courtois, Laure Gautherin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Starsky And Hutch Busted In France For Driving Under Influence
Skiing Across Sweden-Norway Border To Slip Past COVID Lockdown
It's Raining Fish, Hallelujah! Mysterious Lluvia de Peces Lands Again In Honduras
Author Of Italian Thrillers Arrested For Staging Parents’ Murder-Suicide
In Skinny Japan, New Company Offers Plus-Sized People 'For Rent'
Budapest or Bucharest? A Tale Of Very Lost French Soccer Fans
Fart At Famous Thermal Spa Sparks 12-Person Brawl, Three Arrested
Asparagus Recipe Baked Into Belgian Legal Decree
Plane Struck By Lightning Exorcized After Landing
Parents Call Cops On Teen Son For Refusing To Clear The Table
