Connecting the West Bank and Gaza Strip: questions of safe passage

Safe-passage for Palestinians was part of the 1995 Oslo II Interim Agreement. The time elapsed since Oslo II has produced very little progress on the “safe-passage” issue. Necessitated in part by the recent unilateral actions of the GOI, and the greater danger that the window of opportunity is closing, the time has come for the issue of “safe-passage” to be re-examined with a serious effort to reach agreement. This analysis examines several different aspects of the “safe passage” issue relative to connecting the West Bank and Gaza while addressing the current political situation and necessities

The Biggest Peace: The Structure of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Politics of Separation

Part I of this Note summarizes the background leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords. Part II details the overall structure and responsibilities laid out in Oslo II, with specific emphasis on the legal. Also, Part II presents for comparison the semi-autonomy arrangement devised and implemented in the Transkei of South Africa in the early 1960s. Part II concludes by examining the extent to which both of these arrangements were successful in satisfying the parties involved and makes some more general comparisons to similar reactions in Northern Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement. Part III attempts to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of limited autonomy to deal with the competing rhetoric of self-determination and the administration of viable political entities

Lessons From the Swiss Cheese Map

Professor Motro recounts experiences gained during the 1995 Oslo II Israeli/Palestinian peace talks as an illustration of the impact that mapmakers can have on negotiators. Color selections and shades, omissions, and inclusions can all have an effect on perceptions of negotiation outcomes. She concludes: Good maps alone will not be enough to bring peace, but poor design should not join the long list of pitfalls already burdening the peace process. Since the election this year of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president,a fragile informal truce has raised hopes that, sooner or later, negotiators will again be arguing over percentages of territory and safe passage routes. If the next agreement’s maps make the same mistakes displayed by those attached to Oslo II and to Geneva, they will undermine the chances for success. If the new maps capture a vision that Israelis and Palestinians can live with, they may well tip the balance in favor of peace

Dressing up domination as ‘cooperation’: the case of Israeli-Palestinian water relations

This article analyses the extent to which Israeli-Palestinian water relations were affected and transformed by the Oslo process. Focusing in turn on the management of water systems and supplies, the monitoring of water resources and the development of new supplies, the article suggests that many of the seeming and much-lauded achievements of the Oslo process were more cosmetic than real. Comparing Israeli-Palestinian water relations before and since the onset of the Oslo process, the article contends that the Oslo agreements did little more in this particular sphere than to dress up and discursively repackage Israel's domination of the West Bank water sector in a new vocabulary of Israeli-Palestinian ‘cooperation’

Cooperation, domination and colonisation: the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee

Do there exist instances of international (water) policy coordination which are so unequal that they should not even be considered 'cooperation'? This article argues, on both theoretical and empirical grounds, that this is indeed so. Theoretically, it posits that 'cooperation' should be distinguished from 'policy coordination', and that situations of policy coordination without mutual adjustments or joint gains should instead be considered instances of 'domination'. And empirically, it illustrates the existence of such relations of domination through an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Water Committee (JWC), using new evidence from JWC negotiation files, plus interviews with leading Israeli and Palestinian participants. Most startlingly, the article finds that under the constraints of JWC 'cooperation', the Palestinian Authority has been compelled to lend its formal approval to the large-scale expansion of Israeli settlement water infrastructures, activity which is both illegal under international law and one of the major impediments to Palestinian statehood. The article suggests the need for both the complete restructuring of Israeli-Palestinian water 'cooperation', and for further research on relations of domination, and the ideology of cooperation, within international (water) politics

Israel\u27s Transboundary Water Disputes

As water is necessary to the function of life, it is imperative to understand the role of water in the politically turbulent Middle East. This paper will focus on Israel’s water disputes with her neighbors and how such disputes have either led to military confrontation, have been partially resolved, and otherwise continue to exist. As populations in the region are expected to increase, the need for water, already in short supply, will be magnified. Thus negotiations to settle water disputes and provide for equitable distribution of the water resources will become more contentious. This legal analysis of Israel’s water disputes will hopefully provide some guidance to the settlement of such issues in Israel’s future peace negotiations with the Syrians and Palestinians

Rocks and Rockets: Oslo's Inevitable Conclusion

Though the al-Aqsa intifada took the world by surprise, Palestinians are now almost unanimous in attributing its scope to the failures of Oslo. The author analyzes these failures from to perspectives: those concerning implementation and structural flaws. In describing the unfolding of the intifada and particularly its militarization, the author analyzes the primordial role of Fatah, the single most important factor in transforming the early clashes into a sustained rebellion

Water and the Treaty of Peace between Israel and Jordan

The Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was signed at the southern border crossing of Wadi Araba on October 26, 1994. It symbolized one of the world’s most famous water – sharing agreements – in addition to making Jordan the only Arab country after Egypt to normalize relations with Israel. The Jordanian – Israeli Peace Treaty is part of the efforts towards joint management of water resources

A armadilha da paz: os efeitos dos acordos de paz para a economia da Palestina

Analisa os termos dos acordos de paz de Gaza-Jericó e Oslo II, entre Israel e Palestina, para, assim, determinar as possíveis consequências desses acordos de paz para o funcionamento da economia Palestina desde então. Para isso, serão utilizadas como fonte de primária os próprios termos dos acordos de paz de Oslo II e Gaza-Jericó em seus textos originais em inglês, disponíveis, respectivamente, no site da ONU e do Ministério de Relações Exteriores de Israel. Dessa maneira, será realizada uma pequena discussão teórica sobre desenvolvimento econômico e uma compilação de dados macroeconômicos da Palestina desde a assinatura dos acordos, adquiridos através do site da Autoridade Monetária Palestina, de modo a relacionar o comportamento desses dados com as cláusulas dos acordoa de paz e outras variáveis relevantes, como o arrecadação e gasto públicos da Autoridade Palestina e questões políticas, como a Segunda Intifada