Palestinian unilateralism means Oslo Accords no longer valid

(JNS.org)—The Palestinian Authority’s unilateral quest for statehood and other forms of recognition in the international arena is among 10 points illustrating why the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians are no longer valid, wrote Alan Baker, Israel’s former ambassador to Canada, in a new article for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) think tank.

In a September 1993 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had stated that “all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations,” rather than unilateral actions.

“By petitioning the U.N., the International Criminal Court, and international organizations to recognize them and accept them as a full member state, and by their unification with the Hamas terror organization, the Palestinians have knowingly and deliberately bypassed their contractual obligations pursuant to the Oslo Accords in an attempt to prejudge the main negotiating issues outside the negotiation,” Baker wrote.

“This, together with their attempts to delegitimize Israel among the international community and their attempted actions against Israel’s leaders, has served to frustrate any possibility of realization of the Oslo Accords, and as such the Palestinians are in material breach of their contractual obligations,” he added.

Baker, director of the JCPA’s Institute for Contemporary Affairs, wrote that Israel now “has the legitimate right to declare that the Oslo Accords are no longer valid and to act unilaterally in order to protect its essential legal and security interests.”