1 - Final Status in the Oslo Accords
2 - Rationale for Two-Phased Plan
3 - The Situation Today
4 - Proposals
2 - Rationale for a Two-Phased Plan
The two-phase framework of the DOP was patterned after the September 1978 Camp David
Accords. In the "Framework for Peace in the Middle East," Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat committed to a blueprint for staged
autonomy for the Palestinians, including a self-governing authority and a
confidence-building interim period before the determination of final status issues. The
framework negotiated at Oslo, however, goes beyond Camp David in both scope and detail.
Most notably, the Camp David agreement lists only "the location of boundaries and the
nature of the security arrangements," as well as "the recognition of the rights
of the Palestinian people and their just requirements," as the issues for final
status negotiations, while the DOP specifically includes refugees, settlements and
Jerusalem as issues to be determined.
The rationale behind the two-phased framework was simply to save the most difficult
issues for last. The most obvious issue of agreement, Israeli redeployment from Gaza and
West Bank population centers, could be resolved early on in the negotiations and with the
support of the majority of Israelis and Palestinians. However, the negotiators understood
that no such consensus exists among Israelis and Palestinians regarding an agreement over
final borders, settlements, refugees and, most formidably, Jerusalem. Thus, the
negotiators, following the Camp David example, instituted the two-phased plan, whereby the
interim period's incremental Israeli redeployment from the territories, the establishment
of a Palestinian self-government and Palestinian guarantees of security for Israelis would
create an environment of confidence between the two sides. While no one believed that
resolving the final status issues would be easy, it was maintained that following two
years of confidence-building measures and a growing environment of cooperation, Israel and
the Palestinians would be able to approach these most contentious issues in a more
conciliatory manner.
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