MIDDLE EAST: All that remains of the Oslo accord now is revenge, say many Palestinians. Michael Jansen reports from east Jerusalem
Ten years ago today the Oslo Accord was signed on the south lawn of the White House. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Premier Yitzak Rabin shook hands while a beaming President Clinton stood between the two.
This dramatic, unforgettable image was instantly broadcast round the world by satellite television. Palestinians, Israelis and people everywhere celebrated what they thought could be the end of the century-old conflict in the Holy Land.
I was in Jerusalem on that day of hope and promise. As hundreds of dignitaries and political figures gathered in Washington, I made my way to Orient House, an elegant 18th century Ottoman mansion in a leafy neighbourhood 10 minutes walk from the Old City. Palestinian notables, scouts, and citizens of the Holy City were gathering for a ceremonial raising of the Palestinian flag, an act prohibited by Israel.
Orient House was the headquarters of Faisal Husseini, the man who had assumed the burden of representing the Palestinian population of the city in the Palestine Liberation Organisation and had been fighting their small, personal daily battles with the Israeli occupation regime. For Palestinians and Israelis alike, the flying of the forbidden flag from this particular building symbolised Palestinian independence.
A chubby Palestinian boy scout solemnly carried it to the pole on the second floor veranda, unfolded the white, black, green and red cloth, attached it to a rope, and pulled. The flag rose slowly, unfurling, and hung limply in the still air above the heads of the crowd. When the scout band began the Palestinian national anthem, Biladi, there was a great sigh of relief: the ordeal of the Palestinian people was coming to an end.
In Salaheddin street, Israeli policemen and troops stood by, uncertain how to react. A handful of Palestinian lads put red and white carnations into the barrels of the soldiers' guns. Palestinians and Israelis hoped this was the beginning of the end of the painful occupation, and the beginning of the beginning of Palestinian liberation.
Dr Mahdi Abdel Hadi, the head of a Palestinian think tank, was with the Palestinian delegation at the signing ceremony half a world away from Jerusalem. "Everyone at the White House was confused," he recalled this week. "We understood there had been a great achievement: the breakthrough of mutual recognition. Until that moment, we had met hundreds of times and written hundreds of historical documents but there had never before been something in black and white."
Downstairs in the offices at Orient House, Abdel Kader Husseini, the son of Faisal, who was in the US, sat before a television, its screen split to depict what was happening in Washington and outside. He had misgivings.
"My father used to say, 'After years and years of struggle and suffering, Palestinians and Israelis achieved a pregnancy. But the baby, named Oslo, was not strong. We must help him and strengthen him.'"
He added: "My father also said, 'The agreement might work. Although its supporters are not 100 per cent, its opponents are not 100 per cent.'"
Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian lawyer who helped negotiate the subsequent Cairo accord, spelling out the details of the implementation of Oslo, was at the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Non-Violence not far from Orient House.
He said: "Everybody, myself included, was so immensely impressed with the historic dimension of what took place - the symmetry of the handshake \ equality, reciprocity - that we were totally blinded to the actual deal." But even when he saw the document, which had been kept secret until the signing, he believed that the "momentum to statehood created by the agreement would overcome, overwhelm and supercede [the deficiencies of] the proper text", which was vague and allowed for differing interpretations.
If the Oslo accord had been implemented faithfully, a Palestinian state should have emerged at the end of 1998. One of the Israeli negotiators, Dr Ron Pundak, asserted firmly that the expectation of the Israeli team was that territory of the state would have included virtually all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
The time frame laid down for Oslo specified that the two sides should reach agreement on Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho by December 13th.
This was set to be completed by April 13th, 1994. July 13th of that year was the final date for Palestinian general elections and the redeployment of Israeli troops from Palestinian population centres. December 15th, 1995, was the latest date for the start of negotiations on the final settlement which was scheduled come into operation on December 13th, 1998.
But Oslo was not implemented as projected. Israel procrastinated, insisted on rewriting Oslo and ignored the spirit of the accord. The Palestinians allowed deadlines to pass and did not insist that Israel stick to the letter and intention of the accord. The US, the guarantor and sponsor of the peace process, did not bring the parties to the negotiating table to hammer out a final deal until 2000 when it was too late.
The latest peace plan, the so-called road map, died on Thursday when Israel decided in principle to deport Mr Arafat.