REPORTER: After decades of violence,
the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation
Organization secretly met in 1992
to put an end to the conflict.
The meetings gave birth to the Oslo Accords, designed
to establish a partnership for negotiating
borders, governance, and a path to peace.
But these treaties didn't last, and many consider
them to be an ultimate failure.
To understand how that happened, we have to go back
to the heart of the conflict.
In 1947, a UN decision proposed a partition
of the British-controlled Palestinian territories
into a Jewish state, an Arab state,
and an international city of Jerusalem.
The Jewish state of Israel agreed to the terms
and was created that year, but the Arab League did not want
Palestine to be partitioned.
They attacked Israel, but were defeated.
Israeli forces occupied the area that had been
mandated to be the Arab state.
Many Palestinian became refugees.
The region has remained in conflict ever since.
Creating peace between Israel and Palestine
sometimes seemed impossible.
Israel viewed the Palestinian leadership, known as the PLO,
as a terrorist organization, and refused to work with them.
Without an agreement existing between Israel and the PLO,
there was no end in sight to their
decades-long violent conflict.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter finally
succeeded in brokering peace agreement
between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords.
While establishing some peace in the Middle East,
the agreement did not address the right of Palestinians
to self-govern.
This remained the status quo for more than 10 years.
In 1992, Norway offered to serve as an intermediary
between Israel and the PLO.
That December, both parties met in Oslo,
beginning the negotiation talks that would
continue over many months.
In September 1993, Israel, the PLO, the US, and Russia
officially signed the first of the Oslo Accords,
later known as Oslo 1, at a ceremony in Washington, DC.
The terms of Oslo 1 mandated that Israel officially
accept the PLO as the representatives
of the Palestinians, the PLO officially renounce terrorism
and recognize Israel as a country,
both sides agree that, over a five-year period,
a Palestinian Authority, or PA, would be created
to govern the Palestinian territories of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
Once the PA was successfully established,
then more talks on the issues of borders, refugees,
and Jerusalem would be held.
Two years later, in 1995, Israel and the PLO
signed another agreement, called Oslo 2.
Israeli forces agreed to withdraw
from the six largest Palestinian cities, as well as 450 towns.
The West Bank was to be divided into three areas, one
under Palestinian control, one where Palestinians had
civilian control and Israelis controlled security,
and one area that would be totally controlled by Israel.
Throughout the entire process of negotiating and implementing
the agreements in the Oslo Accords,
many people, both Palestinians and Israelis,
refused to support the terms, and both sides committed
acts of extreme violence.
In November of 1995, an anti-Palestinian Israeli
extremist assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
at a peace rally in retaliation for his support
of the peace process.
By September 2000, with the escalation of violent events,
including riots, suicide bombings,
and sweeping Israeli military responses,
it was clear that the Oslo Accords had failed.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues today.
Palestinian autonomy has not been achieved,
and support for a two-state solution has declined.
World leaders continue to struggle
to figure out a way to broker a new agreement between Israel
and the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors.