A Third Intifada?

Following a speech last week by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nation (UN), Palestinian violence in the West Bank escalated. There is a growing concern that this rise in violence is the beginning of a ‘Third Intifada.’

In Abbas’s speech to the UN, he spouts out a list of claimed Israeli violations of the Oslo accords, which outlined a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, and then claimed that the accords would no longer bind the PA.

Abbas accused Israel of not committing to the agreement and goes on to say that the PA “will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements.” Abbas cited Israel refusal to “cease settleme­nt activities” as a violation of the agreement.

However, despite the continuous bristling by Abbas over Israeli Jewish communities existing in the West Bank, their existence does not violate the accords. I repeat, the existence of Israeli Jewish communities in the West Bank does not violate the accords. There are no provisions in the Oslo accords that call for a cessation of Jewish communities in the region. Moreover, there is no International law, which can bar a Jew from moving there if they choose to do so. The arrangement, which was agreed upon by both parties, has always been that the status of these Jewish communities to be determined through final status negotiations.

There have always been Jews living on that land. There has been a long and concerted effort over the years to falsely paint Jews as colonial occupiers with no connection to the land. However, the only time Jews have not lived in that area is during a 19-year period between 1948 and 1967, when the Egyptian and Trans-Jordanian governments (who were illegally occupying the land at the International community’s indifference) forced Jews out. Prior to that, the High Contracting Parties with legal stewardship over the area promised that land to the Jews, in recognition of their historic connection to the land.

The Palestinian’s, however, from its inception, NEVER bound themselves to the agreement. The Palestinians have violated the agreement at every opportunity.

The agreements explicitly forbid the PA from conducting foreign relations. Yet, for decades, Palestinians and their allies in the UN have been pushing Resolutions through the body, which bastardizes international laws in order to push their false narrative.

However, since the beginning of the accords, the PA engaged repeatedly in diplomacy on every level. In 2012, the Palestinians unilaterally sought an upgrade to their status at the UN. In April, Abbas signed applications to join 15 international treaties and conventions, to which they are flagrantly violating the vast majority of them. Every attack on Israel by the PA on international scene and every attempt to change their status with the UN violated the agreement.

There are specific provisions stating that the PA is obligated to abstain from hostile propaganda and the incitement of violence. Nonetheless, this behavior has been a constant, since Oslo’s inception. For the past two decades, Palestinians not even tried to live up to this part of the agreement. They have regularly praised terrorists, such as Hamas’s chief bomb maker Yihya Ayyash, whom in 1996 then-PA president Yasser Arafat honored him and called him a martyr. Last year, Abbas’ Fatah movement encouraged a ‘car intifada’ and posted numerous cartoons and statements calling for this violence, which resulted in the deaths of several people including a three-month old baby girl. Additionally, recently released documents reveal that the PA has been paying millions to convicted Hamas terrorists for years.

All of these actions, plus countless others, are a direct and flagrant violation of the accords.

It would behoove the international community to realize that having Jewish neighborhoods in the West Bank is neither a violation of the Oslo, nor is it what’s killing it; it’s the fact that one side would rather encourage people to commit vehicular homicide or stab people, than to have Jewish neighbors, is what’s killing Oslo.

Additionally, the international community needs to start seeing through Abbas’s rhetoric and finally recognize that the Palestinians have been blatantly violating the accords since the day they were signed.