The Madrid Conference & the Oslo Process
The Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 began amid much hope and fanfare. The US, in a rare show of impatience, had forced Israel into attending, and while the Palestinian delegation, strictly speaking, answered to the Jordanian delegation there was little doubt that this was the first serious direct attempt at negotiating an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The secret Oslo talks, however – conducted by the PLO leadership and without the knowledge of the Palestinian negotiators in Madrid – undermined the delegation’s principled stand, and eventually resulted in the Oslo Accords of 1993.
The Oslo accords led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority with limited autonomy over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While the Oslo accords were supposed to conclude with a final agreement by 1999, in reality Oslo provided the framework in which Israeli colonisation of land expanded and its system of segregation and control over Palestinian lives not only continued but dramatically accelerated.