Today on “This Day in History in the Israel-Palestine Conflict:” The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron. The protocol, also known as the “Hebron Accord” or the “Hebron Agreement” signed on January 17 1997. This agreement called for the Israeli army to withdraw from 80% of Hebron, a city in the West Bank that has religious significance for both Jews and Muslims. The withdrawal was to be completed 10 days after the Protocol was signed. This was the first round of military withdrawals from the West Bank, the next phase was meant to start 8 months later and Israeli troops were going to be withdrawn from the surrounding rural areas of Hebron. The Hebron Protocol carved out a more defined and limited role for the Israeli forces that were to remain behind in order to protect the Jewish settlements. Hebron area was to be divided into H1 and H2 parts. H1 would be controlled exclusively by Palestinian police, while H2 would be under Israeli control. For Palestinians, this was part of the process to legitimize the Palestinian Authority as the sovereign governing body in Hebron for the future state of Palestine. The Hebron Accords began to fulfill a main goal of the Oslo Accords, which was a gradual phasing out of Israeli control of certain parts of the West Bank while the Palestinian Authority was phased in. While the Hebron Agreement was important in fulfilling the obligations of Oslo II; Israeli withdrawal of the West Bank and “on the basis of reciprocity,” during the drafting phase, Netanyahu made it clear that he had a goal to preserve the Jewish presence in Hebron as “a place of supreme importance to the Jewish people for over 4,000 years.” Netanyahu also departed for Rabin era negotiation objectives by asserting that, contrary to Oslo II and rather in the spirit of Camp David, he maintained that areas considered crucial to Israeli security would not require Israel to withdraw. Those areas designated as ‘crucial to Israeli security’ could acquire this label without Palestinian consent, thus moving away from the Oslo II emphasis on cooperation and bilateral negotiation over unilateral action. All these factors would cast a dark shadow over the conditions for a Final Status Agreement, which had a deadline of May 1999. Sources: jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/hebprot.html edition.cnn/WORLD/9701/14/hebron.late/ washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-hebron-agreement-a-closer-look
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:00:00 +0000
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