![Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (C) signs the historic Israel-PLO Oslo Accords on Palestinian autonomy in the occupied territories on September 13, 1993 in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. [J. DAVID AKE/AFP via Getty Images]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-160316908.jpg)
According to the popular narrative surrounding the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), some of sort of fully functioning, internationally recognized Palestinian state should have been established over two decades ago. The Declaration of Principles signed in 1993 explicitly mandated a transitional “interim period” not to exceed five years, setting May 1999 as the strict deadline for a permanent-status agreement covering Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, and borders. Yet a meticulous examination of the text reveals a structural paradox at the very heart of Oslo: while the diplomatic marketing and global expectations framed the process as a march toward eventual Palestinian statehood, the word “state” does not appear once in the agreements—substituting sovereign independence with vague language […]
