Two Decades After the Second Intifada, Palestine Still Has No Partner for Peace
Twenty years ago today, the second Palestinian intifada began in response to a provocation from Israel's Ariel Sharon after the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks. The brutal Israeli response inaugurated a war on Palestinian society that continues to this day.
A Palestinian flag is flown in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya. (Abid Katib / Getty Images)
It is now two decades since the beginning of the Second Intifada, when Palestinians rose again in revolt against the Israeli occupation. What is the significance of this anniversary, and what does it tell us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel’s colonial project?
Israel and its US allies have propagated the myth that Israel has no “partner for peace.” Yet the main conclusion we must draw from the last twenty years, which have seen an exponential rise in Israel’s use of force against Palestinians living under occupation, is that it is the Palestinians who actually have no partner for peace in Israel. Israel’s occupation has turned into a war against Palestinian society.
Separate and Unequal
The purpose of the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was to establish Israel’s separation from occupied and colonized Palestinians. Yitzhak Rabin, the main architect of the Oslo Accords, was clear about that. He ran his pre-Oslo election campaign in 1992 on the promise of separating Gaza from Tel Aviv.
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