Hamas Denounces Oslo Accords on 33rd Anniversary, Citing Deepened Occupation
According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine, has strongly criticized the Oslo Accords on its 33rd anniversary. The movement stated that the agreement has not only failed to achieve freedom, independence, and security for the Palestinian people but has also facilitated the deepening of occupation and settlement construction.
Ali Baraka, head of Hamas’s National Relations Department abroad, commented on Sunday that 33 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords have unequivocally demonstrated the agreement’s failure to secure freedom, independence, or security for Palestinians, nor has it ended the occupation or guaranteed the right of return for refugees.
Baraka further asserted that the occupying power has exploited the accord to continue settlement activities, Judaization efforts, confiscation of Palestinian lands, and the imposition of new realities in the occupied territories. He highlighted that the occupied West Bank has been fragmented into isolated cantons due to the occupation’s policies and settlement expansion, while acts of Judaization and incursions into Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque persist. Meanwhile, the occupation continues its genocidal war, characterized by destruction, siege, and starvation, against the people in the Gaza Strip.
He recalled that the Oslo Accords, initially envisioned as a five-year transitional phase to establish a Palestinian state and resolve the refugee issue, ultimately resulted in the solidification of occupation, enhanced security coordination, weakened the Palestinian national stance, and besieged resistance forces, all without fulfilling promises of an independent state or the return of refugees.
Baraka warned against continuing a political approach characterized by exclusivity, elimination, appointment, monopolization of Palestinian representation, and efforts to isolate resistance forces and national figures who oppose the Oslo framework. He described such actions as a repetition of mistakes that undermine the Palestinian national cause.
He called for the reconstruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) based on democratic national principles, through free, fair, and direct elections involving all Palestinian forces, factions, and segments of the population, both domestically and abroad. Baraka also emphasized the necessity of prioritizing supreme national interests over narrow party interests, and recalibrating national priorities to confront occupation, settlement expansion, displacement, Judaization, and to defend occupied Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Islamic and Christian holy sites. He urged an end to aggressions, the lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip, and adherence to the national rights of the Palestinian people, particularly the right to self-determination, the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
In conclusion, Baraka stressed that national unity, political participation, and genuine democratic representation are the pathways to safeguarding the Palestinian national project and restoring the rights of the Palestinian people, rather than through exclusion, monopolization, and a singular grip on decision-making.
It is noteworthy that on September 13, 1993, Yasser Arafat, the then-Chairman of the PLO, under the auspices of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, signed the Oslo Accords with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
