Yasser Arafat Interview on the Future of Palestine (1995)

On 27 September 1995, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Yasser Arafat stopped over in London on his journey to Washington DC, where he was to sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, more commonly known as the Oslo II peace accord, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Visiting ITN to speak with Jon Snow, Arafat discussed the meaning of the latest step towards peace in the Middle East. The complex terms of the Oslo II Accord, building on Oslo I signed in the US capital in 1993, extended limited Palestinian self-rule to additional areas beyond Gaza and Jericho, including several cities and hundreds of villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The agreement also provided for the withdrawal and redeployment of Israeli forces from major Palestinian cities and villages prior to Palestinian Council elections, which would include participation by Palestinians in Jerusalem. Oslo II also called for the establishment of a Palestinian police service to maintain public order, required both parties to ensure safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza, and established joint committees to coordinate on key issues like water, economics, and security. Additionally, the agreement required both sides to prevent further acts of violence, called for the Palestinian National Council to revise the PLO Covenant to recognise Israel’s right to exist, and stipulated that talks on key unresolved matters — namely the status of Jerusalem, the rights of Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, and borders — would begin no later than 4 May 1996, with the aim of reaching a permanent resolution by 4 May 1999. While the Oslo peace process represented a historic breakthrough in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the efforts of its participants would ultimately end in failure. Just weeks after the signing of Oslo II, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing extremist who opposed Oslo's terms. And in the Palestinian territories, Hamas attacked the PLO leadership as having "sold out" the Palestinian cause by negotiating with Israel and compromising on Palestinian rights. The Islamist–Jihadist organisation maintained its commitment to armed struggle and jihad against Israel, using violence as a means to challenge both Israel and undermine the PLO. Ongoing Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied territories, which Palestinians saw as a betrayal of the agreements, and the inability of both sides to prevent violence and acts of terrorism led to a breakdown in trust and continued conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. #Palestine #Israel #IsraelPalestineConflict #ArabIsraeliConflict #YasserArafat #PalestinianHistory #PalestineLiberationOrganisation #PLO #YitzhakRabin #PeaceProcess #Gaza #WestBank #History #WorldHistory #ITNArchive To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/... To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/footage... 🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) -    / @frontlinebyitn   🎥 Follow us on Twitter -   / itnarchive   🎥 Like us on Facebook -   / itnarchiveitnp   🎥 Check out our TikTok -   / itnarchive1955