A mural in Gaza in the occupied West Bank. Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. AFP
A mural in Gaza in the occupied West Bank. Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. AFP
A mural in Gaza in the occupied West Bank. Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. AFP
A mural in Gaza in the occupied West Bank. Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. AFP

‘Failed’ Oslo Accords should be scrapped, says key Israeli architect of deal


Laura O'Callaghan
  • English
  • Arabic

The Oslo Accords should be scrapped because the past 30 years have proved they are a failure, a key architect of the historic peace deal has said.

Yossi Beilin suggested the twin pacts between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) had lost their true meaning and been “abused” by Israel.

Dutch diplomat and former peace negotiator Robert Serry said it was “remarkable” to hear one of the masterminds of the Oslo Accords speak about their legacy with such dismay.

Backing Mr Beilin’s call for the agreement to be torn up, he argued a new approach to peace between Israel and the Palestinians was needed for a positive outcome to be achieved.

The comments came during an online discussion hosted by London-based think tank Chatham House on Tuesday, the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords.

“Let us stop it,” Mr Beilin told the audience.

Yossi Beilin, a former member of the Israeli government and an architect of the Oslo Accords, called for the agreement to be scrapped. AP
Yossi Beilin, a former member of the Israeli government and an architect of the Oslo Accords, called for the agreement to be scrapped. AP

“We never thought that it would be for 30 years and that we would mark the 30th year of Oslo. It’s not a success. It’s a failure because we cannot get to a permanent agreement.

“We are dragging it and dragging it. It’s being abused by those who don’t want a permanent agreement and prefer the zero-sum game.

“I think the best thing which [should] happen to Oslo is to kill it."

Mr Beilin has previously served in several positions in the Israeli government and was deputy foreign minister in 1993 when PLO chairman, Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, sign the deal. Their historic handshake on the White House lawn as then-US president Bill Clinton looked on was seen as a major breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

But three decades on, both sides remain locked in a conflict that seems never-ending.

Mr Beilin said people on all sides, including right-wing politicians in Israel, Hamas and many supporters of Fatah – formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement – consider the Oslo Accords “a mistake and a disaster”.

He said it would be better if Israel “got back to the status of occupier”, whereby it would be responsible to pay for the Palestinian budget and sort out education and other services in the occupied territories.

Mr Serry said the agreement had been “manipulated by successive right-wing governments” in Israel and suggested the signing had prompted Europe to become less engaged in the Middle East peace process.

“We [have] left it mainly since Oslo to the Americans,” he said. “The Europeans took a back seat.”

He stressed that a new paradigm was needed for a two-state solution to materialise.

“We cannot go on in the way that we are looking at the problem,” Mr Serry said.

Dalal Iriqat, a lecturer at the Arab American University in Palestine, told the audience the Oslo Accords had given the false impression that Israel and the Palestinians had been engaged in peace talks for the past 30 years.

She pointed out the last serious bilateral discussions held between the two sides, apart from over security co-ordination, was in 2012.

Only a solution to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories that gives her people a right to self-determination can be considered a goal, she said.

Dr Iriqat said Palestinian communities in the West Bank were being increasingly targeted by “extreme settler terrorism”.

The international community should make recognising the existence of a Palestinian state the first step on the road towards a two-state solution, she said.

The specs

Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors

Power: Combined output 920hp

Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic

Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km

On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025

Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000

Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

Available: Now

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Scores

Rajasthan Royals 160-8 (20 ov)

Kolkata Knight Riders 163-3 (18.5 ov)

Saturday's results

Women's third round

  • 14-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) beat Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-2, 6-2
  • Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
  • 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4. 6-0
  • Coco Vandeweghe (USA) beat Alison Riske (USA) 6-2, 6-4
  •  9-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat 19-Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
  • Petra Martic (Croatia) beat Zarina Diyas (Kazakhstan) 7-6, 6-1
  • Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
  • 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4, 6-0

Men's third round

  • 13-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-1, 6-1 -- retired
  • Sam Queery (United States) beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
  • 6-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat 25-Albert Ramos (Spain) 7-6, 6-4, 7-5
  • 10-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Sebastian Ofner (Austria) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
  • 11-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
  • Adrian Mannarino (France) beat 15-Gael Monfils (France) 7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

MATCH INFO

Alaves 1 (Perez 65' pen)

Real Madrid 2 (Ramos 52', Carvajal 69')

Herc's Adventures

Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5

Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Rating: 4/5

Things Heard & Seen

Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton

2/5

Company Profile

Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million

Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

Rating: 2/5

England World Cup squad

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Company Profile 

Founder: Omar Onsi

Launched: 2018

Employees: 35

Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)

Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)

Date started: August 2021

Founder: Nour Sabri

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace

Size: Two employees

Funding stage: Seed investment

Initial investment: $200,000

Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East) 

The specs

Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo

Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed

Power: 271 and 409 horsepower

Torque: 385 and 650Nm

Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000

LIVING IN...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

The six points:

1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences

2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation

3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it

4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow

5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided

6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

Managing the separation process

  • Choose your nursery carefully in the first place
  • Relax – and hopefully your child will follow suit
  • Inform the staff in advance of your child’s likes and dislikes.
  • If you need some extra time to talk to the teachers, make an appointment a few days in advance, rather than attempting to chat on your child’s first day
  • The longer you stay, the more upset your child will become. As difficult as it is, walk away. Say a proper goodbye and reassure your child that you will be back
  • Be patient. Your child might love it one day and hate it the next
  • Stick at it. Don’t give up after the first day or week. It takes time for children to settle into a new routine.And, finally, don’t feel guilty.  
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Updated: September 12, 2023, 3:56 PM