Norway was . . . also an active mediator. . . . But its mediation role did not involve being on equal terms with each of the involved parties. . . . No evidence has been found showing or even suggesting that the Norwegians argued in the same way towards the Israelis as they did towards the Palestinians. . . . There appears to have been a striking lack of even-handedness on the part of the Norwegians in terms of attempts to persuade the Israeli actors to see the Palestinian point of view or revealing to the PLO where the Palestinians might have had their best negotiating chances. . . . The result achieved in 1993, the Oslo Agreement, was not an ordinary peace agreement. In essence, it was more of a timetable, a point of departure with many vaguely formulated intentions. PLO leader Arafat's willingness to accept the Oslo Accord, with all its shortcomings and compromises, was clearly a result of his fear of being permanently marginalized. [4] : 165–6
Waage also comments about the real power that Norway had in the meetings. She in the last paragraph of her paper "Postscript to Oslo" says that:
Without the power to impose solutions, and above all dependent on the stronger party, the weak state mediator in unequal contests must rely heavily on “process symmetry,” where the two sides are treated with absolute equality, provided with exactly the same accommodations, allotted exactly the same amount of time to make their case, and so on. The Norwegians went to great lengths to achieve this symmetry (as did the Americans in their mediating efforts between Palestinians and Israelis, albeit for different reasons). The problem with process symmetry is that it cannot address the power asymmetry that inevitably distorts the outcome of negotiations. Process symmetry and the entrie [sic] facilitative exercise can create a sense of equality between adversaries and the illusion of genuine communication, even trust. The Norwegians believed that through dialogue and a gradual building of trust, an irreversible peace dynamic would be created that could push the process forward to solution. The problem with this entire approach is that the issue is not one of trust, but of power. The facilitative process masks that reality. In the end, the results that can be achieved by a weak third-party facilitator are no more than the strong party will allow. Short of unusual generosity or truly far-sighted vision, such a solution can only be unbalanced and unfair, and therefore ultimately unsustainable. The question to be asked is whether such a model can ever be appropriate. [5]
Critics
Waage was criticized both by With Israel for Peace [6] and in Twitter for her moderate approach of how security forces should deal with terrorists. [7]
Selected bibliography
- Heian-Engdal, Marte; Jensehaugen, Jørgen; —— (2013). "Finishing the Enterprise: Israel's Admission to the United Nations". The International History Review. 35 (3): 465–485. doi:10.1080/07075332.2013.795493. S2CID 154883147.
- Jensehaugen, Jørgen; ——; Waage, Hilde Henriksen (2012). "Securing the State: From Zionist Ideology to Israeli Statehood". Diplomacy & Statecraft. 23 (2): 280–303. doi:10.1080/09592296.2012.679478. S2CID 154508041.
- Jensehaugen, Jørgen; —— (2012). "Coercive Diplomacy: Israel, Transjordan and the UN—a Triangular Drama Revisited". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 39 (1): 79–100. doi:10.1080/13530194.2012.659445. S2CID 159890806.
- —— (2008). "Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies . 38 (1): 54–65. doi:10.1525/jps.2008.38.1.54. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-18.
- —— (2007). "The 'Minnow' and the 'Whale': Norway and the United States in the Peace Process in the Middle East". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (2): 157–176. doi:10.1080/13530190701427917. JSTOR 20455504. S2CID 218602801.
- —— (2005). "Norway's Role in the Middle East Peace Talks: Between a Strong State and a Weak Belligerent" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. 34 (4): 6–24. doi:10.1525/jps.2005.34.4.6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-28.
- —— (2005). Regime Stability in the Middle East. Oslo: Peace Research Institute Oslo. ISBN 978-82-7288-226-5.
- —— (2004). Peacemaking is a Risky Business: Norway's Role in the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1993–96. Oslo: Peace Research Institute Oslo. ISBN 978-8-272-88219-7.
- —— (2000). "Norwegians? Who needs Norwegians?" Explaining the Oslo Back Channel: Norway's Political Past in the Middle East (PDF). Oslo: Peace Research Institute Oslo.
- —— (2000). "How Norway Became One of Israel's Best Friends". Journal of Peace Research . 37 (2): 189–211. doi:10.1177/0022343300037002005. JSTOR 424920. S2CID 57146794.
- (1996): Norge -Israels beste venn. Norsk Midtøsten-politikk 1949-1956. Universitetsforlaget. (in Norwegian) (p. 30-45: Yanuv)
Related Research Articles
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other efforts to resolve the broader Arab–Israeli conflict. Public declarations of claims to a Jewish homeland in Palestine, including the First Zionist Congress of 1897 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917, created early tensions in the region. Following World War I, the Mandate for Palestine included a binding obligation for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Tensions grew into open sectarian conflict between Jews and Arabs. The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was never implemented and provoked the 1947–1949 Palestine War. The current Israeli-Palestinian status quo began following Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Oslo I Accord or Oslo I, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or short Declaration of Principles (DOP), was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It was the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 is a resolution adopted near the end of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. The Resolution defines principles for reaching a final settlement and returning Palestine refugees to their homes. Article 11 of the resolution resolves that
refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
The Peace Research Institute Oslo is a private research institution in peace and conflict studies, based in Oslo, Norway, with around 100 employees. It was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researchers led by Johan Galtung, who was also the institute's first director (1959–1969). It publishes the Journal of Peace Research, also founded by Johan Galtung.
The Israeli–Palestinian peace process refers to the intermittent discussions held by various parties and proposals put forward in an attempt to resolve the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Since the 1970s, there has been a parallel effort made to find terms upon which peace can be agreed to in both the Arab–Israeli conflict and in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. Some countries have signed peace treaties, such as the Egypt–Israel (1979) and Jordan–Israel (1994) treaties, whereas some have not yet found a mutual basis to do so.
Israel–Palestine Liberation Organization letters of recognition were a series of official letters of recognition between the government of Israel and its Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestine Liberation Organization's Chairman Yasser Arafat dated September 9, 1993. The letters set the stage for, and were in reality the "preamble" to, the Oslo Accords of September 13, 1993.
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon began in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War, and ended on 30 April 2005 after the Cedar Revolution and several demonstrations in which most of the Lebanese people participated, and the withdrawal agreement was signed by President Bashar al-Assad and Saad Hariri, son of Rafic Hariri. All of these changes were a result from the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Prof. Yair Hirschfeld is an Israeli lecturer at the University of Haifa. Prof. Hirschfeld was a key architect of the Oslo Accords in 1993. He was born in Vienna and has been a strong supporter of the two-state solution, and has urged the Palestinian National Authority and the Israeli government to accept some form of this solution.
Leila Farsakh is a Palestinian political economist who was born in Jordan and is an Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Massachusetts Boston. Her area of expertise is Middle East Politics, Comparative Politics, and the Politics of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Farsakh holds a MPhil from the University of Cambridge, UK (1990) and a PhD from the University of London (2003).
Sara M. Roy is an American political economist and scholar. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University.
Gregory S. Mahler is an American political scientist with a general interest in comparative politics, and more specific interests in legislatures and constitutionalism.
The Palestinian autonomy talks was an outgrowth of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty and were designed to lead to a resolution of the Palestinian nationalism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to The Framework for Peace in the Middle East, one part of the 1978 Camp David Accords, Egypt and Israel were to agree within one year on elections for a Palestinian “self-governing authority.” The idea was directly related to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s idea of Palestinian autonomy.
Raphael Cohen-Almagor is an Israeli/British academic.
Political relations between the State of Palestine and the United States have been complex and strained since the 1960s. While the U.S. does not recognize the State of Palestine, it recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative entity for the Palestinian people; following the Oslo Accords, it recognized the Palestinian National Authority as the legitimate Palestinian government of the Palestinian territories.
The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the start of the Oslo process, a peace process aimed at achieving a peace treaty based on Resolution 242 and Resolution 338 of the United Nations Security Council, and at fulfilling the "right of the Palestinian people to self-determination". The Oslo process began after secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway, resulting in both the recognition of Israel by the PLO and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in bilateral negotiations.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is a book authored by New Historian Ilan Pappé and published in 2006 by One World Oxford.
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation, with Palestinian and Arab leadership insisting on the "1967 borders", which is not accepted by Israel. The territory of the former Mandate Palestine which did not form part of the Palestinian State would continue to be part of Israel.
Ely Eliot Palmer was an American diplomat who served as the first United States Ambassador to Afghanistan in 1948. He later served on the United Nations Conciliation Commission as its chairman.
Oslo is an American television drama film about the secret negotiation of the Oslo Accords. The film was directed by Bartlett Sher and written by J. T. Rogers, based on Rogers' play of the same name. It stars Andrew Scott, Ruth Wilson, and Jeff Wilbusch. It was released on May 29, 2021, on HBO.
Aaron (Aharon) S. Klieman was an American-born Israeli historian of international relations who developed the field of international affairs in Israel and abroad. Klieman researched a wide variety of fields in political science including history, arms sales, and geopolitics. He was the Dr. Nahum Goldmann Chair in Diplomacy and lecturer on international relations in the Department of Political Science at Tel-Aviv University, and was the founding director of the Abba Eban Graduate Program in Diplomatic Studies. A native of Chicago, Illinois, his PhD is from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, with an M.A. from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University in Middle Eastern studies.
References
- ↑ University of Oslo Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Hilde Henriksen Waage, Peacemaking Is a Risky Business: Norway’s Role in the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1993–96 (Oslo: PRIO, 2004)
- 1 2 Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine , Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1 (Autumn 2008)
- ↑ Waage, Hilde Henriksen (2007). "The 'Minnow' and the 'Whale': Norway and the United States in the Peace Process in the Middle East". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (2): 157–176. doi:10.1080/13530190701427917. JSTOR 20455504. S2CID 218602801.
- ↑ "Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway's Missing Files | The Institute for Palestine Studies". www.palestine-studies.org. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
- ↑ "What if Norwegian police will kill stabbing terrorists?". www.miff.no. 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
- ↑ "Norwegian Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage with tips to London police". www.twitter.com. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Oslo |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History |
| Institutions | Peace Research Institute Oslo |
| Acting Director of Peace Research Institute Oslo | |
| In office 1992–1993 | |
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
