RAMALLAH, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen years after the signing of the interim peace treaties, better known as Oslo accords, chances of reaching a permanent deal between Israel and the Palestinians became slim once again as their peace talks have been stalled since October 2010.
Observers said that the Israeli policies and practices on the ground over the past 19 years after the deal, which was based on the principle of a two-state solution, had complicated the accurate and full implementation of the interim deal thus hinder the achievement of a permanent one.
The Oslo peace accords was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the White House in Washington on Sept. 13, 1993 to end decades of bloody conflicts.
The aim of the negotiations at that time was to form a transitional Palestinian authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, after which the two sides should start talks on permanent status issues, such as Jerusalem, refugees, settlement, water and security.
Oslo deal had guaranteed the establishment of a transitional self-rule authority for the Palestinians. However, no Palestinian state has been established yet and Palestinian officials hold Israel responsible for the stalemate in the peace process.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua that all the governments of Israel "did their best to waste every possible opportunity that Oslo accords brought about to achieve permanent peace."
The Palestinians alleged that Israel is still controlling 60 percent of the West Bank territory and at the same time keeps escalating its settlement construction, which ruins all the chances of establishing a Palestinian state in the future beside the state of Israel.
Israel, meanwhile, pulled out from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and evacuated its settlement there. In June 2007, the Islamic Hamas movement, which opposes Oslo accords, violently seized control of it after weeks of infighting with the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Khalil Shahin, a political analyst from the West bank city of Ramallah, told Xinhua that "Oslo agreements divided the Palestinian people into Palestinians of Gaza, Palestinians of West Bank and Palestinians in the Diaspora."
The Palestinians want Israel to completely halt all settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and want to start talks on permanent status issues to establish an independent Palestinian state on the territories Israel occupied in 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Salah al-Bardaweel, a senior Hamas leader based in Gaza, told Xinhua that his movement believes that toppling Oslo accords 19 years after it was signed is a Palestinian national need, adding " Oslo was illusive and didn't bring the Palestinians anything fruitful except disasters and tragedies."
In addition to the stalled peace process, the Palestinians are complaining about the high cost of living partly caused by the Paris economy agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinians in 1995, soon after the two sides began to implement Oslo accords.
Following a violent wave of protests in the West bank against the hard living conditions, the Palestinian National Authority called on Israel to reconsider amending the Paris protocol.
Samer Anabtawi, a Palestinian commentator, told Xinhua that Oslo accords had yielded a Palestinian economy completely linked to the Israeli economy.
"This reality kept the Palestinian economy linked to the world donations and the Israeli blackmail," said Anabtawi, adding that Israel considers the Palestinian territories a good consuming market.
Erekat said that the Palestinian choice is still based on the two-state solution, adding that the Palestinian leadership is counting on the international law and the international resolutions to give the Palestinian people the right to establish their state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
However, Hani al-Masri, another West Bank-based political analyst, cautioned that "nothing will change on the ground amid the ongoing difficult situation."
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