Rabin and Arafat Sign Accord: Peace for Gaza

Yitzhak Rabin paused before signing. The Israeli Prime Minister sat at the ceremony table in Cairo on May 4, 1994, pen in hand, and hesitated over a map appendix that defined the boundaries of Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Yasser Arafat had to be called back to initial the corrections before the signing could proceed, an awkward moment broadcast live to a global audience already skeptical that the agreement would hold. The Cairo Agreement, formally the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, implemented the framework established by the Oslo Accords signed on the White House lawn seven months earlier. Oslo had been a declaration of principles; Cairo provided the operational details. Palestinian police would assume security responsibility in Gaza and Jericho. A Palestinian Authority would govern civil affairs. Israeli military forces would withdraw from populated areas while maintaining control of settlements, borders, and external security. The agreement represented an extraordinary reversal for both leaders. Rabin had built his military reputation fighting Arabs, and Arafat had spent decades directing armed resistance against Israel. The handshake that produced Oslo began with secret back-channel negotiations in Norway, conducted without the knowledge of most officials in either government. Palestinian self-rule began in Jericho on May 13 and in Gaza on May 18, when Israeli forces withdrew from population centers. Arafat crossed into Gaza on July 1, returning to Palestinian territory for the first time in 27 years. He established the Palestinian Authority's headquarters in Gaza City, surrounded by the trappings of statehood but lacking sovereignty over borders, airspace, or water resources. The optimism proved short-lived. Israeli settlement expansion continued, Palestinian militant groups opposed to the accords launched attacks, and the promised final-status negotiations stalled repeatedly. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist in November 1995. The Gaza-Jericho Agreement remains a historical artifact of the closest the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came to resolution.