Gaza–Jericho Agreement
The Gaza–Jericho Agreement, officially called Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, was a follow-up treaty to the Oslo I Accord in which details of Palestinian autonomy were concluded.[1] The agreement is commonly known as the 1994 Cairo Agreement. It was signed on 4 May 1994 by Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
History
The Agreement provided for limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip within five years. Pursuant to the Agreement, Israel promised to withdraw partly from the Jericho region in the West Bank and partly from the Gaza Strip, within three weeks of signing.[2] The Palestinian Authority was created by the Agreement (Article III, Transfer of Authority), and Yasser Arafat became the first president of the PA on 5 July 1994 upon the formal inauguration of the PA.[3]
Other parts of the agreement were the Protocol on Economic Relations (Paris Protocol) and the establishment of the Palestinian Civil Police Force. The Paris Protocol regulates the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but in effect integrates the Palestinian economy into the Israeli one.[4]
The agreement was incorporated into and superseded by the Oslo II Accord, formally known as the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 24 and 28 September 1995 (Oslo II, Article XXXI, Final Clauses).[5]
References
- Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Agreement on Gaza Strip and Jericho Area
- Mideast accord: the overview; Rabin and Arafat sign accord ending Israel's 27-year hold on Jericho and the Gaza Strip. Chris Hedges, New York Times, 5 May 1994.
"Israel has offered a Jericho region of 24 square miles; the Palestinians have asked for 42 square miles ... Israeli troops are to remain at the Rafah border crossing and at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip,"
"... Mr. Arafat had asked the Israelis to delay their total pullback for the 21 days allowed in the accord because the Palestinians were not ready to take over." - Europa World Year Book 2004, p. 2235. Taylor & Francis, 2004 (on Google Books).
"On 26–28 May [1994] the PA held its inaugural meeting in Tunis, ... Arafat made a symbolic return to Gaza City on 1 July—his first visit for 25 years—and the PA was formally inaugurated in Jericho on 5 July." - Will we always have Paris? Archived 2013-12-25 at the Wayback Machine. Gaza Gateway, 13 September 2012
- "The Israeli–Palestinian Interim Agreement Main Points". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel).
External links
- Text on ProCon: 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area
- Text on unispal: Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area