Peace Now - Peace Now and The First Intifada (1987-1993)

Peace Now and The First Intifada (1987-1993)

In 1988 Yasser Arafat (Chairman of the PLO) publicly accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 at the PNC in Algiers. For the first time, Yasser Arafat accepted Israel's existence according to its borders set out in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, and rejected and condemned the use of terrorism in all its forms. In reaction Peace Now led a demonstration of more than 100,000 people, calling for immediate Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for the purposes of attaining peace between the two parties. Following this, Peace Now led the Hands Around Jerusalem event, in which 25,000 Israelis and Palestinians linked hands to encircle the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in a chain of peace.

In part due to the Israeli-Palestinian discourse engendered by Peace Now and its activists, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat succeeded in signing the Declaration of Principles/Oslo Accords on the lawn of the White House on 13 September 1993. Peace Now was the first Israeli organisation to meet with the PLO, at a time when such an undertaking was deemed illegal by the Israeli government.

The signing of the Oslo accords marked a milestone in Israeli-Palestinian relations, as for the first time both peoples recognised their counterparts right to exist. Furthermore, the Oslo Peace Process was initiated; this process was a framework for future negotiations which aimed to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict within a five-year period according to the logic of the 'two state solution', as set-out in the UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Peace Now wholeheartedly supported the Oslo Accords, and since then it has called upon all Israeli administrations to date to adhere to the terms of interim agreements which were agreed upon as part of the Oslo Peace Process.