APN Research Center
Student Advocacy Resources
The Peace Process
In 1993, Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization signed the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, commonly known as the Oslo Accords. This agreement was based on the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and led to further US-mediated negotiations between the two sides. The negotiations have continued in an “on again, off again” manner to the present day.
APN Resources
20 Years After: Briefing Call on Rabin Assassination with Author Dan Ephron
Americans for Peace Now / (November 2, 2015)
Briefing call with Author Dan Ephron, who discusses the events that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the events that followed in its aftermath. Read More >
Articles
The Quiet Death of the Two-State Solution
Yossi Meckelberg / Chatham House (April 21, 2016)
A complete lack of trust, the absence of true statesmanship and the building of settlements have rendered a viable Palestinian state impossible. Read More >
The Explosive, Inside Story of How John Kerry Built an Israel-Palestine Peace Plan—and Watched It Crumble
Ben Birnbaum and Amir Tibon / New Republic (July 20, 2014)
Provides in-depth detail into the John Kerry-led negotiations between Israel and Palestine and the reasons for its failure. Read More >
Barriers to Peace in Israeli Peacemaking — Process and Substance
Galia Golan / Palestine-Israel Journal (May 20, 2014)
The particular approach, process, and substance of past negotiations may have served as a barrier to successful peacemaking. Read More >
Encountering Peace: Negotiating Atmospherics
Gershon Baskin / The Jerusalem Post (November 6, 2013)
Argues that peace requires both sides to demonstrate positive will and actions to positively influence the atmosphere outside of the negotiating room, and provides examples that both sides could take to do that. Read More >
Audio and Video
Revisiting Rabin's Assassination, And The Peace That Might Have Been
Fresh Air (2015)
Twenty years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed by a Jewish religious zealot. Dan Ephron, author of Killing a King, discusses the assassination and its effect on the peace process. (37:59) Listen >
Disillusionment Among Israelis, Palestinians About Peace
PBS Newshour (2013)
Margaret Warner travels to the West Bank and Gaza to hear from Palestinian and Israeli citizens about whether they think peace is possible in their part of the world. Includes interviews with policy experts Yossi Alpher and Ghassan Khatib, as well as Israeli and Palestinian citizens on the ground. (10:41) Watch >
The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs
PBS (1998)
Opening with the UN decision to partition Mandatory Palestine in 1947, this documentary charts the ensuing half-century of enmity, warfare, mediation and negotiation. Those interviewed or featured include Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, King Hussein, Yasir Arafat, Hafez al-Assad, and U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Jimmy Carter. Also appearing are government ministers, commanders, heads of intelligence, guerrilla leaders, and other high-ranking officials. Part 1 > (2:25:59) | Part 2 > (2:25:29)
Books
Back Channel Negotiation: Secrecy in the Middle East Peace Process
Anthony Wanis-St.John | Syracuse University Press (2011)
Book Review (Powell's Books) | CampusBooks
Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, Second Edition: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities
Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan | Indiana University Press (2010)
Book Review (Powell's Books) | CampusBooks
The Process: 1,100 Days that Changed the Middle East
Uri Savir | Vintage (1999)
Book Review (The New York Times) | CampusBooks
Beyond Oslo, The Struggle for Palestine: Inside the Middle East Peace Process from Rabin's Death to Camp David
Ahmed Qurie | I. B. Tauris (2008)
Book Review (The Free Library) | CampusBooks
Official Documents
The Palestine Papers
1999 - 2010
Confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leaked in January 2011. Includes thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence, minutes from private meetings, transcripts of high level exchanges, and strategy papers. Read More >
Peace Agreements: Israel-Palestine
1991 - 2007
Documents from the Peace Agreements Digital Collection of the United States of Peace. Includes PDF files of all peace agreements formally agreed to by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, as sell as additional related documents. Read More >
Peace Plans
1913 - 2003
Database assembled by the Jewish Virtual Library that includes all proposed peace plans designed to end the conflict between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. Read More >
The Clinton Parameters
IPCRI (December 23, 2000)
After Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat failed to achieve a peace agreement at the Camp David Summit in July, 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered guidelines as a basis for future negotiations. Read More >
Public Opinion
Trump, the Peace Process, and Elections
Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre (September 6, 2017)
A public opinion poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre (JMCC) in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung showed Palestinian pessimism towards the United States’ role in the peace process six months after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The majority of respondents (79.3%) said Trump was not serious in his call for a resumption of the peace process, while 11.9% said he was serious. Meanwhile, 42.9% said there was a decline in the United States’ dealings with the Middle East peace process, while 42.8% said there had been no change compared to previous US Administrations. Read More >
Despite it all, most Israelis still support the two-state solution
Nir Hasson / Haaretz (July 7, 2014)
Although the majority of Israelis support partition, almost a quarter are happy to sanction a binational state in which the Palestinians lack full rights, study shows. Read More >
Israeli and Palestinian Public Opinion on Negotiating a Final Status Peace Agreement
Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development / Program for Public Consultation / United States Institute of Peace (December 6, 2013)
Findings showed that both Israelis and Palestinians are pessimistic about the negotiations and the long-term prospects for a peace agreement (48% of Israelis and 47% of Palestinians said that they believed a peace agreement will never be reached). Only a few express optimism that US mediation efforts will bring an agreement in the next year (4% of Israelis and 11% of Palestinians). Both Israelis and Palestinians express remarkably low confidence that their negotiators will get the best possible deal (24% of Israelis and 31% of Palestinians) and that American mediators will try to negotiate a fair deal (28% of Israelis and 28% of Palestinians). PDF >
Joint Israeli Palestinian Poll (June 2013)
The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace / Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research / Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (June 2013)
Shows that a majority of Israelis (62%) supports a two-state solution while 33% oppose it. Among the Palestinians, 53% support and 46% oppose the two-state solution. However, findings also show that Israelis and Palestinians continue to display pessimism regarding the peace process and perceive the other side as constituting a threat to its very existence. PDF >
Reports and Data Sources
The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process and Its Vicissitudes: Insights From Attitude Theory
Herbert C. Kelman | American Psychologist (May - June 2007)
Analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 1967 using attitudes and other related concepts. Also seeks to demonstrate that concepts drawn from attitude theory can be useful tools in this analysis. PDF >
History of Mid-East Peace Talks
BBC News (July 29, 2013)
Provides brief historical snapshots of each of the main Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian peace proposals since 1967. Concluding with the 2010 peace talks, the timeline also features links to relevant official documents. Read More >
The Israeli-Palestinian Economic Agreement and Current Consequences
Ephraim Lavie | The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (January 2013)
Analyzes the Paris Protocol, the economic agreement signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1994, and its effects from then until 2000. Concludes that the Palestinian economy has not brought about economic growth and improvement in the population's well-being. PDF >
Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict
Jeremy Ginges, Scott Atran, Douglas Medin, and Khalil Shikaki | Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict (April 25, 2007)
Report of a series of experiments carried out with Palestinian and Israeli participants showing that violent opposition to compromise over issues considered sacred is increased by offering material incentives to compromise but decreased when the adversary makes symbolic compromises over their own sacred values. PDF >