It happened at 5 p.m., exactly 20 years ago today, on Sept. 13, 1993. The Oslo Accords were signed on the White House lawn. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, PLO official Mahmoud Abbas and US President Bill Clinton stood on the red carpet and shook hands. One member of Fatah, Ihab al-Ashkar, assumed the responsibility of getting all the residents of Gaza out of their houses so that they could celebrate the new era, the "era of peace." He raised money from local businessmen in Gaza and organized workshops to sew Palestinian flags for everyone to decorate their homes.
The people of Gaza had long been forced to be home by 8 p.m. sharp for curfew and remain there until dawn, but that day they received permission to celebrate all night. Ashkar was pleased. Once a member of the first intifada’s high command, he told everyone who would listen that at that very moment he was putting down his arms and living his dream. But not everyone acted the same way. Many people had a different dream. He quickly discovered that others would try to rob the state in the making from him and his friends. They wanted to establish a different kind of state, based on very different foundations.
At the time, most local Fatah members were part of the intifada’s high command. When they were arrested by the Israel Defense Forces, they were sent to prison. They were all kept for various lengths of time in Israeli jails. It was there that they were first exposed to the Israeli experience, Israeli culture and democracy, which became the basis upon which they wanted to establish their own state. It was in Israeli prisons, of all places that the seeds of the Oslo Accords were first sown.
Palestinian prisoners supported the concept of a “two states for two peoples solution,” and they sent news of this to Tunisia, to Arafat and his aides. One of those prisoners was Ashkar. He also made the transition from being a supporter of terrorism to being a supporter of peace.
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