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Op-Ed video: How the Oslo Accords perpetuate Israeli occupation

The international community's continued support for a two-state solution perpetuates Israeli occupation rather than facilitating peace, argues David Hearst

The two-state solution has long been promoted as the most viable path to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, but with increasing Israeli settlement activities, and a lack of political will to reverse this trend, the concept has become more illusionary than ever. 

David Hearst, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, argues that the Oslo Accords, once heralded as a peace-making mechanism, have instead perpetuated Israeli occupation.

"The short answer is that while Oslo as a path to peace is clearly dead, as a formula for maintaining the occupation, Oslo is alive and well," says Hearst. 

"Oslo as it exists today is not a peace process. That can only come when the occupation becomes too costly for the occupiers and only then will they start to negotiate."

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David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was the Guardian's foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.
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