1995 Israeli Government Map of the Oslo II Accord, West Bank

This is a map of the West Bank, Israel / Palestine, illustrating the 'Oslo II' Accords, signed in Taba, Egypt in 1995, following the Oslo Accord (Oslo I) two years earlier. It illustrates the bewildering complexity of trying to create distinct Israeli and Palestinian areas, the latter of which moved towards a degree of self-government following the agreements.

A Closer Look

This Hebrew-English bilingual map depicts the tentative boundaries of distinct administrative areas, which are still in effect, agreed to as part of the Oslo II agreement, along with the location of holy sites as well as police and security stations. According to the agreements, Area A is administered by the Palestinian National Authority (PA), Area B is jointly administered by the PA and Israel (with Israel managing security affairs), and Area C (60% of the West Bank), consisting of the territory surrounding Areas A and B that is inhabited by Israeli citizens, is administered solely by Israel.

Roads, geographical features, and topography are also indicated. The joint patrols referred to were a short-lived effort to have Israeli and Palestinian military and security forces operate in unison to prevent violent incidents. The body of water to the bottom-right is the Dead Sea.

Although not noted in English, the large population center to the north of Bethlehem is Jerusalem, which has its own particular issues around territory and administration relating to any potential peace agreement.

An inset map at bottom-right indicates several avenues of 'safe passage' (in other words, free passage) between Palestinian-inhabited areas, especially between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These passage routes have been attempted several times but usually do not last long due to Israeli fears about the passageways being used by militants and terrorists.

The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Attempts to find a long-term territorial and political settlement on Israel and Palestine have been ongoing for decades, even as conflicts and new Israeli settlements have shifted the likely boundaries of such a settlement. The United States has sometimes played an important mediating role, as with the Camp David Accords of 1978 and the closely related Oslo Peace process of the early-mid 1990s. These negotiations resulted in the creation of the Palestinian Authority as the representative of Palestinian 'self-determination', though not statehood.

Even these preliminary, tentative moves were too much for nationalists and extremists on both sides. The Israeli Prime Minister who negotiated the Oslo Accords, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated just one week after signing the Oslo II agreement, while the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its affiliate political party Fatah suffered from its tacit recognition of Israel in the accords, opening the door for militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to gain influence.

Since the mid-1990s, the peace process has broken down and the prospects of a final agreement have become even more remote. The failure to reach an agreement at another Camp David Summit in 2000 helped lead to the Second Intifada uprising among Palestinians. In the years since, Israeli politics have moved further to the right, ignoring, or even endorsing further Israeli settlement into Palestinian lands, while Hamas has become a major political force, even seizing control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Regional actors such as Hezbollah and Iran have also become increasingly involved in the conflict, which has flared up with depressing regularity.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by the Mapping Unit (יחידת המיפוי) and published by the Publications Service at the Information Center (שירות הפרסומים במרכז ההסברה) of the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture (later the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, משרד החינוך התרבות והספורט, since divided into the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Sport). It is only known to be held by the National Library of Israel and is very scarce to the market.