What is the Palestinian Authority and how did it originate?
The 1993 Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP) was the first in a series of steps known as the “Oslo Peace Process”. The DOP set forth a two-phased timetable. The first phase, or the “interim period,” was to last five years, during which time Israel would incrementally withdraw from Palestinian population centers in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza Strip, while transferring administrative power to an elected Palestinian Authority (PA). A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO May 4, 1994 Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area. As an immediate result of this agreement, Yasser Arafat was able to return from the PLO exile in Tunisia to take control. The event was chillingly described by eyewitness Michael Kelly in his article titled “Promises but Never Peace”: Arafat’s entry into Gaza was an object lesson: a purposely uncaring display of brute power. He arrived from the Sinai in a
