Yasser Abed Rabbo - After Oslo

After Oslo

After the signing of the Oslo Accords—which Abd Rabbo supported, the Madrid controversy notwithstanding—Abd Rabbo was permitted by Israel to return to the West Bank. He was a cabinet member for FIDA in several of Arafat's Palestinian National Authority (PNA) governments, and served on several Palestinian diplomatic delegations during negotiations with Israel (including the failed Camp David 2000 Summit). On 9 June 2002 Abd Rabbo was appointed minister of information and culture in the PNA. He also presented several unofficial peace initiatives, widely believed to have had Arafat's blessing, such as the 2003 Geneva Accord. These initiatives, coupled with his public condemnations of suicide bombing attacks during the al-Aqsa Intifada, strengthened Abd Rabbo's image as a pro-peace moderate, and he is often presented as a Palestinian "dove". However, after the Battle of Jenin he accused Israel of digging mass graves for 900 Palestinians in the camp. This accusation, though widely circulated, has been dismissed as untrue by the United Nations and other human-rights organization.