After signing the Oslo Accords, Arafat and the exiled leadership were allowed to return to the Gaza Strip from Tunis and, for the first time, to lead the Palestinian struggle from within the occupied territories.11 Palestinians under occupation were hopeful the Oslo Accords would bring statehood.12 The economy had suffered during the intifada, and Palestinians had watched Israel expand its settlement enterprise on land that was presumably to make up their future state. Israel’s settlement expansion persisted even after the right-wing Likud government was replaced by a left-leaning Labor
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