“Do they actually want peace, or do they just want us gone?”

Some do and some do not, and many of them ask the same question about you. In a joint poll in July 2024, 66% of Israeli Jews said the Palestinians want to commit genocide against them, and 61% of Palestinians said the same about Israel. In August 2026, 44% of Palestinians backed two states and 50% opposed; 44% chose negotiations as the best way to end the occupation, 27% armed struggle. But a poll is not a peace deal, and Hamas, a terrorist organisation, is not the Palestinian public. More in Israelis and Palestinians: options for the future.

“We left Gaza in 2005 and got 7 October. Why would another withdrawal end differently?”

It might not, and the fear rests on real events. Israel left the Strip in 2005; Hamas won the 2006 election and seized the Strip by force in 2007; and the terrorist attack of 7 October was launched from there. By a figure Human Rights Watch cites, about 2,700 rockets were fired from Gaza between September 2005 and May 2007. What the record adds: the exit was unilateral, with nothing signed; Israel kept control of the air, the sea and the land perimeter; and in 2007 a blockade followed. But the lesson is disputed: some say evacuated land becomes a base for attack; the Palestinian Authority argued in 2005 that the occupation had not ended. See the disengagement.

“If Oslo was so important, how come buses blew up afterwards?”

Because Oslo was a beginning, not an end, and its enemies on both sides attacked it. In this site’s view it was a historic breakthrough: in September 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat chose mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, and the Declaration of Principles was signed. The three shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. It was a five-year interim deal; Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security and borders were left for later. Then came the violence: in 1994 an Israeli massacred Muslim worshippers in Hebron; in February and March 1996, 59 people were killed in four Hamas suicide bombings; and in 1995 an Israeli opponent of the process assassinated Rabin. But why it stalled is disputed: the US Office of the Historian points to Hamas attacks eroding Israeli support; the Palestinian scholar Khalil Shikaki to an open-ended interim period in which settlements grew. More in Oslo: the breakthrough, and what went wrong on the way.

“They have tried so many times and failed. Why try again?”

Because failed attempts are often how success gets built. Egypt is the clearest case. Under Golda Meir, the UN envoy Gunnar Jarring put proposals to both sides in 1971, and the effort stalled. Under Rabin’s first government, Henry Kissinger’s shuttle broke down in March 1975, and six months later a Sinai interim agreement was signed anyway; according to the memorial site of the diplomat Mordechai Gazit, who sat on Israel’s team, that agreement laid foundations for the peace. In 1977 Sadat came to Jerusalem, and in 1979 a peace treaty was signed that is still in force. In this site’s view every peace effort is worth making. But a failed attempt helps only if the next one learns from it. More in Efforts that did not ripen.

“I enlist next year. Can you be a combat soldier and want peace?”

Yes. Several peacemakers spent most of their lives in uniform. Yitzhak Rabin was Chief of Staff in 1964–1968, and later signed Oslo II and the peace with Jordan; in the US Congress on 26 July 1994 he called himself “a soldier in the army for peace”. Moshe Dayan, a former Chief of Staff, ran the secret contacts before Sadat’s visit. Combatants for Peace was founded in 2006 by former fighters from both sides. But what that means for your own service is yours to decide.

“Friends of mine were killed in Gaza. Isn’t talking about peace now spitting on them?”

No. Nobody can speak for your friends, and this site will not try. What research knows is about the living: a study that followed 996 Israelis and 631 Palestinians found that personal exposure to political violence lowers support for peace efforts. So pulling away from the word peace after a loss is common, not strange. Some bereaved families chose another way: the Parents Circle – Families Forum, founded in 1995, has more than 800 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian members. But it does not speak for all bereaved families, and neither does this site; when to read on is your call. More in Violence, terror and the damage to peace.

“Who would we even sign with? Hamas doesn’t want to, and the PA is weak.”

There is no simple answer. Every agreement so far was signed with the PLO, which Israel recognised in 1993; its chairman is Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas won the last legislative election, in 2006, and took Gaza by force in 2007. In August 2026, 79% of Palestinians wanted Abbas to resign. A new election is set for 28 November 2026, and candidates must accept the PLO’s programme, including recognition of Israel. Palestinians ask the mirror question: in July 2024 the Knesset voted 68 to 9 for a resolution against a Palestinian state, and Israel votes on 27 October 2026. But who will be able to sign after both elections, nobody knows yet. See the Gaza ceasefire.

“What do they learn about us at school in Gaza and Ramallah?”

We only have an old study. In 2013 a team led by Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University and Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University read 370 Israeli and 102 Palestinian textbooks. Dehumanising the other was rare on both sides. But both told a one-sided national story, said little about the other’s daily life, and sometimes left the other off the map; this was stronger in the Palestinian books and Israel’s ultra-Orthodox books than in Israeli state schools. But the study is over a decade old, and we found no joint study of today’s books.

“We have peace with Egypt and they still hate us there. So what is it worth?”

It is worth not having a war, and that is a lot. Israel and Egypt have not fought since 1973, the treaty has held since 1979, and Israeli gas has flowed to Egypt since 2020. The chill is real too: before October 2023 about 5% of Egyptians and 5% of Jordanians favoured normalisation (a measure of support for normalisation, not of hatred), and in 2026 Egypt has no ambassador in Tel Aviv. But why the peace stays cold is disputed: the Arab Barometer says it will stay cold without a Palestinian state; researchers at the Begin-Sadat Center see the Abraham Accords as proof that a warmer peace is possible. See the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.

“What can I, one person, actually do?”

Not a treaty, but more than nothing. Meeting the other side helps: a 2019 review of 27 experiments found that contact between groups usually reduces prejudice, though less so when the prejudice is ethnic. The coalition ALLMEP says encounter programmes change attitudes but have never been funded at a scale that changes whole societies. What is open to you: read an agreement and its source, check a claim before sharing it, and meet someone from the other side through an organisation that does this. But whether individual steps add up to political change, nobody knows. Ideas and organisations in What you can do.

“Is there anyone my age on the other side who thinks like me?”

Yes, though fewer than you may hope. In July 2024, 34% of Palestinians aged 18 to 29 backed two states, and 8% of Israeli Jews aged 18 to 35. Still, they meet: the Parents Circle runs a youth programme and a summer camp; more than 2,000 Jewish and Arab pupils study together in the six Hand in Hand schools; Standing Together has student chapters. But for young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, joint meetings carry risks that Israelis do not face.

“I am a citizen of Israel. When will I be equal, and what does your peace change for me?”

Nobody knows when, and this site will not promise. On paper, Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence promises complete equality of rights to all inhabitants. In practice: Arab citizens are 17.2% of the population; in 2023, 38.4% of Arab families lived in poverty against 15.4% of Jewish families, and 244 Arabs were murdered. Adalah lists laws it regards as discriminatory, among them the 2018 Nation-State Law; in 2021 the Supreme Court upheld that law by ten justices to one. But this site is about peace between peoples and states, and it has no sourced answer on what that would change for you. More in the Palestinian story.

“When does the occupation end, and who is going to evacuate 700,000 settlers?”

There is no date, and as of October 2026 there are no talks on a final settlement. In July 2024 the International Court of Justice advised that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied territory is unlawful. The UN counts more than 700,000 settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2022). No plan on this site moves them all: the Clinton Parameters kept blocs with about 80% of the settlers inside Israel, in exchange for other land; under the Geneva Initiative Israel resettles those beyond the border inside its own territory; the Trump plan moves nobody. But it has been done once: in 2005 Israel removed about 8,500 settlers from Gaza. Compare the plans in options for the future.

“My grandmother is from Jaffa. Does she go back, get compensation, or is she supposed to give up?”

No text gives her everything she would want. UN Resolution 194 (1948) says refugees wishing to return and live at peace should be allowed to, and those who do not return should be compensated. The Arab Peace Initiative asks for a just and agreed solution under Resolution 194. The Clinton Parameters offer five destinations, with entry to Israel up to Israel; the Geneva Initiative offers compensation and a choice of home, with Israel setting how many it admits. The dispute: the Palestinian team wrote in 2001 that it could not accept a deal without return to homes; Israeli governments objected to the reference to Resolution 194. But whether to accept compensation is her decision, not this site’s.

“Jerusalem: whose is Al-Aqsa the day after?”

Nothing has been agreed; there are only proposals. In the 1994 treaty Israel undertook to respect Jordan’s special role at the Muslim holy shrines. The Clinton Parameters offered two formulas for Al-Aqsa / Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount to Jews), with the Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty in both. The Geneva Initiative gives the compound to Palestine with an international presence; the Trump plan keeps Jerusalem Israeli and the status quo at the holy places; the 2025 New York Declaration backs the status quo and the Hashemite custodianship. But each side’s claim is one of faith and nationhood; the site records them and does not rule between them.

“How many Israelis actually want a Palestinian state today?”

Few, and fewer than before the war. In the joint poll, support for two states among Israeli Jews fell from 34% in December 2022 to 21% in July 2024; among Arab citizens it stood at 72%. In a 2025 Pew survey, 21% of Israelis said Israel and a Palestinian state could live side by side in peace, the lowest since 2013. In 2018 the Peace Index had found 47% of Israeli Jews backing a two-state deal. But the questions differ, so the numbers do not sit on one line, and we found no 2026 poll.

“Who gets punished for killing civilians in Gaza, and for settler violence?”

Cases exist; almost none has ended. In November 2024 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, on suspicion of starvation as a method of warfare and of crimes against humanity; the warrant for the Hamas commander Mohammed Deif was withdrawn after his death, and Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and the charges. South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice has produced interim orders, not a judgment. In Israel, the army opened criminal investigations into two Gaza incidents in August 2026; according to Yesh Din, indictments are close to zero relative to complaints, and 93.6% of police files on settler violence in 2005–2025 were closed without charges. On 7 October: a law of May 2026 set up a special military tribunal for about 400 Hamas men held in Israel; Adalah says it breaches the presumption of innocence. But for now the honest answer is: very few.

“Sadat, Rabin, Arafat: look what happened to the ones who signed. Why should I believe the next one survives?”

Nobody can promise that, but the record is more mixed than it looks. Two were murdered, both by their own people: Sadat in 1981 by Egyptian Islamists whose motives included the peace, and Rabin in 1995 by an Israeli who opposed Oslo. Arafat died near Paris in 2004; claims that he was poisoned were investigated, and French and Swiss experts reached different conclusions. Begin, King Hussein and Peres were not murdered. But an agreement does not die with its signer: the peace with Egypt outlived Sadat and is in force today.

“What did an ordinary Egyptian or Jordanian get out of peace? Not the government.”

The states clearly gained; for households the evidence is thin. Egypt got all of Sinai back within three years, and its military spending fell from 15.4% of GDP in 1975 to 1.0% in 2022, though not because of peace alone. Egyptian goods with an Israeli component enter the US duty-free, and Jordan gets water from Israel, though the extra deal lapsed in 2025. But about a third of Egyptians lived in poverty by the latest count, we found no study isolating what peace did for a family’s income, and only about 5% in each country favoured normalisation before October 2023. See Egypt and Jordan.

“Oslo gave us more settlements. Why would another round be any different?”

The numbers back up the question. The Declaration of Principles left settlements for the permanent-status talks, and building went on: about 110,000 settlers in the West Bank (not counting East Jerusalem) in 1993, about 465,000 in 2023, by Peace Now’s count. Khalil Shikaki called it the design flaw: an open-ended interim period. Later texts tried to fix it: the Mitchell committee and the Roadmap demanded a freeze that never happened; the Geneva Initiative draws a border, with an international body checking implementation. But nothing guarantees that the next round will differ; what can be said is that the texts since Oslo name this failure and propose a border, a timetable and monitoring.

“What can a 17-year-old do without being arrested or called a traitor?”

Learning and checking need nobody’s permission; activism is riskier, and not equally so for everyone. In Gaza in April 2020, Hamas security services arrested Rami Aman and other activists after a video call with Israelis; three were charged with “weakening revolutionary spirit”, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for their release. In Israel, according to Adalah, dozens of Palestinian citizens were charged over posts and statements in the five weeks after 7 October 2023. For the West Bank we found no source. What needs nobody’s permission: reading the agreements and their sources, checking a claim, learning the other language. But being called a traitor is a real social cost; weigh it with someone you trust.

Hard questions, honest answers

Questions that young Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs really ask, with short, honest answers. Where there are facts, they come with a source; where there is only a position, we say whose. Both lists are in all three languages, so you can see what the other side is asking too.

13 min read

Questions Israelis ask

“Do they actually want peace, or do they just want us gone?”: Some do and some do not, and many of them ask the same question about you. In a joint poll in July 2024, 66% of Israeli Jews said the Palestinians want to commit genocide against them, and 61% of Palestinians said the same about Israel.¹ In August 2026, 44% of Palestinians backed two states and 50% opposed; 44% chose negotiations as the best way to end the occupation, 27% armed struggle.² But a poll is not a peace deal, and Hamas, a terrorist organisation, is not the Palestinian public. More in Israelis and Palestinians: options for the future.
“We left Gaza in 2005 and got 7 October. Why would another withdrawal end differently?”: It might not, and the fear rests on real events. Israel left the Strip in 2005; Hamas won the 2006 election and seized the Strip by force in 2007; and the terrorist attack of 7 October was launched from there.³⁴ By a figure Human Rights Watch cites, about 2,700 rockets were fired from Gaza between September 2005 and May 2007.⁵ What the record adds: the exit was unilateral, with nothing signed; Israel kept control of the air, the sea and the land perimeter; and in 2007 a blockade followed.³⁶ But the lesson is disputed: some say evacuated land becomes a base for attack; the Palestinian Authority argued in 2005 that the occupation had not ended.³ See the disengagement.
“If Oslo was so important, how come buses blew up afterwards?”: Because Oslo was a beginning, not an end, and its enemies on both sides attacked it. In this site’s view it was a historic breakthrough: in September 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat chose mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, and the Declaration of Principles was signed.⁷⁸ The three shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.⁹ It was a five-year interim deal; Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security and borders were left for later.⁸ Then came the violence: in 1994 an Israeli massacred Muslim worshippers in Hebron;¹⁰ in February and March 1996, 59 people were killed in four Hamas suicide bombings;¹¹ and in 1995 an Israeli opponent of the process assassinated Rabin.¹² But why it stalled is disputed: the US Office of the Historian points to Hamas attacks eroding Israeli support;¹³ the Palestinian scholar Khalil Shikaki to an open-ended interim period in which settlements grew.¹⁴ More in Oslo: the breakthrough, and what went wrong on the way.
“They have tried so many times and failed. Why try again?”: Because failed attempts are often how success gets built. Egypt is the clearest case. Under Golda Meir, the UN envoy Gunnar Jarring put proposals to both sides in 1971, and the effort stalled.¹⁵ Under Rabin’s first government, Henry Kissinger’s shuttle broke down in March 1975, and six months later a Sinai interim agreement was signed anyway;¹⁶ according to the memorial site of the diplomat Mordechai Gazit, who sat on Israel’s team, that agreement laid foundations for the peace.¹⁷ In 1977 Sadat came to Jerusalem, and in 1979 a peace treaty was signed that is still in force.¹⁸¹⁹ In this site’s view every peace effort is worth making. But a failed attempt helps only if the next one learns from it. More in Efforts that did not ripen.
“I enlist next year. Can you be a combat soldier and want peace?”: Yes. Several peacemakers spent most of their lives in uniform. Yitzhak Rabin was Chief of Staff in 1964–1968,²⁰ and later signed Oslo II and the peace with Jordan; in the US Congress on 26 July 1994 he called himself “a soldier in the army for peace”.²¹ Moshe Dayan, a former Chief of Staff, ran the secret contacts before Sadat’s visit.²²¹⁸ Combatants for Peace was founded in 2006 by former fighters from both sides.²³ But what that means for your own service is yours to decide.
“Friends of mine were killed in Gaza. Isn’t talking about peace now spitting on them?”: No. Nobody can speak for your friends, and this site will not try. What research knows is about the living: a study that followed 996 Israelis and 631 Palestinians found that personal exposure to political violence lowers support for peace efforts.²⁴ So pulling away from the word peace after a loss is common, not strange. Some bereaved families chose another way: the Parents Circle – Families Forum, founded in 1995, has more than 800 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian members.²⁵²⁶ But it does not speak for all bereaved families, and neither does this site; when to read on is your call. More in Violence, terror and the damage to peace.
“Who would we even sign with? Hamas doesn’t want to, and the PA is weak.”: There is no simple answer. Every agreement so far was signed with the PLO, which Israel recognised in 1993; its chairman is Mahmoud Abbas.⁷ Hamas won the last legislative election, in 2006, and took Gaza by force in 2007.⁴²⁷ In August 2026, 79% of Palestinians wanted Abbas to resign.² A new election is set for 28 November 2026, and candidates must accept the PLO’s programme, including recognition of Israel.²⁸ Palestinians ask the mirror question: in July 2024 the Knesset voted 68 to 9 for a resolution against a Palestinian state,²⁹ and Israel votes on 27 October 2026.³⁰ But who will be able to sign after both elections, nobody knows yet. See the Gaza ceasefire.
“What do they learn about us at school in Gaza and Ramallah?”: We only have an old study. In 2013 a team led by Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University and Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University read 370 Israeli and 102 Palestinian textbooks.³¹ Dehumanising the other was rare on both sides. But both told a one-sided national story, said little about the other’s daily life, and sometimes left the other off the map; this was stronger in the Palestinian books and Israel’s ultra-Orthodox books than in Israeli state schools.³¹ But the study is over a decade old, and we found no joint study of today’s books.
“We have peace with Egypt and they still hate us there. So what is it worth?”: It is worth not having a war, and that is a lot. Israel and Egypt have not fought since 1973, the treaty has held since 1979,¹⁹ and Israeli gas has flowed to Egypt since 2020.³² The chill is real too: before October 2023 about 5% of Egyptians and 5% of Jordanians favoured normalisation (a measure of support for normalisation, not of hatred),³³ and in 2026 Egypt has no ambassador in Tel Aviv.³⁴ But why the peace stays cold is disputed: the Arab Barometer says it will stay cold without a Palestinian state;³³ researchers at the Begin-Sadat Center see the Abraham Accords as proof that a warmer peace is possible.³⁵ See the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.
“What can I, one person, actually do?”: Not a treaty, but more than nothing. Meeting the other side helps: a 2019 review of 27 experiments found that contact between groups usually reduces prejudice, though less so when the prejudice is ethnic.³⁶ The coalition ALLMEP says encounter programmes change attitudes but have never been funded at a scale that changes whole societies.³⁷ What is open to you: read an agreement and its source, check a claim before sharing it, and meet someone from the other side through an organisation that does this. But whether individual steps add up to political change, nobody knows. Ideas and organisations in What you can do.
“Is there anyone my age on the other side who thinks like me?”: Yes, though fewer than you may hope. In July 2024, 34% of Palestinians aged 18 to 29 backed two states, and 8% of Israeli Jews aged 18 to 35.¹ Still, they meet: the Parents Circle runs a youth programme and a summer camp;²⁶ more than 2,000 Jewish and Arab pupils study together in the six Hand in Hand schools;³⁸ Standing Together has student chapters.³⁹ But for young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, joint meetings carry risks that Israelis do not face.

Questions Palestinians and Arabs ask

“I am a citizen of Israel. When will I be equal, and what does your peace change for me?”: Nobody knows when, and this site will not promise. On paper, Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence promises complete equality of rights to all inhabitants.⁴⁰ In practice: Arab citizens are 17.2% of the population; in 2023, 38.4% of Arab families lived in poverty against 15.4% of Jewish families, and 244 Arabs were murdered.⁴¹ Adalah lists laws it regards as discriminatory, among them the 2018 Nation-State Law;⁴² in 2021 the Supreme Court upheld that law by ten justices to one.⁴³ But this site is about peace between peoples and states, and it has no sourced answer on what that would change for you. More in the Palestinian story.
“When does the occupation end, and who is going to evacuate 700,000 settlers?”: There is no date, and as of October 2026 there are no talks on a final settlement.⁴⁴ In July 2024 the International Court of Justice advised that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied territory is unlawful.⁴⁵ The UN counts more than 700,000 settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (2022).⁴⁶ No plan on this site moves them all: the Clinton Parameters kept blocs with about 80% of the settlers inside Israel, in exchange for other land;⁴⁷ under the Geneva Initiative Israel resettles those beyond the border inside its own territory;⁴⁸ the Trump plan moves nobody.⁴⁹ But it has been done once: in 2005 Israel removed about 8,500 settlers from Gaza.³ Compare the plans in options for the future.
“My grandmother is from Jaffa. Does she go back, get compensation, or is she supposed to give up?”: No text gives her everything she would want. UN Resolution 194 (1948) says refugees wishing to return and live at peace should be allowed to, and those who do not return should be compensated.⁵⁰ The Arab Peace Initiative asks for a just and agreed solution under Resolution 194.⁵¹ The Clinton Parameters offer five destinations, with entry to Israel up to Israel;⁴⁷ the Geneva Initiative offers compensation and a choice of home, with Israel setting how many it admits.⁴⁸ The dispute: the Palestinian team wrote in 2001 that it could not accept a deal without return to homes;⁵² Israeli governments objected to the reference to Resolution 194.⁵³ But whether to accept compensation is her decision, not this site’s.
“Jerusalem: whose is Al-Aqsa the day after?”: Nothing has been agreed; there are only proposals. In the 1994 treaty Israel undertook to respect Jordan’s special role at the Muslim holy shrines.⁵⁴ The Clinton Parameters offered two formulas for Al-Aqsa / Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount to Jews), with the Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty in both.⁴⁷ The Geneva Initiative gives the compound to Palestine with an international presence;⁴⁸ the Trump plan keeps Jerusalem Israeli and the status quo at the holy places;⁴⁹ the 2025 New York Declaration backs the status quo and the Hashemite custodianship.⁵⁵ But each side’s claim is one of faith and nationhood; the site records them and does not rule between them.
“How many Israelis actually want a Palestinian state today?”: Few, and fewer than before the war. In the joint poll, support for two states among Israeli Jews fell from 34% in December 2022 to 21% in July 2024; among Arab citizens it stood at 72%.¹ In a 2025 Pew survey, 21% of Israelis said Israel and a Palestinian state could live side by side in peace, the lowest since 2013.⁵⁶ In 2018 the Peace Index had found 47% of Israeli Jews backing a two-state deal.⁵⁷ But the questions differ, so the numbers do not sit on one line, and we found no 2026 poll.
“Who gets punished for killing civilians in Gaza, and for settler violence?”: Cases exist; almost none has ended. In November 2024 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, on suspicion of starvation as a method of warfare and of crimes against humanity;⁵⁸ the warrant for the Hamas commander Mohammed Deif was withdrawn after his death, and Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and the charges.⁵⁹ South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice has produced interim orders, not a judgment.⁶⁰ In Israel, the army opened criminal investigations into two Gaza incidents in August 2026; according to Yesh Din, indictments are close to zero relative to complaints,⁶¹ and 93.6% of police files on settler violence in 2005–2025 were closed without charges.⁶² On 7 October: a law of May 2026 set up a special military tribunal for about 400 Hamas men held in Israel; Adalah says it breaches the presumption of innocence.⁶³ But for now the honest answer is: very few.
“Sadat, Rabin, Arafat: look what happened to the ones who signed. Why should I believe the next one survives?”: Nobody can promise that, but the record is more mixed than it looks. Two were murdered, both by their own people: Sadat in 1981 by Egyptian Islamists whose motives included the peace,⁶⁴ and Rabin in 1995 by an Israeli who opposed Oslo.¹² Arafat died near Paris in 2004; claims that he was poisoned were investigated, and French and Swiss experts reached different conclusions.⁶⁵ Begin, King Hussein and Peres were not murdered.⁶⁶⁶⁷⁶⁸ But an agreement does not die with its signer: the peace with Egypt outlived Sadat and is in force today.¹⁹
“What did an ordinary Egyptian or Jordanian get out of peace? Not the government.”: The states clearly gained; for households the evidence is thin. Egypt got all of Sinai back within three years,⁶⁹ and its military spending fell from 15.4% of GDP in 1975 to 1.0% in 2022, though not because of peace alone.⁷⁰ Egyptian goods with an Israeli component enter the US duty-free,⁷¹ and Jordan gets water from Israel, though the extra deal lapsed in 2025.⁷² But about a third of Egyptians lived in poverty by the latest count,⁷³ we found no study isolating what peace did for a family’s income, and only about 5% in each country favoured normalisation before October 2023.³³ See Egypt and Jordan.
“Oslo gave us more settlements. Why would another round be any different?”: The numbers back up the question. The Declaration of Principles left settlements for the permanent-status talks,⁸ and building went on: about 110,000 settlers in the West Bank (not counting East Jerusalem) in 1993, about 465,000 in 2023, by Peace Now’s count.⁷⁴⁷⁵ Khalil Shikaki called it the design flaw: an open-ended interim period.¹⁴ Later texts tried to fix it: the Mitchell committee and the Roadmap demanded a freeze that never happened;⁷⁶⁷⁷ the Geneva Initiative draws a border, with an international body checking implementation.⁴⁸ But nothing guarantees that the next round will differ; what can be said is that the texts since Oslo name this failure and propose a border, a timetable and monitoring.
“What can a 17-year-old do without being arrested or called a traitor?”: Learning and checking need nobody’s permission; activism is riskier, and not equally so for everyone. In Gaza in April 2020, Hamas security services arrested Rami Aman and other activists after a video call with Israelis; three were charged with “weakening revolutionary spirit”, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for their release.⁷⁸ In Israel, according to Adalah, dozens of Palestinian citizens were charged over posts and statements in the five weeks after 7 October 2023.⁷⁹ For the West Bank we found no source. What needs nobody’s permission: reading the agreements and their sources, checking a claim, learning the other language. But being called a traitor is a real social cost; weigh it with someone you trust.

What we could not answer

For some of the questions we found no reliable source, so they remain unanswered. They are listed here so that silence is not mistaken for an answer.

What is taught today about the other side in schools (the only joint study we found is from 2013). How many Israelis support a Palestinian state in 2026. What the International Criminal Court has decided since July 2025. What a young Palestinian in the West Bank risks by meeting Israelis. What peace would change for Arab citizens of Israel. Whether the benefits of peace reached ordinary families in Egypt and Jordan. And whether the elections of autumn 2026 will bring leaders able to sign.

The site will add answers as it finds sources for them. If one of the answers here is wrong, the sources at the foot of the page are the place to start checking us.

Sources

You do not have to agree with us. That is what the sources are for: open them, compare and check for yourself.

Research Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) and Tel Aviv University, International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation · 12 September 2024
The Palestinian-Israeli Pulse: A Joint Poll — Summary Report (fieldwork July 2024; published 12 September 2024)
Research Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) · 12 August 2026
Public Opinion Poll No. 97 — press release (fieldwork 5–8 August 2026)
Research Congressional Research Service · 16 September 2005
Israel's Disengagement from Gaza (RS22000)
Research Congressional Research Service · 28 February 2006
Palestinian Elections (RL33269)
Research Human Rights Watch · 6 August 2009
Rockets from Gaza: Harm to Civilians from Palestinian Armed Groups’ Rocket Attacks
Press Al Jazeera · 8 July 2026
Timeline: 20 years of Hamas rule in Gaza, from election to political exit
Primary United Nations Peacemaker · 9 September 1993
Israel–PLO Mutual Recognition, Letters and Speeches
Primary PA-X Peace Agreements Database, University of Edinburgh · 13 September 1993
Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements ('Oslo Accords')
Primary The Nobel Prize (Nobel Foundation)
Nobel Peace Prize 1994 – Press release (Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin)
Primary United Nations, Division for Palestinian Rights (UNISPAL) · October 1994
Developments related to the Middle East peace process, April–September 1994
Press Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) · 31 July 1997
List of suicide bombings in Israel since the 1993 accords
Research Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF)
Rabin's Assassination (1995)
Official archive US Department of State, Office of the Historian
The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process
Research Palestine-Israel Journal · 2001
Taking Stock: Looking at the Past, Searching for the Future (round-table), vol. 8 no. 3
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL)
Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Special Representative to the Middle East (S/10403), with Jarring's aide-mémoire of 8 February 1971 and the replies of the United Arab Republic and Israel
Research U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
Shuttle Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1974–1975
Official archive Mordechai Gazit memorial site (family site)
The Kissinger shuttle of March 1975 and the Sinai Interim Agreement (testimony and documents)
Official archive Israel State Archives (via diplomatic-documents.org)
"No More War": The Peace Plan of the Israeli Government and President Sadat's Journey to Jerusalem, November 1977
Primary United Nations Treaty Series · 26 March 1979
Treaty of Peace between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel
Reference Encyclopaedia Britannica
Yitzhak Rabin
Official archive The Yitzhak Rabin Center · 26 July 1994
I, 30743, Yitzhak Rabin – Remarks to the US Congress, 26 July 1994
Reference Encyclopaedia Britannica
Moshe Dayan
Reference Combatants for Peace
Combatants for Peace (official site)
Research British Journal of Political Science 46(4), Cambridge University Press · 2016
Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler, Daphna Canetti, Carmit Rapaport and Stevan E. Hobfoll, Conflict will Harden your Heart: Exposure to Violence, Psychological Distress, and Peace Barriers in Israel and Palestine
Reference The Parents Circle – Families Forum
About the Parents Circle – Families Forum
Reference The Parents Circle – Families Forum
The Parents Circle – Families Forum (official site, home page and activities menu)
Press Al Jazeera · 8 July 2026
Timeline: 20 years of Hamas rule in Gaza, from election to political exit
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Abbas declares first Palestinian legislative elections since 2006
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Israel's Knesset votes to reject Palestinian statehood
Press Reuters (published by The Jerusalem Post) · 6 October 2026
One year on, Trump's Gaza plan has not stopped Israeli fire or disarmed Hamas - explainer
Reference Critical Education blog, University of British Columbia (Stephen Petrina) · 13 February 2013
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Press S&P Global Commodity Insights · 15 January 2020
Israel begins gas exports to Egypt from giant Leviathan field
Research Arab Barometer · 9 January 2025
MENA Publics and the Future of Normalization with Israel (Michael Robbins)
Press The Jewish Chronicle · 7 January 2026
Egypt is revising its peace agreement with Israel (analysis)
Research Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) · 12 September 2021
The Old Peace Treaties vs. the Abraham Accords (Frank Musmar and Najat Al-Saied), Perspectives Paper no. 2,151
Research Behavioural Public Policy 3(2), Cambridge University Press (record at Princeton University) · 2019
Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Seth A. Green and Donald P. Green, The contact hypothesis re-evaluated
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Reference Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel
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Primary Avalon Project, Yale Law School · 14 May 1948
Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948
Research Israel Democracy Institute · 2024
Statistical Report on Arab Society in Israel 2024: Selected Findings (Muhammed Khalaily and Arik Rudnitzky, eds.)
Reference Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Discriminatory Laws in Israel (database)
Research Institute for Palestine Studies / Palestinian Museum — Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (PalQuest)
Israel's Nation-State Law, 2018
Research Security Council Report · October 2026
The Middle East, including the Palestinian Question — October 2026 Monthly Forecast
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 19 July 2024
International Court of Justice press release on the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 28 March 2023
Human Rights Council hears that 700,000 Israeli settlers are living illegally in the occupied West Bank — meeting summary (presentation of report A/HRC/52/76)
Primary Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) · 23 December 2000
Clinton Parameters (text of 23 December 2000)
Primary Geneva Initiative · 2003
The Geneva Accord — Full Text
Primary The White House (Trump administration archive) · January 2020
Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People (full plan)
Primary United Nations General Assembly (UNISPAL) · 11 December 1948
Resolution 194 (III), 11 December 1948 — Palestine: Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 28 March 2002
Arab Peace Initiative, Beirut summit — UN document A/56/1026–S/2002/932
Primary Palestinian Negotiating Team (Yasser Abed Rabbo), as reproduced by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) · 1 January 2001
Official Palestinian Response to the Clinton Parameters (and letter to the international community), 1 January 2001
Research The Washington Institute for Near East Policy · 2013
Stalled Arab Peace Initiative Reaffirmed
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 26 October 1994
Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 26 October 1994
Primary Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères (France) · 29 July 2025
Déclaration de New York sur le règlement pacifique de la question de Palestine et la mise en œuvre de la solution des deux États — texte original (29 juillet 2025)
Research Pew Research Center · 3 June 2025
Israeli Public Is Increasingly Skeptical About Lasting Peace (survey of 5 February – 11 March 2025)
Research Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University · 5 September 2018
The Peace Index, August 2018 (press release; fieldwork 28–29 August 2018)
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 21 November 2024
International Criminal Court: Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the State of Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant (press release, 21 November 2024)
Press The New Arab (staff and agencies) · 17 July 2025
ICC judges reject Israel’s request to withdraw Netanyahu arrest warrant
Primary International Court of Justice · 22 September 2026
Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) — case page
Press Reuters (published by TimesLIVE) · 19 August 2026
Israel opens criminal probes over killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza rescue workers, military says
Reference Yesh Din · 1 January 2026
Data sheet: Law enforcement on Israeli civilians in the West Bank (settler violence), 2005–2025
Press CNN (published by KRDO) · 11 May 2026
Oct. 7 attackers could face death penalty after Israel approves war crimes tribunal
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Press Al Jazeera · 21 July 2015
French prosecutor requests dropping Arafat death probe
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Menachem Begin – Facts
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Primary United Nations Treaty Series · 26 March 1979
Treaty of Peace between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Israel (vol. 1136, no. 17813)
Research World Bank Open Data (data source: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database) · 13 July 2026
Military expenditure (% of GDP), Israel and Egypt, 1970–2024 – data series MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS
Primary United Nations (UNISPAL) · 14 December 2004
Egypt–Israel–United States Qualifying Industrial Zones protocol, 14 December 2004
Press Middle East Eye · 8 July 2026
'No obligation to provide': Israel withholds water from Jordan
Research World Bank · 30 July 2026
Egypt – country overview
Research Peace Now (שלום עכשיו) · 11 September 2023
30 Years After Oslo – The data that shows how the settlements proliferated following the Oslo Accords
Research Peace Now (שלום עכשיו) — Settlement Watch · 2026
Settlements data: population
Primary Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee (text hosted by the Avalon Project, Yale Law School) · 30 April 2001
Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Report (the Mitchell Report)
Research Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF)
Road Map for Peace (2003)
Press The Times of Israel · 25 September 2020
Hamas charges three Gaza activists for pro-peace video call with Israelis
Reference Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel · 15 November 2023
Interrogations, Arrests, and Indictments of Palestinian Citizens of Israel since 7 October

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