POLITICAL ISLAM IN PALESTINE IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF PEACE

The announcement in the summer of 1993 of secret negotiations between senior figures in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and th e Government of Israel came as a surprise to all those involved with t he Arab-Israeli conflict. The product of these secret negotiations, th e Oslo and Cairo Accords have paved the way for political momentum tha t is a controlled and incremental experiment in ending the state of co nflict which has dominated relations between the Palestinians and Isra elis for nearly a century. As the quote above illustrates, however, th e vision of peace held by Palestinians, Islamists among them, has been at odds with the reality of the Oslo agenda. It is my intention in th is article to explore the effects that these political agreements have had on the Palestinian Islamic movement in the West Bank and Gaza Str ip. I set out to question whether the post-Oslo environment has create d a momentum for peace, reconciliation and understanding or whether, i n reality, it has exacerbated the religious nature of the conflict, wh ich was previously subsumed under the rhetoric of both Israeli and Pal estinian nationalism.