Clinton Plan
CLINTON PLAN
Parameters for Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement proposed by U.S. president Bill Clinton in December 2000, following the failed Camp David Summit of July 2000. Clinton had invited Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasir Arafat to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, to build on earlier negotiations that had led to the Oslo Accords of 1993. The summit failed, each side blaming the other for its failure. There were several obstacles to agreement. The Palestinians opposed Israeli annexation of settlement blocks in the West Bank, and the Israelis refused to accede sovereignty over East Jerusalem. The Palestinians also argued that any settlement would have to acknowledge the future of refugees; the Israelis claimed that allowing a right of return to Israel proper would jeopardize Israel's Jewish identity.
Following the failure of the summit, Clinton put forward his "parameters," in December of that year, as a guide toward reaching an agreement. The proposal included Palestinian sovereignty over Gaza and the vast majority of the West Bank, along with the incorporation into Israel of "settlement blocks," in effect returning to the Palestinians most of the territory taken by Israel in the Arab-Israel War of 1967; a limited right of return for Palestinian refugees; security guarantees for both sides; and Jerusalem as an open and undivided city, functioning as cultural and political center for both Israelis and Palestinians. The Clinton Plan rekindled some hope of breaking the impasse and helped the parties to return briefly to negotiations at Taba, Egypt, in early 2001.