A Legal Commentary on the Geneva Accord

This report provides a legal analysis of the Geneva Accord, a peace accord drafted by Palestinian and Israeli negotiators acting in their private capacity. While this accord received substantial international attention at its issuance, a legal evaluation makes clear that it is promising only on its face, and that it suffers from serious legal pitfalls and implications. Its provisions violate fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law, making it dangerous to consider this as a blueprint for any formal and permanent status agreement between the two sides in the future. Further, it ignores many of the lessons that should have been drawn from the previous peace initiatives, which will inevitably fail as long as they do not consider respect for international law to be the framework for a just and durable solution to the conflict.