The Palestinian autonomy talks was an outgrowth of the

Egypt–Israel peace treaty The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minist ...

and were designed to lead to a resolution of the

Palestinian nationalism Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses Palestinian self-determination, self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine.de Waart, 1994p. 223 Referencing Article 9 of ''The Pales ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. According to The Framework for Peace in the Middle East, one part of the 1978

Camp David Accords The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retre ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

were to agree within one year on elections for a Palestinian “self-governing authority.” The idea was directly related to Israeli Prime Minister

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...

’s idea of Palestinian autonomy. President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

appointed Robert S. Strauss as his envoy to the autonomy talks. Neither the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

nor any other Palestinian organization was directly involved in the talks. The talks began on May 25, 1979 in

Beersheva Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the List of cities ...

. The second round was held in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

on June 11–12, 1979. The third round of talks were held at

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...

, Israel on June 25–26, 1979, followed by talks in Alexandria (July 5–6) and

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

(August 5–6). The delegations were led by Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil (Egypt), Minister of the Interior

Yosef Burg Shlomo Joseph Burg (, 31 January 1909 – 15 October 1999) was a German-born Israeli politician. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset and served in many ministerial positions for the next 40 years. He was one of the founders of the Nati ...

(Israel), and Ambassador James Leonard (United States). Egypt said it did not speak for the Palestinians but rather sought Palestinian elections for a council that would represent the Palestinians. Delegates met on January 31-February 1, 1980 in

and in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on February 27–28, 1980. On May 8, 1980,

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

unilaterally suspended the negotiations. In July 1980, the talks resumed but Egypt again suspended them. By this time, the U.S. mediator was

Sol Linowitz Sol Myron Linowitz (December 7, 1913 – March 18, 2005) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and businessman. Early life Linowitz was born to a Jewish family in Trenton, New Jersey. He was a graduate of Trenton Central High School, Hamilton Co ...

, who had replaced Strauss in late 1979. By the end of the Carter administration. Linowitz claimed that 80% of the issues had been resolved. Wat T. Cluverius IV, who worked on Linowitz's team, later explained that while the hardest issues had not been resolved, "We had done an awful lot of the clearing of the underbrush for a serious negotiation over the toughest issues--the West Bank and Jerusalem. So there was something handed to the incoming Reagan administration." The United States tried to re-launch the autonomy talks in 1982 but that effort was sidetracked by the outbreak of the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

. In January 1982, Secretary of State

Alexander Haig Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. (; 2 December 192420 February 2010) was United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House chief of staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Prior to and in between these cabine ...

went to the Middle East to try to revive the talks. He did not succeed. The final blow to the Autonomy talks came on August 16, 1982, when the Egyptian government suspended them in protest for the Israeli fighting in Lebanon. The talks did not achieve a direct breakthrough but some of the ideas – a five-year interim period with delayed negotiations on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – were incorporated into the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

.Jeremy Pressman, "Explaining the Carter Administration’s Israeli–Palestinian Solution," ''Diplomatic History'', Volume 37, Issue 5, 1 November 2013, pages 1117–1147, https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dht056

Notes

{{Egypt–Israel relations Israeli–Palestinian peace process Egypt in the Arab–Israeli conflict History of the foreign relations of the United States Israel–United States relations Egypt–Palestine relations 1979 in international relations 1980 in international relations Egypt–United States relations 1979 in the Israeli Military Governorate 1980 in the Israeli Military Governorate