History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict negotiations in Oslo, Norway. On September 9, 1993, Yasser Arafat sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, stating that the PLO officially recognized Israel's right to exist and officially renouncing terrorism. On September 13, Arafat and Rabin signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington, D.C., on the basis of the negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian teams in Oslo, Norway. The declaration was a major conceptual breakthrough achieved outside of the Madrid framework, which specifically barred foreign-residing PLO leaders from the negotiation process. After this, a long process of negotiation known as the "Oslo peace process" began. During the
Gad Yaacobi the Rafi party. When Rafi merged into the Labor Party (which formed part of the alliance known as the Alignment), he was appointed to the party's bureau. In the 1969 election, he was elected to the Knesset, and in 1972 was appointed Deputy Transportation Minister. In 1974 he was appointed Transportation Minister by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a position he held until the 1977 election. In 1984, in the joint Alignment – Likud government, Yaacobi served as Minister of Economy and Planning until 1987, when he was appointed Minister of Communications – a position he held again in the 23rd