You're listening to the Witness History podcast on the BBC World Service. It's 30 years

since the Oslo Accords were signed. This agreement in 1993 aimed to bring about peace between

the Israelis and Palestinians. This week, we're bringing new stories from Israeli and Palestinian

history. Today, we're going back to 2000 when the U.S. led a major effort to end the Israeli

Palestinian conflict. Fahana Hayda has been speaking to the senior American diplomatic

interpreter and policy adviser Gamel Halal, who attended the Camp David Summit. At the

entrance to Camp David in leafy Maryland, it's all smiles between President Bill Clinton

and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Ehud Burak.

As they headed for the door, each made way for the other, the result of playful fight which

had Bill Clinton roaring with laughter. Israel had been pushing for this summit. Chairman

Arafat for the Palestinians had argued there'd not been enough progress on earlier agreements

to merit such a high-level meeting, but President Clinton had pressed ahead.

President Clinton decided to go along with the idea of if not now then when. He had about

six months left in his presidency, and it was one of those moments that if you don't

convene a summit like, maybe you will never be able to know if a deal was possible or not.

Born in Egypt, Gamel Halal was a senior diplomatic interpreter and policy adviser working

for the U.S. State Department and White House. He had been involved in the issue of the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict for several years. Back in 1993, in the hot sunshine and warm

applause of the White House Rose Garden, Bill Clinton had overseen the historic handshake

between Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzek Rabin.

As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel had promised to withdraw its troops in stages from the occupied

West Bank and Gaza Strip and allow the establishment of a Palestinian interim self-governing authority,

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