Yair Hirschfeld

In Benny Morris' account,[1] Hanan Ashrawi and Hirschfeld began maintaining back channels to the PLO's Faisal Husseini in 1989.

Hirschfeld, at Ashrawi's suggestion, sought out the PLO finance minister Abu Alaa (Ahmed Qurei).

The next day Hirschfeld met Abu Alaa for the second time outside Oslo, accompanied by Israeli historian Ron Pundak.

By the final meeting it included elections, interim autonomy, and a handoff of power to the Palestinians, over the course of a gradual Israeli withdrawal.

Amid further indirect negotiations between the Israel and the PLO leadership in Tunis through Egyptian channels with mediation by Norway, the discussions that began between Hirschfeld and Alaa culminated in the beginnings of the Oslo peace process, when on August 20 Peres flew to Oslo—the entire process still unknown to the public—and initialed the DOP.