President Shimon Peres said on Monday that he does not regret the Oslo Accords, despite the fact that their signing brought about hundreds of Israeli victims who were killed in terror attacks.

Speaking in an interview with the Walla website, on the occasion of Israel’s 65th Independence Day, Peres said that terrorist attacks against Jews had taken place long before the signing of the Oslo Accords.

“There were terror victims before the Oslo Accords. Before the Accords there was only one Palestinian camp and that camp supported terrorism. Now we have two camps, and one camp is against terrorism and in favor of peace, which we never had,” said Peres.

He added, “There were terror incidents as back as1937, long before Oslo.” Interviewer Yinon Magal then said, “In 1937 it wasn’t us who gave them the weapons,” to which Peres replied, “The problem is with the weapons? Did they really not have weapons? Is there a problem today to get a weapon? Is there a weapons problem in Syria? What kind of talk is this?”

Asked about the demands by some that he be placed on trial as part of the “Oslo criminals to justice” campaign, he answered that the statements against him did not upset him. “I decided what upsets me. Real things upset me. Things that are not real do not,” said Peres.

He added that he thinks that Israel should not withdraw from Judea and Samaria but “arrange the security in those areas. [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Abbas is the only one who agreed to de-militarization. There is no such thing in the whole world. So we have to organize the security in that area, I do not propose that we abandon it.”

As part of the Oslo Accords, large numbers of weapons were given to the PA. The agreements were signed with the PLO in 1993 and, according to statistics, in the four years after the Oslo Accords, between 1993 and 1996, 256 Israelis were killed in terror attacks, compared to 97 during the four years prior to the signing, between 1989 and 1992.