The 'Palestinian Declaration of Independence' was adopted by the
Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in
Algiers on
15 November,
1988. It unilaterally proclaimed the establishment of a new independent state called the "
State of Palestine" but at that time the PLO had no control of any territory. No ''de facto'' independent state has come into existence in the
disputed territories since.
While the declaration concerns
Palestine, as defined by the
British Mandate of Palestine, (which includes the whole of
Israel), it is generally interpreted to have recognized Israel in its pre 1967 boundaries, or was at least a major step on this path. Just as in
Israel's declaration of establishment, it partly bases its claims on
UN GA 181. By reference to "UN resolutions since 1947" (like
SC 242) it implicitly and perhaps ambiguously restricted its immediate claims to the Palestinian territories and
Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a
Political Statement that clarified it somewhat and explicitly mentioned SC 242.
Yasser Arafat's statements in Geneva a month later were accepted by the United States as sufficient to remove the ambiguities in the declaration.
See also
★
Declaration of independence
★
State of Palestine
★
Proposals for a Palestinian state
External links
★
Political Statement accompanying Palestinian Declaration of Independence
★
Palestinian Declaration of Independence