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New State Of Palestine
Declaration of the state in 1988
A declaration of a "State of Palestine" took place in
Algiers on November 15, 1988, by the Palestinian National
Council, the legislative body of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO). The proclaimed "State of Palestine" is
not and has never actually been an independent state, as it
has never had sovereignty over any territory in history.
Currently, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), along
with the United States, the European Union, and the Arab
League, envision the establishment of a State of Palestine
to include all or part of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and
East Jerusalem, living in peace with Israel under a
democratically elected and transparent government. The PNA,
however, does not claim sovereignty over any territory and
therefore is not the government of the "State of Palestine"
proclaimed in 1988.
The 1988 declaration was approved at a meeting in Algiers,
by a vote of 253-46, with 10 abstentions. The declaration
invoked the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and UN General
Assembly Resolution 181 in support of its claim to a "State
of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital
Jerusalem". The proclaimed "State of Palestine" was
recognized immediately by the Arab League, and about half
the world's governments recognize it today. It maintains
embassies in these countries (which are generally PLO
delegations). The State of Palestine is not recognized by
the United Nations, although the European Union, as well as
most member states, maintain diplomatic ties with the
Palestinian Authority, established under the Oslo Accords.
Leila Shahid, envoy of the PNA to France since 1984, was
named in November 2005 representant of the PNA for Europe.
The declaration is generally interpreted to have recognized
Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, or was at least a
major step on the path to recognition. Just as in Israel's
declaration of independence, it partly bases its claims on
UN GA 181. By reference to "resolutions of Arab Summits" and
"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 explicitly mentioned SC 242 and
other UN resolutions and called only for withdrawal from
"Arab Jerusalem" and the other "Arab territories
occupied."[6] Yasser Arafat's statements in Geneva a month
later were accepted by the United States as sufficient to
remove the ambiguities it saw in the declaration and to
fulfill the longheld conditions for open dialogue with the
United States.
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Flag of Palestine |
Peace process
A peace process has been in progress in spite of all the differences
and conflicts.
In the 1990s, outstanding steps were taken which formally began a
process the goal of which was to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict
through a two-state solution. Beginning with the Madrid Conference
of 1991 and culminating in the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between
Palestinians and Israelis, the peace process has laid the framework
for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and in Gaza. According to
the Oslo Accords, signed by Yassir Arafat and then Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington, Israel would pull out of the
Gaza Strip and cities in the West Bank, leaving contested East
Jerusalem in question.
Following the landmark accords, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
was established to govern those areas from which Israel was to pull
out. The PNA was granted limited autonomy over a non-contiguous
area, though it does govern most Palestinian population centers.
The process stalled with the collapse of the Camp David 2000 Summit
between Palestinians and Israel.
Despite these important advancements, the Al-Aqsa Intifada brought
the peace process to a screeching halt. Israel ceased to act in
cooperation with the PNA and later on would occupy some Palestinian
cities anew. In the shadow of the rising death toll from the
violence, the United States initiated the Road Map for Peace
(published on June 24, 2002), which is intended to end the Intifada
by dearming the Palestinian terror groups and creating an
independent Palestinian state. The Road Map has stalled awaiting the
implementation of the step required by the first phase of that plan.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip as part of
the Disengagement Plan, which was seen as a move toward creating an
independent Palestinian state.
Israeli views
The traditional Israeli view has been that there is no such thing as
a separate Palestinian people, distinct from other Arabs, at least
historically. The borders of historical Palestine and surrounding
countries were arbitrarily determined and there are already several
Arab nations. Therefore, it is unreasonable to demand that Israel
should have any responsibility or part in establishing a nation for
them. This is summarized by the famous statement of Israeli Prime
Minister (1969-74) Golda Meir: "There was no such thing as
Palestinians ... It was not as though there was a Palestinian people
in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came
and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did
not exist." This view was also expressed by some Arab leaders. Auni
Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader said to the Peel Commission,
"There is no such country [as Palestine]! 'Palestine' is a term the
Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country
was for centuries part of Syria." Additionally to this there is
believed to be a wealth of evidence that during the years of British
restriction on Jewish immigration to Palestine, there was large
scale unrestricted Arab migration/immigration to Palestine.
Over time, the attitudes of the Israeli people have changed
somewhat. According to polls, the majority of Israelis have now come
to accept the likelihood that a Palestinian state will eventually be
created.
Arab views
Many Arabs have supported and some continue to support the creation
of a united Arab state encompassing all Arab peoples including
Palestine, so that no independent Palestinian state would exist, but
this became a minority view amongst Palestinians during the British
Mandate and after 1948 became rare. It is still an opinion expressed
regularly in the Arab states outside Palestine (especially Syria due
to its attachment to the Greater Syria Movement which was launched
in 1944 to establish a "Syrian Arab" state that would include
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine.) However, it is generally
recognised that such a development has become implausible under
current political realities and even those who might favor it in
some circumstances support an independent Palestinian state as the
most achievable option.
Syria joined Egypt in founding the United Arab Republic (UAR) in
1958 during a period of Pan-Arabism as the first step toward the
recreation of Pan-Arab state. The UAR was to include, among others,
Palestine. The UAR disintegrated into its constituent states in
1961.
Egypt held Gaza and Jordan annexed the West Bank between 1948 and
1967. During those years, Egyptian President Nasser created the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 to help to destroy
Israel. In 1968 Fatah was formed in Damascus, Syria with similar
aims. |
