On this day 32 years ago, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared from Algiers the independence of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.
“In the name of God and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, the National Council declares the creation of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian land with noble Jerusalem as its capital,” declared Arafat on November 15, 1988 at a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, the Palestinian parliament in exile, which convened in the Algerian capital.
The statement of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, read aloud by late Palestinian leader Arafat, was written by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. It had previously been adopted by the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), by a vote of 253 in favor, 46 against and 10 abstentions.
In April 1989, the PLO Central Council elected Yasser Arafat the first President of the State of Palestine.
With this declaration, that was a turning point in the history of the Palestinian national liberation movement, when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) confirmed Palestinian acceptance of the two-solution for the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
It also led to Arab, Islamic and world recognition of the State of Palestine as declared in Algiers.
The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and statehood has been universally recognized by the UN. This includes UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 3236, which states that the right of independence of Palestine is “inalienable” and that the Palestinian people have a right to a “sovereign and independent” state.
UNGA Resolution 2649 also confirms the right of the people of Palestine to self-determination, while UNGA Resolution 2672 declares that respecting Palestinians’ inalienable rights is an indispensable element in the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
