Summary
The declaration adopted by the Palestinian National Council at its nineteenth extraordinary session at Algiers, issued on 15 November 1988, by which the Council, on the basis of the international legitimacy embodied in United Nations resolutions since 1947 and through the Palestinian Arab people’s exercise of self-determination, political independence and sovereignty over its territory, declared the establishment of the State of Palestine in the land of Palestine with its capital at City of Jerusalem (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.15).
Details
- Its historical preamble holds that the Palestinian Arab people was brought forth in the land of Palestine and there created its national mode of existence in an unbroken relationship among people, land and history; that article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations of 1919 and the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 recognised that people as a free and independent people; and that, despite the historical injustice following General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 1947, that resolution nevertheless continues to attach conditions to international legitimacy that guarantee the Palestinian Arab people the right to sovereignty and national independence (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.13-14).
- It describes the proclaimed State as for Palestinians wherever they may be, under a democratic parliamentary system with full equality of rights and non-discrimination on grounds of race, religion or colour or as between men and women, an Arab State and integral part of the Arab nation, committed to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to non-alignment, and a peace-loving State committed to peaceful coexistence and to the solution of international and regional problems by peaceful means (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.15-16).
- It does not specify the State’s borders anywhere in its text (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.13-16).
- The Declaration was transmitted to the United Nations together with the Council’s Political Communiqué as annexes II and III to A/43/827–S/20278 of 18 November 1988; the transmitting letters date it 15 November 1988 (cover) and 16 November 1988 (Annex I), both as printed, and the Declaration itself closes on the fifteenth day of November 1988 (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.1-2, 16).
- The United Nations Part IV study records that the Declaration was acknowledged by the General Assembly in resolution 43/177, which decided the designation Palestine should be used in the United Nations system in place of Palestine Liberation Organization without prejudice to the PLO’s observer status, and that the State was recognized within a month by almost 80 States (Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part IV (1984-1988), lines 591-609, 651-655).
Where sources disagree
- The session that adopted the Declaration is dated from 11 to 15 November 1988 in the Political Communiqué as printed in A/43/827–S/20278, and 12-15 November 1988 in the Part IV study; both dates are held (Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), PDF p.3; Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part IV (1984-1988), lines 559-582).
Related pages
Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988), Palestinian National Council, State of Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization, First Intifada, Self-determination