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Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (13 September 1993)

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aliasesDeclaration of Principles, Oslo I, A/48/486-S/26560

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Summary

The Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, signed at Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993 by Shimon Peres for the Government of the State of Israel and Mahmud Abbas for the PLO, witnessed by Warren Christopher for the United States of America and Andrei V. Kozyrev for the Russian Federation, and circulated as A/48/486–S/26560 on 11 October 1993: the Government of Israel and the PLO team (in the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace Conference), representing the Palestinian people, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights and agree to establish a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority, the elected Council, for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a transitional period not exceeding five years, leading to a permanent settlement based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), with elections within nine months, preparatory transfer of authority in education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism after withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, a Palestinian police force while Israel retains external defence and overall security of Israelis, redeployment of Israeli forces outside populated areas, and permanent status negotiations — covering Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders and relations with other neighbours — to begin no later than the third year and not to be prejudiced by interim agreements. Four annexes and Agreed Minutes, which narrow the Council’s jurisdiction by naming Jerusalem, settlements, military locations and Israelis as excepted, are integral parts of the Declaration (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (13 September 1993), PDF p.4-5, 17).

What the file is

The Declaration as circulated to the General Assembly (forty-eighth session, agenda item 10, Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization) and the Security Council, on 18 PDF pages, about 4,179 words in the text copy counting the whole file. It consists of three transmission letters dated 8 October 1993 (PDF p.1-3), then the Annex containing the Declaration itself: preamble and Articles I-XVII (PDF p.4-8), signatures (PDF p.9), Annex I on elections (PDF p.10), Annex II on withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area (PDF p.11-12), Annex III on economic and development cooperation (PDF p.13-14), Annex IV on regional development programmes (PDF p.15-16), and the Agreed Minutes (PDF p.17-18), closing with the signatures repeated. The text copy is clean; its artefacts are a duplicated masthead on PDF p.1 and flattened two-column signature blocks. The file does not include the letters of mutual recognition exchanged separately on 10 September 1993, which are recorded in the wiki from Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part V (1989-2000).

Section by section

  • Transmission letters (PDF p.1-3). The Russian Federation and United States Permanent Representatives, Madeleine K. Albright and Yuliy M. Vorontsov, write as co-sponsors of the peace process launched at Madrid in October 1991 and witnesses to the signing at Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993, enclosing the Declaration with its Annexes and Agreed Minutes as signed by the Government of the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israel’s Permanent Representative Gad Yaacobi (PDF p.2) and the Permanent Observer of Palestine, Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa (PDF p.3), each enclose the same document in identical terms. All three letters ask for circulation as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 10, and of the Security Council.
  • Preamble (PDF p.4). The Government of the State of Israel and the PLO team (in the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace Conference) (the Palestinian Delegation), representing the Palestinian people, agree it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation through the agreed political process.
  • Article I, Aim of the negotiations (PDF p.4). To establish a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority, the elected Council, for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, for a transitional period not exceeding five years, leading to a permanent settlement based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973); the interim arrangements are an integral part of the whole peace process, and permanent status negotiations will lead to implementation of resolutions 242 and 338.
  • Article II, Framework (PDF p.4). The agreed framework for the interim period is set forth in this Declaration of Principles.
  • Article III, Elections (PDF p.4-5). Direct, free and general political elections will be held for the Council under agreed supervision and international observation, while the Palestinian police will ensure public order; an agreement on the mode and conditions of the elections will be concluded in accordance with Annex I, with the goal of holding elections not later than nine months after entry into force; the elections are a significant interim preparatory step toward realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their just requirements.
  • Article IV, Jurisdiction (PDF p.5). The Council’s jurisdiction will cover West Bank and Gaza Strip territory, except for issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations; the two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period.
  • Article V, Transitional period and permanent status negotiations (PDF p.5). The five-year transitional period will begin upon withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area; permanent status negotiations will commence as soon as possible, but not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim period, between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian people’s representatives; they shall cover remaining issues including Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbours, and other issues of common interest; and the outcome of the permanent status negotiations should not be prejudiced or preempted by agreements reached for the interim period.
  • Article VI, Preparatory transfer of powers and responsibilities (PDF p.5-6). Upon entry into force and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, transfer of authority from the Israeli military government and its Civil Administration to the authorized Palestinians will commence, preparatory until the Council’s inauguration; immediately thereafter authority will be transferred in education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism, and the Palestinian side will commence building the Palestinian police force; additional powers may be negotiated pending inauguration.
  • Article VII, Interim Agreement (PDF p.6). The delegations will negotiate an Interim Agreement specifying the Council’s structure and number of members, the transfer of powers and responsibilities to it, its executive authority, its legislative authority under Article IX, and the independent Palestinian judicial organs; it will include arrangements for the Council to assume all previously transferred powers on inauguration; on inauguration the Council will establish, among other things, a Palestinian Electricity Authority, a Gaza Sea Port Authority, a Palestinian Development Bank, a Palestinian Export Promotion Board, a Palestinian Environmental Authority, a Palestinian Land Authority and a Palestinian Water Administration Authority; after inauguration the Civil Administration will be dissolved and the Israeli military government withdrawn.
  • Article VIII, Public order and security (PDF p.6). The Council will establish a strong police force to guarantee public order and internal security for the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while Israel continues to carry responsibility for defending against external threats and for overall security of Israelis, to safeguard their internal security and public order.
  • Article IX, Laws and military orders (PDF p.6-7). The Council will be empowered to legislate, in accordance with the Interim Agreement, within all authorities transferred to it; both parties will review jointly laws and military orders presently in force in remaining spheres.
  • Articles X-XII, committees and neighbours (PDF p.7). A Joint Israeli-Palestinian Liaison Committee will be established on entry into force for coordination, issues of common interest and disputes (Article X). An Israeli-Palestinian Economic Cooperation Committee will develop and implement the programmes in Annexes III and IV (Article XI). Jordan and Egypt will be invited to participate in further liaison and cooperation arrangements, including a Continuing Committee that will decide by agreement on the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, with measures to prevent disruption and disorder (Article XII).
  • Article XIII, Redeployment of Israeli forces (PDF p.7-8). After entry into force, and not later than the eve of elections for the Council, Israeli military forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be redeployed, in addition to the Article XIV withdrawal; Israel will be guided by the principle that its forces should be redeployed outside populated areas; and further redeployments to specified locations will be gradually implemented commensurate with the Palestinian police’s assumption of responsibility for public order and internal security under Article VIII.
  • Article XIV, Withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area (PDF p.8). Israel will withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, as detailed in Annex II.
  • Article XV, Resolution of disputes (PDF p.8). Disputes over application or interpretation of the Declaration or subsequent interim agreements go to negotiation through the Joint Liaison Committee; disputes unsettled by negotiation may go to an agreed conciliation mechanism; and the parties may agree to submit interim-period disputes that conciliation cannot settle to an Arbitration Committee.
  • Article XVI, Regional programmes (PDF p.8). Both parties view the multilateral working groups as an appropriate instrument for promoting a Marshall Plan, the regional programmes and other programmes, including special programmes for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as indicated in Annex IV.
  • Article XVII, Miscellaneous provisions (PDF p.8). The Declaration will enter into force one month after its signing; all protocols annexed to it and its Agreed Minutes are an integral part of it.
  • Signatures (PDF p.9). Done at Washington, D.C., this thirteenth day of September 1993: for the Government of Israel, Shimon Peres; for the PLO, Mahmud Abbas; witnessed by the United States of America, Warren Christopher, and the Russian Federation, Andrei V. Kozyrev.
  • Annex I, Elections protocol (PDF p.10). Palestinians of Jerusalem who live there will have the right to participate in the election process, according to an agreement between the two sides; the election agreement should cover the system of elections, the mode of agreed supervision and international observation and their personal composition, and campaign rules including organizing of mass media and the possibility of licensing a broadcasting and television station; the future status of displaced Palestinians who were registered on 4 June 1967 will not be prejudiced because they are unable to participate in the election process owing to practical reasons.
  • Annex II, Withdrawal protocol (PDF p.11-12). The two sides will conclude and sign, within two months of entry into force, an agreement on withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, with comprehensive arrangements for after the withdrawal; Israel will implement an accelerated, scheduled withdrawal beginning immediately with the signing of that agreement and completed within not more than four months after its signing. The agreement will include smooth transfer of authority; the Palestinian authority’s structure, powers and responsibilities in these areas, except external security, settlements, Israelis, foreign relations and other mutually agreed matters; Palestinian police recruited locally and from abroad (holding Jordanian passports and Palestinian documents issued by Egypt), those from abroad trained as police; a temporary international or foreign presence, as agreed; a joint Coordination and Cooperation Committee for mutual security; an economic development and stabilization programme including an Emergency Fund; and safe passage between the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area. It will include coordination arrangements for the Gaza-Egypt and Jericho-Jordan passages; the Palestinian authority’s offices will be located in the Gaza Strip and Jericho area pending the Council’s inauguration; and, other than these arrangements, the status of the Gaza Strip and Jericho area remains an integral part of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, unchanged in the interim period.
  • Annex III, Economic cooperation protocol (PDF p.13-14). An Israeli-Palestinian Continuing Committee for Economic Cooperation will focus on eleven named fields and any others of mutual interest: water (including studies and plans on water rights of each party and equitable utilization of joint water resources, in and beyond the interim period), electricity, energy (oil and gas, particularly in the Gaza Strip and the Negev, a possible petrochemical complex in the Gaza Strip and pipelines), finance (including a Palestinian Development Bank), transport and communications (including a Gaza Sea Port Area), trade (including a feasibility study of free trade zones in the Gaza Strip and in Israel), industry (joint research and development centres and joint ventures in textile, food, pharmaceutical, electronics, diamonds, computer and science-based industries), labour relations and social welfare, human resource development, environmental protection, and communications and media.
  • Annex IV, Regional development protocol (PDF p.15-16). The two sides will cooperate in the multilateral peace efforts to promote a Development Programme for the region, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to be initiated by the Group of Seven, which will be asked to seek participation of other interested States — Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development members, regional Arab States and institutions, and the private sector. The programme has two elements: an Economic Development Programme for the West Bank and Gaza Strip (social rehabilitation including housing and construction, small and medium business development, infrastructure, human resources, other programmes) and a Regional Economic Development Programme (which may include a Middle East Development Fund as a first step and a Middle East Development Bank as a second, a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian plan for the Dead Sea area, the Mediterranean Sea (Gaza)-Dead Sea Canal, regional desalinization and other water projects, a regional agricultural plan including prevention of desertification, interconnection of electricity grids, regional energy cooperation, a regional tourism, transportation and telecommunications plan, and cooperation in other spheres). The two sides will encourage the multilateral working groups, inter-sessional activities and pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
  • Agreed Minutes, general (PDF p.17). Any powers and responsibilities transferred to the Palestinians before the Council’s inauguration will be subject to the same principles pertaining to Article IV as set out in the Minutes.
  • Agreed Minutes, Article IV (PDF p.17). The Council’s jurisdiction covers West Bank and Gaza Strip territory except for issues to be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations, named here as Jerusalem, settlements, military locations and Israelis; the Council’s jurisdiction applies to the agreed powers, responsibilities, spheres and authorities transferred to it.
  • Agreed Minutes, Article VI (2) (PDF p.17). The Palestinian side will name the authorized Palestinians who will assume the transferred fields (education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation, tourism and any other authorities agreed upon); the offices’ rights and obligations will not be affected; each sphere continues to enjoy existing budgetary allocations under mutually agreed arrangements, with adjustments for taxes collected by the direct taxation office; and the delegations will immediately commence negotiations on a detailed transfer plan.
  • Agreed Minutes, Articles VII, VIII, X and Annex II (PDF p.18). The Interim Agreement will also include coordination and cooperation arrangements (Article VII (2)); the withdrawal of the military government will not prevent Israel from exercising the powers and responsibilities not transferred to the Council (Article VII (5)); the Interim Agreement will include cooperation and coordination arrangements under Article VIII, and transfer of powers to the Palestinian police will be phased, as agreed in the Interim Agreement; on entry into force the delegations will exchange the names of their Joint Liaison Committee members, each side having an equal number, the Committee reaching decisions by agreement and deciding its meeting frequency and places (Article X); and, subsequent to the Israeli withdrawal, Israel will continue to be responsible for external security, and for internal security and public order of settlements and Israelis, and Israeli military forces and civilians may continue to use roads freely within the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area (Annex II). The signatures are then repeated in the same form as on PDF p.9.

Key passages

  • “to establish a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority, the elected Council (the “Council”), for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, for a transitional period not exceeding five years, leading to a permanent settlement based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973)” (Article I, PDF p.4)
  • “Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbours, and other issues of common interest” (Article V, paragraph 3, PDF p.5)
  • “Jurisdiction of the Council will cover West Bank and Gaza Strip territory, except for issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations: Jerusalem, settlements, military locations and Israelis” (Agreed Minutes, Article IV, PDF p.17)
  • “The withdrawal of the military government will not prevent Israel from exercising the powers and responsibilities not transferred to the Council” (Agreed Minutes, Article VII (5), PDF p.18)
  • “The future status of displaced Palestinians who were registered on 4 June 1967 will not be prejudiced because they are unable to participate in the election process owing to practical reasons” (Annex I, paragraph 3, PDF p.10)

Evidence the work relies on

An agreement, not an evidentiary work. Its stated foundations are Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), which Article I makes the basis of the permanent settlement and Article V’s negotiations the vehicle for implementing, the Madrid peace process launched in October 1991, within which the signing parties and transmitting witnesses place it, and its own Annexes I-IV and Agreed Minutes, which Article XVII makes integral parts of the Declaration. It cites no statistics, testimony or outside documents, and it does not reproduce the 10 September 1993 letters of mutual recognition.

Analysis

The Declaration’s structure is deferral by design, stated in its own text: everything that decides the conflict’s final shape — Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders — is reserved to permanent status negotiations that need only begin by the third year, while the interim period is governed by transfers of named municipal spheres, a police force and committees. Two limits are written into the text itself rather than left to later interpretation. First, the Agreed Minutes convert Article IV’s general exception into a named list — Jerusalem, settlements, military locations and Israelis — and confine the Council’s jurisdiction to the powers actually transferred to it. Second, Israel retains, in the text, external defence, overall security of Israelis, post-withdrawal responsibility for settlements and Israelis in the Gaza Strip and Jericho area with free use of roads there, and all powers not transferred to the Council even after the military government is withdrawn. Against those limits the text sets the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit whose integrity will be preserved, the bar on prejudicing the permanent status outcome by interim agreements, and elections as a stated preparatory step toward the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. The signing Palestinian party is described throughout as the PLO team in the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, representing the Palestinian people, while the signatory for the PLO is Mahmud Abbas and the witnesses are the United States and the Russian Federation as Madrid co-sponsors.

People, organizations, places and events

Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, Oslo Accords, Madrid Conference, Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian Authority, Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, City of Jerusalem, Gaza, West Bank, UN Security Council Resolution 242, UN Security Council Resolution 338

Concepts

Self-determination, Right of Return, Two-state solution

How it relates to other sources

This is the primary text of the Declaration summarized in Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: Part V (1989-2000) (PDF p.49-51), whose account the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements page carries — the Oslo channel, the 10 September 1993 letters of mutual recognition, the signing scene, and a passage in the study giving the interim arrangements as for a period not to exceed two years where the Declaration’s Article I gives five years, a conflict already recorded on that page and not resolved here. The primary text adds what the study’s summary does not carry: the full Annex III and IV programme lists, the Annex II exclusions and four-month withdrawal timetable, and the Agreed Minutes’ named exceptions and retained Israeli powers. It is the successor instrument to the framework the Palestinian Declaration of Independence and Political Communiqué (15 November 1988) demanded — an international conference on the basis of resolutions 242 and 338 — reached instead through the Madrid process and a bilateral channel, and it differs from the 1988 texts in accepting an interim self-government without a proclaimed-state framework, in reserving Jerusalem, refugees and settlements to later negotiation rather than insisting on withdrawal and settlement removal in advance, and in making no reference to the State of Palestine declared in 1988. The revocation in Resolution 46/86: Elimination of racism and racial discrimination (16 December 1991) is, in the secondary accounts on the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 page, tied to Israel’s participation in the Madrid Conference that this Declaration’s transmitters name as the process’s launch.

Open questions

  • The letters of mutual recognition of 10 September 1993 are not in the file; the Declaration’s preamble speaks of recognizing mutual legitimate and political rights, and the recognition letters’ terms are held in the wiki only from the Part V study.
  • The Declaration does not define the Jericho area’s extent, the specified locations for further redeployments, or the composition of the Council, all left to the Interim Agreement and the Gaza-Jericho agreement it calls for.
  • Article V gives permanent status negotiations a start no later than the beginning of the third year but no end date within the five-year transitional period in the text.
  • The Part V study’s two-year formulation for the interim arrangements, against Article I’s five years, is held on the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements page and is not resolved by this file beyond confirming the Declaration’s own wording.
  • No Arabic or Hebrew text is in the file; the file is the English text as circulated by the three transmitters, whose letters are identical in their description of the enclosure.

Coverage

PDF p.1-18 of 18, read in full.

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