On this day 34 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.
The Palestinian Declaration of Independence formally established the State of Palestine, proclaimed by Yasser Arafat on 15 November 1988 in Algiers. It had previously been adopted by the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The declaration was written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
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 state solution based on the international legitimacy.
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.