The Palestinian Declaration of Independence
Meeting in Algiers, the Palestine National Council proclaims the State of Palestine and accepts UN Resolutions 242 and 338 — a de facto two-state formula.
On 15 November 1988, with the first intifada in its eleventh month, the Palestine National Council — the PLO’s parliament-in-exile — proclaimed “the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory, with its capital Jerusalem.” Yasser Arafat read the proclamation at the close of the PNC’s 19th session in Algiers; the declaration’s text was written by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.
The declaration anchored the new state in the Palestinian people’s right of self-determination and in UN resolutions, including the 1947 partition plan the PLO had long rejected. An accompanying political communiqué accepted Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 as the basis for an international peace conference, reaffirmed the intifada, and rejected terrorism. Together, the documents were the PLO’s most explicit step yet toward a two-state settlement.
Recognition came quickly: more than eighty states had recognized the State of Palestine by the end of 1988. On 15 December the UN General Assembly acknowledged the proclamation and decided to use the designation “Palestine” in place of “PLO” throughout the UN system. The declaration did not bring a state into being on the ground, but it reset the terms of Palestinian diplomacy — the road from Algiers led to Madrid and Oslo.
Cited works
2- un.org — auto insert 178680(opens in a new tab)https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-178680/
- ecf.org.il(opens in a new tab)https://ecf.org.il/issues/issue/12
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- Intifada
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 15 November 1988, with the first intifada in its eleventh month, the Palestine National Council — the PLO's parliament-in-exile — proclaimed "the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory, with its capital Jerusalem." Yasser Arafat read the proclamation at the close of the PNC's 19th session in Algiers; the declaration's text was written by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.
- Mahmoud Darwishمحمود درويش
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 15 November 1988, with the first intifada in its eleventh month, the Palestine National Council — the PLO's parliament-in-exile — proclaimed "the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory, with its capital Jerusalem." Yasser Arafat read the proclamation at the close of the PNC's 19th session in Algiers; the declaration's text was written by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.
- Yasser Arafatياسر عرفات
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 15 November 1988, with the first intifada in its eleventh month, the Palestine National Council — the PLO's parliament-in-exile — proclaimed "the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory, with its capital Jerusalem." Yasser Arafat read the proclamation at the close of the PNC's 19th session in Algiers; the declaration's text was written by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.
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- Chicago
“The Palestinian Declaration of Independence.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/timeline/declaration-of-independence.- MLA
“The Palestinian Declaration of Independence.” Timeline, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/timeline/declaration-of-independence. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-declaration-of-independence, title = {The Palestinian Declaration of Independence}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/timeline/declaration-of-independence}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }