State of Palestine

The "State of Palestine" ( dawlat filastin medinat phalastin ) is the name given to a proposed Palestinian state that would govern the occupied Palestinian territories, but does not currently have sovereignty there. It was declared in Algiers on November 15, 1988, by the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The aim of the Council is for the state to comprise both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its capital.

Approval of Declaration

The declaration was approved by the Palestinian National Council in Algiers on November 15, 1988 by a vote of 253 in favour 46 against and 10 abstentions.

The declaration invoked the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and UN General Assembly Resolution 181 in support of its claim to a "State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem".

The proclaimed "State of Palestine" was recognized immediately by the Arab League. The State of Palestine is not recognized by the United Nations.

Though not recognising the State of Palestine, the European Union, as well as most of its member states, maintain diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority, established under the Oslo Accords. Leila Shahid, envoy of the PLO to France since 1984, was named representative of the Palestinian Authority for Europe in November 2005 .

Impact

The declaration is generally interpreted as recognizing Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, or was at least a major step on the path to recognition. Just as in , it partly bases its claims on UN GA 181. By reference to "resolutions of Arab Summits" and "UN resolutions since 1947" (like SC 242) it implicitly and perhaps ambiguously restricted its immediate claims to the Palestinian territories and Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a political statement that explicitly mentioned SC 242 and other UN resolutions and called only for withdrawal from "Arab Jerusalem" and the other "Arab territories occupied." Yasser Arafat's statements in Geneva a month later were accepted by the United States as sufficient to remove the ambiguities it saw in the declaration and to fulfill the longheld conditions for open dialogue with the United States.

The PLO envisages the establishment of a State of Palestine to include all or part of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem (the Palestinian territories), living in peace with Israel under a democratically elected and sovereign government. To this end, it took part in negotiations with Israel resulting in the 1993 Declaration of Principles, which along with subsequent agreements between the two parties provided for the establishment of a Palestinian interim self-governing authority with partial control over defined areas in the Palestinian territories. This authority, known as the Palestinian Authority or Palestinian National Authority (PNA), however, does not claim sovereignty over any territory and therefore is not the government of the "State of Palestine" proclaimed in 1988.

States that recognize the State of Palestine

:See also: Diplomatic missions of the Palestinian National Authority

More than 100 states recognize the State of Palestine, and 20 more grant some form of diplomatic status to a Palestinian delegation, falling short of full diplomatic recognition.

The following are listed in alphabetical order by region.

Africa
* Algeria
* Benin

Asia
* Afghanistan
* Tajikistan
* Turkmenistan

Europe
* Albania
* Montenegro
* Poland

Middle East
* Bahrain
* Palestinian Special Delegation: Mexico

United Nations representation
The Palestine Liberation Organization gained observer status at the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 (General Assembly resolution 3237). Acknowledging the proclamation of the State of Palestine, the UN redesignated this observer status as belonging to Palestine in 1988 (General Assembly resolution 43/177.) In July 1998, the General Assembly adopted a new resolution (52/250) conferring upon Palestine additional rights and privileges, including the right to participate in the general debate held at the start of each session of the General Assembly, the right of reply, the right to co-sponsor resolutions and the right to raise points of order on Palestinian and Middle East issues. By this resolution, "seating for Palestine shall be arranged immediately after non-member States and before the other observers." This resolution was adopted by a vote of 124 in favor, 4 against (Israel, USA, Marshall Islands, Micronesia) and 10 abstentions.

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