It is a little known fact – even amongst those who campaign for the human rights of Palestinians – that November 15 is Independence Day for Palestine. On that day in 1988 the Palestine National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the PLO, made a declaration of independence in Algiers.
Mirroring the Israeli Declaration of Independence 40 years earlier, the PNC cited United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 as the basis for their claims to independence:
… it is this Resolution that still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty.
The Palestinian Declaration of Independence stated that:
Governance will be based on principles of social justice, equality and non-discrimination in public rights of men or women, on grounds of race, religion, color or sex, under the aegis of a constitution which ensures the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Thus shall these principles allow no departure from Palestine’s age-old spiritual and civilisational heritage of tolerance and religious coexistence.
An opportunity for peace based upon United Nations resolutions and social justice within a State of Palestine was missed in 1988. Today, over 20 years later, many are still working towards a just solution.
Photo by Gideon LichField (Creative Commons)
