Ten key dates on the path towards Palestinian statehood

A look back at Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood over the past 60 years reveals a turbulent history of negotiations, proclamations, breakthroughs and many setbacks and Israel’s unyielding and uncompromising attitude towards the whole situation

November 29, 1947: The United Nations, under the British Mandate, divides Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepts the decision but UN is met with staunch resistance from Arab leadership who reject
it.

May 28, 1964: The Arab League forms the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The charter of PLO expresses the right to self-determination for the people of Palestinian and categorically rejects the formation of a Jewish state. However, formation
of a Palestinian state was not mentioned in the charter.

November 22, 1974: PLO is granted observer status by the UN and then recognises Palestinians’ right to independence.

September 13, 1993: The Oslo Agreement is signed in Washington which provided a temporary five-year framework during which a final agreement would be negotiated between the two parties and would grant only limited autonomy to the Palestinian
territories. The agreement is met with a lot of criticism from the Muslim world who are keen on seeing Palestine granted a full statehood.

July, 2000: Former US president, Bill Clinton, tries to negotiate a truce at the David Camp summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman, the late Yasser Arafat. However, no agreement is reached as
both sides refuse to yield at any point. The main contentious points of the meeting were the status of Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees.

March 12, 2002: UN Security Council Resolution 1397 explicitly calls for a two-state solution.

April 30, 2003: A road map is published which is drafted by the Mideast quartet, US, European Union, UN and Russia. The road map stresses the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. The plan is accepted by the Palestinian authorities but
Israel once again comes to terms and adds 14 additional conditions.

June 14, 2009: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu endorses a “demilitarised” Palestinian state under certain strict conditions, including Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish homeland and Israel’s retaining of all parts
of Jerusalem and certain settlements in West Bank.

June 26, 2011: Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas announces the decision to work on UN recognition of Palestine as a state.

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Posted by Taimoor Tariq on May 25 2012. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry