PLO Proclaims Palestinian State : Would include West bank and Gaza, With Jerusalem as Capital

Palestinian leaders today proclaimed an independent Palestinian homeland with Jerusalem as its capital and extended an olive branch by implicitly recognizing Israel.

Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, read the declaration of the independent state early this morning to a chamber filled with delegates to the 450-member Palestine National Council, Arab dignitaries and observers, who broke into long applause and loud cheers.

Late Monday, the council also endorsed U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, thus implicitly acknowledging Israel’s existence and apparently satisfying one of Washington’s conditions for negotiating directly with the PLO.

Recognition of Israel

Resolution 242 implicitly recognizes Israel by referring to the right of all states in the region to live in peace within secure and recognized borders. It also calls on Israel to withdraw from lands occupied in 1967.

Wearing the traditional black-and-white-checked kaffiyeh, Arafat began reading his speech on the declaration of independence in Arabic in a low, slow and solemn voice.

Then, his voice rising to a crescendo, he said:

“The Palestinian National Council hereby declares the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, which will be for all Palestinians wherever they are.”

The PLO leader declared that the new Palestinian government would be “a democratic, parliamentary system based on freedom of opinion, multiple parties, freedom of worship and equality between men and women.”

No Boundaries Set

The declaration of the new state did not set out its boundaries, which the Palestinians say should be determined in future negotiations.

It had been expected that the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip would be included in the homeland. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War.

Algerian Foreign Minister Boualem Bessaieh announced to the council early today that Algeria has officially recognized the new state, becoming the first country to do so.

Israel rejected results of the Algiers meeting in advance.

“We will not negotiate with the PLO,” said Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. “It’s not a problem of definition and formulations of various positions. We’ll not negotiate with them because they’re opposed to peace with Israel.

“What matters not is what they say,” said Shamir, whose government has long considered the PLO a terrorist organization. “I know what they do and what they can do.”

Arafat and other PLO leaders consider the independence declaration a historic step toward creation of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza. This Palestine National Council meeting is called “the intifada session” after the 11-month-old uprising among the 1.5 million Palestinians of the occupied lands.

Council Formed in 1964

The Arab League formed the Palestine National Council in 1964, and since then it has become known as the PLO’s parliament in exile.

After reading the declaration, Arafat directed a band to play the Palestinian national anthem, “Balida” (My Country). The four-colored Palestinian flag was raised by two guerrillas in battle fatigues behind the podium where Arafat spoke.

The council’s endorsement of the two U.N. resolutions came late Monday night as part of a new political strategy implicitly recognizing Israel and renouncing terrorism.

In its statement on terrorism, the council reiterated its commitment to what is called the Cairo Declaration and endorsing U.N. resolutions on the issue.

Guerrilla Action Restricted

The Cairo Declaration, mediated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, was signed in 1985. It limited Palestinian guerrilla operations to military targets in Israel.

Monday night’s statement went a step further, restricting guerrilla action to military targets in Israeli-occupied territories.

The approval of the strategy marked a major victory for Arafat’s campaign for a more moderate policy that would meet some of Washington’s conditions for dealing with the PLO, attempting to build on the uprising in the occupied territories.

The council endorsed the “political declaration,” with 253 of its members voting for it, 46 voting against and 10 abstaining, reported Dr. Assaad Abdel-Rahman, a council member from Jordan, confirming reports from council sources.

Some other members of the 450-seat council were absent because the voting session was called at short notice, immediately after the council’s political committee completed drafting the declaration.

Abdel-Rahman said George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and others of his group who also are council members were among those who voted against the draft in the show of hands. Habash, a radical, already had said he would accept the rule of the majority.

“Habash, as the leader of the opposition, made a beautiful speech after the vote, saying he was very happy about the great show of democracy,” Abdel-Rahman said. He quoted Habash as saying, “Let me suggest that our slogan from now on be, ‘Unity until victory, revolution until victory.’ ”

That slogan later was chanted as Arafat entered the hall.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip shot off firecrackers, flew balloons and raised the outlawed Palestinian flag to celebrate the declaration.

A third resolution endorsed at the meeting empowers the PLO’s ruling 15-man Executive Committee and the Central Council, a 70-member senate-like body, to form a provisional government at a later stage.

Won’t Replace PLO

The government, Palestinian officials say, will not replace the PLO but will act as one of its institutions, with a mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians in the framework of a U.N. international conference.

The strategy drawn is designed mainly to polish the PLO’s image in the West and transform the sympathy won by the revolt in the territories into political gains.

In its statement on the two U.N. resolutions, the council said it endorses Resolutions 242 and 338 as “the basis for an international conference, while stressing the necessity to guarantee Palestinian national and political rights, foremost of which is the right to self-determination.”

The PLO long had rejected the resolution as the basis for peace, arguing that it treated the Palestinians only as a refugee problem, ignoring their quest for self-determination and a homeland.

Resolution 338, adopted in 1973, called for implementation of 242.

The United States had demanded that the PLO endorse 242, explicitly recognize the Jewish state and renounce terrorism before allowing the organization any role in the Middle East peace process.