Palestine independence

Following World War I, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the territory of Palestine — where Israel, Palestine, and Jordan are located today — was placed under British administration by a League of Nations mandate. Shortly before this, the British government had taken two key actions that were opposite in their significance. The first consisted of providing the Arabs with guarantees of independence for the territory of Palestine after the end of World War I. The second was the adoption of the so-called Balfour Declaration (by the then British Foreign Secretary), which endorsed the creation of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. By 1939, the population of Palestine was approximately 1.5 million people, of whom nearly a third were Jews.

London's authority over these lands lasted until 1947, when during its second session the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181. It contained a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state, with a special status for Jerusalem under UN administration. The territory of Palestine was divided into eight parts. Three were allocated to the Jewish state, three to the Arab state. The seventh part was to become the Arab enclave of Jaffa within Jewish territory. The eighth — Jerusalem — was to be a separate entity under a special international regime. However, this resolution was rejected by the countries of the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Arab Higher Committee of Palestine.

Immediately after the adoption of the resolution, unrest erupted in the region, which escalated into clashes between Arab and Jewish armed formations. After the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948, these escalated into the Arab-Israeli War, as a result of which the Jewish state captured 77 percent of the territory on which Palestine was supposed to be established. The Gaza Strip and the entire West Bank of the Jordan River came under the control of Egypt and Jordan. In 1950, King Abdullah of Jordan unilaterally annexed the West Bank of the Jordan River, including East Jerusalem.

Due to the contradictions that arose between Jordan, Egypt, and other members of the LAS, the question of creating an Arab state in Palestine was virtually removed from the agenda, and after their defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967, these lands were occupied by Israel. At the same time, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which formulated the principles for establishing a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the occupied territories.

From the first days of the occupation of Palestinian lands, the Israeli government facilitated the establishment of Jewish settlements on them. Furthermore, in the territory of East Jerusalem, in addition to numerous Jewish neighborhoods, Israel built industrial zones and military bases. The creation of these settlements has been repeatedly condemned by the UN and many countries around the world, including the United States.

In 1973, after the end of another Arab-Israeli war, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 338, which contained a call for peace negotiations. The following year, the General Assembly approved Resolution 3236, recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It then received observer status at the UN, and in 1986 the PLO gained full membership in the Asian group of states at the UN General Assembly.

The proclamation of the State of Palestine took place on November 15, 1988, in Algiers during a session of the Palestinian National Council — the supreme consultative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization. By the end of the month, more than 60 states had recognized Palestine, including the Soviet Union.

On February 3, 1969, Yasser Arafat (1929–2004) was elected leader of the PLO (Muhammad Abd ar-Rahman Abd ar-Rauf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, also known as Abu Ammar).

Already at the age of 17, Arafat participated in smuggling weapons into Palestine for the fight against the British. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948–1949, he headed to Palestine to take part in the fighting, but along the way his group was captured and disarmed. In 1957, Arafat founded the organization Fatah (Victory) to carry out attacks on Israeli territory.