Almost a year after the first intifada erupted on the streets of the occupied territories in December 1987, the exiled leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) watched in trepidation as a grassroots popular resistance movement unfolded before the world’s eyes. Demoralized on the heels of being chased out of Beirut to Tunis, the PLO found itself relegated to the sidelines as Palestinians launched general strikes, boycotts and mass demonstrations in an attempt to nonviolently “shake off” the Israeli occupation and oppression.

With all eyes on Palestine and the disproportionate violence with which Israel responded to the uprising, the PLO, pressured by the United States to reach some sort of settlement with Israel, sought to capitalize on the situation and seized the opportunity on Nov. 15, 1988,  to declare, amid much celebration and fanfare, the independence of Palestine, without actually controlling any territory in Palestine.

The perplexing Declaration of Independence was drafted by the poet Mahmoud Darwish, who had resigned from the PLO in 1993 after the signing of the Oslo Accords. As Darwish noted in a 2001 interview, “There was no clear link between the [Oslo-declared five-year] interim period [of the Palestinian Authority's rule] and the final status, and no clear commitment [by Israel] to withdraw from the occupied territories.” 

The establishment of a Palestinian state, without serious input from the Palestinian public, had been bandied about a decade before 1988. Documents recently released by the Central Intelligence Agency on the Camp David Accords reveal that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat had been interested even in 1977 in establishing a state side by side with Israel in a bid to gain recognition and acceptance from the United States. One such document, "Arafat’s Message," notes, "He is willing to make a public statement clearly implying PLO’s willingness to live in peace with Israel with both Israel and Palestine enjoying mutually acceptable and secure borders."