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The Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles: A Framework for Future Settlement
Eyal Benvenisti 1
Full text available: PDF format *
I. Introduction
On 13 September 1993 the Government of Israel and PLO representatives signed the `Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements'.2 The Declaration was preceded by an exchange of letters between PLO Chairman, Yasser Arafat, and Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin on 9 September 1993. The letters and the Declaration set the stage for the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, since this conflict has been at the heart of a wider confrontation between Israel and the Arab world,3 these instruments may pave the way for peace in the Middle East. These documents, however, are only the beginning of a long and difficult process of reconciliation. Heavy stumbling blocks are yet to be negotiated away. Under these circumstances, one would expect the Declaration to be ambiguous and vague. And indeed it is. In this article I shall describe what has been achieved, seeking to point out the ambiguities and their possible interpretations. I shall also outline the major difficulties that lie ahead. Before doing so, a note on the significance of the Declaration and the letters of mutual recognition is called for.
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1 Lecturer, the Hebrew University, Faculty of Law. LL.B. (the Hebrew
University); LL.M., J.S.D. (Yale Law School). I thank Dr. Eyal Zamir, for his
most valuable comments on an earlier draft.
2 Hereafter referred to as the Declaration.
3 The Arab-Israeli war in 1948 broke off when Arab armies invaded
Palestine, a move they have claimed was an act of individual and collective
self-defence. See Cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab
States to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, 15 May 1948, UN Doc.
S/745, reprinted in 3 UN SCOR, Supp., May 1948, at 83-88; J.N. Moore, The
Arab-Israeli Conflict, Vol. III (Documents) (1974) 938, at
942-943.
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This file was last modified:
Tuesday, October 14, 2003 11:54AM