The Olive Branch from Palestine: The Palestinian Declaration of Independence and the Path Out of the Current Impasse

Description

The Olive Branch from Palestine provides a new narrative of the Palestinian effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and offers a bold plan for ending this conflict today, a proposal that focuses on Palestinian agency and the power of the Palestinians to bring about the two-state solution, even in the absence of a fully committed Israeli partner.   In part 1, Jerome Segal provides an analytical and historical study of the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, a remarkable act of unilateral peacemaking through which the PLO accepted the legitimacy of the 1947 Partition Resolution and thereby redefined Palestinian nationalism. In part 2, he proposes a new strategy in which, outside of negotiations, the Palestinians would advance, in full detail, the end-of-claims/end-of-conflict peace plan they are prepared to sign, one that powerfully addresses the Palestinian refugee question and is supported by the refugees themselves yet does not undermine Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Foreword, by Noam Chomsky Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Unilateral Surprise 2. The Evolution of the Palestine Liberation Organization Prior to the Declaration 3. 1988: Leading Up to the Declaration 4. How the Declaration Was Drafted 5. Darwish 6. Two Declarations: Israeli and Palestinian Side by Side 7. Reactions to the Declaration and Meeting the US Conditions 8. The Struggle with the United States over Recognition of the New State 9. PLO Strategy and the Declaration 10. Early Statehood and Opportunities to Return to the Declaration 11. The Path Out of the Current Impasse: Palestinian Peacemaking Conclusion: The Significance of the Declaration Appendix: State of Palestine Declaration of Independence Notes Index