Bethlehem/PNN/

34 years ago, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared from Algiers the independence of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

"In the name of God and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, the National Council declares the creation of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian land with noble Jerusalem as its capital," declared Arafat on November 15, 1988, at a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, the Palestinian parliament in exile, which convened in the Algerian capital.

With this declaration, which was a turning point in the history of the Palestinian national liberation movement, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) confirmed Palestinian acceptance of the two-solution for the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It also led to Arab, Islamic, and world recognition of the State of Palestine as declared in Algiers.