Declaration of Principles

(13 September 1993)

   A document signed at the White House in Washington, DC, by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), concluding months of secret negotiations in Olso, Norway, and elsewhere in Europe. The document was signed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO executive committee member Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The signing was witnessed by President William J. (Bill) Clinton of the United States (US), Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher, and Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrov. Key provisions of the Declaration of Principles included the following: Israel and the PLO exchanged recognition; the PLO accepted United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 as the basis for negotiations and renounced the use of terrorism and violence to resolve outstanding disputes with Israel; the parties agreed to the formation of a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority that would administer areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during a five-year transitional period leading to a permanent settlement; and there was an agreement to defer until the final status phase of negotiations (to begin no later than the third year of the interim period) decisions about Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest. The Declaration of Principles went into effect on 13 October 1993, and subsequent negotiations led to further interim agreements affecting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho; the transfer of authority over civil affairs in major Arab population centers in the West Bank; the election of a Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and executive committee in January 1996; and the Israeli Defense Force's redeployment from much of the West Bank town of Hebron in January 1997.

   See also Wye River Memorandum (1998).