When is Palestine Independence Day?
Independence day is a public holiday in the State of Palestine on November 15th each year.
This is the national day of Palestine and commemorates the declaration of independence that was proclaimed on this day in 1988.
History of Palestine Independence Day
After the end of the second world war, the UN adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalised Jerusalem.
This partition plan was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs. The day after the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14th 1948, neighbouring Arab armies invaded the former British mandate of Palestine and fought the Israeli forces.
The ensuing war saw the former British mandate of Palestine partitioned between Israel, Trans-Jordan and Egypt.
Israel later captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria in June 1967 during the Six-Day War.
On November 15th 1988 in Algiers, Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), proclaimed the establishment of the State of Palestine.
