under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, their sole and
legitimate representative, and the indemnification of those who do not desire
to return;- The placing of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the supervision of the
United Nations for a transitional period not exceeding a few months; - The establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its
capital; - The establishment by the United Nations Security Council of guarantees of
peace between all States of the region, including the independent Palestinian
State; - The guaranteeing by the Security Council of the implementation of these
principles.
[Note: Subsequent portions of the declaration stated opposition to the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon, support for Iraq in its war with Iran, and support for Somalia in its war with
Ethiopia.]
SOURCE:United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine, http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.
NSF/be65b75f931fa995052567270057d45e/a65756251b75f6ad852562810074e5f4!OpenDocument.The Madrid Conference
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
After the United States and other countries drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the Per-
sian Gulf War, which ended in February 1991, President George H. W. Bush sought
to use what he called a “new world order” to revive the long-stalled Middle East peace
process. Bush’s secretary of state, James A. Baker III, spent months getting the region’s
leaders to agree to attend a peace conference at which great issues of peace as well as
more mundane matters, such as transportation and water resources, could be discussed
under the watchful eyes of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Israeli gov-
ernment, headed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, was the most reluctant to attend,
but Shamir eventually agreed after Baker established procedures emphasizing bilateral,
rather than multilateral, negotiations that met Israel’s specifications (Persian Gulf War,
p. 455).
The conference convened in Madrid on October 30, with delegates or observers
attending from Israel and most Arab countries. At Israel’s insistence, Palestinians were
officially represented only as part of the Jordanian delegation, but the Palestinian del-
egates had been chosen by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In opening
speeches, President Bush and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev emphasized the his-
138 ARABS AND ISRAELIS