THE PALESTINIAN ROAD TOWARDS A 2-STATE SO LUTION AS OBJECTIVE OF THE LIBERATION STRUGGLE

The Palestine National Council's calling in 1974 for the establishment of <<the people's national, independent, and fighting authority on ev ery part of Palestinian land to be liberated>>, can be regarded as the first indication on part of the PNC of a possible Palestinian state a longside the Israeli. This article discusses the changes in Palestinia n strategy and objectives from 1974 till today,based mainly on an anal ysis of relevant PNC resolutions and other PLO documents, and taking i nto account the differences in power between the two parties, and the Israeli strategy of creating irreversible <<facts on the ground>> in t he occupied territories. It is shown how the various trends within the Palestinian movement gradually adapted to a two-state solution as the only realistic approach to the liberation struggle. The article concl udes that as the danger looms of autonomi as <<a permanent solution>>, even the trends (among them the Islamic) that earlier advocated the l iberation of the whole of (British mandate) Palestine, would emphasize the objective of a Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza.