Palestine's politics: two structures and a legislature that stopped

Which bodies make up the Palestinian state

Two sets of institutions carry the name. The first belongs to the Palestine Liberation Organization: the Palestinian National Council, the PLO's parliament, which proclaimed the state in 1988; the Palestinian Central Council, which appoints the president of the State of Palestine; and the Executive Committee, which the National Council has empowered to perform the functions of a government. The PLO represents the state in foreign relations, maintains its embassies and holds its seat at the United Nations.

The second is the Palestinian Authority, the interim administration that the Oslo agreements set up in 1994. It has a president, a cabinet led by a prime minister and the Palestinian Legislative Council, and its constitution is the Basic Law, which Yasser Arafat signed in 2002. The Palestine article on Wikipedia insists that the two should be kept apart, and so should the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence of 1988 founds the state, the Palestinian National Covenant is the PLO's charter, and the Basic Law governs the Authority.

How the Basic Law divides power

The Basic Law sets up what the Palestinian Authority article calls a unitary semi-presidential republic. The president is elected directly for four years, with a limit of two terms, commands the security forces, conducts foreign relations, can veto legislation and may issue decrees when the legislature is not in session. The post of prime minister was created in 2003, under international pressure for new leadership during the second intifada; the president appoints the prime minister, and the prime minister and the Council of Ministers hold primary executive authority, subject to the confidence of the Legislative Council. The Basic Law can be amended by a two-thirds majority of the legislature. In April 2025 the PLO created a post of vice president of the Authority.

The Legislative Council has one chamber. Its first election, on 20 January 1996, was held by simple majority in districts, which Britannica notes heavily favoured Fatah; Hamas boycotted it and Fatah won 62 of the 88 seats. A law of June 2005 enlarged the council to 132 members, half elected by proportional representation and half in constituencies. Under Oslo II its powers are confined to civil matters and internal security in Area A, and to civil affairs in Area B, and it may not negotiate with Israel.

Twelve branches of security forces, among them the National Security Forces, the civil police and the Presidential Guard, make up the Palestinian Security Services. Under the Oslo arrangements they work in partnership with the Israel Defense Forces, with joint patrols and intelligence sharing, and Britannica puts security at one third of the Authority's spending.

Why no legislature has sat since the split

The election of 25 January 2006 gave Hamas 74 of the 132 seats on 44% of the vote, against 41% for Fatah; Britannica calls the outcome controversial, since the mixed system turned 44% of the vote into a majority of seats. Hamas formed the government, and Israel, the United States and the European Union, all of which list Hamas as a terrorist organisation, imposed sanctions; the Quartet made assistance conditional on non-violence, recognition of Israel and acceptance of earlier agreements. After fighting between the two movements in Gaza in June 2007, the president dismissed the Hamas-led government, declared a state of emergency and appointed an emergency cabinet.

From then on the Hamas members of the council met separately in Gaza, which left neither part with the two-thirds quorum, and the council has not convened since. Laws have been issued by presidential decree, a practice Hamas has refused to recognise. A decree of September 2007 changed the electoral system to full proportional representation, and later decrees raised the number of seats to 200, reserved seats for Christians and required at least one woman for every three candidates on a list. The president's elected term was due to end on 9 January 2009; since then Hamas and many in Gaza have regarded the speaker of the Legislative Council as acting president instead. Legislative elections set for 22 May 2021 were postponed indefinitely on 29 April 2021, and none has been held since 2006.

Who governs which part of the territory

Administration on the ground follows the Oslo II map in the West Bank and the war in Gaza. Area A, 18% of the West Bank, is under Palestinian civil and security control; Area B, 22%, under Palestinian civil control and joint security; Area C, 60%, under Israel, which runs it through its Civil Administration, while the Palestinian government provides education and health services to the Palestinians living there. East Jerusalem has been administered by Israel as part of its Jerusalem District since 1967, an annexation no other state recognises, and the State of Palestine claims it as part of its Jerusalem Governorate. Britannica records about 750,000 Israelis living in the West Bank in 2026.

Hamas exercised executive authority in the Gaza Strip from June 2007 until July 2026 through its own executive, legislative and judicial bodies. The law it applied drew on Ottoman law, the British mandate's code of 1936, Palestinian Authority law, sharia and Israeli military orders, and it ran civilian and military courts with a public prosecution service. The Palestinian Authority took back some public institutions there late in 2017 and left again in January 2019. Since October 2023 Israel has occupied large parts of the strip, and the Gaza Strip article records that after the ceasefire of October 2025 Hamas controlled less than half of it. The peace plan accepted that month provides for an International Stabilization Force, a Board of Peace and a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza to run the strip for a transitional period before handing it to a reformed Palestinian Authority. Hamas dissolved its civil administration in July 2026 as part of the transfer to that committee.

How Palestine sits at the United Nations

The United Nations has dealt with the PLO since 1974. The General Assembly recognised it as the representative of the Palestinian people on 14 October 1974 and gave it observer status as a non-state entity on 22 November 1974. Resolution 43/177 of 15 December 1988 acknowledged the proclamation of the state and replaced the name "Palestine Liberation Organization" with "Palestine" throughout the UN system.

In early 2011 a United Nations report found that the Palestinian Authority had developed institutions "sufficient for a functioning government of a state", while still relying on Israel for energy and tax collection. An application for full membership, submitted on 23 September 2011, stalled in the Security Council. On 29 November 2012 the General Assembly voted 138 to 9 with 41 abstentions to make Palestine a non-member observer state, the status of the Holy See, and on 17 December 2012 the UN's chief of protocol directed that "State of Palestine" be used in all UN documents. On 10 May 2024, after a United States veto in the Security Council on 18 April, the Assembly voted 143 to 9 with 25 abstentions that Palestine was qualified for membership. From September 2024 its delegation sits among the member states in alphabetical order, may introduce proposals and amendments and may be elected to Assembly offices, but it has no vote.

Each step has been opposed by Israel. Israel's ambassador told the Assembly in 2012 that the route to statehood "runs through direct negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah", and the International recognition of Palestine article records Israel's position that going to the General Assembly breaches the Oslo commitment that neither side would act unilaterally.

Who recognises the State of Palestine

Recognition came in waves. By the end of 1988, 78 states had recognised the new state, most of them in Africa and Asia, the communist bloc and the Non-Aligned Movement. Ireland, Norway and Spain recognised it together in May 2024. On 22 September 2025, at a conference on the two-state solution convened at the United Nations by France and Saudi Arabia, ten more states announced recognition: Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

As of 23 September 2025, 157 of the 193 UN member states recognised the State of Palestine, including four of the five permanent members of the Security Council, China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom. The fifth, the United States, does not, and has blocked full membership. Of the G20 members, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and the United States had not recognised it in September 2025. Sixteen of the European Union's 27 members recognised Palestine in 2025. Many states that do not recognise the state recognise the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Israel's own position has moved over time and is recorded in the same article as a sequence of claims: no Israeli government proposed a Palestinian state between 1967 and the Oslo Accords, a prime minister first called one possible in June 2003, another accepted a demilitarised state in principle in June 2009, and in 2025 the prime minister said a Palestinian state "will not be established". Israel has also rejected a return to the 1967 lines as a border.

What courts and the General Assembly have ruled

The question of the occupation has been put to the International Court of Justice twice. In 2004 the court ruled the barrier Israel was building, mostly inside the occupied territory, illegal. On 19 July 2024 it gave an advisory opinion requested by the General Assembly on Israel's policies in the territory, including East Jerusalem; the United Nations summarises it as finding Israel's presence unlawful and saying Israel should end it as rapidly as possible, cease new settlement activity, evacuate settlers and make reparation. Vice-President Sebutinde dissented. In September 2024 the General Assembly demanded that Israel end its occupation within 12 months.

A separate case, filed by South Africa, accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza; while it proceeds the court has ordered Israel to prevent genocide and enable basic services and aid. Israel and the United States deny that genocide has occurred. The Security Council's Resolution 2334 of 2016 addressed the settlements, and earlier council resolutions, such as Resolution 446, held that they have no legal validity.

The State of Palestine has also used the courts and treaties as a state. The International Criminal Court found in January 2015 that, after the General Assembly vote of 2012, Palestine had to be treated as a state for the purpose of joining the Rome Statute, and it became a party in April 2015. It joined UNESCO in 2011, where it ratified the World Heritage Convention on 8 December 2011.

Which organisations Palestine belongs to

Palestine is a member of the Arab League and of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, both of which accepted it as a member state after the 1988 proclamation, and of UNESCO since 2011. It belongs to the Group of 77 and the Union for the Mediterranean, and a delegation of Palestinian parliamentarians sits in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The World Bank has run a programme of assistance in the Palestinian territories since November 1992, funding the Palestinian Authority's projects through grants.