It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority.

Since 1995, Bethlehem has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority.

In 1995, Israel turned it over to the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Oslo peace accord.

On December 21, 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from Bethlehem, and three days later the city came under the complete administration and military control of the Palestinian National Authority in conformance with the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1995.

This document, which was accepted by the Palestinian National Council ( PNC ) after lobbying by Fatah and DFLP, cautiously introduced the concept of a two-state solution in the PLO, and caused a split in the organization leading to the formation of the Rejectionist Front, where radical organizations such as the PFLP, PFLP-GC, Palestine Liberation Front and others gathered with the backing of Syria, Libya and Iraq to oppose Arafat and the mainstream PLO stance.

* List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority

However, the Hamas legislative victory led to a split between the two main Palestinian political parties, with Fatah retaining control of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank.

* List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority

The agreement also established an elected 88-member Palestinian National Council, which held its inaugural session in Gaza in March 1996.

The US granted a request from the Palestinian National Authority for recognition of the West Bank and Gaza as a Country in view of developments including the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements.

* Palestinian National Authority

In certain cases a special style is needed to accommodate imperfect statehood, e. g. the title Sardar-i-Riyasat was used in Kashmir after its accession to India, and PLO-leader Yasser Arafat was styled the first " President of the Palestinian National Authority " in 1994.

Article 3 of the Basic Law of the Palestinian Authority, which was ratified in 2002 by the Palestinian National Authority and serves as an interim constitution, states that " Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.

* 2005 – Mahmoud Abbas wins the election to replace Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority.

* In the Palestinian National Authority, municipalities are localities with populations over 4, 000 and have 13-15 council members.

In his autobiography, From Jerusalem to Munich, first published in France in 1999, and later in a written interview with Sports Illustrated, Abu Daoud wrote that funds for Munich were provided by Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the PLO since 11 November 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority since 15 January 2005.

* 1988 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.

* Palestinian National Authority, an administrative organisation established to govern parts of the Palestinian territories since 1994

The Palestinian National Covenant or Palestinian National Charter (; transliterated: al-Mithaq al-Watani al-Filastini ) is the charter or constitution of the Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ).

Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David.

Another summit was convened in Sharm El Sheik in early 2005, which was attended by Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched at the 1995 Barcelona Conference between the European Union and its originally 12 Mediterranean Partners: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah's internal conflicts have also, due to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, merged with the turf wars between different PA security services, e. g., a longstanding rivalry between the West Bank ( Jibril Rajoub ) and Gaza ( Muhammad Dahlan ) branches of the powerful Preventive Security Service.

Officials on the third day of the Fatah convention in Bethlehem unanimously accepted the proposal put forth by the chairman of the Araft Institute stating that Israel had been behind the " assassination " of the late Palestinian Authority Chairman and affirmed Fatah's request for international aid to probe the issue.

The group has also dominated various PLO and Palestinian Authority forces and security services which were / are not officially tied to Fatah, but in practice have served as wholly pro-Fatah armed units, and been staffed largely by members.

Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993, the Palestinian Authority became the administrative body that governed Palestinian population centres.

The Israeli forces left Gaza City and other urban areas, leaving the new Palestinian Authority to administer and police those areas.

The Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, chose Gaza City as its first provincial headquarters.

In September 1995, Israel and the PLO signed a second peace agreement, extending the Palestinian Authority to most West Bank towns.

Palestinian Authority rule under the leadership of Arafat suffered from serious mismanagement and corruption scandals.

Under the DOP, Israel agreed to recognize the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a " Single Territorial Unit " as well as to transfer certain powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority, which includes the Palestinian Legislative Council elected in January 1996, as part of the interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed this plan, but declared that until final status, it would still consider the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation.

Presently, most of the West Bank is administered by Israel though 42 % of it is under varying degrees of autonomous rule by the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority.

The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements ( the DOP, better known as the Oslo accords ), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993, provided for a transitional period not exceeding five years of Palestinian interim self-government in sections of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

In the interim, while armed Lebanese forces under the Maronite-controlled government sparred with Palestinian fighters, Egyptian leader Gamal Abd al-Nasser helped to negotiate the 1969 " Cairo Agreement " between Arafat and the Lebanese government, which granted the PLO autonomy over Palestinian refugee camps and access routes to northern Israel in return for PLO recognition of Lebanese sovereignty.

Authority over the various fields of rule, including education and culture, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism, would be transferred to the Palestinian interim government.

Hebron was the one city excluded from the interim agreement of September 1995 to restore rule over all Palestinian West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority.

Although considered an interim solution, Ramallah has become the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, hosting almost all governmental headquarters.

Under agreements reached with Israel, the Palestinian Authority exercises de jure control over many natural resources, while interim cooperation arrangements are in place for others.

The Accord provided for the creation of a Palestinian interim self-government, the Palestinian National Authority ( PNA ).

Palestinian rule was to last for a five-year interim period during which " permanent status negotiations " would commence — no later than May 1996 — in order to reach a final agreement.

* Palestinian National Authority, an interim organization that nominally governs parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

However, the interim process put in place under Oslo had fulfilled neither Israeli nor Palestinian expectations, and Arafat argued that the summit was premature.

* Palestinian Authority interim AA ( 1997 )

This article lists the various interim and final United Nations estimates for the number of Palestinian people who fled or were expelled from the area that became part of the State of Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

It also provides other interim and final estimates for the number of Palestinian refugees for that period.