The Palestinian Charter
Introduction:
When the Arab League held its summit in Port Sa'ed in Egypt in 1964, it was decided that a Palestinian political body should be formed to took after the Palestinian interests. Ahmed Shoqaire was nominated as the contact person in charge of implementing that decision. He contacted the Palestinian communities living in the Arab states, and as a result of which the Palestinian National Council held its first meeting between May 5 - June 2, 1964, in Jerusalem. The Palestinian National Council (PNC) decided to establish the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and decided to endorse the Palestinian National charter and PLO's basic law. The Palestinian National Charter consisted of 29 clauses.
After the 1967 defeat and the increase of military fighting activities, the charter was amended by the Palestinian National Council in its fourth session held between August 10- 17, 1968. After the amendment the charter clauses became 23, while some parts were abolished such; as the introduction that preceded the charter.This document shows how fake the allegations of the Israeli previous government headed by Netanyahu and media about an alleged Palestinian non commitment to implement the Palestinian commitments in the peace process.
The Charter
Article 1:
Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of Palestine are part of the Arab nation.Article 2:
Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British mandate is an integral regional unit.Article 3:
The Palestinian Arab people possesses the legal right to its homeland, and when the liberation of its homeland is completed they will exercise self-determination solely according to its own will and choice.Article 4:
The Palestinian personality is an innate, persistent character that will not extinct, and is inherited by sons from parents.The Zionist occupation, and the dispersal of the Palestinian Arab people as a result of the disasters that befell it, do not deprive it from its Palestinian personality and affiliation and do not nullify that.
Article 5:
The Palestinians are the Arab citizens who were living permanently in Palestine until 1947, whether they were expelled or remained there. Whoever is born to a Palestinian father after that date, within Palestine or outside is a Palestinian.Article 6:
Jews who were living permanently in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians. (For the Zionist invasion is considered to have begun in 19171.)Article 7:
The Palestinian affiliation and the material, spiritual and historical ties with Palestine are permanent realities. The upbringing of the Palestinian individual in an Arab and revolutionary fashion, the undertaking of all means of forging consciousness and training the Palestinians, in order to acquaint him profoundly spiritually and materially with his land, and prepare him for the conflict and armed struggle, as well as for the sacrifice of his property and life to restore his homeland, until the liberation is achieved is a national duty.Article 8:
The phase in which the people of Palestine is living is that of national struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Therefore the contradictions among the Palestinian national forces are of minimal importance that must be suspended in the interest of the main conflict between Zionism and Colonialism on the one side and the Palestinian Arab people on the other. On this basis, the Palestinian masses, whether in the homeland or in exile, organizations and individuals, comprise one national front which acts to restore Palestine and liberate it through armed struggle.Article 9:
Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not a tactic. The Palestinian Arab people affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to march forward towards the armed popular revolution, to liberate its homeland and restore its right to a natural life, and to exercise its right of self-determination and national sovereignty.Article 10:
Fedaeyeen’s (freedom fighters) action forms the nucleus of the popular Palestinian war of liberation. This requires its promotion, extension and protection, and the mobilization of all the Arab and Palestinian masses and scientific capacities of the Palestinians, their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution to ensure the continuation of the revolution, its advancement and victory.Article 11:
The Palestinians will have three mottoes: National unity mobilization and liberation. (The text of this clause came in agreement with the 10th clause of the old version of the national charter, that stipulates the Palestinian people’s right to choose any political, economic or social system they believe suitable for their country)Article 12:
The Palestinian Arab people believes in Arab unity. In order to fulfill its role in realizing this, it must preserve, in this phase of national struggle, its Palestinian personality and the conscience, thereof increase consciousness of its consistence and resist any plan that tends to disintegrate or weaken it.Article 13:
Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary aims. Each one paves the way for the realization of the other. Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine and that leads to Arab unity. Working for both goes hand in hand.Article 14:
The destiny of the Arab nation, indeed the very Arab existence, depends on the destiny of the Palestinian issue. The endeavor and effort of the Arab nation to liberate Palestine flows from this connection. The people of Palatine assumes its vanguard role in realizing this sacred national aim.Article 15:
The liberation of Palestine from the Arab view point is a national duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge it from the Zionist presence . This full responsibility falls upon the Arab nation, peoples and governments, with the Arab Palestinian people at their lead. For this purpose the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, material and spiritual capacities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. They must grant and offer the people of Palestine all possible help and every material and human support and afford it means and opportunities enabling it to continue assuming its vanguard role in pursuing its armed revolution until the liberation of its homeland, especially in the present stage of armed Palestinian revolution.Article 16:
The liberation of Palestine from a spiritual view point will prepare an atmosphere of tranquillity and peace for the Holy Land in the shade of which all the holy places, will be safeguarded, and freedom of worship and free access to all will be guaranteed without distinction or discrimination of race, color, language or, religion. For this reason the people of Palestine looks for the support of all spiritual forces in the world.Article 17:
The - liberation of Palestinian from a human point of view will restore to the Palestinian human being dignity, glory and freedom. For this the Palestinian Arab people looks for the support of those in the world who believe in dignity and freedom for mankind.Article 18:
The liberation of Palestine from an international view point, is a defensive act necessitated by the requirements of self-defense. For this reason the Arab people of Palestine are desiring to befriend all peoples, and looks for the support of the states that love freedom , justice and peace in restoring the legal situation in Palestine, establishing security and peace in its territory, and enabling its people to exercise national sovereignty and freedom.Article 19:
The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel is null and void from the very beginning, whatever time has elapsed because it was done contrary to the wish of the people of Palestine and their national right to their homeland and contradicts with the principles embodied in the charter of the UN, the first of which is the right of self- determination.Article 20:
The Balfour Declaration, the mandate document and what has been based upon them are considered null and void. The claim of a historical or spiritual tie between Jews and Palestine does not tally with the historical realities nor with the constituencies of statehood in their true sense. Judaism in its character as a religion of revelation, is not a nationality with an independent existence. Likewise, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality. They are rather citizens of the states to which they belong.Article 21:
The Palestinian Arab people in expressing itself through the armed Palestinian revolution, rejects every solution that is a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine. and rejects all alternative plans that aim at the settlement of the Palestinian issue or its internationalization.Article 22:
Zionism is a political movement organically related to the world imperialism and is hostile to all movements of liberation and progress in the world. It is a racist and fanatic movement in its formation, aggressive, expansionist, and colonialist in its aims, fascist and nazi in its means. Israel is the tool of the Zionist movement and is a human and geographic base for the world imperialism. It is a concentration and a way for imperialism to the heart of the Arab homeland, to strike at the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity and progress.Article 23:
The demands of security peace and the requirement of truth and justice oblige all states that maintain friendly relations with people, and loyalty of citizens to their homeland, to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement and to prohibit its existence and activity.Article 24:
The Palestinian Arab people believes in the principle of justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination, human dignity and the right of peoples to exercise them.Article 25:
To realize the aims of this charter and its principles the Palestine Liberation Organization will undertake its full role in liberating Palestine.Article 26:
The Palestinian Liberation Organization which represents the forces of the Palestinian revolution, is responsible for mobilizing the Palestinian Arab people in their struggle to restore their homeland, liberate it, and exercise the right of self-determination on it. This responsibility extends to all military, political and financial matters, and all else that the Palestinian issue requires on the Arab and international arena.Article 27:
The Palestine Liberation Organization will cooperate with_Arab states, each according to its capacities and will maintain neutrality in their mutual relations in light of the requirements of the battle for the liberation, and will not interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab state.Article 28:
The Palestinian Arab people affirms the originality and independence of its national revolution and rejects every manner of interference, guardianship or subordination.Article 29:
The Palestinian Arab people possesses the prior and original right for liberating and restoring its homeland and form its relations with other states according to the later’s stands on the Palestinian issue the extent of their support for the Arab Palestinian people in their revolution to realize their aims.Article 30:
The fighters and pears of arms in the battle of liberation are the nucleus of the popular army which will be the protection arm of the Palestinian Arab people.Article 31:
This organization shall have a flag, oath, and anthem all of which will be determined in accordance with a special system.Article 32:
To this charter- is attached a law known as the basic law of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in which the organization’s structure is determined, its committees, institutions and the special function of every one of them, and all the requisite duties assigned to them in accordance with this charter.Article 33:
This charter can not be amended except by a two-thirds majority of all the members of the National Assembly in a special session called for this purpose.Initiatives based on the Palestinian National charter
First: The ten-point program:The twelfth session of the Palestinian National Council was held on June 1, 1974. The decisions taken in that session reflect the Palestinian reaction to the developments on the regional and international political arena following the October war in 1973. The details of the program are:
- Emphasize PLO's stand on the UN resolution 242 as it ignores our national rights and deals with our national issue as a refugees' problem. So dealing in any way with this resolution is rejected, be it on Arab or international level including the Geneva conference.
- The PLO uses all means the most important of which is armed struggle in its fight to liberate the Palestinian land and establish the national independent Palestinian authority, on every liberated part from the Palestinian land. Achieving this requires creating a change in the power balance in our nations' favor.
- The PLO struggles against any design to create a Palestinian entity in return for recognizing and normalizing relations with Israel and its safe borders, and leads to giving up the Palestinian national rights and depriving our people from their right to return and self-determination on our land.
- Any partial liberation is just one part of the realization of PLO's strategy to establish the democratic Palestinian state as decided by the PNC.
- Jointly fight with Palestinian - Jordanian front aiming at establishing a Jordanian national democratic role in Jordan that unites with the Palestinian entity that struggles and fights.
- The PLO struggles for a strong unity between the two nations and all Arab freedom forces that support this program.
- In light of this program, the PLO fights to foster a stronger national unity that should be enhanced to a standard that facilitates for easier execution of its national aims.
- After establishing the Palestinian authority, it should struggle for unity between conflict-involved countries, as a step towards a complete liberation of the Palestinian land as part of the complete unity.
- The PLO struggles to strengthen its solidarity with the socialist countries and world liberal forces to foil all Zionist and imperialist designs.
- In light of this program, the revolution leadership is to decide a tactic that serves our issue and allows us to realize our aims.
Here we can say that the program set the stage for a Palestinian acceptance to a realistic political settlement to the conflict, that facilitates for the Palestinian right to self-determination in Palestine.
This change reflects improvement in the Palestinian political thought, arising from PLO's liberal policy, and the international dimension of the Palestinian struggle acquired when the PLO was accepted in the UN.
The Palestinian Peace Initiative
In the 19th session of the PNC, held in Algeria on Nov. 11, 1988, it was decided to come up with the Palestinian peace initiative which included the Declaration of Independence and establishing the Independent Palestinian State.The following is the Declaration of lndependence and political decisions taken in the PNC's 19th session.
State of Palestine
Declaration of Independence
November 15th, 1988
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Palestine, the land of the three monotheistic faiths, is where the Palestinian Arab people was born, on which it grew, developed and excelled. Thus the Palestinian Arab people ensured for itself an everlasting union between itself, its land, and its history.Resolute throughout that history, the Palestinian Arab people forged its national identity, rising even to unimagined levels in its defense, as invasion, the design of others, and the appeal special to Palestine's ancient and luminous place on the eminence where powers and civilizations are joined. All this intervened thereby to deprive the people of its political independence. Yet the undying connection between Palestine and its people secured for the land its character, and for the people its national genius.
Nourished by an unfolding series of civilizations and cultures, inspired by a heritage rich in variety and kind, the Palestinian Arab people added to its stature by consolidating a union between itself and its patrimonial Land. The call went out from Temple, Church, and Mosque that to praise the Creator, to celebrate compassion and peace was indeed the message of Palestine. And in generation after generation, the Palestinian Arab people gave of itself unsparingly in the valiant battle for liberation and homeland. For what has been the unbroken chain of our people's rebellions but the heroic embodiment of our will for national independence. And so the people was sustained in the struggle to stay and to prevail.
When in the course of modern times a new order of values was declared with norms and values fair for all, it was the Palestinian Arab people that had been excluded from the destiny of all other peoples by a hostile array of local and foreign powers. Yet again had unaided justice been revealed as insufficient to drive the world's history along its preferred course.
And it was the Palestinian people, already wounded in its body, that was submitted to yet another type of occupation over which floated that falsehood that "Palestine was a land without people." This notion was foisted upon some in the world, whereas in Article 22 of the charter of the League of Nations (1919) and in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the community of nations had recognized that all the Arab territories, including Palestine, of the formerly Ottoman provinces, were to have granted to them their freedom as provisionally independent nations.
Despite the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian Arab people resulting in their dispersion and depriving them of their right to self-determination, following upon U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947), which partitioned Palestine into two states, one Arab, one Jewish, yet it is this Resolution that still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty.
By stages, the occupation of Palestine and parts of other Arab territories by Israeli forces, the willed dispossession and expulsion from their ancestral homes of the majority of Palestine's civilian inhabitants, was achieved by organized terror; those Palestinians who remained, as a vestige subjugated in its homeland, were persecuted and forced to endure the destruction of their national life.
Thus were principles of international legitimacy violated. Thus were the Charter of the United Nations and its Resolutions disfigured, for they had recognized the Palestinian Arab people's national rights, including the right of Return, the right to independence, the right to sovereignty over territory and homeland.
In Palestine and on its perimeters, in exile distant and near, the Palestinian Arab people never faltered and never abandoned its conviction in its rights of Return and independence. Occupation, massacres and dispersion achieved no gain in the unabated Palestinian consciousness of self and political identity, as Palestinians went forward with their destiny, undeterred and unbowed. And from out of the long years of trial in ever-mounting struggle, the Palestinian political identity emerged further consolidated and confirmed. And the collective Palestinian national will forged for itself a political embodiment, the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole, legitimate representative recognized by the world community as a whole, as well as by related regional and international institutions. Standing on the very rock of conviction in the Palestinian people's inalienable rights, and on the ground of Arab national consensus and of international legitimacy, the PLO led the campaigns of its great people, molded into unity and powerful resolve, one and indivisible in its triumphs, even as it suffered massacres and confinement within and without its home. And so Palestinian resistance was clarified and raised into the forefront of Arab and world awareness, as the struggle of the Palestinian Arab people achieved unique prominence among the world's liberation movements in the modern era.
The massive national uprising, the Intifadah, now intensifying in cumulative scope and power on occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the unflinching resistance of the refugee camps outside the homeland, have elevated awareness of the Palestinian truth and right into still higher realms of comprehension and actuality. Now at last the curtain has been dropped around a whole epoch of prevarication and negation. The Intifadah has set siege to the mind of official Israel, which has for too long relied exclusively upon myth and terror to deny Palestinian existence altogether. Because of the Intifadah and its revolutionary irreversible impulse, the history of Palestine has therefore arrived at a decisive juncture.
Whereas the Palestinian people reaffirms most definitively its inalienable rights in the land of its patrimony.
Now by virtue of natural, historical and legal rights, and the sacrifices of successive generations who gave of themselves in defense of the freedom and independence of their homeland;
In pursuance of Resolutions adopted by Arab Summit Conferences and relying on the authority bestowed by international legitimacy as embodied in the Resolutions of the United Nations Organization since 1947;
And in exercise by the Palestinian Arab people of its rights to self-determination, political independence and sovereignty over its territory,
The Palestine National Council, in the name of God, and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, hereby proclaims the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem (Al-Quds Ash-Sharif).
The State of Palestine is the state of Palestinians wherever they may be. The state is for them to enjoy in it their collective national and cultural identity, theirs to pursue in it a complete equality of rights. In it will be safeguarded their political and religious convictions and their human dignity by means of a parliamentary democratic system of governance, itself based on freedom of expression and the freedom to form parties. The rights of minorities will duly be respected by the majority, as minorities must abide by decisions of the majority. Governance will be based on principles of social justice, equality and non-discrimination in public rights of men or women, on grounds of race, religion, color or sex, and the aegis of a constitution which ensures the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Thus shall these principles allow no departure from Palestine's age-old spiritual and civil heritage of tolerance and religious coexistence.
The State of Palestine is an Arab state, an integral and indivisible part of the Arab nation, at one with that nation in heritage and civilization, with it also in its aspiration for liberation, progress, democracy and unity. The State of Palestine affirms its obligation to abide by the Charter of the League of Arab States, whereby the coordination of the Arab states with each other shall be strengthened. It calls upon Arab compatriots to consolidate and enhance the emein reality of state, to mobilize potential, and to intensify efforts whose goal is to end Israeli occupation.
The State of Palestine proclaims its commitment to the principles and purposes of the United Nations, and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It proclaims its commitment as well to the principles and policies of the Non-Aligned Movement.
It further announces itself to be a peace-loving State, in adherence to the principles of peaceful co-existence. It will join with all states and peoples in order to assure a permanent peace based upon justice and the respect of rights so that humanity's potential for well-being may be assured, an earnest competition for excellence may be maintained, and in which confidence in the future will eliminate fear for those who are just and for whom justice is the only recourse.
In the context of its struggle for peace in the land of Love and Peace, the State of Palestine calls upon the United Nations to bear special responsibility for the Palestinian Arab people and its homeland. It calls upon all peace-and freedom-loving peoples and states to assist it in the attainment of its objectives, to provide it with security, to alleviate the tragedy of its people, and to help it terminate Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The State of Palestine herewith declares that it believes in the settlement of regional and international disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and resolutions. With prejudice to its natural right to defend its territorial integrity and independence, it therefore rejects the threat or use of force, violence and terrorism against its territorial integrity or political independence, as it also rejects their use against territorial integrity of other states.
Therefore, on this day unlike all others, November 15, 1988, as we stand at the threshold of a new dawn, in all honor and modesty we humbly bow to the sacred spirits of our fallen ones, Palestinian and Arab, by the purity of whose sacrifice for the homeland our sky has been illuminated and our Land given life. Our hearts are lifted up and irradiated by the light emanating from the much blessed Intifadah, from those who have endured and have fought the fight of the camps, of dispersion, of exile, from those who have borne the standard for freedom, our children, our aged, our youth, our prisoners, detainees and wounded, all those ties to our sacred soil are confirmed in camp, village, and town. We render special tribute to that brave Palestinian Woman, guardian of sustenance and Life, keeper of our people's perennial flame. To the souls of our sainted martyrs, the whole of our Palestinian Arab people that our struggle shall be continued until the occupation ends, and the foundation of our sovereignty and independence shall be fortified accordingly.
Therefore, we call upon our great people to rally to the banner of Palestine, to cherish and defend it, so that it may forever be the symbol of our freedom and dignity in that homeland, which is a homeland for the free, now and always.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:
"Say: 'O God, Master of the Kingdom,
Thou givest the Kingdom to whom Thou wilt,
and seizes the Kingdom from whom Thou wilt,
Thou exalted whom Thou wilt,and Thou
abasest whom Thou wilt; in Thy hand
is the good; Thou are powerful over everything."
Decisions taken by the PNC in its 19th session
Depending on all that is mentioned before, the PNC out of its responsibility towards the Palestinian people and their national rights and aspirations for peace, quoting the declaration of independence of Nov. 11, 1988, and in response to the human will, to strengthen international reconciliation and nuclear disarmament, and peacefully settle regional conflicts, the council affirms PLO's will to reach a comprehensive political settlement to the Arab - Israeli conflict, the essence of which is the Palestinian issue.The comprehensive political settlement should be reached within the framework of the UN, international law and legitimacy, and UN resolutions, the last of which are resolutions 505, 607 and 608, and resolutions taken by the Arab Summits that all affirms the Arab Palestinian right to return, self-determination and the establishment of the independent Palestinian national State on the Palestinian national soil. The comprehensive settlement should also ensure peace and security to all states in the region.
In realizing that the PNC stresses the following:
- The necessity of having the international conference effectively convened under the UN and with the participation of the permanent members of the Security Council and with the equal participation of the conflicting sides including the PLO, the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
The conference should be based on UN resolutions 242 and 338, and ensuring the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, the top most of which is the self-determination right, so that the UN charter can be implemented in regard to the self determination right for nations and the illegality of occupying land by force , or military invasion and the UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian issue. - The full Israeli withdrawal from all the land it occupied since 1967, and that includes the Arab Jerusalem.
- The cancellation and termination of all Israeli practices that led to annexing the Palestinian land, and the removal of all the settlements built by Israel on the Palestinian land since 1967.
- Working for placing the occupied Palestinian land including the Arab Jerusalem under the UN supervision for a limited period, in order to protect our people and land, and to create a suitable atmosphere for the success of the international conference, and to reach a comprehensive political settlement.
- Solving the issue of the Palestinian refugees on the basis of the UN resolutions issued in this regard.
- Ensuring the freedom of religious expression and the free access for everyone to perform their rituals in the holy shrines in Palestine.
- The UN Security Council decides and ensures the implementation of the peace keeping arrangements between the concerned countries in the region including the Palestinian people.
The Independance declaration and the political decisions taken by the PNC's 19th session included a dramatic important political change, as they evolved:
- First: Adopting the UN resolution 181 that divides Palestine, for a Jewish and Arab State, as a legal basis for establishing the Palestinian state.
- Second: Adopting the UN resolutions 242 and 338 that consider using force in occupying Palestine as illegal.
After 1982:
Following the 1982 war and relocating the PLO to Tunis and the ignition of the Intifadah in the late 1987, the PLO decided to come up with a new peace initiative that was realized in the PNC's 19th session held in Algeria on Nov. 12, 1988, in which the Palestinian state and independence were declared.The main objective behind holding that session was to adopt the UN resolution 242. But that could not have been realized without declaring the Palestinian state which also could not have been declared without adopting the UN resolution 181.
That is why the declaration of independence mentioned the historical injustice that befell the Palestinian people, and lead to depriving them from the right of self-determination and made them refugees after the UN resolutions 181 and 242 were issued. Yet the UN resolution 181 still provides a legal basis for establishing national sovereignty and independence for the Palestinian people under the international legitimacy.
So, as the Palestinian state was declared, then it became possible that the UN resolution 242, can be adopted as it calls on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian land it occupied in 1967.
However consent on UN Security Council's Resolutions 242 was not reached within the context of the Declaration of Independence document, but ensued afterwards in a political statement issued by the PNC in its ordinary session, asserting:
- The council affirms the PLO's determination to reach a comprehensive political settlement.
- It reiterates the need for holding an international conference on the basis of UN Security Council's resolutions 242 and 338, and unwavering the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
The National Council has issued during its 19th session in 1988 three important decisions which represent a new change in the Palestinian position namely:
- The Declaration of Independence: Which states:"Pursuant to the national and historic right of the Palestinian people to its homeland, by virtue of all international legitimacy resolutions embodied by all UN resolutions issued to this effect since 1947, and the course of our revolutionary struggle, the council declares in the name of God and the Palestinian people the establishment of the Palestinian state over its Palestinian land naming the Holy City of Jerusalem as the capital of this declared state."
- The political statement: The first part of it was designated to the Palestinian Intifadah (uprising) as to its escalation and continuity.
The second part thereof covered the political scope leaning to the declaration of independence.
The second part of the political statement has ascertained the resolute determination of the PLO to approach a comprehensive settlement for the Arab- Israeli conflict within the framework of the UN charter, principles of international legitimacy, the provisions of international law and the relevant resolutions of the UN, the last of which were 605, 607, 608, as well as the decisions issued by the Arab summits.
- The formation of a provisional government:“A provisional government will be established for the state of Palestine as soon as possible and according to circumstances and development of events.” The Central Council and the PLO Executive Committee were mandated to set a date for the formation of the government ... etc.
The Palestinian National charter and the Declaration of Principles (DOP)
The Declaration of Principles document signed in Washington on Sept. 13, 1993 stems from the Palestinian and Israeli consent that the time is most appropriate to end decades of confrontation, and conflict and it is for recognition on the basis of reciprocity, of their legitimate political rights and seek to live in peaceful coexistence, dignity and mutual security for the sake of approaching a just, permanent and comprehensive settlement and for a historic reconciliation through the peace process.
The DOP is based on international legitimacy resolutions manifested by all UN relevant resolutions on the Palestinian problem. The PLO commitment stressed by the DOP, the Cairo provisional accord, the exchanged letters of recognition signed on Sept. 9, 1993, the interim Palestinian - Israeli agreement over the West Bank and Gaza Strip known as (Oslo 2) signed in Washington on Sept. 28, 1995, and the Central Council's decision signed on October 28, 1993 which approved the Oslo Accord and its appendixes, have all confirmed:
- First: Amending the Palestinian National charter by abrogating such articles which contradict with the letters exchanged between the PLO and the government of Israel on Oct. 9-10, 1993.
- Second: The Palestinian National Council mandates the Legal Committee to redraft the national charter and submits it to the Central Council at its first meeting.
The 21st session of the Palestinian National Council “Independence Session” and the Palestinian National charter.
Consensus was reached for holding the 2lst session of the Palestinian National Council, the second to be held on the Palestinian soil after the first was held under the chairmanship of Ahmad Shoqaire in 1966.
The council, comprising 669 members, calls for forging a new national charter to substitute the 1968 charter.
This session was primarily aimed at discussing the issue of amendments to the charter, and consequently the PLO Executive Committee was asked to convene a special session for this purpose.
Disparity was evident since the first session of the council after a big number of members failed to attend. The reasons and motives for this non-attendance varied, some related to its timing and others to its location. Two trends emerged on the question of amending the charter:
- The first trend:Opposes any amendments, changes or abrogation whatsoever in any of the charter's articles before Israel has complied with its commitments for the mutual recognition.
The chairman of the PLO has signed a letter in which he emphasized that those articles of the charter and paragraphs which deny the Israeli right to exist and contradict, with pledges stressed in this letter, became of no use and no more valid and therefore the PLO will submit to the PNC the deemed amendments to the charter for endorsement. This trend advocates that the legal understanding of mutual recognition between governments, states, and international communities is not only a political procedure but also an important legal act palatable and accepted by the international law as one of the main criteria for recognition as a legitimate government or state. - The second trend:Calls for an outright implementation of the requested amendments for the sake of maintaining the peace process irrespective of the extent of the Israeli government's compliance with its commitments so as not to give the Israeli side the opportunity to evade its responsibilities and commitments.
This amendment which abrogated those articles calling for the destruction of Israel, was adopted by a majority of 504 voting in favor 54 against and 14 abstained and the absence of members of the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine.
The decision was taken after the PNC was presented with a report submitted by the Legal Committee on the issue of amending the charter. It was mentioned in the draft summary that the Palestinian National Council decided to amend the Palestinian charter and to cancel all articles that contradict, with the letters exchanged between the PLO and the government of Israel. The PNC, asked the Legal Committee to draft a new charter for the PLO, and that should be presented to the Palestinian Central Council on its first upcoming meeting.
The articles of the Palestinian charter that Israel calls for amending them are:
Article 1:
Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of Palestine are part of the Arab nation.Article 9:
Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not a tactic. The Palestinian Arab people affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to march forward towards the armed popular revolution, to liberate its homeland and restore its right to a natural life, and to exercise its right of self-determination and national sovereignty.Article 19:
The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel is null and void from the very beginning, whatever time has elapsed because it was done contrary to the wish of the people of Palestine and their national right to their homeland and contradicts with the principles embodied in the charter of the UN, the first of which is the right of self-determination.Article 20:
The Balfour Declaration, the mandate document and what has been based upon them are considered null and void. The claim of a historical or spiritual tie between Jews and Palestine does not tally with the historical realities nor with the constituencies of statehood in their true sense. Judaism in its character as a religion of revelation, is not a nationality with an independent existence. Likewise, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality. They are rather citizens of the states to which they belong.Article 21:
The Palestinian Arab people in expressing itself through the armed Palestinian revolution, rejects every solution that is a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine. and rejects all alternative plans that aim at the settlement of the Palestinian issue or its internationalization.Article 22:
Zionism is a political movement organically related to the world imperialism and is hostile to all movements of liberation and progress in the world. It is a racist and fanatic movement in its formation, aggressive, expansionist, and colonialist in its aims, fascist and nazi in its means.
Israel is the tool of the Zionist movement and is a human and geographic base for the world imperialism. It is a concentration and a way for imperialism to the heart of the Arab homeland, to strike at the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity and progress.The special session held by the PNC and the charter amendment
The PNC held a special session on April 24, 1996 and listened to the report made by the legal committee, reviewed the current political conditions, which the Palestinian people and the Arab nations encounter, and so the PNC decided: "Depending on the Independence Declaration and the political statement adopted by the PNC in its 19th session in Gaza on Nov. 11, 1988 which stressed resolving conflicts by peaceful means and adopting the principal of two states, the PNC decides to:
- First: Amend the articles in the National charter that contradict with the letters exchanged between the PLO and the government of Israel on Sept. 9-10, 1993.
- Second: The PNC authorizes the Legal Committee to draft a new charter to be presented at the first meeting to be held by the Central Council.
Palestine Ministry of Information
June 1999
Palestine Affairs Council
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