|
| |
PLO National Charter
The Palestinian National Charter as amended in 1968 endorsed the use of
violence, specifically "armed struggle" against "Zionist imperialism." Article
10 of the Palestinian National Charter states "Commando (Feday’ee) action
constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires
its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian
popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the
armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the
national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian
people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure
the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory."
The most controversial element of text of the Palestinian National Charter were
many clauses declaring the creation of the state of Israel "null and void",
since it was created by force on Palestinian soil calling for the destruction of
the state of Israel.
In letters exchanged between Arafat and Rabin in conjunction with the 1993 Oslo
Accords, Arafat agreed that those clauses would be removed. On 26 April 1996,
the Palestine National Council held a meeting in camera, at whose end it was
announced that the Council had voted to nullify or amend all such clauses, and
called for a new text to be produced. At the time, Israeli political figures and
academics expressed suspicions and doubts this that this is what had actually
taken place, and continued to claim that controversial clauses were still in
force.
A letter from Arafat to US President Bill Clinton in 1998 listed the clauses
concerned, and a meeting of the Palestine Central Committee approved that list.
To remove all doubt the vote this time was held in a public meeting of PLO, PNC
and PCC members which was televised worldwide and in the presence of none other
than the President of the United States Bill Clinton in person, who arrived in
the Gaza Strip for that specific purpose. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu accepted this as the promised nullification.
The fact that a new text of the Charter has never been produced the source of a
continuing controversy, with critics of the Palestinian organizations claim that
failure to produce a new text proves the insincerity of the clause
nullifications. (Such criticism being, however, confined mainly to marginal
groups on the far right side of the Israeli political spectrum). One of several
Palestinian responses is that the proper replacement of the Charter will be the
constitution of the forthcoming state of Palestine. The published draft
constitution states that the territory of Palestine "is an indivisible unit
based upon its borders on the 4th of June 1967" - which clearly implies an
acceptance of Israel's existence in its 1967 borders.
| |
|
