Text of the Official PLO Charter:
Article 1: Palestine is the homeland
of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland,
and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.
Article 2: Palestine, with the
boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial
unit.
Article 3: The Palestinian Arab people
possess the legal right to their homeland and have the right to determine their
destiny after achieving the liberation of their country in accordance with their
wishes and entirely of their own accord and will.
Article 4: The Palestinian identity is
a genuine, essential, and inherent characteristic; it is transmitted from
parents to children. The Zionist occupation and the dispersal of the Palestinian
Arab people, through the disasters which befell them, do not make them lose
their Palestinian identity and their membership in the Palestinian community,
nor do they negate them.
Article 5: The Palestinians are those
Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of
whether they were evicted from it or have stayed there. Anyone born, after that
date, of a Palestinian father - whether inside Palestine or outside it - is also
a Palestinian.
Article 6: The Jews who had normally
resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be
considered Palestinians.
Article 7: That there is a Palestinian
community and that it has material, spiritual, and historical connection with
Palestine are indisputable facts. It is a national duty to bring up individual
Palestinians in an Arab revolutionary manner. All means of information and
education must be adopted in order to acquaint the Palestinian with his country
in the most profound manner, both spiritual and material, that is possible. He
must be prepared for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and
his life in order to win back his homeland and bring about its liberation.
Article 8: The phase in their history,
through which the Palestinian people are now living, is that of national (watani)
struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Thus the conflicts among the
Palestinian national forces are secondary, and should be ended for the sake of
the basic conflict that exists between the forces of Zionism and of imperialism
on the one hand, and the Palestinian Arab people on the other. On this basis the
Palestinian masses, regardless of whether they are residing in the national
homeland or in diaspora (mahajir) constitute - both their organizations and the
individuals - one national front working for the retrieval of Palestine and its
liberation through armed struggle.
Article 9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate
Palestine. This it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The
Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution
to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for
the liberation of their country and their return to it . They also assert their
right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to
self-determination and sovereignty over it.
Article 10: Commando 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.
Article 11: The Palestinians will have
three mottoes: national (wataniyya) unity, national (qawmiyya) mobilization, and
liberation.
Article 12: The Palestinian people
believe in Arab unity. In order to contribute their share toward the attainment
of that objective, however, they must, at the present stage of their struggle,
safeguard their Palestinian identity and develop their consciousness of that
identity, and oppose any plan that may dissolve or impair it.
Article 13: Arab unity and the
liberation of Palestine are two complementary objectives, the attainment of
either of which facilitates the attainment of the other. Thus, Arab unity leads
to the liberation of Palestine, the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity;
and work toward the realization of one objective proceeds side by side with work
toward the realization of the other.
Article 14: The destiny of the Arab
nation, and indeed Arab existence itself, depend upon the destiny of the
Palestine cause. From this interdependence springs the Arab nation's pursuit of,
and striving for, the liberation of Palestine. The people of Palestine play the
role of the vanguard in the realization of this sacred (qawmi) goal.
Article 15: The liberation of Palestine,
from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the
Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the
elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon
the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in
the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military,
human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the
Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the
phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian
people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make
available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue
to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate
their homeland.
Article 16: The liberation of
Palestine, from a spiritual point of view, will provide the Holy Land with an
atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard the country's
religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of worship and of visit to all,
without discrimination of race, color, language, or religion. Accordingly, the
people of Palestine look to all spiritual forces in the world for support.
Article 17: The liberation of
Palestine, from a human point of view, will restore to the Palestinian
individual his dignity, pride, and freedom. Accordingly the Palestinian Arab
people look forward to the support of all those who believe in the dignity of
man and his freedom in the world.
Article 18: The liberation of
Palestine, from an international point of view, is a defensive action
necessitated by the demands of self-defense. Accordingly the Palestinian people,
desirous as they are of the friendship of all people, look to freedom-loving,
and peace-loving states for support in order to restore their legitimate rights
in Palestine, to re-establish peace and security in the country, and to enable
its people to exercise national sovereignty and freedom.
Article 19: The partition of Palestine in
1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal,
regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the
Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and
inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations,
particularly the right to self-determination.
Article 20: The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for
Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and
void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are
incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what
constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent
nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own;
they are citizens of the states to which they belong.
Article 21: The Arab Palestinian people, expressing
themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are
substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine and reject all proposals
aiming at the liquidation of the Palestinian problem, or its
internationalization.
Article 22: Zionism is a political movement organically
associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for
liberation and to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic
in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist
in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and
geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the
Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and
progress. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle
East and the whole world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the
Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of
peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people look for the support of all the
progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all, irrespective of their
affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid and support in
their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland.
Article 23: The demand of security and peace, as well
as the demand of right and justice, require all states to consider Zionism an
illegitimate movement, to outlaw its existence, and to ban its operations, in
order that friendly relations among peoples may be preserved, and the loyalty of
citizens to their respective homelands safeguarded.
Article 24:The Palestinian people
believe in the principles of justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination,
human dignity, and in the right of all peoples to exercise them.
Article 25: For the realization of the
goals of this Charter and its principles, the Palestine Liberation Organization
will perform its role in the liberation of Palestine in accordance with the
Constitution of this Organization.
Article 26: The Palestine Liberation
Organization, representative of the Palestinian revolutionary forces, is
responsible for the Palestinian Arab people's movement in its struggle - to
retrieve its homeland, liberate and return to it and exercise the right to
self-determination in it - in all military, political, and financial fields and
also for whatever may be required by the Palestine case on the inter-Arab and
international levels.
Article 27: The Palestine Liberation
Organization shall cooperate with all Arab states, each according to its
potentialities; and will adopt a neutral policy among them in the light of the
requirements of the war of liberation; and on this basis it shall not interfere
in the internal affairs of any Arab state.
Article 28: The Palestinian Arab
people assert the genuineness and independence of their national (wataniyya)
revolution and reject all forms of intervention, trusteeship, and subordination.
Article 29:The Palestinian people
possess the fundamental and genuine legal right to liberate and retrieve their
homeland. The Palestinian people determine their attitude toward all states and
forces on the basis of the stands they adopt vis-a-vis to the Palestinian
revolution to fulfill the aims of the Palestinian people.
Article 30: Fighters and carriers of
arms in the war of liberation are the nucleus of the popular army which will be
the protective force for the gains of the Palestinian Arab people.
Article 31: The Organization shall
have a flag, an oath of allegiance, and an anthem. All this shall be decided
upon in accordance with a special regulation.
Article 32: Regulations, which shall
be known as the Constitution of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, shall
be annexed to this Charter. It will lay down the manner in which the
Organization, and its organs and institutions, shall be constituted; the
respective competence of each; and the requirements of its obligation under the
Charter.
Article 33: This Charter shall not be
amended save by [vote of] a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of
the National Congress of the Palestine Liberation Organization [taken] at a
special session convened for that purpose.
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