PALESTINE NATIONAL CHARTER

      PALESTINE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION

                             CAIRO, JULY 17, 1968

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

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 achieveing 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 of 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 a national struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Thus the conflicts among the Palestinian national forces are secondary, and

should ne 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, 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. Thus 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 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 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 mottos: national unity, national

mobilization and liberation.

ARTICLE 12: The Palestinian people believe in Arab unity. In order to

contribute their share towards 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 towards the realization of one

objective proceeds side by side with work towards the realization of the other.

ARTICLE 14: The destiny of the Arab nation, and indeed Arab existence itself,

depends 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 national goal.

ARTICLE 15: The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national

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 safeguard the country's religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of

worship and of visit to all, without discrimination of race, color, language,

or religions. 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 beleive in the dignity of man and his freedom in the world.

ARTICLE 18: The liberation of Palestine, from an international point of view,

is defensive action necessitated by the demands of self-defence. Accordingly,

the Palestinian people, desirous as they are of friendship of all people, look

to freedom-loving, justice-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 partititon 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 concept 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 facist in its methods.

Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and a 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 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 demands of security and peace, as well as the demands of right

and justice, require all states to consider Zionism and 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 roles 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 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 towards all states and forces on the basis of the stands they

adopt vis-a-vis the Palestinian case and the extent of the support they offer

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

anthem. All this shall be decided upon in accordance with special regulation.

ARTICLE 32: Regulations, which shall be known as the Constitution of the

Palestine Liberation Organization, shall be annexed to this Charter. It shall

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 obligations 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.

(Approved by a decision of the National Congress of the Palestine Liberation

Organization held in Cairo, Egypt from July 1 to July 17, 1968.)