THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL CHARTER

                     THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL CHARTER *:
               Resolutions of the Palestine National Council

                              July 1-17, 1968


Text of the 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.

(Text as published by the PLO)