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This is the original Charter that created the PLO, it is not the charter of the current Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Covenant
The Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization - (PLO)
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.