A Draft Charter for the PLO

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The Liberation Organization has been without a charter since 1996, and those running it foolishly demand adherence to its decisions. On what basis do they ask people to comply, when the people have no document before them setting out its goals, principles, mechanisms, and strategy? Whoever wants the people’s endorsement must give the people something to endorse.

There is now talk of forming a new Palestinian National Council. On what basis will the new Council be built? Building cannot proceed without a foundation, and the foundation for building a national council must be spelled out clearly in a charter or constitution that those running the Organization publish to the people, so that the people can decide whether or not they accept it.

Of course, the Palestinian National Council wrongfully annulled the Palestinian National Charter to satisfy the wishes of Israel and America. The National Council, which was supposed to protect and safeguard the Charter, sold it for a pittance and in a farcical manner before the American president. And instead of the National Council voiding the Oslo Accord for contravening the Charter, it annulled the Charter itself. This is a shameful farce in Palestinian history.

I present here a draft of a Palestinian charter of liberation. I have removed the word “National” in favor of “Liberation,” to underscore the Palestinian people’s insistence on liberating their homeland.

Article One: Palestine, whose area is approximately 27,000 square kilometers, is Arab. It is an inseparable part of the land of Greater Syria, and an inseparable part of the greater Arab homeland stretching from the Ocean to the Gulf.

Article Two: Palestine is the cradle and homeland of the Arab Palestinians. They are the ones who built civilization on it, raised its cities and villages, brought its land to life, and shed pure blood in defense of its sanctity and inviolability. The Palestinians are its owners, its people, and its inhabitants who have not left it across the centuries. It is the land of Arabs and Muslims; its soil is their soil, and its holy sites are their holy sites.

Article Three: Anything that diminishes the unity of Palestinian land is rejected; its integrity is not subject to bargaining, and its Arab Palestinian identity is not a matter for negotiation.

Article Four: All international and Arab resolutions that diminish Palestinian rights and the unity of the land of Palestine and Greater Syria are unacceptable and can never be submitted to, however much time passes. Specifically, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the mandate instruments over the lands of Greater Syria, and all the United Nations resolutions on partition and the recognition of Israel that followed, as well as the Arab Peace Initiative, are unacceptable and cannot be recognized.

Article Five: The agreements reached by the Palestine Liberation Organization with Israel are illegitimate and are considered null and void.

Article Six: The Palestinian people, and the Arab and Muslim peoples that support them, have the right to undertake whatever activities, measures, and approaches serve to liberate Palestine. The Palestinian people form the spearhead of the struggle and jihad for the liberation of Palestine, but responsibility also falls on the Arab and Muslim peoples, particularly those of Greater Syria.

Article Seven: The Palestinian people have a religious, national, historical, and patriotic claim upon the Arab and Muslim peoples, and their standing beside the Palestinian people is neither charity nor favor, but a religious, national, historical, and patriotic duty.

Article Eight: It is hoped that the unity of the Palestinian people will be embodied on the land of Palestine, and until that is achieved, Palestinian cultural, educational, and pedagogical programs shall be developed to unify the Palestinian people culturally. Cultural unity reduces the effect of geographic distance and diaspora. The goal of cultural unity is to gather Palestinians under a single banner, according to unified goals, visions, and aspirations. The Palestinian factions must respect the unity of the Palestinian people in all their activities.

Article Nine: If talks in search of a solution to the Palestinian cause must take place, they must begin first with arrangements for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties in the land occupied in 1948. Whoever rejects the return of Palestinian refugees is, in effect, rejecting peace and seeking war.

Article Ten: There are two Palestinian constants that cannot be bypassed: the right of return and the right to self-determination. The establishment of a state is a matter that falls under the right to self-determination. The return of the refugees includes compensating them for all the pain and grief that has befallen them over the years, and granting them a period of thirty years to complete their return.

Article Eleven: The camp of friends includes every state, organization, association, and individual that provides support, in one form or another, to the Palestinian people to help them liberate their homeland. The camp of enemies includes Israel and all those who have supported and continue to support its establishment and strengthening, and who have contributed to the expulsion and weakening of the Palestinians. Britain is the criminal state responsible for all this grief and pain inflicted on the Palestinian people, and it must be boycotted and made to atone for the crimes it committed, by compensating the Palestinians and supporting them militarily and in matters of security to confront Israel and liberate their homeland.

Article Twelve: A Palestinian security doctrine and a fighting creed shall be developed, to which the fighting Palestinian factions shall adhere, and a joint operations room shall also be formed to oversee Palestinian military and security actions aimed at resisting the occupation and liberating the homeland.

Article Thirteen: Weapons are to be carried solely to defend Palestinian citizens and to liberate the homeland. Arms dealers operating under occupation, and those licensed to carry weapons by the occupation, are to be viewed with suspicion and national condemnation.

Article Fourteen: Weapons carry an ethic that must be upheld. Anyone who takes up arms to spread chaos or to threaten others for personal gain shall have measures taken against them in accordance with the revolutionary law of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Any weapon used outside national goals, or used against Palestinians or Arabs, is a suspect weapon serving the interests of Israel and its friends.

Article Fifteen: Cultural programs must be developed so that national culture, and the culture of sacrifice and self-giving, become the culture of the Palestinian people. This culture must prevail over the culture of consumerism, and lofty, noble ethics must prevail over the ethics of private interest that give no weight to the public good.

Article Sixteen: Self-reliance is a fundamental basis of Palestinian politics. What is required is reduced consumption, cultivation of the land, boycotting Israeli goods wherever possible, and halting the import of goods and services that can be provided domestically. Economically, the Jordanian dinar and the Egyptian pound should be used in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The purchase of Israeli goods that can be dispensed with, or for which a Palestinian or Arab alternative exists, must be criminalized. A list of goods and services that should not be purchased from Israelis needs to be drawn up.

Article Seventeen: Education is given special attention, because nations advance only through knowledge and achieve their goals only through knowledge. Teaching methods in our schools must be changed, our universities must be turned into places that graduate scholars, and our educational programs must be required to advance scientific thinking and elevate the analytical capacities of young men and women.

Article Eighteen: Generations must be raised on the values of collective work, mutual cooperation, and mutual respect. The decline in ethical standards can be resisted only by a new school of ethics applied across the various levels of public work, and every official must be a model of ethical conduct.

Article Eighteen [sic]: The Palestinian factions must respect Palestinian goals and Palestinian blood. Any faction that uses weapons for its own private purposes is to be nationally condemned. The mere raising of Palestinian arms against a Palestinian is to be counted as a national betrayal, punishable under the revolutionary law of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Article Nineteen: A constitutional or charter court shall be established to oversee the application of this charter, and to try any persons or bodies that may fail to comply with its provisions.

Article Nineteen [sic]: Preserving national unity is the foremost Palestinian priority, and any political, social, or economic step that would diminish this priority must be abandoned in favor of national unity.

Article Twenty: Care must be taken to cultivate in Palestinians a sense of strength, pride, and dignity, so that they may free themselves of feelings of weakness and self-defeat. Those who are defeated within cannot achieve liberation, and safeguarding the Palestinian’s freedom is decisive to their determination to achieve liberation.

Article Twenty-One: We must always be attentive to production, for whoever relies on others for their daily bread will know nothing but poverty and humiliation.

Article Twenty-Two: Palestinians support every party, faction, organization, or state that devotes its efforts to fighting Israel and freeing Palestinians from the injustice they suffer. We stand with resistance, and any harm done to Arab, Islamic, or global resistance directed against Israel is harm done to the Palestinian people, to their rights, and to Palestinian resistance itself.

Article Twenty-Three: The Palestine Liberation Organization does not interfere in the internal affairs of Arab states, but it is keen to draw Arab support for the Palestinian people. Yet the Palestinian people will not stand as mere spectators before any foreign invasion or external dangers threatening any Arab state. The Arab peoples are our reserve, and we are theirs.

Article Twenty-Four: Normalization with Israel and its recognition are rejected, and any act of normalization is considered a national betrayal punishable under the revolutionary law of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Recognizing and normalizing with Israel also constitutes a major obstacle to establishing good relations with Arab countries.

Article Twenty-Five: The fixed Palestinian rights, as well as the unity of the Palestinian people and Palestinian land, are not subject to referendum.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “مسودة ميثاق لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.