Christopher’s letter mentions the English version of the PNC resolution on the covenant, and emphasizes what the United States sees as the two key elements: the PNC statement that it had canceled articles contrary to the letters exchanged by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1993, and had assigned its legal committee the task of preparing a new covenant for council approval.
Besides Helms, 17 other senators demanded that Christopher give clarifications on the PNC decision. They warned that if they were not convinced that the covenant had indeed been changed, they would hold up aid to the PLO.
Christopher said that according to his understanding, the PLO had lived up to its Oslo commitment and to the U.S. requirements for the Palestinian Authority to receive $100 million in annual aid.
Up to now the PLO had not lived up to its Oslo commitment.
On 24 April 1996, three years after the Oslo agreement, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) convened in Gaza and adopted a resolution concerning the Covenant by a vote of 504 to 54 with 14 abstentions. Translated from the
Arabic, the text of the resolution read as follows:
“It has been decided upon:
1. Amending the National Charter by cancelling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the PLO and the Government of Israel, on 9 and 10 September 1993.
2. The empowerment of a legal committee with the task of redrafting the National Charter.
The Charter will be presented to the first meeting of the Central Council.”
Article 33 of the Covenant (= Natioanl Charter) states that the only body empowered to change the document is
the Palestinian National Covenant (PNC) and that such changes must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the PNC in a special session.
Thus, Chairman Arafat’s letters on the subject to world leaders, like President Clinton or Prime Minister Blair, were insufficient.
Under the procedure outlined by the Covenant itself, Chairman Arafat’s letters have no legal bearing on the text of the document. Therefore, the PLOs obligation to convene the PNC in order to amend the Covenant remained unfulfilled in 1996 – and is unfulfilled up to now.
On 24 April 1996 the PNC only declared its readiness in principle to change the document but never realized the change.. The only practical step taken was the empowerment of a legal committee to draft a new Covenant for presentation at a future date.
Since the Covenant is a legally binding document, declaring a willingness to alter it does not amount to amending it. No changes were adopted and implemented by the PNC, nor was there any specific mention of articles to be amended. As yet the Legal Committee of the PLO has not presented a draft with the amended articles. No
revision had been made.
At the time of the vote, senior PLO officials acknowledged that the Covenant had not been changed. PLO Executive Committee member Sakhr Habash said, “the text of the charter remains as it is since it has not been amended yet. Therefore, it is frozen, not cancelled.” (An-Nahar, 5 May 1996). An internal report published shortly after the PNC vote by the Research and Thought Department of the Fatah Organization (Fatah Publication Number 8, Nissan 1996) contained a similar determination. The report stated, “The text of the Palestinian National Covenant remains as it was and no changes whatsoever [emphasis added] were made to it. This has caused it to be frozen, but not annulled”.
The Palestinian Observer Mission to the UN up to 2014 published at its UN Site the full text of the PLO Covenant in the wording of 1968 titled “Palestine National Charter”. This publication has been withdrawn without any information on the withdrawal.
It is supposedly the decisiion of Yassir Arafat, former PLO Chairman, and Mahmud Abbas, actual PLO Chairman, not to allow the legal committee to draft a new Covenant for presentation at a future date.
Anyway, the amending of the National Charter PLO Covenant by cancelling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the PLO and the Government of Israel, on 9 and 10 September 1993 has up to now not been realized.
Up to now (2017) the PLO has not lived up to its Oslo commitment – contrary to what at the time of the PNC decision 1996 the Secretary of State believed.
On 24 April 1996, three years after the Oslo agreement, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) convened in Gaza and adopted a resolution concerning the Covenant by a vote of 504 to 54 with 14 abstentions. Translated from the Arabic,the text of the resolution read as follows:
“It has been decided upon:
1. Amending the National Charter by cancelling the articles that are contrary to the letters
exchanged between the PLO and the Government of Israel, on 9 and 10 September 1993.
2. The empowerment of a legal committee with the task of redrafting the National Charter.
The Charter will be presented to the first meeting of the Central Council.”
No legal committee ever redrafted a National Charter. The “first meeting of the Central Council” never häppened.
No efford was made to meet the requirements of Article 33 of the Covenant (= Natioanl Charter). Artickle 33 states that the only body empowered to change the document is the NC ( national council of the Palestine Liberation Organization) and that such changes must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the NC in a special session.
Thus, Chairman Arafat’s letters on the subject to world leaders, like President Clinton or Prime Minister Blair, were insufficient.
Under the procedure outlined by the Covenant itself, Chairman Arafat’s letters have no legal bearing on the text of the document. Therefore, the PLO’s obligation to convene the PNC in order to amend the Covenant remained unfulfilled in 1996 – and is unfulfilled up to now.
On 24 April 1996 the PNC only declared its readiness in principle to change the document but never realized the change.. The only practical step taken was the empowerment of a legal committee to draft a new Covenant for presentation at a future date.
Since the Covenant is a legally binding document, declaring a willingness to alter it does not amount to amending it. No changes were adopted and implemented by the PNC, nor was there any specific mention of articles to be amended. As yet the Legal Committee of the PLO has not presented a draft with the amended articles. No revision had been made.
At the time of the vote, senior PLO officials acknowledged that the Covenant had not been changed. PLO Executive Committee member Sakhr Habash said, “the text of the charter remains as it is since it has not been amended yet. Therefore, it is frozen, not cancelled.” (An-Nahar, 5 May 1996). An internal report published shortly after the PNC vote by the Research and Thought Department of the Fatah Organization (Fatah Publication Number 8, Nissan 1996) contained a similar determination. The report stated, “The text of the Palestinian National Covenant remains as it was and no changes whatsoever [emphasis added] were made to it. This has caused it to be frozen, but not annulled”.
The Palestinian Observer Mission to the UN up to 2014 published at its UN Site the full text of the PLO Covenant in the wording of 1968 titled “Palestine National Charter”. Meanwhile the Palestine National Charter disappeared on the official Site of the Palestinian Observer Mission to the UN, but has not been annulled.
The decision of the PLO not to allow the legal committee to draft a new Covenant for presentation at a future date is supposedly backed by Yassir Arafat, former PLO Chairman, as well as Mahmud Abbas, actual PLO Chairman.
Anyway, the amending of the National Charter (PLO Covenant) by cancelling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the PLO and the Government of Israel, on 9 and 10 September 1993 has up to now not been realized. For what reason so ever.
“The text of the charter remains as it is” – PNC didn’t keep promise indeed.
What about the PLO-project of th elimination of Israel?
Do Palestinian officials still confess, that “the liberation of Palestine,
from an Arab viewpoint, is a national duty to repulse the Zionist invasion
from the great Arab homeland” and that “liberation of Palestine will
liquidate the Zionist and imperialist presence in Palestine”?
Can this kind of promisses pave the way to peace?
In 1993 in Oslo Yassir Arafat promised Yitzhak Rabin the amendment of the PLO Covenant. The articles concerning the elimination of Israel were to be cancelled.
In 1996 the Palestinian National Council (PNC) convened for the first time to decide on this matter. Did the PNC then keep the promise of Yassir Arafat?
On 24 April 1996, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) convened in Gaza and adopted a resolution concerning the Covenant (Palestine National Charter) by a vote of 504 to 54 with 14 abstentions. Translated from the Arabic, the text of the resolution read as follows:
“It has been decided upon:
1. Amending the National Charter by cancelling the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between the PLO and the Government of Israel, on 9 and 10 September 1993.
2. The empowerment of a legal committee with the task of redrafting the National Charter. The Charter will be presented to the first meeting of the Central Council.”
In the time following no legal committee has ever redrafted the National Charter. And the PNC has not been presented a redrafted Charter to decide upon yet.
Did Yassir Arafat promise to amend the Charter (PLO Covenant) although he wasn’t decided to keep this promise?
The palestinian treatment of this item suggests this questiion.
The full text of the unchanged charter/covenant from 1968 is to be read here, presented by Israeli FM (the translation from Arabic into English has been done by the PLO):
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/mfadocuments/yearbook1/pages/33%20the%20palestinian%20national%20covenant-%20july%201968.aspx
… or here, presented by Yale Law School:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp
… or here, presented by “Palästinensische Mission – Die Diplomatische Vertretung Palästinas in Deutschland” [ http://palaestina.org/index.php?id=140 ]:
http://palaestina.org/uploads/media/palaestinensische_nationalcharta.pdf
Palestinian officials no longer present the charter an an UN website (they did until 2014 at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Palestine Authority to the United Nations).
But Palestinian officials still regard the charter as a valid constitutional document.
Actually the charter is officcially mentiioned [but not quoted in full text] by the “Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations” http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/palestine-liberation-organization/ in the text that read as follows:
“Palestine Liberation Organization
…
Structure of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine National Council
The PNC, which is the highest decision-making body of the PLO, is considered to be the parliament of all Palestinians inside and outside of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem. The PNC normally sets PLO policies, elects the Executive Committee and makes the necessary changes in its own membership, as well as changes to the Palestine National Charter (a special meeting is required) and to the Fundamental Law of the organization. The PNC also elects a speaker, two deputies and a secretary, who make up the Bureau of the Council. The Council has its own standing committees for various aspects of its work, such as its legal and political committees. The composition of the PNC represents all sectors of the Palestinian community worldwide and includes numerous organizations of the resistance movement, political parties, popular organizations (each of the above is represented by specific quotas) and independent personalities and figures from all sectors of life, including intellectuals, religious leaders and businessmen.”
And, as has been mentioned above, the Palestinian Mission (the diplomatic representation) in Germany officially shows a full text german translation of the 1968 version of the charter. That shows that the Palestinian officials consider the Charter/Covenant in the wording of 1968 a valid constitutional document for the State of Palestine.
What we should know if we listen PLO talking on “Palestine”: they talk about the whole territory of historic Palestine.
The location of historic Palestine is at the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Lebanon and west of Jordan. This historic territory of Palestine includes the whole actual State of Israel in the boundaries of 1967.
Geographically: Palestine in 6 maps: the first map outlines historic Palestine all in yellow. The following 5 maps show all changes thereafter up to now:
http://dmop.pt/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/israel-palestine_map_19225_2469.jpg