amended its 1964 charter to redouble the emphasis on “armed struggle” as “the only
way to liberate Palestine” from Israel. Other parts of the charter denounced Zionism
as “illegitimate” and promised to eliminate it—and thus Israel—from the Middle East.
Arafat succeeded Shuqary as chairman of the PLO in 1969 and remained the preem-
inent Palestinian leader until his death in late 2004.
In 1988 the PLO conceded the reality of Israel’s existence, acknowledged that any
Palestinian state would be limited to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and officially
renounced violence. In a September 9, 1993, letter to Israeli prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin, Arafat pledged, “the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant
which deny Israel’s right to exist, and the provisions of the Covenant which are incon-
sistent with the commitments of this letter are now inoperative and no longer valid.
Consequently, the PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council for
formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant.” Three
years later, the PNC followed through, voting to amend the national charter to elim-
inate references to “armed struggle” and the destruction of Israel. Despite that vote,
language remained in official PLO copies of the charter until December 1998, when
the council voted again to remove it, this time in the presence of U.S. president Bill
Clinton. Even so, members of the PLO continued to use violence against Israel,
notably during the al-Aqsa intifada, the second uprising against Israeli occupation fol-
lowing the failure of the negotiations at Camp David in July 2000 (Declaration of
Principles, p. 220).
Following is the text of the Palestinian National Charter, as adopted July 1–17, 1968,
during a meeting of the Palestine National Council. The council agreed in 1996 to
amend or repeal articles 8 through 10, 15, and 19 through 23 (in italics)—key pro-
visions dealing with Israel—and reaffirmed the decision to do so in 1998.DOCUMENT
Palestinian National Charter
JULY1–17, 1968Article 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 indi-
visible 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 coun-
try 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
170 ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS