The Palestinian National Charter

Below are Articles from the Palestinian National Covenant, the official charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) , drafted and approved in 1968. Following the excerpts, are additional resource links.

Note: In the articles below, the use of Zionism is a common Arabic euphemism for the State of Israel, so sentences including the of this word or phrase, is in fact a call for the destruction of Israel, not just the end of Zionism. To read the complete Charter document, click here.

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 6: The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.

Article 8: "...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...

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...

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....to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland."

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 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 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.
Additional links below provide further information on the original charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its public statements regarding Israel and the Jewish people:

The PLO: Background Briefing An "assembling documents and information about the Palestine Liberation Organization and other terrorist groups ," provided by Information Regarding Israel's Security (IRIS), an independent organization dedicated to informing the public about the security needs of the State of Israel, especially vis-a-vis the current peace process. To visit the website, click here.

PLO Covenant: Alive and Snarling : "The new, official version makes the PLO's goal crystal clear..." 24 March 1995. To read this article, click here.

The following article compares Palestinian Authority school books with the Palestinian National Covenant.

"Article 22 (of the Palestinian National Covenant states): It [Israel] is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist colonialist in its aim....a base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation...the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence..."

"A Palestinian Authority Schoolbook states: "Racism: mankind has suffered from this evil both in ancient as well as in modern times, for, indeed, Satan has, in the eyes of many people, made their evil actions appear beautiful...Such a people are the Jews..."
[Islamic Education for Eighth Grade p.95]"

To read the complete article, click here.

The Middle East 1916 - 2001 : A Documentary Record An exhaustive record of Middle East documents provided by The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School. To visit the website, click here.