the war on gaza, the “cease-fire,” and the fight to lift the...

DIALOGUE No. 36 (SEPTEMBER 2014) PRICE: 4 € / $5 / £3

The War on Gaza, the“Cease-fire,” and the Fight to

Lift the Blockade

Handala Will Soon Be Able to Turn Around! by Jacques Werstein

Testimony of a Palestinian Activist in the 1948 Territo-ries • Appeal of Arab Workers Union • Interview withProfessor Haim Bresheeth, Initiator of the “Open Let-ter to Israeli Academics” • More Than 350 Survivorsand Descendents of Nazi Genocide Condemn theMassacre of Palestinians in Gaza • “But Is It Goodfor the Jews?” by Lawrence Davidson

HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS• The Palestinian Revolution and the Jews (May 1970)• The PLO Charter of 1964• The PLO Charter of 1968

Dialogue Review No. 36 page i

Dialogue Review No. 36 page ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Presentation — by Dialogue Review page 1

Interview with a Palestinian Activist in the page 31948 Territories at the Onset of Israeli Offensive

Arab Workers Union Appeal to Labour Unions and page 5Civil Society Organisations (based in Nazareth)

Interview with Professor Haim Bresheeth, page 8Initiator of the “Open Letter to Israeli Academics,” on the Current Situation in Palestine and the Israeli Society

More Than 350 Survivors and Descendents of page 12Nazi Genocide Condemn the Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza

“But Is It Good for the Jews?” page 13by Lawrence Davidson

Handala Will Soon Be Able to Turn Around! page 16by Jacques Werstein

DOCUMENT: The Palestinian Revolution page 18and the Jews — Published in Beirut in May 1970 in Fateh newspaper

DOCUMENT: The Palestinian National Charter page 24adopted in by the First Palestinian Conference (Jerusalem, 2 June 1964)

DOCUMENT: PLO Charter of 1968 page 27(adopted by the Palestine National Council in Cairo on 17 July 1968)

Dialogue Review No. 36 page iii

This issue of Dialogue presents several docu-ments published during the recent Israeli of-fensive against the population of the GazaStrip.

The facts have been widely publicised: 2,150people killed, 80% of them civilians, amongwhom 500 children; housing districts razed tothe ground; tens of families blown to death intheir homes by guided missiles. The totalreckoning amounts to 20,000 people injured,many of whom will remain disabled for life,and 30% of the population has been dis-placed. The photos recall the bombings at theend of World War II. 134 factories have beendestroyed, schools, hospitals have been de-stroyed, and practically the entire drinkingwater distribution system is now unusable.People worldwide, as well as significant layersof the Jewish population, have been shockedby this barbaric act and the relentless shellingand bombing widely shown in the media andsupported by the major powers.

Making use of the historical sufferings of Jewsto justify the policies of Israel and, conse-quently, the crimes against the Palestinianpeople is increasingly being publicly disap-proved of. This is what the 350 survivors anddescendants of victims of Nazi exterminationcamps have stated in a very dignified way. Weare publishing their appeal in this issue.Something is changing.

Meanwhile, in the increasingly poorer andmore violent Israeli society, contradictions aremounting to an explosive dimension betweenthose who, in a vague and undefined waywould like to imagine a peaceful future andthose who demand the extermination of thePalestinians. The army is dominated by funda-mentalist commanding staff bred in the WestBank settlements. Intolerance and hatred are

growing to unheard-of proportions amongsome layers of the Jewish population.Meanwhile, three weeks after the end of theaggression called “Protective Edge” an opin-ion rating presented on the Israeli second TVchannel showed that one third of the Israeliswere considering emigrating from Israel.

In spite of its military power and destructivecapacity, the State of Israel has never been soweak. Its claim to stand for democratic valueshas been rejected by wide sections of theJewish people world wide.

Something is changing, as is illustrated by theletter countersigned by 43 Israeli veterans ofthe 8200 unit specialising in mass spying onpopulations. Such a group initiative stemmingfrom a “prestigious” unit of the Israeli army isunprecedented. These intelligence specialistsdeclare they “refuse to continue serving astools in deepening the military control over theOccupied Territories”. They confirm that “Mil-lions of Palestinians have been living under Is-raeli military rule for over 47 years. Thisregime denies the basic rights and expropri-ates extensive tracts of land for Jewish settle-ments subject to separate and different legalsystems, jurisdiction and law enforcement.This reality is not an inevitable result of thestate’s efforts to protect itself but rather the re-sult of choice. Settlement expansion has noth-ing to do with national security. The samegoes for restrictions on construction and de-velopment, economic exploitation of the WestBank, collective punishment of inhabitants ofthe Gaza Strip, and the actual route of theseparation barrier.

Palestinian people imprisoned behind wallsand barbed wire and a military blockade aresubjected to jail-like surveillance of their everymove with constant inside oppression. Impris-

Dialogue Review No. 36 page 1

Presentation

By Dialogue Review

oned, put under control for 47 years for some,and for over 66 years for the Palestinians in-side Israel.

In the State of Israel, some advocate massiveexpulsions and deepening control and impris-onment of the Palestinian population. Ne-tanyahu demands that Palestinians recognise“Israel as the Jewish State” as a pre-conditionfor any negotiation. Writers and officials worrythat the two state solution should be put asideas it would imperil the future of the HebrewState. But what is the two state solution if notthe continued imprisonment of all the compo-nents of the Palestinian people?

How could a territorial entity, derisively calledthe “Palestinian State”, co-existing alongside adominant and ultra-powerful State of Israel, beanything but a rump State deprived of the pre-rogatives of any other State? The PalestinianState proposed by the major powers is noth-ing more than a revamping of a largely re-jected Palestinian Authority. Could it beotherwise?

Can “just and lasting peace” exist in theframework of continued partition of Palestineand rejection of the refugees’ right to return?What would be the fate of the refugees in thecountries they are living in if a so-called“Palestinian State” should be created? Wouldthey be forcibly naturalised? Does this notopen the way to new expulsions, new mas-sacres?

After 50 days of unrestrained brutality, govern-ments the world over have called a ceasefireand then turned their eyes again to Iraq andSyria. The state of Israel continues its repres-sive agenda just as after every ceasefire. Inpractise, “ceasefire” puts aggressors and theirvictims on the same level and only results inthe continued siege of the Gaza Strip. The Is-raeli military blockade (Egyptian in the south)is still on. It prevents any reconstruction, for-bids people from moving, strangles the peopleof Gaza and makes already dire living condi-tions still worse. Unconditional lifting of theblockade is a democratic demand.

Unconditional lifting of the blockade is a democratic demand.

The crises in “Israeli society” and among itstraditional sponsors, the affirmation of theunity of the Palestinian people are major ele-ments in the present situation. Activists,groups or even whole populations who affirmtheir right to live, their refusal of barbarism areseeking solutions. Can they be offered an-other answer to their democratic aspirationsoutside the institution of equal rights through-out the territory of historical Palestine? Feed-ing the reflection and debate between workerand democratic activists on the solution to thissituation is the objective of Dialogue Review.

— The Editors


• Can you please introduce yourself?

I’m a Palestinian political activist born andraised in the 1948 Territories (known by the in-ternational community as Israel).

• In the ‘48 Territories, and especially inGalilee in the North of Israel, there aredaily clashes between the Palestinian pop-ulation — particularly the youth — and theforces of repression of the Zionist State.

Yes, and as your readers certainly know themain reason of the clashes between thePalestinian people and the Israeli police is thebrutal murder of Muhammed Abu Khdeir (whowas 16 years old) from Jerusalem. But whatshould be understood is that this assassina-tion was the spark that set the fire in a politicalsituation marked by the racism and the eco-nomic and social gap between the Israelis andthe Palestinians. These are the reasons whythe clashes have taken place.

At the same time, the collective punishment ofthe Palestinian people was no surprise. This ishow Israeli policy is made. We have seen thiscollective punishment in the West Bank andnow in Gaza.

• Are you saying that it is the Palestinianpeople as such, wherever they live, whoare being targeted? Are you saying that itis the very existence of the Palestinianpeople which is at stake?

Absolutely. It’s also important to point that theclashes in the ‘48 Territories started before the

ones in the West Bank. And it should be notedthat those who got arrested in the last weeksare the same ones who got released in theShalit deal in 2011. It shows that nobody wasrandomly arrested and that “the list was pre-pared in advance,” as a friend from Ramallahtold me.

• How did that movement that started in theWest Bank spread to the ‘48 Territories?How does the population get organized?

What happened and is still happening in the‘48 Territories is that some movements organ-ized protests in solidarity with the clashingpeople in Jerusalem Those protests in differ-ent villages and cities ended up blocking themain roads in Israel. The Israeli police wascalled in. They invaded those cities and vil-lages and clashed with the protesters. Most ofthe people who are joining the clashes areyouth, but most of them are not “politicized”and are not activists in general. The protestsare being organized by independent politicalmovements. But when the clashes start, thepeople themselves are the leaders.

In the ‘48 Territories, popular committees havebeen established. They aim to protect the vil-lages and the cities from suspected attacks.Those committees consist of youth and peo-ple who are volunteering to stay up the wholenight in the main entrances of their cities andvillages.

Such activities are reminiscent of the First In-tifada.


Interview with a Palestinian Activist in the 1948 Territoriesat the Onset of Israeli Offensive

“We in the 1948 Territories ShowOur Full Support and Solidarity

with Our People in Gaza”

• Where did the main clashes take place?

-In Nazareth, Um Al-Fahm, Acre, Jaffa,Arraba, Sakhnin, Tamra, Shefa’amr and inmany other places.

• What about the victims?

First there were 115 arrests. At least 40 to 50of them were minors. Later, the number roseto 200; several people were arrested in theirhomes during night raids. It’s important topoint that this is the biggest wave of arrests inthe ‘48 borders since the Second Intifada in2000.

As I already said, the policy of Israel is collec-tive punishment. Just to give you one exam-ple: Yesterday, two Palestinian workers pulled

over to fix their car near Haifa. An Israeli set-tler ran over them with his car and killed two ofthem. One of them was from Tulkarem (WestBank), the other was from Jaffa (‘48 border).

And now it is the Gaza population that is beingmassacred. We, the people and the move-ments in the ‘48 Territories, show our full sup-port and solidarity with our people in Gaza,who are daily suffering from siege and bomb-ing. Launching campaigns and protesting isthe minimum we can do. We also call uponour comrades in Europe to launch campaignsand raise awareness about what’s going on inGaza, and to put pressure on their countriesto stop supporting the occupation.

— Interview conducted byJean-Pierre Barrois on July 11, 201


Stop the terrorist war on Gaza!Stop the sacking of Arabworkers for showing their

solidarity with the people ofGaza!

The Arab Workers Union of Nazareth calls onall civil society organisations and all progres-sive international trade unions throughout theworld to openly take a clear position con-demning the barbarous terrorist attacks car-ried out by the Israeli occupying forces againstthe population of the town of Gaza, therefugee camps, and throughout the GazaStrip.

This area is the scene of murders on a dailybasis, targeting hundreds of children, men andwomen. The most recent of these took placein the Shuyayia neighbourhood and the townof Khan Yunis. The trade union calls on the in-ternational organisations, as well as on all pro-gressive forces, political parties and tradeunions, to demonstrate and strengthen theirprotests and solidarity with the civilians ofGaza, who are undergoing extermination.On another level, the Arab Workers Union ofthe town of Nazareth has urged the progres-sive forces, trade unions and political partiesto condemn every kind of racial discriminationsuffered by the Palestinian workers (who haveIsraeli nationality), especially after several Is-raeli employers had sacked dozens of Arabworkers because of their solidarity with theirbrothers in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, sev-eral Israeli workplaces have banned their em-ployees from speaking Arabic to each other.

It should be noted that for more than a monthnow, all of the towns and villages of Galilee,the Negev region and Nazareth have wit-nessed big demonstrations by the people fol-lowing the murder by burning alive of the childMohammed Abu Khdair, born in Jerusalem,and also in solidarity with the people of Gaza.These popular demonstrations saw violentclashes between the demonstrators and thearmy and police forces, which resorted to re-pression in order to disperse the angrycrowds. We should emphasise that the num-ber of people detained in the 1948 zones isnow over 150.

We urge all the revolutionary forces, partiesand trade unions throughout the world to ex-press their solidarity and demonstrate againstthe murders being committed by Israel inGaza.

We invite all trade union comrades and friendsto condemn every kind of racial discriminationagainst Arab workers in Israel and also to con-demn the repression carried out by the Israelipolice against the Palestinian demonstratorsin the 1948 zones.

Endnote

[*] The International Trade Union Committeein support of Palestinian working men andwomen was set up in December 2006 in Al-giers, by trade unionists from 23 countrieswho participated in an international confer-ence in support of Palestinian Arab workers ofNazareth being subjected to the WisconsinPlan.


Arab Workers UnionAppeal to Labour Unions and

Civil Society Organisations

(Nazareth, 20 July 2014)

• Why did the Zionists decide to attackGaza now?

You know, it is not the first time that the ZionistForces attack Gaza. They have been doingthis regularly from time to time. Not only in2009 and in 2012, but even before Hamaswas founded, in both 1967 and 1956. How-ever, now the Zionist movement is by far moreaggressive than ever before. They bombardhomes and demolish buildings to attack andkill the people who are living inside, and thisway many families have been completelywiped out.

The Zionist are making use of Hamas as apretext to their war, claiming that it against ter-rorism they fight, however the true aim for thisbarbarian and destructive attack has - frommy point of view - the following perspectives:

1 – To affirm the division between Gaza stripand the West Bank geographically and politi-cally.

2 – To test the reaction of the new regime inEgypt, and whether it still continues and medi-ates as before, or if it has changed?

3 – To check what new weapons and re-sources the Palestinian resistance is in pos-session of.

In addition to this, the Zionists were very anx-ious about the mass demonstrations andstrikes, in Al-Khalil, Jerusalem and 48 area, tocome to a halt and not develop into a third in-tifada. And we noticed that this possibility tookanother direction, and turned into solidaritywith Gaza and supporting the fight there, in-stead of leading and organizing an intifada in

all of the historic area of Palestine (WestBank, Gaza, 48 area)

What is the situation in Gaza exactly?

What the Zionists are surprised by is theamount and degree of weapons that thePalestinian Factions are in possession of. It isnot easy for the Israelis to continue, they aredarkening their casualties, and placing themedia under strong control, not permittingthem to publish anything.

The Palestinian situation is stronger than ex-pected, and this is why the Palestinians dareto put forward their conditions to a cease fire,and not like before when the enemy was at-tacking and other countries (mainly Egypt)were mediating on primarily on the terms of Is-rael. Now the Zionists put forward their condi-tions for a ceasefire, but so does thePalestinians. Now the Israelis can attack, butso can the Palestinians. The situation haschanged, and it is not like before when thePalestinians were just crying and asking forhelp.

In the end of this war the siege will be raised,many prisoners will be released, and a newbalance of force will be established. And so,the Zionists will think it over a thousand timesbefore attacking Gaza once again.

What about the International reaction?

At the governmental level, mainly USA andEurope, the situation is incredibly bad, asusual, as these imperialists, who helped es-tablishing Israel and since then sustain it,have taken the side of Israel once again.


Interview with Salah Salah(Member of the Palestinian National

Council in charge of the Right of Return)

However, as for the people of the internationalsociety, the situation has changed. I appreci-ate that large demonstrations, strikes, massmovements, actions for the solidarity with thePalestinians and rejections of the (Israeli)massacres have taken place all over theworld. This means that the Public opinion isbeginning to realize the reality of the Zionistracist regime (Israel).

The Solution?

The solution to a cease fire is: That the Zionistattacks are brought to an end, that the siegewill be raised, that the prisoners be released,and that the demolished houses and infra-structure will be reconstructed. And finally isthe solution, to reconsider the convention ofPLO, mainly the paragraph which talks aboutone Palestine Democratic state, with one citi-zenship, where the refugees can return totheir homeland, and where there is no distinc-

tion between religion, race, color or any otherdifferences we might have as people. So wecan put an end to war, live all together, inpeace, and guarantee a bright future for ourchildren.

Mahmoud Abbas?

As he is the president of the Palestinians(PLO Authority State), he should be con-cerned about the Palestinians. From his longexperience of negotiations he should reach tothe conclusion that Israel does not want peaceand that they will not agree to the Palestiniansgaining their independent state. He musttherefore stop this and turn to other options,starting from the first step: To hold a meetingfor all the Palestinian Factions and discuss allthe possible alternatives, reaching to a newstrategy to face the Zionist one.

— Interview conducted on July 24, 2014


[Note: Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmstudies scholar, filmmaker and photographer,based at SOAS University of London, UK. Hewas born in a DP camp in Italy after WorldWar II to two survivors of Auschwitz, and emi-grated to Israel with his parents in 1948,where he grew up in Jaffa. He served in theIsraeli Army as a Lieutenant between 1964and 1967. He left Israel for London in 1972.]

DIALOGUE: As a new and brutal Israeli offen-sive is hitting the civilian population of theGaza Strip, we are once again seeing practi-cally all countries, as well as the media, un-conditionally supporting the so-called “right ofIsrael to defend itself”. In this context, youhave taken the initiative of addressing anopen letter to Israeli academics. As an aca-demic yourself, of Israeli origin, can you ex-plain your initiative to us, its impact?

HB: You are totally right. The western support-ers of Israel — the US, UK, the EU, Canada,Australia — are well beyond listening to argu-ments on human rights, illegal occupation,settlements or war crimes. They have sup-ported Israel as part of their strategy of con-fronting the Arab and Muslim world, and ofcontrolling the Middle East. They are alsodriven by the guilt feelings over the Holocaust,which are periodically stirred and abused byIsraeli propaganda. To read the Israeli voices,one would get a very interesting picture: Israelis under attack. It is in mortal danger fromHamas rockets, Israel only wants peace, butthe Palestinians only want to destroy it, etc.Netanyahu has spoken of “millions under themissile threat in Israel”. You would havethought that Israelis have never harmed any-one, and are now living under a cruel, destruc-

tive blitz.

Of course, there is nothing further from thetruth. The great gift of Israeli propaganda isreversing the facts, and they have done thatfor decades. So let us get some fact straight.Israel has for 57 years refused to get out ofthe Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian territoriesit occupied in 1967. It did that in the samemanner it refused to carry out the UN resolu-tions in 1949 that demanded the return of therefugees, resulting from ethnic cleansing byIsrael. It defied the UN, the Geneva Conven-tion, the International Criminal Court and theEuropean Court of human rights. It committednumerous war crimes, and never, ever paid inany way for committing them. It has blockadedGaza for over seven years, making life almostimpossible, and has killed thousands of Pales-tinians since 1967 in its periodic illegal and im-moral, brutal incursions into Gaza, the WestBank, Syria and Lebanon. Since 1967, Israelhas created a similar number of refugees tothat of 1948.

What has happened to Israeli society in thosefive decades? The society has become totallydirected towards the continuation of the occu-pation. All parts of the social structure havecollaborated in this massive task — instead ofdealing with social problems — Israel dealtwith settlements. To do this, massive forceand oppression had to be used, of course,which meant the militarisation of society, alllevels of society. Israel has the fourthstrongest army on this planet — a country ofless than 10 millions! It is also the fourthlargest exporter of lethal armaments in theworld - Israel lives (well) on death and de-struction, and uses Gaza as the largest labo-


Interview with Professor Haim Bresheeth,Initiator of the “Open Letter to Israeli

Academics,” on the Current Situation inPalestine and the Israeli Society

ratory of testing new weapons. Israel deniedany rights to more than 5 million Palestiniansin the Occupied Territories of Palestine, hasoppressed and killed many without reasonand without legal process, and impeded theeconomic, social educational, environmentaland cultural life of Palestine.

All this could not be done without using thou-sands of academics, in all disciplines — thosewho design and build the housing and settle-ments, those who design and operate its ITsystem of fighting criticism online, those whoresearch new and more destructive weapons,new methods of questioning, medicalisedways of oppressing prisoners, those who workon Israeli propaganda — the list is enormousand wide-ranging. Most Israeli academics aretotally supportive of whatever is done by thegovernment, however illegal and immoral it is.The myth of liberal academics in Israel is stillvery strong in the west. Israel is actively push-ing this myth. There is nothing further from thetruth. A case in point is the current phase ofdestroying Gaza.

Over 1,600 academics from across the worldhave, in few days, signed a call to Israeli aca-demics to stand up with academics in Gaza,and demand an end not only to the murderousattack, but also to the occupation itself — thesource of all political evil in Israel.

These signatories included leading academicsand intellectuals from across the world: NoamChomsky, Angela Davis, Etienne Balibar,Naomi Klein, Jacques Rancierre, Slavoj Zizek,John Berger, Richard Falk, David Palumbo-Liu, Sara Roy, Baroness Tonge, Sir PatrickBateson, Ahdaf Sueif, Jacqueline Rose — thelist goes on for another 1600 names (you canread the letter and the whole list onhttp://haimbresh eeth.com/gaza/an-open-let-ter-to-israel-academics-july-13th-2014/).

Despite this large number of international lu-minaries signing this call, only 70 Israeli aca-demics signed it! This is much less than 1% ofthe total number of academics in Israel; Itmeans, one assumes, that 99% of Israel’s ac-ademics support the war crimes by the Israelistate, a similar number to the support within

the Jewish population of Israel!

We suspected that many will not sign our call,but the results are shocking even for us, whoinitiated the call. It gives us a new factualfoundation for a wide-ranging academic boy-cott of Israel by academics from across theworld, against the illegal occupation and theapartheid policies and realities. This we intendto operate over the next decade as a meansof recruiting academics everywhere for thebattle for Palestinian rights and for a justpeace in Palestine. This will be done in con-frontation with our governments, whose activesupport is making the Israeli war crimes possi-ble. We shall win this struggle like we havewon the struggle against apartheid in SouthAfrica, by a large coalition of moral support forPalestine from across the globe.

DIALOGUE: What can be said today on thestate of mind of the “Israeli Jewish society”?The Israeli settlers of the West Bank, particu-larly the ones guilty of lynching Mohamed AbuKdheir, are being presented to us as extrem-ists.

But aren’t they the harshest expression of thepolicy that presents the Palestinians as pari-ahs that must be got rid of?

HB: There is no doubt that the murderers ofMohamed Abu Kdheir are not only extremists,but are deeply and incurably sick. If that wasthe problem, then it could have been resolved.The problem, however, is the deep distur-bance in the Israeli polis itself, a severemalaise of its social structure, not just of few extremists.

Decades of illegal occupation, oppression anddenial of rights to millions of people withoutany legal or civic status, a system of controlthrough racist apartheid policies and regula-tions . . . have created a new type of society inIsrael. Israel liked to boast of being the “onlydemocracy in the Middle East”. How can ademocracy be racist by law, to support the de-nial of human rights, to support and commitwar crimes?

Sociologist have termed the phrase “herren-


volk democracy” to describe this phenome-non, first about South Africa, then about Israel.It basically means a society where a “masterrace” theory separates those who enjoy fullrights, from those who have none, the separa-tion being made on an ethno-national basis. Inboth societies, the existence of apartheid poli-cies meant that millions of human beings weredenied basic human rights, and that their lifewas worthless, and the law could not be usedto defend them, as they lacked rights affordedto humans.

This racist theory and praxis over manydecades — Israel has survived, while SouthAfrica had to bow to change, as both societieshave instigated their unequal legal structuresin the same year: 1948 — mean that most Is-raelis do not perceive Palestinians as hu-mans. Many of Israel’s leaders have called thePalestinians by derogatory names — Beginhas called then “biped animals”, others cameup with “cockroaches in a bottle”, and thevoices speaking today on social networks areeven more extreme, and more prevalent. Any-one daring to criticise the war crimes in Gazanow lives in danger, and thousands of callswere made in the last 20 days for murder,burning and destruction of all who criticise theoperation in Gaza. Universities have warnedstaff and students that they are monitoring so-cial media for such voices, for example, underthe term “extreme statements”. Some aca-demics were already (!) sacked or suspended,though we have no accurate figures yet.

If one wanted to be clear about what thismeans, Israel has been turning very quicklyfrom a proto-fascist society, into a militarisedherrenvolk democracy, set up to deny therights of the other ethnicity/nationality for ever.That in both countries this was done by acolonising group to the majority indigenousgroup is yet another similarity between bothracist societies.

Thus, we are not speaking here of the few ex-tremists; we are dealing with a sick social stra-tum, where millions of Jewish Israelis believethemselves to be superior to millions of Pales-tinians. In such a society, as we have seen inthe troubled history of the 20th century, mass

crimes can be, and normally are committedagainst the disenfranchised group. Their bloodis allowed - they become the Homo Sacer andcan be killed with impunity. This is the realityof the new Israel.

DIALOGUE: In this extremely difficult situa-tion, how can a democratic solution guaran-teeing equal rights for all the populations livingbetween the Mediterranean and Jordan be en-visaged? Many speak of an occupation thathas been in place since 1967, but what isthere to be said of the situation since 1948?What do you think of Ilan Pappe’s analysis,which indicates that the Nakba is a process that has never ended?

HB: I totally agree with Ilan Pappe on this.The Nakba has not only continued, as Ipointed out above, but has intensified. Since1967, the life of Palestinians in the whole ofPalestine are no longer safe, and they can bekilled, made into refugees, lose their property,lose their livelihood or their right to live, or beeducated, at any point in time. If some peoplebelieved in a two-state solution in 1967, itsoon became clear that Israel will do anythingat all, anything possible to make sure thatsuch a situation is not possible.

The two-state solution is not possible, not be-cause the Palestinians did not accept it - theyalways did, though it meant being left withonly 22% of their country. It was Israel whichmade it impossible, by building the settle-ments, mass confiscations of land, destructionof houses, villages and communities, brutaloppression and the building of the illegalApartheid wall. The two-state solution, themainstay of the western powers and the UN,is dead and buried, because Israel killed it. Israel has never been prepared to even aminiature Palestinian state next to it.

This raises the question of what remains pos-sible. Unless and until the international com-munity acts with force to make Israel accept ajust peace in Palestine, our options are lim-ited. The current situation in Palestine, wherefour million Palestinians have no rights what-soever, while almost 1.5 million of them aresecond-class citizens in a racist state, is


surely untenable.

Bearing in mind that there is only one statebetween the river Jordan and the sea, andthat state is racist Israel, then we must act toturn this state around - into a state of all its cit-izens - a secular democratic state with no spe-cial rights to any ethnic, national or religiousgroup. Surely, to demand a democratic societywith full rights to all citizens is the normativesolution elsewhere, and why would this not beacceptable for Israel? Only anti-democrats willbe fighting against this solution; only thosewho willingly accept the racist assumptions Is-rael makes about the Palestinian people. Thissingle democratic state in the whole of Pales-tine is the only solution left, because Israel has made all others obsolete.

Of course, this state cannot be Jewish,Moslem or Christian, or even Buddhist. It can-not be either a Zionist state, or a confessionalone. A single, secular democratic state will bethe society which will replace the racist her-

renvolk democracy now controlling Palestine.A large group of Israeli and Palestinian intel-lectuals have collaborated on working out thenecessary foundation for such a state, andsuch a future equal society in Palestine, andtheir efforts are displayed on the One Demo-cratic State website: http://www.1not2.org/One_State_in_Palestine/Welcome.html

We simply hope that this moral and just solu-tion to the Palestine conflict can be acceptedby both sides, with the help of the internationalcommunity. If this solution were also rejectedby Israel, then it would be drawing battle linesnot just with Palestine, but also with the wholeworld. I hope that the realities of such a mis-guided position will be avoided, as they werein South Africa, and that we can start buildinga common society, rather than continuing thedestruction of Palestine.

— Interview conducted by François Lazaron 28 July 2014


As Jewish survivors and descendents of sur-vivors of the Nazi genocide we unequivocallycondemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gazaand the ongoing occupation and colonization ofhistoric Palestine. We further condemn theUnited States for providing Israel with the fund-ing to carry out the attack, and Western statesmore generally for using their diplomatic muscleto protect Israel from condemnation. Genocidebegins with the silence of the world.

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehu-manization of Palestinians in Israeli society,which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politi-cians and pundits in The Times of Israel and TheJerusalem Post have called openly for genocideof Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopt-ing Neo-Nazi insignia.Furthermore, we are disgusted and outraged byElie Wiesel’s abuse of our history in these pages[of the New York Times — ed.] to promote bla-tant falsehoods used to justify the unjustifiable:Israel’s wholesale effort to destroy Gaza and themurder of nearly 2,000 Palestinians, includingmany hundreds of children. Nothing can justifybombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and uni-versities. Nothing can justify depriving people ofelectricity and water.

We must raise our collective voices and useour collective power to bring about an end to allforms of racism, including the ongoing genocideof Palestinian people. We call for an immediateend to the siege against and blockade of Gaza.We call for the full economic, cultural and aca-demic boycott of Israel. “Never again” mustmean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

Signed,

Hajo Meyer, survivor of Auschwitz, TheNetherlands.Henri Wajnblum, survivor and son of victim

of Nazi genocide, France.Renate Bridenthal, child refugee from Hitler,

granddaughter of Auschwitz victim, UnitedStates

Marianka Ehrlich Ross, survivor of Nazi eth-nic cleansing in Vienna, Austria. Now lives inUnited States.Annette Herskovits, survived inhiding in France and daughter of parents whowere murdered in Auschwitz, United States.Irena Klepfisz, child survivor of the Warsaw

Ghetto. Now lives in United States.Karen Pomer, granddaughter of member ofDutch resistance and survivor of Bergen Belsen.Now lives in the United States.Hedy Epstein, survivor sent to England on

kindertransport, both parents and family mem-bers died in Auschwitz, only her grandfather sur-vived. Now lives in United States.Lillian Rosengarten, survivor of the

Nazi Holocaust, United States.For the full list of signatories, please go to

group’s website at: http://ijsn.net/gaza/sur-vivors-anddescendants-letter/

Hajo Meyer, initiator of this appeal,devoted a large part of his life todenouncing the Zionist lies. He died onAugust 22, 2014, at the age of 90.


More Than 350 Survivors and Descen-dents of Nazi Genocide Condemn the

Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza

Part I – The Perennial Question

If you are over fifty and were raised in a Jew-ish household, you either heard this question,“but is it good for the Jews?” explicitly askednumerous times or were subtly encouraged tothink the question to yourself. It reflects agroup-centered concern born of the memoryof anti-Semitic hostility and a seemingly un-ending vulnerability, and it can apply to almostany public action: federal or local legislation,cultural trends, foreign policy decisions, etc. Ido not know how many of the younger gener-ation of American Jews, known to be very sec-ular and prone to religious intermarriage, stillask this question, but there can be no doubtthat it is still there on the tips of almost everyJewish tongue of that generation for whomWorld War II is still well remembered.

After World War II most Jews assumed thatthe Zionist movement and the Israeli statewere good for the Jews. Indeed, they as-sumed that they were necessary goods – nec-essary for the very survival of the Jewishpeople. To that end, it was alleged, Israelwould provide a haven from the anti-Semitismthat so devastated the Jews of Europe. Therewere those who took issue with this perspec-tive, but they were few in number and withoutinfluence. Zionism triumphed and in 1948 theState of Israel was proclaimed. Today wehave 66 years of history to judge Zionism andIsraeli nationalism. So, after these six and ahalf decades, it is time we ask the questiononce more. Can we still assume that Zionismand Israel are good for the Jews?

Part II – Looking for the Answer

Here are some observations, given bythoughtful and knowledgable people, both

Jews and non-Jews, and some facts easilyaccessed, that help us answer the question:

— Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians hasinvolved tactics of ethnic cleansing and massmurder, often justified as “self-defense.” Interms of the latest violence in Gaza, theUnited Nations estimates that at least 73% ofthe fatalities inflicted by Israel were civilians.There is good evidence that Israel has beenpurposely targeting Gaza economic assets soas to impoverish its people. To this end Is-rael’s Deputy Interior Minister Eli Yishai pro-claimed that the “goal of the operation[code-named Protective Edge by the Israelimilitary] is to send Gaza back to the MiddleAges.”

— How do Israeli Jews feel about this situa-tion? Or perhaps a better way of putting thiswould be: how have Israeli Jews been cultur-ally programmed to judge such behavior onthe part of their government? According to thelatest polls up to 97% of them support the cur-rent operation in Gaza. Do outside opinionsmatter to them? Not to most. 63% assumethat “the whole world is against us.”These numbers suggest that only a very fewIsraeli Jews understand what is happening tothem as they live their lives in a state dedi-cated to the displacement of another peopleand the absorption of their land.

— One of those who sees the damage to theJews is Zeev Sternhell, a well-known scholarand “Israel prize laureate.” He equates pres-ent-day Israel to Vichy France – a country“falling into the hands of the right-wing withthe support of a vast majority of the popula-tion.” This includes the intellectuals, whom hedefines as the “professors and the journalists.”Thus, the attack on Gaza has led to “absolute


“But Is It Good for the Jews?” by Lawrence Davidson

(1 September 2014)

conformism on the part of Israel’s intellectu-als” and the “intellectual bankruptcy of themass media.” According to Sternhell “democ-racy crumbles when the intellectuals, the edu-cated classes, toe the line of the thugs or lookat them with a smile.”

— There is also a sense of alarm amongsome Jews outside of Israel. Henry Siegmanis president of the U.S./Middle East Projectand former national director of the AmericanJewish Congress. Referring to the latest Is-raeli attack on Gaza, Siegman observes that“the slaughter of Palestinian civilians and theDresden-like reduction to rubble of large partsof Gaza by Israel’s military forces in the nameof its own citizens’ security has exposed thehypocrisy that lies at the heart of Israel’s deal-ings with the Palestinians. Israel’s claim to theright of self-defense in order to prevent its vic-tims’ emergence from under its occupation isthe ultimate expression of chutzpa.” In addi-tion he notes that “Too many Israelis seem tobelieve – indeed, to take absolutely forgranted – that they have the God-given rightto occupy, suppress, disenfranchise and dis-place non-Jews … in Israel.”

Siegman is not alone in his condemnation.Recently a number of Holocaust survivors andchildren of survivors placed a notice in theNew York Times. In part it stated: “We arealarmed by the extreme, racist dehumaniza-tion of Palestinians in Israeli society. … In Is-rael, politicians and pundits in The Times ofIsrael and The Jerusalem Post have calledopenly for genocide of Palestinians and right-wing Israelis are adopting Neo-Nazi insignia.”

— Scott McConnell, the founding editor of theAmerican Conservative is not Jewish, but hetoo has been observing Israeli behavior andits evolution. Here is how he describes thecountry’s present state: “This now is Israel, acountry … where imposing collective punish-ment of innocents is the main point, whoseelected officials pine openly for concentrationcamps and genocide. … Hyper-nationalistic,loaded with nuclear weapons, deeply racist,persuaded that opposition to it is derived fromanti-Semitism, feeling that the Holocaust givesit license to do whatever it wants and that the

normal rules of international conduct will neverapply to it.”So, we must ask, just how good is all this forthe Jews?

Part III – Rising Anti-Semitism

Let’s recall that Israel’s reason for being wasto give Jews shelter from the ravages of anti-Semitism. That was certainly Theodor Herzl’smotivation. By any rational standard, ZionistIsrael has failed in this regard. Indeed, withbut very few exceptions, it is hard to imagineanywhere less safe for Jews than present-dayIsrael. And, there is growing evidence that Is-raeli behavior is a major source of today’s in-creasing anti-Semitism.

M. J. Rosenberg, a well-known Jewish Ameri-can commentator, has analyzed this latterissue and noted the difference in levels ofpublicly expressed anti-Semitic feelings duringthe leadership of Yitzhak Rabin and BenjaminNetanyahu. His suggestion is that when it ap-peared, during Rabin’s prime ministership,that Israel wanted a just peace with the Pales-tinians (whether this appearance was accu-rate or not), public expressions ofanti-Semitism went down. However, when Is-rael behaves with wanton aggression againstPalestinians, as it has in Gaza, instances ofanti-Semitism go up. Since wanton aggressionhas certainly characterized most of the historyof Israeli behavior toward Palestinians, it is fairto say that such actions constitute an impor-tant source of growing anti-Semitism.

Part IV – Finding the Answer

Most Zionists and Israeli Jews are ideologues.That is, they see the world through the ideol-ogy of Zionism and Israeli nationalism, andthis narrows their ability to see things, espe-cially their own behavior, in an objective way.For instance, they insist that their economicimpoverishment, ethnic cleansing and periodicslaughter of the Palestinians are carried out in“self-defense.” However, they absolutely re-fuse to consider that Palestinian violenceagainst Israel is a reaction to Israeli policiesand practices, particularly those of occupation,land confiscation and police state rule. In


other words, Zionism and Israeli nationalismhave blinded Israeli policy makers and theirsupporters to the consequences of their ac-tions. That state of mind is not good for any-one, be they individuals or groups.

So we are brought back to our original ques-tion – can we assume that Zionism and Israelare good for the Jews? The answer is no, wecannot. Zionism failed the Jews by insisting onan Israel for one group alone. That insistence

has inevitably led to racism, discriminationand ethnic cleansing. These are not practicesthat have characterized modern Jewry and soit is simply wrong to equate Zionism with Ju-daism and insist that Israel stands in for theworld’s Jews – errors now made by both Zion-ists and real anti-Semites. The more Jewswho understand this, and begin to publicly dis-tance themselves from both Zionism and Is-rael, the better, for they can safely assumeboth are bad for the Jews.


Drawing by Albert for Dialogue Review

27 years ago, on August 29th, Palestinian car-toonist Naji al-Ali was assassinated by Israel’sMossad. Handala, the diminutive ten-year oldkid he sketched in thousands of his cartoonsis still very popular in Palestine. His figure ischalked or stencilled on the walls of refugeecamps and on those of settlements as signs ofresistance to Zionist oppression.

Handala is shown bare-foot, just like the Pales-tinian kids turned out oftheir homes by the1948 Nakba toplod along the roads -just as 10 year old Najial-Ali himself when hewas expelled fromGalilee with his familyand walked all the wayto Lebanon to the Ein-el-Helweh refugeecamp.

Since then Handala has stopped growing.

The drawing always shows his back, hishands behind his back. His head of hair lookslike a porupine, whose quills serve asweapons. Naji explains that he “is nevershown from the front because he feels be-trayed... He will start growing again when heis back on his own land.”

At the beginning he was a Palestinian kid, buthis conscience has grown and become theconscience of a nation, and then of the wholeof mankind. He has pledged never to betrayhimself. Handala means bitterness.” Naji realised over 10,000 drawings on thestate of the Palestinian people’s situation,

their sufferings and resistance to the oppres-sor. He bitterly criticises Palestinian authoritiesand the leaders of Arab countries withoutsketching anybody in particular.

All his life, Naji firmly opposed all the “Pales-tinian solutions” which did not comprise theright of Palestinians to live on the whole terri-tory of historic Palestine.

When asked when Handala’s face could beseen, Naji replied that his face would be seenonly “when the Arab citizens get their libertyand humanity... when the Palestinian State re-covers all its territories occupied since the1948 Nakba.” And, in one of his drawings,Handala was pictured writing: “You are bowingto the United States, I do not recognise you”on the locked door of an official building.

Today, though Israel has been handed an ad-ditional 250 million dollars for its war of exter-mination war, after 51 days of bombardments,massacres and destructions, the Palestinianresistance is holding up, and has establishedclose unity between the Palestinians of Gaza,


Handala Will Soon Be Able toTurn Around!By Jacques Werstein

Arab regimes

those of the West Bank, those of the “inside”,and those of the refugee camps. And fromeverywhere, just as if they kept in mind whatHandala-Naji was saying: “What sparks warsis the signing of peace accords with Israeli oc-cupiers”, Palestinian people address thePalestinian authority delegations who attendthe “peace accords” discussions with Israel toremind them that, each and every time, peaceaccords have multiplied the number of settle-ments, separation walls, check-points and in-creased oppression, and laid the ground forever more bombings and ever more brutality.

Palestinian people say: we will give up on

nothing. They say: we will accept no conces-sion. The minimum is the immediate lifting ofthe blockade, reopening of the airport, of theport, free access for all the goods which areneeded to rebuild, free access for all medi-cines and equipments for our hospitals, all thecommodities and goods we need.

Zionist barbarity has lifted all the veils whichshielded it from scrutiny and made it non-pun-ishable.

Handala will soon be able to turn around!


NEW DEMOCRATIC PALESTINE.

The institution of a progressive society opento all the Palestinians is certainly a better solu-tion than the one which consists in “sendingthe Arabs into the desert” or “throwing theJews into the sea”.

But this solution can only be made feasible ifit is accepted by the sides which are con-cerned, as well as by the peoples across theworld acting as an involved third party. Wehave to prove that this plan can come through.

We have already examined how the Palestin-ian revolution acted to reach that aim by em-phasising its attitude towards the Jews. Arevolutionary change has been highlighted:Palestinians no longer consider Jews ashereditary enemies; they clearly identify theracist-colonialist State of Israel and its imperi-alist allies as the enemy. By reading Jewishwritings, by holding out their hands to progres-sive Jews across the world and by becomingmore self-assertive as the revolution ad-vances, Palestinians have changed their atti-tude.

Jewish attitudes have then been analysed.Zionist propaganda persists, consideringPalestinians as a people of nomads, blood-thirsty terrorists and traitors. But a number ofJews - especially those living outside Pales-tine - are changing their opinion and are rally-ing to a call for a progressive and secularPalestine. Changing the mind-set and atti-

tudes of Palestine’s Jews remains an impor-tant task of the revolution, which has yet to beachieved. But a war of liberation of the people,meant to destroy the imperialist-racist State,will create new living conditions and makenew Palestine possible.

So the option presented to Palestine’s Jewshas radically changed. Before, the State of Is-rael had to be powerful, or they risked beingthrown to the sea; today, instead of insecureliving in an exclusive and racist State of Israel,the revolution offers open, secure and tolerantPalestine for all those who live in it. In the longrun, the revolution tends in this way to winPalestinian Jews as well as non Jews to itsliberation forces, and this is a meaningful steptowards the achievement of the ultimate goal.But this necessitates deep changes in Jewishattitudes.

To reach this objective, we now need to workout and clarify the plan for a democraticPalestine.

DIFFICULTIES AND LIMITATIONS

It is quite difficult and risky at this early stageof the revolution to make a clear and definitivestatement about the new Liberated Palestine.Realism rather than romantic day-dreamingshould be the basic revolutionary approach.We do not believe that victory is around thecorner. The revolution does not underestimatethe enemy or its imperialist allies. What willhappen during the years of hard struggle for


DOCUMENT

The Palestinian Revolution andthe Jews

Published in Beirut in May 1970 inFateh newspaper

liberation cannot be easily predicted. Will theattitude of Palestinian Jews harden or becomemore receptive and flexible? A further drift tothe right, stepping up anti-Arab terrorism- inthe Algerian O.A.S. tradition- followed by avoluntary mass exodus on the eve of libera-tion, would pose a completely different prob-lem and would be quite regrettable. On theother hand, joining the revolution and workingwith it will lay firmer growth for the new Pales-tine. The revolution is striving hard to achievethe second alternative. Guerilla operations arebasically directed at the military and economicfoundations of the Zionist settler-state. When-ever a civilian target is chosen, every effort ismade to minimize loss of civilian life- thoughone would find it hard to distinguish civiliansand non-civilians in this modern Spartan mili-taristic society, where every adult is mobilizedfor the war. Hitting quasi-civilian areas aims atthe psychological effect of shocking the Is-raelis into realization that the racist-militaristicstate cannot provide them with security whileit conducts genocide against the exiled andoppressed Palestinian masses. In the Dizen-goff street bomb (Tel Aviv), Fateh guerillas de-layed the operation three times to choose aplace (in front of a building under construction)and a time (12:30 after midnight) to maximizenoise but minimize casualties: The result, fewwere injured, but thousands were shockedand made to engage in serious rethinking.

In conclusion, despite all uncertainties, thereis the hope, the vision and the behaviour ofthe Palestinian revolutionaries designed toachieve a better future for their oppressedcountry. Answers must be thought out andfound for myriad questions relating to this fu-ture. Even if the answers are tentative, theywill start a dialogue which provides the roadtowards maturity and fulfilment.

PROFILE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PALES-TINE:

1.THE COUNTRY

Pre-1948 Palestine- as defined during theBritish mandate is the territory to be liberatedand where the democratic, progressive state

is to be created. The liberated Palestine willbe part of the Arab Homeland and will not beanother alien state within it. The eventual unityof Palestine with other Arab States will makeboundary problems less relevant and will endthe artificiality of the present status of Israel,and possibly that of Jordan as well. The newcountry will be anti-imperialist and will join theranks of progressive revolutionary countries.Therefore, it will have to cut the present life-line links with and total dependence on theUnited States. Therefore, integration withinthe area will be the foremost prerequisite.

It should be quite obvious at this stage thatthe New Palestine discussed here is not theoccupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip orboth. These are areas occupied by the Israelissince June 1967. The homeland of the Pales-tinians usurped and colonized in 1948 is noless dear or important than the part occupiedin 1967. Besides, the very existence of theracist oppressor state of Israel based on thevacating and forced exile of part of its citizensis unacceptable by the revolution even for onetiny Palestinian village. Any arrangement ac-commodating the aggressor settler-state isunacceptable and temporary.

Only the people of Palestine: its Jews, Chris-tians and Muslims in a country that combinesthem all is permanent.

2.THE CONSTITUENTS

All the Jews, Muslims and Christians living inPalestine or forcibly exiled from it will have theright to Palestinian citizenship. This guaran-tees the right of all exiled Palestinians to re-turn to their land whether they were born inPalestine or in exile, and regardless of theirpresent nationality. Equally, this means that allJewish Palestinians- at the present Israelis-have the same right, provided of course thatthey reject Zionist racist chauvinism and fullyaccept to live as Palestinians in the NewPalestine. The revolution therefore rejects thesupposition that only Jews who lived in Pales-tine prior to 1948 or prior to 1914 and their de-scendants are acceptable. After all, Dayanand Allon were born in Palestine before 1948and they- with many of their colleagues- are


diehard racist Zionists who obviously do notqualify for a Palestinian status. Whereas new-comers may be anti-Zionists, and work ar-dently for the creation of the new Palestine. Inthe interview referred to earlier, Abu lyad, oneof the officials of Fateh, reasserted that notonly progressive anti-Zionist Jews but evenpresent Zionists who will be willing to abandontheir racist ideology will be welcome as Pales-tinian citizens. It is the belief of the revolutionthat the majority of the present Israeli Jewswill change their attitudes and will subscribe tothe New Palestine, especially after the oli-garchic state machinery, economy and militaryestablishment is destroyed.

3.THE IDEOLOGY

The Palestinians in the process of, and at thetime of liberation will decide on the system ofgovernment and on the political-economic-so-cial organization of their liberated country.(One repeats at this juncture that the termPalestinians includes those in exile, under oc-cupation and anti-zionist Jews).

A democratic and progressive Palestine, how-ever, rejects by elimination a theocratic, feu-dal, aristocratic, authoritarian formracist-chauvinistic government. It will be acountry that does not allow oppression or ex-ploitation of any group of people by any othergroup or individuals; a state that providesequal opportunities for its people in work, wor-ship, education, political decision-making, cul-tural and artistic expression.

This is no Utopian dream, for the fight toachieve the New Palestine inherently pro-duces the requisite climate for its future sys-tem of government, i.e. a people’s war ofliberation brings out new values and attitudesthat serve as guarantees for democracy afterliberation. Witness changing attitudes towardscollective work in refugee and guerilla campsin Jordan and Lebanon. Palestinians andother brothers joining them volunteer workand livelihoods. They are not exploited or en-slaved labour. The values of human lifechanges. Unlike Israeli Napalm raids and in-discriminate killing, Palestinian guerillas kill

sparingly and selectively. New forms of humanrelations emerge. No master-slave relationcan be attained among fighters for freedom.Increasing awareness of the international di-mensions of their problem and discovery ofwho backs the oppressor and who supportsthe oppressed create new responsibilities tothe international community, especially to thesupporters of liberation and democracy.

Therefore, Palestinians after liberation will notaccept subjugation from anybody and will notreintroduce oppression against any group forthis will be a negation of their raison d’etreand abdication of their revolutionary exis-tence. This is quite obvious in Palestinerefugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Aftertwenty two years of oppression, humiliationand manipulation by secret police and localexploiters, the camps have awakened to therevolution.

In the process, the exiles have broken theirbonds, have thrown out the secret police andits spies and allied exploiters, and have insti-tuted democratic self-management. Medical,educational and social services are being pro-vided locally through the revolutionary organi-zations in a self-help fashion that havebrought back dignity and self-respect. Crimerates in these camps have drastically gonedown to 10% of the pre-revolutionary magni-tude. Self-discipline has replaced the police.The Net militia is providing the link betweenthe revolutionary avant-garde and the base ofthe masses. Democratic checks are built in.These Palestinians will not accept oppressionand subjugation from anybody and will not en-force it on anybody.

Newsmen and other foreign visitors have dis-covered that nowhere in the Arab World canthey find equally mature and tolerant peoplevis a vis the Jews than in the camps in Jordanand Lebanon and especially among the Ash-bal: the fighting lion cubs. These young Pales-tinians (8-16 years) are almost totally free ofany anti- Jewish biases. They have a clearervision of the New democratic Palestine thanthat held by bourgeois city-dwellers. Theseyoung people are the liberators of tomorrow.They will complete the destruction of Israeli


oppression and the rebuilding of the newPalestine,.

If the democratic and progressive new Pales-tine is utopia, then the Palestinian guerillasand camp dwellers are starting to practice it.

TWO MISCONCEPTIONS

Several interpretations of the DemocraticPalestine have sprung up in different quartersthat require clarification and some corrections.An attempt will be made presently to discusstwo of them that seem to be quite vital:

1. The call for a non-sectarian Palestineshould not be confused with a multi-religious,or a bi-national state. The new Palestine is notto be built around three state religions or twonationalities. It will simply provide freedomfrom religious oppression of any group by an-other and freedom to practice religion withoutdiscrimination. No rigidification of religiouslines is desired by the revolution. No hard andfast religious distribution of political offices andother important jobs is envisioned. TheLebanese model (where the reactionary,quasi-feudalist or commercial capitalist hierar-chy divides jobs and offices on the basis ofsectarian lines to perpetuate its domination ofthe masses) is completely alien to the revolu-tion. Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] reiteratedseveral times that the president of the liber-ated Palestine could be a Jew, or a Muslim ora Christian not because of his religion or sectbut on the basis of his merit as an outstandingPalestinian.

Furthermore religious and ethnic lines clearlycross in Palestine so as to make the term bi-national and the Arab- Jewish dichotomymeaningless, or at best quite dubious. Themajority of Jews in Palestine today are ArabJews - euphemistically called Oriental Jews bythe Zionists. Therefore, Palestine combinesJewish, Christian and Muslim Arabs as well asnon-Arab Jews (Western Jews).

2. The New Democratic Palestine is NOT asubstitute for liberation. Rather, it is the ulti-

mate objective of liberation. A client state inthe West Bank and Gaza, an Avneri-style de-Zionized or pasteurised Israel or a SemiticConfederation are all categorically rejected bythe revolution. They are all racist blue-prints todelude the Palestinians and other Arabs andcontinue Israeli hegemony and Palestiniansubjugation. They all assume the mainte-nance of the basic aggression that led to theforced exile of Palestinians and the oppres-sion of the masses. The sine qua non of theNew Palestine is the destruction of the politi-cal, economic and militarist foundations of thechauvinist-racist settler-state. The mainte-nance of a technologically-advanced militarymachine through a continuous Western capitalflow and exchange of population have led theexpansionist Zionist machinery to perpetuateone aggression after the other. Therefore, liq-uidation of such machinery is an irreplaceablecondition for the creation of the New Pales-tine.

THE TRANSITION, AND AFTER

It is quite logical to expect specific transitionalcollective accommodations immediately afterliberation, and even the few remaining in thenormalised Permanent State, i.e. some collec-tive or group privileges besides the pure indi-vidual privileges. Jews or non-Jews for thatmatter, would have the right to practice theirreligion and develop culturally and linguisti-cally as a group, besides their individual politi-cal and cultural participation. It is quite logicalfor example to have both Arabic and Hebrewas official languages taught in governmentalschools to all Palestinians, Jews or non-Jews.

The right of free movement within the countryand outside it would be guaranteed. Palestini-ans desirous of voluntarily leaving the countrywould be allowed to do so. Immigration wouldbe restricted in a transitional period to the re-turn of all exiled Palestinians desirous of re-turn. In a normal permanent state, however,subject to the agreed upon regulation and theabsorptive capacity of the country, immigrationwould be open without discrimination. Free-dom of access, visits and extended pilgrimageand tourism would be guaranteed - subject ofcourse to the normal regulation - to all Jews,


Muslims or Christians of the world who con-sider Palestine a holy place worthy of pilgrim-age and meditation.

IS THE NEW PALESTINE VIABLE?

Several well-intentioned critics maintain thateven if the creation of the democratic Pales-tine is possible, it will not survive for long.Their basic contention is that the populationand cultural balance will be heavily favouringthe Jews in the new Palestine. This -in theirargument - will lead either to an explosive situ-ation, or to the domination of the New Pales-tine by the Jews and a possible reversion to aneo-Zionist state in disguise. The argument isserious and looks quite plausible given thepresent setup, and the European Dichotomyof the “Arabs” as a backward group and the“Jews” as a modern one.

As for population, the Jews in Palestine todaynumber 2.5 millions which is compared to 2.6million Palestinian Arabs (Christians and Mus-lims) in the occupied territories before 1967and after it, and in exile. Birth rates and netnatural growth rates are higher among ArabPalestinians compared to those for the Jewsin Palestine. Immigration, however, has beenthe major cause of growth in the Jewish ranks.Nevertheless one must consider the fact that250,000 Jews have permanently left Palestine(emigrated) since 1949 in a period where rela-tive security prevailed. Most of the emigrantswere European Jews. Whereas most of thenew immigrants were Arab Jews who found itvery difficult to stay in their countries after thecreation and survival of the aggressor settler-state of Israel.

The process of the revolution will inevitably in-crease the tempo of emigration, especially ofthose beneficiaries of a racist state who willfind it very difficult to adapt to an open pluralsociety. Parallel to that development will bethe increasing modernisation of the Arabcountries and toleration of all minorities includ-ing the Jewish citizens. Fateh is already en-gaged in serious negotiations with severalArab countries to allow Jewish emigrants backand to return their property and to guarantee

them full and equal rights.

These factors are expected on the whole tomaintain relative population balance in Pales-tine.

The pace of social and educational develop-ment is rising rapidly among the Arab Pales-tinians as well. It is estimated that the numberof University Graduates among the Palestini-ans in exile exceed 50 000. Palestinians havesuccessfully played the role of educators, pro-fessionals and technicians in several Arabcountries especially those in the ArabianPeninsula and North Africa.

Arab Palestinians faced this cultural challengein pre-1948 Palestine and managed in the rel-atively short period of 30 years to compete ef-fectively with the Jews in agriculture, industry,education and even in the field of finance andbanking.

Armed with the spirit of a victorious revolution,hopefully in comradeship with a significantnumber of Jews, the Arabs of Palestine willbecome effective and equal partners, in thebuilding of the new country.

Integration of Palestine within the Arab regionwill add to its economic and political viability.The present Arab boycott will obviously be re-placed by economic aid and trade, a goalwhich the settler-state of Israel completelyfailed to achieve, remaining thus an Americanward and protégé during its entire existence.

CONCLUSION

The Democratic, non-sectarian Palestine stilllacks full clarity and elaboration, but this is thebest that can be done at this stage in the ar-duous liberation struggle. The Palestinianshave outgrown their bitterness and prejudicein a relatively short-time, through armed strug-gle. A few years ago, discussing this proposalwould have been considered as a completesell-out or high treason. Even today, someArabs still find it very difficult to accept theproposed goal and secretly - or publicly - hopethat it is nothing more than a tactical propa-ganda move. Well, it definitely is not so. The


Palestinian revolution is determined to fight forthe creation of the New democratic and non-sectarian Palestine as the long-term ultimategoal of liberation. Annihilation of the Jews orof the Palestinian exiles and the creation of anexclusive racist or theocratic state in Palestinebe it Jewish, Christian or Muslim is totally un-acceptable, unworkable and cannot last. Theoppressed Palestinian masses will fight andmake all needed sacrifices to demolish the op-pressor exclusive state.

The Israeli racists are greatly irritated by theidea of a democratic Palestine. It reveals thecontradictions of Zionism and bares the moralschizophrenia that besets world Jewry since

the creation of Israel. The adoption by severalsignificant progressive Jews of the new goalscares world Zionism. Several of these Jewswere threatened and molested by Zionists fortheir sponsorship of the Democratic Palestineas the ultimate goal of liberation. The Zionistsare stepping up their campaign to discredit theidea especially among the Jews. Their efforthas been in vain. The force of logic and the ef-fect of years of persecution in exclusive soci-eties at the hands of racists are opening theeyes of Jews and others in the world to theonly permanent solution that will bring lastingpeace and justice to our Palestine: building aprogressive, open, tolerant country for all ofus.


INTRODUCTION

We, the Palestinian Arab people, who wagedfierce and continuous battles to safeguard itshomeland, to defend its dignity and honor, andwho offered all through the years continuouscaravans of immortal martyrs, and who wrotethe noblest pages of sacrifice, offering andgiving.

We, the Palestinian Arab people, who facedthe forces of evil, injustice and aggression,against whom the forces of international Zion-ism and colonialism conspire and worked todisplace it, dispossess it from its homelandand property, abused what is holy in it andwho in spite of all this refused to weaken orsubmit.

We, the Palestinian Arab people, who believein its Arabism and in its right to regain itshomeland, to realize its freedom and dignity,and who have determined to amass its forcesand mobilize its efforts and capabilities inorder to continue its struggle and to move for-ward on the path of holy war (al-jihad) untilcomplete and final victory has been attained,

We, the Palestinian Arab people, based onour right of self-defense and the completerestoration of our lost homeland- a right thathas been recognized by internationalcovenants and common practices includingthe Charter of the United Nations-and in im-plementation of the principles of human rights,and comprehending the international political

relations, with its various ramifications and di-mensions, and considering the past experi-ences in all that pertains to the causes of thecatastrophe, and the means to face it,

And embarking from the Palestinian Arab real-ity, and for the sake of the honor of the Pales-tinian individual and his right to free anddignified life,

And realizing the national grave responsibilityplaced upon our shoulders, for the sake of allthis,

We, the Palestinian Arab people, dictate anddeclare this Palestinian National Charter andswear to realize it.

Article 1. Palestine is an Arab homelandbound by strong Arab national ties to the restof the Arab Countries and which together formthe great Arab homeland.

Article 2: Palestine, with its boundaries at thetime of the British Mandate, is a indivisible ter-ritorial unit.

Article 3: The Palestinian Arab people has thelegitimate right to its homeland and isan in-separable part of the Arab Nation. It sharesthe sufferings and aspirations of the Arab Na-tion and its struggle for freedom, sovereignty,progress and unity.

Article 4: The people of Palestine determineits destiny when it completes the liberation of


DOCUMENT

The Palestinian National Charteradopted in by the FirstPalestinian Conference(Jerusalem, 2 June 1964)

its homeland in accordance with its ownwishes and free will and choice. Article 5: The Palestinian personality is a per-manent and genuine characteristic that doesnot disappear. It is transferred from fathers tosons.

Article 6: The Palestinians are those Arab citi-zens who were living normally in Palestine upto 1947, whether they remained or were ex-pelled. Every child who was born to a Pales-tinian Arab father after this date, whether inPalestine or outside, is a Palestinian.

Article 7: Jews of Palestinian origin are con-sidered Palestinians if they are willing to livepeacefully and loyally in Palestine.

Article 8: Bringing up Palestinian youth in anArab and nationalist manner is a fundamentalnational duty. All means of guidance, educa-tion and enlightenment should be utilized tointroduce the youth to its homeland in a deepspiritual way that will constantly and firmlybind them together.

Article 9: Ideological doctrines, whether politi-cal, social, or economic, shall not distract thepeople of Palestine from the primary duty ofliberating their homeland. All Palestinian con-stitute one national front and work with all theirfeelings and material potentialities to free theirhomeland.

Article 10: Palestinians have three mottos: Na-tional Unity, National Mobilization, and Libera-tion. Once liberation is completed, the peopleof Palestine shall choose for its public lifewhatever political, economic, or social systemthey want.

Article 11: The Palestinian people firmly be-lieve in Arab unity, and in order to play its rolein realizing this goal, it must, at this stage ofits struggle, preserve its Palestinian personal-ity and all its constituents. It must strengthenthe consciousness of its existence and stanceand stand against any attempt or plan thatmay weaken or disintegrate its personality.

Article 12: Arab unity and the liberation ofPalestine are two complementary goals; each

prepares for the attainment of the other. Arabunity leads to the liberation of Palestine, andthe liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity.Working for both must go side by side.

Article 13: The destiny of the Arab Nation andeven the essence of Arab existence are firmlytied to the destiny of the Palestine question.From this firm bond stems the effort and strug-gle of the Arab Nation to liberate Palestine.The people of Palestine assume a vanguardrole in achieving this sacred national goal.

Article 14: The liberation of Palestine, from anArab viewpoint, is a national duty. Its responsi-bilities fall upon the entire Arab nation, govern-ments and peoples, the Palestinian peoplesbeing in the forefront. For this purpose, theArab nation must mobilize its military, spiritualand material potentialities; specifically, it mustgive to the Palestinian Arab people all possi-ble support and backing and place at its dis-posal all opportunities and means to enablethem to perform their role in liberating theirhomeland.

Article 15: The liberation of Palestine, from aspiritual viewpoint, prepares for the Holy Landan atmosphere of tranquillity and peace, inwhich all the Holy Places will be safeguarded,and the freedom to worship and to visit will beguaranteed for all, without any discriminationof race, color, language, or religion. For allthis, the Palestinian people look forward to thesupport of all the spiritual forces in the world.

Article 16: The liberation of Palestine, from aninternational viewpoint, is a defensive act ne-cessitated by the demands of self-defense asstated in the Charter of the United Nations.For that, the people of Palestine, desiring tobefriend all nations which love freedom, jus-tice, and peace, look forward to their supportin restoring the legitimate situation to Pales-tine, establishing peace and security in its ter-ritory, and enabling its people to exercisenational sovereignty and freedom.

Article 17: The partitioning of Palestine, whichtook place in 1947, and the establishment ofIsrael are illegal and null and void, regardlessof the loss of time, because they were con-


trary to the will of the Palestinian people andits natural right to its homeland, and were inviolation of the basic principles embodied inthe Charter of the United Nations, foremostamong which is the right to self-determination.

Article 18: The Balfour Declaration, the Pales-tine Mandate System, and all that has beenbased on them are considered null and void. The claims of historic and spiritual ties be-tween Jews and Palestine are not in agree-ment with the facts of history or with the truebasis of sound statehood. Judaism, because itis a divine religion, is not a nationality with in-dependent existence. Furthermore, the Jewsare not one people with an independent per-sonality because they are citizens to theirstates.

Article 19: Zionism is a colonialist movementin its inception, aggressive and expansionist inits goal, racist in its configurations, and fascistin its means and aims. Israel, in its capacity asthe spearhead of this destructive movementand as the pillar of colonialism, is a permanentsource of tension and turmoil in the MiddleEast, in particular, and to the internationalcommunity in general. Because of this, thepeople of Palestine are worthy of the supportand sustenance of the community of nations.

Article 20: The causes of peace and securityand the requirements of right and justice de-mand from all nations, in order to safeguardtrue relationships among peoples and to main-tain the loyalty of citizens to their homeland,that they consider Zionism an illegal move-ment and outlaw its presence and activities.

Article 21: The Palestinian people believes inthe principles of justice, freedom, sovereignty,self-determination, human dignity, and theright of peoples to practice these principles. Italso supports all international efforts to bringabout peace on the basis of justice and freeinternational cooperation.

Article 22: The Palestinian people believe in

peaceful co-existence on the basis of legal ex-istence, for there can be no coexistence withaggression, nor can there be peace with occu-pation and colonialism.Article 23: In realizing the goals and principlesof this Convent, the Palestine Liberation Or-ganization carries out its full role to liberatePalestine in accordance with the basic law ofthis Organization.

Article 24: This Organization does not exer-cise any territorial sovereignty over the WestBank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, onthe Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its ac-tivities will be on the national popular level inthe liberational, organizational, political and fi-nancial fields.

Article 25: This Organization is in charge ofthe movement of the Palestinian people in itsstruggle to liberate its homeland in all libera-tional, organizational, and financial matters,and in all other needs of the Palestine Ques-tion in the Arab and international spheres.

Article 26: The Liberation Organization coop-erates with all Arab governments, each ac-cording to its ability, and does not interfere inthe internal affairs of any Arab states.

Article 27: This Organization shall have itsflag, oath and a national anthem. All this shallbe resolved in accordance with special regula-tions.

Article 28: The basic law for the Palestine Lib-eration Organization is attached to this Char-ter. This law defines the manner ofestablishing the Organization, its organs, insti-tutions, the specialties of each one of them,and all the needed duties thrust upon it in ac-cordance with this Charter.

Article 29: This Charter cannot be amendedexcept by two-thirds majority of the membersof the National Council of the Palestine Liber-ation Organization in a special session calledfor this purpose.


Article 1:Palestine is the homeland of the PalestinianArab people and an integral part of the greatArab homeland, and the people of Palestineare part of the Arab nation.

Article 2:Palestine with its boundaries that existed atthe time of the British mandate is an integralregional unit.

Article 3:The Palestinian Arab people possesses thelegal right to its homeland, and when the liber-ation of its homeland is completed they willexercise self-determination solely according toits own will and choice.

Article 4:The Palestinian personality is an innate, per-sistent character that will not extinct, and is in-herited by sons from parents. The Zionistoccupation, and the dispersal of the Palestin-ian Arab people as a result of the disastersthat befell it, do not deprive it from its Palestin-ian personality and affiliation and do not nullifythat.

Article 5:The Palestinians are the Arab citizens whowere living permanently in Palestine until1947, whether they were expelled or remainedthere. Whoever is born to a Palestinian fatherafter that date, within Palestine or outside is aPalestinian.

Article 6:Jews who were living permanently in Pales-tine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion

will be considered Palestinians. (For the Zion-ist invasion is considered to have begun in19171.)

Article 7:The Palestinian affiliation and the material,spiritual and historical ties with Palestine arepermanent realities. The upbringing of thePalestinian individual in an Arab and revolu-tionary fashion, the undertaking of all meansof forging consciousness and training thePalestinians, in order to acquaint him pro-foundly spiritually and materially with his land,and prepare him for the conflict and armedstruggle, as well as for the sacrifice of hisproperty and life to restore his homeland, untilthe liberation is achieved is a national duty.

Article 8:The phase in which the people of Palestine isliving is that of national struggle for the libera-tion of Palestine. Therefore the contradictionsamong the Palestinian national forces are ofminimal importance that must be suspendedin the interest of the main conflict between Zi-onism and Colonialism on the one side andthe Palestinian Arab people on the other. Onthis basis, the Palestinian masses, whether inthe homeland or in exile, organizations and in-dividuals, comprise one national front whichacts to restore Palestine and liberate itthrough armed struggle.

Article 9:Armed struggle is the only way to liberatePalestine and is therefore a strategy and not atactic. The Palestinian Arab people affirms itsabsolute resolution and abiding determinationto pursue the armed struggle and to march


DOCUMENT

PLO Charter of 1968(adopted by the Palestine NationalCouncil in Cairo on 17 July 1968)

forward towards the armed popular revolution,to liberate its homeland and restore its right toa natural life, and to exercise its right of self-determination and national sovereignty.

Article 10:Fedaeyeen’s (freedom fighters) action formsthe nucleus of the popular Palestinian war ofliberation. This requires its promotion, exten-sion and protection, and the mobilization of allthe Arab and Palestinian masses and scien-tific capacities of the Palestinians, their organi-zation and involvement in the armedPalestinian revolution to ensure the continua-tion of the revolution, its advancement andvictory.

Article 11:The Palestinians will have three mottoes: Na-tional unity mobilization and liberation. (Thetext of this clause came in agreement with the10th clause of the old version of the nationalcharter, that stipulates the Palestinian peo-ple’s right to choose any political, economic orsocial system they believe suitable for theircountry)

Article 12:The Palestinian Arab people believes in Arabunity. In order to fulfill its role in realizing this,it must preserve, in this phase of nationalstruggle, its Palestinian personality and theconscience, thereof increase consciousnessof its consistence and resist any plan thattends to disintegrate or weaken it.

Article 13:Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine aretwo complementary aims. Each one paves theway for the realization of the other. Arab unityleads to the liberation of Palestine and thatleads to Arab unity. Working for both goeshand in hand.

Article 14:The destiny of the Arab nation, indeed thevery Arab existence, depends on the destinyof the Palestinian issue. The endeavor and ef-fort of the Arab nation to liberate Palestineflows from this connection. The people ofPalatine assumes its vanguard role in realiz-ing this sacred national aim.

Article 15:The liberation of Palestine from the Arab viewpoint is a national duty to repulse the Zionist,imperialist invasion from the great Arab home-land and to purge it from the Zionist presence. This full responsibility falls upon the Arab na-tion, peoples and governments, with the ArabPalestinian people at their lead. For this pur-pose the Arab nation must mobilize all its mili-tary, human, material and spiritual capacitiesto participate actively with the Palestinian peo-ple in the liberation of Palestine. They mustgrant and offer the people of Palestine all pos-sible help and every material and human sup-port and afford it means and opportunitiesenabling it to continue assuming its vanguardrole in pursuing its armed revolution until theliberation of its homeland, especially in thepresent stage of armed Palestinian revolution.

Article 16:The liberation of Palestine from a spiritualview point will prepare an atmosphere of tran-quillity and peace for the Holy Land in theshade of which all the holy places, will besafeguarded, and freedom of worship and freeaccess to all will be guaranteed without dis-tinction or discrimination of race, color, lan-guage or, religion. For this reason the peopleof Palestine looks for the support of all spiri-tual forces in the world.

Article 17:The - liberation of Palestinian from a humanpoint of view will restore to the Palestinianhuman being dignity, glory and freedom. Forthis the Palestinian Arab people looks for thesupport of those in the world who believe indignity and freedom for mankind.

Article 18:The liberation of Palestine from an interna-tional view point, is a defensive act necessi-tated by the requirements of self-defense. Forthis reason the Arab people of Palestine aredesiring to befriend all peoples, and looks forthe support of the states that love freedom ,justice and peace in restoring the legal situa-tion in Palestine, establishing security andpeace in its territory, and enabling its peopleto exercise national sovereignty and freedom.


Article 19:The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the es-tablishment of Israel is null and void from thevery beginning, whatever time has elapsedbecause it was done contrary to the wish ofthe people of Palestine and their national rightto their homeland and contradicts with theprinciples embodied in the charter of the UN,the first of which is the right of self- determina-tion.

Article 20:The Balfour Declaration, the mandate docu-ment and what has been based upon themare considered null and void. The claim of ahistorical or spiritual tie between Jews andPalestine does not tally with the historical real-ities nor with the constituencies of statehoodin their true sense. Judaism in its character asa religion of revelation, is not a nationality withan independent existence. Likewise, the Jewsare not one people with an independent per-sonality. They are rather citizens of the statesto which they belong.

Article 21:The Palestinian Arab people in expressing it-self through the armed Palestinian revolution,rejects every solution that is a substitute for acomplete liberation of Palestine. and rejectsall alternative plans that aim at the settlementof the Palestinian issue or its internationaliza-tion.

Article 22:Zionism is a political movement organically re-lated to the world imperialism and is hostile toall movements of liberation and progress inthe world. It is a racist and fanatic movementin its formation, aggressive, expansionist, andcolonialist in its aims, fascist and nazi in itsmeans. Israel is the tool of the Zionist move-ment and is a human and geographic base forthe world imperialism. It is a concentration anda way for imperialism to the heart of the Arabhomeland, to strike at the hopes of the Arabnation for liberation, unity and progress.

Article 23:The demands of security peace and the re-quirement of truth and justice oblige all statesthat maintain friendly relations with people,

and loyalty of citizens to their homeland, toconsider Zionism an illegitimate movementand to prohibit its existence and activity.

Article 24:The Palestinian Arab people believes in theprinciple of justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination, human dignity and the right ofpeoples to exercise them.

Article 25:To realize the aims of this charter and its prin-ciples the Palestine Liberation Organizationwill undertake its full role in liberating Pales-tine.

Article 26:The Palestinian Liberation Organization whichrepresents the forces of the Palestinian revo-lution, is responsible for mobilizing the Pales-tinian Arab people in their struggle to restoretheir homeland, liberate it, and exercise theright of self-determination on it. This responsi-bility extends to all military, political and finan-cial matters, and all else that the Palestinianissue requires on the Arab and internationalarena.

Article 27:The Palestine Liberation Organization will co-operate with_Arab states, each according toits capacities and will maintain neutrality intheir mutual relations in light of the require-ments of the battle for the liberation, and willnot interfere in the internal affairs of any Arabstate.

Article 28:The Palestinian Arab people affirms the origi-nality and independence of its national revolu-tion and rejects every manner of interference,guardianship or subordination.

Article 29:The Palestinian Arab people possesses theprior and original right for liberating and restor-ing its homeland and form its relations withother states according to the later’s stands onthe Palestinian issue the extent of their sup-port for the Arab Palestinian people in theirrevolution to realize their aims.


Article 30:The fighters and pears of arms in the battle ofliberation are the nucleus of the popular armywhich will be the protection arm of the Pales-tinian Arab people.

Article 31:This organization shall have a flag, oath, andanthem all of which will be determined in ac-cordance with a special system.Article 32:To this charter- is attached a law known as the

basic law of the Palestine Liberation Organi-zation, in which the organization’s structure isdetermined, its committees, institutions andthe special function of every one of them, andall the requisite duties assigned to them in accordance with this charter.

Article 33:This charter can not be amended except by atwo-thirds majority of all the members of theNational Assembly in a special session calledfor this purpose.


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