Summary
The Arabic original of the charter adopted at Jerusalem on 28 May 1964, headed al-Mithaq al-Qawmi al-Filastini, in which the Palestinian Arab people proclaims Palestine, with its boundaries as they stood in the era of the British Mandate, an indivisible Arab homeland, defines who is a Palestinian, declares the 1947 partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel and each of the Balfour Promise and the Mandate instrument void from their foundation, characterises Zionism as a colonial, aggressive, expansionist, racist and fascist movement to be considered illegitimate, and charges the Palestine Liberation Organization with the liberation while providing that the Organization exercises no territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Gaza Strip or the al-Himmah area, with amendment only by two-thirds of the total membership of the Palestinian National Council in a special session (al-Mithaq al-Qawmi al-Filastini (1964), Arabic original, lines 39-123).
What the file is
The PalQuest reproduction in the original Arabic, headed with the title and Jerusalem, 28 Ayyar / May 1964. A preamble and 29 articles; 1,344 words in the whole text copy, including PalQuest navigation (lines 1-36 approx.) and the Document metadata and Related Content blocks at the tail (lines 125-221), which give the date (28 Ayyar 1964), location (Jerusalem) and original language (Arabic), and link the first session of the Palestinian National Council (28 Ayyar 1964 to 2 Huzayran 1964) and the Basic Laws of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of the Palestinian National Fund (2 Huzayran 1964). The text is clean and legible, with no gaps. This is the Arabic text of which Palestine National (qawmi) Charter (1964) is the PalQuest English translation.
Section by section
- Preamble (lines 45-65). Successive passages in the name of the Palestinian Arab people: fierce, continuous battles to preserve the homeland and defend honour and dignity, with successive caravans of immortal martyrs; the forces of world Zionism and colonialism conspiring against it to expel it and usurp its homes and lands; belief in its Arabness and its right to recover its homeland, moving forward on the path of holy jihad until complete, final victory; reliance on the right of self-defence and recovery of the whole usurped homeland, a right recognised by international customs and covenants, foremost among them the Charter of the United Nations, on the principles of human rights, on the experiences bearing on the causes of the Nakba and the methods of confronting it, and on the grave national responsibility; the people therefore dictates and proclaims this Charter and swears to realise it.
- Articles 1-4, homeland and destiny. Palestine is an Arab homeland bound by Arab national ties to the other Arab countries, together forming the great Arab homeland (Article 1); Palestine with its boundaries as they stood in the era of the British Mandate is an indivisible territorial unit (Article 2); the Palestinian Arab people owns the legitimate right in its homeland and is an inseparable part of the Arab nation (Article 3); the people of Palestine decides its destiny after liberation, by its own wishes, will and choice (Article 4).
- Articles 5-7, who is a Palestinian. The Palestinian personality is an inherent, inseparable quality that does not vanish and passes from fathers to sons (Article 5, with the form الأباء as printed). The Palestinians are the Arab citizens ordinarily resident in Palestine until 1947, whether expelled or remaining, and everyone born to a Palestinian Arab father after that date, inside Palestine or outside it, is a Palestinian (Article 6). Jews of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians if they are willing to commit themselves to living in loyalty and peace in Palestine (Article 7).
- Articles 8-10, upbringing, unity and slogans. Raising the Palestinian generation in an Arab national upbringing is a principal national duty, using all means of awareness and education to bind it firmly to its homeland (Article 8); ideological doctrines, political, social or economic, do not distract from the first duty of liberation, and all Palestinians are one national front (Article 9); the three slogans are national unity, national mobilisation and liberation, and after liberation the people chooses the political, economic and social systems it wishes (Article 10).
- Articles 11-14, Arab unity and the Arab duty. Belief in Arab unity, with preservation at this stage of the Palestinian personality and opposition to any project liable to dissolve or weaken it (Article 11); Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary goals, each leading to the other, with work for both side by side (Article 12); the destiny of the Arab nation, indeed Arab existence itself, is bound to the destiny of the Palestinian cause, with the people of Palestine in a vanguard role (Article 13); liberation is a national duty of the entire Arab nation, governments and peoples, which must mobilise all its military, material and spiritual energies and give the Palestinian Arab people aid, support and the means to perform its role (Article 14).
- Articles 15-16, spiritual and international standpoints. Liberation prepares an atmosphere of tranquillity in which all religious sanctities are preserved and freedom of worship and visitation is guaranteed for all without discrimination on the basis of race, colour, language or religion, and the people looks to the support of all spiritual forces (Article 15); liberation is a defensive act required by self-defence as stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations, and the people looks to freedom-, justice- and peace-loving states for support to restore legitimate conditions and enable it to exercise national sovereignty and freedom (Article 16).
- Articles 17-20, nullity and Zionism. The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel are void from their foundation, however long time passes, as contrary to the will of the Palestinian people, its natural right and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, foremost the right of self-determination (Article 17). Each of the Balfour Promise (وعد بلفور) and the Mandate instrument (صك الانتداب), and what resulted from them, is considered void; the claim of historical or spiritual ties between the Jews and Palestine does not accord with the facts of history or the constituents of the state in its correct sense; Judaism, as a heavenly religion, is not a nationality with an independent existence, and the Jews are not one people with an independent personality but citizens in the states to which they belong (Article 18). Zionism is a colonial movement in its origin, aggressive and expansionist in its aims, racist and fanatical in its formation, and fascist in its goals and means, and Israel, its spearhead and a pillar of colonialism, is a permanent source of anxiety and disturbance in the Middle East and for the international family (Article 19); right, justice, security and peace require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement and prohibit its existence and activity (Article 20).
- Articles 21-22, principles and coexistence. Belief in justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination and human dignity and support for international efforts to establish peace on the basis of right and free international cooperation (Article 21); belief in peaceful coexistence on the basis of legitimate existence, for there is no coexistence with aggression and no peace with occupation and colonialism (Article 22).
- Articles 23-29, the Organization. The Palestine Liberation Organization performs its full role in liberating Palestine in accordance with its Basic Law (Article 23, in Arabic هذا الميثاق, this Charter, translation). The Organization exercises no territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Gaza Strip or the al-Himmah area, and its activity is on the national popular level in the liberational, organisational, political and financial fields (Article 24). It is responsible for the movement of the Palestinian people in its struggle in all those fields and in all the Palestine cause requires on the Arab and international levels (Article 25), cooperates with all Arab states, each according to its possibilities, without interfering in any Arab state’s internal affairs (Article 26), and will have a flag, an oath and an anthem under a special system (Article 27). Its Basic Law is attached, defining its formation, bodies, institutions and jurisdictions (Article 28). The Charter is amended only by a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization in a special session convened for that purpose (Article 29).
Key passages
- “فلسطين بحدودها التي كانت قائمة في عهد الانتداب البريطاني وحدة إقليمية لا تتجزأ” (Palestine, with its boundaries as they stood in the era of the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit, translation) (Article 2, line 69).
- “الفلسطينيون هم المواطنون العرب الذين كانوا يقيمون إقامة عادية في فلسطين حتى عام 1947، سواء من أخرج منها أو بقي فيها، وكل من ولد لأب عربي فلسطيني بعد هذا التاريخ داخل فلسطين أو خارجها هو فلسطيني” (The Palestinians are the Arab citizens who were ordinarily resident in Palestine until the year 1947, whether expelled from it or remaining in it, and everyone born to a Palestinian Arab father after this date, inside Palestine or outside it, is a Palestinian, translation) (Article 6, line 77).
- “اليهود الذين هم من أصل فلسطيني يعتبرون فلسطينيين إذا كانوا راغبين بأن يلتزموا العيش بولاء وسلام في فلسطين” (Jews who are of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians if they are willing to commit themselves to living in loyalty and peace in Palestine, translation) (Article 7, line 79).
- “إن تقسيم فلسطين الذي جرى عام 1947 وقيام إسرائيل باطل من أساسه مهما طال عليه الزمن” (The partition of Palestine that took place in 1947 and the establishment of Israel are void from their foundation, however long time passes, translation) (Article 17, line 99).
- “لا تمارس هذه المنظمة أية سيادة إقليمية على الضفة الغربية في المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية ولا قطاع غزة ولا منطقة الحمة” (This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, nor the Gaza Strip, nor the al-Himmah area, translation) (Article 24, line 113).
- “لا يعدل هذا الميثاق إلا بأكثرية ثلثي مجموع أعضاء المجلس الوطني لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية في جلسة خاصة يدعى إليها من أجل هذا الغرض” (This Charter is amended only by a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization in a special session convened for this purpose, translation) (Article 29, line 123).
Evidence the work relies on
The charter is a constitutive declaration, not an evidentiary work. It invokes, without quoting at length, the Charter of the United Nations (self-defence and self-determination), international customs and covenants, the principles of human rights, the 1947 partition of Palestine, the Balfour Promise and the Mandate instrument, and the attached Basic Law of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the PalQuest file lists separately as a related text of 2 June 1964 and does not reproduce.
Analysis
A founding programme in declarative articles in the original Arabic, moving from identity (Articles 1-7) through upbringing, unity and the Arab duty (Articles 8-16) and legal nullification of partition, the Balfour Promise and the Mandate instrument (Articles 17-20) to the Organization’s mandate and limits (Articles 23-29). Held against the PalQuest English translation ingested as Palestine National (qawmi) Charter (1964), the Arabic confirms the substance throughout and settles points where the English as printed is defective or loose: the Arabic of Article 2 is grammatically clean, where the English as printed has the slip ‘a indivisible’; the Arabic of Article 23 reads this Charter, where the English as printed has the slip ‘this Convent’; the Arabic of Article 18 names each of the Balfour Promise (وعد بلفور) and the Mandate instrument (صك الانتداب) in the singular, where the English renders the second as the Mandate system; and the Arabic of Article 19 describes Zionism as racist and fanatical (عنصرية تعصبية) in its formation, where the English renders that phrase as racist in its configurations. Its limits as a source are those of a programme text: it states claims and duties and gives no vote figures, attendance or drafting record.
People, organizations, places and events
Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian National Council, Balfour Declaration, Mandate for Palestine, City of Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza
Concepts
Self-determination, Partition, Zionism, Liberation of Palestine
How it relates to other sources
This is the Arabic original of the text ingested in English translation as Palestine National (qawmi) Charter (1964); the two files are the same charter from the same publisher, one in each language, and the differences recorded under Analysis are differences of the English rendering as printed, not of substance. It is the 1964 text that the The Palestinian National Charter (1968) of July 1968 revises, on the comparison recorded on the English page: the 1968 text drops the Article 24 disclaimer of territorial sovereignty, replaces Article 7’s test for Jews of Palestinian origin with residence in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion, and adds armed struggle and the revolution’s independence. Its nullification of the 1947 partition is the position from which it departs from UN General Assembly Resolution 181; its Article 18 treatment of the Balfour Promise and the Mandate instrument is to be read against those instruments themselves, Balfour Declaration and Mandate for Palestine.
Open questions
- The file gives no attendance, vote or drafting record for the founding session.
- The al-Himmah area (منطقة الحمة, Article 24) is named without definition or location in the text.
- The attached Basic Law (Article 28) is listed by PalQuest as a separate related text and is not reproduced in this file, so the organs and duties it defines are not accounted for here.
- Article 5 prints الأباء, with hamza on the alif in the word for fathers; whether that spelling is the charter’s own or a feature of the PalQuest reproduction is not established by this file.
Coverage
lines 1-221 of 221, read in full.