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Letter
From Chairman Arafat to US President William Clinton on the Amendments
to the Palestine National Charter
His
Excellency President William Clinton
President of the United States of America
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr.
President,
In the mutual recognition letters between myself and the late
Prime Minister Itzhaq Rabbin of September 9/10, 1993, the PLO
committed to recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist
in peace and security, to accept UN Security Council Resolutions
242 and 338 and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between
the two ides. The PLO also agreed to secure the necessary
changes in the Palestinian Covenant to reflect these
commitments.
Accordingly, the P.N.C. was held in Gaza city between 22-25 of
April 1996, and in an extraordinary session decided that the
"Palestine National Charter is hereby amended by canceling
the articles that are contrary to the letters exchanged between
the P.L.O and the Government of Israel on 9/10 September
1993".
It should be noted that the above mentioned resolution acquired
the consent of both the American Administration and the Israeli
Government. Afterwards I sent letters concerning this historic
resolution to your Excellency and Prime Minister Shimon Peres,
and later a similar letter was sent to Prime Minister Benyamin
Netanyahu.
Both your Excellency and Prime Minister Peres warmly welcomed
the P.N.C. Resolution.
The Israeli Labor Party, and in appreciation of the P.N.C.
resolution dropped its objection to the establishment of a
Palestinian State from its political platform.
From time to time questions have been raised about the effect of
the Palestine National Council's action, particularly concerning
which of the 33 articles of the Palestinian Covenant have been
changed.
We would like to put to rest these concerns. The Palestine
National Council's resolution, in accordance with Article 33 of
the Covenant, is a comprehensive amendment of the Covenant. All
of the provisions of the Covenant which are inconsistent with
the P.L.O. commitment to recognize and live in peace side by
side with Israel are no longer in effect.
As a result, Articles 6-10,15, 19-23, and 30 have been
nullified, and the parts in Articles 1-5, 11-14, 16-l8, 25-27
and 29 that are in consistent with the above mentioned
commitments have also been nullified.
I can assure you on behalf of the PLO and the Palestinian
Authority that all the provisions of the Covenant that were
inconsistent with the commitments of September 9/10, 1993 ) to Prime Minister Rabin, have been nullified.
Nablus : January 13, 1998
Yasser
Arafat
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the P.L.O.
President of the P.N.A.
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