The PLO Charter change never happened
The PLO Charter change never happened

Former President Clinton on Dec. 14, 1998 stated the following in response to a raised arm verbal vote of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the other ministries, reaffirming a Jan. 13, 1998 letter from Arafat to President Clinton:

"I thank you for your rejection fully, finally, and forever of the passages in the Palestinian Charter calling for the destruction of Israel, for they were the ideological underpinnings of a struggle renounced at Oslo. By revoking them once and for all, you have sent, I say again, a powerful message not to the Government but to the people of Israel. You will touch people on the street there. You will reach their hearts there. . ."

Prime Minister Netanyahu, on page 258 of his book published in the year 2000, stated the following: ". . . At our demand the Palestinian Authority annulled the passages in the PLO Charter calling for Israel's destruction. . ."

The NY Times headline and the portion of the article on April 25, 1996 stated, "PLO Ends Call for Destruction of Jewish State": "Bowing to the insistent demands of Yasir Arafat, the main assembly of the Palestine Liberation Organization voted today to revoke the clauses in its 32-year-old charter that called for an armed struggle to destroy the Jewish state. . ."

The NY Times headline and the portion of the article on Dec. 15, 1998, "Clinton in the Mideast; Clinton Watches as Palestinians Drop Call for Israel's Destruction": "With President Clinton as their witness, hundreds of former Palestinian guerrilla fighters voted here today to rid their organization's charter of any clauses calling for the destruction of Israel, knocking down a critical roadblock on the rutted path to peace. . ."

PLO Charter clause changes were an absolute Palestinian obligation of the Oslo Peace Agreement. The Palestinian leaders engaged in several steps of chicanery to bamboozle the world into believing that these charter changes were made.

I unequivocally state as a fact, not as an opinion, that not one charter clause has ever been changed pursuant to clause 33 of the 1968 PLO charter.

I also state that the above President Clinton quote; the above PM Netanyahu quote; and the two NY Times headlines are absolutely false.

First, Clause 33 of the Charter as amended in 1968 specifically states that there can be no change to the Charter unless 2/3’s of the full membership of the Palestinian National Council and such a vote can only be made in a meeting specially noticed for an amendment change. This did not occur.

Clause one of the Resolution voted on states that the PNC decides “amending the Palestinian National Charter and cancelling the Charter’s articles opposing the exchanged letters between the PLO and the Israeli Government on September 9th and 10th, 1993. Clause 2 of the resolution states that a legal committee would be formed to draft a new Charter. The committee was never formed.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 1996 issued a communication which stated that the PLO had failed to amend the Charter’s clauses no later than May 7, 1996. It further stated that “By leaving the Covenant (the Charter) intact, the PLO sends a clear message that it has not renounced violence nor accepted Israel’s right to exist.”

In order to buttress my certainty that the Palestinian leaders have violated their obligation to change the charter, I hereby offer a $1,000,000 Wells Fargo check to the first person who presents a validly voted written PNC resolution with the twelve (12) specifically annulled charter clauses and the new language of the sixteen (16) clauses which were allegedly partially annulled in Arafat's January 1998 letter to President Clinton.

It never happened.