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Palestine National Council, 13th Session: Political Declaration

Palestine National Council

Thirteenth Session

Political Declaration

Cairo, 20 March 1977

On the basis of the Palestinian National Covenant and of the resolutions of the previous National Council; from its concern for the political resolutions and gains achieved by the PLO at the Arab and international levels in the period since the twelfth Council; after discussion and study of the latest developments in the Palestine cause and in reassertion of support for Palestinian national struggle in Arab and international forums, the Palestine National Council stresses the following :

1. The Council stresses that the Palestine cause is the core and basis of the Arab-Zionist conflict, and that Security Council Resolution 242 ignores the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, and therefore the Council reaffirms its rejection of this resolution and of action taken on the basis of it, at either the Arab or international levels.

2. The Council stresses the PLO's determination to pursue armed struggle, accompanied by various forms of political and mass struggle, to achieve the non-negotiable national rights of the Palestinian Arab people.

3. The Council affirms that all forms of struggle – whether military, political or popular – in the occupied territories, constitute the central link in its programme of struggle. On this basis, the PLO strives to escalate armed struggle in the occupied territories, as well as all other forms of struggle accompanying it, while giving every moral support to our masses in the occupied territory so that they may escalate this struggle and consolidate their steadfastness in their efforts to liquidate the occupation.

4. The Council stresses the PLO's rejection of all types of American capitulationist settlements as well as any liquidationist projects. It also stresses the PLO's determination to confront and foil any settlement achieved at the expense of our people's inalienable national rights. It calls on the Arab nation to shoulder its national responsibilities and concentrate all its potentials for the confrontation of these imperialist-Zionist schemes.

5. The Council stresses the importance and necessity of national unity, both military and political, among all factions of the Palestinian Revolution within the framework of the PLO, for national unity is an essential precondition of victory. Therefore it is essential to consolidate national unity at all levels, on the basis of commit­ment to these resolutions, and to draw up the required programmes for their implementation.

6. The Council stresses its commitment to the right of the Palestinian Revolution to remain in the territory of Lebanon within the context of the Cairo Agreement, and its annexes, concluded between the PLO and the Lebanese authorities; and stresses its commitment to their implementation in letter and in spirit; and in as much as they provide for the protection of the Revolution's right to bear arms and the security of the camps rejects any unilateral interpretation of this agreement and its annexes, while at the same time fully observing the sovereignty and security of Lebanon.

7. The Council salutes the heroic Lebanese people and affirms the PLO's concern for the unity of its land and people, for its security, independence and sovereignty, for its Arab character; it stresses its pride in the support provided by this heroic people to the PLO, in its struggle to recover the national rights of our people in their homeland and their right to return to that homeland, and strongly stresses the necessity of deepening and consolidating the cohesion between all Lebanese nationalist forces and the Palestinian Revolution.

8. The. Council stresses the necessity of strengthening the Arab Front for the Support of the Palestinian Revolution and of deepening [the Revolution's] cohesion with all participating Arab nationalist forces in all Arab states. It also stresses the necessity of escalating the joint Arab struggle and of putting forward a formula of support for the Palestinian Revolution in its confrontation of Zionist-imperialist schemes.

9. The Council resolves to intensify Arab struggle and solidarity on the basis of anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist struggle and of action for the liberation of all occupied Arab territories, and in support of the Revolution in recovering the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian Arab people, without peace or recognition of Israel.

10. The Council reaffirms the PLO's right to meet its responsibilities at the Arab level in the struggle to liberate the occupied territory.

11. The Council resolves to pursue the struggle to recover our people's national rights and first and foremost, their right to return, to exercise self-determination and to establish their independent national state on their own land.

12. The Council stresses the necessity of consolidating cooperation and solidarity with the socialist countries, the non-aligned states, the Islamic states, the African states and with all national liberation movements in the world.

13. The Council salutes the attitude and endeavours of all states and forces which have taken a stand against Zionism as a form of racism, and against its aggressive practices.

14. The Council stresses the importance of relations and coordination with Jewish democratic and progressive forces inside and outside the occupied homeland, which are struggling against the ideology and practice of Zionism; and calls on all freedom-, peace-, and justice-loving forces and states in the world to discontinue all forms of aid to and cooperation with the racist Zionist regime, to condemn it and to reject all contacts with it.

15. Taking into consideration what has been achieved at the Arab and international levels since the end of the twelfth session of the Council, and after reviewing the political report submitted by the Executive Committee, the Council resolves the following:

A. Stresses its commitment to the PLO's right to participate, independently and on a basis of equality, in all international conferences, forums and efforts related to the Palestine question and the Arab-Zionist conflict with the intention of realizing our non-negotiable national rights which have been recognized by the UN General Assembly since 1974, in particular resolution 3236.

B. The Council declares that any settlement or agreement prejudicial to the rights of our Palestinian people concluded without reference to them is absolutely null and void.

 

Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, vol vi, no 3, Spring 1977.