Sections
About
Back
Document

Palestine National Council, 7th Session: Resolutions

Palestine National Council

Seventh Session

Resolutions

(Excerpts)

Cairo, 4 June 1970

At its first meeting the Palestine National Council …. adopted the following resolutions:

 Military Resolutions

I. Military Unification of Combatants

1. That the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization should be allotted the task of forming a single military command for the Palestinian. Revolution, consisting of:

a. A Military Council consisting of the military commands of the organizations and establishments in the Palestinian theater.

b. A General Staff drawn from the Military Council.

2. Th.at the Executive Committee shall decide on the name · of this command and determine its relations with the existing military establishments.

3. That this command shall abide by the instructions and orders of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization as being a supreme command with full control over all the forces of the Palestinian Revolution.

4. That the military forces active in the Palestinian Revolution shall be placed at the disposal of this command, which shall be entitled to command, develop and deploy these forces and to direct their operations.

5. That this command shall draw up unified training programs, and establish unified principles for organization, supplies, rationing and services to which all the forces shall subscribe, and that as soon as these principles are established the command shall reorganize these forces.

6. That the Military Command shall establish joint forces from the forces of the organizations, which will be paid for by the Palestinian National Fund. The individual organizations shall provide the National Fund with sufficient funds to cover the expenses of their forces in accordance with the decision of the Executive Committee of the Organization, until such time as the collection of funds is unified.

7. That no organization shall have the right to withdraw any of its forces that it has placed at the disposal of this Military Command.

8. That the Military Command shall divide. up the field of combatant activities into sectors of action, each of which shall have its Command Council consisting of the commanders of forces whose permanent strength is more than a company.

9. The commander of the sector shall be appointed by the Military Command of the Palestinian Revolution, with due regard for the size and efficiency of the forces in his sector.

10. The Military Command of the Revolution shall decide in whose name military · communiques on the operations of the joint forces shall be issued.

11. The decisions of the Military Command shall· be binding on all the military forces that form part of it, and this Command shall enforce its decisions in such manner as it sees fit.

III. The Palestine Liberation Army

15. All Palestinian military reservists shall be liable to the general mobilization of the Palestinian Revolution and shall constitute a general reserve for the Revolution. The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization shall have the right to call any of them to reserve service, in accordance with the appropriate regulations, and the Executive Committee shall make the necessary contacts to ensure the enforcement of this resolution.

16. The Palestine National Council recommends that the military qualifications and experience of Palestinians who have served in other Arab armies be turned to advantage.

 The Central Committee

I. The Palestine National Council resolves that, in accordance with the communique of June 6, 1970, the Central Com­mittee shall consist of the following members:

  1. The President of the National Council.
  2. The members of the Executive Committee.

c. The Commander in Chief of the Palestine Liberation Army.

d. Three independent members of the Palestine National Council chosen by the Executive Committee.

e. A command delegate, enjoying full powers, to represent each of the Palestinian organizations that signed the communique of June 6, I 970: there is no obligation for these to be members of the Palestine National Council. The Chairman of the Executive Committee shall be Chairman of the Central Committee.

II. The Central Committee shall continue to function as long as the National Council does not resolve to change, replace or dis­solve it.

III. The Central Committee shall represent the High Command for Palestinian Struggle in affairs that are referred to it, within the limits of its powers.

It shall:

a. Take decisions on urgent and unforeseen matters and problems in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Palestinian Nation­al. Charter.

b. Make constant efforts to find more advanced, profound and expanded formulae for national unity.

c. Follow up the implementation of its resolutions and those of the National Council.

d. Discuss matters referred to it by the Executive Committee or by any of its members and adopt the necessary resolutions in accordance with such internal regulations as may be decided on by the Central Committee.

IV. The Central Committee shall submit to the National Council, in ordinary or extraordinary session, a report on its activities and the extent to which they have proved effective.

V. The resolutions of the Central Committee must be in harmony with the National Charter, the Basic Regulations and the resolutions of the National Council, and the Executive Committee shall be responsible for enforcing the resolutions of the Central Committee.

VI. The Central Committee shall have the right to freeze or suspend the membership of any member or organization and to impose any penalty on them, on condition that the case is referred to the National Council when it next meets, when its decision shall be final. Every effort must be made to prevent the emergence of new organizations in the Palestinian theater.

Financial Resolutions

6. The Executive Committee is called on to make the necessary contacts with the Arab governments concerned to ensure that they pass the necessary legislation for the levying of the liberation tax from Palestinians living in their countries, and for the provision of the necessary facilities to enable the Organization's subsidiary bodies to collect popular contributions.

7. Every effort must be made to ensure that all Arab governments settle their accumulated liabilities, and the Executive Committee is called on to employ all possible means to achieve this end, including the sending of delegations for the purpose.

8. The Executive Committee is called on to persuade the Arab governments to allocate a percentage of their general and development budgets to the Palestine National Fund, to constitute a regular income for Palestinian action.

9. The Executive Committee is called on to persuade the Arab oil-exporting countries to increase the financial support they provide to the Palestine Liberation Organization and to ensure that it is paid into the National Fund.

I0. The Executive Committee is called on to make the necessary contacts with the governments concerned to ensure that they transfer deductions made from the salaries of Palestinian employees working in their countries to the Palestine National Fund.

11. The Executive Committee is called on to make the necessary contacts with the Arab governments concerned to ensure that the Palestine Liberation Organization and its subsidiary bodies are granted exemption from customs, telegraph, postal and telephone charges.

12. The Executive Committee is called on to make the necessary contacts with Arab governments and other quarters to ensure the formation of Support Palestine Committees so that the Palestine National Fund may cooperate with them in holding Support Palestine Weeks and depend on them for the execution of plans for the development of financial revenues.

On the Liquidation Solutions

1. The Palestine National Council resolves that the military solution is the only solution for the present conflict between us and the Zionist entity, and that this solution is to be achieved through continuing the people's war of liberation and escalating it to its full dimensions. However much the balance of power turns in our favor, a liquidation solution can never be anything but surrender and a miscarriage of our struggle and sacrifice, which will prevent our Revolution from fully realizing its aim of liberation. The Council affirms its rejection of all solutions involving surrender.  

2. The National Council calls on the Palestinian people in particular, and the Arab people in general, to escalate the struggle against the forces of imperialism, headed by the United States of America, to the greatest possible degree, and to promote the struggle in new fields.

3. The Palestine National Council calls on the Arab people in Jordan and Lebanon to stand in a single rank with the Palestinian Revolution in order to frustrate all conspiracies against it and to protect its rear from agents, and to support it with all available means to enable it to realize its aims, in view of the fact that the Arab territories which surround the Zionist entity are a legitimate base for Palestinian struggle.

The Steadfastness of the Palestinian Arab People in the Occupied Territories

a. The Executive Committee is called on to continue its efforts to persuade the Arab governments to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian Arab people in the occupied territory, and to invite them to meet their financial obligations to the extent required for this steadfastness to be maintained.

b. The Palestine National Fund shall be the organization which receives all kinds of financial aid and assistance for the support of steadfastness.

c. The Organization's subsidiary bodies shall be urged to make greater efforts to ensure the existence of all factors necessary for steadfastness in the occupied territories.

d. That Arab information organs in general shall be urged, and the Revolution's information organs in particular shall be charged, to participate in an operation to increase the awareness of the masses and to give greater significance to the idea of supporting steadfastness in the face of the enemy's conspiracies.

The Jordanian-Palestinian Theater

The Palestine National Council held a special session at which brothers from the East Bank, invited by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, were present and spoke. All present discussed the best practical methods of increasing cohesion and endurance in the face of the conspiracies of colonialism and Zionism and their agents, and the Council adopted the following resolutions:

a. To confirm the resolution it adopted at its session held on June I, 1970 to the effect that Palestinian struggle is based on faith in the unity of the people of the Jordanian-Palestinian theater and on the belief that the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation and that Palestine is part of Arab territory.

b. That the Central Committee and the Executive Committee shall take all necessary measures to establish and embody this principle at all levels, political, organizational, mass and trades union, in the Palestinian-Jordanian theater, and in cooperation with the national forces in the East Bank, as soon as possible.

c. That a higher committee be formed of members of the nationalist movement in the East Bank and of the Palestinian revolution, to ensure cohesion between the masses of our people in the Jordanian-Palestinian theater and to construct the firmest possible relations between the Palestinian revolution and the nationalist forces in the East Bank.

The Lebanese Theater

The Palestine National Council, while observing the present situation in South Lebanon, and after reading the memoran­dum submitted by the Executive Committee of the National Conference of the Movement for the Fortification of the South, and with due regard for its contents, resolves the following:

a. To condemn the attitude of the subservient and counter-revolutionary forces that are trying to isolate the Palestinian resistance from the Lebanese masses.

b. To call on the combatant forces to strengthen their relations at all levels with the masses of South Lebanon and to participate in arming and organizing them and strengthening their endurance.

c. To extol the heroic role played by the resistance forces in repelling Israeli aggres­sions and the role played by the Lebanese masses in supporting and protecting the resistance movement.

d. The Council resolves to form a higher committee of members of both the national movement in Lebanon and the Palestinian revolution to ensure cohesion between the two peoples and to protect the Palestinian revolution.

e. The Palestine National Council salutes the people of Lebanon for the way they have held out in the face of all the con­spiracies that have been devised, and are still being devised, against the Palestinian revolution. The Palestinian revolution offers all its resources to our Lebanese Arab people in South Lebanon to strengthen their endurance and consolidate their cohesion with the Palestinian revolution in their confrontation of the Zionist peril and imperialist ambitions.

f. To call on the Arab countries to support Lebanon militarily and financially by allocating a budget for the strengthening of its endurance.

The Democratic State

The Council refers the subject of the “Democratic State” to the Executive Committee for exhaustive study, the conclusions of which it shall submit to the National Council at its next session, so that it may take the appropriate decisions.

 

Source: International Documents on Palestine, 1970. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1973, p. 820-26.