The Palestine National Covenant

www.chuckmorse.com ^ | August 23, 2002 | Chuck Morse

[Tailgunner Joe]

The Palestine National Covenant, passed by the Palestine National Council, July 1968, blatantly displays the imperialist-fascist nature of the Palestinian-Arab movement. Unlike Zionism, which focuses on the modest aspirations of the Jewish people for a national homeland in Palestine, the Palestinian covenant declares Palestine to be "an indivisible part of the Arab homeland."(Article 1) The covenant views Palestine as "an integral part of the Arab nation" rather than as a potentially sovereign state in its own right. This position is reminiscent of Nazi claims of the right of Germans to control all Aryan peoples under one empire. The Nazis justified their expansionism, and the liquidation of non-Germans within their expanding borders, with the same premise as the one articulated in this Palestinian covenant.

The covenant grandiosely claims a right of Palestinian-Arabs, after conquering Palestine, "to determine their destinyin accordance with their wishes and entirely of their own accord and will."(Article 4). The implications of this are spelled out in Article 6 "The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians." In other words, a Jew who settled in the Arab fatherland, which presumably means any Israeli Jew proven to have ancestry dating back to the 1881 "Second Aliyah" flight by Jews to Palestine from the Russian pogroms, could be expelled.

In fact, Palestine hadn't been Arab since medieval times, but was rather an Ottoman Turkish sub-province for 400 years before the British Mandate. Most Arabs who now declare themselves to be Palestinian actually settled in the region around the same time as the Jews. The position of the covenant is that it is illegal for peoples of one background to settle in the land of another. Carried to its logical conclusion, this would mean that Arabs and Muslims who have settled in Europe and North America could be expelled. Arabs and Muslims, who settled there before World War I perhaps, or some other arbitrary date, could be declared to be European or American using this logic.

The covenant defines Palestinians as "Arab nationals who normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or have stayed there. Anyone born after 1947 of a Palestinian father, whether inside Palestine or outside it is also Palestinian."(Article 5) The designation "Palestinian" actually dates back to the recent 1968 covenant itself. At the same time, the covenant refers to Palestinians as "an integral part of the Arab nation." This is the basis by which Arab nations have kept their fellow Arabs in refugee camps, which are actually internment or even concentration camps.

Article 12 further reveals Palestinian identity to be a ruse with the statement that "The Palestinian people believe in Arab unity. In order to contribute their share toward the attainment of that objective, however, they must, at the present stage of their struggle, safeguard their Palestinian identity." This totalitarian notion finds its origin in Islamic teachings of a world divided into Islamic and infidel spheres with the Muslim commanded by Allah to engage in Jihad, or war against the infidels until the entire planet is subdued. The idea resonates as well with modern scientific socialism, which also believes, as an article of faith, in world revolution to create a utopian world government. Both Islam and socialism would view a Palestinian movement as a dialectical temporary device toward the greater goal.

Article 14 further expresses these utopian ideas when it states "The destiny of the Arab nation, and indeed Arab existence itself, depend upon the destiny of the Palestinian cause." Such a proclamation seems paranoid in light of the fact that over 20 sovereign and mostly oil rich Arab States stretch from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. Arabs believe that Israel is responsible for all manner of problems in their societies, even personal problems within families. They are taught that if Israel is wiped out, they will discover peace, love and other niceties. Israel provides a convenient scapegoat for the corruption of their own systems.

The covenant commits the newly defined Palestinians to perpetual armed struggle against Israel. Article 10 calls for "Commando actionits escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts in the armed Palestinian revolution." Palestinians mean what they say and Israel, by any standard of international law and custom, has a natural right to protect its sovereignty and the lives of its people.