Sorry, CNN is mistaken. In 1993 and again in 1994 Arafat agreed to amend the Palestinian Covenant. It wasn’t done. It was again included in the Oslo Interim Agreement signed in 1995, Article 31 clause 9. The Charter can only be changed by a 2/3 vote of the National Congress at a special session, which has never been called. Arafat has not fulfilled any of these promises to amend the charter. Neither has he acknowledged Israels right to exist, nor renounced terrorism. I’ve included a few links discussing the topic, though frankly they’re not hard to find.
Peace Watch: PNC VOTE DOES NOT FULFILL PLO OBLIGATION TO AMEND COVENANT
The decision made by the Palestinian National Council (PNC) last night regarding the PLO Covenant does not satisfy the obligation laid down in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (Oslo II).
U.S. TO ARAFAT: COMPLY WITH OSLO AGREEMENTS OR LOSE AID
Arafat reinforces Israeli mistrust by failing to purge calls for violence and the destruction of Israel from the PLO charter, the Palestinian Covenant. Changes in the covenant are required by the 1993 Oslo agreement, the 1995 Oslo II agreement, and the Note for the Record attached to the January 1997 Hebron Protocol, yet the Palestinians refuse to follow through on pledges to amend the covenant.
The Amendment of the Palestinian Covenant
However, no redrafted Charter has yet emerged, and the PLO executive committee meeting did not ratify the letter from Arafat to Clinton, which specified the amendments to the Charter….
Wye and the Palestinian Covenant: New Demands from Israel?
While the PNC did meet on April 24, 1996, rather than voting on specific changes to the Covenant (as required by the Covenant itself), it merely approved a resolution referring the matter to a legal committee which was to suggest a draft of a revised covenant. That committee has neither met nor even been formed. Recognizing this failure to change the Covenant, the Note for the Record of the Hebron Accord states under "Palestinian Responsibilities"…
WAS THE PALESTINIAN CHARTER CHANGED AS CLAIMED?
Palestinian National Council met and is reported to have decided "The Palestinian 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 9-10 September 1993" and "Assigns its legal committee with the task of redrafting the Palestinian National Charter in order to present it to the first session of the Palestinian central council." The canceled articles were not specified.
The Covenant, in which critics say 30 of 33 provisions in one way or another call for the eradication of the Zionist state, is as much symbolic as substantive. Arafat contends the offensive passages were canceled by the Palestinian National Council in its April 24, 1996, meeting, and the American and Israeli governments agreed at that time. But Netanyahu and his supporters reject that.