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Palestine National Council, 17th Session: Final Statement

Palestine National Council

Seventeenth Session

Final Statement

(Excerpts)

Amman, 29 November 1984

The convening of the PNC has embodied the patriotic Palestinian identity, the independence of Palestinian national decision-making, the freedom of the Palestinian will and the legitimacy of the Palestinian Revolution, which finds its expression in the PLO leader of our people and symbol of our struggle.

The Executive Committee was formed thus granting the work of the PLO and its institutions the efficiency and effectiveness on all levels and in all fields, including the Arab and international fields.

 As a result of all the views and speeches which were presented, including the petition[s] cabled and letters which were received from our people in the occupied homeland and from our friends in the world. . . . Resolutions have included:

1. The concern for the need to achieve Palestinian national unity with independent will and decision-making, faithful and trustworthy [to] the objectives for which our struggle and our Organization have been launched, and for whose sake hundreds of martyrs gave their lives.

These resolutions have stated the need to continue the dialogue which took place in Aden and Algiers in order to reach national unity.

This dialogue and its consequences can be considered as a positive base to continue the dialogue between the organizations and the national Palestinian forces.

The resolutions of the PNC also stated that the Presidential Bureau of the PNC and the Executive Committee were commissioned to form a committee composed of their members to participate in the follow-up of the global national dialogue in order to enrich it and guarantee its continuity and success in achieving and preserving the Palestinian national unity.

2. The PNC, while considering that the right of self-determination to return and to establish the Palestinian state is the basic approach to any just political move to our cause, reaffirms the resolutions of its previous session relevant to its position concerning Resolution 242, which does not deal with our cause as the cause of a people and their rights, but as the cause of refugees, thereby denying our national rights.

The PNC reaffirms its rejection of all the plans which do not include these rights, particularly the Camp David accords, the autonomy plan, the Reagan initiative and all plans which do not recognize our national inalienable rights.

Our PNC also declares that its national independent decision-making is linked to the [Arab]national dimension which considers that any solution to the cause of Palestine can only be achieved in accordance with international legality and on the basis of the UN resolutions relevant to Palestine and within the framework of an international conference in which both superpowers would participate under the auspices of the United Nations and the Security Council in the presence of all parties concerned, including the PLO, on an equal footing.

3. As for Jordan, the PNC has decided to continue the endeavours to develop relations with Jordan with the objective of coordination for the purpose of achieving our common objectives of the liberation of the Palestinian man and the Palestinian land. This is based on our firm conviction in the one same destiny, on the basis of what the Arabs have agreed upon in Fez and in coordination with the Arab states.

As for fraternal Syria, we value its militant Arab history, its geo-political importance and military capacity. The PNC has taken as a recommendation the need to overcome tensions and bypass the pain, the wounds and the feelings of bitterness with the aim of redressing the relations on a clear and frank basis to include the freedom of will and national Palestinian decision-making, and balance relations within the context of national commitment, away from interference in the internal affairs of either party, in order to mobilize all the potentials for the confrontation of the American-Israeli alliance and of its plans.

As for fraternal Egypt, we highly appreciate and value its place and role. The PNC has clarified the constants in Arab-Egyptian relations and the development in Egyptian policy. The PNC requested the Executive Committee to follow a policy relying on this basis and which fulfills the requirements of our people in Egypt and the Gaza Strip and to work on enhancing the relations between the two fraternal Egyptian and Palestinian peoples.

The PNC reaffirms its resolutions relative to the enhancement and development of relations with the fraternal Arab states in accordance with the resolutions of the 16th session.

The PNC reaffirms the continuation of the support by the Palestinian people and the PLO of the struggle of the Lebanese people for the liberation of their land, their territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

4. The PNC extended to the people of our occupied territory a salute of great pride and high appreciation for their tremendous steadfastness in their confrontation with Zionist occupation and its racist and terrorist practices, this in defense of their freedom, their land and their Holy Places, in particular in Jerusalem, where al-Masjed al-Aqsa, al-Haram al-Ibrahimi and all the Muslim and Christian sites are being endangered by desecration and judaization.

The council saluted the adherence of our people in the occupied homeland to the PLO and its legitimate leadership which was expressed by demonstrations approving and supporting the convening of the PNC and during which martyrs gave their lives.

Consequently, the PNC decided to name its 17th session the session of the martyrs of the PNC.

The PNC saluted the prisoners and detainees in the enemy's prisons in the occupied homeland and in South Lebanon.

The PNC took a number of resolutions to intensify the steadfastness and resistance of our people in order to achieve the liberation of our land by all legal means, mainly and essentially by the intensification of struggle.

 

Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, Winter 1985.