Letter to the Editor:
The Rabin Center recently immortalized Rabin as the father of Oslo.
I sincerely feel that the Rabin Center should adjust their bravado dramatically pertaining to Rabin and Oslo.
Oslo did produce 1/2 of its promise of Land for Peace. Control of significant segments of land was transferred by Israel to the Palestinians; however, Palestinian “Peace” has been a fraud before, during and after Oslo. The Palestinian leadership has never changed one word of their promise and Oslo obligation to annul the onerous charter clauses to destroy Israel.
Prime Minister Rabin in his September 9, 1993 letter in response to Arafat’s promise that the PLO would submit to the PNC for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant, stated, “In response to your letter of September 9, 1993, I wish to confirm to you that, in light of the PLO commitments included in your letter, the Government of Israel has decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and commence negotiations with the PLO within the Middle East peace process.” Rabin should have paid attention to Jordan’s late King Hussein’s favorite expression, “Arafat never came to a bridge he would not double-cross.”
More than two years later on October 5, 1997 in a speech to the Knesset, Rabin emphasized the importance of the Palestinian obligation to change the Charter by stating, “the Palestinian Authority has not – up until now – honored its commitment to change the Palestinian Covenant, and that all of the promises on this matter have not been kept. I would like to bring it to the attention of the members of the house that I view these changes as a supreme test of the Palestinian Authority’s willingness and ability, and the changes required will be an important and serious touchstone vis-a-vis the continued implementation of the agreement as a whole.”
The following clause was inserted in the Interim Agreement in an attempt to force the Palestinian leadership to comply with Arafat’s promise to have the PNC change the Charter. Article XXXI, Paragraph 9: “The PLO undertakes that, within two months of the date of the inauguration of the Council (Interim Agreement), the Palestinian National Council will convene and formally approve the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant, as undertaken in the letters signed by the Chairman of the PLO and addressed to the Prime Minister of Israel, dated September 9, 1993 and May 4, 1994.” The inauguration of the Interim Agreement occurred on March 7, 1996.
The PNC did timely meet in April 1996 and did pass a two clause resolution to supposedly respond to the obligation above. Clause One merely generalized the PNC’s intention to change the Charter pursuant to the September 1993 exchange of letters between Arafat and Rabin. Clause Two authorized the legal committee to redraft the Charter and present the new charter to Palestinian Central Council (PCC). There is no language in the 1968 Charter referring to the PCC. There is no evidence that any new Charter was redrafted pursuant to Clause Two of the Charter. No specific clause change in the Charter was ever mentioned in either clause of the resolution. April 1996 PNC meeting is the only meeting which has ever been held by the PNC with respect to changing the Charter. Clause 33 of the Charter states: “This Charter shall not be amended save by [vote of] a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of the National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization [taken] at a special session convened for that purpose.”
Arafat sent a letter to President Clinton in January 13, 1998, in which he alleged that as a result of the PNC resolution, clauses 6-10, 15, 19-23, and 30 were annulled and clauses 1-5, 11-14, 16-18, 25-27 and 29 were partially annulled. Arafat’s interpretation of Clause One of the resolution, is one of history’s greatest lies.
The heads of all of the Palestinian ministries verbally reaffirmed Arafat’s lying annulments and partial charter annulments. This vote was accepted by President Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu. These alleged annulments have never appeared in a PNC document or in any Palestinian document.
The 1968 PLO unchanged Charter calling for the destruction of Israel, is still the only Palestinian Charter in existence, other than the Hamas 1998 Charter, which is substantially worse than the PLO Charter.
Respectfully,
William K. Langfan
(This letter to the editor was written on 9/29/2016)