Decisions of the international conference:
The participants in the conference agree that the purpose of the negotiations is to attain by peaceful means an agreement about all aspects of the Palestinian problem. The conference invites the sides to set up regional bilateral committees to negotiate bilateral issues.
Nature of the agreement between Jordan and Israel: Israel and Jordan agree that: 1. the international conference will not impose a solution and will not veto any agreement reached by the sides;
2. the negotiations will be conducted in bilateral committees in a direct manner;
3. the Palestinian issue will be discussed in a meeting of the Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli delegations;
4. the representatives of the Palestinians will be included in the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation;
5. participation in the conference will be based on acceptance of UN resolutions 242 and 338 by the sides and the renunciation of violence and terror;
6. each committee will conduct negotiations independently;
7. other issues will be resolved through mutual agreement between Jordan and Israel.
This document of understanding is pending approval of the incumbent governments of Israel and Jordan. The content of this document will be presented and proposed to the United States.
PLO Executive Committee: On the Intifada (December 1987)
The PLO Executive Committee held a joint meeting with the Higher Committee for Occupied Homeland Affairs this morning to continue discussing the current giant uprising of our people in the occupied territory—the uprising which has entered its second week. The conferees expressed great pride in the struggle being waged by the Palestinian masses in the cities, villages, and camps of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. The conferees also expressed their appreciation for the militant united stand exhibited by our masses in the Galilee, the Galilee Triangle, and the Negev.
This heroic steadfastness continues in the face of the Zionist and racist fascism and the tools of repression, killing, and crime used against our Palestinian people. This continuation proves that the iron will of the people to resist and confront occupation cannot soften or retreat until we extract our national inalienable rights, particularly our right to repatriation, self-determination, and an independent state under the leadership of the PLO, the sole, legitimate representative.
Our great masses in the occupied homeland today express, through their historical uprising, through the blood of the hundreds of martyrs and wounded, through their bravery, through the vigor of our prisoners, and through the struggle of all Palestinians—men, women, youths, and children—their determination to defeat the occupation forces and to expel them from the homeland regardless of the dear sacrifice and high price.
The entire world today looks with high appreciation and respect at this second uprising of all our people in our occupied territory for the sake of freedom, dignity, and independence. This uprising affirms that all fascist Zionist crimes, terrorism, and repression cannot save the criminal occupation from its inevitable crisis and fate; that is, their defeat and removal from the sacred Palestinian land, the land of fathers and grandfathers.
The names of our cities, villages, and camps have attracted the attention of all those who love and defend freedom in our Arab homeland and the entire world. These names have become symbols and titles of bravery and heroism to the entire world. Fascist crimes are perpetrated today by the Zionist occupation forces against women and children and against our defenseless people. The hospitals and places of worship are stormed. The camps and peaceful houses are treated as a battlefield. Thousands are arrested and put into mass detention camps. Children, old men, and women are killed. Tanks, planes, and combat units attack camp streets and homes. Herds of settlers are sent to practice bloody terrorism against our people. All these are crimes perpetrated by Zionist forces. These crimes disclose to human conscience and world public opinion the reality of this racist occupation and its objectives to annihilate our people, expel them from their homeland, and destroy all aspects of their existence.
The Zionist rulers today appear before the world as the inheritors of Nazism and fascism. However, crimes and terrorism cannot defeat our people’s determination and steadfastness. Such crimes and terrorism will increase the Zionists’ impasse and isolation and expose the collusion of their protectors in the U.S. Administration who have always mourned in defense of human rights. The Palestinian people are killed, tortured, and arrested. Their houses, hospitals, places of worship, and holy places are destroyed. Palestinian lands are seized. Palestinian water and food are stolen. Palestinian children are assassinated. While all this happens, those who claim to defend human rights do not even move to curb their tools and small agents, the Zionist rulers of Israel.
The powerful uprising has affirmed the strength and unity of all the factions of our people inside and outside occupied Palestine. It has also affirmed the people’s rallying around the PLO and their strong rejection of all suspect calls and projects aimed at dominating our people, forging our people’s will, and peddling the Zionist-U.S. plot to deprive them of their inalienable national rights. In their brave uprising, our people reject distributing roles, as well as any bribery for the so-called improvement of living, instead of ending the nightmare of the occupation and liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from which the prophet descended and in which Christ was born.
By their brave uprising, our masses are defending the unity of all the Palestinian people inside and outside the homeland. They also defend the Palestinian people’s unity of cause and rights and voice their adherence to every inch of their soil. They reject any attempt to divide the cause of the homeland, any encroachment on our established national rights, and adhere to the PLO’s program for struggle to liberate the holy land. Our people also call for holding an international conference as urged by UN resolutions, the Arab summit, nonaligned countries, and socialist and friendly countries.
At these historical and fateful moments in our people’s struggle, the PLO appeals to our Arab brothers—governments, parties, forces, institutions, and popular bodies—to increase their solidarity with and support for the uprising of our people. The pan-Arab responsibility and ties of brotherhood and solidarity are being shown today through support for our people by our brothers in our glorious Arab nation. This support asserts the unity of fate, struggle, and pan-Arab goals.
The PLO expresses its appreciation for the brotherly positions declared by many leaders, parties, and organizations. It also voices its pride in our nation’s solidarity with and unity of position toward their brothers, the sons of the Palestinian people. The PLO also expresses its appreciation for the positions of friendly countries, forces, allies, all African countries, non-aligned countries, Islamic countries, socialist countries, friendly countries, and many friendly parties and forces. These groups hastened to announce their solidarity with the uprising of our people, their condemnation of the crimes of the Zionist occupiers, and their call for ending the Zionists’ crimes against our people and terminating the nightmare of the Palestinian people’s homeland.
Our people appreciate this support for their struggle against occupation. It encourages their struggle and reinforces their confidence in victory. The Security Council discussions express the depth and comprehensiveness of this support for our people’s struggle, as well as the isolation, the disappointment, and the condemnation of the Zionist occupiers and their supporters. The PLO also voices appreciation for the positions of the democratic forces in Israel who voiced support for our people’s uprising, condemned the crimes of the Zionist rulers and their fascist army, and called for ending the occupation of our homeland. The PLO calls on those who are concerned about just peace to take a responsible position required by these historic moments against the fascist military ruling clique whose hands are stained with the blood of our people and who ignore the facts of the age and the clear Palestinian reality.
O our glorious people inside and outsid
e the occupied homeland. O you who continue steadfastness in Gaza, the West Bank, the Triangle, Galilee, and the Negev. O you who continue struggle in Lebanon’s camps and in all areas of diaspora. Our people reiterate that the way of struggle and unity is the only way to victory, to regain their firm national rights, and to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Your uprising in the occupied homeland enters human history because it expresses adherence to life, peace, freedom, honor, independence, the liberation of the homeland, and victory. Defenders of the Lebanon camps also support their brothers in the occupied homeland. They will retaliate for any Zionist aggression against southern Lebanon and the Palestinian camps side by side with the Lebanese national forces. They will stress with blood and martyrdom the people’s unity, struggle, and steadfastness.
In light of this, the PLO Executive Committee has passed a series of resolutions and made arrangements to continue a large-scale movement in Arab and international arenas to provide all the requirements of steadfastness and resistance for our people in the occupied homeland. It has decided that the employees of the PLO and the revolution’s institutions will donate a seven-day salary to the uprising. It also thanks President Saddam Husayn for his noble and brotherly initiative to support the families of the martyrs of the popular uprising and for calling on Palestinian and Arab masses to set up support committees. Glory to our people’s struggle and righteous martyrs. Greetings to our imprisoned heroes. Victory for our great people’s struggle. Revolution until victory.
West Bank-Gaza Palestinian Leaders: Fourteen Points (January 14, 1988)
During the past few weeks the Occupied Territories have witnessed a popular uprising against Israel’s occupation and its oppressive measures. This uprising has so far resulted in the martyrdom of tens of our people, the wounding of hundreds more, and the imprisonment of thousands of unarmed civilians.
This uprising has come to further affirm our people’s unbreakable commitment to its national aspirations. These aspirations include our people’s firm national rights of self-determination and of the establishment of an independent state on our national soil under the leadership of the PLO, as our sole legitimate representative. The uprising also comes as further proof of our indefatigable spirit and our rejection of the sense of despair which has begun to creep to the minds of some Arab leaders who claim that the uprising is the result of despair.
The conclusion to be drawn from this uprising is that the present state of affairs in the Palestinian Occupied Territories is unnatural and that Israeli occupation cannot continue forever. Real peace cannot be achieved except through the recognition of Palestinian national rights, including the right of self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State on Palestinian national soil. Should these rights not be recognized, then the continuation of Israeli occupation will lead to further violence and bloodshed, and the further deepening of hatred. The opportunity for peace will also move farther away.
The only way to extricate ourselves from this scenario is through the convening of an international conference with the participation of all concerned parties including the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, as an equal partner, as well as the five permanent members of the Security Council, under the supervision of the two superpowers.
On this basis we call upon the Israeli authorities to comply with the following list of demands as a means to prepare the atmosphere for the convening of the suggested international peace conference, which conference will ensure a just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects, bringing about the realization of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, peace and stability for the peoples of the region, and an end to violence and bloodshed: 1. To abide by the 4th Geneva Convention and all other international agreements pertaining to the protection of civilians, their properties and rights under a state of military occupation; to declare the Emergency Regulations of the British Mandate null and void, and to stop applying the iron fist policy;
2. The immediate compliance with Security Council Resolutions 605 and 607, which call upon Israel to abide by the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Declaration of Human Rights; and which further call for the achievement of a just and lasting settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict;
3. The release of all prisoners who were arrested during the recent uprising, and foremost among them our children. Also the rescinding of all proceedings and indictments against them;
4. The cancellation of the policy of expulsion, allowing all exiled Palestinians, including the four sent yesterday into exile, to return to their homes and families; also the release of all administrative detainees and the cancellation of the hundreds of house arrest orders. In this connection, special mention must be made of the several hundreds of applications for family reunions, which we call upon the authorities to accept forthwith;
5. The immediate lifting of the siege of all Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from all population centres;
6. Carrying out a formal inquiry into the behaviour of the soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as inside jails and detention camps, and taking due punitive measures against all those convicted of having caused death or bodily harm to unarmed civilians;
7. A cessation of all settlement activity and land confiscation and the release of lands already confiscated, especially in the Gaza Strip, and an end to the harassments and provocations of the Arab population by settlers in the West Bank and Gaza as well as in the Old City of Jerusalem. In particular, the curtailment of the provocative activities in the old city of Jerusalem by Sharon and the ultra-religious settlers of Shuvu Banim and Ateret Cohanim;
8. Refraining from any act which might impinge on the Muslim and Christian holy sites or which might introduce change to the status quo in the city of Jerusalem;
9. The cancellation of the VAT and all other Israeli taxes which are imposed on Palestinian residents in Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank, and in Gaza; and the putting to an end of the harassments caused to Palestinian business and tradesmen;
10. The cancellation of all restrictions on political freedoms, including the restrictions on meetings and conventions; also making provisions for free municipal elections under the supervision of a neutral authority;
11. The immediate release of monies deducted from the wages of labourers from the Occupied Territories who worked and still work inside the green line, which amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars. These accumulated deductions, with interest, must be returned to their rightful owners through the agency of the nationalist institutions headed by the worker’s unions;
12. The removal of all restrictions on building permits and licences for industrial projects and artesian wells as well as agricultural development programs in the Occupied Territories, and the rescinding of all measures taken to deprive the Occupied Territories of their water resources;
13. The termination of the policy of discrimination being practised against industrial and agricultural produce from the Occupied Territories either by removing the restrictions on the transfer of goods to within the green line, or by placing comparable trade restrictions on the transfer of Israeli goods into the Occupied Territories.
14. The removal of the restrictions on political contacts between inhabitants of the Occupied Territories and the PLO, in such a way as to allow for the participation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories in the proceedings of the Palestinian National Council, in order to ensure a direct input into the decision-making processes of the Palestinian Nation by the Palestinians under occupation.
Unified National Command of the Intifada: Call No. 6 (February 4, 1988)
Masses of our people, uprising multitudes in the camps, rural areas, and cities; you who by your will and determination have triumphed over the policy of entrenching the Zionist occupation and made your resounding voice heard throughout the world; creators
of the mounting struggle action, which has snatched the initiative from the hands of the Tel Aviv rulers and put them under siege and in a position of international condemnation; you who by your struggle are paving every day and every hour the road to victory, the defeat of occupation, and the establishment of an independent national state under the leadership of the PLO, our sole, legitimate representative; our masses: In order to save the Zionist occupation from certain defeat, as well as to save Israel from a strangulating crisis and isolation on an international level, U.S. imperialism at this time is continuing to hatch plots in the region with the support of its collaborators. It is attempting to undermine the gains of the uprising by proposing plans for capitulatory solutions. Foremost among these plans are those related to the United States, such as the U.S. State Department’s attempts to suggest that certain people produce an alternative to the PLO’s leadership, our sole, legitimate leadership.
Our masses, in the name of our Palestinian people in the interior, who have made precious sacrifices represented by the martyrdom of scores of their most beloved sons and daughters, the thousands of detainees, the hundreds of injured, and the attacks on many of our camps, villages, and cities by the Zionists, we say in the name of our people, who have endured and are still enduring such sacrifices with courage and pride, that we affirm our rejection of all plots and all attempts by imperialism’s envoys, including Philip Habib, to circumvent our legitimate leadership and to dictate surrender conditions such as recognition of Resolution 242. We affirm the determination of the people and the masses of the glorious uprising to foil all plots regardless of the different masks used by those behind them.
The PLO is our sole, legitimate representative. Therefore, whoever tries to represent the masses of the uprising from outside the PLO and to appoint a suspect leadership to make concessions and to surrender will be confronted by the Palestinian people. He will only face disappointment and miserable defeat.
The Israel-Arab Reader Page 46
