Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 9. The PLO Charter of 1964
In 1964 the Palestinian leaders met in Jerusalem under the tutelage of President Nasser of Egypt. Nasser was a great hero to the Arab people, someone who believed that all Arabs shared a common destiny and that they alone should control that destiny free of foreign influence. He had become a hero in 1956 for standing up to the British and French and Israelis. He had sponsored the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO. Now he was sponsoring this conference at which the Palestinians would define their identity and their goals.
It would be helpful if you would go online and print out an actual copy of this document. It is only a couple of pages long. Note that the charter was revised at different times so be sure you get the original version of 1964.
As I have read this many times, and discussed it many times with my students, it has seemed to me that there are definite parallels between Palestinian thinking and Jewish thinking as exhibited in Herzl's Der Judenstaat. You can decide if you agree with that or not.
Again, that awesome theme music is by G. Kevin Dewey.