Palestinian National Covenant

The Palestinian National Covenant or Palestinian National Charter (Arabic: الميثاق الوطني الفلسطيني‎; transliterated: al-Mithaq al-Watani al-Filastini) is the charter or constitution of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Following a 1963 Draft Constitution the first version of the Charter was written by Ahmad Shukeiri, the first chairman of the PLO, using the slightly different name al-Mithaq al-Qawmi al-Filastini, meant to reflect its origins in Nasser's Pan-Arabism. The first official English translation rendered al-Mithaq as "covenant", while later versions have tended to use "charter." (The word changed in 1968 in the Arabic name is translated as "national" in either English translation.)

The Palestinian National Charter was adopted on May 28, 1964, establishing the Palestine Liberation Organization, in (east) Jerusalem along with another document, variously known as the Basic Constitution, Basic Law or Fundamental Law of the PLO, based on an earlier Draft Constitution. The Charter is concerned mainly with the aims of the Palestine Liberation Organization, while the Fundamental Law is more concerned with the structure and procedures of the organization.

The Charter was extensively amended, with seven new articles, in 1968 in the wake of the Six Day War and given its current name. Compared to its predecessor, it focused more on the independent national identity and vanguard role of the Palestinian people, led by the PLO, in their "liberation of their homeland" by armed struggle. Article 7 of the earlier document was changed from "Jews of Palestinian origin are considered Palestinians ..." to being restricted only to those "who had resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion." The final article providing that it can only be amended by a vote of a two-thirds majority of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) at a special session convened for that purpose was left unchanged.

The Fundamental Law was also amended, making it more democratic, electing the entire Executive Committee by the PNC, instead of just the Chairman, separating the post of the Speaker of the PNC from the Chairman of the Executive Committee and affirmed the authority of the Executive Committee over the army. Later, (Hirst, 2003, p. 427) a promised Charter amendment based on Fatah doctrine "that all Jews ...were to be entitled to Palestinian citizenship" failed due to doctrinal quarrels over the meaning of the precise nature of the proposed Democratic State.