A Durable Peace (63 page)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Berlin, April 28, 1942

Your Eminence:

In response to your letter and to the accompanying communication of His Excellency, Prime Minister Raschid Ali El Gailani,
and confirming the terms of our conversation, I have the honour to inform you:

The German Government appreciates fully the confidence of the Arab peoples in the Axis Powers in their aims and in their determination
to conduct the fight against the common enemy until victory is achieved. The German Government has the greatest understanding
for the national aspirations of the Arab countries as have been expressed by you both and the greatest sympathy for the sufferings
of your peoples under British oppression.

I have therefore the honour to assure you, in complete agreement with the Italian Government, that the independence and freedom
of the suffering Arab countries presently subjected to British oppression, is also one of the aims of the German Government.

Germany is consequently ready to give all her support to the oppressed Arab countries in their fight against British domination,
for the fulfillment of their national aim to independence and sovereignty and for the destruction of the Jewish National Home
in Palestine.

As previously agreed, the content of this letter should be maintained absolutely secret until we decide otherwise.

I beg your Eminence to be assured of my highest esteem and consideration.

(Signed) Ribbentrop

To His Eminence

the Grossmufti of Palestine

Amin El Husseini.

This Covenant will be called “The Palestinian National Covenant”
(Al-Mîhâq Al-Watanî Al-Filastînî).

Palestine is the homeland of the Palestine Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of
Palestine is a part of the Arab Nation.

Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British Mandate is an integral regional unit.

The Palestinian Arab people possesses the legal right to its homeland, and when the liberation of its homeland is completed
it will exercise self-determination solely according to its own will and choice.

The Palestinian personality is an innate, persistent characteristic that does not disappear, and it is transferred from fathers
to sons. The Zionist occupation, and the dispersal of the Palestinian Arab people as result of the disasters which came over
it, do not deprive it of its Palestinian personality and affiliation and do not nullify them.

The Palestinians are the Arab citizens who were living permanently in Palestine until 1947, whether they were expelled from
there or remained. Whoever is born to a Palestinian Arab father after this date, within Palestine or outside it, is a Palestinian.

Jews who were living permanently in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.

The Palestinian affiliation and the material, spiritual and historical tie with Palestine are permanent realities. The upbringing
of the Palestinian individual in an Arab and revolutionary fashion, the undertaking of all means of forging consciousness
and training the
Palestinian,
in order to acquaint him profoundly with his homeland, spiritually and materially, and preparing him for the conflict and
the armed struggle, as well as for the sacrifice of his property and his life to restore his homeland, until the liberation—all
this is a national duty.

The phase in which the people of Palestine is living is that of the national
(Watanî)
struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Therefore, the contradictions among the Palestinian national forces are of a secondary
order which must be suspended in the interest of the fundamental contradiction between Zionism and colonialism on the one
side and the Palestinian Arab people on the other. On this basis, the Palestinian masses, whether in the homeland or in places
of exile
(Mahâjir),
organizations and individuals, comprise one national front which acts to restore Palestine and liberate it through armed struggle.

Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not tactics. The Palestinian Arab people
affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to march forward toward the armed
popular revolution, to liberate its homeland and return to it, [to maintain] its right to a natural life in it, and to exercise
its right of self-determination in it and sovereignty over it.

Fedayeen action forms the nucleus of the popular Palestinian war of liberation. This demands its promotion, extension and
protection, and
the mobilization of all the mass and scientific capacities of the Palestinians, their organization and involvement in the
armed Palestinian revolution, and cohesion in the national
{Watanî)
struggle among the various groups of the people of Palestine, and between them and the Arab masses, to guarantee the continuation
of the revolution, its advancement and victory.

The Palestinians will have three mottoes: National
(Wataniyya)
unity, national
(Qawmiyya)
mobilization and liberation.

The Palestinian Arab people believes in Arab unity. In order to fulfill its role in realizing this, it must preserve, in this
phase of its national
(Watanî)
struggle, its Palestinian personality and the constituents thereof, increase consciousness of its existence and resist any
plan that tends to disintegrate or weaken it.

Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary aims. Each one paves the way for realization of the other.
Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity. Working for both goes
hand in hand.

The destiny of the Arab nation, indeed the very Arab existence, depends upon the destiny of the Palestine issue. The endeavor
and effort of the Arab nation to liberate Palestine follows from this connection. The people of Palestine assumes its vanguard
role in realizing this sacred national
(Qawmî)
aim.

The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national
{Qawmî)
duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine.
Its full responsibilities fall upon the Arab nation, peoples and governments, with the Palestinian Arab people at their head.

For this purpose, the Arab nation must mobilize its military, human, material and spiritual capabilities to participate actively
with the people of Palestine. They must, especially in the present stage of armed Palestinian revolution, grant and offer
the people of Palestine all possible help and every material and human support, and afford it every sure means
and opportunity enabling it to continue to assume its vanguard role in pursuing its armed revolution until the liberation
of its homeland.

The liberation of Palestine, from a spiritual viewpoint, will prepare an atmosphere of tranquility and peace for the Holy
Land, in the shade of which all the holy places will be safeguarded, and freedom of worship and visitation to all will be
guaranteed, without distinction or discrimination of race, color, language or religion. For this reason, the people of Palestine
looks to the support of all the spiritual forces in the world.

The liberation of Palestine, from a human viewpoint, will restore to the Palestinian man his dignity, glory and freedom. For
this, the Palestinian Arab people looks to the support of those in the world who believe in the dignity and freedom of man.

The liberation of Palestine, from an international viewpoint, is a defensive act necessitated by the requirements of self-defense.
For this reason, the people of Palestine, desiring to befriend all peoples, looks to the support of the states which love
freedom, justice and peace in restoring the legal situation to Palestine, establishing security and peace in its territory,
and enabling its people to exercise national
(Wataniyya)
sovereignty and national
(Qawmiyyd)
freedom.

The partitioning of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void, whatever time has elapsed,
because it was contrary to the wish of the people of Palestine and its natural right to its homeland, and contradicts the
principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, the first of which is the right of self-determination.

The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate Document, and what has been based upon them are considered null and void. The claim of
a historical or spiritual tie between Jews and Palestine does not tally with historical realities nor with the constituents
of statehood in their true sense. Judaism, in its character as a religion of revelation, is not a nationality with an independent
existence. Likewise, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality. They are rather citizens of the states to
which they belong.

The Palestinian Arab people, in expressing itself through the armed Palestinian revolution, rejects every solution that is
a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine, and rejects all plans that aim at the settlement of the Palestine issue
or its internationalization.

Zionism is a political movement organically related to world imperialism and hostile to all movements of liberation and progress
in the world. It is a racist and fanatical movement in its formation; aggressive, expansionist and colonialist in its aims;
and Fascist and Nazi in its means. Israel is the tool of the Zionist movement and a human and geographical base for world
imperialism. It is a concentration and jumping-off point for imperialism in the heart of the Arab homeland, to strike at the
hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity and progress.

Israel is a constant threat to peace in the Middle East and the entire world. Since the liberation of Palestine will liquidate
the Zionist and imperialist presence and bring about the stabilization of peace in the Middle East, the people of Palestine
looks to the support of all liberal men of the world and all the forces of good progress and peace; and implores all of them,
regardless of their different leanings and orientations, to offer all help and support to the people of Palestine in its just
and legal struggle to liberate its homeland.

The demands of security and peace and the requirements of truth and justice oblige all states that preserve friendly relations
among peoples and maintain the loyalty of citizens to their homelands to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement and to
prohibit its existence and activity.

The Palestinian Arab people believes in the principles of justice, freedom, sovereignty, self-determination, human dignity
and the right of peoples to exercise them.

To realize the aims of this Covenant and its principles the Palestine Liberation Organization will undertake its full role
in liberating Palestine.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, which represents the forces of the Palestinian revolution, is responsible for the movement
of the Palestinian Arab people in its struggle to restore its homeland, liberate it, return to it and exercise the right of
self-determination in it. This responsibility extends to all military, political and financial matters, and all else that
the Palestine issue requires in the Arab and international spheres.

The Palestine Liberation Organization will cooperate with all Arab states, each according to its capacities, and will maintain
neutrality in their mutual relations in the light of, and on the basis of, the requirements of the battle of liberation, and
will not interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab state.

The Palestinian Arab people insists upon the originality and independence of its national
(Wataniyya)
revolution and rejects every manner of interference, guardianship and subordination.

The Palestinian Arab people possesses the prior and original right in liberating and restoring its homeland and will define
its position with reference to all states and powers on the basis of their positions with reference to the issue [of Palestine]
and the extent of their support for [the Palestinian Arab people] in its revolution to realize its aims.