PLO says Arab violence against Israel is “a sacred right anchored in the UN Charter”

Headline: “The [Palestinian] National Council: Our people’s right to defend itself is sacred and non-negotiable”

“The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) said that our people’s right to defend itself against the occupation and its crimes is a sacred right that is non-negotiable, and it is a right that is anchored in the UN Charter and the regulations allowing peoples to resist occupation in order to achieve their freedom and independence.

In a statement that it published yesterday, Friday [May 14, 2021], the National Council emphasized that our people’s struggle that stretches across its historical land, in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, and in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel) emphasizes anew its adherence to its united national identity that the occupation has failed to erase and expropriate despite the passing of 73 years since the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel).”

The PLO statement was made during ongoing violent Arab riots in Jerusalem and other mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, and while Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli population centers.

UN Resolution 3236 - PA leaders and officials have legitimized Palestinian violence by quoting UN resolution 3236 which "recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means." The PA interprets "all means" as including violence against civilians, but has chosen to ignore the continuation of the resolution which states that the use of "all means" should be "in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations..." The UN Charter prohibits targeting civilians, even in war. Chapter 1, Article 1, opens by saying that "international disputes" should be resolved "by peaceful means."