"Wednesday's vote by the Palestinian National Council, in closed session, to delegate the necessary authority to a so-called 'Legal Committee' was only a first step, stated Gilman in a statement issued in Washington."
"The vote did not specify the clauses to be deleted from the Charter, nor did it establish a date by which the committee was to report back to the full Palestinian National Council, nor yet a date by which the Council itself was to act. As of now, the obligation to amend the Charter has not yet been fulfilled."
"Gilman said the PNC vote was important. It shows that PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat understands that the Covenant with its language calling for the destruction of Israel is an obstacle to peace, and that Arafat can deliver when he understands that he must." Congressman Gilman is the Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and serves the 20th District-NY) (SNS..5/1).
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Arutz Sheva News Service Wednesday, May 1, 1996 / Iyar 12, 5756 ------------------------------------------------- 3. GILMAN CONFIRMS THAT PLO HAS NOT CHANGED CHARTER U.S. Representative Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, called on the PLO to comply with its obligations and delete the clauses in its covenant that are inimical to Israel by May 7, as set forth in the Oslo II agreement. "The recent PNC vote [which] delegated the necessary authority to a so-called 'legal committee' was only a first step. The vote did not specify the clauses to be deleted from the charter, nor did it establish a date by which the committee was to report back to the full Palestinian National Council, nor yet a date by which the Council itself was to act. As of now, the obligation to amend the charter has not been fulfilled." 4. PERES ATTACKED FOR STATEMENTS ON PNC VOTE Professor Yehoshua Porat, a member of Meretz, called the recent government and media responses blessing the so-called cancellation of the Palestinian covenant "an act of deception." Likud party leader Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking today from the Knesset podium, said that he was originally mislead by Prime Minister Peres when he called the Palestinian move 'the most important development in the last 100 years,' but that "now the truth has come out that the Palestinian National Council has only made a bureaucratic decision to establish a committee to discuss the matter."