The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the prospective parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), met in Gaza on 24 April 1996 and voted—504 in favour, 54 against, with 14 abstentions—to amend the PLO Charter, specifically to excise the articles calling for Israel’s destruction.1 The Charter was to be redrafted by the PLO’s legal committee and presented to the PLO Central Committee for final approval. Many at the time thought this was a momentous breakthrough in the Oslo peace process, but it turned out to be an instructive microcosm of why it failed.
