The PLO does not truly represent all components of the Palestinian people because its current structure is not democratic.
The Palestinian National Council (PNC) is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization and elects its Executive Committee, which assumes leadership of the organization between its sessions. The PNC normally meets every two years and have been meeting in the occupied territories under Israel’s protection since Oslo was signed in 1993. .
Candidates for the PNC must be nominated by a committee consisting of the PLO Executive Committee, the PNC chairman, and the commander in chief of the Palestine Liberation Army. After nomination PNC candidates must be elected by a majority of the entire PNC membership.
As can be seen from the above, the PNC members are not directly elected by the general Palestinian population and the current election process prevents true representation of the Palestinian people.
One of its most prominent members, the Palestinian-Americanscholar and activist Edward Said, left the PNC because he believed that the Oslo Accords sold short the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel and would not lead to a lasting peace.
After the signing of the Oslo Accords, the PNC met in Gaza in April 1996 and voted 504 to 54 to void parts of the Palestinian National Covenant that denied Israel's right to exist, but the charter itself has not been formally changed or re-drafted.
Human rights campaigner Mazin Qumsiyeh from the occupied West Banks points out that the PLO charter has never been amended legally. He also points out that the majority of Palestinians in the Diaspora have been disenfranchised by the actions of the PLO and its offspring the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, he demonstrates that the aims and objectives of the PLO have been overturned by the "failed Oslo accords".
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