Arafat’s Denunciation of PLO Charter Draws Fire

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian-based PLO guerrilla groups today denounced Yasser Arafat for describing its charter seeking Israel’s destruction as obsolete and some said they would try to oust him as Palestinian leader.

“No one is allowed to amend the charter except a special session of the Palestine National Council,” said Khaled Fahoum, head of the hard-line Palestinian National Salvation Front.

Arafat, the PLO chairman, said in Paris on Tuesday that the 1964 charter of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, was null and void.

George Habash, head of the PLFP, said he was “horrified” by Arafat’s comments regarding the PLO charter.

“We shall show Arafat and the world that the PLO charter remains very well alive,” Habash said. “Arafat has no right to take such decisions.”

Arafat, on the second day of his Paris visit, today repeated his disavowal of the PLO charter. In a radio interview, he said the 1964 charter has been “superseded,” presumably by the PLO’s November declarations that renounced terrorism and implicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist.