Palestinian Liberation Organization
Palestinian Liberation Organization1. Can the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) justifiably claim
to be ‘the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.’?
The PLO was set up in 1964 by an Arab League decision in response
to growing signs of Palestinian unrest. The Palestinians desired to reclaim
the lands occupied by Israel, which they felt belonged to them, as said in
the Bible. In 1964 the Arab states created the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO). While it was supposed to represent the Palestinians,
in reality it represented the views of President Nasser of Egypt, who
guided the formation of the PLO. Its first leader made wild and
irresponsible threats to drive Israelis into the sea, and had little
support among Palestinians for he was seen as a puppet of the Egyptians. In
the 1960s Palestinian students began to form their own organizations
independent of control by Arab governments (although the Syrians, Libyans,
and Iraqis continued to fund and control particular groups). Yasser Arafat
founded an independent Palestinian-run party called Fatah. He is said to
have the backing, for most of the recent past, of about 80% of the
Palestinian people. The position of the Arab governments was that a PLO
under Arab League supervision would be the best way of satisfying the
demands made by an emerging Palestinian national consciousness. Also, it
was felt that through such an organization Arab governments could control
Palestinian political activities.
Ten years after its founding, the PLO was raised to the status of
government. And in 1988, the PLO’s status was to be raised again, this
time to a state in exile. After several negotiations, Arafat became a
Terrorist leader and administrator of self-rule in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip.
In the 1967 Six Day War, the Arab armies did very badly against
Israel, losing 67,000 square kilometres of land. Palestinians came to
believe that if they were ever to have their land, they would have to do it
themselves. After the 1967 war, the situation changed drastically. The
resistance activities of various guerrilla organizations, in particular the
Al-Fatah and the PFLP, gained the increasing support of the Palestinians.
With Arafat at the helm from 1969 and a resistance-oriented leadership, the
PLO was more effective and played a central role in mobilizing the
Palestinians and in expanding its basis of support both at the local and
international level. The PLO became an umbrella organization for the
various guerrilla groups.
This increase in support was made possible because of the
Al-Fatah’s ability to access to the growing numbers of volunteers from
refugee camps which were freshly swollen due to the 1967 war. Most of these
refugees suffered...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.