Palestine Liberation Organization

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Thesis Statement1

Palestine Liberation Organization3

Palestine and Its History4

Peace Negotiation between Israel and Palestine9

It's 1947, Not 196710

Reasons for Rejecting Israel as a Jewish State12

Why Recognition Matters?15

The Challenge of Reconciliation17

Conclusion19

End Notes21

Palestine Liberation Organization

Introduction

PLO or Palestine Liberation Organization is a political organization which represents the Arabs of Palestine. Since its founding in 1964, PLO embodies and represents the claims of the Palestinian people on the territories occupied by Israel after the foundation of this State. The Palestine Liberation Organization was founded during a conference in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem in May 1964. Although composed of refugee groups and Fedayeen guerrillas (including Fatah, the Saiqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), PLO soon received accessions to individual and professional associations, workers and students groups. However, the Fedayeen have always played a dominant role. The PLO, according to its statutes, aims to mobilize the Palestinian people to regain their usurped home. Its aim is to substitute Israel with a secular Palestinian state. Since the foundation of the state, the PLO has organized numerous terrorist and guerrilla actions inside and outside the country. However, the PLO was responsible for serious violations carried out by the Fedayeen, as happened in the Munich Olympics in 1972 during which several Israeli athletes were killed. Three different bodies perform the functions of the PLO Executive Committee (where are represented the main Fedayeen groups), the Central Committee (an advisory) and the Palestine National Council, seen as a Parliament of the Palestinian people. In connection to the PLO, this paper will analyze the role PLO has played throughout history in getting recognition for the Palestinian population.

Thesis Statement

PLO has played a significant role in getting recognition of the Palestinian Arabs all over the world, but has been failed as a negotiator of rights.

Palestine Liberation Organization

Since 1968, the PLO has been headed by Yasir Arafat, leader of Al Fatah. At an Arab summit in Rabat (Morocco) in 1974, the PLO was recognized by the Arab League as "the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." Later, Arafat delivered a speech at the United Nations Organization (UN), where the PLO has the role of observer. In 1970, the PLO was involved in a war, short but very bitter against the Jordanian Armed Forces, which were rooted most of the Fedayeen. After leaving the territory of Jordan, the PLO moved to Lebanon and gradually became a state within a state, contributing to the disintegration of Lebanon after 1975. The invasion of Lebanon by Israel in 1982 severely weakened the PLO presence in this country, intensified the disintegration of the organization into factions and forced dispersal 12,000 of its members to Syria and other Arab countries.

PLO members loyal to Arafat made their headquarters in Tunisia. An Israeli bombing in October 1985 seriously damaged the main building. In July 1988, King Hussein I of Jordan ceded to the PLO all rights in the West Bank territories occupied by Israel. In November of that year, during a meeting of the Palestine National Council ...