Palestinian Liberation Organization Essay Research Paper Palestinian

Palestinian Liberation Organization- Essay, Research Paper

Palestinian Liberation Organization-

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 the frustration of having been

displaced twice in a lifetime. This generated, especially among the

young, a mood of defiance, as they were ready to question the

credibility of the idea of relying on Arab governments to liberate

Palestine. Furthermore, as a consequence of the war a large proportion

of the Palestinian community became territorially united. This brought

the possibility of direct interaction between the various sections of

the Palestinian community that had previously remained isolated from

each other. On the other hand, the inability of the PLO’s conservative

leadership to promote any effective resistance operations culminated

in the eventual transfer of power to the armed-struggle orientated

guerrilla organizations. Thus initially, the PLO had a broad base of

support and represented the desires of the majority of the Palestinian

people.

The origins of the Al-Fatah can be traced back to the mid-1950s

to a group of Palestinians that had neither relinquished their

national identity nor their belief in the necessity of liberating

Palestine via Palestinian means, rather than relying on other Arab

states. Yet, throughout the 1950s the attitude of the Palestinians

remained largely skeptical if not uncommitted to Al-Faith’s ideology.

It was in the 1960s that the situation began to change, enabling

Al-Fatah to expand its organizational structure and base. Under the

leadership of Arafat, Al-Fatah pursued an ideology which simply

stresses the nationalist struggle to liberate Palestine without

dwelling too deeply on any theoretical speculations about the nature

and form of the future Palestinian society. This tactic was essential

in gaining support against other movements, and aided the rise of

Al-Fatah to become the dominating faction within the PLO.

Militarily, the PLO has a broad base of human resources for

recruitment, almost half a million. The PLO has established

across-the-board conscription for all the

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