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Palestine Liberation Organization
manzama al-tahrir al-fulastinia

The Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in 1964 as a Palestinian nationalist umbrella organization dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The PLO is a union of many closely aligned groups with similar aims. The PLO is an umbrella organization composed of several groups with diverse ideologies that have as their common goal the achievement of a Palestinian state. The PLO is governed by its parliament, the Palestine National Council (PNC), which is made up of representatives from the PLO member groups as well as independent members. The real power is heald by the 15 member Executive Committee that meets regularly and functions much like a board of directors.

As of 2004 Yassir Arafat wore four different hats: he was the elected president (al-ra'is) of the Palestinian Authority, the interim government on the West Bank and Gaza Strip; he was the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); he was the head of the major faction within the PLO, Fatah; and, as was usually forgotten, he was also the president of the State of Palestine that was officially declared by the PLO in 1988. The first nucleus of the Palestinian liberation movements began as rebellious and rebellious and ended as moderate and peaceful. Between the beginning and the end was a long journey that was punctuated by calamities and pain, and in which principles and convictions were shaken. The Palestine Liberation Organization was established in 1964 following a decision issued by the first Arab summit held in Cairo. Before that, Palestine had been formally represented in the university since its founding in 1945. This representation increased and interest in it increased after the 1948 war and the subsequent establishment of the Israeli state. The First Arab Summit Conference commissioned the representative of Palestine, Ahmed Al-Shugairi, to present a vision for the second summit regarding the establishment of an entity that speaks on behalf of the Palestinian people, and to develop a draft charter and statute. Al-Shugairi’s efforts, through his visit to many Palestinian communities spread across Arab countries, resulted in the election of the “Palestinian National Council,” which is considered the legislative authority of the organization. The First Palestinian Arab Conference, which was held for this purpose in Jerusalem on August 28, 1964, announced the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization, ratified the organization’s National Charter and its statute, and elected Al-Shuqayri as Chairman of its Executive Committee, whose members he was tasked with selecting. The organization proposed the project of an independent Palestinian state based on secular democratic foundations, and justified this by saying that its armed struggle is not an ethnic or sectarian struggle against the Jews. Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 War. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, control devolved to the leadership of the various fedayeen militia groups, of which the leading was Yasser Arafat's Al-Fatah. In 1969, Arafat became chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, a position he still holds. In the early 1970s, several groups affiliated with the PLO carried out numerous international terrorist attacks. By the mid-1970s, under international pressure, the PLO claimed it would restrict attacks to Israel and the occupied territories. Several terrorist attacks were later carried out by groups affiliated with the PLO/Fatah, including the Hawari Group, the Palestine Liberation Front, and Force 17, against targets inside and outside Israel. In 1972, the organization rejected the United Arab Kingdom project called for by the late Jordanian King Hussein bin Talal , which linked the West Bank to Jordan into a single kingdom in which the West Bank would be represented by a parliament, with oversight of Jordan’s defense and foreign affairs. The Arab Summit held in Rabat in 1974 was considered an important historical turning point for the PLO and for the Palestinian cause in general. A decision was issued by the summit deeming “the PLO the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” which qualified it to take an “observer” seat in the United Nations and speak on behalf of The Palestinian people in international forums. The relationship between the organization and many Arab countries was characterized by periods of push and pull depending on the harmony of the political positions of these countries or their differences with the orientations of the organization. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was a prominent example of this. The period of King Hussein witnessed a crisis that reached the point of explosion in some periods as well. It happened in 1970-1971, the events that became known as Black September. The forces affiliated with the organization considered the Jordanian authority an obstacle to their resistance to the Israeli presence, while Jordan considered these forces a state within a state and accused them of seeking to overthrow the regime. Military clashes occurred that ended after the Arab leaders - at their summit held in this regard in Cairo in 1970 - brokered a ceasefire agreement, followed by the exit of the Palestinian resistance to Lebanon. As soon as the Palestine Liberation Organization settled in Lebanon, the civil war broke out in 1975 and the Palestinian resistance factions became involved. Instead of the resistance’s bullets being directed at Israel, as a result of this strife, they were directed at the chests of the Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians themselves. Israel took the presence of the Palestinian resistance on Lebanese soil as a pretext to invade Beirut in 1982, destroy the resistance’s infrastructure, and impose a severe siege on its gathering places. This war ended after Arab and international mediation with the departure of 12,000 fighters who were affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization to Syria and some other Arab countries, in exchange for allowing the head of the organization, Yasser Arafat, and his companions to leave for Tunisia , the new headquarters of the organization. The Palestine Liberation Organization settled in Tunisia after the headquarters of the Arab League was transferred to it following the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in 1979. The organization was not spared from Israeli attacks, as Israeli aircraft bombed its headquarters in 1985, and an Israeli commando assassinated two of its most prominent leaders, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) and Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad). In the early 1980s, PLO became fragmented into several contending groups but remains the preeminent Palestinian organization. The Palestine Liberation Organization, along with other resistance factions, contributed to the 1987 Intifada, which returned the Palestinian issue to the global agenda again after years of political neglect. One of the most important results of this intifada - in addition to the material losses it inflicted on Israel - was that it removed fear from the hearts of Palestinian youth and returned the option of armed resistance to the forefront of the solutions proposed to solve the Palestinian problem. The United States considered the PLO an umbrella organization that includes several constituent groups and individuals holding differing views on terrorism. At the same time, US policy accepted that elements of the PLO had advocated, carried out, or accepted responsibility for acts of terrorism. PLO Chairman Arafat publicly renounced terrorism in December 1988 on behalf of the PLO. The United States considers that all PLO groups, including Al-Fatah, Force 17, Hawari Group, PLF, and PFLP, were bound by Arafat's renunciation of terrorism. The US-PLO dialogue was suspended after the PLO failed to condemn the 30 May 1990 PLF attack on Israeli beaches. PLF head Abu Abbas left the PLO Executive Committee in September 1991; his seat was filled by another PLF member. In the First Gulf War, the organization was affected politically and economically by the position taken by its leader Yasser Arafat, which Kuwait interpreted as being supportive of Iraq in its invasion in 1990. It prevented the financial support it was giving to the organization and expelled most of the Palestinian workers residing there. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are now administered to varying extents by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Pursuant to the May 1994 Gaza-Jericho agreement and the September 1995 Interim Agreement, Israel transferred most responsibilities for civil government in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank to the PA. At the Madrid Conference, the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Resolution 242 issued by the Security Council, which carries within it implicit recognition of the State of Israel, after it had for years opposed it and considered it a neglect of the historical rights of the Palestinian people. In the early 1990s, an international peace conference was held between the Arabs and Israel in Madrid, attended by the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. With the promise of the Madrid Conference, the organization entered into secret negotiations with Israel, hosted by the Norwegian capital, Oslo, and ended with the announcement of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which changed the organization’s strategy, so that it began to consider the elimination of the State of Israel as a relic of the past. in accordance with the Oslo Accords, and after letters of mutual recognition between the organization and Israel, arrangements were made for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while postponing decisions on sensitive fateful issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, state, water and borders. In 1994, the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, chose 19 members and formed the Palestinian National Council to arrange administrative matters related to self-government in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. According to the 1995 agreements between the organization and Israel, it was agreed to expand the powers of self-government in some of the occupied territories except East Jerusalem. In January 1996, Palestinians chose their first popularly elected government in democratic elections, which were generally well-conducted. Arafat was elected president of the autonomous regions, and in the same year the Palestine Liberation Organization officially changed the sentences and phrases in its charter calling for the elimination of the State of Israel and Arafat’s pledge to fight terrorism. The 88-member Council and the Chairman of the Executive Authority were elected. The PA also has a cabinet of 20 appointed ministers who oversee 23 ministries. PA Chairman Yasir Arafat continued to dominate the affairs of government and to make major decisions. Most senior government positions in the PA are held by individuals who are members of, or loyal to, Arafat's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in September 2000 following the provocative visit made by Ariel Sharon, who was involved in several massacres against the Palestinian people, the most famous of which was the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. Various Palestinian resistance factions participated in this uprising and inflicted painful human and material losses on Israel. The Israeli government accused one of the factions of the organization (Fatah Movement) and its affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of “terrorism,” and the American administration described it with the same thing and placed it on the list of terrorist organizations required to be fought and dismantled, which placed the organization itself between the hammer of Israeli strikes and the anvil of American pressure. Calls have grown to reform the organization's structures and enable all factions to join it, especially the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad. Palestinian events witnessed a remarkable development after the signing of the Cairo Declaration in March 2005, which stipulated holding local and legislative elections and adopting dialogue to resolve differences. Hamas won the majority - contrary to what was expected - and the situation became tense with the imposition of the siege on the Gaza Strip and the outbreak of an armed conflict between Hamas. Fatah led to Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip. Thus, intra-Palestinian relations entered a dark tunnel in which the initiative to establish a national unity government headed by Rami Hamdallah in 2013 did not succeed in pushing forward the reform of the organization and the inclusion of all factions in it. Organization committees The Executive Committee is considered the executive authority of the organization. Al-Shugairi, Hamouda, and Arafat chaired this committee respectively, and it is responsible for the following tasks:

- Representing the Palestinian people. – Supervising the organization’s formations. – Issuing regulations and instructions and making decisions to organize the organization’s work, provided that they do not conflict with the charter or statute. – Implementing the organization’s financial policy and preparing its budget.

Departments of the Organization The organization established several departments to distribute responsibilities and supervise their implementation. These departments varied according to their specializations, including political, economic, and social. Some of them no longer exist due to changing political circumstances, and others are still working in the Palestinian arena.

The Secretariat: It is responsible for managing the relationship between the various departments of the organization and the Arab state agencies in the country hosting the headquarters of the Executive Committee. Political Department: It is charged with managing the political activities carried out by the organization at various levels, whether with countries, parties, or Arab and foreign organizations. The Military Department: It is entrusted with the responsibility of expressing opinion and advice to the Chairman of the Executive Committee on military and organizational matters related to the Liberation Army and the Palestinian Revolutionary Forces. The Palestinian National Fund Department: It is the body charged with receiving various resources, financing the Palestine Liberation Organization and the agencies that emerge from it, and monitoring the spending process. Department of Occupied Homeland Affairs: It is concerned with the issues of the occupied homeland, studying its economic, social and educational conditions, and preparing plans for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people within their occupied homeland. National Relations Department: It is concerned with strengthening relations between the organization and Arab parties and relations with unofficial international organizations in consultation with the Political Department. Department of Information and Culture: Charged with supervising the organization’s media and cultural activities and participating in Arab and international activities and conferences. Popular Organization Department: Charged with supervising the activity of the elections and the Palestinian popular unions and organizations participating in its general conferences. Department of Social Affairs: It sponsors the social services that must be provided to the families of the martyrs and the wounded, raises the standards of the poor classes, and pays attention to women. Administrative Affairs Department: It is concerned with administrative affairs related to the organization and its employees.

The National Council The statute of the PLO stipulates the establishment of a National Council whose members are elected by direct vote by the people, and which organizes election mechanisms according to developments on the ground. The Statute confirms that the National Council is the supreme authority of the PLO and is the one who sets the organization’s policy and programmes. Its regular term is three years and it meets periodically once a year, or in extraordinary sessions at the invitation of its president based on a request from the Executive Committee or from a quarter of the Council’s members.