PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO)
In the context of the first Arab-Israeli war and the end of the political entity of Palestine following the annexation of the West Bank by Jordan on April 24, 1950, the Palestinian resistance is organized.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created on May 28, 1964, at the initiative of the League of Arab States, following the first Arab Summit organized by Nasser in Cairo from January 13 to 17, 1964. OLP brings together Palestinian resistance movements. Palestinian lawyer Ahmad al-Shuqayri, after representing Saudi Arabia at the UN, is appointed head of the PLO.
Following the Arab Summit in Cairo, the organization is gradually being put in place. A congress gathering Palestinian representatives as well as members of the League of Arab States is held in Jerusalem from May 28 to June 2, 1964. This first Palestinian National Congress (NPC), the equivalent of a Parliament, sets up structures of the PLO, with the creation of the Executive Committee of the PLO (CEOLP), of which Ahmad al-Shuqayri is president, and the adoption of a Charter. A Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) is also created, the PLO’s envisaged means of action being armed struggle. If the Palestinian people have been considered since this first Congress as the political representative of Palestine, the notions of territory and state are not mentioned. Offices of the PLO settle in different Arab countries,
On June 1, 1965, the second Palestinian National Congress was held in Cairo, and on May 20, 1966, the third was held in Gaza, during which the PLO asked the Arab States to act freely from their territories. Jordan is opposed, and despite the PLO’s request to hold a referendum with the Palestinian population in Jordan, the Jordanian parliament decides to stop all relations with the PLO. In 1967, Jordan reconnected with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amine al-Husseini, who was received in March in Amman by King Hussein.
As a result of the six-day war, which resulted in Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, resistance is being organized both in these two territories and from neighboring Arab states. Ahmad al-Shuqayri resigns as president of the PLO. In July 1968, the fourth Palestinian National Congress meets. Palestinian resistance organizations, which now make up the PLO (including Fatah and PFLP), are included. The Charter adopted in 1964 is amended, with emphasis on the armed struggle to liberate Palestine and to establish a Palestinian state throughout historic Palestine, which involves the destruction of the State of Israel. This military orientation is the one advocated by Fatah, the majority within the PLO. Yasser Arafat becomes its president at the fifth Palestinian National Congress, which is held from 2 to 4 February 1969. The PLO establishes services for the population: health, education, management of Palestinian funds and donations to Palestinian families. It also recognizes the existence of the Palestinian people.
The PLO settles in Amman, and the Palestinian camps are used to recruit combatants. The latter are carrying out attacks against Israel, which retaliates with reprisals against Jordan. This situation provokes clashes between Jordan and the Palestinians, which continue until 1970. At the beginning of September 1970, while the troubles worsened and the PFLP hijacked European and American civil aircraft at a Jordan airport, King Hussein , with the support of the US, decides to end the Palestinian resistance. On September 15, 1970 (Black September), the Jordanian army attacked Palestinian camps in Jordan. The Jordanian initiative provokes Arab protest, and Nasser organizes in Cairo from September 23rd an Arab Summit to which Yasser Arafat and King Hussein surrender.
Starting from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and following the VII Arab Summit held in Rabat on October 29, 1974, which recognizes the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, political and diplomatic orientation is preferred to military action. This recognition is also the result of the UN, which asks the PLO to become an observer member and invites Arafat in 1974. Offices of the PLO are also established in Europe.
The Lebanon war, the Camp David accords of September 1978 and the peace between Israel and Egypt on March 26, 1979, the peace operation in Galilee in 1982, the departure of Palestinian fighters and the installation of the PLO in Tunis are all events that weaken the PLO and break its resistance dynamic. The PLO regains its representativity during the first intifada, launched in December 1987.
King Hussein of Jordan’s decision of 31 July 1988 to sever administrative ties with the West Bank and leave the PLO to deal with the Palestinian problem is an opportunity for the PLO to create a Palestinian state on the 15th. November 1988, which is recognized by about 90 states. The UN partition plan of November 1947 is also accepted, with the division of historic Palestine into two states, one Palestinian and the other Jewish. It was then that the Gulf War was unleashed on January 17, 1991. While the majority of Arab states joined the coalition, the PLO sided with Iraq (as well as Libya), establishing the link between the capture of Kuwait by Iraq and that of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel. This choice has several consequences: the Palestinian population of Kuwait is described as a “traitor” and has to leave Kuwait. She takes refuge in Jordan. In addition, the PLO loses its diplomatic credibility with the United States and the Arab States, so that at the Madrid Conference of 30 October 1991, Palestinians “from within” are associated with the Jordanian delegation and not ‘PLO. This one comes back on the scene during the Oslo agreements of 1993, then of 1995.
Following the Oslo Accords, Arafat sets up the PLO in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the PLO faces the political rise of Hamas, which rejects the political orientation of the PLO and favors the armed struggle against Israel. The second intifada launched in September 2000 again weakens the PLO, as well as the reoccupation of the West Bank by the Israeli army from December 2001 to April 2002 and the military encirclement of Arafat’s West Bank headquarters. Arafat died in Paris on November 11, 2004. Mahmoud Abbas, his prime minister, was elected head of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.
Bibliography:
_ Olivier CARRE and Nadine PICAUDOU, “Palestinians”, in Universalis Encyclopaedia 2009.
Frédéric ENCEL and François THUAL, Geopolitics of Israel , Thresholds, 2006, 486 pages.
Maurice FLORY, Bahgat KORANY, Robert MANTRAN, Michel CAMAU, Pierre AGATE, Arab political regimes , PUF, Paris, 1991, 578 pages.…
