, leading to a later rupture in Palestinian-Kuwaiti ties and the expulsion of many Palestinians from
.
with Israel. The accords were signed on
. There was a subsequent public ceremony in Washington D.C. on
. The Accords granted the Palestinians right to self-government on the
. Yasser Arafat was appointed head of the PA and a timetable for elections was laid out which saw Arafat elected president in January 1996, 18 months behind schedule. Although the PLO and the
are not formally linked the PLO dominates the administration. The headquarters of the PLO were moved to
on the West Bank.
, Arafat issued a press release stating that "the PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security".
Numerous leaders within the PLO and the PA, including Yasser Arafat himself, have declared that the State of
has a permanent right to exist, and that the peace treaty with Israel is genuine, though members of the PLO have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against Israelis since the Oslo Accords. Some Palestinian officials have stated that the peace treaty must be viewed as permanent. According to some opinion polls majority of Israelis believe Palestinians should have a state of their own—a major shift in attitude from the pre-Oslo years—even though both
were both against the creation of a Palestinian state both before and after the signing of Oslo. At the same time, a significant portion of the Israeli public and some political leaders (including the former
) express doubt over whether a peaceful, coherent state can be founded by the PLO and call for significant re-organization, including the elimination of all terrorism, before any talk about independence.
Main article: Al-Aqsa Intifada Al-Aqsa Intifadah In the Cairo Declaration and the
Prisoners' Document, Palestinian factions agreed to rebuild the PLO. A meeting will be held in Damascus to discuss its future.
Development and reactivation The PLO was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people before the international community, and was granted observer status as a
national liberation movement by the
United Nations General Assembly. On
January 12,
1976 the
UN Security Council voted 11-1 with 3 abstentions to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate without voting rights, a privilege usually restricted to UN member states.
After the
Palestinian Declaration of Independence the PLO's representation was renamed Palestine. On
July 7,
1998, this status was extended to allow participation in General Assembly debates, though not in voting.
In numerous Resolutions by the General Assembly the PLO was declared the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian People". This was recognised by Israel in the Oslo Accords from 1993.
The PLO's diplomatic relations with other Arab countries, particularly those against Israel, are fairly misunderstood. Most Islamic Arab countries generally dislike and show contempt for the PLO, due to the fact that most of its formidable members are leftists, communists, and seculars.
The PLO in the United Nations The
Palestinian National Charter as amended in 1968 endorsed the use of violence, specifically "armed struggle" against "Zionist imperialism." Article 10 of the Palestinian National Charter states "Commando (Feday'ee) action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory."
The most controversial element of text of the
Palestinian National Charter were many clauses declaring the creation of the state of Israel "null and void", since it was created by force on Palestinian soil calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.
In letters exchanged between Arafat and Rabin in conjunction with the 1993
Oslo Accords, Arafat agreed that those clauses would be removed. On
26 April 1996, the Palestine National Council held a meeting in camera, at whose end it was announced that the Council had voted to nullify or amend all such clauses, and called for a new text to be produced. At the time, Israeli political figures and academics expressed suspicions and doubts this that this is what had actually taken place, and continued to claim that controversial clauses were still in force.
A letter from Arafat to US President
Bill Clinton in 1998 listed the clauses concerned, and a meeting of the Palestine Central Committee approved that list. To remove all doubt the vote this time was held in a public meeting of PLO, PNC and PCC members which was televised worldwide and in the presence of none other than the President of the United States Bill Clinton in person, who arrived in the Gaza Strip for that specific purpose. Israel's Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu accepted this as the promised nullification.
The fact that a new text of the Charter has never been produced the source of a continuing controversy, with critics of the Palestinian organizations claim that failure to produce a new text proves the insincerity of the clause nullifications. (Such criticism being, however, confined mainly to marginal groups on the far right side of the Israeli political spectrum). One of several Palestinian responses is that the proper replacement of the Charter will be the constitution of the forthcoming state of Palestine. The published draft constitution states that the territory of Palestine "is an indivisible unit based upon its borders on the 4th of June 1967" - which clearly implies an acceptance of Israel's existence in its 1967 borders.
PLO National Charter In 2004 the
United States Congress declared the PLO to be a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1987, citing among others the
Achille Lauro attack.
The 1970
Avivim school bus massacre by Palestinian militants, killed nine children, three adults and crippled 19.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second-largest PLO faction after
al-Fatah, carried out
a number of attacks and plane hijackings mostly directed at Israel, most infamously the
Dawson's Field hijackings, which precipitated the
Black September in Jordan crisis.
In 1974 members of the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), another faction affiliated with the PLO, seized a school in Israel and killed a total of 26 students and adults and wounded over 70 in the
Ma'alot massacre.
The 1975
Savoy Hotel hostage situation killing 8 civilians and 3 soldiers.
The 1978
Coastal Road massacre killing 37 Israeli civilians and wounding 76.
Designation of Terrorism by United States Congress On fighting against Israel: "I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." -- Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO (November, 1974, while speaking at the United Nations)
"This is my homeland; no one can kick me out." -- Yasser Arafat's reply to Ariel Sharon's threat to expel him from the occupied territories.
September 11,
2003.
"Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him ten bullets in the chest." --Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO
"We know only one word:
Jihad, Jihad, Jihad. When we stopped the intifada, we did not stop the jihad for the establishment of a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. And now we are entering the phase of the great jihad prior to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem...We are in a conflict with the Zionist movement and the Balfour Declaration and all imperialist activities." --Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO (During an
October 21,1996 speech at the Dehaishe refugee camp)
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." --PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw."
On accepting Israel: "Palestinians are no strangers to compromise. In the 1993 Oslo Accords, we agreed to recognize Israeli sovereignty over 78 percent of historic Palestine and to establish a Palestinian state on only 22 percent." --
Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian negotiator,
5 August 2000 "Consequently, the PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian covenant." --Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO (in the exchange of letters with Israel on
9 September 1993)
"Israel must not demand that the PLO alter its covenant, just as the PLO does not demand that the Jewish nation cancel the Bible." --Ziad Abu Ziad, senior PLO official (in a speech to the American Jewish Federation,
23 October 1993)
In his
22 April 2004 interview with the Jordanian newspaper
Al-Arab, the PLO minister still living in
Tunisia Farouk Kaddoumi said that the PLO charter was never changed so as to recognize Israel's right to exist. "The Palestinian national charter has not been amended until now. It was said that some articles are no longer effective, but they were not changed. I'm one of those who didn't agree to any changes." He said also: "...the national struggle must continue. I mean the armed struggle... Fatah was established on the basis of the armed struggle and that this was the only way to leading to political negotiations that would force the enemy to accept our national aspirations. Therefore there is no struggle other than the armed military struggle... If Israel wants to leave the Gaza Strip, then it should do so. This means that the Palestinian resistance has forced it to leave. But the resistance will continue. Let the Gaza Strip be South Vietnam. We will use all available methods to liberate North Vietnam."
"If you are asking me, as a man who belongs to the Islamic faith, my answer is also "From the river to the sea," the entire land is an Islamic
Waqf which cannot be bought or sold, and it is impossible to remain silent while someone is stealing it..." --
Faisal Husseini (1940-2001), Fatah leader and PA Minister for Jerusalem, 'Al-Arabi' (Egypt),
24 June 2001.
On whether the PLO police force will work with Israel against terrorism: "The Joint Security Coordination and Cooperation Committee set up under Article II hereunder shall develop a plan to ensure full coordination between the Israeli military forces and the Palestinian police..." -- from the agreement signed by Israel and the PLO in Cairo on
4 May 1994 (paragraph 2a of Annex I to the agreement)
"Anyone who thinks the Palestinian police will try to prevent attacks outside the borders of the autonomous area is making a bitter mistake." --- Sufian Abu Zaida, a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Gaza (
Maariv,
25 April 1994)
"If there are those who oppose the agreement with Israel, the gates are open to them to intensify the armed struggle." -- Jibril Rajoub, PLO security chief for the West Bank, during a lecture at Bethlehem University (
Yediot Aharonot,
27 May 1994)
On the right of return of Palestinian refugees: "I recently read an interview with an elderly Palestinian woman living in the Ein el Hilwa camp in Lebanon. Tightly gripping the rusted key to her family's farm near Jaffa, she asked her interviewer how she should explain to her grandchildren, who had known only the stench of the camp's open sewers, what it was like to wake up to the scent of fresh lemons." -- Elia Zureik, a Professor of Sociology at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, Advises the Palestine Liberation Organization on Refugee Issues
"800,000 Palestinians among those who left after 1967 will come back in the transitional period, which is five years. Those who left in 1948 will come back after the declaration of the Palestinian independent state." -- Nabil Sha'ath, head of the PLO delegation to the talks with Israel in Taba (
Al-Hayat,
28 September 1993)
"In my opinion, the refugees problem is more important than a Palestinian state" -- Faruk Kadumi, general secretary of the Fatah council (
Kul Al-Arab,
3 January 2003)
On why the PLO signed the Cairo agreement with Israel: "The money is the carrot for signing the peace agreement with Israel. We have signed." -- Hassan Abu Libdah, deputy chairman of the PLO's Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (
The New York Times,
10 June 1994)
On Palestinian statehood: "Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be a shared, open city; two capitals for two states." -- Faisal Husseini, senior PLO representative in Israel,
3 July 2000 "Gradually, stage by stage, we will reach an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital." -- Faisal Husseini, senior PLO representative in Israel (
Beirut Times,
16 September 1993)
The Palestinian flag "will fly over the walls of Jerusalem, the churches of Jerusalem and the mosques of Jerusalem." -- Yasser Arafat, Former Chairman of the PLO (Jordanian TV,
13 September 1993)
Statements made by members of the PLO Black September in Jordan 1982 Lebanon War Palestinian political violence Proposals for a Palestinian state State of Palestine Palestinian territories Palestinian Liberation Army Hamas Israeli-Palestinian conflict Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict See also Notes Official sites Fatah the most significant organization within the PLO
Brief history of the Palestine Liberation Organization by
GlobalSecurity.org Documents Another translation of the draft constitution, with commentary by the
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research Commentary on the Palestine National Charter published by the
Jewish Virtual Library
The PLO in Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War
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