The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964 by several political and military groups of Palestinian Arabs attempting to liberate Palestine from what they claimed to be an illegitimate Israeli state. In 1974 the PLO was proclaimed the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" at an Arab summit in Rabat, Morocco, and has been recognized as such by the United Nations. Yasir Arafat became PLO chairman in 1969 utilizing the influence of his al-Fatah guerrilla organization, which has been linked to and has taken credit for terrorist activities throughout the world. Since 1983 the PLO has been informally but deeply divided between Arabs who support Arafat and those who do not. The PLO charter was revised in the late 1990's to eliminate the references to "armed struggle" and the destruction of Israel.
Eisenhower pressured the Israelis into withdrawing from Egyptian territory.
Throughout this period Arab guerrilla groups, mostly Palestinians, continued to launch periodic terrorist attacks inside Israel, killing many Jewish civilians. The Zionists retaliated with military strikes against suspected guerrilla strongholds in the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, which killed many Arab civilians. This cycle of violence continued into the twenty-first century.
In 1964 all the various Palestinian political and guerrilla groups came together under an umbrella organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Led by Yasir Arafat, the PLO began to coordinate the efforts of Palestinians to secure independence and acted as an international representative of Palestine. Because the charter of the PLO endorsed terrorism and called for the elimination of the Zionist state of Israel, the Israelis insisted that it represented nothing more than a group of terrorists who did not speak for the Palestinian people. For many years, officials in Israel refused to negotiate with the PLO.
Nevertheless, the PLO did enjoy wide support among Palestinians, who looked to the organization for leadership in their struggle to establish a Palestinian state. The cycle of terrorism and retaliation continued, with Arafat setting up his headquar-
Ters in Lebanon and directing guerrilla activities against the Israelis.
World History
