(Arabic: Munazzimat At-Tahrir Al-Filastiniyya) Body founded by a meeting of 422 Palestinian personalities on 28 May 1964 in Jerusalem following an Arab League decision to that end. The first elected head was Ahmed Shuqeiri. The conference also set up a legislative body, the Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO Executive Committee, a National Fund, and the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) and drafted a National Covenant and Basic Law towards liberating Palestine, implementing the right of return and exercising self-determination. After Shuqeiri’s resignation on 23 December 1967, Yahya Hamoudeh became head of the PLO, and at the fifth session of the PNC in Cairo in February 1969, Fatah leader Yasser Arafat was elected as the PLO’s third leader. The PLO became an umbrella organization for various Palestinian factions and acquired a more central role in mobilizing Palestinians at home as well as in the Diaspora and international support. The PLO established a number of departments to provide education, health, and relief services and formed a quasi-government with security bodies, a military, a financial system, information offices, and foreign relations. On 14 October 1974, the PLO was recognized by the UN General Assembly as the representative of the Palestinian people (Resolution 3210, which also granted observer status), and on 28 October 1974, it was recognized by the Arab League Rabat Summit as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In 1975, the PLO was granted access to the UN Security Council. On 15 November 1988, the PLO declared Palestinian independence at the 19^th PNC in Algiers, and in December 1988, it announced the recognition of Israel and renounced terrorism. The PLO’s first headquarters were in Jerusalem, then (after 1967) in Amman until the ‘Black September’ confrontation with the Jordanian army (1970), and then in Beirut until the PLO’s evacuation in the course of the 1982 Israeli invasion. Afterwards, Tunis accepted to host the PLO leadership and Arafat set up their new headquarters there. The PLO remained the “Palestinian government in exile” and carried out state functions for Palestinians, especially after Jordan’s administrative disengagement from the West Bank in July 1988. The PLO is in charge of negotiations with Israel and, since the Declaration of Principles of 13 September 1993 and the subsequent Oslo Accords, serves as the political umbrella for the PA in the Palestinian self-rule areas (Gaza and West Bank). In an exchange of letters between Chairman Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, the PLO recognized the State of Israel and Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Since the death of Yasser Arafat on 11 November 2004, the PLO has been headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Present PLO members include: Fatah, PFLP, DFLP, PPP, PLF, ALF, As-Sa’iqa, Fida, PPSF, PAF. An issue under debate is the inclusion of Islamic groups. For PLO a.gif the time being, they remain outside the PLO, which traditionally separates religion and politics. In 2015, the PLO became a member of the International Criminal Court.

Dictionary