Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

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Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
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Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

• Geographic Location
• Origins
• Current Ideals
• Primary Goal
• Current Majority Parties

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Palestine
Israel
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Palestine Liberation Organization

• A political and paramilitary organization
  regarded by Arab nations as the "sole legitimate
  representative of the Palestinian people."
• Founded by the Arab League in 1964

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Current Ideals

• The PLO has no central decision-making or
  mechanism that enables it to directly control its
  factions
• Supposed to follow the PLO charter and Executive
  Committee decisions.
• Membership has fluctuated, and some organizations
  have left the PLO or suspended membership during
  times of political turbulence.

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Current Ideals

• Most often these groups eventually rejoined the
  organization.
• Not all PLO-activists are members of one of the
  factions - delegates are elected as independents.

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Primary Goals

• The destruction of the State of Israel through
  armed struggle
• Replace it with an "independent Palestinian
  state" between the Jordan River and the
  Mediterranean Sea.
• More recently, the PLO adopted a two-state
  solution, with Israel and Palestine living side
  by side, as its goal.

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Major Factions Include

• Fatah - largest faction, centrist/nationalist.
• PFLP - The Popular Front for the Liberation of
  Palestine - second largest, radically militant
  and Communist
• DFLP - The Democratic Front for the Liberation of
  Palestine - third largest, Communist

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Faction Governmental Definitions

• Centrist supporting or pursuing a course of
  action that is neither liberal nor conservative
• Nationalist devotion to the interests or
  culture of a particular nation
• Communism a political theory favoring
  collectivism in a classless society
• Marxist Leninist following the ideas of Marx
  expanded to include those of Lenin

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Fatah

• A reverse acronym from the Arabic name Harakat
  al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini (literally
  "Palestinian National Liberation Movement")
• January 25, 2006 parliamentary election, the
  party lost its majority in the Palestinian
  parliament to Hamas
• Then resigned all cabinet positions, choosing to
  act as the official opposition, though it will
  remain as interim government until a new cabinet
  is formed

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Fatah

• Fatah became the dominant force in Palestinian
  politics after the 1967 Six-Day War
• Fatah joined the PLO and won the leadership role
  in 1969

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Fatah

• Mr. Arafat took over as chairman of the executive
  committee of the PLO in 1969, a year that Fatah
  is recorded to have carried out 2,432 guerrilla
  attacks on Israel

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Fatah

• Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of
  Principles with Israel in 1993 and exchanged
  mutual renunciations of terrorism with Israel
• The group has been accused of continuing attacks
  against Israeli civilians, and of supporting
  guerrilla warfare against Israeli soldiers and
  settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and
  against the security forces inside Israel

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Fatah

• Farouk Kaddoumi is the current Fatah chairman,
  elected to the post soon after Arafat's death in
  2004.

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PFLP

• A Marxist-Leninist, nationalist Palestinian
  political and military organization, founded in
  1967.
• Now has only limited popular support in the
  Palestinian Territories.
• Opposes the more moderate stance of Fatah.

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PFLP

• It opposed the Oslo Accords
• For a long time was opposed to the idea of a
  two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
  conflict, but in 1999 came to an agreement with
  the PLO leadership regarding negotiations with
  Israel.

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PFLP

• The PFLP joined the Palestine Liberation
  Organization (PLO), the umbrella organization of
  the Palestinian national movement, in 1968,
  becoming the second-largest faction after Yassir
  Arafat's Fatah

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PFLP

• At the PFLP's Sixth National Conference in 2000,
  Habash stepped down as general secretary. Abu Ali
  Mustafa was elected to replace him, but was
  assassinated on August 27, 2001 when an Israeli
  helicopter fired rockets at his office in the
  West Bank town of Ramallah.

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PFLP Retaliation

• The PFLP shot and killed the far-right Israeli
  Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in November 17,
  2001 in retaliation.

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PLFP Actions

• The hijacking of an El Al flight from Rome to Lod
  airport in Israel on July 23, 1968
• Gunmen opened fire on an El Al passenger jet in
  Athens
• An attack on El Al passengers jet at Zürich
  airport on February 18, 1969

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PLFP Actions

• The bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket on
  February 20, 1969.
• The hijacking of a TWA flight from Los Angeles to
  Damascus on August 29, 1969.
• The killing of Meir Lixenberg, councillor and
  head of security in four settlements.

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PLFP Actions

• The 21 October, 2001 assassination of far-right
  Israeli politician and Israeli Minister for
  Tourism Rehavam Zeevi.
• A suicide bombing in a Netanya market in Israel,
  on May 19, 2002.

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Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

• a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist political and
  military organization. It is also frequently
  referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha
  al-Dimuqratiyah

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Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

• In 1969, a faction of the left-wing Popular Front
  for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) broke away
  from the main organization to form the Popular
  Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
  (PDFLP)

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Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

• Publicly, the DFLP declared its goal was to
  create a peoples democratic Palestine
• The PDFLP's original political orientation was
  based on the view that Palestinian national goals
  could be achieved only through revolution of the
  masses and "people's war".

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Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

• While pioneering Palestinian-Israeli peace talks
  in the mid 1970s the DFLP simultaneously
  conducted numerous small bombings and minor
  assaults against Israeli targets, refusing to
  give up the armed struggle.
• It also performed some more spectacular
  operations, of which the largest, and most well
  known, is the Ma'alot massacre of 1974