The Rise of the Palestine Liberation Organisation
Following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the Palestinians were fragmented and dispersal people across territories and the majority of Palestinians became refugees. A decade and a half after the Nakba, a new generation of nationalists arose, most notably the guerrillas led by Yasser Arafat and his Fateh group as well those of the Palestinian left, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) led by George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh respectively. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was a revolutionary movement that sought to liberate Palestine through armed struggle. From 1968 until 1974, when the Fateh led PLO began to conform to the “international consensus” on the Palestine question, the PLO sought to liberate Palestine and create a secular democratic state in Palestine, inclusive of Palestinian and Jewish residents to live in equality. In 1974, the United Nations granted the PLO permanent observer status in recognition of its role as the “sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”. The PLO created social and political institutions, and in addition to providing quasi-governmental services, it founded the Palestine National Council which functioned as a Palestinian parliament in exile.