History
Creation
In spite of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, the Arab states remained unreconciled
to the existence of Israel as they had been to the proposed partition of
Palestine in 1948.
The Arab League at the Cairo Summit of 1964 proposed the creation of an
organization representing the Palestinian people. The Palestinian National
Council convened in (east) Jerusalem on 29 May 1964. During this meeting the
Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded on 2 June 1964. Its Statement of
Proclamation of the Organization declared:
"... the right of the Palestinian Arab people to its sacred homeland Palestine
and affirming the inevitability of the battle to liberate the usurped part from
it, and its determination to bring out its effective revolutionary entity and
the mobilization of the capabilities and potentialities and its material,
military and spiritual forces".
The Palestinian National Charter of 1964 stated:
"The claims of historic and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are not in
agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood...
he Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are
citizens to their states." (Article 18).
However, as Egypt and Jordan favored the creation of a Palestinian state on land
they considered to be occupied by Israel, they would not grant sovereignty to
the Palestinian people in lands under Jordanian and Egyptian military
occupation, amounting to 53% of the territory allocated to Arabs under the UN
Partition Plan. Hence Article 24 provided:
"This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West
Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah
Area."
Due to the influence of the Egyptian President Nasser the PLO supported the
nasseristic 'Pan-Arabism' - the ideology that the Arabs should live in one
state. The first executive committee was formed on 9 August, with Ahmad Shuqeiri
as its leader.
Chairmen of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee
Ahmad Shukeiri (10 June 1964 - 24 December 1967)
Yahya Hammuda (24 December 1967 - 2 February 1969)
Yasser Arafat "Abu Ammar"(2 February 1969 - November 11, 2004)
(in exile in Jordan to April 1971; Lebanon 1971 - December 1982; and Tunis
December 1982 - May 1994)
Mahmoud Abbas "Abu Mazen"(From 29 October 2004 - present)
(acting [for Arafat] to 11 November 2004)
Leadership by Yasser Arafat
The defeat of Syria, Jordan and Egypt in the Six Day War of 1967 destroyed the
credibility of the states that sought to be patrons of the Palestinian people
and weakened Nasser significantly. The way was opened for Yasser Arafat, who
advocated guerrilla warfare and who successfully sought to make the PLO a fully
independent organization under the control of the fedayeen organizations. At the
Palestinian National Congress meeting of 1969, Fatah gained control of the
executive bodies of the PLO. At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo on
February 3, 1969 Arafat was appointed PLO chairman. From then on, the Executive
Committee was composed essentially of representatives of the various member
organizations.
