|
| |
Designation of Terrorism by United States Congress
In 2004 the United States Congress declared the PLO to be a terrorist
organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1987, citing among others the Achille
Lauro attack.
The 1970 Avivim school bus massacre by Palestinian militants, killed nine
children, three adults and crippled 19.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, the second-largest PLO faction after al-Fatah, carried out a number
of attacks and plane hijackings mostly directed at Israel, most infamously the
Dawson's Field hijackings, which precipitated the Black September in Jordan
crisis.
In 1974 members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP),
another faction affiliated with the PLO, seized a school in Israel and killed a
total of 26 students and adults and wounded over 70 in the Ma'alot massacre.
The 1975 Savoy Hotel hostage situation killing 8 civilians and 3 soldiers.
The 1978 Coastal Road massacre killing 37 Israeli civilians and wounding 76.
The PLO was considered "the richest of all terrorist organizations" with
US$8-$10 billion in assets and an annual income of $1.5-$2 billion from
"donations, extortion, payoffs, illegal arms dealing, drug trafficking, money
laundering, fraud, etc.", according to a 1993 British National Criminal
Intelligence Service report. England's Daily Telegraph reported in 1999 that the
PLO had $50 billion in secret investments around the world.
The PLO was also considered by many, as a terrorist organization until the
Madrid Conference.[citation needed]
| |
|
