Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established on May 28, 1964, at an Arab League-sponsored conference in Cairo as the umbrella organization for Palestinian political and military organizations. It was initially created under Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's sponsorship as an instrument of Arab state policy; its early years were dominated by Ahmad al-Shuqairi, a lawyer and former diplomat who had close ties to the Arab League. Following the Arab states' defeat in the Six-Day War and the subsequent growth of independent Palestinian guerrilla organizations, the PLO was reorganized and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement assumed control of the PLO Executive Committee in February 1969.¹

Structure and Factions

The PLO operated as a confederation of Palestinian political and military organizations, each maintaining its own structure, funding, and operational capacity within the umbrella framework. The PLO National Council (PNC) functioned as a parliament-in-exile, while the PLO Executive Committee served as the executive authority. The major constituent factions included:

• Fatah (Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini), founded by Arafat in the late 1950s, the dominant faction from 1969 onward
• PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), founded by George Habash in 1967 on a Marxist-Leninist and pan-Arab nationalist platform, responsible for multiple aircraft hijackings in 1968-1970
• DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), a PFLP split led by Nayef Hawatmeh
• PLF (Palestine Liberation Front), led by Abu Abbas (Muhammad Zaidan), responsible for the Achille Lauro hijacking in October 1985
• PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command), led by Ahmed Jibril, which maintained closer ties to Syria and Iran than to the main PLO structure

Factions that broke from the PLO included Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council, which Arafat expelled in 1974. The Abu Nidal Organization subsequently carried out terrorist attacks against PLO-affiliated targets as well as Israeli and Western targets, creating a significant intelligence complication for states trying to distinguish PLO-sanctioned from PLO-opposed Palestinian violence.¹

Jordan and Black September (1970)

By 1970 the PLO and its constituent factions had developed a significant quasi-governmental presence in Jordan, where Palestinian refugees constituted approximately half the population. PFLP and other factions carried out three simultaneous aircraft hijackings in September 1970, forcing the planes to a Jordanian airstrip (Dawson's Field) and negotiating mass hostage releases. The crisis prompted King Hussein of Jordan to move against PLO military forces; the resulting civil conflict (known as Black September) between Jordanian Army forces and PLO-affiliated fighters in September-October 1970 killed approximately 3,500 people and resulted in the PLO's expulsion from Jordan. PLO military forces and leadership relocated to Lebanon.¹

The Black September Organization, a clandestine PLO-affiliated group created after the Jordan expulsion, carried out the Munich Olympic Massacre on September 5, 1972, killing eleven Israeli athletes and coaches. Mossad's subsequent Operation Wrath of God targeted those responsible for Munich with a systematic assassination program that continued for years.¹

Lebanon (1971-1982)

The PLO rebuilt its infrastructure in Lebanon, using the Palestinian refugee camps of southern Lebanon and Beirut as a base for guerrilla operations, diplomatic activity, and financial management. PLO institutions in Beirut included banks, hospitals, schools, and military headquarters. The PLO developed significant relationships with Lebanese leftist and Muslim political factions, contributing to the destabilization of Lebanon's fragile confessional political system and the onset of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.¹

Israeli military operations against PLO positions in southern Lebanon escalated through the 1970s. The June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon (Operation Peace for Galilee), directed by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, drove PLO forces out of their Lebanese positions and laid siege to Beirut. After negotiations mediated by American diplomat Philip Habib, the PLO agreed to evacuate Beirut in August 1982; Arafat and approximately 15,000 PLO fighters and personnel were transported by sea to Tunis and other countries.²

The Sabra and Shatila massacres (September 16-18, 1982) were carried out by Lebanese Christian Phalangist militias in Palestinian refugee camps in Israeli-controlled Beirut after the PLO's evacuation, killing between 800 and 3,500 civilians. Israeli forces commanded by Sharon surrounded the camps and allowed the Phalangists access; the Israeli Kahan Commission found Sharon personally responsible, resulting in his resignation as Defense Minister.²

Tunis Exile and Oslo

The PLO operated from Tunis from 1982 to 1994. During this period it maintained international diplomatic recognition from most of the developing world and Arab states as the representative of the Palestinian people, while Israel and the United States refused to negotiate with it directly. The First Intifada (1987-1993), a Palestinian civilian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza that surprised PLO leadership, shifted political momentum to internally-based Palestinian organizations and pressured all parties toward negotiation.¹

Secret negotiations between Israeli and PLO representatives, conducted in Oslo, Norway, under Norwegian facilitation, produced the Oslo Accords, formally signed on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the presence of President Bill Clinton. The Declaration of Principles recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, committed Israel to negotiate Palestinian self-governance, and established the framework for the Palestinian Authority created in 1994 to govern Gaza and portions of the West Bank.¹

Arms Networks and Intelligence Connections

The PLO's operations over three decades intersected with international arms networks and intelligence services in multiple documented ways. The PFLP-GC under Ahmed Jibril received Syrian and Iranian sponsorship and was linked to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing (Maltese timer evidence). Monzer al-Kassar, the Syrian arms dealer who appeared in multiple Iran-Contra-adjacent transactions, had significant PLO-connected relationships through his Palestinian wife's family and Syrian intelligence contacts. The PLO's own financing involved complex flows through Gulf states, diaspora fundraising, and bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions.¹³

The CIA maintained contact with PLO officials through back channels from the early 1970s, despite formal American policy prohibiting direct PLO contact. Robert Ames, the CIA's Near East division chief killed in the 1983 Beirut embassy bombing, had developed a significant relationship with PLO intelligence chief Ali Hassan Salameh (a Black September commander who was also a CIA asset before his assassination by Mossad in 1979).¹