Palestine · A closer look
1964
The PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in Jerusalem. After 1967 it passed to the guerrilla movements led by Yasser Arafat, and in 1974 the Arab League and the UN recognised it as the representative of the Palestinian people. For the first time since 1948 there was a Palestinian voice in the room.
Building a national organisation
The Palestine Liberation Organization was established in 1964 amid efforts to give Palestinians an institutional political voice. Its first Palestine National Council met in Jerusalem, adopting a charter and creating an executive committee, a national fund and other structures. Ahmad Shuqayri led the new organisation. Its early development was closely connected to Arab governments, whose influence created tensions with the aim of independent Palestinian political action.
Source: UN study: The origins and development of the Palestine Liberation Organization
A movement transformed after 1967
The Arab defeat in 1967 strengthened groups that argued Palestinians should lead their own struggle. Fatah and other organisations gained influence within the PLO, and Yasser Arafat became its chairman in 1969. The organisation encompassed competing factions and political views, rather than a single uniform party. Armed struggle, diplomacy and the work of unions and associations formed different parts of its claim to represent a dispersed people.
Source: UN study: The origins and development of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Recognition and representation
In 1974, the UN General Assembly affirmed Palestinian rights to self-determination and national independence, and granted the PLO observer status. That diplomatic recognition helped establish it as the Palestinian interlocutor in later negotiations. The PLO should be distinguished from the Palestinian Authority, which was created much later through the Oslo process. One claimed to represent Palestinians broadly; the other administered specified functions in parts of the occupied territory.