Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a coalition of Palestinian nationalist groups, founded in 1964, that the international community recognizes as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. Today, the Palestinian Authority, based in Al-Bireh in the West Bank, represents it. At its founding, the PLO aimed to create a single Arab state across all of what was once Mandatory Palestine, calling for Israel’s destruction. That changed after negotiations with Israel in 1993, known as the Oslo I Accord, when the PLO accepted Israel’s right to exist and backed United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which demands Israel withdraw from occupied lands. In exchange, Israel acknowledged the PLO as the Palestinians’ legitimate representative. Despite a 1993 exchange of letters where PLO leader Yasser Arafat renounced violence, the group’s factions carried out militant operations during the Second Intifada (2000–2005). On 29 October 2018, the PLO Central Council suspended its recognition of Israel.

The PLO has held United Nations observer status since 1974 and is recognized by many as the representative of the Palestinian people, though its role as the government of the State of Palestine—declared in 1988—is a matter of political recognition, not a universally established fact. Before the Oslo Accords, its armed wings attacked both Israeli soldiers and civilians, inside Israel and abroad. The United States labeled the PLO a terrorist organization in 1987 under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, though President Reagan signed a presidential waiver in December 1988 that permitted American officials to engage with it.

**History and armed actions**

**Early actions** The Arab League first called for a body to represent Palestinians at a 1964 summit in Cairo. The Palestinian National Council met in Jerusalem from 28 May to 2 June 1964, and the PLO was formally established on 2 June 1964. Its stated aims were Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine. The group used guerrilla tactics against Israel from bases in Jordan (which then included the West Bank), Lebanon, Egypt’s Gaza Strip, and Syria. Notable attacks in the 1970s include the 1970 Avivim school bus massacre by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which killed nine children and three adults and left 19 crippled.