PLO Changes

Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a preeminent organization advocating on behalf the Palestinian people underwent drastic changes. These changes came following the defeat of a coalition of Arab nations in war against Israel known as the June War. In the June War Israel conquered territory from both Jordan and Egypt known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively in which the majority of Palestinian people lived. The PLO’s leadership, thought by many scholars to be a puppet of the Egyptian government, which was one of the losers in the June War, resigned (Harms and Ferry 117-118). The new leadership of the PLO, following the resignation of the old Egyptian backed leadership, was made up of grassroots guerrilla organizations. The most dominant of these guerrilla organizations was called al-Fatah, and was led by Yasser Arafat, who would go on to become the chairmen of the PLO, following relatively successful military action against Israel in …show more content…
One example of diplomatic action taken by the PLO was in 1974, when Arafat addressed the United Nations, In doing so he acted as a quasi head of state, and afterwards was able to gain recognition and sympathy from international groups like the Arab League, the Organization of African Unity, Islamic Conference, and Non-Aligned Movement (Maksoud 102). Arafat’s ability to speak at international forums, in order to gain sympathy and recognition from outside groups and nations for the Palestinian cause demonstrates that though Arafat and the PLO did utilize some guerrilla tactics this was far from the only tactic they engaged