From Beirut to Jerusalem

Content Warning: This section cites accounts of war violence, as well as criticisms of Arab culture that some readers may find offensive. 

Founded in 1964 in Cairo, the PLO was designed to organize various political parties and militias struggling for Palestinian statehood and place them under a single organizational umbrella. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was hoping that a unified body would be easier for him to control, but after suffering a bruising defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War, followed by his death in 1970, the PLO gradually asserted itself as a powerful entity in its own right. As Friedman describes, its success was due in no small part to the charismatic leadership of Yasser Arafat, whose ability to switch between militancy and diplomacy made him popular in Arab and Western circles alike. Expelled from its Jordanian sanctuary during the ‘Black September’ of 1970, the PLO established bases in Lebanon, which prompted the Israeli invasion of June 1982. Forced to settle in faraway Tunis, Arafat gradually opened up a peace process with Israel while struggling to contain the more militant factions within his own organization. Following the Oslo Accords of 1993, Arafat recognized Israel, which in turn recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.