Facts about the Palestine Liberation Organization

Q:  What is the PLO?

A: The PLO is an umbrella of political and paramilitary Palestinian movements founded in 1964. Fatah, founded by late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the largest faction, is the dominant faction in the PLO.  It is recognized internationally as the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people throughout the world. It has signed interim peace deals with Israel since 1993 and is entrusted with negotiating with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. The PLO was initially committed to armed struggle and the destruction of Israel but after the Oslo deals, it has recognized Israel and adopts a peace policy towards the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, lands which make up about 22 percent of historical Palestine.

Q: Who heads the PLO and who are its members?

A: President of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas is Chairman of the PLO. He has succeeded Yasser Arafat who headed the PLO from 1964 to 2004 when he died of a mysterious illness in a French hospital. The PLO consists of some 11 Palestinian national and secular factions, including Fatah, the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the radical Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian People’s Party (formerly the Palestinian Communist Party), FIDA, a leftist movement which split from the DFLP.

Islamist groups Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are not members of the PLO. As PLO rivals, these groups have refused to accept the legitimacy of the PLO and call for reforms within the organization before joining. Hamas has tried unsuccessfully to create an alternative body to the PLO due to the rejection of the Arab states and other PLO factions.

Q: What are the PLO institutions?

A: The PLO’s Executive Committee -  made up of some 22 members from the various PLO factions, is the highest PLO decision-making body headed by PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. It’s members are elected by the PLO’s parliament the Palestine National Council.

The Palestine National Council (PNC) - The PLO’s parliament in exile, the supreme  authority for formulating the policies and legislation for the PLO institutions. The size of the PNC has varied over time. Its members dropped from some 669 members to around 450 spread throughout the world and are selected and elected. It’s members met in 1996 in Gaza in a session attended by then U.S. President Bill Clinton to amend the PLO’s Charter to remove articles which call for Israel’s destruction.

In 1970, the PNC set up the PLO’s Central Council (PCC) that acts as a mini-parliament, an intermediate between the PNC and the PLO’s Executive Committee. It has some 130 members.

The Palestine Central Council (PCC) – It has legislative and executive powers and meets when the PNC is not in session to take key policy and legislative decisions. Given the difficulty of conducting meetings for PNC members from around the world, PCC members meet to review the work of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority which it established in 1993 as an interim authority based in the West Bank and Gaza to run the affairs of the Palestinians there until a Palestinian state is created.

The PCC met in Tunis in 1993 following the signing of the Oslo accords and approved the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Members of the PLC  automatically become members of the PCC and PNC, a move intended to ensure the integration of Palestinian Authority institutions within the PLO.

The PLO and its legislative institutions which created the Palestinian Authority have the power to decide the fate of the interim Palestinian Authority institutions.