The Palestine Liberation Organisation or PLO was formed in 1964 by the Arab states as an organisation embracing the various Palestinian resistance organisations into one organisation with the aim of creating a secular democratic state over the whole of pre-Second World War Palestine. Under the leadership of Yasser Arafat the PLO modified its objective to the creation of an independent Palestinian state in any part of Palestine from which Israel would agree to withdraw. The PLO was recognised by the United Nations in 1974. After the end of the 20th century the influence of the PLO among Palestinians had waned, to be replaced by more militant groups such as Hamas (formed in 1987 to oppose the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem) and Hezbollah. Research Palestine Liberation Organisation
Yasser Arafat (real name Mohammed Abed Ar'ouf Arafat) was a Palestinian resistance leader. He was born in 1929 at Jerusalem and died in 2004. Attending Cairo University from 1952 to 1956 he was leader of the Palestinian Students' Union before co-founding the Al Fatah resistance group in 1956, a group which was to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) upon its formation in 1964, and within five years control the PLO with Arafat as its leader. In 1994 he was jointly awarded the Nobel prize for peace with Israel's foreign minister Shimon Peres for a negotiated peace deal aimed at ending the conflict in Palestine - at the time of his death the conflict in Palestine had still not been resolved, and many Israelis considered him a terrorist who supported terror attacks on Israeli civilians. Research Yasser Arafat
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Palestine Liberation Organisation
