Full Description
An umbrella organisation representing Palestinian national aspirations, founded in 1964 and dominated by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement from 1969. The PLO conducted guerrilla attacks and terrorist operations against Israeli and Western targets during the 1970s (including the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre), but gradually shifted toward diplomatic engagement. The Oslo Accords of 1993 — in which the PLO recognised Israel’s right to exist in exchange for limited Palestinian self-governance — marked a historic but controversial compromise.
Critical Perspective
The PLO’s recognition of Israel in 1993 split Palestinian politics irrevocably. Critics from the left argued that recognition gave up the fundamental right of return for Palestinian refugees in exchange for limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza — without receiving Israeli recognition of Palestinian statehood in return. Oslo created the Palestinian Authority but not a Palestinian state, and Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank continued throughout the peace process, undermining the two-state solution it was meant to create.
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