Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Arabic: {{Audio|ArPLO.ogg|Munazzamat al-Tahrir al-Filastiniyyah}} منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية ) is a political and paramilitary organization of Palestinians dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the region historically known as Palestine. In 1969, Yasser Arafat became the Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and remained so until his death in 2004. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen.)

Allegations of terrorism

Successive Israeli governments have considered the PLO to be a terrorist organization both because of its conflict with Israeli military forces and because the PLO has targetted and killed Israeli civilians within its territory and abroad. Israel cites multiple examples of terrorist actions carried out by or controlled by the PLO:

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• The 1970 Avivim school bus massacre by PLO members, killed nine children, three adults and crippled 19.
• In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second-largest PLO faction after al-Fatah, carried out a number of attacks and plane hijackings mostly directed at Israel, most infamously the Dawson's Field hijackings, which precipitated the Black September in Jordan crisis.
• The Munich massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics was carried out by the Black September group, which was allegedly affiliated with the PLO. This group also hijacked a plane flying from Belgium to Tel Aviv.
• In 1974 members of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine carried out the Kiryat Shmona massacre at an apartment building in Israel, killing 18 people, 9 of whom were children.
• In 1974 members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), another faction affiliated with the PLO, seized a school in Israel and killed a total of 26 students and adults and wounded over 70 in the Ma'alot massacre.

In order to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, the PLO has paid an undisclosed sum to the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer, who in 1985 was murdered aboard the cruise ship Achille Lauro during a hijacking by the Palestine Liberation Front.

Related Topics:
Leon Klinghoffer - Achille Lauro - Palestine Liberation Front

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Until the 1993 signing of the Declaration of Principles between the PLO and Israel in Washington, the US government listed the PLO as a terrorist organization .

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Palestinian supporters and some international jurists consider some attacks on the Israeli military legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation http://www.merip.org/mer/mer217/217_falk.html. Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1949), which has not been universally accepted in whole as international law, particularly not by Israel and the United States offers support for this view. However, almost all international opinion considers targeted attacks on civilians to be terrorist acts.

Related Topics:
Protocol I - Geneva Conventions - Israel - United States

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