Palestine
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Palestinian Organization and Names


Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Palestine National Authority (PNA)
Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)
Fatah
Intifada
ARAFAT , Yasser
Khalaf , Salah
Al-Husayni, Amin
Al-Wazir, Khalil Ibrahim
Habash, Georges
Ashrawi, Hanan
Abdul Shafi, Haidar
Erekat, Sa'eb
Al-Husseini, Abd Al-Qader
Husseini, Faisal
Shuqeiri, Ahmad
Yassin, Sheik Ahmad
Deir Yasin
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Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) --------------------------------------- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) , political body representing Palestinian Arabs in their attempt to reclaim their homeland from Israel. Structure and Organs -------------------- The PLO was founded at a congress in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem in May 1964 . It was set up largely out of Palestinian notables; out of the 388 Palestinians at the first PNC, a disproportionately high number were from the West Bank elite families . It only became an umbrella group for the PRM in July 1968, at the 4th PNC, when half the PNC seats went to the PRM and Fatah participated for the 1st time; and more fully at the 6th PNC in Feb 1969, when 70 seats out of the 100 went to the PRM. Dedicated to mobilizing the Palestinian people to recover their usurped homes, the organization, seeks the replacement of Israel with a non-sectarian democratic state. and has sponsored numerous commando acts both inside that country and internationally . The functions of the PLO are carried out by three main organs: the Executive Committee , a decision-making body in which the major fedayeen groups are represented ; the Central Committee , an advisory body; and the Palestine National Council, which is seen as an assembly of the Palestinian people. History ------- Since February 1969 the PLO has been headed by Yasser Arafat, leader of Al Fatah . At an Arab summit meeting in Rabat , Morocco, in 1974, the organization was recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people , and Arafat subsequently addressed the United Nations, where the organization has an observer status. In 1970 the PLO fought a short , bloody war with the army of Jordan , where most of the fedayeen were then stationed . Expelled , they settled in Lebanon . Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 greatly weakened the PLO presence there, intensified the organization's factional splits , and forced the dispersion of some 12,000 PLO members to Syria and other Arab countries. PLO members loyal to Arafat made their headquarters in Tunis; an Israeli bombing raid in October 1985 severely damaged the main buildings. In July 1988, King Hussein of Jordan ceded to the PLO all territorial claims to the Israeli-held West Bank . In November 1988, at a meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers , Arafat declared the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The council also voted to accept UN resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), recognizing the sovereignty of all states in the Middle East , and to use the resolutions, together with acknowledgment of the Palestinian right to self-determination, as the basis for an international peace conference. The United States agreed in December 1988 to initiate direct diplomatic dialogue with the PLO. Relations with the U.S. and the pro-Western Arab states deteriorated in 1991,however, as Arafat publicly supported Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. In July the Lebanese army , with Syrian backing , forced the PLO to abandon its strongholds in southern Lebanon . In January 1993 Israel repealed its ban on PLO contact by Israelis. In September 1993, Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to the signing of an historic peace accord that paved the way for limited Palestinian self-rule in Israeli-occupied territories .

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Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine --------------------------------------------- (PFLP), Arabic AL-JABHA AL-SHA'BIYAH LI-TAHRIR FILAsTIN , It was established in 1967 in an amalgamation of three different Palestinian guerrilla groups by Georges Habash . The PFLP suffered from conflicts between its several factions, though all were engaged in guerrilla activities. The PFLP rejected political compromise with Israel and was pledged to the elimination of that state. It took a vigorously anti-Western and anticapitalist stance on other Middle Eastern questions. The PFLP carried out or organized many notorious guerrilla actions against Israel, most notably the hijacking and destruction of airliners to Israel in the late 1960s and '70s.

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Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine ------------------------------------------------ (DFLP), Arabic AL-JABHA AL-DIMUQRATIYAH LI-TAHRIR FILASTIN, one of several organizations associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization. It has engaged in guerrilla attacks working to bring a democratic state of Jews and Arabs free of Zionism and imperialism. Founded by a Jordanian Orthodox Christian, Na'if Hawatmeh, In 1969, the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (as it was originally named) was envisioned as a political movement distinct from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , which had been founded to provide a front for diverse militant Palestinian groups. It was originally more Maoist and pro-China in the 1960s; then from the early 1970s became more pro-Soviet and The PFLP has always been much more tied to Arab communist and Ba'thist parties, especially the Iraqi Ba'th through the 1970s, and the Syrian Ba'th and Libyan pan-Arabists in the 1980s. The DFLP stood ideologically to the left of the PFLP and claimed that its enemies were Zionist upper-class imperialists.

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Palestine National Authority (PNA)

Palestine National Authority (PNA) ---------------------------------- Interim governing body appointed July 1994 to take over the management of Palestinian affairs from Israel in newly liberated Gaza Strip and Jericho . It is headed by Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation organization. The PNA has jurisdiction over the whole of the formerly occupied areas, except Israeli settlers and nationals , Israel retains responsibility for external defence and foreign affairs. On 5 Dec 1994 Israel extended the PNA's remit to include administration of health and collection of taxes. In the same month , the Israeli parliament passed legislation allowing for the closure of PNA offices set up outside the self-rule areas, notably Orient House in East Jerusalem. Since taking office, the PNA has had to contend with militant attckes by Palestinian islamic groups within area of jurisdiction , directed at Israeli soldiers .

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Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement)

HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) ----------------------------------- Islamic organization , Founded on August 1988 . Its militant wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam unit, played a major role in the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories. Responsible for attacks on Israeli soliders , the group gained a reputation for unpredictability. It opposed the Sept 1993 peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and maintained a campaign of attacks within Israel . In Nov 1992 Hamas formed an alliance with Iran for support in the continuation of the Intifada. In Dec 1992, 415 Palestinians suspected of having links with Hamas were expelled from Israel in to Lebanon. Refused refugee status by Lebanon and neighbouring Arab states , they remained for six months in a on Marj al-Zahour, a mountain slope camp until international condemnation of the deportations forced Israel to agree to their return. Its militant wing, Al Qassam, claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks within Israel April 1994 , in which 12 died, and for a further bus bombing in Tel Aviv Oct 1994, in which 21 Israelis and 1 Dutch national were killed. All were carried out by martyr bombers. In Nov 1994 there were clashes between supporters of Hamas and Palestinian police in newly liberated Gaza, the police shot 16 of them outside the Palestine Mosque in Gaza ('Black Friday').. In 1989 Hamas' leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the killing of Palestinians who had allegedly collaborated with the Israeli army. he's been released on 1 October 1997, in a trade off with Jordan for 2 Israeli agents.

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Fatah

Fatah ----- Palestinian nationalist organization, founded 1958 to have an independent Palestinian action to recover Palestinian territory , on 1968 the goal of a 'Palestinian State' was developed as a final goal for the organization. It was the first organized Palestinian resistance group, based 1968-70 in Jordan, then in Lebanon, and from 1982 in Tunisia. Also called the Palestine National Liberation Movement, it is the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Its leader is Yasser Arafat.

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Intifada

INTIFADA -------- Palestinian uprising, a group of adult and teenage Palestinians active 1987-93 in attacks on armed Israeli troops in the occupied territories of Palestine. Their campaign for self-determination included stone-throwing and petrol bombing. The uprising began Dec 1987 in the Gaza Strip. Rumours that a fatal traffic collision had been caused by Israeli security service agents in retaliation for the stabbing of an Israeli the previous week led to demonstrations by teenagers armed with slingshots. It subsequently spread, despite attempts at repression. Some 1,300 Palestinians and 80 Israelis were killed in the uprising up to the end of 1991. Many Palestinian private homes were dynamited by military order, under a still-valid British emergency regulation of 1946 . The number of soldiers on duty on the West Bank at the beginning of 1989 was said to be more than three times the number needed to conquer it during the Six-Day War. The 1993 peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization effectively liberated the occupied territories of Gaza and Jericho. However , Islamic groups that had participated in the Intifada, notably the militant wing of the Hamas islamic group, opposed the accord and continued a campaign of attackes within Israel.

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ARAFAT , Yasser

Yasser Arafat (1929- )
---------------------

Born        : August 24, 1929; Cairo, Egypt
Education   : Degree in engineering,University of Fuad I (now Cairo Uni.),
              1956
Family      : Wife, Suha Tawil
Religion    : Muslim
Early Years : In 1946, began procuring arms for an  anticipated  battle for
              Palestinian territory  ;  Helped  found Fatah  ,  a guerrilla
              group  dedicated  to the liberation of Palestine ,  mid 1950s
              ; Began mounting raids in to Israel,1965 ;  Elected  chairman
              of  the Palestine  Liberation   Organization (PLO), 1969.
Recent Years: Signed draft  agreement with Israel providing  a  Palestinian
              self-rule in Gaza and the  West  Bank  town  of  Jericho 1993
              Awarded Nobel Peace Prize along with Israeli  prime  minister
              Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres,1994.
Office      : Gaza City, The Gaza Strip

BIOGRAPHY
---------
1929, August 24 :  Born  in  Cairo , Egypt . Place of birth is not certain,
      other  sources state Jerusalem or Gaza . During his  childhood Arafat
      lived in both Cairo and Jerusalem.
1947: In  the wars with the  Jews , Arafat fought on the side of the  grand
      mufti of Jerusalem.
1948: Fled  Palestine,  after  the  establishment of Israel. He settled  in
      Cairo where he started studying engineering at University of Cairo.
1952: He joined the  Muslim B rotherhood and Union of Palestinian Students,
      where he became president.
1956: Moved  to  Kuwait ,  where  he worked as an engineer, and established
      his own entrepreneur company.
1957: Started Al Fatah. Al Fatah conducted several attacks into Israel.
1968: Al Fatah was linked to PLO.
1969: Elected  chairman of PLO. Worked on  bringing  PLO from Panarabism to
      Palestinian nationalism.
1974: Held a speech in front of the General Assembly in UN.
1982: PLO had to move from Lebanon. after Israel attacked the country.Moved
      the headquarters to Tunisia.
1988, Nov. 15:  State  of  Palestine  proclaimed at a meeting in Algiers,
      Algeria.
1989: Elected president of State of Palestine by the Central Council of the
      Palestine National Council.
1991: USA-led talks begin Madrid, but lead nowhere.
1993: Oslo  agreement  brings  the peace process a giant leap forward . The
      content is a "land for peace" principle.
1993: Arafat recognized Israel's right to existence.
1994: Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza strip and Jericho  in  May . Arafat
      came home in July.
1996: Jan. 20  Elected  president  of the Palestinian  Authority  in public
      elections, with 88% of the votes.
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Khalaf , Salah

Khalaf, Salah ( Abu Iyad ) (1933-1991) -------------------------------------- Born in 1934 and fled in 1948 from Jaffa, Trained in Gaza from 1951. Studied in Cairo in the 1950s, founder, member and Arafat's assistant of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in Egypt (1952), Fatah founder member (1958/59), PLO's security and counter-intelligence executive officer, spiritual godfather and chief of Black September Organization, principal Fatah ideologue, before being assassinated on January 14, 1991 in Tunis, PLO's third highest ranking member after Arafat and Abu Jihad.

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Al-Husayni, Amin

Al-Husayni, Amin ---------------- Also called AL-HAJJ AMIN (born 1897, Jerusalem, Palestine, - d. July 4, 1974, Beirut, Lebanon), Mufti of Jerusalem and Arab nationalist figure who played a major role in Arab resistance to Zionist political ambitions in Palestine. Husayni studied in Jerusalem, Cairo, and Istanbul, and in 1910 he was commissioned in the Turkish artillery. He became a strong voice in the Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist movements. In Jan 1922 the British, who had accepted a mandate for Palestine after World War I, named Husayni permanent president and mufti of the newly created Supreme Muslim Council the most authoritative religious body in the Palestinian Muslim community. In 1936 all the Palestinian groups joined to create a permanent executive organ known as the Arab High Committee under Husayni's chairmanship. The committee demanded a cessation of Jewish immigration and a prohibition of land transfers from Arabs to Jews. A general strike developed into a rebellion against British authority. The British removed Husayni from the council presidency and declared the committee illegal in Palestine. In October 1937 he fled to Lebanon, where he reconstituted the committee under his domination. The rebellion forced Britain to make substantial concessions to Arab demands in 1939. The British abandoned the idea of establishing Palestine as a Jewish state, and, while Jewish immigration was to continue for another five years, it was thereafter to depend on Arab consent. Husayni, however, felt that the concessions did not go far enough, and he repudiated the new policy. Ceasing to play an active role in Palestinian affairs, Husayni spent most of World War II (1939-45) in Germany. At the war's end he fled to Egypt.

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Al-Wazir, Khalil Ibrahim

Al-Wazir, Khalil Ibrahim ------------------------ By name ABU JIHAD (born Oct. 10, 1935, Ramla, Palestine -d. April 16, 1988, Tunis, Tunisia), Palestinian leader who was believed to be the military strategist and second in command of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Wazir fled with his family during the 1948 war that followed the creation of the state of Israel, and he grew up in the Gaza Strip, where he was educated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He met Yasser Arafat in 1951 while attending college in Cairo , and together they organized anti-Israel guerrilla actions and founded the militant organization Fatah (1958), which joined the PLO (1968). As 'Arafat's deputy and a moderate within the PLO, Wazir often maintained diplomatic relations with other countries, and reportedly planned military strategies and arranged arms purchases for Fatah and the PLO. After the PLO was expelled from Jordan in 1971, he remained in Amman as an unofficial contact there until he in turn was expelled in 1986. He was assassinated in his home by unidentified commandos; Israel later officially acknowledged involvement.

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Habash, Georges

Habash, Georges --------------- (born 1925, Lydda, Palestine), Palestinian politician and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Habash fled Palestine in 1948 and earned a medical degree at the American University in Beirut. In the early 1950s he was active in the "Youth of Vengeance" group, which advocated attacks on traditional Arab governments. Habash founded the militant PFLP after his goal to destroy Israel through Arab unity proved unrealistic following the Arab nations' defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. Under the leadership of Habash, the Popular Front staged several airplane hijackings, including that of a U.S. jet blown up in September 1970, which triggered King Hussein's crackdown on Palestinian guerrillas in Jordan. Habash, a Marxist, visited China in 1970, finding Chinese leaders critical of the PFLP's "foreign operations," and Moscow in 1972. Following the October War of 1973, Habash became the leading voice of the "Rejection Front," four Palestinian groups who opposed any diplomatic settlement to the conflict with Israel. He attacked the "defeatist" attitude of the Palestine Liberation Organization's leadership, whose attempts at reconciliation with King Hussein he sharply criticized. Under his leadership the PFLP successfully organized clandestine cells in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Habash was the target of several assassination attempts, one of which partially paralyzed him.

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Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Ashrawi ------------- The Palestinian diplomat and negotiator Hanan Ashrawi, b. 1946, a university professor and mother of two young daughters , she was chosen in 1991 to represent the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the Middle East peace talks convened in Madrid in October. Her masterly use of spoken English and her cool, pragmatic, Western-style negotiating skills won the admiration even of her Israeli adversaries in the talks that led in December 1993 to an agreement for the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Ashrawi was born in Ramallah, Palestine, the youngest of five daughters of a Palestinian physician and political leader. A Christian, she studied in Christian schools and at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, before earning a doctorate at the University of Virginia in the United States. She and her husband, a professional photographer and musician, chose to live in the Occupied West Bank, where she became a professor of medieval and comparative literature at Bir Zeit University. In the ferment of the Palestinian liberation movement, Ashrawi joined the PLO Fatah faction, which, together with her eloquence and lucidity, recommended her to all sides in the Middle East negotiations. She attended the peace talks throughout the opening session in Madrid until their successful conclusion in December 1993, when she resigned to head the PLO's mission in Washington, D.C. As the Israeli withdrawals began, she returned to her teaching responsibilities in Bir Zeit, where she headed the Palestinian Independent Commission on Civil Rights, concerned among other things with preventing reprisals against Palestinians who had cooperated with the Israelis during the occupation. In January 1996 she was elected to a seat on the Palestinian Council, representing East Jerusalem.

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Abdul Shafi, Haidar

ABDUL SHAFI, HAIDAR (1919- ) ---------------------------- Born in Gaza, physician, early education in Gaza and Jerusalem, M.D. graduate from American University in Beirut, 1943, worked in British Government Hospital of Jaffa after graduation, later as medical officer in the Jordanian army, returned to Gaza in 1945 and opended private practice, member of the Arab Medical Society since 1945, director for medical services in the Gaza Strip, 1957-60, head of the Gaza Parliament's Legislative Council from 1962-65, member of the first all-Palestinian conference convened in Jerusalem in 1964, which established the PLO, deported to Lebanon in 1970 for PLO activities, head of Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza since 1972, head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1990, led the Palestinian negotiation team for 22 months in the Washington talks.

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Erekat, Sa'eb

EREKAT, SA'EB (1955-) --------------------- Born in Jerusalem, M.A. graduate from San Francisco State University in 1979, Ph.D. Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies, Bradford University, England, 1983, lecturer of Political Science at An-Najah University, member of the Palestinian negotiating team to the peace conference, PA Minister of Local Government and Municipal Affairs.

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Al-Husseini, Abd Al-Qader

AL-HUSSEINI, ABD AL-QADER (1907-1948) ------------------------------------- Born in 1907 in Jerusalem, Son of Musa Qassem (Pasha) al-Husseini, graduate in chemistry of the American University of Cairo, organized a Congress of Educated Muslims in the early 1930s to fight discrimination against Palestinian Arabs in government services, founder (1931) and leader of the Al-Jihad Al-Muqaddas (Holy War) organization, leader of the Palestinian resistance during the Great Revolt of 1936-39, guerrilla commander for the Jerusalem district, exiled in 1938, returned secretly to Jerusalem in 1948 after and was commander of the volunteer force of al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (Holy War Army), resistance organizer and Palestinian leader during the 1948 war, killed in a counter attack at Qastel, west of Jerusalem, on April 8, 1948.

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Husseini, Faisal

HUSSEINI, FAISAL (1940- ) ------------------------- Born in 1940 in Baghdad, studied in Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus, founding member of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) in 1959, worked for the PLO after its initial establishment in Jerusalem as deputy manager of the Public Organisation Dept. (1964-65), received military training at a Syrian officer's academy and joined the Palestinian Liberation Army in 1967, graduate from Damascus Military College 1967, founder and chairman of the Arab Studies Society, since 1979, in the 1980s placed repeatedly under house and city arrest, several times imprisoned, member of the Supreme Muslim Council, Jerusalem, since 1982, Palestinian spokesperson, head of the Jerusalem National Council, Palestine, head of Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace Conference, head of Fatah faction in the West Bank, Arafat's chief representative in the OPT, active in developing and promoting Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, Palestinian national movement's local mediator for peace.

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Shuqeiri, Ahmad

SHUQEIRI, AHMAD (1907-1980) --------------------------- Born in 1907 in Acre, studied at the Jerusalem Law School and the American University of Beirut, in the early 1930s opposition leader in the north of Palestine, member of the Istiqlal Party, head of a Palestinian propaganda office in the USA in 1945 (later in Jerusalem), member of the Arab Higher Committee in 1946, member of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations 1949-50, assistant secretary general of the Arab League in charge of Palestinian affairs 1951-57, Saudi Arabian Minister of State for UN affairs and Ambassador to the UN 1957-62, in 1963 appointed by the Arab League as Palestinian representative to the Arab League (replacing Ahmad Hilmi who died), drew the first draft of the Palestinian National Charter which became the basic law for the establishment of the PLO, first President of the PLO (1964-67), formed the Palestinian Liberation Army, died in 1980 in Amman, published memoirs Forty Years of Arab and International Life (Beirut, 1969. In Arabic).

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Yassin, Sheik Ahmad

YASSIN, SHEIKH AHMAD (1937-) ---------------------------- Palestinian religious leader, Muslim brother and preacher, born in 1937 in Ashqelon, refugee in Gaza since 1948, worked as teacher, preacher and community worker, completely paralyzed following an accident in his youth, founder of the Islamic Centre in Gaza in 1973 which soon controlled all religious institutions, creator, spiritual leader and key figure of HAMAS, the Islamic Resistance Movement , believes that Palestine belongs to Islam and advocates an Islamic state in all of Palestine. In 1989, he was arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the killing of Palestinians who had allegedly collaborated with the Israeli army. he's been released on 1 October 1997 , in a trade off with Jordan for 2 Israeli agents.

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Deir Yasin

Deir Yasin ---------- On April 9, 1948 members of the Irgun and Stern Group jointly stormed and captured the village of Deir Yasin , and massacred much of the population (about 240 men, women, and children). Theis massacre was highly publicized whihc accelerated the flight of Arab from Palestine which become refugees in the adjusting Arab contires .


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