PLO and Arafat

• Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) first formed 1964 in wake of Suez Crisis, it was a very disparate group, with many factions, like Fatah and Black September
• Arab leaders sought to untie Palestinians in struggle to win back land, main aims: destroy Israel, establish Palestine as Palestinian Arabs’ home, and Palestine in wider Arab community
• Largest PLO group was Fatah, emerged 1959 in response to Israeli reprisals and was led by Yasser Arafat, 1965-7, carried out many guerrilla attacks supported by Arab border states
• PLO was condemned globally, but in their eyes they thought at least World is noticing their plight