The Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization, with it’s front-man Yasser Arafat, was the organization that all western governments loved to hate, but that every student activist thrived on. Yasser Arafat’s black and white Keffiyeh became standard student-wear, and along with a Che Guevara t-shirt was the stuff of every middle-class parent’s nightmare.
But the PLO was, as it remains, an authentic organization representing a profound position. Founded in 1964, it was an attempt to organize and regulate the many anti-Israeli militant organizations active at the time. During the creation of Israel, and the first Arab Israeli War of 1948, a massive number of Arab refugees fled what was then Palestine, and in one way or another, they, and the generations that have followed have been stateless.
The PLO remained an umbrella organization, hosting some individual groups like Black September and the Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who were both responsible for some very dark deeds.
The PLO began to lose ground in the 1990s and early 2000s, although it is still recognized as the ‘sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.’ The bombs, however, are largely silent, and the hijackings a thing of the past. Militant Palestinian Resistance has tended to be Islamicized in recent years, and organizations like Hamas have a stronger claim on Palestinian loyalty.
Where did we get this stuff? Here are our sources…
“The golden age of terrorism” CNN, Peter Bergen. August 2015
“Red Army Faction or Baader-Meinhof Group” Thought Company. Amy Zalman, Ph.D. May 2017
“Japanese Red Army (JRA)” Federation of American Scientists
“What Is the Symbionese Liberation Army?” Slate, Chris Suellentrop. January 2002