PLO Is Established

May 28, 1964

In January 1964, an Arab summit meeting in Cairo tasked the Palestinian people with the liberation of Palestine. On May 28, King Hussein of Jordan convenes a Palestinian National Council of nearly 400 delegates in the Jordanian-controlled Old City of Jerusalem. At the opening of the conference, Hussein tells the delegates, who represent 10 Arab states, “The hearts of millions of Arabs yearn for the recovery of the plundered fatherland. … There is no value and no meaning in Arabs living without Palestine” (The Jerusalem Post, May 29, 1964).

The conference establishes committees to draft military and political plans to defeat Israel. The most significant outcome of the conference is the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Ahmad Shuqayri is elected the chairman. He is a former lawyer from Acre who had been the Syrian representative to the United Nations. Shuqayri serves as the head of the PLO until December 1967, when he is forced to resign over criticism about his management.

According to its National Covenant, the PLO is established as a “mobilizing leadership of the forces of the Palestine Arab people to wage the battle of liberation, as a shield for the rights and aspirations of the people of Palestine, and as a road to victory.” The covenant calls for the “destruction of the Zionist entity” and declares “anything based upon the Palestine Mandate is null and void.”

Delegates to the conference tour the border with King Hussein, who promises them that the United Arab Command, the military arm of the Arab League, is mounting offensive preparations for an attack on Israel.

In addition to creating the PLO, the conference establishes a fundraising arm, the Palestinian National Fund. The following September, a military branch is created.

Instigated by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the conference is the same week that Egypt and Iraq sign a unity agreement establishing joint military command. It is not until 1993, after several Arab military defeats and its own ouster from Lebanon in 1982, that the PLO formally recognizes Israel.