ABSTRACT
The Palestinian Arab guerrilla movements had their beginning in the early 1950s, when Palestinian students in the Arab countries, particularly in Syria and Lebanon, formed para-military youth movements and became active in the Arab refugee camps. Officially, the PLO and its military arm, the Palestine Liberation Army were created by the Arab Summit Conference in Cairo in January 1964. This umbrella framework, with headquarters in Cairo, was intended by the Arab League to serve as a military weapon in its attempt to destroy Israel. The PLO’s headquarters is currently based in Damascus and its center of operations is in Beirut. Fatah’s aims are articulated in the PLO’s Palestine National Covenant, originally promulgated by a Palestinian Congress held in Jerusalem in May 1964, reaffirmed and amended in Cairo in June, 1968, and confirmed at every subsequent meeting of the PLO’s governing bodies.
