ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses How the Palestinians forged their national liberation movement in the context of dispersal and occupation, how the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was born, how and why this movement and the PLO became transformed, and how the intifada affected their cause, modified their goals, and revised their strategy. Through pan-Arab political movements, Palestinians thus found a window of opportunity for political expression and activism despite the repression of some of the insecure and suspicious Arab regimes. It has become clear to most Palestinians that Arafat's PLO regime sought to maintain itself in the diplomatic game and to retain international legitimacy. The PLO under the feda'iyyin experienced two major spurts of expansion and development. In the first the PLO was reorganized and consolidated internally, and new functions were added; the second happened during the civil war in Lebanon, when the PLO's social and economic functions were dramatically enlarged.
