Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

518 • PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATIONFollowing the takeover of the PLO by al Fatah and other guerrillagroups, the PLA remained under the nominal command of the PLO,although the PLO has relied more on the forces of its constituent guerrillagroups to carry out terrorist attacks or insurgent warfare againstIsrael or other foes. Al Fatah guerrilla operations began after 1 January1965. From 1969 to 1974, PLO-sponsored terrorism was carried outthroughout the Middle East and non-Communist nations against Israeli,U.S., Western European, and Arab targets, with the governmentof Jordan having been targeted in particular after September 1970. Themost notorious Palestinian terrorist group during this period was BlackSeptember, which was responsible for the Munich massacre of theIsraeli athletic team at the Summer Olympics in 1972.Beginning in 1974 al Fatah declared its renunciation of terrorism outsidethe borders of the former Mandate of Palestine, a declaratory policynot always followed by al Fatah–sponsored groups, such as the Hawarigroup or Force 17. This renunciation was part of a revision within alFatah of its goals from a liberation of the whole of Palestine, in whichIsrael would be replaced by a secular democratic state, to the creationof a separate Arab Palestinian state on any liberated part of Palestine,which was understood to mean the West Bank and Gaza Strip followingan Israeli withdrawal from those territories. While al Fatah still believedarmed struggle was necessary to achieve its goals, it came to viewarmed struggle as insufficient if not joined with initiatives on the diplomaticfront. This revisionism was anathema to the more radical leftistgroups within the PLO, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine, which in turn sponsored the creation of a Rejection Front oflike-minded PLO members whose members boycotted the PLO ExecutiveCommittee from 1974 to 1978 while retaining their seats withinthe Palestine National Council. A practical consequence of this internaldivision was that the PFLP and other Rejection Front members steppedup their terrorist attacks on Israel and on targets outside Israel to discredital Fatah’s claim to speak for the PLO and to sabotage whateverdiplomatic initiatives al Fatah might seek.Al Fatah’s diplomatic initiatives paid off on 22 November 1974with the United Nations General Assembly declaring the PLO to bethe Palestinians’ representative and granting the PLO observer status inthe General Assembly, followed on 9 September 1976 with the seventhArab League summit meeting in Rabat, Morocco, declaring the PLO tobe the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinians. The Rejection