Palestine Liberation Organisation. The umbrella group of political and militant groups headed by Yasser Arafat, whose Fatah faction is the biggest single component. Fatah in turn is subdivided into various groups. One of the most recent to emerge is the semi-autonomous Tanzim movement of young street fighters.
(Palestine Liberation Organization) - The umbrella organization of Palestinian political groups founded with the intent of destroying Israel. Founded in 1964 as an initiative of Arab states, it evolved into an organization advocating a sovereign separate Palestinian nation after the 1967 6-day war. It was initially headed by Ahmed Shokairy. Yasser Arafat, head of the Fatah group, became the head of the PLO in 1968. The PLO charter called for the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a secular democratic state, in which non-Zionist Jews would have have equal rights. The parts of the charter calling for destruction of Israel were declared to be annulled after the 1994 Oslo agreements, but the Charter of the PLO is still published in its entirety by many Palestinian groups, including the annulled sections.