The Great Powers and the Arab World • 323The Palestine Liberation Organization
Another act of the 1964 summit meetings drew little outside attention, but
it would prove fateful for the Arab world. Arab leaders voted to form the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This group was to act as an um¬
brella organization for all clubs, societies, and paramilitary groups serving
the Palestinian Arabs. Encouraged by Nasir, Palestinian representatives met
in Jerusalem's Old City in 1964, asked a veteran spokesman named Ahmad
al-Shuqayri to appoint an executive board for the PLO, and adopted a na¬
tional charter. Its main principles were that the Palestinian Arabs must
fight to regain their homeland within what had been the British mandate
borders and that they alone had the right of self-determination in Pales¬
tine, although Jews of Palestinian origin might still live in the liberated
country. To replace the State of Israel, the PLO proposed a secular demo¬
cratic state in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims would coexist in peace.
The PLO began assembling a conventional army, made up of refugees in
Gaza, Jordan, and Syria. But a more dramatic and effective force was a
guerrilla movement called al-Fatah (which can be translated as "Conquest"
or Movement for the Liberation of Palestine). Fatah signaled its existence
on 1 January 1965 by trying to sabotage part of Israel's national water-
carrier system. Its leader was Yasir Arafat, who claimed to have come from
Jerusalem, had fought against Israel in 1948, then became the leader of the
Palestinian students in Egypt and lived for a few years in Kuwait. More than
Shuqayri, Arafat spoke for militant younger Palestinians. Fatah's attacks,
backed by Syria but generally launched from Jordan, caused some casual¬
ties and property damage within Israel. The Israeli government, headed
since 1963 by Levi Eshkol, decided to force the Arab armies to curb these
commando operations. In late 1966 the IDF made a devastating retaliatory
raid into the Jordanian West Bank, destroying commando bases in the vil¬
lage of al-Samu'. This move set off protests against Israel from Western as
well as Arab governments. The UN Security Council unanimously con¬
demned Israel's raid. Even some Israelis thought that they should have at¬
tacked Syria, which had aided the commandos, rather than Jordan.
Background to War
By the mid-1960s, Syria had once again emerged as the most ardent Arab
nationalist state. Unable to form a union with Egypt or even with Iraq in
1963, its Ba'thist government pressed harder for Arab unity and military
action against Israel. It spearheaded the attempts to divert the Jordan
River sources for Syria's own water needs and armed various Palestinian
commando groups. An army coup in February 1966 brought to power a