Encyclopedia of Islam

Palestine Liberation Organization

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would compel Israel to abide by the terms of the 

West Bank and Gaza withdrawal clauses.

As the terms of the Oslo Accords were never 

implemented, the Palestinians in the West Bank and 

Gaza once again rose up in the fall of 2000. Israeli 

military forces besieged PLO chairman Arafat’s 

headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. 

They decimated the administrative infrastructure 

of the Palestinian Authority, including its police 

forces. Israeli leaders called for the expulsion of 

Arafat from the West Bank and the PLO diminished 

as a significant political force for a negotiated settle-

ment to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that became 

increasingly militarized and violent. The PLO 

remains as a symbolic shell for Palestinian national 

aspirations. It remains to be seen if it can be revived 

as a meaningful political structure for implement-

ing a future Palestinian sovereign state.

See also  a

rab

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sraeli

 

conFlicts

;  h

amas

; 

reFUgees

.

Garay Menicucci