DOCSLIB.ORG

Understanding the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Understanding the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) AD-A54 764 UNDERSTANDING THE PLO (PALESTINE LIBERATION /3. ORGRNIZATION)(U) NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA M E MORRISON DEC 84 UNCLASSIFIEDI/I/I/Ill/Illu F/G 5/11 NL EIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII IEEEIIIIIIIIIE llllllllmllllu EIIIIIIIIIIIII 1.8. I- .2522 136 MIROOPRSLUION. TETCHR NAIOA BUEUO-TNDRS16 Ln gNAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California .CTE SN12 1985 THESIS UNDERSTANDING THE PLO by Mark E. Morrison December 1984 * Thesis Advisor: J. A. Amos Approved for public release; distribution unlimited 85 ,52 1 O UNCLASSIFIED SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGE (When Data Entered) REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE READ INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE COMPLETING FORM I. REPORT NUMBER 2. GOVT ACCESSION NO. 3. RECIPIENT'S CATALOG NUMBER 14. TITLE (nd Subtitle) 5. TYPE OF REPORT & PERIOD COVERED Master's Thesis; Understanding the PLO December 1984 S. PERFORMING ORG. REPORT NUMBER 7. AUTHOR(e) S. CONTRACT OR GRANT NUMBER(a) Mark E. Morrison 9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT. PROJECT. TASK AREA & WORK UNIT NUMBERS Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California 93943 II. CONTROLLING OFFICE NAME AND ADDRESS 12. REPORT DATE Naval Postgraduate School December 1984 13. NUMBER Monterey, California 93943 223 OF PAGES 14. MONITORING AGENCY NAME 4 ADDRESS(I diflerent from Controlling Office) IS. SECURITY CLASS. (of this report) UNCLASSIFIED 1Sa. OECLASSIFICATION/ DOWNGRADING SCHEDULE If. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT (of tis Report) Approved for public release; distribution unlimited 17. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT (of the abetrct entered In Block 20, If different from Report) IS. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES IS. KEY WORDS (Continue an tow*?&* sde if necessary mid identify by block number) PLO Palestine National Council Yasser Arafat Operational Code Palestinians Fedayeen 20. ABSTRACT (Coneimm n revered aide itnecessary aid Identify by block number) This thesis is concerned with giving a complete understanding of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The organization of the thesis emphasizes three important factors which help to explain what the PLO is, how it operates, and why it acts as it does: Organizational Structure, Environmental Constraints, and Belief Systems. The Organizational Structure section includes data on PLO organization including the Palestine National Council, Executive Committee, Central Council, Commando Groups, and the u ,~~UNCLASSIFIED 1473 EDiON OF NOV 61 ISOBSOLETE .. S/N 0102 LF 014- 6601 1 UCASFE SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGE (When ate Enter*, UNCLASSI FIED SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGE ("hon Data Entered) - medical, educational, trade unions, cultural, and social insti- tutions. The section concerning the Environmental Constraints deals with the various PLO leaders, PLO ideology, strategy, military, and economic history. The Belief System section consists of an Operational Code of the PLO as an institutional .- entity. After developing all three factors the thesis gives 0 three examples of recent PLO behavior. By understanding the factors of Organzational Structure, Environmental Constraint, and Belief Systems one can more easily and logically comprehend - how these factors operate to influence the behavior of the PLO and its leaders. Ac"oesion For NTIS GRA&Z DTIC TAB Unannounced tu f i c a o - Distribut ion/ Availability Codes 4 e \@ JAvail and/or AV All_Dist Special . o **~**~- -.. .. • , S N 0102- LF. 014. 6601 UNCLASSIFIED 2 SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGEtanU Data Eft0?9d) . .,. ABSTRACT This thesis is concerned with giving a complete under- standing of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The organization of the thesis emphasizes three important factors which help to explain what the PLO is, how it operates, and why it acts as it does: Organizational Structure, Environ- mental Constraints, and Belief Systems. The Organizational >. Structure section includes data on PLO organization including the Palestine National Council, Executive Committee, Central Council, Commando Groups, and the medical, educational, trade unions,, cultural, and social institutions. The section con- cerning the Environmental Constraints deals with the various PLO leaders, PLO ideology, strategy, military, and economic history. The Belief System section consists of an Operational Code of the PLO as an institutional entity. After developing all three factors the thesis gives three examples of recent PLO behavior. By understanding the factors of Organizational Structure, Environmental Constraint, and Belief Systems one can more easily and logically comprehend how these factors operate to influence the behavior of the PLO and its leaders.i 4 a' TABLE OF CONTENTS * . INTRODUCTION------------------------------------------- 8 A. BACKGROUND----------------------------------------- 8 B. OVERVIEW-------------------------------------------- 12 I. ORGANIZATION ----------- ------------------------ 17 A. INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------- 17 B. RESISTANCE GROUPS--------------------------------- 17 0 1. Fatah------------------------------------------ 18 2. Popular Fronts-------------------------------- 26 3. Arab-Sponsored Groups-------------------------- 31 4. Other Groups---------------------------------- 34 C. PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION------------------35 1. PNC-------------------------------------------- 36 2. PNC #1----------------------------------------- 37 3. PNC #2-----------------------------------------37 4. PNC #3----------------------------------------- 38 S. PNC #4----------------------------------------- 38 6. PNC#5----------------------------------------- 3 7. PNC #6----------------------------------------- 40 8. PNC #7----------------------------------------- 41 9. PNC Extraordinary Session---------------------- 41 10. PNC #8----------------------------------------- 41 PNC ---9 --------- --- --- --- ---- --- - 4 12. PNC #9----------------------------------------- 42 5 13. PNC #11--------------------------------------- 43 14. PNC #12--------------------------------------- 43 15. PNC #13--------------------------------------- 44 16. PNC #14--------------------------------------- 45 17. PNC #15--------------------------------------- 45 18. PNC #16--------------------------------------- 46 D. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS------------------------------- 49 1. Palestine Red Crecent Society------------------ 49 2. Institution for Social Affairs and Welfare for the Martyrs' and Prisoners' Families ---- 51 3. Arts and Culture------------------------------ 53 4. Popular Organizations-------------------------5S6 III. LEADERSHIP---------------------------------------------5S9 A. YASIR ARAFAT--------------------------------------- 59 B. GEORGE HABASH--------------------------------------- 63 C. NAYIF HAWATMEH------------------------------------- 67 IV. IDEOLOGY----------------------------------------------- 70 A. FATAH---------------------------------------------- 70 B. POPULAR FRONTS------------------------------------- 77 1. PFLP------------------------------------------- 77 2. DFLP------------------------------------------- 81 3. PFLP-GC---------------------------------------- 82 V. MILITARY STRATEGY-------------------------------------- 83 A. ORGANIZATION--------------------------------------- 83 B. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING-------------------------- 89 C. DOCTRINE------------------------------------------- 94 6 I VI. OPERATIONAL CODE OF THE PLO ----------------------- 97 A. PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS ------------------------- 102 B. INSTRUMENTAL BELIEFS -------------------------- 111 VII. MILITARY AND ECONOMIC SUPPORT ---------------------- 123 A. MILITARY ARMS TRANSFERS ----------------------- 124 1. Types/Amounts of Arms --------------------- 125 2. Sources of Arms --------------------------- 129 3. Arms Delivery ----------------------------- 133 B. FINANCIAL AID --------------------------------- 135 1. Sources of Aid ---------------------------- 135 2. Financial Expenditures -------------------- 139 VIII. THE PLO AS AN INTERNATIONAL ACTOR ----------------- 145 A. INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONTACTS --------------------- 146 B. DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION ------------------------ 149 C. MEDIATION EFFORTS ----------------------------- 153 D. CONCLUSIONS ----------------------------------- 156 APPENDIX A THE PALESTINE NATIONAL CHARTER OF 1964 ------- 163 APPENDIX B THE PALESTINE NATIONAL CHARTER OF 1968 ------- 170 APPENDIX C 1983 PNC POLITICAL STATEMENT ----------------- 175 APPENDIX D MILITARY EQUIPMENT --------------------------- 183 APPENDIX E FINANCIAL AID -------------------------------- 188 APPENDIX F INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONTACTS ------------------- 191 APPENDIX G DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION------------------------- 195 APPENDIX H SESSIONS OF THE PALESTINE NATIONAL COUNCIL --- 198 ENDNOTES ------------------------------------------------- 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY------------------------------------------------ 219 INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST---------------------------------- 222 .................. ......... .. 29.- . .°" ,. , INITIAL................................................... 7 I. INTRODUCTION A. BACKGROUND At the time of the 1948 emergence of the state of Israel the Palestinian Arabs were hopelessly disorganized and even faced serious internal divisions. The two traditionally prominent families, the al-Husseini and Nashashibi clans, each attracted Palestinian Arabs. The former favoring military S opposition to the Jewish immigrants and the British overseers, the latter choosing to work with the British and Jews in trying to effect an agreement along the lines of the 1947 U.N. Partition resolution. One member of the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Case #2 United States of America (Respondent)
    Model International Court of Justice (MICJ) Case #2 United States of America (Respondent) Relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem (Palestine v. United States of America) Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) November 20-21, 2020 Teeter 1 Historical Context For years, there has been a consistent struggle between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine led by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 2018, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. embassy located in Tel Aviv would be moving to the city of Jerusalem.1 Palestine, angered by the embassy moving, filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018.2 The history of this case, U.S. relations with Israel and Palestine, current events, and why the ICJ should side with the United States will be covered in this research paper. Israel and Palestine have an interesting relationship between war and competition. In 1948, Israel captured the west side of Jerusalem, and the Palestinians captured the east side during the Arab-Israeli War. Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. In 1949, the Lausanne Conference took place, and the UN came to the decision for “corpus separatum” which split Jerusalem into a Jewish zone and an Arab zone.3 At this time, the State of Israel decided that Jerusalem was its “eternal capital.”4 “Corpus separatum,” is a Latin term meaning “a city or region which is given a special legal and political status different from its environment, but which falls short of being sovereign, or an independent city-state.”5 1 Office of the President, 82 Recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel and Relocating the United States Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem § (2017).
    [Show full text]
  • On Membership of the United Nations and the State of Palestine: a Critical Account
    Leiden Journal of International Law (2021), pp. 1–24 doi:10.1017/S0922156521000418 ORIGINAL ARTICLE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY On membership of the United Nations and the State of Palestine: A critical account Ardi Imseis* Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6 Email: [email protected] Abstract Against the context of pending judicial proceedings between the State of Palestine and the United States of America (US) at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), this article critically examines the United Nations (UN) commitment to the international rule of law through an examination of its consideration of Palestine’s 2011 application for membership in the organization. The universality of membership of the UN is a foundation upon which the organization rests. The international law governing UN admission has accordingly been marked by a liberal, flexible and permissive interpretation of the test for membership contained in the UN Charter. In contrast, an assessment of the UN’s consideration of Palestine’s applica- tion for membership demonstrates that it was subjected to an unduly narrow, strict and resultantly flawed application of the membership criteria. An examination of the contemporaneous debates of the Council demonstrates that the main driver of this was the US, which used its legal authority as a permanent member of the Council to block Palestine’s membership. The principle argument used against membership was the US’s view that Palestine does not qualify as a state under international law. Notwithstanding, the State of Palestine has been recognized by 139 member states of the UN and has acceded to a number of treaties that furnish it with access to the ICJ.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins of Hamas: Militant Legacy Or Israeli Tool?
    THE ORIGINS OF HAMAS: MILITANT LEGACY OR ISRAELI TOOL? JEAN-PIERRE FILIU Since its creation in 1987, Hamas has been at the forefront of armed resistance in the occupied Palestinian territories. While the move- ment itself claims an unbroken militancy in Palestine dating back to 1935, others credit post-1967 maneuvers of Israeli Intelligence for its establishment. This article, in assessing these opposing nar- ratives and offering its own interpretation, delves into the historical foundations of Hamas starting with the establishment in 1946 of the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (the mother organization) and ending with its emergence as a distinct entity at the outbreak of the !rst intifada. Particular emphasis is given to the Brotherhood’s pre-1987 record of militancy in the Strip, and on the complicated and intertwining relationship between the Brotherhood and Fatah. HAMAS,1 FOUNDED IN the Gaza Strip in December 1987, has been the sub- ject of numerous studies, articles, and analyses,2 particularly since its victory in the Palestinian legislative elections of January 2006 and its takeover of Gaza in June 2007. Yet despite this, little academic atten- tion has been paid to the historical foundations of the movement, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Gaza branch established in 1946. Meanwhile, two contradictory interpretations of the movement’s origins are in wide circulation. The !rst portrays Hamas as heir to a militant lineage, rigorously inde- pendent of all Arab regimes, including Egypt, and harking back to ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam,3 a Syrian cleric killed in 1935 while !ghting the British in Palestine.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestinian Territories MIDDLE EAST UNITARY COUNTRY and WEST ASIA
    Palestinian territories MIDDLE EAST UNITARY COUNTRY AND WEST ASIA Basic socio-economic indicators Income group - LOWER MIDDLE INCOME Local currency - Israeli new shekel (ILS) Population and geography Economic data AREA: 6 020 km2 GDP: 19.4 billion (current PPP international dollars) i.e. 4 509 dollars per inhabitant (2014) POPULATION: million inhabitants (2014), an increase 4.295 REAL GDP GROWTH: -1.5% (2014 vs 2013) of 3% per year (2010-2014) UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 26.9% (2014) 2 DENSITY: 713 inhabitants/km FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT, NET INFLOWS (FDI): 127 (BoP, current USD millions, 2014) URBAN POPULATION: 75.3% of national population GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION (GFCF): 18.6% of GDP (2014) CAPITAL CITY: Ramallah (2% of national population) HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX: 0.677 (medium), rank 113 Sources: World Bank; UNDP-HDR, ILO Territorial organisation and subnational government RESPONSIBILITIES MUNICIPAL LEVEL INTERMEDIATE LEVEL REGIONAL OR STATE LEVEL TOTAL NUMBER OF SNGs 483 - - 483 Local governments - Municipalities (baladiyeh) Average municipal size: 8 892 inhabitantS Main features of territorial organisation. The Palestinian Authority was born from the Oslo Agreements. Palestine is divided into two main geographical units: the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is still an ongoing State construction. The official government of Cisjordania is governed by a President, while the Gaza area is governed by the Hamas. Up to now, most governmental functions are ensured by the State of Israel. In 1994, and upon the establishment of the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government (MoLG), 483 local government units were created, encompassing 103 municipalities and village councils and small clusters. Besides, 16 governorates are also established as deconcentrated level of government.
    [Show full text]
  • Ba'ath Propaganda During the Iran-Iraq War Jennie Matuschak [email protected]
    Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses Spring 2019 Nationalism and Multi-Dimensional Identities: Ba'ath Propaganda During the Iran-Iraq War Jennie Matuschak [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Part of the International Relations Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Matuschak, Jennie, "Nationalism and Multi-Dimensional Identities: Ba'ath Propaganda During the Iran-Iraq War" (2019). Honors Theses. 486. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/486 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. iii Acknowledgments My first thanks is to my advisor, Mehmet Döşemeci. Without taking your class my freshman year, I probably would not have become a history major, which has changed my outlook on the world. Time will tell whether this is good or bad, but for now I am appreciative of your guidance. Also, thank you to my second advisor, Beeta Baghoolizadeh, who dealt with draft after draft and provided my thesis with the critiques it needed to stand strongly on its own. Thank you to my friends for your support and loyalty over the past four years, which have pushed me to become the best version of myself. Most importantly, I value the distractions when I needed a break from hanging out with Saddam. Special shout-out to Andrew Raisner for painstakingly reading and editing everything I’ve written, starting from my proposal all the way to the final piece.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestine 100 Years of Struggle: the Most Important Events Yasser
    Palestine 100 Years of Struggle: The Most Important Events Yasser Arafat Foundation 1 Early 20th Century - The total population of Palestine is estimated at 600,000, including approximately 36,000 of the Jewish faith, most of whom immigrated to Palestine for purely religious reasons, the remainder Muslims and Christians, all living and praying side by side. 1901 - The Zionist Organization (later called the World Zionist Organization [WZO]) founded during the First Zionist Congress held in Basel Switzerland in 1897, establishes the “Jewish National Fund” for the purpose of purchasing land in Palestine. 1902 - Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II agrees to receives Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement and, despite Herzl’s offer to pay off the debt of the Empire, decisively rejects the idea of Zionist settlement in Palestine. - A majority of the delegates at The Fifth Zionist Congress view with favor the British offer to allocate part of the lands of Uganda for the settlement of Jews. However, the offer was rejected the following year. 2 1904 - A wave of Jewish immigrants, mainly from Russia and Poland, begins to arrive in Palestine, settling in agricultural areas. 1909 Jewish immigrants establish the city of “Tel Aviv” on the outskirts of Jaffa. 1914 - The First World War begins. - - The Jewish population in Palestine grows to 59,000, of a total population of 657,000. 1915- 1916 - In correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, and Sharif Hussein of Mecca, wherein Hussein demands the “independence of the Arab States”, specifying the boundaries of the territories within the Ottoman rule at the time, which clearly includes Palestine.
    [Show full text]
  • RESPONSES to INFORMATION REQUESTS (Rirs) Page 1 of 2
    Home > Research > Responses to Information Requests RESPONSES TO INFORMATION REQUESTS (RIRs) New Search | About RIR's | Help 03 April 2006 JOR101125.E Jordan: The "Arab National Movement" and treatment of its members by authorities (January 1999 - March 2006) Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa Information on the Arab National Movement (ANM) in Jordan was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. The ANM is described as a Marxist political party (Political Handbook of the Middle East 2006 2006, 238) founded in Beirut in 1948 following the founding of the State of Israel (HRW Oct. 2002; CDI 23 Oct. 2002). The ANM was founded (IPS n.d.) and led by George Habash who went on to create the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) (ibid.; HRW Oct. 2002). According to the Center for Defense Information (CDI), a part of the World Security Institute (WSI), which is a research institute supported by public charity and based in Washington, DC (CDI n.d.), the ANM "spread quickly throughout the Arab World" (ibid. 23 Oct. 2002). The CDI added that the ANM was allied with Egypt's Gamal Abdul- Nasser, with whom it shared views on "a unified, free and socialist Arab world with an autonomous Palestine" (ibid.). The Political Handbook of the Middle East 2006 stated that in a 1989 Jordanian poll, the ANM was one of several political parties supporting independent political candidates (2006, 238). The most recent media report on the ANM found by the Research Directorate was from the 29 August 1999 issue of the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper, which reported that members of the ANM were part of a subcommittee to the Jordanian Opposition Parties' Coordinating Committee, made up of the 14 Jordanian opposition parties.
    [Show full text]
  • Scientists Get Together to Remember Israeli Scholar Daniel Amit
    PRESS RELEASE The humanity of the enemy: scientists get together to remember Israeli scholar Daniel Amit On 30 June a seminar at SISSA and a meeting at Caffè San Marco will look back over the activities and the ideas of one of the fathers of neural computation, whose scientific commitment was one with his socio-political commitment, in particular on the Israeli-Palestinian issue Trieste, 26 June 2018 A symposium and a public meeting to look back over the scientific activity, but not only, of a great scientist who was also a convinced pacifist, whose political commitment and defence of human rights, in particular of his Palestinian colleagues, was one of the cornerstones of his entire existence. The double event entitled “Remembering Daniel Amit, and Beyond” organised by SISSA – Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati of Trieste on 30 June will be dedicated to Daniel Amit, physicist by profession and one of the founding fathers of the approaches to the functions of the brain as a complex system. The symposium, which will be held at SISSA from 9.30 am, will see the participation of scientists who studied and worked with Daniel Amit, who was born in Poland in 1938 and brought by his family to Mandatory Palestine – with a stopover in Trieste – in 1940, as they were fleeing the Nazis. Amit grew up in Tel Aviv and worked mainly in Israel until he moved to Rome, and became Italian citizen in 1999. It will be an occasion to illustrate current advances in the field of computational neuroscience, Amit’s research area, but also to look back at the human and scientific aspects of his life, to talk about his ideas, about the extreme determination with which he asserted the close relationship between science, power and military force, about his activity to encourage dialogue and meetings between Israelis and Palestinians.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PLO and the PALESTINIAN ARMED STRUGGLE by Professor Yezid Sayigh, Department of War Studies, King's College London
    THE PLO AND THE PALESTINIAN ARMED STRUGGLE by Professor Yezid Sayigh, Department of War Studies, King's College London The emergence of a durable Palestinian nationalism was one of the more remarkable developments in the history of the modern Middle East in the second half of the 20th century. This was largely due to a generation of young activists who proved particularly adept at capturing the public imagination, and at seizing opportunities to develop autonomous political institutions and to promote their cause regionally and internationally. Their principal vehicle was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), while armed struggle, both as practice and as doctrine, was their primary means of mobilizing their constituency and asserting a distinct national identity. By the end of the 1970s a majority of countries – starting with Arab countries, then extending through the Third World and the Soviet bloc and other socialist countries, and ending with a growing number of West European countries – had recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The United Nations General Assembly meanwhile confirmed the right of the stateless Palestinians to national self- determination, a position adopted subsequently by the European Union and eventually echoed, in the form of support for Palestinian statehood, by the United States and Israel from 2001 onwards. None of this was a foregone conclusion, however. Britain had promised to establish a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine when it seized the country from the Ottoman Empire in 1917, without making a similar commitment to the indigenous Palestinian Arab inhabitants. In 1929 it offered them the opportunity to establish a self-governing agency and to participate in an elected assembly, but their community leaders refused the offer because it was conditional on accepting continued British rule and the establishment of the Jewish ‘national home’ in what they considered their own homeland.
    [Show full text]
  • BPA in Memoriam G. Habash 24 Feb 08
    IN MEMORIAM GEORGE HABASH (1926 – 2008) Born in LYDDA, PALESTINE Died in Exile AMMAN, JORDAN “Every Palestinian has the right to fight for his home, his land, his family and his dignity – these are his rights.” George Habash, 1998 Dr George Habash was born into a Christian merchant family in Palestine and experienced the devastating effects of the Palestinian al-Nakba (Catastrophe) when he and his family along with 750,000 fellow Palestinians were terrorised into leaving their homes and homeland by Zionist forces to make way for the artificially created Jewish state, Israel. Although he graduated in medicine and specialised in paediatrics, he eventually devoted his time to the life-long struggle for the liberation of Palestine. In 1952, he founded the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) which aimed to unify the Arab world to confront Israel. He saw Zionism as a force that would divide the Arab world and believed that Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser would be the instrument of Arab unity that would enable a conventional war to be mounted against Israel. The Arab loss of the 1967 six-day war dashed his hopes and the ANM folded. Habash then decided that guerrilla war was the only option for the Palestinians (despite his initial criticism of Arafat’s Fedayyeen) and he formed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He believed that desperate people must turn to desperate acts and although the hijacking of planes brought world-wide condemnation, it also brought publicity to the Palestinian cause. “When we hijack a plane it has more effect than if we killed a hundred Israelis in battle .
    [Show full text]
  • MIDDLE EAST WATCH OVERVIEW Human Rights Developments The
    MIDDLE EAST WATCH OVERVIEW Human Rights Developments The political earthquake that shook the Middle East on September 13, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed an interim self-government accord, may have marked the beginning of the end of the forty-five-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict. In the medium term, it may also come to mark a parallel improvement in human rights conditionsCnot just in the Israeli-occupied territories, but in those frontline states that have long used the conflict as a pretext for violations of the fundamental rights of their own peoples. Such aspirations could, equally, prove to be mere wishful thinking: human rights per se figured little in the interstate negotiations that took place during 1993, and few officials from any party to the talks, including the United States, publicly articulated concern for human rights. Under prodding, PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat was one of those who did, after the signing; but, misgivings persisted as to whether the PLO was truly committed to a future in which respect for human rights and a pluralistic democracy would be realized. In counterpoint, there were no early signs of an Israeli reassessment of long-established abusive policies and practices in the occupied territories. Welcome though the Israel-PLO agreement was as an augury of peace, in the region as a wholeCfrom the Maghreb states of North Africa to IranCthe accord was overshadowed by a broader conflict with pervasive implications for human rights: a contest for power, ideological domination, and control over social behavior between insurgent Islamists and established regimes, themselves often of little popular legitimacy and a secular, pro-Western cast.
    [Show full text]
  • Indoctrination and Recruitment of Children Within Islamic State Territory
    Cubs in the Lions’ Den: Indoctrination and Recruitment of Children Within Islamic State Territory By Gina Vale CONTACT DETAILS For questions, queries and additional copies of this report, please contact: ICSR King’s College London Strand London WC2R 2LS United Kingdom T. +44 20 7848 2065 E. [email protected] Twitter: @icsr_centre Like all other ICSR publications, this report can be downloaded free of charge from the ICSR website at www.icsr.info. © ICSR 2018 Cubs in the Lions’ Den: Indoctrination and Recruitment of Children Within Islamic State Territory Contents Executive Summary 3 1 Introduction 7 2 Why children? 9 3 Models of radicalisation and recruitment of minors 11 4 Pathways of influence 13 Kidnapping and forced conscription 13 Desensitisation to violence 13 ‘Positive’ governance 16 Social factors 19 Loss/replacement of positive role model(s) 22 Trusted adult influencers 25 5 Conclusions 29 References 33 1 2 Executive Summary • Over the course of its ‘Caliphate’ project (2014–2017), the Islamic State group (IS) sought to indoctrinate, recruit and operationalise children to both populate its ‘state’ and swell its army. In order to design effective initiatives to rehabilitate and reintegrate children born and/or raised under IS rule, the motivating factors behind their initial association with the group must be explored. • Unlike foreign minors radicalised to travel (or forcibly brought) to Iraq and Syria, localised recruitment of children within IS territory cannot be separated into delineated or sequential stages of ideological enticement and training. Instead, IS created a holistic and immersive strategy to radicalise minors, combining formal and informal, direct and indirect, cooperative and coercive, and individual and systematic methods of simultaneous outreach and indoctrination.
    [Show full text]