Palestine Liberation Organization Research Articles

Exhibiting Nation: A Brief History of Palestinian Exhibition Making in the Twentieth Century

This article presents an overview of Palestinian exhibition making in the twentieth century. It addresses an absence of academic engagement with how, starting in the 1920s, a repertoire of Palestinian pedagogical and representational materials, temporary and makeshift spaces, and multiple protodiplomatic and unionized efforts under the Palestinian Liberation Organization informed a culture of exhibition making that created critical sites for: cultivating and critiquing taste within art movements and among Palestinians; operationalizing national sentiment and political consciousness; and mobilizing international support around the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause. Specifically, the article accounts for the Palestinian mobilization of exhibitions in response to European and Zionist expansionism (1917–48), as a social praxis of community building and resilience (1948–64), and as a form of political resistance through the radical internationalization of Palestinian cultural affairs (1964–87). It culminates with a discussion of the first intifada and the morphing of exhibition culture into the Palestinian Authority’s state-building project following the Oslo Accords (1987–93).

SERVICES OF HAMAS IN THE POLITICS OF PALESTINE

Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement, has been known for its militant resistance against Israeli occupation and its provision of social services to the Palestinian people. Despite being labeled as a terrorist organization by many Western countries, Hamas has gained widespread support among Palestinians for its unwavering commitment to the cause of a free Palestine. This research paper examines the political services of Hamas and their impact on the politics of Palestine.Through a critical analysis of Hamas’s political and social services, this paper argues that the organization’s success is not solely due to its reputation as a resistance movement, but also due to its ability to provide essential services to the Palestinian people. Hamas has established a vast network of social services, including schools, hospitals, and charities, which have helped to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Furthermore, this article explores how Hamas’s political services have been shaped by its struggle against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has been seen as corrupt and ineffective by many Palestinians. Hamas’s political platform has been built on a foundation of anti-corruption and good governance, which has resonated with many Palestinians who are disillusioned with the PLO’s leadership. Overall, this research article provides a nuanced analysis of Hamas’s political services and their impact on the politics of Palestine. By examining the organization’s social and political services, this paper sheds light on the complex factors that have contributed to Hamas’s success and its potential role in shaping the future of Palestine.

What Role Did Norway Really Play in The Oslo Process?

Abstract How can ‘small’ and politically peripheral states have a significant impact on issues dominated by big states? For example, how did Norway come to play such an important role in fostering negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the early 1990s? This article seeks to answer these questions by analyzing Norway's relationship with Israel and the PLO from 1948 until 1993, as well as Norway's role during the negotiations that led to the signing of the first Oslo Accord. Seen through the theoretical framework of small-state mediation, Norway's lack of influence might have helped convince the parties to open dialogue, but it also implied an inability to provide a level playing field for just negotiations.

Social Histories of Iran: Modernism and Marginality in the Middle East

Social Histories of Iran: Modernism and Marginality in the Middle East

Openings after the Last Sky

Openings after the Last Sky

Was the 1982 Lebanon War a Deviation from Israeli Security Doctrine?

ABSTRACT On June 6, 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the aim of destroying the military infrastructure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was serving as a launching pad for terrorist infiltrations and Katyusha attacks into northern Israel. From its outset, the Israeli public considered the war an exceptional case and a deviation from the “proper” course of Israeli history. Allegedly, unlike other Israeli wars, the 1982 War did not relate to Israeli security concerns but instead to the political aims and whims of Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon. Also, it is often described as an unjust war of choice, which Israel initiated while it was not facing an existential threat. The claim that the 1982 Lebanon War was exceptional and a deviation from original Israeli principles is the main interest of this article. To determine whether the Lebanon War was a breach of Israeli history or a deviation from Israeli foundational political-moral principles, one must analyze the core tenets of Israel’s security strategy to which it adhered in most of its battles. Using the security doctrine as a guide map reveals that the conflict was neither unique nor a deviation but rather a fulfillment of long-standing Israeli security principles.

India’s policy towards the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Palestinian issue and Israel: the Indira Gandhi years

During her tenure as prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi reaffirmed India’s commitment to three interconnected and overlapping factors that shaped the country’s early regional outreach: Muslims, Arabs and Pakistan. Decisions by the government on the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Palestinian issue and (non-)relationship with Israel were usually ‘path dependent’. Mrs Gandhi, well aware of the significance of the ‘Muslim vote’ to her electoral victories, reaffirmed India’s support for Arabs and the Palestinian cause against Israel, thereby appeasing her domestic Muslim constituency. The establishment of Pakistan as an avowedly Islamic state, combined with the Indo-Pakistani conflict over Kashmir, forced the two countries to compete for the support of Muslim Arab states. Indira Gandhi cultivated Arabs by diplomatically supporting them in their conflict with Israel, first by strongly condemning Israel during episodes of conflict between the two parties and then by unequivocally supporting Palestinian self-determination through diplomatic recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Despite Mrs Gandhi’s pro-Arab statements, India did not receive the same level of diplomatic support from Arab countries, which favoured Pakistan in Indo-Pakistani subcontinental conflicts. In contrast, Israel provided India with both military and diplomatic assistance. Despite this, and despite repeated calls from the opposition, Mrs Gandhi refused to normalise relations with Israel, believing that a pro-Arab stance would be more beneficial to national interests. The attitude portrayed India as completely partisan, preventing it from acting as a mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict, which was a stated goal of India’s West Asia policy.

Emergence of Palestine as a Global Cause

In the late 1960s, Palestine became an iconic signifier of solidarity and support for the Left, but also a transgressive tool that shaped and re-situated ideological positions at domestic levels. In this article, we attempt to answer why, how, and when this happened. Most research to date has stressed the global diplomatic offensive by the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Palestinian revolutionary thought and action are obviously the primary explanatory factors for the emergence of their cause internationally. However, a one-sided approach blurs the agency of the global revolutionaries and solidarity activists who helped elevate Palestine to a global cause. This article takes a comparative approach and uses Denmark and Norway as two illustrative examples of Palestine’s transformation into a global leftist cause. Denmark and Norway are central cases because solidarity movements in Scandinavia developed early on, and because they exemplify how Fatah, in Norway, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Denmark, advanced different models of solidarity and cultural diplomacy. We compare these two cases with new evidence from other countries in order to summarize how a cultural transfer of symbols, interpretations, experiences, and ideological positioning took place in the 1960s and 1970s through meetings, translations, and organizational links.

ПРОТИВОСТОЯНИЕ ИЗРАИЛЯ, ИРАНА И СИРИИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ И ГЛОБАЛЬНЫХ ПРОБЛЕМ (1980–2010-Е ГГ.)

The purpose of the article is to study the confrontation between Israel, Iran and Syria in the 1980s and 2010s. It was revealed that it escalated within the specified chronological framework. The reason for the next escalation of the conflict was the civil war in Lebanon. The study provides an analysis of the warring parties and reveals the key points of the fighting in Lebanon. The article reveals Israel's intervention in the Lebanese Civil War and Tel Aviv's struggle in it against the Palestine Liberation Organization. The article emphasizes that since 2005 After the victory of the Iranian conservatives and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential elections, Iran's desire to act as a regional leader in the Middle and Middle East has intensified. As a result, the authors conclude that reducing the severity of contradictions between Israel, Iran and Syria is directly dependent on the imple-mentation of the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the establishment of Jewish and Arab states in Palestine, and not only Israel.

Finansowanie terroryzmu z podatków. Kodeks talibów Layha oraz „podatek palestyński” jako przykłady wykorzystania rozwiązań normatywnych w celu finansowania terroryzmu

One of the sources of financing terrorist organizations described in the literature is taxation. This practice is particularly prevalent in areas controlled by terrorists where the state apparatus is weak. In some cases, terrorist groups and the states supporting them attempt to frame such a “tax system” within normative bounds. The Layha Code, introduced by the Afghan Taliban in the 21st century, reflected their desire to control fiscal practices and contained provisions, based on the norms of the Quran, that could be placed at the border of tax law and public finance law norms. Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organization obtained funding, among other sources, through the “Palestinian tax”, imposed on Palestinians by the governments of the Arab countries in which they were employed.

Legal References for Palestinian Foreign Policy

The current Palestinian foreign policy arose under the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and is now led by the Palestinian National Authority which was established after the Oslo Accords in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Therefore, it is important to know the nature of the legal references and the frame of reference for these Palestinian institutions in the environment of the international community in their practice of foreign policy, as a measure of progress in achieving Palestinian goals and ending the Israeli occupation. There is a problem in these references because they are somewhat vague, and the researcher has sought to clarify them through this study by following the descriptive-analytical approach where the study discussed the nature of international references that emerged from the Oslo Accords, as well as international diplomatic law, and its impact on Palestinian foreign policy. The study also discussed the internal references that emerged from the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Palestinian Basic Law. The study is concluded with several results, most notably the existence of a real weakness in the references of the Palestinian foreign policy, in the absence of oversight over performance, and the freezing of the work of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The study also made several recommendations, most notably the need to reconsider the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has retreated in favor of the Palestinian National Authority.

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

From Australia to Italy and Palestine

From Australia to Italy and Palestine

A Study on Terror Activities in International Sports Events

Korea has successfully hosted international sports events such as the 1986 Asian Games, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the 2002 World Cup. On August 27, 2011, the World Championships in Athletics were held in Daegu, and by hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, it became the fifth country in the world to host all four major international sports events after France, Germany, Italy and Japan. However, it should be recognized that the threat of terror activities exists behind the hosting of international sporting events. The representative terror activities in relation to international sports events in the international community include the terror activities of hostage, kidnapping, and killing by the Black September Team under the Palestine Liberation Organization targeting Israeli athletes and officials at the Munich Olympics on September 5, 1972, a bombing attack that took place at Gimpo International Airport on September 14, 1986, a week before the Asian Games in Seoul, Korea, and the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 over Andaman, Myanmar on November 29, 1987 to obstruct the 1988 Seoul Olympics, etc. This study aims to analyze cases of terror activities that occurred in relation to international sports events held in Korea, and at the same time forecast possible terror activities as a means to prevent or obstruct the holding of international sports events.

The Limits of Détente: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1969–1973

The Limits of Détente: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1969–1973

Changing Attitudes Toward the West Bank in Jordan

Changing Attitudes Toward the West Bank in Jordan Michael Sharnoff (bio) A quarter of a century after King Hussein’s disengagement from the West Bank, and nearly two decades after the signature of the Wadi Arabah Peace Accord with Israel, Jordan’s western border has still not been fixed and the fate of the Palestinian refugees on the East Bank remains uncertain. —Tariq Mreyoud al-Tal1 This quote, expressed by Jordanian scholar Tariq Mreyoud al-Tal probably appears strange to most Westerners and perhaps even non-Jordanian Middle Easterners. Jordan’s boundaries in question refer to its relationship with the West Bank, a landlocked territory bordering Israel and Jordan and home to around 3 million Palestinian Arabs and half a million Israeli Jews. Jordan occupied this land during the 1948 war and subsequently annexed it in 1950. The West Bank became an integral part of Jordan until Israel conquered the land from Jordan during the 1967 war. Despite Israel’s occupation, Jordan continued to assert sovereignty claims on the West Bank until King Hussein severed all legal and administrative ties in 1988 in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Today, Jordan, along with nearly the entire international community, regards the West Bank as an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory. The official position of the Hashemite Kingdom supports ending Israeli rule of the West Bank and establishing an independent Palestinian state [End Page 44] there, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as its capital. However, despite Jordan’s disengagement from the West Bank, the Hashemite monarchy’s stance obfuscates Jordan’s complex and historical, political, and legal relationship with this territory. Indeed, Jordan’s attitudes toward the West Bank have evolved, as explained by Adnan Abu-Odeh, former political advisor to both King Hussein and King Abdullah II, from an indivisible part of Jordan, to an occupied Jordanian land with Israel, to a territorial dispute with the PLO, and to an occupied Palestinian land.2 Jordan’s disengagement from the West Bank in 1988 and peace treaty with Israel in 1994 sought to affirm that Jordan is not Palestine, that Jordan would not become a substitute Palestinian homeland, and that the PLO was principally responsible to end the occupation and establish an independent state. This article aims to explain the changing attitudes toward the West Bank in Jordan from 1948 until the present. It will expand on Abu-Odeh’s remarks about the fluidity and evolving perceptions of Jordan’s attitude toward the West Bank and explain why some Jordanians espouse views toward the West Bank which challenge official Hashemite policy. In doing so, this article will demonstrate how Jordanian perceptions of the West Bank are influenced by Israeli and Palestinian politics and will assess how attitudes in opposition to official regime policy seek to defend the kingdom’s national security and protect the Palestinian people. Historical Context During World War I, the Allied Powers recognized Britain at the San Remo Conference in April 1920 to serve as the mandatory power in Palestine. The Allies endorsed the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine based on the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, which would comprise land on both banks of the Jordan River. The League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, sanctioned the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922, which remained in effect until 1948. However, in 1921, Britain severed three-fourths of the original Mandate to Abdullah I, son of Hussein bin Ali, Emir of Mecca, based on agreements signed with London before the start of the Great Arab Revolt (1916–1918) against the Ottoman Turks. This new Arab entity became known as Transjordan and comprised territory east of the Jordan River. Transjordan, which gained semi-independence in 1923 and full independence from Britain in 1946, [End Page 45] consisted of vast territory with sparsely populated cities such as Irbid, Salt, Karak, and Ma’an. The ruling Hashemite dynasty governed over a quarter of a million Bedouin and non-Bedouin Muslim Arabs, settled Christian Arabs, and small numbers of Armenian Christians, Druze Arabs, Muslim Circassians, and Muslim Chechens.3 Abdullah I had grand territorial ambitions that Transjordan alone could not satisfy. Coveting a...

Preserving Palestine: Visual archives, erased curriculum, and counter-archiving amid archival violence in the post-Oslo period

This article tells the story of Palestinian visual archives in the post-Oslo period, specifically the archives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and their whereabouts following the PLO’s departure from Tunisia in the 1990s. It also narrates the story of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) in the West Bank and Gaza and the challenges it encountered in preserving its visual archive. The article posits that the displacement, loss, and seizure of Palestinian visual archives did not result from the perceived threat they posed to Zionism alone. It underscores that the politics surrounding archives are imbricated in the broader social relations of settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and the neoliberal agendas that bourgeois national interests have produced in Palestine, as well as in the ideological differences between Palestinian political factions. The article then shifts to a discussion of the ways that archival violence maintains Israeli hegemony by erasing and silencing the anti-colonial curriculum and historiography of Palestinians to produce the settler state’s ideology, public memory, and discourses of state formation. The article uses Palestine as a case study to also tell the story of what we conceptualize as an erased curriculum. While Zionism undoubtedly produces both curricular erasures and historical silencing, we underscore how the vested interests of Palestinian political factions, specifically in the post-Oslo period, have contributed to archival violence and silencing as well. We show that despite archival violence, individuals and civil society organizations are enacting a politics of reclamation to trace, preserve, claim, and repatriate Palestinian archives, effectively practising a form of counter-archiving.

Islamic Jihad and the Holocaust: From Hitler to Hamas

This article examines Haj Amin al-Husseini’s involvement in the Holocaust, his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood’s post-Holocaust influence on the spread of exterminationist Jew hatred. The article examines the connection between the Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood facilitated by al-Husseini, showing the pivotal nature of the Arab Revolt of 1936 – 1939 in these relationships. By then the Brotherhood was sending delegations to the Nuremberg rallies and distributing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Arabic-language selections from Mein Kampf. The article then explores al-Husseini’s direct collaboration with the Nazis and participation in the Holocaust. This begins with his instigation of a Nazi-backed coup in Iraq in April 1941, which was followed by the slaughter of hundreds of Jews in Baghdad. From there we go to al-Husseini’s first meeting with Hitler in November 1941 and his work with Himmler in organizing Muslim SS killing units in the Balkans. This section ends with al-Husseini’s hero’s welcome as a Nazi war criminal in July 1946, when he was once again embraced by the Muslim Brotherhood. Finally, the article moves to the post-war years, with al-Husseini’s recruitment and indoctrination of Yasser Arafat in the Brotherhood. This article considers the Brotherhood’s influence on the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Hamas in the spread of an exterminationist agenda inspired by the Nazis.

DELOVANJE TERORISTIČKIH ORGANIZACIJA OSAMDESETIH GODINA 20. VEKA U JUGOSLAVIJI – SA POSEBNIM OSVRTOM NA „KARLOSOVU“ ORGANIZACIJU

The foreign policy orientation of the Former Social Federative Republic of Yugoslavia relied mostly on “third world” countries or the so-called Non-Aligned Movement. In line with the politically proclaimed principles, the cooperation was based on “active peaceful coexistence”, equality, independence, and staying out of inner problems of other countries, as well as mutual respect and solidarity. To strengthen and improve the safety interests and the leadership position within the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia wholeheartedly supported a variety of liberation movements. As a transit country with an extremely liberal visa regime, it was exposed to potential dangers to be a hideout for certain criminal, terrorist, and other groups. This was more than enough of a reason for trying to establish a “background base” of the “Carlos” terrorist organization in Belgrade. The security issue in the country was more complicated by the fact that in that period, there were around 12,500 different people from various Arab countries (not counting over 2,000 officers and non-commissioned officers trained in military schools) who were mostly students. Those persons belonged to numerous groups and organizations, all with their own conceptual, political and religious beliefs. They acted under different international influences. The security organizations and services had an obligation to carefully track their behavior and take certain measurements against individuals, groups, and organizations, to prevent their secret and illicit activities aimed against the interests of the state. In this sense, it is perfectly understandable that when the activities of the “Carlos” terrorist group were discovered, the problem had to be solved in order not to harm the international position and the credibility of Yugoslavia. The most powerful countries in the West (primarily the USA) have openly resented the benevolent attitude of the Yugoslavia authorities towards members of certain groups and organizations that have used terrorist methods in their acts. One of those cases was Abu el Abas, the senior executive of a fraction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. After unexplained circumstances after a hostage crisis in the Middle East, el Abas found himself in Belgrade.

A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East

A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East