The long term conflict with Israel required what was called in Arabic the revival of the Palestinian entity. It had to be made clear that there was in fact an Arab people who were Palestinians by definition and who were politically historically associated with the territory of Palestine. In the immediate aftermath of the 1948 war, the two banks of the Jordan River, the East Bank and the West Bank, had been united under Jordan. And Jordan sought to incorporate the Palestinians, who had become a majority in the Jordanian state into the kingdom of Jordan. Jordan was not interested in the preservation of the Palestinian entity or identity. On the contrary, the Jordanians wanted to absorb the Palestinian identity into that of Jordan. And therefore the designation of the territory west of the, as the West Bank after all. If the Jordanians had wished to preserve the Palestinian identity they could have called the West Bank Palestine. But the Jordanians deliberately ceased using the term Palestine and invented the term West Bank as a way of removing the Palestinian identity from the territory. Therefore, in the late 1950s after Suez, when Abdel Nasser and other Arabs are thinking of the revival of the Palestinian entity, this was not what the Jordanians wanted. Needless to say, this was not what the Israelis wanted, either. It would have been preferable for both the Jordanians and the Israelis for the Palestinians to be absorbed into the various Arab countries as part and parcel of the overall Arab nation. And for this specific claim to Palestine to recede into the past. The Palestinians themselves were great believers in Abdel Nasser's formula and they really did believe in the Arab revolution that would be led by Abdel Nasser as a precursor to liberation. And they were the most loyal of Arabs to Abdel Nasser and his vision. But after the Suez War, there was a growing realization amongst Palestinians that Abdel Nasser may not be able to delivery in the end. After all, they knew that Abdel Nasser had been defeated by the Israelis in the war. And if this was going to be a long term affair, it was indeed critical, not only to preserve the Palestinian entity and identity, but also to create an independent Palestinian political organization. It was important for Abdul Nasser and for the Palestinians, to make it clear to all and sundry the Palestinian issue was a collective political matter. An issue of a people and the right to self determination in a country of their own, and that is their own homeland, in Palestine. It was not just a refugee problem, an issue of individuals who needed some kind of humanitarian solution. This was not about providing housing and jobs for the Palestinian refugees. This was about the right of Palestinian return to their homeland in Palestine. So against this background two trends emerged in the Arab world. One an autonomous Palestinian effort, which was clandestine to organize politically for an independent Palestinian struggle and the Pan-Arab effort to revive the Palestinian identity, which was public and conducted through the meetings and decisions of the Arab League. And it was these meetings and discussions of the Palestinians issuing the Arab league that culminated in May of 1964, with the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Palestine Libertarian Organization was established under the leadership of Ahmad Shuqayri, the first chairman of the PLO. As a result of a decision that was made by the Arab league. For Abdel Nasser, the establishment of the PLO was a means of control of the Palestinian question. Abdel Nasser was not interested in the Palestinians independently waging their conflict with Israel. Which could possibly drag the Egyptians into a war with Israel at a time not of their own choosing. So for Abdel Nasser the creation of the PLO was not to allow the Palestinians independence but actually to control the, the revival of the Palestinian entity under his own auspices. It is an interesting question to ask. Why did the Jordanians agree to this decision of the Arab league? After all, they had been opposed to the revival of the Palestinian entity from the very beginning. And the inaugural meeting of the PLO was actually held in Jerusalem. That is Arab Jerusalem, which was part of Jordan at that time. The Jordanians, just like Abdel Nasser, believed that if they allowed for the PLO to be established, they would be able to control it. It was also a means for the Jordanians of accepting the Arab consensus and making their peace with Abdel Nasser rather than having to clash with him all the time. But once the PLO was established, it had immediate requirements of Jordan. After all, the great majority of the Palestinian people, who were those that the PLO wished to represent, lived in Jordan. And were Jordanian citizens living in the West Bank and on the other side of the river on the East Bank. The PLO had to operate in Jordan if it could represent the Palestinian people. It could not have a viable representative character if it did not operate amongst the great majority of the Palestinians, who were Jordanian citizens. The PLO, therefore, required of Jordan to allow the PLO to collect taxes from the Palestinians in Jordan. To allow the PLO to conscript Palestinians for the Palestine Liberation Army, which the PLO established also at that time. >> [COUGH] >> The PLO also demanded the political mobilization of the Palestinians in the West Bank on behalf of the PLO. And even to arm the villages on the front line facing Israel. All of these demands of Jordan were totally unacceptable. Jordan for the PLO was this essential base of operations. But what the PLO was asking of Jordan was the erosion of Jordanian sovereignty. It was essentially asking the Jordanians to agree to the establishment of a kind of Palestinian independent political entity within the framework of the Jordanian state. This was obviously unacceptable. In the mean time, the clandestine organization of the Palestinians conducted autonomously by the Palestinians and not within the framework of the Arab League, and not within the framework of the PLO either. Was the creation of independent Palestinian organizations, of which the most important and the most lasting was Fatah. These were young men who began to organize as students in Cairo in the early 1950s. Where they organized the, the general union of Palestinian students. And it was they who after the war of Suez and the realization of Abdel Nasser's limitations, who realized the need to organize independent Palestinian arm struggle against Israel. And Fatah was established in the Gulf in the late 1950s. 1958, 59, by Yasser Arafat and the others who became the founding fathers of the Palestine national movement.
