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Palestinian intifada, or organized uprising in the In 1998, during negotiations at the Wye River
territories, also broke out during this time. As the inti- Plantation in Maryland, Arafat and Israeli prime minis-
fada continued,Arafat convened a meeting of the Pales- ter Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement guaran-
tinian National Council in Algiers. On November 15, teeing Palestinian control of an additional 13 percent of
1988, the PLO proclaimed its support in principle of land in the West Bank. However, in July 2000 Clinton
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state was unable to broker a final peace settlement at Camp
and announced the recognition of U.N. Resolution 242, David. Violence has since escalated in the region. A
effectively recognizing Israel’s right to coexist with second intifada broke out in the fall of 2000, and well
Palestine. At the meeting, the group also accepted over a year and a half later Palestinian suicide bomb-
a declaration rejecting terrorism. One month later, ings by the PLO-associated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Arafat officially accepted U.N. Resolutions 242 and continue to wrack the Holy Land.
338. Arafat also spoke before a special session of the
See also AL AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADES; AL FATAH; YASIR
U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, calling on Israel
ARAFAT; DEMOCRATIC FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF
to join peace talks. The following day, U.S. president
PALESTINE; PALESTINE LIBERATION FRONT; POPULAR FRONT
Ronald Reagan responded by making the first diplo-
FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE; POPULAR FRONT FOR
matic contact between the United States and the PLO. THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE–GENERAL COMMAND
As diplomatic talks began, violent acts called
Arafat’s authority and desire for peace into question. Further Reading
Forces working for Abu Abbas, leader of a faction of
Aburish, Said K. Arafat: From Defender to Dictator.
the PLF and a member of the PLO’s executive council,
New York: Bloomsbury, 1998.
were unsuccessful in their attempt to raid a Tel Aviv
Hart, Alan. Arafat, a Political Biography. London:
beach in May 1990. The United States broke off talks
Sidgwick & Jackson, 1994.
with the PLO after the Tel Aviv attack, saying that Mishal, Shaul. The PLO Under Arafat: Between Gun and
Abbas, who had also masterminded the 1985 Achille Olive Branch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
Lauro cruise ship hijacking, in which an elderly New 1986.
Yorker was shot and dumped from his wheelchair into Mussalam, Sami. The PLO: The Palestine Liberation
the sea, needed to be disciplined for the acts. During Organization, Its Function and Structure. Brattleboro,
the Persian Gulf War, Arafat and the PLO vocally sup- VT: Amana, 1988.
ported Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, causing fur- Pradhah, Bansidhar. From Confrontation to Hostile Intimacy:
ther distance between the PLO and the United States. PLO and the U.S. New Delhi: Sehyog Prakashan, 1994.
Surrat, Robin, ed. The Middle East. Ninth ed. Washington,
The United States did not restore contacts with the
DC: Congressional Quarterly, 2000.
PLO until President Bill Clinton reopened the dialogue
Wallach, Janet, and John Wallach. Arafat: In the Eyes of the
in 1993. In the early 1990s, 11 meetings of bilateral
Beholder. Revised and updated ed. Secaucus, NJ: Carol
peace negotiators took place between Israel and its
Publishing Group, 1997.
bordering Arab states. When these talks reached a
stalemate in 1993, PLO officials took part in secret,
direct meetings with Israeli diplomats in Oslo,
Norway; these meetings ultimately led to the signing PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD
of the 1993 PLO-Israel Declaration of Principles.
Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed A tiny but fiercely militant Islamic group, the
the declaration in Washington, D.C., on September 13, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is made up of a hand-
shaking hands on the White House lawn. ful of loosely affiliated factions, the largest of which
In 1994, in accordance with the Oslo Accords, the was led by Dr. Fatih Shaqaqi until his assassination in
PLO leadership returned from nearly 30 years in 1995. Although the PIJ has become well known for
exile to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were its violent tactics and its opposition to a negotiated
mandated to establish the Palestinian Authority (PA), peace with Israel, the group, headquartered in Syria, is
the first Palestinian government in modern history. relatively small and mysterious; it is said to receive
Two years later, the Palestinian people held their first financial assistance from Iran.
national elections and Arafat was elected president The PIJ was founded in Egypt in the late 1970s by
of the PA. three Palestinian students. Shaqaqi, Abdul Aziz Odeh,