My Life in the PLO

Shafiq Al-Hout, Laila Othman, Hader Al-Hout

Description

This is the inside story of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), from its beginnings in 1964 to the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993.



For over three decades, the main goal of the PLO was to achieve a just peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and to build a democratic state in Palestine for all its citizens. Shafiq Al-Hout, a high ranking PLO official until his resignation in 1993, provides previously unavailable details on the key events in its history such as its recognition by the UN and the Oslo peace negotiations. Analysing and criticising decisions and individuals, including Yasser Arafat, we are taken right to the heart of the decision making processes; our eyes opened to the personalities and internal politics that shaped the PLO's actions and the Palestinian experience of the twentieth century.



An essential piece of history that sheds new light on the significance of the PLO in the Palestinian struggle for justice.
List of Acronyms

Preface

1. Jaffa, My City

2. From Homeland to Exile

3. From Journalism to Politics

4. The Birth of the Palestine Liberation Organisation

5. The Factions Gain Control over the PLO

6. Jordanian-Palestinian Relations

7. Nasser As I Knew Him

8. Fratricidal Wars

9. The PLO at the United Nations

10. Palestine, Around the Globe

11. The Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

12. The Sabra and Shatila Massacre

13. After the Departure

14. The Mysterious Triangle

15. The Second Exodus From Lebanon

16. The Session that changed the Path

17. The Intifada of Stones

18. Return to the Executive Committee

19. No Final Solution without a Single Democratic Palestine

20. The Night of Abu Ammar’s Plane Crash

21. Resigning in Protest over the Oslo Agreement

22. After the Resignation

23. My Heart Rebels

24. Coming out of a Dark Abyss

Appendix: Photographs?

Index

Sujets

• Human Rights
• Political
• Historical
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Military
• Terrorism
• Palestine
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 05 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783714223
• Langue: English

Extrait

MY LIFE IN THE PLO
My Life in the PLO
The Inside Story of the Palestinian Struggle
Shafiq al-Hout
Edited by Jean Said Makdisi and Martin Asser Translated by Hader al-Hout and Laila Othman
 
 
First published 2011 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
English language translation copyright © The Estate of Shafiq al-Hout 2011
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 2884 3 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 2883 6 Paperback ISBN 978 1 8496 4548 5 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1423 0 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1422 3 EPUB eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Curran Publishing Services, Norwich
Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
CONTENTS
List of photographs
List of acronyms
Glossary
Foreword 1 Jaffa, my city 2 From homeland to exile 3 From journalism to politics 4 The birth of the Palestine Liberation Organization 5 The factions gain control of the PLO 6 Jordanian–Palestinian relations 7 Nasser as I knew him 8 Fratricidal wars 9 The PLO at the United Nations 10 Palestine, around the globe 11 The Israeli invasion of Lebanon 12 The Sabra and Shatila massacre 13 After the departure 14 The mysterious triangle 15 The second exodus from Lebanon 16 The session that changed the path 17 The Intifada of Stones 18 Return to the Executive Committee 19 No final solution without a single democratic Palestine 20 . The night of Abu Ammar’s plane crash 21 Resigning in protest over the Oslo Agreement 22 After the resignation 23 My heart rebels 24 Coming out of a dark abyss
Index
PHOTOGRAPHS 1 Graduates of al-Ameriyah school in Jaffa (1947). Al-Hout is standing in the middle, wearing a dark shirt and a beige jacket 2 The author (left) with Arafat in Lebanon (early 1970s) 3 The author’s first interview with President Nasser in Cairo (1962) 4 Going with Arafat to a closed meeting (Beirut, mid-1970s). Al-Hout drives his car while the bodyguard is in the back seat 5 Al-Hout, head of the Palestinian media delegation to the United Nations at a press conference (New York, 1974). To his left Nabil Sha’th, Abdul Jawad Saleh, Clovis Maqsoud and Randa Khalidi; to his right Abdul Karim al-Shaikhali, Fouad Yassin 6 The author on one of his regular trips to the United Nations, talking to Palestinians and supporters coming from different parts of the USA (New York, 1981) 7 The author on a tour to explain the Palestine question (Tokyo, 1990) 8 The author in his last years when he wrote his memoirs
LIST OF ACRONYMS AADC Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee AAUG Arab-American University Graduates ALF Arab Liberation Front ANM Arab Nationalist Movement AUB American University of Beirut AUC American University in Cairo CIA Central Intelligence Agency DFLP Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine LF Lebanese Forces (Phalange militia) LNM Lebanese National Movement NAM Non-Aligned Movement PFLP Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP-GC Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, group under Ahmad Jibril that split from the PFLP PLA Palestine Liberation Army PLC Palestinian Legislative Council PLF Palestine Liberation Front PLO Palestine Liberation Organization PLO/EC Palestine Liberation Organization / Executive Committee PNA Palestinian National Authority PNC Palestinian National Council PNF Palestine National Fund PNLF Palestine National Liberation Front PRCS Palestinian Red Crescent Society PSP Progressive Socialist Party (Lebanon) RPG rocket-propelled grenade SSNP Syrian Social Nationalist Party UAR United Arab Republic UNRWA      United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East WHO World Health Organization
GLOSSARY
(Note: This glossary is not part of the author’s original text but is added by the publisher to help readers unfamiliar with some of the events mentioned in the text.)
Beik    A title of high rank dating from the days of the Ottoman Empire.
Camps War    Between 1985 and 1987 the Amal militia made a series of assaults on the Sabra, Shatila, and Burj al-Barajineh refugee camps, with the fighting spreading to Sidon and Beirut.
Committee 23    Another name for the Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, formed to pursue the implementation of UN resolutions on Palestine. It is known as Committee 23 because 23 states participated in it.
Deir Yassin    Village of around 600 Palestinian Arabs near Jerusalem which declared neutrality during the 1948 war. More than 100 of its people were massacred on April 9, 1948, by paramilitaries from the Irgun and Lehi groups.
Dunum    Measurement of land, c. 1,000 m2.
Entanglement    The strategy of uncoordinated attacks on Israel that aimed to force Egypt’s hand and make it go to war, whether ready or not.
al-Fakhani    District in Beirut where Yasser Arafat’s command center was located.
Gaza–Jericho First Agreement    Official name of the agreement between Israel and the PLO signed in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1993. “The Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Agreements: Gaza–Jericho First” became known as the Oslo accords, referring to the secret negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians that took place in Oslo (1991–93) and paved the way to the official agreement in Washington.
Jaysh al-Inqadh Arab army of deliverance, formed by the Arab League in 1947.
al-Jihad al-Muqaddas     The sacred struggle.
Jujube tree    Deciduous tree with red or black fruits that are dried or eaten fresh as a snack.
October War    The fourth Arab–Israeli war, October 1973. Egyptian and Syrian forces advanced across the Suez Canal and in the Golan Heights, breaking through Israeli defences. Though later reversed, these early successes did much to restore Arab morale, which had suffered since their defeat in the Six Days War of 1967.
Palestine Liberation Front    The PLF founded in Beirut in 1961 should not be confused with the present organization of that name.
Sabra and Shatila    Between September 16 and 18, 1982, Phalange militia groups perpetrated a massacre in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. The death toll is variously estimated at from 800 to 3,500. The Israeli army surrounding the camps did nothing to prevent this and an International Commission found that they were involved, directly or indirectly.
al-Saiqa     Organization representing the Syrian Ba’th party.
United Arab Republic (UAR)    Egypt and Syria joined in a single state under President Nasser in 1958, and the union lasted until 1961, when Syria seceded. The UAR was associated with North Yemen, which remained a sovereign state, in the United Arab States. Egypt continued to be known as the UAR until 1971.
FOREWORD
This story is not an autobiography in the traditional sense – nor is it even my story, although I am the writer of it and the narrative voice is mine. This is the story of a people at a certain point in their history, an ancient people living an ancient homeland, a cradle of civilization, theater of wars and conflict. It is the story of Palestine and the people of Palestine between the 1930s and the start of the third millennium. I was 16 years old when the Palestinians experienced the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 when their land was usurped and they were uprooted. Citizen became refugee, homeland became cause.
There is no precedent in history for what Zionism inflicted on Palestine and the Palestinians, except perhaps what European colonialists did to the native population of the Americas 500 years ago. Any group of human beings which experiences a crime on this scale, and lives to tell the tale, is left with marks and scars which are hard to ignore and impossible to forget. Members of my generation are the victims of such a crime. What distinguishes those of us who are still alive is that we are the last of the Palestinians to be blessed with the memory of life in our homeland and cursed by the bitterness of life in exile. Each of our lives is identified with that experience. The story of the homeland became the inseparable story of every one of its citizens. So this is not one person’s autobiography; it is the story of a whole generation, a generation that knew how to stand up to the hammer blow of fate, how to remain steadfast in the face of adversity and aggression, how to restore its respect, how to continue its struggle and hold up the banner of liberation and the reinstatement of inalienable rights. And it also found out how to pass on the legacy of its memory to children and grandchildren. The memory persists through some secret bond between people and homeland – perhaps sustained by Palestine’s unique geography or its place in history.
* * *
After this introduction, there are some points I would like to make: Firstly, throughout my life writing has been both my hobby and my profession, and my gateway into the world of politics. Therefore, parts of this book have come not from memory but rather from articles that I wrote, statements and speeches I delivered, and interviews I gave. I have elected to leave these texts in their original form in order to preserve the integrity of contemporary events and circumstances. Thus, although the final manuscript was assembled between 2006 and 2007, this book is not the result of a single effort, but rather was