RAMALLAH, May 29, 2011 (WAFA)- 47 years ago, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established to fight for the liberation of the occupied Palestine and to protect the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people.
According to WAFA’s information archive concerning January 23 1964, Gamal Abdul Nasser, the late Egyptian president, convened the Arab summit to discuss the Israeli threats; diverting water from Jordan River. The conference was held in Cairo from January13 to 17.
Furthermore the summit discussed the Palestinian cause and entity, it took ‘practical decisions to establish a body that will organize the Palestinian people to liberate their homeland and enable self determination. Therefore, it decided to authorize Ahmed al-Shuqairy, late representative of Palestine at the Arab League, to follow up contacts with member states and Palestinian people to discuss the ideal measure of organizing Palestinians.
Al-Shuqairy formed a preparatory committee to convene the Palestinian National Conference I, the members were chosen by other preparatory committees, which were appointed and supervised by al-Shuqairy. These committees coordinated the candidates’ names in which representatives from various Palestinian communities were included. Al-Shuqairi annexed many Palestinians who were former members in Jordanian deputies’ council, house of lords, municipal councils and in ministries.
In the presence of King Hussein II and participation of foreign affairs ministries of Arab world, except for Saudi Arabia, the conference was held on May 28, 1964, in Jerusalem.
The First Palestinian National Council(PNC) for the PLO was held from May 28 to June 2, 1964, it was composed of 419 members .
The Palestinian National Charter was adopted, along with the Fundamental Law of the PLO; that is concerned with the organization’s structure and procedures. Thus the PLO was established as the political expression of the Palestinian people.
PNC elected Ahmad Al-Shuqeiry as the first chairman of the PLO Executive Committee. Abdul Majid Shoman was named as the chairman of the PLO’s Palestine National Fund and a member of the Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee held its first meeting in Jerusalem on August 25, 1964.
Al-Shuqairy’s vision of the PLO’s creation was based on compiling all the Palestinian forces, organizations and factions in one revolutionary organization, therefore all the political, military, informative and financial energies will be united and directed to serve that unity.
In 1964, PLO relied on two main basis; Palestinian and Arab. The Palestinian, represented in the Palestinians’ determination to establish its entity; the Arab, represented in the Arab governments’ approval to recognize and support this entity. Those two ‘pillars’ resulted in the establishment of the organization’s headquarters and departments in Jerusalem, as well as in the opening of the representative offices in the Arab countries.
Y.Y./F.R.
