The Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization (known by its acronym: PLO) is an Arab terrorist organization that unites several terrorist movements under it, with the goal of destroying and conquering the State of Israel.

Establishment and Early Years

The organization was established in 1964 and began its operations by carrying out terrorist attacks in Eretz Yisroel. The organization became established with the rise of the terrorist Yasser Arafat to lead the organization in 1969. The organization was behind the Peace for Galilee War that took place in Lebanon together with Hezbollah and the Syrian government. In the late 1980s, the organization was behind the First Intifada that broke out in Israel.

In 1993, Yitzchak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords, under which many territories in Eretz Yisroel were handed over to the PLO. The agreement sparked a wave of protests in the country, led by Chabad youth with the Rebbe's approval.

From the beginning of the 2000s, the organization began to decline, and in 2007 Arafat died, and Mahmoud Abbas was appointed as chairman of the organization in his place.

The Rebbe's Response

In 1976, the PLO was added to the UN Security Council, a move that led to great risk to the security of Israel's residents. The Rebbe, as a result, instructed during a farbrengen on Yud Shevat of that year, that seventy-two rabbonim, corresponding to the seventy-two nations of the world, should stand and rule that the land belongs to Am Yisroel according to the Torah, and no one has permission to take any piece of land from Eretz Yisroel. Indeed during the farbrengen, Rabbi Ephraim Eliezer Hakohen Yolles stood and delivered a speech about the connection of Eretz Yisroel to Am Yisroel, and seventy-one rabbonim joined him by answering "Amen" to his words. Additionally, several other rabbonim spoke, including at the Rebbe's request, Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dvorkin, Rabbi DovBer Rivkin, Rabbi Yisroel Yitzchok Piekarski, and Rabbi Mordechai Mentlik. After counting seventy-two rabbonim, the Rebbe requested that the entire crowd say "L'chaim," as participation in a seudas simcha for the event.

During the First Lebanon War, Israel expelled the PLO from Beirut and southern Lebanon, and the organization's headquarters moved to Tunisia, where the United States arranged shelter for them before the evacuation. However, some PLO members remained in northern Lebanon (in the Tripoli area) until 1983 when Syria decided to try to take control of the PLO and remove Yasser Arafat. While the attempt failed, it caused a split in Fatah and the final expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon in 1985.

In Tunis, Arafat established the PLO headquarters in a luxury hotel, from where he managed an international diplomatic front against Israel. Following the move, concern arose in the Jewish community that the PLO would carry out attacks among the country's Jews.

The Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, approached Rabbi Nissan Pinson and asked for his help in bringing Tunisian Jews to Eretz Yisroel, but he refused and said that the Rebbe had instructed not to leave.

The Mossad sent Efraim Halevi to the Rebbe in an attempt to convince the Rebbe to agree to the aliyah of Tunisian Jews to the land, but the Rebbe told him that there was no danger to the Jews living there. Years later, Halevi said that the Rebbe was right and the Mossad was wrong.

In 1986, the IDF attacked the headquarters in Tunis as part of Operation Wooden Leg, in which over 60 PLO members were killed - a move that the Rebbe criticized.

On 28 Nissan 1990, the PLO planned to carry out attacks in several locations around the world, including at 770 in order to harm (Hashem yerachem) the Rebbe. Yitzchak Shamir hurried to inform the Rebbe about this, who came out shortly afterward for Mincha prayer on that day of 28 Nissan 1990, and then gave a sicha in which he announced that he had received an update about the attacks that were going to take place, and asked the crowd to learn three chapters of Tehillim and give to tzedakah the payment of three meals instead of a fast. At the Rebbe's request, these matters were published in the general press. Indeed, in the end, nothing happened.