Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (Al-Haya?al-Amila Li-Tahrir Filastin)
ACTION ORGANIZATION FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (Al-Hayaʾal-Amila li-Tahrir Filastin)
A guerrilla organization created in 1968 by Issam Sartawi, a Palestinian cardiologist. After the 1967 Arab-Israel War, Sartawi returned to the Occupied Territories from the United States, where he had been living, and joined al-Fatah, organizing a group to provide medical care to al-Fatah's guerrilla fighters. After quarreling with Yasir Arafat, he and a handful of militants left al-Fatah and created the Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (AOLP), a guerrilla commando, which operated mainly in Jordan. In 1970 the AOLP was the only Palestinian group to support Gamal Abdel Nasser's acceptance of the Rogers Plan, the U.S. proposal to implement United Nations Resolution 242, which would have returned captured land to Egypt and Jordan while ignoring Palestinian national interests. Expelled from Jordan after the Black September confrontations, the members of the AOLP took refuge in Beirut. Sartawi by now had come to favor establishing contacts with Israel, so as to find a solution to the Palestinian problem. Sartawi merged the AOLP into al-Fatah in July 1971 and went on to become an advisor to Arafat on American and European issues, eventually emerging as a leading advocate of mutual compromise with Israel. Sartawi was assassinated by agents of Abu Nidal in Lisbon in April 1983.
SEE ALSO Arafat, Yasir;Fatah, al-;Sartawi, Issam.