The rise of Palestinian nationalism
Most refugee camps that came into being in 1949 and in the wars that followed, still exist. The population in these camps has increased greatly – a fourth generation is growing up there. The camps are overcrowded and living conditions are mostly very bad. For a long time, it was not clear who was responsible for these people. The government of Lebanon, for example, has never accepted the Palestinians as Lebanese citizens, even if they were born in the country.
This means that they are not allowed to get a job, and opportunities to get an education or medical care when needed are very limited. There is no organisation or authority that represents the Palestinian Arabs, as they never formed a unity in, for example, a state. In the course of time however, Palestinians did start to feel more and more united and Palestinian nationalism emerged. Other countries also increasingly started to refer to them as one people.
In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded. This was a cooperation of Palestinian groups that decided to work together in their fight against Israel. Their main goal was to destroy the Jewish state. To achieve this, the PLO resorted to terrorism, the use of violence against civilians for political aims.
The Palestinians now had a group that represented them, but because of the terrorism, the Israeli government refused to see them as a negotiation partner. The PLO not only organised terrorist attacks, they also provided help for the people in the refugee camps that nobody else took responsibility for. Because of this, the PLO quickly gained a lot of support from the people who lived there.