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the first move towards mobilising the Palestinians by forming the General Union of the Palestine Students (GUPS). He probably worked in consultation with Hajj Amin al-Husseini and both together were probably supported and assisted by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of Hassan al-Bana. After an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian President came down heavily upon the Brotherhood; the ring-leaders of the plot were executed, the rank and file were jailed and the organisation declared illegal. Husseini left for Iraq in search of an alternative political patronage and Arafat moved to Kuwait.
Around the same time that Arafat was putting together the GUPS, a parallel Palestinian liberation movement was taking shape in Beirut where George Habbash, Nayef Hawatmeh and other Palestinian exiles founded the Harakat al'Quamiyyun al-Arab (Arab National Movement). TheANM was committed to liberating Palestine and envisaged it on the basis of and with the help of Arab unity. It soon established branches in Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrein and Egypt during the 1950's. In Egypt, the ANM found a great ally in Nasser and pledged its support to his Arab policies. The ANM too was to be disillusioned like the GUPS, but it came a little later.
In 1964, the Arab League held its first summit meeting and decided to form a political organisation of the Palestinians. Accordingly, it selected Ahmed Shukairi, a new Palestinian leader, to put it together. Shukairi called the first Palestine National Congress in Jeruselem and on May 28, 1964, proclaimed the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The second Arab summit met in September, recognised the PLO and gave it an observer status in the League. The PLO, at this stage, was almost an adjunct of the Arab states; its will was subordinated to the wishes of Nasser in Egypt, Arefin Iraq and King Hussein in Jordan; its armed personnel were attached to the various Arab armies, and its activities were closely controlled by the Arab governments.
Resistance Groups
Yasser Arafat founded al-Fatah (Victory) in Kuwait in 1958 and soon after that spread it out among almost all the exile groups. It engaged the Israelis in hit-and-run attacks even before the 1967 war. However, the battle of al-Karameh in Jordan on May 21, 1968, in which the Fatah took on a regular contingent of the Israeli army, became its introduction to the world and attracted large numbers of Palestinian youth to its fold. Today, it is the biggest of the resistance groups— bigger than all the rest put together. As such, it has acquired an umbrella-like character where people of various backgrounds and shades of opinion have come together. Its singular goal is stated to be the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a secular, democratic state. It is basically a nationalist organisation and shuns