The legal status of the Palestine Liberation Organization under international law

This thesis is a study of the special status of the Palestine Liberation Organization in international law. To facilitate the analysis of the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the hypothesis examines four aspects of the PLO's role in the international system. The first aspect concerns the PLO as a major non-state actor in the global system. The second aspect illustrates the international personality of the PLO, both as a government-in-exile and as a "public body." The third aspect considers the organization's rights and duties under the law of war. The PLO's status under the international law of war encompasses the "just war" concept and the contemporary meaning of "war of liberation/resistance" under international conventions. The fourth aspect examines the concept of Jihad under the Islamic law of nations and its application to the PLO, although the PLO does not regard itself as an Islamic movement.