Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Palestine Liberation Army
When the PLO was established in 1964, it was intended to have a regular military arm, the Palestine Liberation Army. In the second Arab Summit Conference in September 1964, it was decided to endorse the establishment of such an army, with a nominal link to the PLO, while in fact its units would remain under the command of the contributing Arab armies.
In late 1957 Egypt had established the Ein Jalut Brigade, ostensibly as a contribution to the liberation War of Palestine, which in 1966 conducted large scale exercises in Sinai. In 1960 Iraq establishing the Qadisiyya Brigade. Syria established the Hittin Brigade. Jordan contributed two battalions, al-Badr and Zaid Ibn Haritha. Their combined strength was estimated at 8,000 to 12,000 men.
The overall command of this PLA changed several times, passing from Uthman Haddad to Abdel Razzaq al-YahJa to Misbah al-Budeiri et al. The variability of the PIA command was in combination with periodic controvercies withing the PLO and between the PLO and Arab states, and a constant contention for power. In any case, the notion of an overall PLO command of the PLA units incorporated in the various Arab armies, and of PLO control of these forces, turned out to be illusory. The Arab regimes tried to use these forces as political tools in their Arab and Palestinian policies. The only PLA force that has come under the PLO command was the Ein Jalut Brigade, which fought in the 1973 War on the Egyptian front. It was transferred from Egypt to Lebanon in 1976, where it continued to operate until the evacuation of the Palestinian forces from Beirut in September 1982.
The PLA, as a regular force in the framework of Arab armies, was not meant to engage in guerrilla or terrorist operations, though in several cases it supported such operations indirectly. The Syrian brigades were also used in the Lebanese Civil War, on Syria`s behalf and under its commands.