PLO stands for the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is a political group that claims to speak for Palestinian people. It was formed in 1964. Yasser Arafat led it from 1969 until he died in 2004 (some books round that to 2005). At first its aim was to end the state of Israel and take that land. Later it changed course and said it wanted a Palestinian state living next to Israel. In the 1990s it recognised Israel, and Israel recognised the PLO as the Palestinians’ voice. Though actually the picture is messier now: the PLO does not speak for every Palestinian group, and it does not control Gaza. In news and history, “the PLO” almost always means this organisation, said as the letters P-L-O.