estine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian Army and the subsequent expulsion of several thousand Palestinian guerrillas from Jordan in 1970. In 1987 a large number of Palestinians were living in or around camps administered by the United Nations Relief and World Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. In 1975 there had been 16 officially designated camps of this sort in Lebanon, but in 1975-76 the Maronite militia evicted thousands of Palestinians from the suburbs of East Beirut and demolished their camps. By 1986, 13 camps remained. It was estimated by the United States Department of State in 1984 that 400,000 Palestinians were living in Lebanon, while the PLO claimed the figure was as high as 600,000 (Collelo 52-53).
The state of Israel was created in 1948 with fighting between the newly declared state and her Arab neighbors, and in 1949 the fighting ended with armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel as a state developed out of the Palestinian question. When the British wanted to tu
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