In October 1974, the Rabat Arab League summit declared that the PLO, not Jordan, was “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” This incensed King Hussein but he had no option but to agree and relinquish his status as a representative of the Palestinians in discussions with Israel. In November 1974, the United Nations General Assembly voted to give the PLO observer status.

Throughout the 1970s, increasing numbers of Israelis began to settle in the occupied territories. In 1976, the UN Security Council condemned this West Bank policy and demanded that Israel follow the Genera Convention’s rules regarding occupied territory. Although Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (of the traditionally dominant left-leaning Labor party) discouraged permanent West Bank settlement, the next government, under Prime Minister Menahem Begin (of the newly ascendant right-wing Likud bloc) drove vigorously in the other direction after its 1977 victory.