The Palestinian Authority (PA) is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-’90s. Its creation was supposed to pave the way to an independent Palestinian state, but today it is considered to have little real power and is operating under the control of the Israeli military.
The PA is dominated by Fatah, a secular political party founded by diaspora Palestinians after the 1948 Nakba, or “Catastrophe”. Fatah is also the driving force of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), an umbrella organisation comprising several political parties, which claims to represent Palestinians worldwide.
