Also known as the
Palestinian Parliament. The PLC is the
Palestinian Authority (PA)'s legislative body and was created by the
Oslo Accords. There are 132 members of the PLC from the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Its authority is restricted to internal security only in Area A and to civil issues, and its work is subject to review by
Israel. It was inaugurated in 1996, but has not convened since the 2007
Hamas-Fatah conflict, and parliamentary elections have not taken place since 2006. Even before 2007, there were major obstacles to the functioning of the PLC, including
Israeli control over whether its members received travel permits to attend the sessions, and the arrest by Israel of many PLC members, or those who might have become PLC members. The PLC buildings themselves (both in the West Bank and in Gaza) have been targeted in Israeli attacks. The Ramallah building was damaged in 2002, and the Gaza building was destroyed during the 2008/9 Gaza War. See "
Israeli Security Forces Prevent Palestinian Legislative Council Members from Travelling to Council Session in Nablus," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, June 12, 1996; and "
25% of Palestinian MPs detained by Israel," Conal Urquhart, The Guardian, August 21, 2006.