The result was an overwhelming victory for nationalist candidates, most of whom were younger, more educated, and less pro-Jordan than the previous Palestinian political establishment, and most of whom were supportive of the PLO.
"[13] In 2016, Carmon explained that they wished to promote "moderate elements who understood that terrorism endangered the Palestinians themselves," and that "although we were well aware that these elements were not dominant and that the positions they espoused were not largely shared by the urban elite that for years had constituted the leading sector of Palestinian society, we also knew that most members of the non-urban population - the silent majority - were prepared to accept this approach if assured of an Israeli commitment to it.
"[11] The next year, the right-wing Likud party would win the Israeli legislative elections and would form government for the first time under Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
[9] As a result of the changes in Israeli policy, Mustafa Dodin, a Palestinian-born former minister in the Government of Jordan who had moved back into the West Bank in 1975, came out of retirement to try and take on a leading role in Palestinian politics.
[12] Dodin, who was politically pro-Jordan and anti-PLO, proposed the creation the Palestinian Village Leagues as rural-based leadership organisation based on clan structures that could serve as a counterweight to PLO influence in the West Bank and could lead towards peace negotiations with Israel.
The Military Governorate approved Dodin's proposal in 1978, with Village Leagues being formed in seven different West Bank regions, and offered him Israeli support.
As Minister of Defence, Sharon quickly moved to re-organise the MIlitary Governorate into the Israeli Civil Administration, naming Milson as its head.
[14][15] In a January 1983 interview with Leeora Bush of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Dodin stated that the priorities of the Village Leagues were: preventing the emigration of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, improving Palestinian-Israeli relations, opposing communism and terrorism, and establishing democracy.
[22] In August 1984, five members of the Village Leagues, including the head of the Bethlehem branch, were convicted by an Israeli military court of arson and attempting to kill prominent nationalists.
[25] While supporting the growth of the Village Leagues, the Israeli government simultaneously moved to degrade the power of the PLO in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including banning the National Guidance Committee and increasing censorship of Palestinian newspapers.
"[32] In September 1982, Menahem Milson resigned as head of the Civil Administration, citing the Sabra and Shatila massacre, committed by Israeli-backed paramilitaries in Lebanon.
"[41] Dodin rejected the accusation, pledging that "if Minister Sharon asks me for sovereignty even on one meter of the West Bank, I will refuse him with all my might," and saying that he was loyal to Jordan and only negotiated with Israel as a short-term measure to gain development aid.
[47] Charles D. Smith of San Diego State University argued that opinion polling reflected widespread support for the PLO among Palestinians, saying that "if a West Bank leadership independent of the P.L.O.
[12] Litani also argued that the Jewish Agency for Israel had tried to encourage the growth of similarly structured peasants' leagues during the late 1930s, following the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, an initiative that also failed.
[12] In 1983, Salim Tamari of Birzeit University argued that "it became increasingly difficult for Israel to rule its subject Palestinian population through the direct apparatus of the Military Government after the Likud claimed Jewish sovereignty of the area in 1980-81," saying that "the absence of a surrogate power base for Israeli rule became an obstacle, not only for the implementation of the Accords but also for the mediation of Israel's control over a progressively more unyielding civilian population.
"[1] Tamari also compared the Village Leagues to the Jewish Agency's attempts to fund alternatives to the Arab Higher Committee, saying that Israel has had a long-running "notion of mobilising the conservative peasantry against its own urban-based nationalist movement.
"[9] In 1995, Rex Brynen of McGill University argued that the partially successful undermining of the PLO's influence led to a significant increased in more decentralised nationalist leaderships, such as "student, trade union, and women's organizations," which were ultimately more resilient against Israeli suppression and which would "provide much of the organisational underpining for the Intifada.
While the Israelis initially responded to the First Intifada with harsh measures, they began direct negotiations with the PLO in the early 1990s, resulting in the Oslo Accords.
"[66] Justin Ling of Foreign Policy, however, has argued that "such a plan is likely to fail for the same reason the original incarnation did: because local government cannot be imposed on a population by an occupying power.