mahmoud abbas succeeded yasser arafat on his death ; but it must be said that the plo changed immensely during arafats reign as chairman of the plo , which was considered a terrorist organisation until he changed his outlook during themadrid conferenceof 1991 ; when it was stated that the plo recognised israel'sright to existin peace , acceptedun security council resolutions , and rejected `` violence and terrorism '' ; in response , israel officially recognized the plo as the representative of thepalestinian people .