Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

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POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (PFLP)

Palestinian movement (al-Jabha al-Sha?biya li-Tahrir Filastin, in Arabic) created in December 1967, in the wake of the Arab defeat in the Arab-Israel War (1967), by Dr. George Habash (b. 1925), Nayif Hawatma, and Ahmad Jibril. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was formed from the merger of Habash's Nasserist Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) and Jibril's Palestine Liberation Front (PLF, 1965), and was more radical

than either. It also attracted the dissidents of the groups Heroes of the Return of Fayiz Jabir and Revenge of Youth. Like the ANM advocating pan-Arabism, the PFLP opposed any negotiated solution with Israel. It espoused a strategy of mobilizing workers and peasants in a revolutionary grass-roots war of liberation. The second largest Palestinian movement after Yasir Arafat's al-Fatah, the PFLP established its headquarters in Damascus and affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In March 1968, Habash was jailed in Damascus, and returned to Jordan in early 1969. During his absence, Jibril quit the movement to create his own organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine–General Command (PFLP–GC). In February 1969, a second break, initiated by Nayif Hawatima, gave rise to the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP), which later became the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The PFLP engaged in hundreds of armed actions, mainly in the Gaza Strip, and became widely known for airplane hijackings.

On 30 August 1969, a Front commando led by Leila Khaled hijacked a TWA airliner en route from Rome to Tel Aviv via Athens. The commandos forced the plane to land near Damascus. In exchange for the passengers they obtained the release of thirteen Palestinians jailed in Israel; they also exploded a bomb in the cockpit of the aircraft. Khalid became a heroine of the Palestinian resistance. The PFLP moved from Syria to Jordan and played a critical role creating confrontations against the government of King Hussein. At the beginning of August 1970, coming out against the position of al-Fatah, Habash advocated the establishment of a "national democratic government" in Jordan. The PFLP multiplied provocations, meant to push the Jordanian forces toward confrontation. On 6–9 September 1970, PFLP commandos hijacked three Western airliners to a remote airstrip in the Jordanian desert, destroying them after the passengers were evacuated. On 16 September the king formed a military government and the next day launched an attack against Palestinian refugee camps, beginning a campaign of violent repression of Palestinian organizations. This was the beginning of Black September 1970. On 27 September, after ten days of fighting that caused nearly 4,000 Palestinian deaths, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, at the behest of the Arab League, arranged a cease-fire. When fighting broke out again the following summer, the PLO was expelled from the country, from which it moved to Lebanon. The following year the PFLP mounted joint operations with the Japanese Red Army (JRA).

In 1972 the PFLP renounced operations outside Palestine. It also adopted a Marxist orientation and a more comprehensive social program. In 1974 when the PLO adopted the idea of a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the PFLP quit the PLO's executive committee and became the major force behind the creation of the Rejection Front. During the early period of the Lebanese Civil War of 1975–1990, the PFLP joined with al-Fatah against the Syrians, who at that point were supporting the Lebanese government. After Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat launched his peace offensive toward Israel, breaking the Arab consensus, Syria and the PLO were reconciled. The PFLP rejoined the PLO executive committee in 1981. When the PLO was expelled from Lebanon in 1982, the PFLP moved to Damascus. In June 1983 the PFLP and the DFLP announced the creation of a common military and political command to coordinate the actions of the Palestinian resistance. In 1984, in order to counter the policies of Yasir Arafat, which were tending toward dialogue with Israel, the movement joined with the DFLP and the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF, 1977), in constituting the "Democratic Alliance," which lasted only around fifteen months because of personality conflicts.

In 1987, after the abrogation of the Jordanian-Palestinian Accord, the PFLP, along with the DFLP and the Palestine Communist Party (PCP), rejoined the Executive Committee of the PLO. In February 1993, there was radicalization of the movement at the PFLP congress; and following the signature of the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of 1993, the PFLP and the DFLP resigned once more from the Executive Committee of the PLO, joining with the Palestinian opposition front, the Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF). In August 1994, in an effort to consolidate its common position against the Oslo Accords, the PFLP and the DFLP again announced the constitution of a common military command. In December 1994, the PFLP was the impetus behind the creation, at Amman, of a movement meant to unite opponents of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Assembly, under the leadership of Bassam al-Shaq?a. This entity, whose activities were very sparse, lasted only a few weeks. On 1 July 1996, the leadership of the PFLP announced it was withdrawing from the Central Council of the PLO.

Between 1996 and 1998, the PFLP strove to unify a new movement of credible opposition, principally with its main ally, the DFLP. During this time, the armed branch of the PFLP carried out some anti-Israel attacks, of which several were coordinated with the PFLP–GC. At the beginning of 1999, two currents surfaced in the PFLP: one led by Mustafa Zibri (Abu Ali Mustafa) and Abdul Rahim Malluh, which favored a rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority; the other, opposed to this rapprochement, was led by George Habash. The following June, the political bureau of the PFLP threw its support behind the project of unifying the Palestinian forces of the left, for the purpose of defending Palestinian interests, in negotiations on a final status for the Palestinian territories. In August, leaders of the PFLP, the DFLP, and al-Fatah met in Cairo to discuss reconciliation between the partisans and opponents of the Oslo Accords. In mid-February 2000, the political bureau of the PFLP rejoined the Executive Committee of the PLO. In April, Habash resigned as head of the movement, replaced three months later by al-Zabri, who had been residing in the Palestinian territories since the previous September. In November, while the al-Aqsa Intifada was raging in the Palestinian territories, the PFLP decided to become more involved in armed action against the Israelis. On 27 August 2001, al-Zabri was killed in his office in Ramallah by Israeli missiles in a "targeted killing," or assassination. On 3 October, Ahmad Sa?adat was chosen to head the PFLP, seconded by Abdul Rahim Malluh. Fourteen days later, in order to avenge the death of al-Zabri, a PFLP member assassinated Rehavam Ze?evi, Israeli minister of tourism. In 2004, Habash, who is in poor health, lives in Damascus.