Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
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The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian
Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
and revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by
George Habash George Habash ( ar, جورج حبش, Jūrj Ḥabash), also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" ( ar, الحكيم, al-Ḥakīm, "the wise one" or "the doctor"; 2 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian Christian politician who founded the ...
. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the
Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(the PLO, founded in 1964), the largest being
Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
(founded in 1959). Ahmad Sa'adat has served as General Secretary of the PFLP since 2001. He was sentenced in December 2006 to 30 years in an Israeli prison. The PFLP currently considers both the Fatah-led government in the West Bank and the Hamas government in the
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
illegal because elections to the Palestinian National Authority have not been held since 2006. , the PFLP boycotts participation in the PLO Executive Committee and the
Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC) ( ar, المجلس الوطني الفلسطيني, "'Almajlis Alwataniu Alfilastiniu"') is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and elects the PLO Executive Committee, which ...
. The PFLP has generally taken a hard line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate stance of Fatah. It does not recognise the
State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, it opposes negotiations with the
Israeli government The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...
, and favours a one-state solution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
. The military wing of the PFLP is called the
Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades ( ar, كتائب ابو علي مصطفى '')'' is the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). History Origin ...
. The PFLP is well known for pioneering armed aircraft-hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to PFLP Politburo member and former aircraft-hijacker Leila Khaled, the PFLP does not see suicide bombing as a form of resistance to occupation or as a strategic action or policy and no longer carries out such attacks. The PFLP has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Canada,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and the European Union. From its foundation the PFLP sought
superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...
patrons, early on developing ties with the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and, at various times, with
regional power In international relations, since the late 20thcentury, the term "regional power" has been used for a sovereign state that exercises significant power within a given geographical region.Joachim Betz, Ian Taylor"The Rise of (New) Regional Powe ...
s such as
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
South Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...
, Libya, North Korea, and Iraq, as well as with left-wing groups around the world, including the FARC and the Japanese Red Army. When that support diminished or stopped, in the late 1980s and 1990s, the PFLP sought new allies and developed contacts with Islamist groups linked to Iran, despite the PFLP's strong adherence to secularism and
anti-clericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
. The relationship between the PFLP and the Islamic Republic of Iran has fluctuatedit strengthened as a result of Hamas moving away from Iran due to differing positions on the Syrian Civil War. Iran rewarded the PFLP for its pro-
Assad Asad ( ar, أسد), sometimes written as Assad, is an Arabic male given name literally meaning " lion". It is used in nicknames such as ''Asad Allāh'', one of the by-names for Ali ibn Abi Talib. People Among prominent people named ''Asad'', ...
stance with an increase in financial and military assistance. The PFLP has been accused by Israel of diverting European humanitarian aid from Palestinian NGOs to itself.


History


Arab Nationalist Movement

The PFLP grew out of the ''Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab'', or Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), founded in 1953 by
George Habash George Habash ( ar, جورج حبش, Jūrj Ḥabash), also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" ( ar, الحكيم, al-Ḥakīm, "the wise one" or "the doctor"; 2 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian Christian politician who founded the ...
, a Palestinian Christian, from Lydda. In 1948, 19-year-old Habash, a medical student, went to his home town of Lydda during the
1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
to help his family. While he was there, the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
attacked the city and as a result, most of its civilian population was forced to leave. They marched for three days without food or water until they reached the Arab armies' front lines. Habash finished his medical education in Lebanon at the
American University in Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, au ...
, graduating in 1951.Kazziha, Walid, ''Revolutionary Transformation in the Arab World: Habash and his Comrades from Nationalism to Marxism''. p. 17–18 In an interview with US journalist
John K. Cooley John Kent Cooley (November 25, 1927 – August 6, 2008) was an American journalist and author who specialized in islamist groups and the Middle East. Based in Athens, he worked as a radio and off-air television correspondent for ''ABC News'' and wa ...
, Habash identified the Arab defeat by the Zionists as "the scientific society of Israel as against our own backwardness in the Arab world. This called for the total rebuilding of Arab society into a twentieth-century society." The ANM was founded in this nationalist spirit. " eheld the '
Guevara Guevara is a surname of Basque origin. Notable people with the surname include: * Amado Guevara (born 1976), Honduran football (soccer) player * Álvaro Guevara (1894–1951), Chilean painter * Ander Guevara (born 1997), Spanish footballer for R ...
view' of the ' revolutionary human being, Habash told Cooley. "A new breed of man had to emerge, among the Arabs as everywhere else. This meant applying everything in human power to the realization of a cause." The ANM formed underground branches in several Arab countries, including Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, then still under British rule. It adopted secularism and socialist economic ideas, and pushed for armed struggle. In collaboration with the
Palestinian Liberation Army The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA, ar, جيش التحرير الفلسطيني, ''Jaysh at-Tahrir al-Filastini'') is ostensibly the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), set up at the 1964 Arab League summit held in A ...
, the ANM established ''Abtal al-Audah'' (Heroes of the Return) as a commando group in 1966.


Formation of the PFLP

After the Six-Day War of June 1967, ANM merged in August with two other groups, Youth for Revenge and Ahmed Jibril's Syrian-backed Palestine Liberation Front, to form the PFLP, with Habash as leader. By early 1968, the PFLP had trained between one and three thousand guerrillas. It had the financial backing of
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, and was headquartered there, and one of its training camps was based in as-Salt, Jordan. In 1969, the PFLP declared itself a
Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
organization, but it has remained faithful to
Pan Arabism Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...
, seeing the Palestinian struggle as part of a wider uprising against Western
imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
, which also aims to unite the Arab world by overthrowing "
reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...
" regimes. It published a newspaper, ''
al-Hadaf ''Al-Hadaf'' ('' ar, الهدف''), ('' en, The Target'') is a Palestinian weekly political and cultural magazine published in Lebanon. History and profile ''Al Hadaf'' was founded in Beirut in 1969 by Ghassan Kanafani as the political mouthpiec ...
'' (The Target, or Goal), which was edited by Ghassan Kanafani.


Operations

The PFLP gained notoriety in the late 1960s and early 1970s for a series of armed attacks and aircraft hijackings, including on non-Israeli targets. Their
Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades ( ar, كتائب ابو علي مصطفى '')'' is the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). History Origin ...
also claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. See #Armed attacks of the PFLP below.


Breakaway organizations

In 1967, Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) broke away from the PFLP. In 1968, Ahmed Jibril broke away from the PFLP to form the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC). In 1969, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) formed as a separate, ostensibly Maoist, organization under
Nayef Hawatmeh Nayef Hawatmeh ( ar, نايف حواتمة, Nāyef Ḥawātmeh, Kunya: Abu an-Nuf) is a Jordanian politician who was active in the Palestinian political life. Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian clan and is a practicing Greek Catholic. He is the ...
and Yasser Abd Rabbo, initially as the PDFLP. In 1972, the Popular Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Palestine was formed following a split in PFLP. The PFLP had a troubled relationship with George Habash's one-time deputy, Wadie Haddad, who was eventually expelled because he refused orders to stop attacks and kidnapping operations abroad. Haddad has been identified in released Soviet archival documents as having been a KGB intelligence agent in place, who in 1975 received arms for the movement directly from Soviet sources in a nighttime transfer in the Sea of Aden.


PLO membership

The PFLP joined the
Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(PLO), the umbrella organization of the Palestinian national movement, in 1968, becoming the second-largest faction after Yassir Arafat's
Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
. In 1974, it withdrew from the PLO Executive Committee (but not from the PLO) to join the Rejectionist Front following the creation of the
PLO's Ten Point Program PLO's Ten Point Program (in Arabic: برنامج النقاط العشر) (by Israel called the PLO's Phased Plan) is the plan accepted by the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PL ...
, accusing the PLO of abandoning the goal of destroying Israel outright in favor of a
binational solution The one-state solution, sometimes also called a bi-national state, is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, according to which one state must be established between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. Proponen ...
, which was opposed by the PFLP leadership. It rejoined the executive committee in 1981. In December 1993 PFLP withdrew from the PLO and became one of the ten founding members of the Damascus-based Alliance of Palestinian Forces, eight of which had been members of the PLO, which was opposed to the Oslo Accords process. PFLP withdrew from APF in 1998. Currently, the PFLP is boycotting participation in the PLO Executive Committee and the
Palestinian National Council The Palestinian National Council (PNC) ( ar, المجلس الوطني الفلسطيني, "'Almajlis Alwataniu Alfilastiniu"') is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and elects the PLO Executive Committee, which ...
. In December 2009, around 70,000 supporters demonstrated in Gaza to celebrate the PFLP's 42nd anniversary.


After the Oslo Accords

After the occurrence of the
First Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...
and the subsequent
Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;
the PFLP had difficulty establishing itself in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
. At that time (1993–96) the popularity of Hamas was rapidly increasing in the wake of their successful strategy of
suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
s devised by
Yahya Ayyash Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash ( ar, يحيى عياش) (6 March 1966 – 5 January 1996) was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname ''the E ...
("the Engineer"). The
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
together with the rise of
Islamism Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...
—and particularly the increased popularity of the Islamist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—disoriented many left activists who had looked towards the Soviet Union, and has marginalised the PFLP's role in Palestinian politics and armed resistance. However, the organization retains considerable political influence within the PLO, since no new elections have been held for the organisation's legislative body, the PNC. The PFLP developed contacts at this time with Islamic fundamentalist groups linked to Iranboth Palestinian Hamas, and the Lebanon-based Hizbullaha detour from its avowedly Marxist orientation. The PLO's agreement with Israel in September 1993, and negotiations which followed, further isolated it from the umbrella organization and led it to conclude a formal alliance with the Iranian backed groups. As a result of its post-Oslo weakness, the PFLP has been forced to adapt slowly and find partners among politically active, preferably young, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in order to compensate for their dependence on their aging commanders returning from or remaining in exile. The PFLP has therefore formed alliances with other leftist groups formed within the
Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,
, including the Palestinian People's Party and the Popular Resistance Committees of Gaza. In 1990, the PFLP transformed its Jordan branch into a separate political party, the
Jordanian Popular Democratic Unity Party Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party ( ar, حزب الوحدة الشعبية الديمقراطي الأردني ''Hizb Al-Wahdah Al-Sha'abiyah Al-Dimuqratiyyah Al-Urduniy'') is a political party in Jordan. The party was formed in 1990, when ...
.


Elections in the Palestinian Authority

Following the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004, the PFLP entered discussions with the DFLP and the Palestinian People's Party aimed at nominating a joint left-wing candidate for the Palestinian presidential election to be held on 9 January 2005. These discussions were unsuccessful, so the PFLP decided to support the independent Palestinian National Initiative's candidate Mustafa Barghouti, who gained 19.48% of the vote. In the municipal elections of December 2005 it had more success, e.g. in al-Bireh and
Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...
, and winning the mayorship of
Bir Zeit Birzeit ( ar, بيرزيت), also Bir Zeit, is a State of Palestine, Palestinian Palestinian Christians, Christian town north of Ramallah, in the central West Bank. Its population in the 2007 census was 4,529. Birzeit is the home to Birzeit Unive ...
. There are conflicting reports about the political allegiance of
Janet Mikhail Janet Mikhail ( ar, جانيت ميخائيل; born 1945) or Janet Michael, sometimes known as Janet Khouri (جانيت خوري) is the former mayor of Ramallah in the West Bank. She is the first woman to hold this post. She was head teacher ...
and Victor Batarseh, the mayors of Ramallah and Bethlehem; they may be close to the PFLP without being members. The PFLP is powerful politically in the Ramallah area, the eastern districts and suburbs of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the primarily
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Refidyeh district of
Nablus Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
, but has far less strength in the rest of the West Bank, and is of little or no threat to the established Hamas and Fatah movements in Gaza. The PFLP participated in the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006 as the "Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa List". It won 4.2% of the popular vote, winning three of the 132 seats in the
Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the unicameral legislature of the Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It currently comprises 132 members, e ...
. Its deputies are Ahmad Sa'adat, Jamil Majdalawi, and Khalida Jarrar. In the lists, its best vote was 9.4% in Bethlehem, followed by 6.6% in Ramallah and al-Bireh, and 6.5% in North Gaza. Sa'adat was sentenced in December 2006 to 30 years in an Israeli prison.


Successors to George Habash

At the PFLP's Sixth National Conference in 2000, Habash stepped down as General Secretary.
Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Ali Mustafa (; ar, أبو علي مصطفى; 1938 – 27 August 2001), the kunya of Mustafa Alhaj also known as Mustafa Ali Zabri, was a Palestinian militant who served as the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pa ...
was elected to replace him, but was assassinated on 27 August 2001 when an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. After Mustafa's death, the Central Committee of the PFLP on 3 October 2001 elected Ahmad Sa'adat General Secretary. He has held that position, though since 2002 he has been incarcerated in Palestinian and Israeli prisons.


Attitude to the peace process

When it was formed in the late 1960s the PFLP supported the established line of most Palestinian guerrilla fronts and ruled out any negotiated settlement with Israel that would result in
two states Two-state (or variants) may refer to: * Two-state quantum system, in physics * Two-state trajectory in biophysics * Two-state solution, a proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict * '' 2 States: The Story of My Marriage'', a novel by C ...
between the
Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
and the Mediterranean Sea. Instead, George Habash in particular, and various other leaders in general advocated one state with an Arab identity in which Jews were entitled to live with the same rights as any minority. The PFLP declared that its goal was to "create a people's democratic Palestine, where Arabs and Jews would live without discrimination, a state without classes and national oppression, a state which allows Arabs and Jews to develop their national culture." The PFLP platform never compromised on key points such as the overthrow of conservative or monarchist Arab states like Morocco and Jordan, the
Right of Return The right of return is a principle in international law which guarantees everyone's right of voluntary return to, or re-entry to, their country of origin or of citizenship. The right of return is part of the broader human rights concept freedom of ...
of all
Palestinian refugee Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war ( 1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War ( 1967 Palestinian exo ...
s to their homes in pre-1948
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, or the use of the liberation of Palestine as a launching board for achieving Arab unityreflecting its beginnings in the
Pan-Arab Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...
ANM. It opposed the
Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;
and was for a long time opposed to the idea of a two-state solution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
, but in 1999 came to an agreement with the PLO leadership regarding negotiations with the
Israeli government The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...
. However, in May 2010, PFLP general secretary Ahmad Sa'adat called for an end to the PLO's negotiations with Israel, saying that only a one-state solution was possible. In January 2011, the PFLP declared that the
Camp David Accords The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retrea ...
stood for "subservience, submission, dictatorship and silence", and called for social and political revolution in Egypt. In December 2013, the PFLP stated: "Hamas is a vital part of the Palestinian national movement, and this is the position of the PFLP."


Armed attacks of the PFLP

This is a list of armed attacks attributed to the PFLP. It is not complete.


Armed attacks before 2000

The PFLP gained notoriety in the late 1960s and early 1970s for a series of armed attacks and aircraft hijackings, including on non-Israeli targets: * The hijacking of El Al Flight 426 from Rome to
Lod airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is the ...
in Israel on 23 July 1968. The Western media reported that the flight was targeted because the PFLP believed Israeli general Yitzhak Rabin, who was Israeli ambassador to the US, was on board. Several individuals involved with the hijacking, including Leila Khaled deny this. The plane was diverted to
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, where 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days, until 31 August. * Gunmen opened fire on El Al Flight 253 in Athens about to take off for New York on 26 December 1968, killing one Israelithis prompted a reprisal by Israel destroying airliners in Beirut. * An attack on El Al Flight 432 passengers jet at Zürich airport on 18 February 1969, killing the co-pilot and wounding the pilot; an Israeli undercover agent thwarted the hijacking after killing the terrorist leader. * Bombings by
Rasmea Odeh Rasmea Yousef Odeh in Arabic رسمية يوسف عودة (born 1947/1948; also known as Rasmea Yousef, Rasmieh Steve, and Rasmieh Joseph Steve) is a Palestinian Jordanian and former American citizen who was a member of the Popular Front for th ...
and other PFLP members killed 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe on 21 February 1969. The two were killed by a bomb placed in a crowded Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket which the two students stopped in at to buy groceries for a field trip.< The same bomb wounded 9 others. A second bomb was found at the supermarket, and defused. Odeh was also convicted of bombing and damaging the
British Consulate This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, excluding honorary consulates. The UK has one of the largest global networks of diplomatic missions. UK diplomatic missions to capitals of other ...
four days later. In 1980, Odeh was among 78 prisoners released by Israel in an exchange with the PFLP for one Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. * The hijacking of TWA Flight 840 from Los Angeles to
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
on 29 August 1969 by a PFLP cell led by Leila Khaled, who became the PFLP's most noted recruit. Two Israeli passengers were held for 44 days. * Three adult Palestinians and three boys aged 14 and 15 years old threw
grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...
s at the Israeli embassies in The Hague, Bonn and the El Al office in Brussels on the same day, 9 September 1969 with no casualties. * Attack on a bus containing El Al passengers at Munich airport, killing one passenger and wounding 11 on 10 February 1970. * On 6 September 1970, the PFLP, including Leila Khaled, hijacked four passenger aircraft from Pan Am,
TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...
and
Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...
on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zürich, and failed in an attempt to hijack an El Al aircraft which landed safely in London after one hijacker was killed and the other overpowered; and on 9 September 1970, hijacked a
BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...
flight from Bahrain to London via Beirut. The Pan Am flight was diverted to Cairo; the TWA, Swissair and BOAC flights were diverted to Dawson's Field in Zarqa, Jordan. The TWA, Swissair and BOAC aircraft were subsequently blown up by the PFLP on 12 September, in front of the world media, after all passengers had been taken off the planes. The event is significant, as it was cited as a reason for the
Black September Black September ( ar, أيلول الأسود; ''Aylūl Al-Aswad''), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein ...
clashes between Palestinian and Jordanian forces. * On 30 May 1972, 28 passengers were gunned down at Ben Gurion International Airport by members of the Japanese Red Army in collaboration with the PFLP's Waddie Haddad in what became known as the Lod Airport massacre. Haddad had been ordered to stop planning operations, and ordered the attack without the PFLP's knowledge. * On 13 October 1977, the PFLP hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737 flying from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. After various stopovers the pilot was killed. The remaining passengers and crew were eventually rescued by German counter-terrorism special forces. * On 12 April 1984 a bus from Tel Aviv was hijacked. Bassam Abu Sharif in Damascus issued a statement in the name of the PFLP claiming responsibility. * On 8 June 1990 a clash occurred near Shuwayya in South Lebanon in which four members of the PFLP were killed by the South Lebanon Army (SLA). * On 27 November 1990 five elite Israeli soldiers and two PFLP fighters were killed in the South Lebanon
security zone Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...
.


Armed attacks after 2000

The PFLP's
Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades ( ar, كتائب ابو علي مصطفى '')'' is the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). History Origin ...
has carried out attacks on both civilians and military targets during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Some of these attacks are: * The killing of Meir Lixenberg, councillor and head of security in four settlements, who was shot while travelling in his car in the West Bank on 27 August 2001. PFLP claimed that this was a retaliation for the killing of
Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Ali Mustafa (; ar, أبو علي مصطفى; 1938 – 27 August 2001), the kunya of Mustafa Alhaj also known as Mustafa Ali Zabri, was a Palestinian militant who served as the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pa ...
. * 21 October 2001 assassination of Israeli Minister for Tourism Rehavam Zeevi by
Hamdi Quran Hamdi Quran is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He came to prominence when he was one of a four-man PFLP team which assassinated Rehavam Ze'evi, the Tourism Minister of Israel, on 17 October 2001. In 2002, Quran was sen ...
. * A suicide bombing in a pizzeria in Karnei Shomron, on the West Bank on 16 February 2002, killing three Israeli teenagers. * A suicide bombing in Ariel on 7 March 2002, which left wounded but no fatalities. * A suicide bombing in a
Netanya Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate I ...
market in Israel, on 19 May 2002, killing three Israelis. This attack was also claimed by Hamas, but the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades have identified the perpetrator on their website as one of their members. * A suicide bombing in the bus station at
Geha Junction The Geha Interchange is the confluence of Highway 4 and Road 481 in Israel. The interchange is named after the Geha Mental Health Center, which was once located near the Interchange. but was moved when it was decided to construct the Interchange. ...
in
Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...
on 25 December 2003 which killed four Israelis. * A suicide bombing in the Jordan Rift Valley on 22 May 2004, which left no fatalities. * A suicide bombing in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv on 1 November 2004, which killed three Israeli civilians. * On 14 April 2009, PFLP militants fired a homemade projectile at the Kerem Shalom border crossing in
HaDarom The Southern District ( he, מחוז הדרום, ''Meḥoz HaDarom''; ar, لواء الجنوب) is one of Israel's six administrative districts, the largest in terms of land area but the most sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev d ...
. * On 23 October 2012, a PFLP roadside bomb targeting an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) patrol near Kibbutz Kissufim, Southern Israel, was detonated. An IDF commander was seriously injured in the blast. * On 10 November 2012, PFLP militants fired an anti-tank missile towards Karni Crossing near the Gaza Strip, near Nahal Oz. The explosive device struck an Israeli Givati Brigade jeep, injuring four soldiers and destroying the vehicle. * The PFLP claimed responsibility for the November 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre in which four Jewish worshippers and a policeman were killed with axes, knives, and a gun, while seven were injured."PFLP Claims Responsibility for Jerusalem synagogue attack"
, ''The Hindu''
The Israeli police concluded the attack was a
lone wolf A lone wolf is a wolf not belonging to a pack. Lone wolf or Lone Wolf may also refer to: Literature *''Lone Wolf'', a book by Kathryn Lasky, part of the series called ''Wolves of the Beyond'' *''Lone Wolf and Cub'', a 1970 Japanese graphic nov ...
operation. * On 29 June 2015, the PFLP claimed responsibility for an attack in which Palestinians in a vehicle fired on a passing Israeli car. Four people were injured; one was severely injured and died the next day in hospital. * Israeli police suspect the PFLP to be responsible for the 2019 murder of Israeli teenager Rina Shnerb.


See also

*
Arab Socialist Action Party The Arab Socialist Action Party ( ar, حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي) was a Pan-Arab political party, formed by the right-wing faction of the Arab Nationalist Movement after the latter's disintegration. The general secretary of ...
* List of political parties in the State of Palestine * Palestinian domestic weapons production *
Mohamed Boudia Mohamed Boudia (24 February 1932 – 28 June 1973) was an Algerian poet and a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was assassinated in Paris by a car bomb placed under his seat by Mossad agents as part of ...
,
Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...
* Revolutionare Zellen *
Blekingegade Gang The Blekinge Street Gang ( da, Blekingegadebanden) was a Danish far-left criminal group. Between December 1972 and May 1989, they committed many robberies, sending the money to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They killed one p ...
* Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine


References


Sources







Secret documents regarding 1974 cooperation between the KGB and the PFLP against Israel and arming PFLP(in Russian) from the ''Soviet Archives'
V.Bukovsky, Soviet Archive
collected by Vladimir Bukovsky


External links


PFLP website in Arabic


Fight Back! News, Summer 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine 1967 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate Political parties established in 1967 Anti-Zionism in the Palestinian territories Anti-Zionist political parties Arab nationalism in the Palestinian territories Arab nationalist militant groups Arab nationalist political parties Communist terrorism Guerrilla organizations Marxist parties National liberation movements Palestinian militant groups Palestinian terrorism Resistance movements Socialism in the Palestinian territories Organisations designated as terrorist by Japan Organizations designated as terrorist by Canada Axis of Resistance