The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) (
Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين,
romanized: "al-Jabha al-Shabiyah li-Tahrir Filastin" or "al-Jabhah al-Shaʿbīyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn"[3])[a] is a secular Palestinian
Marxist–Leninist and
revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1967 by
George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the
Palestine Liberation Organization, the largest being
Fatah.
The PFLP has generally taken a hard-line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate stance of Fatah. It does not recognize Israel, and promotes a
one-state solution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in a "democratic Palestine", where "Arabs and Jews would live without discrimination". The military wing of the PFLP is called the
Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades.
The PFLP is well known for pioneering armed
aircraft-hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[9] According to PFLP Politburo member[10] 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 organization by the
United States,[11]Japan,[12]Canada,[13] and the
European Union.[14]
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, 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 to help his family. While he was there, the
Israel Defense Forces attacked the city and forced most of its civilian population to leave in what became known as the
Lydda Death March. They marched for three days without food or water until they reached the
Arab armies' front lines, leading to the death of his sister. Habash finished his medical education in
Lebanon at the
American University in Beirut, graduating in 1951.[15]
In an interview with US journalist
John K. Cooley, Habash argued for viewing "the liberation of Palestine as something not to be isolated from events in the rest of the Arab world" and identified "the main reason for [Palestinians'] defeat" as triumph of "the scientific society of Israel" over "our own backwardness in the Arab world"; because of this, he "called for the total rebuilding of Arab society into a twentieth-century society" and a "scientific and technical renaissance in the Arab world".[16] The ANM was founded in this nationalist spirit. "[We] held the '
Guevara 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."[16]
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 ANM established Abtal al-Audah (Heroes of the Return) as a
commando group in 1966.
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.[citation needed] Three other independent groups, namely Heroes of the Return, the National Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Independent Palestine Liberation Front, also met with Habash to form the PFLP.[17]
By early 1968, the PFLP had trained between one and three thousand
guerrillas. It had the financial backing of
Syria, 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 organization, but it has remained faithful to
Pan Arabism, seeing the Palestinian struggle as part of a wider uprising against Western
imperialism, which also aims to unite the
Arab world by overthrowing "
reactionary" regimes. It published a magazine, al-Hadaf (The Target, or Goal), which was edited by
Ghassan Kanafani.
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.[18]
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[5] and the
Palestinian National Council.[8]
In December 2009, around 70,000 supporters demonstrated in Gaza to celebrate the PFLP's 42nd anniversary.[21]
After the Oslo Accords
After the occurrence of the
First Intifada and the subsequent
Oslo Accords the PFLP had difficulty establishing itself in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip. At that time (1993–96) the popularity of
Hamas was rapidly increasing in the wake of[colloquialism] their successful strategy of
suicide bombings devised by
Yahya Ayyash ("the Engineer"). The
dissolution of the Soviet Union together with the rise of
Islamism—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 marginalized 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 organization's legislative body, the
PNC.
The PFLP developed contacts at this time with Islamic fundamentalist groups linked to
Iran – both Palestinian Hamas, and the Lebanon-based
Hizbullah. 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.[22]
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.[citation needed] The PFLP has therefore formed alliances with other leftist groups formed within the
Palestinian Authority, including the
Palestinian People's Party and the
Popular Resistance Committees of Gaza.[citation needed]
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, and winning the mayorship of
Bir Zeit.[27] There are conflicting reports about the political allegiance of
Janet Mikhail and
Victor Batarseh, the mayors of Ramallah and
Bethlehem; they may be close to the PFLP without being members.[according to whom?]
At the PFLP's Sixth National Conference in 2000, Habash stepped down as General Secretary.
Abu Ali Mustafa 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 as General Secretary. He has held that position, though since 2002 he has been incarcerated in Palestinian and Israeli prisons.
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 between the
Jordan River 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 of all
Palestinian refugees to their homes in pre-1948
Palestine, or the use of the liberation of Palestine as a launching board[colloquialism] for achieving Arab unity – reflecting its beginnings in the
Pan-Arab ANM. It opposed the
Oslo Accords and was for a long time opposed to the idea of a
two-state solution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but in 1999 came to an agreement with the PLO leadership regarding negotiations with the
Israeli government. 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.[2]
In December 2013, the PFLP stated: "Hamas is a vital part of the Palestinian national movement, and this is the position of the PFLP."[29]
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 in Israel on 23 July 1968.[30] 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, where 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days, until 31 August.
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 and other PFLP members killed 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe on 21 February 1969.[31][32][33] 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.[34][35] The same bomb wounded 9 others.[36] A second bomb was found at the supermarket, and defused.[32] Odeh was also convicted of bombing and damaging the
British Consulate four days later.[37][38][39][40] In 1980, Odeh was among 78 prisoners released by Israel in an exchange with the PFLP for one Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.[31][34][35]
The
hijacking of TWA Flight 840 from Los Angeles to
Damascus 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
grenades 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 and
Swissair 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 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 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.
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.[44][45]
A suicide bombing in a pizzeria in
Karnei Shomron, on the
West Bank on 16 February 2002, killing three Israeli teenagers.[45]
A suicide bombing in
Ariel on 7 March 2002, which left wounded[quantify] but no fatalities.
A suicide bombing in a
Netanya market in Israel, on 19 May 2002, killing three Israelis. This attack was also claimed by
Hamas,[45] 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 in
Petah Tikva on 25 December 2003 which killed four Israelis.[46]
A suicide bombing in the
Jordan Rift Valley on 22 May 2004, which left no fatalities.[47]
A suicide bombing in the
Carmel Market in
Tel Aviv on 1 November 2004, which killed three Israeli civilians.[48]
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.[50]
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.[51]
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.[52][53][54][55] The Israeli police concluded the attack was a
lone wolf 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.[56][57]
^ Note, this
Romanization doesn't necessarily reflect the pronunciation, because the pronunciation of some letters in Arabic differs dramatically based on context, e.g.
Sun and moon letters.
^United States; Department of State; Office for Combatting Terrorism; United States; Department of State; Office of the Ambassador at Large for Counter-Terrorism; United States; Department of State; Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (1983). "Patterns of global terrorism". Patterns of Global Terrorism.: 20 – via WorldCat.