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 The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) traces its roots to the Arab National Movement (ANM). Founded at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon in response to the 1948 nakbe (catastrophe) — as Palestinians termed the defeat of Arab regimes by Zionist forces and the creation of Israel — the ANM spread quickly throughout the Arab World.
The ANM fostered a strong alliance with Egyptian politician Gamal Abdul-Nasser. They shared his views regarding the need for an Arab revolution that would result in a unified, free and socialist Arab world with an autonomous Palestine, as well as agreeing with him on the tactics that should be used to execute such a revolution. Nasser was a career Army officer at the time of the nakbe. Outraged that the Arab regimes had been defeated by Israel's fledgling Army, he led a coup to depose King Farouk from power in Egypt. Army General Naguib headed the new military regime initially, but Nasser overthrew him and seized power in 1954, continuing to provide support for the ANM.
In 1967, Nasser's Egypt coordinated a number of actions with Syria that Israel interpreted as preparation for an imminent attack. In response, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt and Syria which resulted in another defeat for the Arab regimes. The ANM concluded that Nasser's plan had failed to realize any of the objectives of the Arab revolution, and soon thereafter established the PFLP in an effort to revise its political program and revitalize its leadership. The new organization was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with veteran activists George Habash and Abu Ali Mustafa as general secretary and deputy general secretary, respectively.
From the onset, the PFLP considered itself "a progressive vanguard organization of the Palestinian working class [dedicated] to liberating all of Palestine and establishing a democratic socialist Palestinian state." Retaining most of the old ANM principles, the PFLP mixes Palestinian nationalism with Marxist ideology, and sees the eradication of Israel as a key element in the ultimate goal of eliminating regimes tied to Western capitalism in the Middle East and bringing about a world-wide Communist revolution. The PFLP soon became one of the first organizations to use terrorism as a means to further its cause.
Under the tutelage of Habash's associate Wadi Haddad, the PFLP forced an El Al plane flying from Rome to Tel Aviv to land in Algeria in November 1968, marking the first in a series of plane hijackings orchestrated by the organization. The following month, the PFLP attacked an Israeli commercial plane in the Athens (Greece) airport, demanding the release of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. Israel did not comply with the PFLP's demands, and instead, attacked Beirut airport and destroyed 13 aircraft in retaliation. This did not deter the PFLP, who continued to carry out terrorist operations, hijacking four Western commercial planes simultaneously on one occasion.
In September 1970, the PFLP succeeded in four out of five attempted hijacks in the span of six days, contributing to the expulsion of Palestinian organizations from Jordan by King Hussein, who declared war on the PLO and imposed martial law. More than 3,000 people were killed in the clashes between PLO supporters and Hussein's forces that came to be known as "Black September". The Arab League and Nasser were finally able to broker a peace agreement, as part of which the PLO agreed to move its headquarters out of Jordan and into Lebanon.
The PFLP was the second largest member of the PLO during the 1970s, but unlike Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which sought support among Arab countries, the PFLP looked to Russia and China for assistance. In 1973, the PFLP adopted a resolution by the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to discontinue terrorist activities abroad. At this point, the PFLP leadership splintered. The Haddad-led faction continued to carry out terrorist attacks in the international arena, while the Habash-led faction complied with the PNC decision and concentrated its efforts on local attacks in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. When the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) erupted in 1987, both PFLP factions began organizing limited operations from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As the Soviet economy declined, the PFLP began to wane. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the PFLP found itself sidelined by Islamist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which had growing support in the Palestinian Territories. In 1993, Israel and the PLO signed The Declaration of Principles, also known as the Oslo Accords, in an effort to begin a peace process. In protest, the PFLP resigned from the PLO and joined a Damascus-based, 10-member rejectionist front called the Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF). However, after boycotting the Palestinian election in 1996, the PFLP broke with the APF over ideological differences. In 1999, Mustafa was sent to jumpstart new dialogue with the PLO and concede acceptance of the formation of Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA).
In May 2000, an ailing Habash resigned and Mustafa took over the PFLP leadership. In September 2000, the Camp David peace talks between Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak stalled, and the second intifada broke out. In response, Mustafa ordered extensive PFLP operations in support of the uprising, including more than 10 car bombings in Israel and numerous other bombings and shootings in the West Bank. One year later, Mustafa was killed by missiles launched by the Israeli Army from a helicopter, signaling that Israel saw the organization as a growing threat. Mustafa was succeeded by Ahmed Sadat, a radical who describes himself as a follower of Habash and a champion of the original principles of the PFLP. Two months after Mustafa's death, the PFLP retaliated by assassinating Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. Sadat subsequently worked to increase the involvement of the PFLP in terrorist activities and diminished the role of the pragmatic faction within the PFLP that continued to negotiate with the PLO.
In January 2002, Sadat was arrested and jailed in the West Bank town of Jericho in connection with Zeevi's death - this despite a Palestinian court ruling in favor of his release. The PA feared he would be killed by Israel if set free, so he remains imprisoned under U.S. and British supervision. The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade, PFLP's military arm, has threatened to kill PA security chiefs if Sadat is not released. This marked a significant escalation in the PFLP's policies (neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have ever threatened the lives of PA officials for fear of damaging the nationalist cause) and suggests a further radicalization of the group.
Protesting his detainment, Sadat went on a hunger strike in August, as more than 200 supporters commemorated the anniversary of Mustafa's death one year earlier with protests in Bethlehem. Israel initiated a crackdown on the PFLP following the protests, arresting three of the organization's officials. Despite such measures the PFLP is not discouraged, Kaid al-Ghul (a senior member of the group's left-leaning faction) saying the crackdown proves "Israel is continuing its policy of assassination and arrests to weaken the PFLP, because it is the second most important faction in the PLO and because it is a faction which will prevent Israel from implementing its vision of a political and security solution." Currently, the PFLP is about 800 members strong, and operates in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories with headquarters in Syria.
Sources
Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000. United States Department of State, April 2001.
"Israel Arrests PFLP Chiefs as Top-Level Security Talks Set." Arabia.com, Aug. 27, 2002.
Graham Usher, "PFLP Threatens to Kill Arafat Aides if Leader is Not Freed," The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2002.
"PFLP Supporters Mark Anniversary of Leader's Assassination," Agence France-Presse, Aug. 27, 2002.
"Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine," The BBC, Oct. 17, 2001.
Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998, pp. 67-9.
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