SUMMARY
The PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Al-Jabna Al-Shabiyya li-Tahrir Filastin) was a Palestinian separatist rebel group that fought an intrastate armed conflict over territory against the Government of Israel intermittently since the late 1960s. The group’s primary goal was initially the destruction of Israel, and the establishment of a Palestinian state based on its historical boundaries. At the group’s national congress in 2000, these goals were amended to focus on the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a withdrawal of Israeli troops to the borders of 1967, the removal of Jewish settlements from occupied territory, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The amended goals came about after the PFLP realized that the Oslo Accords had changed the reality of the Palestinian cause.
George Habash created the PFLP in 1967 as the military wing of the Palestinian branch of the Arab National Movement (ANM); two important co-founders of the group were Wadi Haddad and Nayef Hawatmeh. The most proximate cause behind the group’s creation was the defeat of the Arab states to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. The PFLP quickly absorbed several smaller groups, and subsequently established itself as an independent actor soon after its creation. The group adhered to a combination of Marxist-Leninist ideology and Arab nationalism, and was outspokenly anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist in its orientation. The Palestinian cause was seen by the group as only one aspect of a wider agenda of ridding the Middle East of reactionary and pro-Western leaders, and one of pan-Arab liberation. Until 2000, the group remained vehemently opposed to a “two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The PFLP was one of the most influential Palestinian factions for several decades, but its influence began to wane following the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the group’s principal benefactors. At the same time, the group began to lose influence to Islamist groups, such as Hamas. While the PFLP boycotted the 1996 elections to the Palestine legislative assembly, it opted to accept the formation of the Fatah-dominated PNA. In 1999, it sought to join Yasser Arafat’s administration. While the violent actions of the group began to diminish in the 2000s, it has remained an active group; it did for example participate in the 2000-2005 Second (“Aqsa”) Intifada.
George Habash led the PLFP from 1967 to 2000, when his deteriorating health forced him to resign; he was replaced Abu Ali Mustafa (Mustafa Zibri) on 28 April. Mustafa was killed by Israeli forces on 26 August 2001, after which the leadership of the PFLP was passed to Ahmed Saadat, who was considered more radical than his predecessor.
The group’s military wing was known as the “Red Eagles” until the Second (“Aqsa”) Intifada that began in 2000, when it instead became known as the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades. In 1989, the PFLP had around 900 fighters; by 2001, the number of fighters was estimated to be 800.
Ideological conflicts within the group arose already in the 1960s, and led to several splits; the most notable of these were the creation of the PFLP-GC led by Ahmed Jibril in 1968, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) led by Nayef Hawatmeh in 1969.
In 1968, the PFLP joined the PLO, which was an umbrella organization for Palestinian groups of a wide range of ideological convictions. The PFLP was the second largest PLO faction, surpassed only by Fatah.
However, in 1974 the PFLP together with PFLP-GC, Arab Liberation Front (ALF), Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF), and several smaller guerilla groups left the PLO and created the Rejectionist Front. This was done in protest against the PLO’s decision to negotiate with Israel and to compromise on the creation of a Palestinian state. Following reconciliation efforts between George Habash and Yasser Arafat in 1979, the PFLP eventually agreed to rejoin the PLO Executive Committee in 1981. In 1987, the PFLP officially rejoined the mainstream PLO after the latter renounced its pact with Jordan, against which the PFLP had a pronounced opposition.
In 1993, the PFLP joined the Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF, or the “Damascus Front”), which opposed the Oslo Accords agreed upon by the PLO and the Government of Israel that year. Other groups that were part of the APF included for example PFLP-GC, DFLP, the Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC), Al-Saiqa, Hamas, and PIJ.
During the Cold War, the PFLP aligned itself with the Soviet Union and China to promote the Palestinian cause; unlike Fatah, the PFLP did not believe that the Arab states were capable of providing the support necessary to achieve a Palestinian state. Other than the Soviet Union and China, Libya was also believed to support the group. However, the group’s most prominent supporter was Syria, who supplied funding, training, and safe havens to the PFLP.
