Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Founded in 1967 by George Habash after Israel captured the West Bank in the Six-Day War, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) embraces a blend of Marxist-Leninist ideology and Arab nationalism. The group, which became notorious during the 1970s for hijacking civilian airliners, is the second largest in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The U.S. State Department lists the PFLP as a terrorist group.

In August 1969, PFLP members Leila Ali Khaled and Salim Issawi took over a TWA Rome-to-Tel Aviv flight and directed the plane to Syria, where the passengers and crew were released unharmed. With the plane emptied, the hijackers blew up the cockpit. Khaled, then just 25, became infamous, called “girl terrorist” and “deadly beauty” by the press. She subsequently had plastic surgery to disguise her well-known face, and took part in the PFLP's next, and most daring, round of hijackings. On September 6, 1970, PFLP members hijacked four planes in a single day, all bound for New York City. After all hostages were released safely, King Hussein of Jordan declared war on the Palestinian groups operating in Jordan. In the battles known as Black September, the Jordanian Army crushed the Palestinian fighters.

The group renounced hijacking and largely dropped from the headlines for several decades. Members became involved in a variety of social projects, including working to provide a network of Palestinian health care clinics. Although the group moved part of its headquarters from Syria to the West Bank during the mid-1990s, Habash continued to lead the group from his base in Damascus. According to the U.S. State Department, Syria not only provides a haven for Habash and other PFLP members, but gives the group logistic support.

In 1993, the PFLP, a longtime opponent of peace negotiations, broke from the PLO to oppose the signing of the Declaration of Principles. The PFLP joined the Alliance of Palestinian Forces but split from this umbrella organization in 1996 because of ideological differences. During the same year, Habash commanded his members to refrain from taking part in the Palestinian legislative council elections. Although PFLP members sit on the PLO's executive council, the group is not part of the Palestinian Authority.

In July 2000, an ailing Habash, who had led the PFLP for three decades, stepped down. The group's 800-odd members elected Habash's deputy Mustafa Zibri, widely known as Abu Ali Mustafa, as the new secretary general. In the intifada that began later that year, the PFLP took responsibility for roadside bombs and mortar attacks. In many interviews, Mustafa told the press that Israel was an “illegitimate entity.” Israeli minister Ephraim Sneh was, in turn, widely quoted as saying that Mustafa was taking the PFLP “back into what it was in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s—an active and deadly terrorist organization.” In August 2001, Israeli forces assassinated Mustafa, firing laser-guided missiles into his Ramallah office. Israeli officials stated that he was killed to prevent the PFLP from carrying out bombing attacks.

Two months later, the PFLP retaliated and assassinated right-wing Israeli cabinet minister Rahavam Zeevi, who had advocated the killing of Palestinian political leaders and the expulsion of all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. Israel accused Mustafa's successor, Ahmed Saadat, of orchestrating the crime, and pressured the Palestinian Authority to arrest him. Yasir Arafat banned the group's military wing and arrested Sadaat in January 2002. That very week the military arm of the PFLP, named the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade for its late leader, threatened to kill Palestinian Authority officials if Saadat and other PFLP prisoners were not released from Authority jails. At the same time, however, PFLP political leaders were distancing themselves from the group's military arm in public statements, although they did not go so far as to threaten the lives of fellow Palestinians. The military wing of the PFLP continues to contribute to the region's escalating violence.

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