Encyclopedia
The
Palestine Liberation Front is a militant
Palestinian group which is designated by the United States and
European Union as a terrorist organization. It is presently led by Abu Nidal al-Ashqar.
Origins
The PLF was originally founded by
Ahmed Jibril in 1959, and enjoyed strong
Syrian backing. In 1967 the PLF merged with two other groups, the Arab Nationalist Movement-affiliated Heroes of the Return and The Youth of the Revenge Group, to form the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine .
The PFLP was led by former ANM-leader George Habash, but in April 1968 Jibril spilt from this group to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command , which returned to the strongly pro-Syrian position of the former PLF.
This eventually led to a reestablishment of the PLF, as the organization broke apart after Jibril's PFLP-GC had followed Syria into battle against the
Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1976, during the
Lebanese Civil War. Open fighting between the rivalling factions ensued, and only after mediation by
Yassir Arafat did their relationship stabilize. On April 24, 1977, the PFLP-GC deserters formed the new PLF, under the leadership of
Muhammad Zaidan and Tal'at Ya'qub. Sporadic fighting continued between PFLP-GC and PLF, and included an August 1977 bombing of the PLF headquarters, which killed some 200 people.
1982 split
In 1982, following the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the organization split into three factions. One of the main points of disagreement was the relation to the mainstream PLO and Fatah, with some members critically supporting Arafat, while others joined the rebellion against him. All three faction claimed to represent the original organization and kept the name PLF:
- The faction headed by Tal'at Ya'akub, the general secretary of the PLF, remained neutral in the struggle between the various organizations and settled its forces in Lebanon. Ya'akub died in November 1988 of a heart attack and his faction disintegrated. .
- A minor faction under PLF Central Committee member Abd al-Fatah Ghanim was more aggressively pro-Syrian and seized control of the movement's organization in Damascus. It supported Abu Musa's Fatah Uprising organization and coordinated with it in attacks on the PLO. Later, it moved operations to Libya, but eventually reconciled with the Ya'qub faction.
- A pro-Iraqi faction under Abu Abbas, who had been Deputy General Secretary, had the largest membership, estimated at some 400 activists. The group was originally headquartered in Tunisia, but after a 1985 cruise ship hijacking , Abu Abbas was expelled by Tunisian authorities, and the group's leadership relocated to Baghdad .
While each faction kept the original name and claimed to represent the mother-organization, Abbas's faction has been responsible for the more prominent terrorist attacks carried out by the PLF and it was this faction that has been designated a foreign terrorist organization.
PLF in recent years
Until recently the leaders of the PLF were active in the PLO with Abu Abbas acting as PLF representative in the PLO's executive committee. During the years after the PLO signed the 1993
Oslo Accords, which the PLF opposes, Abu Abbas agreed to abandon
terrorism and acknowledged Israel's right to exist. The movement maintained offices in the
Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Iraq, but its activities dwindled. It has a low level of support in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip, and its main strength lies in the Lebanese
refugee camps, where it is reported to have coordinated with Fatah against various Syrian-backed factions.
In November 2001, 15 members of a PLF cell were arrested by Israeli authorities. Some of those captured had received terrorist training in
Iraq. The cell had been planning attacks in
Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv, and the Ben Gurion airport. The cell had already been involved in other terrorist activities including the abduction and murder of Israeli teenager Yuri Gushstein.
During the 2003 US-led
War on Iraq Abu Abbas was captured in April, 2003, by US forces. He died while in US custody in Iraq, reportedly of natural causes, on March 9, 2004.
Prominent attacks
The faction led by Abu Abbas led several attacks that included the killing of civilians. This led to the PLF being designated a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" by the
US State Department.
The Achille Lauro attackOne notorious incident was the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro was a passenger liner [i], most remembered for its 1985 [i] ...
on October 7, 1985. The hijackers' original aim was to use the ship to slip into
Israel. However, crew members discovered them cleaning weapons, and the group then seized control of the ship, murdering an elderly wheelchair-dependent
Jewish New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer.
US fighter planes later forced down the
Egyptian aircraft in which Abbas was escaping following a negotiated end of the hijacking, and forced it to land at a
USAF base on
Sicily. The Italians let Abbas go, but subsequently sentenced him to five life sentences
in absentia. Abbas was expelled from Tunisia and established his headquarters in
Baghdad,
Iraq.
The United States could bring its own charges against Abbas, although a criminal complaint filed against him in 1986 was dropped a short time later without an indictment.
1990 beach raidIn May 1990, the PLF lauched an attack on Israel's Nizanim beach, near
Tel-Aviv, urged on by Iraq to torpedo the moves towards a negotiated solution between the PLO and Israel. The attackers had intended to kill tourists and Israeli civilians, but this was prevented. However, the action was significant, in that the failure of
Yasser Arafat to condemn this attack led to the United States backing out of the American-Palestinian dialogue that had begun in 1988. Despite Arafat's official silence on the issue, the PLF suffered heavy internal criticism within the PLO, and Abu Abbas had to step down from his seat on the executive committee.
2006
The front took part in the 2006 Palestinian elections under the label [mischievous insertion removed] Martyr Abu Abbas, but failed to win a seat.
FootNotes
