Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) 

Origins

Having an intricate history, the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) dates back to 1959, when Ahmed Jibril founded the group in Egypt. In 1967, after failed negotiations for the merger with Fatah, Jibril integrated the PLF into George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). One year later in 1968, the PLF split from Habash’s movement and formed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP–GC). In April 1977, opposing the leadership’s unconditional support for Syrian policies during the Lebanese civil war, Abu Abbas, Jibril’s chief lieutenant, together with other dissatisfied cadres broke with the PFLP–GC and took up the initial name of the movement. It is 1977 that most sources consider being the birth year of the PLF. By 1984, the PLF witnessed a division into pro-PLO, pro-Syrian and pro-Libyan factions, all of which retained the name PLF and claimed to act for the group as a whole. Yasser Arafat recognized the PLF in April 1977 as a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); however, after the 1984 spilt, this recognition continued to be extended only to the faction led by Abu Abbas.
 

 

Location / Main area of operation

Given its considerable longevity and its many splinters, the PLF has had several locations, as well as different areas of operation. Thus, the location of the Abbas lead pro-PLO faction moved from Damascus to Tunis and at the beginning of the 1990s until the end of the Saddam Hussein regime to Baghdad. Currently, it appears to be based in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories. The International Institute for Strategic Studies and Anthony Cordesman mention the PLF operating in Gaza, Jericho and Israel. Other sources also mention Israel as the main area of operation.

Objectives

Armed struggle against Israel is believed to be the initial aim of the PLF, and according to Yezid Sayigh, at its inception the PLF founders avoided ideologies. In effect, the first PLF operations in October 1964, under Jibril’s leadership were undertaken against Israel. According to Thomas G. Mitchell, ninety-five attacks had been carried out by the break out of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Since 1977 until its renewed split in the early 1980s, the goal of the movement aligned to Fatah’s and the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO), as it had become a member of the latter.
In 1984, the discrepancies in objectives within the PLF led to the division of the group in three factions. The pro-Syrian group led by Abdel Fatah Ghanem supported the Fatah dissidents and the Rejection Front set up against Arafat, while Talat Yakoub faction sought to remain neutral to the fighting between the different organizations. At the outset of the first intifada Yakoub faction, led since the death of Yakoub by Abu Nidal al-Ashqar, renewed its dialogue with the PLO; in 1993, it withdrew again from the PLO and joined the Damascus-based Alliance of Palestinian Forces.
The pro-PLO Abbas faction remained a member of the PLO and allegedly continued to carry out attacks against Israel throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, using unique methods such as hang-gliders. The International Institute for Strategic Studies asserts that the PLF was known to carry out suicide attacks. The most famous operation attributed to the PLF Abbas faction is the hijacking of the Italian ship Achille Lauro. Although the goal and circumstances of the seizure remain unclear, the four PLF hijackers requested the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and killed an American passenger of Jewish origin. The year 1990 witnessed an abortive attack on an Israeli beach purportedly planned by the Abbas group in retaliation to the Rishon Le Zion incident. According to the U.S. Department of State, the PLF Abbas faction officially renounced terrorism in 1993 when it acknowledged the Oslo accords; however, during the 1990s it was suspected of supporting terrorist attacks by other Palestinian groups against Israel or claimed itself responsibility for armed actions. In the context of the recent developments in the Palestinian territories, the leaders of the PLF demanded the avoidance of Palestinian bloodshed, a national unity government, a pluralistic and democratic political system and the reform of the PLO institutions, and criticized the actions of the Israeli and the U.S. governments. The PLF took part in the 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council under the name Martyr Abu al-Abbas without however winning any seat.

 

Number of Members

Estimating the membership of the PLF is made particular difficult by the uncertainties related to the fractionalization of the movement. Estimates of the number of cadres of the PLF Abbas faction made in 2006 and 2007 counted between 300 and 400 men. Also referring to the Abbas faction, a 2006 U.S. Department of State’s report estimates the PLF to be relatively small.

Type : Transnational

The PLF is a transnational non-state armed group since its armed attacks have mainly occurred both in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Conflict Status : Active

A 1999 U.S. Report for the Congress noted that the PLF has become less active, “to the point at which Israel no longer considers it a major terrorist threat.” However, it caught again the public eye at the beginning of the second intifada in 2001, when 15 members of the PLF-Abbas faction allegedly sponsored by the Saddam Hussein Iraqi regime were arrested by the Israeli Security Agency for planning attacks in Israel and the West Bank.
Additionally, the PLF denied involvement in the bombing of a U.S. vehicle in Bayt Hanun in 2003. In the last two years, no information could be found on armed operations staged by the PLF. In effect, the International Institute for Strategic Studies considers the conflict to be dormant, meaning inactive for the past 12 months.
 

 

Structure of the organization

In the 1960s, Jibril’s Palestine Liberation Front was organized in clandestine cells, which had a strict military structure and discipline.
No clear information is available on the current structure of the PLF; however, press reports mention a central committee and a general secretariat.
 

Leadership

The PLF’s establishment, early operations, the mergers and splits were closely related to the figure of Ahmed Jibril. Jibril was born in 1937 in Palestine and moved with his family at the end of the 1940s to Syria, where he joined the Syrian army in 1956. In 1959 in Egypt, together with few other Palestinians, Jibril established the PLF. The unsuccessful negotiations for the merger with Fatah put the bases of a continuous rivalry between Jibril and Arafat. Ahmad Jibril is the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command since its creation in 1968. The alleged ties with Syria have remained strong throughout his life, these being the reason for Abbas’s breakaway in 1977. Some sources characterize his leadership style as autocratic and radical.
Abbu Abbas was born in the 1940s in Safad, Palestine. In the late 1960s he firstly joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which he apparently found too conservative, and later the Black September. In 1973, Abbas became a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) and acted as spokesperson and Jibril’s chief lieutenant. According to Thomas G. Mitchell, in 1976, together with Yakoub, Abbas attempted a coup against Jibril in response to the latter’s support for Syria’s intervention in Lebanon against the Palestinians. In 1977, he broke off with the PFLP-GC and established the Palestine Liberation Front. According to a report for the U.S. Congress, Abbas had been inspired by the Cuban Revolution and the Vietcong and underwent guerrilla training in the Soviet Union. As his faction was pro-PLO, in 1984 he was elected member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Abbas is believed to have masterminded the Achille Lauro hijacking, for which he was convicted in absentia in Italy to life sentence. American Special Forces in Baghdad arrested him in 2003, and he died of reportedly natural causes in U.S. custody in 2004.

Talat Yakoub, the leader of the PLF faction that sought to remain neutral at the 1984 split, died in 1988. His successor was Abu Nidal al-Ashqar.

Abdel Fatah Ghanem, who led a pro-Syrian PLF faction in the 1980s, is said to be responsible for the movement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Since Abbas stepped down in the 1990s, the Palestine Liberation Front has been represented in the PLO Executive Committee by Ali Ishak.
In April 2004, the PLF elected Omar Shibli, also known as Abu Ahmed Halab, as its new leader. According to Associated Press information, Shibli, age 60, is originally from the Tiret Haifa village in Israel and served as Abbas’ deputy in the PLF hierarchy.

 

External aid/Third party involvement

Jibril’s Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) was reported to have had close ties with Syria. Apparently, in an attempt to gain de facto control over Lebanon, Syria requested several groups to help the Christians in their fight against the Palestinians and other Lebanese factions. It was Jibril’s support to these policies that provoked the Abbas rupture from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) in 1977.
After the split, according to some observers, the PLF continued to receive support from Syria. Yezid Sayigh notes that the PLF developed a close relationship with Syrian intelligence and obtained special training. At that time, the PLF is said to have also received support from Iraq. A 2002 U.S. State Department’s report asserts that Iraq was a safe haven, transit point and operational base for several groups, among which the PLF. Other reports mention PLF members being trained by Iraqi officers. The capture of Abbas in Baghdad in 2003 reinforced the idea that Iraq was harbouring the PLF.
Libya is also suspected of having provided aid to the PLF.
No information is available on current external aid to the PLF.
 

External effects of the NSAG's armed activities

Thomas G. Mitchell points to a possible external consequence of the PLF’s early operations. According to him, the PLF raids across the Lebanese and Syrian borders, rather than Fatah’s attacks, played a key role in provoking the crisis with Syria that escalated into the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
The BBC points to the damage that the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, Achille Lauro’s passenger, has done to the Palestinian cause internationally and speculates that this was one of the events, which eventually determined the Palestinians to change their tactic and enter into negotiations for a two state solution.
The PLF failed attack on a Tel Aviv beach in May 1990 had, according to some commentators, wide-ranging effects. Although denying the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) involvement in the raid, Arafat refused to condemn it. Several sources regard this refusal as the trigger for the suspension of dialogue, in late June 1990, between Washington and the PLO, and hence, leading to the stalling of the peace process.

Funding

Iraq is said to have been the main sponsor of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), reportedly supplying the PLF with money, small arms and explosives. According to a 2002 report by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other sources of funding for the PLF have been the Palestinian Authority, as well as Abu Abbas’ and the PLF leadership’s investments in Iraqi real estate.
No information is available on the group’s current sources of funding.

 

Relationship with the international community

As of August 2007, the Palestine Liberation Front is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.

Books

• Atkins, Stephen E. (2004), Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), available at link.
• Balencie, Jean-Marc and Arnaud de la Grange (2005), Les Nouveaux Mondes Rebelles (Paris: Editions Michalon).
• Baud, Jacques (2003), Encyclopédie des terrorismes et violences politiques (Paris: Lavauzelle).
• Cassese, Antonio (1989), Terrorism, Politics and Law: The Achille Lauro Affair (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
• Cordesman, Anthony H. (1999), Iraq and the War of Sanctions: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), available at link.
• Cordesman, Anthony H. (2006), Arab-Israeli Military Forces in an Era of Asymmetric Wars (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), available at link.
• Mitchell, Thomas G. (2002), Native vs. Settler: Ethnic Conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), available at link.
• Ma’oz, Moshe and Avner Yaniv (ed.) (1986), Syria under Assad, (New York: St. Martin’s Press).
• Sayigh, Yezid (1997), Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (New York: Oxford University Press).

 

Articles and Chapters

• Anderson, Sean K. and Peter N. Spagnolo (2007), “The Achille Lauro Hijacking”, in James J.F. Forest (ed.), Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers), available at link.
• “Palestine Chronology: 1 September – 15 November 1985”, 15.2 Journal of Palestine Studies (1986), at 219-253.
• “The PNC: Historical Background”, 16.4 Journal of Palestine Studies (1987), at 149-152.
• “Chronology: 16 August – 15 November 1990”, 20.2 Journal of Palestine Studies (1991), at 202-232.
• Cassese, Antonio, “The International Community’s Legal Response to Terrorism”, 38.3 The International and Comparative Law Quarterly (1989), at 589-608.
• Christison, Kathleen, “Splitting the Difference: The Palestinian –Israeli Policy of James Baker”, 24.1 Journal of Palestine Studies (1994), at 39-50.
• Faris, Fuad and Peter Johnson, “A Palestinian State? (Notes on the Palestinian Situation after the October War)”, 33 MERIP Reports (1974), at 3-27+31
• Joffe, Lawrence (2004), “Palestinian Entity – Palestinian Movements,” in Bogdan Szajkowski (ed), Revolutionary and Dissident Movements of the World, (London: John Harper Publishing), at 369-397.
• Kjorlien, Michele L., “Chronology: 16 May-15 August 2000”, 30.1 Journal of Palestine Studies (2000), at 163-181.
• Strindberg, Anders, “The Damascus-Based Alliance of Palestinian Forces: A Primer”, 29.3 Journal of Palestine Studies (2000), at 60-76.
• Suleiman, Jaber, “The Current Political, Organizational, and Security Situation in the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon”, 29.1 Journal of Palestine Studies (1999), at 66-80.

 

Reports and resolutions of intergovernmental organizations

• EU Council, Common Position 2006/380/CFSP of 29 May 2006, Official Journal of the European Communities L 144/25, 31.5.2006.

Governmental reports

•Central Elections Commission Palestine, Votes for the lists per districtum, available at link.
• CRS Report for Congress, Terrorism: Middle Eastern Groups and State Sponsors, 1999, 9 August 1999, available at link.
• CRS Report for Congress, The PLO and its Factions, Washington DC, 10 June 2002, available at link.
• Federal Document Clearing House Regulatory Intelligence Database, Coalition Captures Terrorist, Brooks Describes Mosul Incident, 16 April 2003.
• Federal Register, “Prohibiting Transactions With Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process”, 10.16 Presidential Documents, 25 January 1995.
• Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ISA uncovers Iraqi supported Palestinian terrorist cell, 25 November 2001, available at link.
• Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Palestinian Liberation Front – Headed by Abu al-Abbas as a tool of the Iraqi regime for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel, 20 September 2002, available at link.
• Public Safety Canada, National Security – Listed entities, Palestine Liberation Front, 9 November 2006, available at link.
• U.S. Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2002. Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism, Washington, DC, April 2003, available at link
• U.S. Department of State, Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Fact Sheet Office of Counterterrorism, Washington, DC, 11 October 2005, available at link.
• U.S. Department of State, Country Report on Terrorism, Terrorist Organizations, Washington, D.C., 30 April 2007, available at link.
• White House Background Paper on Iraq, A decade of Deception and Defiance, 12 September 2002, available at link.

 

Reports of think tanks and non-governmental organizations

• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, How Arafat's Palestinian Authority Became an "Entity Supporting Terrorism", 1 11 Jerusalem Issue Brief, 9 December 2001, available at link.

Press Information (in chronological order)

 

• “Italians identify 16 in hijacking of ship”, The New York Times, 20 November 1985.
• “Israel Reports Foiling Speedboat Attack on Beach”, The New York Times, 31 May 1990.
• “Alleged Al Qaeda Ties Questioned; Experts Scrutinize Details of Accusations Against Iraqi Government”, The Washington Post, 7 February 2003.
• “U.S. captures mastermind of Achille Lauro hijacking”, CNN, 16 April 2003, available at link.
• “U.S. mulls legal options after Abbas capture”, CNN, 17 April 2003, available at link.
• “Palestine Liberation Front slams US support for Israel, rejects new peace plan”, Al-Quds in BBC Monitoring, 18 October 2003.
• “Palestine Liberation Front denies involvement in Gaza bombing”, Al-Hayat al-Jadidah in BBC Monitoring, 20 October 2003.
• “Middle East: Arafat Pays Homage To Abu Abbas”, ANSA English Media Service, 10 March 2004.
• “Abbas: Palestinian throwback”, BBC News, 10 March 2004, available at link.
• “Ship hijack plotter Abu Abbas dead”, New York Times News Service, 10 March 2004.
• “Achille Lauro hijacker Abu Abbas dies in custody”, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 15 March 2004, available at link.
• “PLF elects successor to dead leader, Achille Lauro hijacker Abul Abbas”, Associated Press, 3 April 2004.
• “Palestinian faction PLF urges end to "state of lawlessness"”, Al-Quds in BBC Monitoring, 12 March 2005.
• “Palestinian Liberation Front urges national dialogue”, Wafa website in BBC Monitoring, 24 December 2006.
• “Palestinian party official welcomes Mecca pact, criticizes Israeli actions”, Quds Press news agency in BBC Monitoring, 11 February 2007.

 

Interviews

Internet resources

• International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Ely Karmon, The Role of Terrorism in the Breakdown of the Israeli - Palestinian Peace Process, 25 May 2003, available at link.
• Federation of American Scientists, Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), 21 May 2004, available at link.
• Global Security, Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), link.
• IISS Armed Conflict Database, Non State Armed Groups, Palestine Liberation Front, available at link.
• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Survey of Arab Affairs, Syria and Terrorism, 15 November 1991, available at link.
• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, How Arafat's Palestinian Authority Became an "Entity Supporting Terrorism", 1 11 Jerusalem Issue Brief, 9 December 2001, available at link.
• National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, Palestine Liberation Front, available at link.
• The Center for Defense Information, In the Spotlight:
  The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), 14 November 2002, available at link.
• Mideast web, Palestine Liberation Front, available at link.
• Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, Palestine Liberation Organization, available at link.

 

 

Statements of the armed group

•The Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestine National Council July 1-17, 1968, available at link.
• The PNC Program of 1974, 8 June 1974, available at link
 

Agreements involving armed groups