|
Jabhat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniyyah The PLF is a Palestinian organization centered in Lebanon. It was set up in April 1977 as a result of a split in the the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine - General Command led by Ahmad Jibril. The new organization was headed by Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas) and Tal'at Ya'akub. The organization split again into three small organizations in 1983-1984. Each faction continued to carry the original name and each claimed to represent the mother-organization. In November 1989 Abu Abbas's and Tal'at Ya'akub's factions reunited again, after Tal'at Ya'akub's death. The general secretary, Abu Abbas, was elected to the PLO's executive committee and the organization became in fact a satellite of Fatah. The PLF staged a strategy of "armed struggle" against Israel, mainly by terrorist attacks through the Lebanese border. The Abu Abbas faction was responsible for the famous hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985 and the 1990 failed seaborne attack against the Israeli coast, both acts which embarrassed the PLO leadership. After the Oslo agreement the main PLF faction accepted PLO's policy of stopping terrorist activity against Israel. Originally the Palestinian Liberation Front was founded by Ahmad Jibril in 1961, but in December 1967 it merged with the Heroes of the Return group and The Youth of Revenge group (the military wing of the Arab Nationalist Movement - ANM) to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), under the leadership of George Habash. Ahmad Jibril split from the PFLP in April 1968 and formed a new organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC). The Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) was set up on April 24, 1977 due to a split in the The Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine - General Command. The split was the result of the confrontation between Syria and PLO in Lebanon and Jibril's PFLP-GC support to the Syrian intervention in Lebanon on the Maronites' side. The new organization was headed by Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas) and Tal'at Ya'akub. The PLF was essentially active on the Israeli northern border and staged attacks against civilian and military targets, trying also to take hostages during its operations. On the background of the internal rebellion in Fatah's ranks after the Lebanese war of 1982, the organization split again into three small organizations in 1983-1984. Each faction continued to carry the original name and each claimed to represent the mother-organization. The three faction were: a. The faction headed by Abd al-Fatah Ghanim, a member of the central committee of the organization, seized control of the organization's offices in Damascus, and supported the group of Fatah rebels and the Rejection Front organizations sponsored by Syria. The faction staged terrorist attacks against Israel through the Lebanese border. b. 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. c. The faction headed by Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas), the deputy general secretary, sided with Fatah and Arafat. He joined the PLO and his men and his headquarters were transferred to Tunisia. Following the attack against the Achille Lauro ship in October 1985, Abu Abbas was expelled by the Tunisian authorities and established his headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. This faction had the largest membership, of about 400. In November 1986 Abu Abbas and Tal'at Ya'akub's factions opened merger negotiations, which succeeded only in November 1989, after Tal'at Ya'akub's death. The general secretary, Abu Abbas, was elected to the PLO's executive committee and the PLF actually became a satellite of Fatah, although the organization was supported, logistically and in training, by Libya and Iraq. The organization has performed in the past several prominent terror attacks, some of them sophisticated, and served as an example to other Palestinian terrorist groups. It had a naval unit and a unit of light planes and gliders for terrorist attacks against Israel.
In the last few years the heads of the organization are politically active in the PLO, although the independent organizational framework still exists, especially in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. There they are also involved , side by side with Fatah, in local clashes with members of the organizations patronized by Syria.
After the Oslo agreement the Abu Abbas faction accepted the PLO's political decision to abandon terrorism. The organization is based mainly in Lebanon and Tunisia, and has several hundred members there. It doesn't and never had any support among Palestinians in the Territories. Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas) was born in Safed in 1948 and his family flew to Syria the same year. He became a member of Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC in 1968, but disputed with Jibril over the pro-Syrian stance of the organization and finally left it in April 1977 and formed the PLF. Abu Abbas was considered to be pro-Iraqi. He was wounded during the war in Lebanon in 1982. He became a member of PLO's Executive Committee in 1984 and during the Palestinian National Council meeting of 1989 supported the organization's acceptance of UN's resolution 242. Abu Abbas became famous after his organization hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship in October 1985. The PLF and Abu Abbas personally received consistent financial assistance from Yasser Arafat. Abu Abbas returned to Gaza Strip after the Oslo agreement. There is still an international American warrant against Abu Abbas for his responsibility in the murder of Leon Klinghoffer during the Achille Lauro hijacking. September 16, 1978: Failed attempt of a squad to penetrate into Kiryat Shmona. April 22, 1979: A squad of four terrorists penetrated from Lebanon to Nahariya using a rubber boat. The squad took over a house in Nahariya, took part of the family hostages, murdered the father, his daughter and a police officer and injured four citizens. March 7, 1981: Failed attempt of a two member squad flying gliders to penetrate from the Lebanese border to the Haifa area. Both terrorists were forced to land near the Israeli border and were captured. Their intention was to throw bombs and grenades from the air in the Haifa area.
April 16, 1981: Failed attempt of a two member squad to penetrate from the Lebanese border flying a balloon, in order to take hostages. The balloon was shot down by the IDF in the Lebanese area next to the Israeli border and both terrorists were killed.
October 7, 1985: A four member squad took over the Italian cruise ship Aquille Lauro, while it was sailing from Alexandria towards Israel. The squad murdered Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly invalid passenger on the ship and Jewish American citizen. The members of the squad turned themselves to the Egyptian authorities and Abu Abbas and the four terrorists were permitted to fly away in an Egyptian plane. The plane was forced by US fighter planes to land in Sicily, where the Italian authorities claimed jurisdiction and released Abu Abbas. Later he was convicted to life imprisonment in absentia. The four terrorists who participated in the hijacking were tried in Italy and sentenced to prison by the Italian courts.
January 6, 1990: Muhammad Amin Jarar, member of the PLF and resident of Jenin, was convicted in a military court in Israel for planning a terrorist attack against Israeli tourists in Egyptian tourist sites.
May 30, 1990: A squad of 17 members attempted a seaborne attack on the Tel Aviv beaches and hotels, with the intention to kill tourists and Israeli citizens. The five rubber-boats they used were intercepted by Israeli military forces on the Nitzanim beach and four of the terrorists were killed and 12 were taken prisoners. The terrorists trained in Libya, which gave massive logistic support to the operation and provided the mother-ship from where the rubber-boats took-off. Terrorist raid provoked the suspension of the dialogue the United States led at that time with the PLO. During the 1980s several attempts of squads from the Tal'at Ya'akub faction to penetrate from Lebanon to Israel were foiled in the security zone in Southern Lebanon, before they even arrived at the Israeli border.
Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini Under this name several radical Palestinian Islamic factions were active from 1979 on in the Territories, mainly under the influence of the Iranian Islamic revolution and the growing Islamic militancy in the region. The PIJ Fathi Shqaqi faction has in recent years become the most prominent Palestinian terrorist group to adopt the Islamic Jihad ideology. It views Israel, the “Zionist Jewish entity”, as the main enemy of the Muslim Brothers and the first target for destruction. Thus, it calls for an Islamic armed struggle and strives for the liberation of all of Palestine. This is to be accomplished by guerilla groups, led by a revolutionary vanguard, which carry out terrorist attacks aimed at weakening Israel. Its militants see themselves as those who lay the groundwork for the day when the great Islamic Arabic army will be able to destroy Israel in a military confrontation. In the 1980s the group was involved both in subversive and terrorist activity in the Territories and prior to the Intifada carried out several terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip. At the beginning of the Intifada it numbered some 250 militants and several hundred sympathizers in the universities and the young activists around the mosques. In August 1988 the group's leaders were expelled to Lebanon, where Shqaqi reorganized the faction and strengthened its ties with the Hizballah and Iran. The faction was behind several of the deadliest terrorist suicide attacks carried on in Israel by the radical Islamic organizations in 1995-1997. Fathi Shqaqi was killed by unknown assailants in October 1995 in Malta. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini) was founded in 1979-80 by Palestinian students in Egypt, who had split from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip. The founders were highly influenced by the Islamic revolution in Iran on the one and hand, and the radicalization and militancy of Egyptian Islamic student organizations, on the other. The founders - Fathi Shqaqi, `Abd al-`Aziz `Odah and Bashir Musa - were disappointed by the supposed moderation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and what they considered the neglect by the Egyptian Islamists of the priority that should be given to the Palestinian problem. Shqaqi and Musa, therefore, proposed a new ideological program, which became the basis for the new organization. They claimed that the unity of the Islamic world was not a precondition for the liberation of Palestine, but on the contrary, the liberation of Palestine by the Islamic movements was the key to the unification of the Arab and Islamic world. In other words: the Jihad for the liberation of Palestine by Islamic movements will bring upon the expected Jihad for the reconstruction of the greater and one Islamic state. The admiration of the three Palestinian militants for the Islamic revolution in Iran was at that time unique of its kind in the Arab world and among the Islamic Sunni movements. Not only did they consider the Iranian revolution as a model for the Arab world, but they accepted the principle of "the leadership of the men of religion" (vilayet-i-faqih) although it was a Shi'ite concept. Shqaqi was also the first in the Arab Sunni world to write, already in March 1979, a book glorifying Khomeini and the Iranian revolution, which was banned by the Egyptian authorities. This group of Palestinian students maintained close relations with radical Islamic Egyptian students, some of whom were involved in the assassination of president Sadat, in October 1981. As a result, the Palestinian Islamic radicals were expelled from Egypt and returned to the Gaza Strip, where they formally began their activity as an Islamic Jihad organization. The faction was involved in subversive and terrorist activity in the Territories in the 1980s. During the year 1987, prior to the Intifada, it carried out several terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip. In August 1988 the two faction`s leaders, Shqaqi and `Odah, were expelled to Lebanon, where Shqaqi reorganized the faction, maintaining close contacts with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit stationed in Lebanon and with Hizballah. Shqaqi expanded the political connections of the faction and became a prominent member of the new Rejection Front which emerged after the Israeli- Palestinian Oslo agreement, under Syrian influence. Shqaqi was killed in October 1995 in Malta, allegedly by Israeli agents. His successor is Dr. Ramadan `Abdallah Shalah, who has resided several years in Florida, U.S.A, and moved to Damascus at the beginning of 1996. Shalah has not the charisma and the intellectual and organizational skills as Fathi Shqaqi and this has influenced the organization's position and activity. The group has been active on the political scene in the Territories, mainly in the Gaza Strip, among students and intellectuals. Until the foundation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the Islamic Jihad groups did not have connections to Hamas, and were regarded even as rivals in the Gaza Strip. Since then, and mainly after Hamas switched to the strategy of suicide terrorist bombings, there was some operational cooperation between the two organizations in carrying out attacks like the one in Beit-Lyd, in February 1995, or in coordinating simultaneous terrorist attacks. Shqaqi 's death undermined the PIJ's position in the Territories and Hamas no longer sees it as a threatening rival. The group has offices in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran and Khartoum, but its activity is focused in Lebanon, where there are several tens of Palestinian members. It has some influence in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Islamic University, but not in a way that can endanger the dominant position of Hamas as the leading Islamic Palestinian organization. During the 1980s several other groups of Palestinian Islamic Jihad were formed, but the main faction which has survived is the group founded by Shqaqi. The Islamic Jihad Organization - the al-Aqsa Battalions (Munazzamat al-Jihad al-Islami - Kata’ib al-Aqsa) was founded under the religious guidance of Sheikh `As`ad Bayyud al-Tamimi in Jordan in 1982, with the support of Fatah activists. It has carried out its first terrorist operation already in October 1983, by killing an Israeli citizen in Hebron. The faction has tried to carry out other operations in the 1980s but failed. During the Intifada it became active under the name of the “Islamic Jihad Organization - the al-Aqsa Battalions”. Some of its activists maintained good relations both with Iran and Sudan. Its religious leader, `As`ad al-Tamimi, was also a supporter of the Iranian revolution, and was arrested or confined several times by the Jordanian authorities. Formally the group is still active in Jordan, but has no supporters in the Territories. The Islamic Jihad - The Temple (al-Jihad al-Islami - Bait al-Maqdas) was founded in the early 1980s by the “Western Sector” apparatus of Fatah, headed by Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad). It was composed of Fatah terrorist activists from “The Students Committee”, who carried out an important terrorist attack in Hebron on April 1, 1980, killing six Israelis leaving a synagogue. Later on the activists of that committee turned to religion and formed the group which was called “The Islamic Jihad - The Temple”. The group was led by Bassem Sultan, Marwan al-Kayali and Muhammad Bkheis, who were killed by a car bomb in Lymassol, Cyprus on February 1988. The faction's ideologue was Munir Shafiq, who also had pro-Iranian affiliations. It was the first Palestinian Islamic group that staged a terrorist attack prior to the Intifada, by throwing hand grenades on Israeli soldiers and their families during a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on October 15 , 1986. The faction had very few militants in the Territories. The Islamic Jihad Squad (Tanzim al-Jihad al-Islami) was a small group of Islamic Jihad militants led by Ahmad Muhanna. These militants were imprisoned in Israel for violent activities in the framework of a PLO off-shoot, the Palestinian Popular Liberation Forces (Quwat Tahrir al-Sha`biyyah al-Filastiniyyah), who became Islamists in the late 1970s under the leadership of Jaber `Ammar. Ahmad Muhanna split from this group and during the 1980s was active mainly from Sudan and was also involved in Islamist militant activity in Egypt. The faction carried out a terrorist attack in Egypt against an Israeli tourist bus in Northern Sinai, on February 4, 1990. Dr. Fathi Abd al-Aziz Shqaqi was born in the Gaza Strip in January 1951. Shqaqi finished B.A. studies in mathematics at Bir-Zeit University, in the West Bank and in 1974 went to Egypt to study medicine at Zaqaziq University. He became active in the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, but in 1974 left the organization because of ideological disputes. Immediately after Khomeini's rise to power in 1979, Shqaqi wrote a pamphlet entitled "Khomeini: The Islamic Solution and the Alternative", in which he expressed his support for the Islamic revolution and praised Khomeini's position in regard to the unification of the two branches of Islam, the Sunna and the Shi'ia. Shqaqi's book was prohibited and he himself was arrested for three months by the Egyptian authorities.
In 1980 Shqaqi returned to Gaza and began to organize a group of young Islamic radicals, mostly students who were expelled from Egypt due to their subversive Islamic militancy.
Dr. Ramadan `Abdallah Shalah, born in the in the Saja`iyah refugee camp in Gaza Strip, was one of the first militants in the PIJ and was close to Fathi Shqaqi. He went to study in London and was appointed head of PIJ's office there. From there he handled PIJ's military, propaganda and information activity in the Territories. Shalah finished a doctorate thesis in Islamic economics at the University of Durnham in UK.
In 1990 he went to the United States to teach Middle east courses at the South Florida University in Tampa, were he became also director of the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE), a think tank on Muslim religious and political issues connected with the PIJ. After Shqaqi's killing in October 1995, `Abdallah Shalah became the head of the PIJ faction.
Sheikh `As`ad Bayyud al-Tamimi, the scion of a distinguished Hebron family, was born in 1924 and finished his law studies at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1949. Tamimi began his political activity in the 1950s in the framework of the Muslim Brotherhood, but later left them because they did not accept the priority of the Palestinian problem. He was then one of the founders of the Islamic Liberation Party (Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami), an extremist pan-Islamic organization whose base was in Jordan. He served in the 1960s as imam of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. He was expelled by Israel to Jordan in 1969 due to his radical sermons at the al-Aqsa mosque. After the Iranian Islamic revolution, apparently with the Iranian's government blessing and in cooperation with Fatah, he began to recruit young Palestinians - including active Fatah members - for the new Islamic Jihad organization. According to him only later Shqaqi, Muhanna, and others split from the organization in 1980. In 1989 Tamimi called his faction The Islamic Jihad - al-Aqsa Battalions. Tamimi lives in Jordan.
Sheikh Tamimi wrote in 1984 a book entitled "The disappearance of Israel - a ruling of the Koran", in which he tries to prove the importance given in the Koran to Palestine and that the Jihad in Palestine is bound not only to bring back the Holy Land to Muslim sovereignty, but also to banish all presence of the infidel Jews.
Ahmad Hassan Muhanna was born in Khan Yunes and became an officer in the PLO's Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA). He was jailed in Israel for his terrorist activity and there became an extremist Islamist. He was liberated in the framework of an exchange of prisoners in 1985. He continued his terrorist activity in relation with Jaber `Ammar's faction and was expelled to Lebanon in 1988.
Sheikh Jaber `Ammar, from the Gaza Strip, was sentenced to life prison for terrorist activity at the beginning of the 1970s. He was the first to form a group of Islamic radicals inside the Israeli prison. `Ammar was released in 1983 as a result of an exchange of prisoners and went to Egypt, but he was expelled by the Egyptian authorities for his subversive activity against the regime. Later on he left for Sudan, from where he continued his terrorist and subversive activities against Israel and Egypt. August 1987 - Cpt. Ron Tal, commander of the military police in the Gaza Strip was shot in his car in the main street in Gaza by a member of PIJ's Shqaqi faction. October 9, 1993 - Dror Forer and Aran Bachar were murdered by terrorists in Wadi Kelt in the Judea Desert. The Popular Front and the Islamic Jihad 'Al-Aqsa Squads' each publicly claimed responsibility.
November 17, 1993 - Sgt. 1st Cl. Chaim Darina, age 37, was stabbed by Gazan terrorist while seated at the cafeteria at the Nahal Oz road block at the entrance to the Gaza Strip. The perpetrator was apprehended. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the murder.
December 5, 1993 - David Mashrati, a reserve soldier, was shot and killed by a terrorist attempting to board a bus on route 641 at the Holon junction. The Islamic
February 9, 1994 - Ilan Sudri, a taxi driver, was kidnapped and murdered while returning home from work. The Islamic Jihad Shqaqi group sent a message to the news agencies claiming responsibility for the murder.
November 11, 1994 - Capt. Yehazkel Sapir, 36, of Kfar Sava; Lt. Yotam Rahat, 31, of Tel-Aviv; and Capt. Elad Dror, 24, of Kibbutz Nachson were killed at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip when a Palestinian riding a bicycle detonated explosives strapped to his body. Islamic Jihad said it carried out the attack to avenge the car bomb killing of Islamic Jihad leader Hani Abed on November 2.
January 22, 1995 - Two consecutive bombs exploded at the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, killing 18 soldiers and one civilian. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The following information is based on "Patterns of Global Terrorism" - US State Dept. Communist guerilla party that is trying to destabilize the Cambodian Government. Under Pol Pot's leadership, the Khmer Rouge conducted a campaign of genocide in which more than 1 million people were killed during its four years in power in the late 1970s. Although there were large-scale defections from the Khmer Rouge to Cambodian Government forces in 1996, the group still may be considered dangerous. Activities
Strength
Location/Area of Operation
External Aid
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine al-Jabha ash-Sha’abiya li-Tahrir Falestin, al-Jabha ash-Sha’abiya The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) is Marxist-Leninist group founded in 1967 by George Habash. The PFLP sees itself as "a progressive vanguard organisation of the Palestinian working class" and its stated aim as "liberating all of Palestine and establishing a democratic socialist Palestinian state." The PFLP was one of the original members of the PLO, but suspended its participation in 1993, when Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel. Upon its withdrawal from the PLO, the PFLP joined the Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF) to oppose the Oslo peace process. However, in 1996, the organization split from the APF, along with the DFLP, over ideological differences. In 1999, the PLFP took part in meetings with Arafat’s Fatah party and PLO representatives to discuss national unity and the reinvigoration of the PLO. The organization has drawn closer to the more violent elements of Fatah in the months since Arafat returned to armed confrontation with Israel. The PFLP was founded by George Habash in December 1967, in the wake of the Six-Day War. Throughout most of its existence, the organization combined Marxist ideology with Palestinian nationalism, and was among the first of the Palestinian organization to use terrorism as a means to win attention to its cause. The PFLP saw the elimination of Israel as a means towards the ultimate goal of ridding the Middle East of dictators who kow-towed to Western capitalism. The organization carried out a long list of terrorist attacks in the international arena, particularly hijackings against aviation targets. The majority of these attacks were carried out under the direction of George Habash’s associate Dr. Wadi’ Haddad, better known to Palestinians as “The Master.” In November 1968 the PFLP carried out the first of many spectacular plane hijackings, diverting an El Al plane enroute from Rome to Tel Aviv and forcing it to land in Algeria. A month later the PFLP attacked an Israeli aircraft at Athens airport. The Israelis refused to accede to the demand to release Palestinian terrorists in their prisons and retaliated by attacking Beirut airport and destroying thirteen parked aircraft. The most outstanding terrorist attack from this period was the concurrent hijacking of four western passenger airliners to Jordan. On 6 September 1970 the PFLP, acting on the instructions of Wadi’ Haddad simultaneously hijacked a Swissair DC-8 and a TWA Boeing 707. Six days later, this was followed by the hijacking of a BOAC VC-10. The aircraft were forced to land at Dawson Field, 30 miles from Amman, which the hijackers renamed “Revolutionary Airport.” Meanwhile another PFLP hijack team attempted to hijack an El Al plane, but was foiled by the pilot, who put the plane into a steep dive, and the quick action of a sky marshal and some of the passengers who overwhelmed the hijackers. Instead, the PFLP managed to hijack a Pan American Boeing 747, which was flown to Cairo. All of the planes were blown up on the ground after the passengers were evacuated. This incident led to the events of “Black September,” in which the Palestinian organizations were expelled from Jordan by the forces of King Hussein. After years of violent clashes between members of the various Palestinian guerrilla groups and the Jordanian army and security forces, Hussein finally declared war on the PLO, imposing martial law. Three thousand people lost their lives in the fighting that ensued between Jordanian forces and PLO supporters. Finally, in a peace agreement brokered by the Arab League and by Egyptian President Nasser, the PLO agreed to move its headquarters from Jordan to Lebanon. With the decline of the Soviet economy and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, the PFLP found itself pushed to the periphery of the Palestinian armed struggle. The group was superceded in the Palestinian Autonomous territories by the Islamist groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Attempting to regain the initiative after the signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993, the PFLP joined forces with a 10-member rejection front, based in Damascus. It forbade members to participate in the Palestinian elections in 1996. However, three years later, Abu Ali Mustafa, the designated successor of George Habash, traveled to Cairo to negotiate better terms with Yasser Arafat. George Habash resigned from the leadership of the PFLP in May 2000. His protege, Mustafa Ali Kasam Zabiri, also known as Abu Ali Mustafa, was chosen as general secretary of the organization, and formerly took up office in July of that year. Mustafa also served as a member of the Political Bureau and the Central Committee of the organization, as well as the Central Council of the PLO and the Palestinian National Council. Born Mustafa Zibri in the West Bank town of Arabeh, near Jenin, Mustafa was a veteran of the PLO and had been politically active since the 60’s. He became a member of the “Commune Alarab” movement in 1966, and in 1969 was appointed military representative in the PFLP in Jordan. Following the events of “Black September,” he transferred his activities to Lebanon. In 1972, Abu Ali Mustafa was linked to the hijacking of a Lufthansa plane, and headed the negotiations on behalf of the terrorists. In 1987 Mustafa became a member of the Executive Council of the PLO, and in 1996, he took charge of PFLP internal operations. Even within his own organization, he was regarded as something of an extremist, and was known as Pro-Syrian. From the outset, he opposed the Oslo agreements and supported the continuation of the military struggle to eradicate Israel. In a 1996 interview with the Palestinian paper Al-Kuds, Mustafa stated that he would not evconsider integrating his organization into the Palestinian Authority, due to the difference in opinions between the two bodies. In an interview with the Qatari satellite television station Al-Jazeera shortly before he became leader of the PFLP, Mustafa stressed his movement’s commitment to the struggle against Israel, regardless of peace efforts. “We believe the conflict and the struggle against Israel is a strategic [principle] that is not subordinated to any consideration,” he said. In the September 1999, Abu Ali Mustafa, received permission to enter the Palestinian autonomous areas. At that time, he transferred the headquarters of the PFLP from Damascus to the Palestinian autonomous city of Ramallah. With the outbreak of the current conflict, Mustafa reaffirmed his support for the “armed struggle,” and ordered his organization to begin executing extensive terrorist operations, part of which took place within Israeli territory. On 27 August 2001, Abu Ali Mustafa was killed in an initiated attack by the Israeli army, which fired three missiles from a helicopter into Mustafa’s office. Abu Ali Mustafa was succeeded as leader of the PFLP by Ahmed Sadat, who was appointed General Secretary on 3 October 2001. Sadat’s appointment to lead the group as seen as further radicalization of the PFLP. Sadat, a leader of the extreme faction of the PFLP in the territories, supports the continuation of the armed struggle and staunchly opposes the Oslo Accords. He sees himself loyal to the “original” principles of the PFLP—those of George Habash—and since the outbreak of the current violence, has, together with along with Ahad Olma, directed the majority of the organization’s terrorist attacks. His position as Secretary General has lead to an increase in the PFLP’s involvement in terrorist activity, and the marginalization of the “pragmatic” faction of the organization, that had attempted to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority. In 1973 the PFLP accepted a decision of the Palestinian National Council to cease terrorist activities abroad. This decision created a split between the leadership of the PFLP and the Hadad Faction, which continued to carry out terrorist attacks in the international arena. In May 1972 the PFLP, using members of the Japanese Red Army, carried out an attack on Lod airport in Israel which left twenty-four dead. On 9 July, the Israelis hit back by assassinating PFLP spokesman Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut. George Habash, meanwhile, complied with the decision of the Palestinian National Council and acted to prevent his group from carrying out attacks in the international arena. Instead, the PFLP concentrated its activities in the local arena, carrying out attacks in Israel, Jordan and later in Lebanon. In the subsequent years, the organization carried out a great number of terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, along with guerilla attacks against IDF and SLA targets in Lebanon. With the outbreak of the first Intifada, in 1987, the PFLP began organizing limited operations from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At the beginning of the current confrontations in the disputed territories, the PFLP participated in violent activities and carried out a number of terror attacks including nine car bombs (in Jerusalem, Or Yehuda, Yehud, and Haifa), small-scale bombings, and shootings in the West Bank that killed two Israeli civilians. Some of the PFLP’s most recent terrorist attacks in Israel:
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), under the leadership of Ahmad Jibril, is one of the Palestinian organizations known for their unequivocal rejection of any kind of political settlement with Israel, and their reliance on international terrorism to thwart any political process. The PFLP-GC's dependence on radical state sponsors increases the likelihood that it will react violently to any successful political process associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The organization is active since October 1968, when it split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The split was a result of Ahmad Jibril's differences of opinion and personal competition with PFLP's leader George Habash. Jibril remains the uncontested leader of the organization and his original pro-Syrian stand did not change. The organization's headquarters are still in Damascus and its main terrorist activity against Israel is carried out from its camps in Lebanon, through the frontier with South Lebanon. Following is the full text of one of the rare articles written on this subject, dealing with all the aspects of the PFLP-GC's activity, and still relevant to this day, published with the kind permission of the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University: David Tal. "The International Dimension of PFLP-GC Activity". In INTER – International Terrorism in 1989, (pp. 61-77) Tel-Aviv, 1990. The Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, JCSS Project on Low Intensity Warfare & The Jerusalem Post
Jabhat al-Kifah al-Sha'bi The PSF, known also as the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, is a Palestinian organization led by Dr. Samir Ghosheh and Bahjat Abu Gharbiah that was set up before the Six Day War of 1967 in the West Bank. In the 1970s, the PSF moved closer to Fatah and moved its headquarters to Jordan and then to Lebanon. The organization attempted to mediate between the PLO/Fatah and Syria and the Palestinian organizations under its patronage, without much success. The PSF has no real weight or supporters in the Territories. The organization's headquarters and its terror apparatus, called "Occupied Lands", are situated in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon. The PSF staged terrorist attacks against Israel through the Lebanese border and in other countries. The PSF was set up in 1967 in the West Bank as a split organization from Fatah. It merged again with Fatah in 1971 but broke away in 1974 against the background of its leaders' rejection of PLO's "staged program" to liberate Palestine. The PSF joined the Rejection Front and came under the influence of Iraq, Syria and later on Libya. After the war Lebanon in 1982, its headquarters moved to Damascus and with Syrian assistance intensified its terrorist activities against Israel through the borders. At the end of the 1980s, Dr. Samir Ghosheh softened his opposition to Arafat and supported the PLO's acceptance of the UN resolution 242 at the 19th Palestinian National Council (PNC) in Algiers. Against this background, he successfully coped with an attempt by another leader, Naji Issa, to organize an internal revolt. The organization continues to enjoy good relations both with Fatah and Syria. November 27, 1969: Two members of the organization threw a grenade at the El Al offices in Athens. A child was killed and 14 civilians injured. April 24, 1970: Six members of the Organization concealed explosive devices next to the El AL offices in Istanbul and next to the Pan Am offices in Izmir, Turkey. 3. July 22, 1970: Six members of the organization hijacked an Olympic Airways plane on a flight from Beirut to Athens. The terrorists obtained the release from the Greek government of one of the two terrorists jailed in Athens as a result of the 1969 grenade attack. This terrorist - Mansour Murad - was elected to the Jordanian parliament in November 1989. May 4, 1975: A PSF squad exploded a bomb in Jerusalem killing one civilian and injuring three others. June 28, 1975: The PSF kidnapped U.S. Army Col. Ernest Morgan in Beirut, Lebanon and passed him on to the PFLP-GC. He was later released under pressure from the PLO. May 1975: Bombing of the Ain Fashha resort on the Dead Sea, Israel. March 1979: Bombing of a tourist bus in Jerusalem, Israel. October 30, 1984: The IDF killed all six terrorists of a squad trying to penetrate to Israel from Lebanon. August 30, 1988: A four member squad, on its way to a hostage-taking operation in Israel, was intercepted by the Southern Lebanese Army in the security zone. Two terrorists were caught and the remaining two escaped. December 1989: A seaborne squad tried to penetrate into Israel from Lebanon and drowned when their vessel sank in front of the Saida shores.
Qibla and People Against Gangsterism and Drugs The following information is based on "Patterns of Global Terrorism" - US State Dept. Qibla is a small radical Islamic group led by Achmad Cassiem, who was inspired by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. Cassiem founded Qibla in the 1980s, seeking to establish an Islamic state in South Africa. PAGAD began in 1996 as a community anticrime group fighting drug lords in Cape Town's Cape Flats section. PAGAD now shares Qibla's anti-Western stance as well as some members and leadership. Though distinct, the media often treat the two groups as one. Qibla is estimated at 250 members. Police estimate there are at least 50 gunmen in PAGAD, and the size of PAGAD-organized demonstrations suggests it has considerably more adherents than Qibla. Both groups operate mainly in the Cape Town area, South Africa's foremost tourist venue. It's possible that they have ties to Islamic extremists in the Middle East. Qibla routinely protests US policies toward the Muslim world and uses radio station 786 to promote its message and mobilze Muslims. PAGAD is suspected of conducting 170 bombings and 18 other violent actions in 1998 alone. Qibla and PAGAD may have masterminded the bombing on 15 August of the Cape Town Planet Hollywood. Often use the front names Muslims Against Global Oppression (MAGO) and Muslims Against Illegitimate Leaders (MAIL) when anti-Western campaigns are launched.
|