George Habash

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George Habash (Arabic جورج حبش) (born August 2, 1926 in Lod), sometimes known by his nom-de-guerre Al-Hakim الحكيم , meaning "the doctor", a leading militant and Palestinian politician, as founder and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1967-2000.

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[edit] Early years

He was born in Lydda to Greek Orthodox parents. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, his family was expelled by Haganah forces northwards towards Lebanon, where they took up residence as refugees. [1] [2]

Habash was a medical student (paediatrician), at The American University of Beirut, where he met Wadie Haddad. After graduating first in his class in 1951, he worked in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and ran a clinic together with Haddad in Amman. He was a founding member of the Arab Nationalist Movement (in 1951-52), which was inspired by Nasserism and other Pan Arab and Arab Socialist doctrines. He was implicated in the 1957 coup attempt in Jordan, which had originated among Palestinian members of the National Guard. Habash was convicted in absentia, after having gone underground when King Hussein proclaimed martial law and banned all political parties in response. In 1958 he fled to Syria (then part of the United Arab Republic, UAR), but was forced to continue to Beirut in 1961 by the tumultuous break-up of the UAR.

[edit] The Popular Front

In 1964, he began reorganizing the ANM, regrouping the Palestinian members of the organization into a "regional command". After the Six-Day War in 1967, disillusion with Nasser became widespread. This prompted the transformation, led by Habash, of the Palestinian ANM into the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on December 11, when he also became its first Secretary-General. Habash was briefly imprisoned in Syria in 1968, but escaped. In the same year, he also came into conflict with long-time ally Wadie Haddad, but both remained in the PFLP.

On a 1969 congress, the PFLP re-designated itself a Marxist-Leninist movement, and has remained a Communist organization ever since. Its Pan Arab leanings were somewhat diminished since the ANM days, but the demand for a united Arab world to confront Western imperialism and Zionism remained. It held a hard-line stance on Israel, demanding the complete eradication of this "Zionist entity" through military struggle, in favor of a Palestinian and Arab state, and totally opposing any form of negotiations or compromise with, or recognition of, the Jewish state.

The 1969 congress also saw an ultra-leftist faction under Nayef Hawatmeh and Yasser Abd Rabbo split off as the PDFLP, later to become the DFLP. During Habash's time as Secretary-General, the PFLP became known as one of the most radical and militant Palestinian factions, and gained world notoriety after a string of airplane hijackings masterminded by Haddad. The PFLP's pioneering of modern international terrorism brought the group, and the Palestinian issue, onto newspaper front pages worldwide, but it also provoked intense criticism from other parts of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

[edit] Black September

The PFLP ignored tensions with the mainstream leadership of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and instead focused on bringing about revolutionary change in Jordan, where the Palestinian guerrilla movement was headquartered at the time. Habbash expressed the opinion that what proceeded was ‘’not only military but also psychological warfare’’ and one had to ’’hold the Israelis under permanent pressure’’. [3]

This created friction with the authorities, and the Dawson's Field hijackings of 1970 were instrumental in provoking the Black September crackdown, which came close to destroying the PLO. As a result, the PFLP was heavily criticised, and internally, Wadie Haddad was accused of embarrassing the movement, and politically sidelined. The PFLP in 1970 renounced international terrorism, but a faction led by Haddad (the PFLP-EO) continued to carry out operations abroad, with the PFLP leadership doing little to prevent it. In autumn 1970, Habbash visited Beijing.

After Black September, the PLO fedayeen relocated to Lebanon. In 1972, Habash experienced failing health, and gradually began to lose his centrality within the organization. The Palestinian National Council's (PNC) adoption of a resolution viewed by the PFLP as a first step towards a two-state solution in 1974, prompted Habash to lead his organization out of active participation in the PLO and to join the Iraqi-backed Rejectionist Front. Only in 1977 would the PFLP opt to rejoin, as the Palestinian factions rallied their forces in opposition to Anwar Sadat's peace overtures towards Israel. During the Lebanese Civil War that broke out in 1975, PFLP forces were heavily decimated in battle against Syria and its Christian militia and Lebanese government allies. Later, the PFLP would draw close to Syria, as alliances shifted, but PFLP involvement in the Lebanese war remained strong until the U.S.-negotiated evacuation of PLO units from Beirut in 1982, and continued on a smaller scale after that.

Relations with the mainstream PLO remained as poor as ever, and when Arafat was caught off-guard by the Syrian-backed Abu Musa rebellion within his Fatah movement in 1983, the PFLP declared itself neutral, as Syrian Army and Syrian-aligned Lebanese and Palestinian militias (such as Amal, as-Sa'iqa and Syrian-controlled PLA brigades) pounded PLO positions.

In 1980, Habash had had a severe stroke, and due to his consistently poor health, he lost influence within the PFLP, with younger members stepping up to assume greater responsibilities. During this time, Habash lived in Damascus, Syria, and the PFLP neared the Syrian Ba'thist regime of Hafez al-Assad, united by the common interest of opposing Yasser Arafat's increasingly moderate positions on Israel. In 1992, however, Habash was in poor health, and left Damascus to return to Amman.

[edit] The Oslo Agreement

After the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, Habash and the PFLP again broke completely with Arafat, accusing him of selling out the Palestinian revolution. The group set up an anti-Arafat and anti-Oslo alliance in Damascus, for the first time joined by such non-PLO Islamist groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which had grown to prominence during the First Intifada. After finding the position sterile, with Palestinian political dynamics playing out on the West Bank and Gaza areas of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Habash carefully sought to repair ties to Arafat, and gain a hold in post-Oslo politics without compromising PFLP principles. This balancing act couldn't save the PFLP from being eclipsed by the militant Islamist factions on the one hand, and the resource-rich Fatah with its PNA patronage network on the other. The significance of the PFLP in Palestinian politics has diminished considerably since the mid-90s. The PFLP participated in the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006 as the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa List winning 4.2% of the popular vote.

In the late 1990s, Habash's medical condition worsened, but he still refused to set foot in the Palestinian territories so as not to give the impression of legitimizing the Oslo Accords. In 2000, he resigned from the post as Secretary-General, citing health reasons, He was succeeded as head of the PFLP by Abu Ali Mustafa. Habash went on to set up a PFLP-affiliated research center, but he remains active in the PFLP's internal politics. He is still popular among many Palestinians, who appreciate his revolutionary ideology, his determination and strong principles, the rejection of the Oslo Agreement or his carefully groomed intellectual style. Others, especially of course Israelis, view him rather as a communist thug, and one of the most lethal terrorists of the 20th century.

[edit] References

[edit] External link:

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