George Habash

George Habash (جورج حبش), also known by his laqab "Al-Hakim" (الحكيم; 1 August 1926 – 26 January 2008), was a Palestinian politician and physician who founded the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Habash was born in Lydda, Mandatory Palestine in 1926.

Habash was born in Lydda (today's Lod) to a Greek Orthodox Christian Palestinian family in 1926.

As a child, he sang in the church choir.

Political thinkers who were influences on Habash at this period included Constantin Zureiq, whose lectures at AUB on 'Arab nationalism and the Zionist danger' in the late 1940s and early 1950s Habash had attended, and Sati' al-Husri an Arab Muslim intellectual who emphasized national cohesiveness, territorial patriotism, and loyalty to the state, and gave priority to Arab unity over Islamic unity.

In 1948, 19-year-old Habash, a medical student at the American University of Beirut, went to his home town of Lydda during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, when the people of the city and his family were driven out in what became known as the Lydda Death March that led to the death of his sister.

In 1948, 19-year-old Habash, a medical student at the American University of Beirut, went to his home town of Lydda during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War to help his family.

While he was there, the Israel Defense Forces attacked the city and as a result, most of its civilian population was forced to leave in what became known as the Lydda Death March.

They marched for three days without food or water until they reached the Arab armies' front lines, which led to his sister's death.

Habash and his remaining family became refugees and were not allowed to return home.

In 1951, after graduating first in his class from medical school, Habash worked in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan and ran a clinic in Amman.

He later relocated to Syria and Lebanon.

He later finished his education at the AUB and graduated in 1951.

In 1951, after graduating first in his class from medical school, Habash worked in refugee camps in Jordan and ran a clinic with Wadie Haddad in Amman.

He firmly believed that the state of Israel should be ended by all possible means, including political violence.

In an effort to recruit the Arab world to this cause, Habash founded the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) in 1951 and aligned the organization with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalist ideology.

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 Hussein of Jordan proclaimed martial law and banned all political parties.

In 1958 he fled to Syria (then part of the United Arab Republic), but was forced to return to Beirut in 1961 by the tumultuous breakup of the UAR.

In 1964 he began reorganizing the ANM, regrouping the Palestinian members of the organization into a "regional command."

In 1967, after being sidelined in the Palestine Liberation Organization by Yasser Arafat, he founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist movement which opposes the existence of Israel and advocates for a single democratic and secular state in the entire region.

Habash was a leading member of the Palestine Liberation Organization until 1967 when he was sidelined by Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, with whom he had a complex relationship described as a mix of "camaraderie and rivalry" and "a love-hate relationship".

In response, Habash founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, disillusion with Nasser became widespread.

This prompted the foundation, led by Habash, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as a front of several Palestinian factions, like the "heroes of return" and "Palestinian Liberation Front", along with the ANM on 11 December, when he also became its first secretary-general.

Habash was arrested by Abd al-Karim al-Jundi and briefly imprisoned in Syria under the accusation of plotting to overthrow the Baathist ruling party in 1968 but escaped with the help of Wadie Haddad who with four others extracted Habash from a maximum security prison whilst disguised as military police.

In the same year, he also came into conflict with long-time ally Wadie Haddad, but both remained in the PFLP.

At a 1969 congress, the PFLP re-designated itself a Marxist–Leninist movement and has remained a Communist organization ever since.

Its pan-Arab leanings have been diminished since the ANM days, but popular support for a united Arab front has remained, especially in regard to Israeli and western political pressures.

It holds a firm position regarding Israel, demanding its complete eradication as a racist state through military struggle and promotes a one-state solution (one secular, democratic, non-denominational state).

The 1969 congress also saw an ultra-leftist faction under Nayef Hawatmeh and Yasser Abd Rabbo split off as the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP), later to become the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (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 aircraft hijackings and attacks against Israel affiliated companies as well as Israeli ambassadors in Europe mostly planned by Haddad.

The PFLP's pioneering of modern international terror operations brought the group, and the Palestinian issue, onto newspaper front pages worldwide, but it also provoked intense criticism from other parts of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In the 1970 Dawson's Field hijackings, Habash masterminded the hijackings of four Western airliners to Jordan, which led to the Black September conflict, and his subsequent exile to Lebanon.

In 1970, Habash was evicted from Jordan due to the key role of the Popular Front in the Black September clashes.

Habash aligned the PFLP with the PLO and the Lebanese National Movement, but stayed neutral during the Lebanese Civil War in the late 1970s.

In 1974, the Palestinian National Council adopted a resolution recognizing a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Habash, who opposed this, formed the Rejectionist Front from several other opposition parties.

After a stroke in 1980, when he was living in Damascus, his health declined and other PFLP members rose to the top.

He remained opposed to a two-state solution even after the PLO signed the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993.

He resigned as secretary general of the PFLP due to ill health in 2000, and died after a heart attack in 2008.