One of the attacks for which the DFLP is best known is the 1974 Ma'alot massacre in which 25 schoolchildren and teachers were killed. Although the National Resistance Brigades have fighters based in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, these fighters have been engaged in relatively few military operations since the First Intifada, until the ongoing Israel-Hamas war (2023–present) which has seen the DFLP fight alongside Hamas and other allied Palestinian factions.[7][8]
The Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DPFLP) was established in 1969, when ideological and personal conflicts broke out within the PFLP, resulting in it fragmenting into a number of different factions.[11] The DPFLP were joined by other sections of the Palestinian left and became the third-largest faction in the PLO.[12] DPFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh, a Jordanian Christian,[verification needed] was characterized as a Maoist by his opponents in the PDFLP, who satirically referred to him as "Nayef Zedong".[13] As a Marxist-Leninist organization,[14] the DPFLP initially advocated for a proletarian revolution to overthrow the State of Israel and establish a "popular democratic state" along bi-national lines.[12]
War and peace process (1973–1987)
PDFLP poster, the caption of which reads: "Solidarity with the people of the Middle East in their struggle against imperialism, feudalism, Zionism and Arab reaction"
During the 1970s the DPFLP carried out a number of attacks, both against the Israel Defense Forces and against civilians.[12] These attacks consisted of bombings, grenade attacks and kidnappings, the latter often carried out in order to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Israel.[15] The group's largest attack was the Ma'alot massacre of 1974, an attack on an Israeli school in which 27 people were killed.[16]
The DFLP, Fatah and As-Sa'iqa submitted a proposal to the PNC that classified their goals: their strategic goal was the eventual independence of Palestine from "Zionist imperialism"; while their immediate goal was to force the State of Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in order to secure self-determination for the Palestinian people in those territories. The PNC adopted a similar resolution, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and Gaza, while also refusing to recognise the State of Israel.[18] During the 1977 meeting of the PNC, the DFLP expressed support for the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on territory controlled by the PLO.[12]
First Intifada and split (1987–1993)
By the outbreak of the Southern Lebanon conflict in the mid-1980s, the DFLP stopped carrying out terrorist attacks against civilian targets and instead started conducting border raids against Israeli military positions in Southern Lebanon.[15][19] During the First Intifada, the DFLP became increasingly critical of Fatah for its continued participation in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. This caused a rise in internal tensions, as one of the DFLP's leaders Yasser Abed Rabbo expressed support for Yasser Arafat's engagement in the peace process. In 1991, Rabbo was elected as the DFLP's Secretary General and brought the organization into the peace process, causing a split within the organization.[20] Hawatmeh's faction refused to participate in the negotiations, joining with the PFLP in order to form an anti-Arafat front organization in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where they challenged Arafat for leadership of the PLO.[21] Rabbo ultimately left the DFLP in 1993, establishing the Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA) and going on to participate in the 2000 Camp David Summit.[20]
After a period of relative inactivity during the 1990s, the DFLP renewed armed attacks against the IDF during the Second Intifada.[15] They carried out a number of shooting attacks against Israeli targets, such as the 25 August 2001 attack on a military base in Gaza that killed three Israeli soldiers and wounded seven others.[23][24]
On 11 September 2001, an anonymous caller claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks in the United States on behalf of the DFLP; but the DFLP itself denied the accusations and formally condemned the attacks.[24][25] On 25 August 2007, Palestinian militants from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and DFLP attempted to enter the Israeli border town of Netiv HaAsara from Gaza. The militants used a ladder to scale the Israel-Gaza border and were killed by the Israel Defense Forces.[26]
The DFLP ran a candidate, Taysir Khalid, in the Palestinian Authority presidential election in 2005. He gained 3.35% of the vote.[30] The party had initially participated in discussions with the PFLP and the Palestinian People's Party on running a joint left-wing candidate, but these were unsuccessful.[citation needed] It did not win any seats in the 2005 PA municipal elections.[31]
The DFLP retains important influence within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[33] It was traditionally the third-largest group within the PLO, after Fatah and the PFLP, and since no new elections have been held to the PNC or the Executive Committee since 1988, the DFLP still commands important sectors within the organization. The PLO's role has admittedly diminished in later years, in favor of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but it is still the recognized representative of the Palestinian people, and a reactivation of the PLO's constitutional supremacy over the PNA in connection with power struggles in Palestinian society is a distinct possibility.[citation needed]
In February 2023, the DFLP launched a party in Lebanon for the Palestinian refugees still living there, together with the Lebanese Communist Party.[34]
Organization and leadership
The DFLP held its 5th national general congress during a time-span from February to August 2007. The congress was divided into three parallel circles: West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Palestinian exiles. The congress elected a Central Committee, with 81 full members and 21 alternate members.[citation needed]
The DFLP is primarily active among Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon, with a smaller presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its Jordan branch has been converted into a separate political party, the Jordanian Democratic People's Party (JDPP or Hashd), and the DFLP is no longer active in the political arena there.[citation needed]
^Bollens, Scott A. (2000). On Narrow Ground: Urban Policy and Ethnic Conflict in Jerusalem and Belfast. State University of New York Press. p. 366.
^Velez, Federico (2015). Latin American Revolutionaries and the Arab World: From the Suez Canal to the Arab Spring. Ashgate Publishing Limited. p. 106.
^Takriti, Abdel Razzaq (2013). Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965–1976. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN9780199674435. In the late sixties and the early seventies, Maoism was so evident in the discourse of Nayef Hawatmeh, the founder of the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP) that he was satirically dubbed Nayef Zedong.
^On 23 February 1989 three members of the DFLP were killed by the South Lebanon Army (SLA) inside the Israel's security zone in South Lebanon. (Middle East International No 345, 3 March 1989; Fourteen days in brief p.17) The killings brought the number of guerrillas killed in South Lebanon since the beginning of 1989 to thirty. (Middle East International No 346, 17 March 1989; Jim Muir p.7 also explicitly names DFLP)
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