CORA

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The DFLP was formed in 1969 with an estimated membership of 500. Its headquarters were initially in Syria, but their present whereabouts are unknown. The DFLP receives financial and military aid from Syria and Libya, and operates in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the occupied territories. Its leader is Naif Hawatmeh, who is assisted to a great extent by Yasser Abed Rabbu, Qais Samarral (Abu Leila), and Abd-al-Karim Hammad (Abu Adnan).

In mid-1979, the DFLP reportedly experienced an upsurge in its membership and an corresponding increase in influence. Although it remained a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the DFLP cooperated increasingly with anti-Arafat Palestinian extremists. The DFLP strongly disapproved of the PLO Leadership's failure to take more severe action against Anwar Sadat after his peace initiative.

Furthermore, the DFLP signed the Tripoli declaration in 1983, rejecting the Reagan and Fez peace plans and contact with the Israelis.  In addition, the DFLP did not support the Fatah rebels in 1983 or 1984, believing that their movement was damaging to the Palestine cause. The organization also opposed the agreement between Yasir Arafat and King Hussein that called for a joint PLO-Jordanian position for peace negotiations with Israel.

The DFLP refused to join the Syrian created Palestine National Salvation Front, but the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) did, leading to the breakup of the Democratic Alliance between the DFLP and PFLP.

In early 1980s the organization occupied political stance midway between Arafat and the rejectionists. It split into two factions in 1991, one pro-Arafat and another more hard-line faction headed by Nayif Hawatmeh (which has suspended participation in the PLO).

Prior to the rift following the March 1987 Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers, Syria had provided most of the DFLP's outside support, in addition to the training received by the organization in the Soviet Union and Cuba. The DFLP is also in contact with members of the Nicaraguan Sandinista Liberation Front.  The organization opposes the Declaration of Principles (DOP) signed in 1993.

DFLP operations have always taken place either inside Israel or the West Bank and Gaza. Typical acts include minor bombings and grenade attacks, as well as spectacular operations to seize hostages and attempts to negotiate the return of Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners.

In the 1970s, the organization carried out numerous small bombings and minor assaults and some more spectacular operations in Israel and the occupied territories, concentrating on Israeli targets. Since 1988, the organization has only been involved in border raids, but continues to oppose the Israel-PLO peace agreement.
 

The DFLP's political and ideological objectives are:

• revolutionary change in the Arab world, especially in the conservative monarchies, as a precursor to the achievement of Palestinian objectives.

• The placing of the Palestinian struggle on the international agenda within a general world context of liberation in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

• resistance to US policy in the region, including American support for the nonaligned bloc.

• solidarity with all national liberation movements that fight against imperialism and racism.

Selected Incident Chronology:

May 1974
Took over schoolhouse and massacred Israeli school children in Ma'alot. They managed the infiltration using uniforms resembling those of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The attack resulted in 27 dead and 134 wounded.

November 1974
Attacked the town of Bet Shean in Israel. Three terrorists barricaded themselves in a building with handgrenades and Kalashnikov AK 47 rifles and demanded the release of 15 Palestinians.

July 1977
Implicated in several bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

January 1979
Attempted to seize 230 civilians at a guest house in Ma'alot. The three terrorists, armed with Kalashnikov and handgrenades, were killed by a routine IDF patrol.

March 1979
Claimed responsibility for planting bombs in Israeli buses to protest President Carter's visit to Israel.

March 1982
Claimed responsibility for a grenade attack in the Gaza Strip that killed an Israeli soldier and wounded three others.

February 1984
Claimed responsibility for a grenade explosion in Jerusalem that wounded 21 people.

September 1985
Attacked an Israeli bus near Hebron on the West Bank.

March 1986
Several guerrillas wearing IDF uniforms attempted to infiltrate from Lebanon into Israel but were intercepted by an Israeli patrol.

May 1988
Threw a molotov cocktail at Industry and Trade Minister Ariel Sharon's car. The incident resulted in the Israeli Security forces' discovery of severalt DFLP squads.
 

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