Who are we?
Background
Political Strategy
Personalities (coming soon)

Who are we?
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a political party that is founded on a progressive vision of the common good. The PFLP's vision for creating a more just society, free from all forms of exploitation, is guided by the following:

a. Marxist interpretation and dialectical materialism in its understanding and analysis of social reality;
b. Progressive and democratic values in the culture, civilization, and heritage of the Palestinian people and the Arab Nation
c. Progressive and democratic values in world civilizations

The PFLP is a political party working toward regaining the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people (the right to self-determination, the right to a sovereign Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, the right of refugees to return). Regaining these rights is a first step in establishing a democratic state on the land of historic Palestine where all peoples can live as equal citizens, entitled to basic human rights, regardless of race, religion, color, or sex.

The PFLP is convinced that a democratic, pluralist, non-sexist society that guarantees the full protection of the rights of all people is the desired wish of the vast majority of the Palestinian people.

The PFLP believes that the major obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the Israeli occupation -- its ideology and its practices (political, economic, military-security) -- which are the means used to deny the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.


Background
The roots of the PFLP go back to the Arab National Movement (ANM), a political movement established after the 1948 Palestinian nakbe (catastrophe). It was founded as a response to the defeat of the Arab regimes in the war with Israel which led to the loss of Palestine. The ANM, originally set up at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, quickly spread throughout the Arab World. Dr. George Habash became the general secretary of the Movement.

Before the defeat of June 1967, there was a strong alliance between the ANM and Gamal Abdul-Nasser in Egypt. Similar views on the Arab revolution in general, and the liberation of Palestine in particular, as well as tactics used to achieve these goals, were held by both the ANM and Abdul-Nasser, though differences of opinion existed on less substantive issues. After the defeat of 1967, the ANM reached the conclusion that the program of Nasser had failed, due to its inability to realize any of the aims of the Arab revolution, namely, freedom, unity, socialism, and the liberation of Palestine. Contributing factors in this situation were the failure to unify Egypt and Syria, as well as the fact that local ANM groups in individual countries were preoccupied by their own national agendas.

This reality led to the desire on the part of the ANM to work toward constructing a new arena within which to address Arab national issues, with different leadership and a revised political program.

Consequently, in 1967, the Palestinian branch of the ANM established the PFLP. Dr. George Habash was elected its first general secretary and Abu Ali Mustafa, the deputy general secretary. Since that time, the PFLP has conducted six national conferences, the first in August 1967, and the last in July