Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

538 • POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINEitself in extraneous politics or revolutionary movements, by contrastthe PFLP has carried out joint operations with revolutionary leftistterrorist groups in Europe and elsewhere, among them the JapaneseRed Army, the Red Army Faction, the Revolutionary Cells, andthe Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Due to its own commitment to a secularArab nationalism, the PFLP has eschewed support for Islamic fundamentalistmovements generally and disowned any identificationof the Palestinian struggle with notions of a religious jihad. With theascendance of Palestinian groups having an Islamic fundamentalistagenda, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine, the PFLP hasbecome increasingly a more marginal force among the Palestinianfactions. In the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, the PFLP wononly 4.2 percent of the vote and three of the 132 seats of the PalestinianLegislative Council.The PFLP opposed al Fatah for the latter’s increasing emphasison diplomacy rather than armed struggle and also opposed al Fatah’swillingness to settle for a “mini-state” in Gaza and the West Bankrather than the whole of the former Mandate of Palestine. In 1974the PFLP established the Rejection Front to oppose PLO participationin any negotiated settlement. The PFLP-General Command,the Arab Liberation Front, the Palestine Liberation Front, andthe Popular Struggle Front all joined this opposition group. Oppositionto the Camp David Accords drew these groups back closerto al Fatah, and the PFLP rejoined the PLO Executive Committeein 1981 after having boycotted it. Upset over an al Fatah–sponsoredaccommodation reached between the PLO and King Hussein of Jordanin 1985, the PFLP set up the National Salvation Front (NSF),composed of other groups opposed to al Fatah’s diplomatic approach.The PFLP broke ranks with the NSF, however, to rejoin the mainstreamPLO at the 18th Palestine National Council meeting in Algiersin 1987. The PFLP finally acceded to al Fatah’s diplomatic approachand renunciation of terrorism outside Israel and territories occupiedby Israel at the 19th Palestine National Council meeting held on12–15 November 1988 in Algiers.From 1968 until 2006 the PFLP engaged in at least 131 major actions,including 90 bombings, one of them a bombing of an airplanein flight; 12 hijackings and one failed attempted hijacking; 16 armedattacks, including one maritime rocket attack and a dinghy landingattempt scuttled by the Israeli navy; six kidnapping or hostage situa-