Famous PFLP dominates history

Hijacking commercial planes was perhaps the most effective tool used by most freedom fighters who wanted to voice their concerns and demands, according to analysts of that period.

The first hijacking of a commercial airliner probably happened on July 16, 1948, when a failed attempt to gain control of a Cathay Pacific plane caused it to crash into the sea off Macao(China).

This technique, however, was taken to a new level by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) whose hijackers struck fear in the heart of Airline Companies worldwide during the 1970s.

PFLP's ancestor movement, the Arab National Movement (ANM), was founded at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1948 as a reaction to the 1948 Nakba, the first Arab defeat facing the Israelis.

The movement was later dismantled in 1967 giving way for the formation of its successor group, the PFLP, which joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella organization formed of several factions whose aim was the liberation of Palestine.

The PFLP defines itself as a progressive vanguard organization of the Palestinian working class dedicated to liberating historic Palestine and establishing a democratic socialist Palestinian state.

Retaining most of its ancestor ANM's principles, the PFLP mixed Palestinian nationalism with Marxist ideology.

It conceived the eradication of Israel as a key element in the ultimate goal of eliminating regimes tied to Western capitalism in the Middle East and bringing about a world-wide communist revolution.

The recourse to use guerrilla warfare operations against the enemies of the Palestinian revolution prompted several objections among militants who believed that such activity would give the Palestinian revolution and the PFLP a bad image in the West.

Famous historian Arnold Toynbee remarked on this controversial issue by saying that victim of oppression, in this case the Palestinians, have nothing to lose except their lives. Therefore, Toynbee added, Palestinians were willing to take the lives of their enemies collectively and at "a reasonable price." This threat would eventually make the world reconsider the injustice committed against the Palestinian people.

The PFLP possessed a vast network of contacts with "Western freedom fighters" whom they employed in their guerrilla operations.

The famous operation of the Israeli Lod Airport in 1972 in occupied Palestine was the result of cooperation between the PFLP and the successful Japanese Red Army.

During that operation, the Japanese Red Army's Kozo Okomoto was captured, detained and tortured in Israeli prisons. Okomoto was later released and took a refuge in Lebanon where, under pressure from the Japanese government, was arrested and jailed. Okomoto was later released and given the first political refugee status in Lebanon where he now resides.

The first PFLP hijacking of a plane was carried out on July 22, 1968 when the Palestinian group boarded an Israeli El-Al flight scheduled to travel from Rome to Tel Aviv and forced it to land in Algeria. The operation stirred negotiations between hijackers and their enemies and captures the attention of the world community.

The mastermind behind PFLP's operations was Doctor Wadih Haddad, also known as Wadih Haddad M.D., who was able to assemble a crack team of individuals who were trained to carry such delicate operations.

For their part, the Israelis repeatedly tried to assassinate this mysterious doctor but to no avail. The closest Israeli call was at Entebbe in Uganda when an Israeli rescue team freed passengers of the hijacked Air France's 139 Flight.

During the "rescue" operation, Yoni Netanyahu, brother of the former Israeli Prime Minister and now Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was fatally shot by a sniper. Haddad later recruited and trained one of the most skilled fighters, Jackal who was also known to Western intelligence agencies as Carlos.

Haddad discovered Carlos while the latter was sleeping in a trench in the Lebanese mountains fighting with the PFLP during the Lebanese civil war.

The most remarkable PFLP operation came in the summer of 1970 when three planes were hijacked and redirected to the Jordanian desert where they landed at Dawson Airfield or al-Thawra (Revolution) Airport.

The PFLP released all the hostages except 40 Israelis who they considered as enemies. They then issued a 72-hour warning for the release of seven militants detained by three countries that owned the three different air carriers namely England, France and Israel. The detained militant whom the PFLP demanded to be liberated included Leila Khaled who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport after a thwarted attempt to hijack an El Al jet on Sep. 6, 1970.

Before 72 hours elapsed, the PFLP blew up the three planes as an evidence of seriousness. After a long process of negotiations the PFLP succeeded in securing the release of their comrades.

Although the operation was a success, some analysts believe that the PFLP and the PLO had later to pay dearly for insulting the late King Hussein of Jordan who waged a campaign against Palestinian militias. The war that was known as clashes of Black September resulted in evicting Palestinian fighters and their leadership from Jordan and their relocation to Lebanon which became the base of their anti-Israeli military operations.

Several decades after its first liberation activity, the PFLP was still a staunch opponent of any peace deal with the Israeli. This stance prompted the American State Department to put the group on its list of terrorism.

Being on the American list of terrorism did not deter the PFLP from its anti-Israeli activity. The PFLP's war with Israel made the Zionist state assassinate in 2001, PFLP's secretary-general Abou Ali Mustafa.

For its part, the PFLP retaliated as usual in an effective day when during that same year it killed the radical Israeli Minister of Tourism Rahbaam Zeevi who was famous for his ideology preaching for Palestinian transfer and further racist segregation.