Ahmed Jibril

Background

Jibril was born in Yazur a town near Jaffa in Mandatory Palestine, in 1938.

Career

During the Syrian Civil War, Jibril was a notable supporter of the Assad government and PFLP-Government College members helped government forces to fight the Syrian opposition. However, after clashes with rebels in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, the PFLP-Government College suffered defections and was forced to withdraw from the camp, and Jibril fled the city. His family moved to Syria, where he was raised, and where he served in the army from 1956 until 1958, rising to the rank of captain before being expelled as a suspected Communist.

He formed a new organization, the pro-Syrian PFLP-General Command.

Jibril never wavered from his belief that Palestine could only be liberated through military attrition. He joined Habash and other splinter groups which opposed negotiations with the Israeli government.

He launched a variety of inventive attacks, including the "Night of the Gliders" on 25 November 1987. Samuel Katz"s Israel versus

Jibril distinguishes the PFLP-Government College and Jibril"s strategy from the rest of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) by its emphasis on military training and equipment, and not on declarations and publicity stunts.

This caused the group to fail to make a significant mark on the public debate. Since 1994"s Oslo Accords, support for the PFLP-Government College dwindled among Palestinians. On 7 May 2001, the Israeli Navy seized a Palestinian boat filled with heavy weapons in the port of Haifa.

Jibril is believed to have been behind the shipment of weapons, which were bound for the Gaza Strip.

During the Syrian Civil War, the PFLP-Government College helped the Syrian Army to fight the Syrian rebels in and around Yarmouk Camp – a district of Damascus that is home to the biggest community of Palestinian refugees in Syria. Jibril fled Damascus, reportedly for the Mediterranean city of Tartous.

Palestinian left-wing groups—including the PFLP—berated Jibril and the PFLP-Government College. One PFLP official said that Jibril "does not even belong to the Palestinian Left. He is closer to the extremist right-wing groups than to revolutionary leftist ones".

On 18 December, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) denounced Jibril, saying it would expel him over his role in the conflict.

Achievements

• By 17 December the rebels, which included Palestinians, had won control of Yarmouk.

Politics

He founded the Palestinian Liberation Front in 1959, then joined George Habash to found the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1967, an armed movement that combined Arab nationalism with leftist ideology. In 1968 Jibril broke away from the PFLP because of disputes over the more revolutionary Marxism advocated by Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh.

Membership

Several members of the PFLP-Government College"s central committee opposed this alliance with the government and resigned in protest.