Founded 1967 (1967) | ||
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National affiliation | ||
The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, occasionally abbr. PSF), (Arabic: جبهة النضال الشعبي الفلسطيني, Jabhet Al-Nedal Al-Sha'abi Al-Falestini), is a Palestinian political party. The group was led by Dr. Samir Ghawshah until his death in 2009. Despite holding a seat in the executive council in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), PPSF is generally considered to have a limited influence over Palestinian politics.
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Initial history
The PPSF was founded as the Palestinian Popular Struggle Organization (PPSO) in the West Bank in 1967 by Bahjat Abu Gharbiyah, a former ba'athist, following a split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It had close ties to Fatah, and in 1971 it officially became a Fatah-affiliated organization. It fell out with the Yasir Arafat leadership in Fatah in 1973, and left the organization to act independently. In 1974 it took a further step, leaving the PLO to become a founding member of the Rejectionist Front, in protest of the increasingly moderate politics of Arafat.
In the 1970s the PPSF hijacked airplanes, and also attacked civilian Israeli passengers in Athens Airport in 1969.
Initially close to Egypt after its break with Fatah, it eventually slipped into decline. In 1982 it was revived jointly by Syria and Libya, in an attempt to bolster hardliner and anti-Arafat forces in the PLO (Syria was simultaneously fighting the PLO in Lebanon).
Members of the PPSF were mentioned as possible suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing, believed to have been orchestrated by the Libyan regime, but Samir Ghawshah denied the charges.
Reconciliation with PLO and PNA politics
In 1991 was allowed to rejoin the PLO after accepting United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 and the concept of negotiations with Israel. Ghawshah gained a seat on the PLO executive committee. The PPSF was however divided into two, the main group led by Ghawshah which accepted the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid's parallel PPSF opposing it from exile in Damascus, Syria.
PPSF took part in the 1996 Palestinian legislative elections with 12 candidates. Together they got 0.76% of the national vote.
It took part in the 2006 Palestine elections under the label "Freedom and Social Justice", but failed to win a seat. In total their list got 7 127 votes (0.72%).
Front organizations
The PPSF maintains five front organizations; the Workers Struggle Bloc, Palestinian Struggle Youth Union, Students Struggle Bloc, Women's Struggle Bloc and Teachers Struggle Bloc.
PPSF publishes Sawt an-Nidhal (Voice of the Struggle).