George Habash, a Palestinian nationalist and politician, known by the honorific “Al-Hakim” (the wise one), was the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Regarded as one of the pillars of the Palestinian resistance during the 1960s and 1970s, Habash passed away in Jordan in 2008, where he was also laid to rest. The Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, made multiple assassination attempts on his life and even went as far as attempting to hijack two airplanes under the incorrect assumption that Habash was on board. However, all attempts to capture or eliminate him were unsuccessful.
Early Life and Education
Born on August 2, 1926, in the city of Lydda, west of Jerusalem, to a well-off family of Greek Orthodox who were engaged in agriculture and commerce, Habash left Palestine during the 1948 war. His father, Nicola Habash, was a well-known merchant, and his mother, Tuffaha, gave birth to seven children: George, Rizq, Fawteen, Eileen, Angel, Najah, and Salwa. George Habash married his cousin Hilda Habash, and they had two daughters, Maisa and Lama.
A photo of George Habash in Amman with the military leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Getty Images-Archive).
Habash completed his primary education in Lydda before moving to nearby Jaffa, where he continued his secondary education at the “National Orthodox School” and then at the French Cultural Center in Jerusalem, earning a high school diploma. In 1944, he enrolled at the American University of Beirut to study medicine, graduating in 1951 with a specialty in pediatrics.
Political Experience
During his university years in Beirut, Habash’s political interests blossomed, especially with the accelerating events in Palestine and the issuance of the United Nations Resolution 181 in November 1947, which called for the partition of Palestine. In 1949, he was elected as the general secretary of the “Al-Urwa al-Wuthqa” society, which brought together students from across the Arab countries united by the dream of Arab nationalism. After the 1948 Nakba and the fall of Palestinian positions to the occupying Israeli forces, Habash decided to suspend his medical studies in June of the same year to volunteer at a clinic in his hometown of Lydda, assisting the doctor in charge of treating the wounded and sick.
Returning to Beirut in October 1948 to complete his medical training, Habash moved to Amman’s capital in 1952, where he began organizing protests against Arab regimes that supported Western colonial powers. This led to persecution by the Jordanian security authorities, forcing him to move to Damascus in 1954.
In 1956, at a conference held in the Jordanian capital Amman, Habash announced the establishment of the Arab Nationalist Movement, which adopted the motto “Unity, Liberation, Revenge” as its fundamental slogan for the liberation of Palestine. After the fall of the Egyptian monarchy by the hands of the Free Officers and Gamal Abdel Nasser’s adoption of the idea of Arab unity, Habash found a resonance with Nasser’s views, reaching its peak during the Egyptian-Syrian union between 1958 and 1961. The 1961 separation, however, led to Habash being hunted down and subjected to assassination attempts by the Egyptians and Syrians, and even by the nationalist Ba’athists who took power in Syria in March 1963, compelling him to secretly move to Beirut in 1964 to continue his struggle.
Following the 1948 Nakba and the 1963 schism, Habash conducted an ideological review of the movement he led, leaning towards embracing Marxist-Leninist thought. In December 1967, he announced the establishment of a new organization named “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” Replacing the “Arab Nationalist Movement,” the PFLP declared its goal was the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle. In 1968, the Syrian authorities arrested Habash, accusing him of establishing armed cells, and he was imprisoned for 10 months.
Habash clandestinely moved to Jordan in 1969 to join the resistance, which had started to concentrate within guerilla bases after the defeat of the regular armies in 1967. The subsequent years saw an escalation of guerilla operations against the Israeli occupation forces. The PFLP also adopted the tactic of hijacking Israeli and Western airlines’ planes—without harming passengers—as a means to draw global attention to the events of the 1948 and 1967 Nakbas and place the plight of the Palestinian people on the agendas of the Western capitals that support Israel and international forums.
The escalation of guerilla operations and the violent Israeli reactions eventually led to armed confrontation between some Palestinian factions and Jordanian security and military forces on Jordanian territory until late 1971, resulting in the expulsion of Palestinian fighters and their leadership to Lebanon. In 1972, Habash suffered a heart attack that nearly claimed his life, followed by a severe brain hemorrhage in 1980, which he overcame with his remarkable willpower. During these tumultuous years, the Israeli intelligence service assassinated the PFLP’s spokesperson, Ghassan Kanafani, in 1972, and Habash’s comrade, Dr. Wadie Haddad, through chemical poisoning in 1978, both events profoundly affecting “Al-Hakim.”
In 1972, the PFLP announced its abandonment of the hijacking tactic to focus on the game of alliances and balances among the Lebanese political forces, which were divided into two major factions—one supporting and the other opposing guerrilla action against Israel. Following Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel in 1979 and the 1982 invasion and siege of Beirut, Palestinian factions and leadership, embodied by Yasser Arafat, had to leave Lebanon for Tunisia. However, George Habash chose not to follow Arafat to Tunisia, instead opting to move to Syria.
In 1992, after his health deteriorated, Habash went to France with the French government’s consent. His treatment visit turned political when thousands of Israel supporters gathered outside the hospital demanding his arrest. Under pressure from the Zionist lobby, French authorities leaned towards detaining him on terrorism charges, were it not for the intervention of some Arab states, particularly Algeria, which sent a presidential plane to transport him out of the country.
Habash moved from Amman to Damascus, where he stayed until his resignation from the secretariat of the PFLP in 2000.
Career and Responsibilities
In 1941, Habash returned to Jaffa and worked as a teacher for two years when he was just 16. He worked as a pediatrician in the Jordanian capital Amman and Palestinian refugee camps until 1957. In 1951, he joined the American University of Beirut as a research assistant in histology.
Publications
Habash’s list of publications includes “The Joint Command as a Guarantee of Unity of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Its National Line” (1983), “The Crisis of the Palestinian Revolution: Roots and Solutions” (1985), “Towards a Deeper and More Accurate Understanding of the Zionist Entity” (1988), “Current Challenges and Future Horizons” (1993), “The Palestinian Struggle Experience” (an extensive dialogue with Habash conducted by Mahmoud Sweid) (1998), “From Inside Israel” (2002), and “Revolutionaries Never Die” (2009), which is a dialogue with French journalist George Malbrunot.
Death
George Habash was hospitalized in the Jordanian capital in January 2008 due to declining health, and on January 26, he suffered a heart attack that led to his death. Approximately two thousand mourners laid him to rest in the Sahab Cemetery in Amman.
