Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ahmed Jibril (born c. 1938) is the founder and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), part of the left-wing, Palestinian national liberation movement. Since its inception in 1968, the PFLP-GC has staged numerous attacks against Israeli and other targets, both military and civilian.
Early life:
Jibril was born in Yazur a town near Jaffa in Palestine, in 1938. 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 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.
Jibril's son, Jihad Ahmed Jibril, who headed the PFLP-GC's military wing and was in line to replace Jibril as leader of the group, was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on 20 May 2002
Source Achievements and Awards
Break from the PFLP:
In 1968 Jibril broke away from the PFLP because of disputes over the more revolutionary Marxism advocated by Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh. He formed the separate pro-Syrian PFLP-General Command. Jibril has not wavered in his support of Syria, and his group remains based in Damascus. 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.
Signature:
The PFLP-GC maintained cells in several European cities, which carried out anti-American or anti-Israeli operations on behalf of Syria, Libya, and Iran. Samuel Katz's Israel vs. Jibril distinguishes the PFLP-GC and Jibril's strategy from the rest of the 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-GC dwindled among Palestinians willing to make concessions to the Jewish state, who flocked to Fatah's new Palestinian Authority, and among hawks, who mainly backed Hamas and the PFLP, which was more established in the West Bank.
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.
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