People's Democracy

COMRADE Abu Ali Mustafa, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was assassinated on August 27 by the Israeli armed forces. A helicopter gunship fired missiles at his office in Ramallah town in the West Bank, killing him while he was sitting at his desk.

The PFLP is the second biggest organisation in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). The Al Fatah, which is headed by Yasar Arafat, is the biggest.

The PFLP had opposed the Oslo accord signed in 1993 by the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships, as an unequal treaty that deprived the Palestinians of their basic rights. This decision split the PLO. In 1999, efforts were made to re-establish unity after talks in Cairo.

It was decided in the PLO that the 450 members of the Palestinian National Council should return to the occupied territories. Abu Ali Mustafa entered the West Bank in November 1999 as part of this decision.

He took over the secretary general’s post after the founder of the PFLP, George Habash, retired.

Mustafa is the senior most political leader targeted by the Israelis in their assassination programme.

This killing by the Sharon regime has evoked strong indignation among the Palestinian people and from the progressive press around the world.