Prominent Palestinian figure George Habash dies of heart attack

Amman, Jordan: George Habash, a longtime rival of Yasser Arafat who led the PLO's second-largest faction which pioneered airliner hijackings, died Saturday in Jordan. He was 81.

"He had a severe heart attack and he died instantly," said Leila Khaled, a member of the Palestine National Council and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Habash founded. Khaled spoke by telephone from Jordan Hospital in Amman, where she said Habash died at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.

The PFLP's spokesman in Damascus, Maher Al Taher, also confirmed Habash's death. The former leader had been living in Amman since 1992, Al Taher said.

Habash, born to a Christian Arab family, was the leader of the more radical wing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and opposed Arab-Israeli peace talks. His group was the second-largest in the PLO after Fatah, the faction of Arafat and current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

On hearing of Habash's death late Saturday, Abbas declared three-day mourning period and ordered flags to fly at half-mast. He called Habash a 'historic leader' and said he would receive condolences at his office Sunday evening.

"The death of this historic leader is a great loss for the Palestinian cause and for the Palestinian people for whom he fought for 60 years," Abbas said in a statement.

Habash believed in promoting the Palestinian cause through attacks in the 1970s - including the hijacking of an Air France airliner to Entebbe, Uganda.

In 1970, the PFLP hijacked four Western airliners over the United States, Europe, the Far East and the Gulf.

The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after passengers and crews disembarked.
Habash, an American-educated physician, launched the Popular Front in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights to Israel.

Habash opposed the interim peace agreements with Israel, in part because they did not require Israel to stop colony building. Throughout his life, he supported the use of violence against Israel, arguing that Israel would not make the concessions required for a peace agreement.

However, since the early 1980s, he came to support the PLO platform, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories and a "right of return" of Palestinian refugees.

Habash frequently criticized the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, particular during his attempts to negotiate with Israel.

Factbox

- He was born on April 22, 1927 in the town of Lydda in what was then British-ruled Palestine and is now part of Israel. The town is known in Israel as Lod.

- He was in medical school at the American University of Beirut when fighting broke out over the creation of Israel in 1948, transforming his wealthy Christian family and hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians into refugees.

- He founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1968. He opposed peace deals with Israel and firmly believed there could be no peace in the Middle East unless Israel is destroyed.

- Habash was a Marxist guerrilla leader who was called a terrorist by Israel and hailed by Palestinians as a patriot.

- He stepped down as leader of the group in 2000, handing over to Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed by Israel in 2001 during a Palestinian uprising.

- In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the PFLP carried out airline hijackings and kidnappings to highlight the Palestinian struggle. In September 1970, the PFLP hijacked and destroyed three Western airliners simultaneously, leading Jordan's King Hussain to crack down on the guerrillas.

- Habash - often called The Doctor out of respect - and other leaders of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), then moved to Beirut where he lived until Israel's 1982 invasion to root out the Palestinians. He then moved to Syria.