<html>
<body>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/News/aspx/news/images/LogoPrint.gif" alt="[]">
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E4F1FD5-CB24-407F-AC7C-94C4AF97E293.htm" eudora="autourl">
<font size=3>
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E4F1FD5-CB24-407F-AC7C-94C4AF97E293.htm<br>
<br>
</a>SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2008<br>
22:36 MECCA TIME, 19:36 GMT<br>
PFLP founder George Habash dies<br><br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2008/1/26/1_238958_1_5.jpg" width=309 height=206 alt="[]">
<br><br>
</font><font size=1>Habash, a paediatrician, was a popular, if<br>
controversial, Palestinian leader [EPA]<br><br>
</font><font size=3>George Habash, the Palestinian leader and a longtime
rival of Yasser Arafat, the former Palestinian president, has died in
Jordan, aged 80. <br><br>
Habash, who passed away on Saturday, founded the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which carried out the hijackings of
several aircraft in the 1970s.<br>
"He had a severe heart attack and he died instantly," Leila
Khaled, a member of the Palestine National Council and a leading member
of the PLFP, said. <br><br>
Khaled spoke by telephone from Jordan Hospital in Amman, where she said
Habash died at 8:15pm (1815GMT) on Saturday.<br>
In Damascus, Maher al-Taher, the PFLP's spokesman, confirmed Habash's
death. Habash had been living in Amman since 1992, he said.<br>
<br>
The office of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has declared a
three-day mourning period for Habash.<br>
<br>
In Gaza, Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader, said Habash "spent his
life defending Palestine".<br>
<br>
<b>Hijackings<br>
</b> <br>
Habash founded the PFLP, which promoted armed resistance, in December
1967 - six months after the war in which Israel seized east Jerusalem,
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.<br>
<br>
The group was responsible for the hijackings of four Western airliners
over the US, Europe, the Far East and the Gulf in 1970.<br>
<br>
The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after their passengers and
crews had disembarked.<br>
<br>
Born into a wealthy Christian Arab family, Habash became a refugee after
the 1948 creation of Israel.<br>
<br>
He graduated in 1951 from the American University of Beirut, going on to
become a pediatrician.<br>
<br>
He was a co-founder of Harakat Al Qawmeyon Al Arab, a pan-Arab
nationalist movement founded in 1952 that has had a profound impact on
Palestinian and Arab political thought.<br>
<br>
He later espoused Marxism and emerged as an internationally recognized
leader of the Palestinian liberation movement and the broader struggle
for political and social justice.<br>
<br>
For many Arabs, he was one of the few leaders who embodied the
Palestinian cause.<br>
<br>
His PFLP movement favoured armed struggle to establish a Palestinian
state and opposed Arafat, breaking completely with him over the signing
of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993.<br>
<br>
However, he wrote one of the most moving eulogies for Arafat.<br>
<br>
Habash resigned as secretary-general of the PFLP in 2000, citing health
reasons.<br><br>
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>