{"id":3854,"date":"2024-01-22T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/?page_id=3854"},"modified":"2025-10-15T13:01:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:01:53","slug":"popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine-pflp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/palestinian-and-islamist-terrorist-organizations\/popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine-pflp\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"article__intro\">The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was founded in 1967 and is ideologically part of left-wing pan-Arabism. It operates politically, terroristically and militarily.    <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PFLP_Sipa-USA-Alamy-Stock-Foto.jpg\" alt=\"Masked Palestinian fighters of the PFLP\" class=\"wp-image-755\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PFLP_Sipa-USA-Alamy-Stock-Foto.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PFLP_Sipa-USA-Alamy-Stock-Foto-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PFLP_Sipa-USA-Alamy-Stock-Foto-768x450.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"image-meta\">&copy; Sipa USA  Alamy Stock Foto<\/span><\/figure><\/figcaption>\n\n<p>Its central goal is the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, which is to be replaced by a socialist Arab state.  <\/p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Volksfront_zur_Befreiung_Pal%C3%A4stinas#Terroranschl%C3%A4ge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">list of their terrorist attacks<\/a> is long. Among others, the hijacking of the <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Entf%C3%BChrung_des_Flugzeugs_%E2%80%9ELandshut%E2%80%9C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lufthansa plane Landshut<\/a> and the murder of the pilot can be attributed to them (1977).   <\/p>\n\n<p>Switzerland was also affected by the terror of the PFLP:  <\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 1969, assassins attacked an Israeli El Al airplane in Kloten ZH and killed the pilot.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 1970, the PFLP hijacks four airplanes in a coordinated operation; a fifth hijacking fails. The <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swissair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Swissair<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/British_Overseas_Airways_Corporation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BOAC<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trans_World_Airlines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TWA<\/a> planes are forced to land at the disused Dawson&#8217;s Field airfield near <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zarqa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zarqa<\/a> in Jordan. A grueling war of nerves develops over the release of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian terrorists. These included the assassins who were in prison in Switzerland for the <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Attentat_in_Kloten\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attack in Kloten<\/a> on February 18, 1969.   <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_pKlYAPjbBE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Swissair flight 330<\/a>: In February 1970, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of a Swissair Coronado on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv shortly after take-off. The plane crashed into a forest near W\u00fcrenlingen AG. All 47 occupants were killed.    <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Habasch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George Habasch<\/a>, a former doctor at the children&#8217;s hospital in Zurich who had founded the PFLP after returning home, claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. The Swiss prosecution authorities never prosecuted and convicted those responsible for the attack. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>At the beginning of 2016, NZZ journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Marcel_Gyr&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marcel Gyr<\/a>, author of the book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persoenlich.com\/medien\/das-risiko-war-enorm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Swiss Terror Years<\/a>, published the thesis that there had been contact between the PLO and the then Swiss Foreign Minister, <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pierre_Graber\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federal Councillor Pierre Graber<\/a>, after September 6, 1970. A secret standstill agreement had probably been concluded between Switzerland and the PLO.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was founded in 1967 and is ideologically part of left-wing pan-Arabism. It operates politically, terroristically and militarily. Its central goal is the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, which is to be replaced by a socialist Arab state. The list of their terrorist attacks is long. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3855,"parent":3977,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_socialbar":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[699,690],"class_list":["post-3854","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-pflp-en","tag-terrorist-organizations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3854"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5325,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3854\/revisions\/5325"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fokusisrael.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}