Editing Palestinian Liberation Front (section)

===Origins===
The PLF was founded by Ahmad Jibril in 1959 and enjoyed strong support from Syria. In 1967, the PLF joined forces with two other groups, the ‘Heroes of the Return’, linked to the Arab nationalist movement (abtal al-awda) and the group ‘’‘The Youth of the Years’‘’ to form the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFLP) in November 1967. In this context, the PLF was described as a ‘’Syrian puppet‘’. The PFLP was said to have emerged from an Egyptian-sponsored programme designed to weaken other Arab governments and thereby strengthen the reputation of Egyptian President Nasser.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRXaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|page=53 |first=Peggy |last=Klein |title=Der Konflikt zwischen Juden und Arabern als Etablierten-Außenseiter-Beziehung |date=25 November 1999 |publisher=Diplom.de |isbn=978-3-8324-1918-9 |language=de}}</ref>

The PFLP was led by former Arab-nationalist movement leader [[George Habash]], but in April 1968 Ahmad Jibril split from this group to form the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]] (PFLP-GC), which returned to the strongly pro-Syrian position of the earlier PLF.

Ultimately, this led to the re-emergence of the PLF after the organisation had broken up when Jibril's PFLP-GC followed Syria into the fight against the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) during the Lebanese Civil War. Open fighting broke out between the rival factions, and relations only stabilised after mediation by Yasser Arafat. On 24 April 1977, the new PLF was formed under the leadership of Muhammad Zaidan, aka [[Muhammad Zaidan|Abu Abbas]], and Tal'at Ya'akub. Sporadic fighting between the PFLP-GC and the PLF continued, and a bomb attack on the PLF headquarters in August 1977 killed about 200 people.

In November 1977, the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hilarion Capucci, was released from Israeli custody after three years. He was imprisoned for three years for arms smuggling for the [[Fatah]]. He also made propaganda for the PLF. The Vatican worked for his pardon.<ref>{{cite web |title=Begnadigung: Hilarion Capucci |website=Der Spiegel |issue=47 |date=14 November 1977 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219103817/https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-40764131.html |url=https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-40764131.html |archive-date=19 February 2016}}</ref>