Is the PLO Facing a Split? Abbas Dries Up Funding For PFLP

By: Baruch Yedid

For more than two years, the Palestinian National Fund, which is subordinate to the PLO, has not been transferring budgets to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, the second largest organization in the PLO.

The Fund has cited financial difficulties to justify the cessation of the payments, but the PFLP firmly claims that it is the outcome of a directive by Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas, who is putting pressure on the PFLP to cease its terrorist activities and, moreover, is taking revenge against it following the close relations between the PFLP and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

PFLP members claim that Abbas is working in coordination with Israel to stop their military activities in the context of security coordination with Israel and as a political ploy, and that he is exceeding his authority, as the Palestinian National Fund’s money is “the entire Palestinian people’s money.”

The PFLP is also demanding its share of the funds due to the fact that it is the second-largest organization in the PLO after Fatah, and has been joined by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including Islamic Jihad and other armed factions, in its demand to get its budget from the PLO.

In recent years, the PFLP has boycotted the PLO Executive Committee meetings led by Abbas and relations between the parties have deteriorated even further as the PFLP began to support Hamas’ positions and oppose Abbas.

In the Gaza Strip, the PFLP is considered to be one of the pillars of the terrorists’ joint operation room.

Fatah officials believe that the PFLP may soon announce its resignation from the PLO, and various sources indicate that Fatah Central Committee officials do not share Abbas’ policy against the PFLP.

Last year, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) exposed an extensive PFLP infrastructure in the Ramallah area, which was behind the murder of the Rina Shnerb at the Dani spring in August and the wounding of her brother and father.

Following the attack, the Palestinian Authority has also made extensive arrests among PFLP student cells, while the PFLP accused the PA of providing intelligence assistance to Israel that brought to the exposure of the terrorist cell and to the arrest of Khaleda Jarrar, one of the leaders.

                (TPS)