George Habash, the founder of the terrorist group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) died in Jordan at the age of 80, al-Jazeera reports.
Habash’s group was notorious for the hijackings of several aircraft in the 1970s, which were subsequently blown up for added media impact. As one writer for the Economist noted after these jarring attacks, terrorism “succeeded in making ‘Palestinian’ an international household word.” The Terrorism Knowledge Base has a full profile on the PFLP’s history here.
Unfortunately, terrorism continues to define the Palestinian people. it is not their achievements but their violence that continues to make headlines even four decades after Habash’s group first emerged. Where are the Palestinian proponents of nonviolence?