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Nayef Hawatmeh
Hawatmeh in 2017
General Secretary Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Incumbent
Assumed office 1969
Personal details
Born	(1938-11-17) 17 November 1938 (age 86) Al-Salt, Emirate of Transjordan
Political party	DFLP
Other political affiliations	Arab Nationalist Movement (before 1963) National Liberation Front (Yemen) (1963-1967) Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (1968-1969)
Residence	Syria
Occupation	Political activist
Religion	Greek Catholicism

Palestinian nationalism Factions and leaders
Yassin + Haniyeh RantisiMashalSinwarDeifDeifMabhouhHabashAbbasHawatmehNakhalah
Map: Birthplaces or family origins Details below: p. parents from, b. born in, d. death.
Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Also: President of the PNA PLO political factions Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Palestinian People's Party (PPP) Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) Arab Liberation Front (ALF) Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA) Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) Palestinian Arab Front (PAF) As-Sa'iqa Related groups Palestinian National Initiative Leader Mustafa Barghouti
Fatah Founders Yasser Arafat p. Gaza City b. Cairo d. 2004 in Paris Khaled Yashruti Salah Khalaf Khalil al-Wazir Chairman Mahmoud Abbas b. Safed (President of the PA) Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub Vice Chairman Mahmoud Aloul
Fatah splinter groups Al-Mustaqbal (electoral list) Marwan Barghouti Prisoner of Israel see also: Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis Palestinian Mujahideen Movement Militant wing Mujahideen Brigades Former militant wings of Fatah Raed Al Karmi Founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades Naif Abu-Sharah Local commander in Nablus Fadi Kafisha Former head of the Tanzim in Nablus Sirhan Sirhan Zakaria Zubeidi Local commander in Jenin see also Tali Fahima Samih Madhoun d. killed by EQB Ibrahim al-Nabulsi see also: Lions' Den
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary General George Habash b. Lydda Abu Ali Mustafa Birth name: "Mustafa Ali Zabri" b. 1938 Arraba, Jenin Jenin See also: 17 October 2001 Ahmad Sa'adat Prisoners of Israel since 2006 see also: Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis Deputy Secretary General Jamil Mezher Other key figures Ghassan Kanafani Schisms and splinter groups PFLP-GC
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Split from the PFLP in 1969. Founder and current leader Nayef Hawatmeh b. 1938 As-Salt Militant wing National Resistance Brigades Spokesperson: Abu Khaled
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah b. Khan Yunis Militant wing Saraya Al-Quds
Hamas List of leaders Chairman of Hamas Shura Council (1987‑2004) Ahmed Yassin b. Al-Jura, d. 2004 Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi b. Yibna, d. 2004 Chairman of Hamas Polit Bureau Ismail Haniyeh p. Al-Jura, b. Al-Shati, d. 2024 Khaled Mashal b. Silwad Leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar p. Al‑Majal, b. Khan Yunis, d 2024 Head of International relations Basem Naim b. Beit Hanoun Police and Disaster Management Faiq Al-Mabhouh p. Bayt Tima, d. 2024 Minister for Women's Affairs Jamila al-Shanti b. Jabalia, d. 2023, m. Widow of Rantisi Militant wing Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades Leader Mohammed Deif Birth name: Mohammed Al-Masri p. Kawkaba (near Kokhav Michael) and Al‑Qubayba, b. Khan Yunis d. Failed attempt in 2014 d. Unconfirmed: 2024) Related topics Hamas government in the Gaza Strip Hamas in Lebanon All-Palestine Government in Gaza Ashkelon incorporation into Israel
Historical figures Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Namesake of the Qassam Brigades Musa Alami early Palestinian nationalist b. 1897 in Jerusalem Yaqub al-Ghusayn b. 1899 in Ramla George Antonius b. 1891 Deir al-Qamar al-Husayni family Jamal al-Husayni Musa al-Husayni
Related topics Ideologies Palestinian nationalism Islamism in the Gaza Strip Islamic nationalism § Hamas Present day Palestinian political parties Elections in Palestine Palestinian political violence Hamas government in the Gaza Strip Palestinian Legislative Council State of Palestine Occupied Palestinian Territories List of Palestinians 1967 to 1995 Palestinian fedayeen History of Hamas 1948 to 1967 All-Palestine Government Gaza Protectorate Jordanian annexation of the West Bank Palestinian National Council 1918 to 1948 Mandatory Palestine Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine Army of the Holy War Society for the Defense of Palestine Before 1918 Origin of the Palestinians
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2024)
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Nayef Hawatmeh (Arabic: نايف حواتمة, romanized: Nāyef Ḥawātmeh; Kunya: Abu an-Nuf; born 17 November 1938) is a Jordanian politician who is the head of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Biography

Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian clan and is a practicing Greek Catholic. He has been the General Secretary of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) since its formation in a 1969 split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of which he was also a founder. At the time, he was characterized as a Maoist, and was satirically referred to as "Nayef Zedong". He was active as a leader in the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), which preceded the PFLP.

He presently resides in exile in Syria, from which the DFLP receives some support.

Hawatmeh did not support Fatah's policy of non-interference in the host country’s internal affairs from 1969 and argued just before Black September that attacks against King Hussein's regime in Jordan had become inevitable. He opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords, calling them a "sell-out," but became more conciliatory in the late 1990s. In 1999 he agreed to meet with Yassir Arafat, who had signed the accords, and even shook hands with Israeli President Ezer Weizmann at the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan, drawing strong criticism from his Palestinian and Arab peers.

In 2004, he was briefly active in a joint Palestinian-Israeli non-governmental attempt to start a coalition of Palestinian groups supporting a two-state solution, and called for a cessation of hostilities in the al-Aqsa Intifada.

In 2007, Israel indicated it would allow him to travel to the West Bank for the first time since 1967, in order to participate in a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In the end, he decided not to travel to West Bank due to what he described as "Israeli conditions for his visit."

Although the DFLP’s support has waned for a period under Hawatmeh's general secretariat, there has been an increase in the credibility and support of the DFLP among Palestinians and in the eyes of other groups, particularly in Gaza. In Gaza on 21 February 2023, the 54th anniversary of the group’s founding, hundreds of supporters as well as many armed fighters marched, carried the party banner and symbols, and chanted DFLP anti-Zionist slogans.

In 2023, the DFLP, under Hawatmeh's leadership, joined the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel with their paramilitary wing, the National Resistance Brigades. The DFLP acknowledged their involvement through their party news, Al Hourriah, on 8 October. The National Resistance Brigades have since fought the IDF alongside Hamas and other allied Palestinian factions in subsequent battles of the Israel-Hamas war throughout the Gaza Strip.

See also

• Palestine Liberation Organization
• George Habash
• Jordanian Christians
• Palestinian Christians
• Palestinian political violence

Notes

1. Also variously romanized as Naif Hawatma and Nayif Hawatme

References

1. "Hawatmeh, Nayef (Abul Nouf) (1938-)". Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
2. Aji, Albert (22 February 2013). "Leader of Palestinian group injured in Syria bomb". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
3. Ivanovich, David (12 September 1984). "Christian Palestinians Share Moslems' Hopes". The Press-Courier. Oxnard-Camarillo-Port Hueneme Area.
4. "Nayif Hawatmeh: Palestinian politician". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
5. "Nayef Hawatmeh, General Secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine". Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
6. "Hawatmeh, Nayef (Abul Nouf) (1938-)". Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
7. Aji, Albert (22 February 2013). "Leader of Palestinian group injured in Syria bomb". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
8. Ivanovich, David (12 September 1984). "Christian Palestinians Share Moslems' Hopes". The Press-Courier. Oxnard-Camarillo-Port Hueneme Area.
9. Takriti, Abdel Razzaq (2013). Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965–1976. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780199674435. In the late sixties and the early seventies, Maoism was so evident in the discourse of Nayef Hawatmeh, the founder of the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP) that he was satirically dubbed Nayef Zedong.
10. Joseph Nevo (2008). "September 1970 in Jordan: A Civil War?". Civil Wars. 10 (3): 223. doi:10.1080/13698240802168056. S2CID 143923013.
11. "Death of a King; two old enemies meet and shake". The New York Times. Associated Press. 9 February 1999. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
12. הנגבי: אישור לחוואתמה רק אם הוא יובא למשפט. Haaretz (in Hebrew). 13 July 2007. Archived from the original on 6 July 2024. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
13. "'Resistance and Unity': DFLP Supporters Rally in Gaza (PHOTOS)". Palestine Chronicle. 21 February 2023. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
14. خلال بيان لها قبل قليل.. كتائب المقاومة الوطنية (قوات الشهيد عمر القاسم) الجناح العسكري للجبهة الديمقراطية. Alhourriah (in Arabic). 8 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
15. "Not only Hamas: eight factions at war with Israel in Gaza". Newsweek. 7 November 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
16. "With Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades, four other armed Palestinian factions are fighting Israel in Gaza". The New Arab. 22 May 2024.

Sources

• "Radical Palestinians bitter over Israel handshake". BBC News. 14 February 1999.
• "Arafat meets radical opponent". BBC News. 22 August 1999.
• "Key Palestinian exile may return". BBC News. 15 July 2007.
• "DFLP: Nayef Hawatmeh, General Secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine". DFLP website. 13 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
• Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (12 May 2008). "The Encyclopedia of the Arab Israeli Conflict". Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781851098422 – via Google Books.

• 1938 births
• Living people
• Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine politicians
• Jordanian Melkite Greek Catholics
• Palestine Melkite Greek Catholics
• Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members
• Jordanian Marxists
• Christian communists