Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who was tried and convicted of masterminding the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001, will run at the head of the group’s list in the upcoming parliamentary election.
Sa’adat was sentenced in 2006 to 30 years in prison for heading an illegal terrorist organization and for his leading role in Ze’evi’s assassination.
Kayed al-Ghul, a member of the PFLP politburo, said that his group was close to completing the formation of its list for the election, which has been set for May 22.
The list headed by Sa’adat will soon be submitted to the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, al-Ghul said in an interview with the Palestinian Sawt al-Sha’ab radio station.
In addition to Sa’adat, the PFLP list will include a number of Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli prison, as well as personalities from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he added.
The PFLP, which rejects the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 between Israel and the PLO, participated in the Palestinian parliamentary election of 2006 as the “Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa List.”
The PFLP does not recognize Israel and favors a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sa’adat was one of three PFLP representatives who won seats in the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council. The other two were Jamil Majdalawi and Khalida Jarrar.
Earlier this month, Jarrar was sentenced by an Israeli military court to two years in prison after being convicted of having ties to a terrorist group.
Abu Ali Mustafa was the secretary-general of the PFLP from July 2000 until he was assassinated by Israel in a targeted killing in August 2001 in his office in Al-Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah.
The PFLP’s armed wing, named after Abu Ali Mustafa, claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks during the Second Intifada.
Founded in 1967 by George Habash, the PFLP is the second-largest group in the PLO after Fatah. The terrorist group was famous for pioneering aircraft hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Last month the PFLP announced its decision to participate in the parliamentary election. It clarified, however, that the decision “does not mean that the PFLP is a partner in consecrating the humiliating and disastrous Oslo Accords.”
The PFLP said that it “categorically refuses to recognize the Zionist entity,” and called on the PLO to revoke its recognition of Israel. “Our goal is to liberate all of Palestine and establish a democratic Palestinian state,” the PFLP added.
The elections for the PA parliament and presidency are held in accordance with the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement signed between the PLO and Israel. The presidential election is scheduled to take place on July 31.
The PFLP is not the only Palestinian group to participate in the elections despite its refusal to accept the Oslo Accords. Hamas and the PLO’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) are also planning to participate, although the two groups are also strongly opposed to the Oslo Accords.