Muhammad Zaidan | |
---|---|
Born |
Muhammad Zaidan 10 December 1948 Yarmouk Camp |
Died | 8 March 2004 ? (Iraq) |
(aged 55)
Resting place | Damascus, Syria |
Other names | Abū-‘Abbās or Muhammad ‘Abbās |
Known for | Founder and Leader of Palestine Liberation Front |
Muhammad Zaidan (10 December 1948 – 8 March 2004) also known as Abu Abbas /ˈɑːbuː əˈbɑːs/ AH-boo uh-BAHSS (Arabic: أبو العباس Abū ʿAbbās pronunciation ) or Muhammad Abbas, was (with Tal'at Ya'qoub) the founder and a leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) Organization.
Zaidan was born in 1948 in Safed, Palestine, though other sources state that he was born in a Syrian refugee camp.
He studied at the Damascus University where he joined the radical, pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) under Ahmed Jibril in 1968. In 1977, major disagreements arose between the PFLP-GC, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and other Palestinian factions based in Lebanon. Zaidan, who opposed Syrian involvement in the Lebanese war, left the PFLP-GC and created the PLF with Talaat Yaacoub, which eventually split into three separate factions (and then later re-merged). Zaydan's faction of the PLF, which was the largest of the three, moved its headquarters to Tunisia.