Disagreements in the Palestinian leadership have started affecting the factions within the ruling Palestinian Liberation Organization. Tensions between PLO’s leading faction, Fatah, and especially President Mahmoud Abbas, and the second-largest PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are now in the open.
The PFLP, a left-wing movement, has for years been a thorn in the side of Fatah, both under late PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Abbas. However, the two factions have tolerated each other and shared common ground — until now.
Following the recent tensions, Abbas has ordered the suspension of the movement's monthly stipend, due to its leaders' much harsher than usual anti-Abbas positions. In response, anti-Abbas demonstrations were held April 12 by PFLP supporters in the Gaza Strip, during which the photo of the Palestinian president was burned.
The conflict between Abbas and the PFLP is a result of a series of decisions and statements by Abbas, which included the Palestinian participation in the funeral of a senior Israeli civil administration official March 25 and an interview on Israel TV that was seen as an appeasement to the Israelis. On Feb. 26, there was the mysterious death of Omar Nayef Zayed, a PFLP operative who died inside the Palestinian Embassy in Bulgaria.
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