GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) celebrated its 46th anniversary on Dec. 7 in one of Gaza City’s largest arenas, where, in an unprecedented move in the history of Palestinian factions, it announced that members of its old-guard leadership were relinquishing their posts to give new generations the opportunity to assume leadership roles. According to a statement released by the PFLP that day, this decision was taken “so that democracy may be safeguarded and renewal guaranteed, thus ensuring that the Front and the revolution be maintained and protected from aging, calcification and bureaucracy.”

This move surprised some politicians and even embarrassed others. Yet, it raised a number of questions pertaining to its effectiveness in infusing new blood into the largest leftist Palestinian organization, which reigned supreme among populist Palestinian organizations during the 1970s.

Despite the PFLP’s announcement, some of its leaders, with whom Al-Monitor met, attributed the Front’s decline in the post-1970s years to factors other than the aging of its leadership. They noted that management changes would not include all older leaders, but a group of them located in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and abroad.

Sources inside the PFLP, who wished to remain anonymous, explained to Al-Monitor that the organization’s Rules of Procedure required that the tenure of its politburo members not exceed two terms of five years each, or a total of 10 years. This time limit was surpassed because of the three-year delay in convening the organization’s seventh General Assembly, as a result of the instability in Syria where its leadership abroad resides, in addition to internal Palestinian divisions.