Nayef Hawatmeh
Hawatmeh in 2017
Personal details
Born (1938-11-17) 17 November 1938
Al-Salt, Emirate of Transjordan
Political partyDFLP
Other political
affiliations		Arab Nationalist Movement (before 1963)
National Liberation Front (Yemen) (1963-1967)
Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (1968-1969)
ResidenceSyria
OccupationPolitical activist
Religionpracticing Greek Catholic
Hawatmeh (right) with Yasser Arafat and Kamal Nasser at press conference in Amman prior to Black September.

Nayef Hawatmeh[lower-alpha 1] (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.[1][2]

Biography

Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian clan and is a practicing Greek Catholic.[3][4][5] 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. 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.[6] 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.[7]

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."[8]

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.[9]

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.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Also variously romanized as Naif Hawatma and Nayif Hawatme

References

  1. ↑ "Nayif Hawatmeh | Palestinian politician". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  2. ↑ "Nayef Hawatmeh, General Secretary of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine". www.dflp-palestine.net. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Hawatmeh, Nayef (Abul Nouf) (1938-)". Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs. Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  4. ↑ "Leader of Palestinian group injured in Syria bomb". The Seattle Times. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Ivanovich, David (12 September 1984). "Christian Palestinians Share Moslems' Hopes". The Press-Courier. Oxnard-Camarillo-Port Hueneme Area.
  6. ↑ Joseph Nevo (2008). "September 1970 in Jordan: A Civil War?". Civil Wars. 10 (3): 223. doi:10.1080/13698240802168056. S2CID 143923013.
  7. ↑ "Death of a King; two old enemies meet and shake". The New York Times. 9 February 1999. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  8. ↑ "הנגבי: אישור לחוואתמה רק אם הוא יובא למשפט". Haaretz. 13 July 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  9. ↑ "'Resistance and Unity': DFLP Supporters Rally in Gaza (PHOTOS)". Palestine Chronicle. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "خلال بيان لها قبل قليل.. كتائب المقاومة الوطنية (قوات الشهيد عمر القاسم) الجناح العسكري للجبهة الديمقراطية". Alhourriah. 8 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.

Sources

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