By Taghreed Saadeh
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decision to hold new elections for the Palestinian National Council before the end of 2025, recognizing it as the supreme authority representing the Palestinian people wherever they reside. While these elections represent an opportunity to strengthen national unity and modernize the structures of Palestinian political work, they also carry clear challenges, especially for factions with differing political visions, foremost among them the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
This decision comes within the framework of restoring national legitimacy and renewing political representation of factions, with the requirement that members commit to the program of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and international legitimacy resolutions.
Since 1988, the PLO has officially committed by consensus of its factions to the program of a state on the 1967 borders as an internationally recognized political solution. This historic event was declared then by the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Algeria, alongside the PFLP Secretary-General George Habash.
The Popular Front was established in 1967 and carried the slogan of liberating Palestine from the river to the sea. In 1988, it accepted the two-state solution.
However, its eighth conference held in 2022 witnessed a reversal of this legacy, with ideological and organizational shifts leading to ambiguity regarding its stance on the two-state solution.
In its new program, the PFLP reaffirmed the slogan “liberate Palestine from the river to the sea,” but omitted the historic reference to a “democratic state where Arabs and Jews live.” Moreover, there was no clear position on the two-state solution, making the Front’s stance more contradictory to the PLO’s program.
The latest PFLP conference, which saw the departure of the first generation of leaders such as Abu Ahmed Fouad and Leila Khaled, was regarded by many observers as a break from George Habash’s school of strict ideological rigor and adherence to the Marxist-Leninist structure, opening the door to a more flexible or pragmatic approach, but also more ambiguous in defining final goals.
These transformations place the PFLP in a clear political dilemma, especially with the membership condition in the upcoming National Council linking commitment to the PLO program, which clearly endorses the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.
To remain within the organization and continue its political role as it has long been considered the second largest faction after Fatah, the PFLP may be compelled to review its internal system and political program, and re-adopt a clear vision compatible with the PLO program while preserving its revolutionary slogans.
However, if the PFLP insists on its current position rejecting the two-state solution and clinging to the full liberation slogan without compromise, it risks being marginalized or even exiting the PLO, which would impact its political role within the Palestinian national body.
The upcoming Palestinian National Council elections are not merely an administrative procedure but a genuine test of the unity of the Palestinian political system, especially for factions with diverse ideological positions. The Popular Front, which has always been a voice of revolutionary leftism, now faces a historic test, either rebuilding itself according to the vision of its founder George Habash, or falling into ambiguous positions that may lead to losing its place within the PLO and perhaps Palestinian politics in general.
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