Bassam Abu Sharif (Arabic: بسام أبو شريف; born August 9, 1946 in Jerusalem) is a former senior adviser to Yasser Arafat[1] and leading cadre of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

A Marxist and an admirer of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara, Abu Sharif, then a member of the PFLP, was dubbed the "face of terror" by Time magazine for his role in the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, when the PFLP hijacked Pan Am, Swissair, and TWA flights and blew them up in the Jordanian desert, triggering King Hussein's expulsion of the PLO from Jordan, which became known as Black September.

[6] Within the PFLP, he gradually began to favour a reduced emphasis on armed struggle and closer cooperation with Fatah, the dominant PLO faction.

After drawing closer to Fatah leader Yasser Arafat and meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he was expelled from the PFLP in 1987.

[3] After leaving the PFLP in 1987, in a non-partisan role, he became a senior adviser to Yasser Arafat[3] and was able to float some peace proposals based on a two-state solution and preparing Palestinians for the compromises made in Oslo.