George Habash (Arabic: جورج حبش, romanized: Jūrj Ḥabash; 1 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian politician and physician who founded the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

[5] Political thinkers who were influences on Habash at this period included Constantin Zureiq, whose lectures at AUB on 'Arab nationalism and the Zionist danger' in the late 1940s and early 1950s Habash had attended, and Sati' al-Husri an Arab Muslim intellectual who emphasized national cohesiveness, territorial patriotism, and loyalty to the state, and gave priority to Arab unity over Islamic unity.

[9] In 1951, after graduating first in his class from medical school, Habash worked in refugee camps in Jordan and ran a clinic with Wadie Haddad in Amman.

Its pan-Arab leanings have been diminished since the ANM days, but popular support for a united Arab front has remained, especially in regard to Israeli and western political pressures.

During Habash's time as secretary-general, the PFLP became known as one of the most radical and militant Palestinian factions and gained world notoriety after a string of aircraft hijackings and attacks against Israel affiliated companies as well as Israeli ambassadors in Europe mostly planned by Haddad.

The PFLP's pioneering of modern international terror operations brought the group, and the Palestinian issue, onto newspaper front pages worldwide, but it also provoked intense criticism from other parts of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In 1974, the Palestinian National Council adopted a resolution recognizing a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict[citation needed] and Habash, who opposed this, formed the Rejectionist Front from several other opposition parties.

After the Oslo Agreements, Habash formed another opposition alliance of Rejectionists, including Islamist organizations such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, that became prominent during the First Intifada.

The PFLP ignored tensions with the mainstream leadership of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and instead focused on bringing about revolutionary change in Jordan.

The aircraft were forced to fly to a World War II airfield in Jordan, the passengers and crews were disembarked and the planes were then blown up.

The Palestinian National Council's (PNC) adoption of a resolution viewed by the PFLP as a two-state solution in 1974, prompted Habash to lead his organization out of active participation in the PLO and to join the Iraqi-backed Rejectionist Front.

Only in 1977 would the PFLP opt to rejoin, as the Palestinian factions rallied their forces in opposition to Anwar Sadat's overtures towards Israel, pro-U.S. policies and fragmentation of the Arab world.

This balancing act could not save the PFLP from being eclipsed by the militant Islamist factions on the one hand, and the resource-rich Fatah with its PNA patronage network on the other.

Abdel Raheem Mallouh, PFLP deputy secretary-general, called Habash a "distinguished leader... who struggled for more than 60 years without a stop for the rights and the interests of his people".

[10] Hamas leader and dismissed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sent his condolences, saying Habash "spent his life defending Palestine".