Mustafa Ali Zabri (; 14 May 1938 – 27 August 2001), better known by his kunya Abu Ali Mustafa (; ) and also known as Mustafa Alhaj, was a Palestinian militant who served as the General Secretary of the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

(PFLP) from July 2000 until he was assassinated by

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i forces in a

targeted killing Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments Extrajudicial killing, outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield. Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention wit ...

on 27 August 2001. Mustafa was succeeded as Secretary General by Ahmad Saadat, and the PFLP subsequently renamed their armed wing in the

Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

the

Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades The Brigades of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa () are the armed wing of the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). It was named after Mustafa ...

Biography

Mustafa Zabri was born in 1938, in the northern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

town of Arrabah, the son of a farmer. In 1955 he joined the

Arab Nationalist Movement The Arab Nationalist Movement (, ''Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab''), also known as the Movement of Arab Nationalists and the Harakiyyin, was a pan-Arab nationalist organization influential in much of the Arab world, particularly within the Pales ...

(ANM), and two years later was arrested by the

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian authorities for his political activities. On his release in 1961, he took charge of the ANM's military operations in the northern West Bank. Following the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

' capture of the West Bank in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, he left the West Bank and spent 32 years mainly in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and Jordan. Mustafa joined

George Habash George Habash (1 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian politician and physician who was the founder and first general-secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from 1967 to 2000. Habash was born in Ly ...

and other

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

members of the ANM in establishing the Marxist–Leninist

in 1967, and became a leading member of the new organization. He was also a prominent member of the

Palestine Liberation Organisation The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

, rising to become a member of its ruling Executive Committee. He was for a long time deputy to Habash's leadership of the PFLP. In September 1999 he returned to the West Bank under a deal struck between

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

and Israel's Prime Minister,

Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( ; born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party between 1997 and 20 ...

. In July 2000 he was elected as the new general secretary of the PFLP after Habash retired. The PFLP is designated a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

organization by

and many western states. Israel held Mustafa personally responsible for 10 different

car-bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

attacks undertaken by the PFLP during his time as general secretary (in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Or Yehuda Or Yehuda () is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel. Located in the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area, in it had a population of . History Prehistory Human settlement back to the Chalcolithic has been found on the site.Yehud Yehud may refer to: * Yehud, the Levantine province of the Neo-Babylonian Empire * Yehud Medinata, the Levantine province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire * Yehud, the modern-day Israeli city See also *Yahud (disambiguation) *Yehudi (disambiguatio ...

, and

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

) and other shootings.

Assassination

Mustafa was killed by two rockets fired from two Israeli

Apache helicopter The Hughes/McDonnell Douglas/Boeing AH-64 Apache ( ) is an American twin-turboshaft attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear and a tandem cockpit for a crew of two. Nose-mounted sensors help acquire targets and provide night vis ...

s through his two office windows, as he sat at his desk in his office in

Al-Bireh Al-Bireh, al-Birah, or el-Bira (; also known historically as Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria, Mahomeria Major, Birra, or Beirothah) is a city in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Gove ...

city, in a

on 27 August 2001. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

said, "Marching in the Ramallah funeral procession were the leaders of Palestinian factions that have been riven by rivalries in the past". The mourners included ministers from

's Cabinet, other members of the Palestinian legislature, and high-ranking representatives of radical groups including

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

and Islamic Jihad. In an interview with

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

shortly before his death, Mustafa repeated his belief that the Palestinian people have the right to struggle using all means, including the

armed struggle War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organiz ...

. Asked about the risk of targeted killing at Israeli hands he said: "We all are targeted as soon as we begin to be mobilised. We do our best to avoid their guns, but we are living under the brutal Zionist occupation of our lands, and its army is only a few metres away from us. Of course we must be cautious, but we have work to do, and nothing will stop us." He also rejected anything less than Israel's "destruction", saying "we do not make deals or truces with Israel." Israeli tourist minister

Rehavam Ze'evi Rehavam Ze'evi ( ; 20 June 192617 October 2001) was an Israeli general and politician who founded the far-right nationalist Moledet party. He mainly advocated for complete cleansing of the Palestinian population through population transfer. ...

, leader of the far-right nationalist

Moledet Moledet () was a minor right-wing to far-right political party in Israel. History Moledet was established by Rehavam Ze'evi in 1988. It won two seats in the Knesset elections later that year, taken by Ze'evi and Yair Sprinzak. It joined Yi ...

party, was subsequently assassinated on 17 October 2001 by PFLP member

Hamdi Quran Hamdi Quran is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was one of a four-man PFLP team who, on 17 October 2001 assassinated Rehavam Ze'evi, the founder of the right-wing Moledet party, who mainly advocated for "p ...

in revenge for Israel's killing of Mustafa's. Ze'evi had been a strong supporter of Israel carrying out targeted killing of

Palestinian militant Palestinian fedayeen () are militants or guerrillas of a nationalist orientation from among the Palestinian people. Most Palestinians consider the fedayeen to be freedom fighters, while most Israelis consider them to be terrorists. Consider ...

s. He and his party also supported the

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...

of the

Occupied Palestinian Territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupi ...

, by under the

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

population transfer Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration that is often imposed by a state policy or international authority. Such mass migrations are most frequently spurred on the basis of ethnicity or religion, but they also occur d ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mustafa, Ali Abu 1938 births 2001 deaths 2001 murders in Palestine People from Arraba, Jenin Anti-revisionists Assassinated Palestinian politicians Palestinian Arab nationalists Members of the Palestinian Central Council Palestinian casualties in the Second Intifada Palestinian militants Palestinian murder victims Palestinian nationalists Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members Palestinian people imprisoned by Jordan One-state solution Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Deaths by Israeli airstrikes Politicians assassinated in 2001 Deaths by explosive device People of the Second Intifada