The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid faction is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

political faction formed and led by Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid. The group emerged in 1991 as a split from the

Palestinian Popular Struggle Front The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, occasionally abbr. PSF) (Arabic: جبهة النضال الشعبي الفلسطيني, ''Jabhet Al-Nedal Al-Sha'abi Al-Falestini'') is a Palestinian political party. Samir Ghawshah was elected secr ...

, whose name it continued to use. ‘Abd al-Majid rejected the decision of the mainstream PPSF leader Samir Ghawshah to rejoin the PLO and to accept the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

and the formation of the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

. The PPSF, ‘Abd al-Majid faction has been based 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 ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, and plays a negligible role in mainstream Palestinian politics, and is often seen as controlled by the Syrian government. The group is outside the

PLO 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. ...

, but participates in the

Palestinian National and Islamic Forces The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces () is a coalition formed shortly after the outbreak of the second Intifada with the authorization of Yasser Arafat and led by Marwan Barghouti. The coalition coordinates the agenda of its members and h ...

and the Damascus-based Alliance of Palestinian Forces. The group formed an armed wing, the Palestinian Popular Jihad Brigades, in the

Gaza strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

in July 2008. In October 2008, the group declared itself part of an alliance with the Nasser Brigades and the Palestinian Freedom Movement. It has taken part in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Syrian government, fighting against the

Syrian opposition Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

in the Siege of Eastern Ghouta, the Battle of Yarmouk Camp (2015), the Southern Damascus offensive (April–May 2018), and other battles. After the

fall of the Assad regime On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, major offensive by Syrian opposition, opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported mainly by the Turk ...

in late 2024, the Syrian transitional government demanded that all Palestinian armed groups in Syria disarm themselves, dissolve their military formations, and instead focus on political and charitable work.

References

External links

Website of PPSF (al-Majid faction)
{{Palestinian political parties 1991 establishments in Syria Anti-Israeli sentiment in Palestine Offshoots of the Arab Nationalist Movement Former factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization Palestinian militant groups Palestinian nationalist parties Palestinian political parties Political parties established in 1991 Pro-Assad factions of the Syrian civil war Socialist parties in Palestine