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{{Infobox War Faction
| name = Alliance of Palestinian Forces تحالف القوى الفلسطينية
| image =
| leaders = {{flagicon image|Flag of Hamas.svg}} [[Ahmed Yassin]] {{flagicon image|Flag of Hamas.svg}} [[Khaled Mashal]] {{flagicon image|Flag of Hamas.svg}} [[Ismail Haniyeh]] {{flagicon image|PFLP Infobox Flag.svg}} [[George Habash]] {{flagicon image|Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Flag.svg|size=22px}} [[Nayef Hawatmeh]] {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Islamic_Jihad_Movement_in_Palestine.svg}} [[Fathi Shaqaqi]] {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Islamic_Jihad_Movement_in_Palestine.svg}} [[Ramadan Shalah]] {{flagicon image|PFLP-GC Flag.svg}} [[Ahmed Jibril]]
| active = Since 1993
| clans = {{flagicon image|Flag of Hamas.svg}} [[Hamas]] {{flagicon image|PFLP Infobox Flag.svg}} [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (until 1998) {{flagicon image|Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Flag.svg|size=22px}} [[Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (until 1998) {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Islamic_Jihad_Movement_in_Palestine.svg}} [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]] {{flagicon image|PFLP-GC Flag.svg}} [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]] {{flagicon image|Flag of the Ba'ath Party.svg}} [[as-Sa'iqa]] {{flagicon image|Fatah Flag.svg}} [[Fatah al-Intifada]] [[Palestinian Liberation Front (Abu Nidal Ashqar wing)|Palestinian Liberation Front]] [[Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (1991)|Palestinian Popular Struggle Front]] [[Revolutionary Palestinian Communist Party]]
| headquarters = [[Damascus]]
| size =
| allies = {{flag|Syria}}
| opponents = {{flag|Israel}} {{flagicon image|Fatah Flag.svg}} [[Fatah]]
| war =
| identification_symbol_label =
| identification_symbol =
|ideology = [[Anti-Zionism]] [[Palestinian nationalism]]
| predecessor = [[Rejectionist Front]] (non-official)
| areas =
}}

The '''Alliance of Palestinian Forces''' ({{lang-ar|تحالف القوى الفلسطينية}}, abbreviated '''APF''') is a loose [[Damascus]]-based alliance of eight [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] political factions.<ref>''Al-Mustaqbal''. [http://www.almustaqbal.com/stories.aspx?storyid=144897 ملف السلاح الفلسطيني يعيد طرح مشروع "المرجعية الموحدة" خارطة القوى الفلسطينية في لبنان وتوزعاتها الميدانية والسياسية]{{Dead link|date=June 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Alliance was created in [[Damascus]] in December 1993 by ten Palestinian factions opposed to the negotiations that led up to the [[Oslo Accords]].<ref name="StrindbergWärn2011">{{cite book|author1=Anders Strindberg|author2=Mats Wärn|title=Islamism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZZF-Y9dmyEC&pg=PA91|date=7 November 2011|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-4061-7|page=91}}</ref><ref name="Cubert2014">{{cite book|author=Harold M. Cubert|title=The PFLP's Changing Role in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MHa3AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|date=3 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-22022-8|pages=87, 91}}</ref> Amongst the ten founding members all but [[Hamas]] were headquartered in Damascus.<ref name="st" /> Eight of the founding members were previously members of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO), the other two being Hamas and [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine|Palestinian Islamic Jihad]]. Two factions left the Alliance in 1998.

The Alliance calls for the liberation of all Palestinian lands.<ref name="StrindbergWärn2011"/><ref name="Cubert2014"/> It has sometimes been referred to as the ''''Damascus 10''''.<ref name="Scheller2014">{{cite book|author=Bente Scheller|title=The Wisdom of Syria's Waiting Game: Foreign Policy Under the Assads|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEheBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA54|date=2 January 2014|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-84904-501-8|page=54}}</ref><ref name="Milton-Edwards1999">{{cite book|author=Beverley Milton-Edwards|title=Islamic Politics in Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicpoliticsi00beve|url-access=registration|date=10 December 1999|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-475-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamicpoliticsi00beve/page/162 162]}}</ref> The [[Islamism|Islamist]] Hamas, [[Fatah]]'s main political rival, did not participate in the [[1996 Palestinian general election]], taking the position that doing so would lend legitimacy to the [[Palestinian National Authority]] (PNA), which was created out of what they called unacceptable negotiations and compromises with [[Israel]]. Hamas also boycotted the [[2005 Palestinian presidential election]], but fielded candidates at the [[2006 Palestinian legislative election]], winning 74 of the 128 seats in the [[Palestinian Legislative Council]], and subsequently forming government.

==Formation==
The idea of a new rejectionist Palestinian coalition emerged with the [[Madrid Conference of 1991|Madrid Israeli-Palestinian talks in 1991]].<ref name="ab"/> In the process of building the new coalition, there had been disagreements between different factions on how it would function. Hamas had proposed a mechanism where the central command of the coalition would have 40 members, out of whom 40% would belong to Hamas, 40% would belong to other factions and the remaining 20% would be 'independents'. The Hamas proposal was rejected by several of the other factions. In the view of the [[Secularism|secular]] factions, Hamas tried to replicate the experience of the [[Fatah]] dominance in PLO. In the end the factions agreed in December 1993 to form the Alliance of Palestinian Forces with each faction, regardless of size, would have two seats in the APF central command.<ref name="Ḥarūb2000">{{cite book|author=Khālid Ḥarūb|title=Hamas: Political Thought and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFp-AAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=978-0-88728-275-1|pages=121–122}}</ref>

The founding platform of APF was based on the [[Palestinian National Covenant|1968 PLO Covenant]] and the [[PLO's Ten Point Program|1974 PLO Program of Stages]].<ref name="InbarMaddy-Weitzman2013">{{cite book|author1=Efraim Inbar|author2=Bruce Maddy-Weitzman|title=Religious Radicalism in the Greater Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CaYh0CVcoh8C&pg=PA119|date=11 January 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-31214-4|pages=119–120}}</ref>

The first press conference of the new body was held at the PFLP-GC office in the [[Yarmouk Camp]].<ref name="ab"/> The APF's first declaration denounced the [[Oslo I Accord|Declaration of Principles]] signed by [[Yasser Arafat]] and [[Yitzhak Rabin]].<ref name="Ḥarūb2000"/> The coalition stated that the PLO no longer represented the Palestinian people and that the Oslo Accords were non-binding for the Palestinians.<ref name="StrindbergWärn2011"/><ref name="Cubert2014"/><ref name="Ḥarūb2000"/>

==Members==
The ten founding members of APF were:
*[[Hamas]]
*[[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFLP)
*[[Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (DFLP)
*[[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]], better known in [[Western world|the West]] as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
*[[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command]] (PFLP-GC)
*[[as-Sa'iqa]]
*[[Fatah al-Intifada]]
*[[Palestinian Liberation Front (Abu Nidal Ashqar wing)|Palestinian Liberation Front]] (PLF, Abu Nidal Ashqar faction)
*[[Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (1991)|Palestinian Popular Struggle Front]] (PPSF, [[Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid]] faction)
*[[Revolutionary Palestinian Communist Party]] (RPCP).<ref name="dk">Udlændinge Styrelsen. ''[https://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/49070685-2BBE-4F15-91CA-874E238B2581/0/Syria281002.pdf Report on fact-finding mission to Syria and Lebanon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193110/https://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/49070685-2BBE-4F15-91CA-874E238B2581/0/Syria281002.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}''</ref><ref name="ab">''Al-Bayan''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071122232833/http://www.albayan.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=Article&cid=1164201518878&pagename=Albayan%2FArticle%2FFullDetail حركة فتح المجلس الثوري تتخذ الاغتيالات وسيلة لترجمة مواقفها السياسية]</ref><ref>''Gulf News''. ''[http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/palestine/homeless-and-neglected-1.656765 Homeless and neglected]''</ref>

The two main secular factions, the PFLP and the DFLP, left the Alliance in 1998 as a result of their willingness to engage in dialogue with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.<ref name="ab"/>

==Split==
The APF contained nationalist, [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] and Islamist currents, with widely different ideological objectives.<ref name="dk"/> Whilst the notion of armed struggle was a central concept in APF discourse, the Alliance failed to develop any strategic coordination of armed actions.<ref name="st">Strindberg, Anders. ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2676456 The Damascus-Based Alliance of Palestinian Forces: A Primer]'', in ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', Vol. 29, No. 3 (Spring, 2000), pp. 60–76. University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies</ref> The PFLP and DFLP split away from APF in 1998.<ref name="ab"/> In July 1999, [[Syria]]n government authorities issued an instruction to the Damascus-based factions to end armed actions, a move which meant that the idea of APF as a coordination of armed struggle was abandoned.<ref name="st"/> Thus, by the time of the outbreak of the [[Al-Aqsa Intifada|Second Intifada]], the APF had been a largely marginalized structure.<ref name="ab"/>

==Lebanon Popular Committees==
In [[Lebanon]], the APF runs Popular Committees, parallel to the Popular Committees of the PLO.<ref name="ck">Civil Society Knowledge Center. ''[http://cskc.daleel-madani.org/paper/between-radicalization-and-mediation-processes-political-mapping-palestinian-refugee-camps Between Radicalization and Mediation Processes: a Political Mapping of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222121543/http://cskc.daleel-madani.org/paper/between-radicalization-and-mediation-processes-political-mapping-palestinian-refugee-camps |date=2015-12-22 }}''</ref><ref name="ak">''Al-Akhbar''. ''[http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/3360 Fatah Envoy to Centralize Authority Among Palestinian Factions in Lebanon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222074958/http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/3360 |date=2015-12-22 }}''</ref> The Alliance of Palestinian Forces was able to achieve significant influence in [[Palestinian refugee camps]] during the period of [[Syrian occupation of Lebanon|Syrian military presence in Lebanon]] (which ended in 2005).<ref name="ck"/> Afterwards, there have been moves for reconciliation and coordination between the PLO and the APF in Lebanon.<ref name="ak"/>

==See also==
*[[Rejectionist Front]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://www.tahaaluf.com APF website]

[[Category:1993 establishments in Syria]]
[[Category:Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]
[[Category:Hamas]]
[[Category:Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine]]
[[Category:Muslim Brotherhood]]
[[Category:Organizations associated with the Ba'ath Party]]
[[Category:Palestinian militant groups]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1993]]
[[Category:Political party alliances in the Palestinian territories]]
[[Category:Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]

Alliance of Palestinian Forces - Revision history

UpdateBot at 05:09, 10 June 2022