Palestine Liberation Organization - Membership

Membership

The PLO has no central decision-making or mechanism that enables it to directly control its factions, but they are supposed to follow the PLO charter and Executive Committee decisions. Membership has fluctuated, and some organizations have left the PLO or suspended membership during times of political turbulence, but most often these groups eventually rejoined the organization. Not all PLO activists are members of one of the factions – for example, many PNC delegates are elected as independents.

Present members include:

• Fatah – Largest faction, Left-wing Nationalism, Palestinian nationalist.
• The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – Second largest, radically far-left militant and communist
• The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – Third largest, communist
• The Palestinian People's Party (PPP) – Ex-communist, Social Democratic, non-militant
• The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF, Abu Abbas faction) – Minor left-wing faction
• The Arab Liberation Front (ALF) – Minor faction, aligned to the Iraqi Ba'ath Party
• As-Sa'iqa – Syrian-controlled Ba'athist faction
• The Palestine Democratic Union (Fida) – Minor democratic socialist, 2 state solution, non militant faction
• The Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, Samir Ghawsha faction) – minor socialist faction
• The Palestinian Arab Front (PAF) – minor pro-Fatah, former Iraqi Ba'athists faction

Former member groups of the PLO include:

• The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC)