Israel / Palestine: Nayef Hawatmeh (1938 - ), General Secretary of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)

Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian tribe and a Greek Catholic Christian background. He has been General Secretary of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) since its formation in a 1969 split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of which he was also a founder. He was active as a left-wing leader in the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), which preceded the PFLP.

Hawatmeh opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords, but became more conciliatory in the late 1990s. In 1999 he agreed to meet with Yassir Arafat and even shook hands with the Israeli President, Ezer Weizmann, at the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan.

In 2007 Israel indicated it would allow him to travel to the West Bank for the first time since 1967, in order to participate in a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

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