And in June 1976, Habash's chief lieutenant, Wadia Haddad, directed the hijacking of a French A-300 Airbus to Entebbe, Uganda, with the aid of a transnational terrorist force. Four civilians were killed in a dramatic rescue operation undertaken by Israeli commandos, who killed all seven gunmen and about 30 Ugandan soldiers.
Some later reports said that Haddad had broken with Habash before Entebbe, but Habash remained opposed to Arafat's attempts to reach accommodation with Israel and the West.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 49 words Type of Material: Correction
Habash obituary: The obituary of George Habash, the founder of Arab nationalism, in Sunday's California section referred to Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock as Islam's holiest shrine. In fact, Islam's holiest site is considered to be the Kaaba, which is near the center of the great mosque in Mecca.
Habash was infuriated by Arafat's public renunciation of terrorism in 1988 and his recognition of United Nations Resolution 242, which implied Israel's right to exist.
And he rejected Arafat's 1993 interim agreement with Israel that created an autonomous Palestinian government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He refused to move there, claiming that Arafat was deluding Palestinians by making them think full independence was around the corner.
Palestinians, he said, must accept the idea that they might have to fight for the rest of their lives, to simply outlast the Israelis, so that their children might call Palestine home; and they must continuously remind the world that their demands are unchanged and unchangeable.
"I believe that 6 million Palestinians, if they say we want only self- determination, they will get it," he told The Times in a 1991 interview. "Imagine. Six million saying daily, daily, daily, 'We want self-determination, we want self-determination.' And expressing this by all means. I see it very clearly, that we will succeed. Why not?"
Partially paralyzed by a stroke in 1979, Habash could walk only with the aid of a cane and increasingly was confined to his well-guarded office in Syria, with its pictures of Palestine and a woven tapestry of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, Islam's holiest shrine.
He suffered a second stroke in 1992 and moved to Jordan later that year. In 2000, he stepped down as PFLP general secretary.
Habash's wife, Hilda, and two daughters were at his bedside when he died.
Palestinians divided over how to deal with Israel joined in praising Habash on Saturday. Abbas, who took over Arafat's efforts to negotiate Palestinian statehood, declared a three-day mourning period.
A senior Hamas official in Damascus, Mohammad Nazzal, called Habash's death a "huge loss."
"We had our ideological differences, but Dr. Habash shared Hamas' opposition to the peace deals the PLO signed with the Jewish state as a sellout of Palestinian rights," Nazzal said.
Leila Khaled, a longtime PFLP activist, said Habash was likely to be buried in Jordan.
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kim.murphy@latimes.com
Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
