Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations
The PFLP – External Operations was Wadie Haddad's cell responsible for a wave of international hijackings and attacks in the 1970s, including the Entebbe hijacking. Through 2015 the opening said the group's international attacks "were regarded as terrorism, and were not sanctioned by" the PFLP, and referred to "the political fallout of Haddad's spectacular terrorist operations." Today the opening says only that the attacks "were not sanctioned by" the PFLP, and terror appears zero times in the opening though it survives once in the article. A reader today learns the PFLP did not sanction the attacks, and not that they were regarded as terrorism.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “terror” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1.
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The opening as it read in 2010
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) or Special Operations (PFLP-SO) or Special Operations Group (PFLP-SOG) were organizational names used by Palestinian radical Wadie Haddad when engaging in international attacks, that were regarded as terrorism , and were not sanctioned by the PFLP.1A leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from its inception, Haddad had been banned from organizing attacks on non- Israeli targets after his role in the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, which were widely seen as having provoked the Black September crackdown on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jordan . However, Haddad defied the ban by claiming to carry out his attacks in the name of a PFLP-EO faction, although he remained part of the PFLP. To support him, he solicited the help of non-PFLP organizations such as the Abu Nidal Organization and the West German Red Army Faction (RAF); he also employed his PFLP protegé, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("The Jackal"). It is unclear to what extent the PFLP-EO formed a faction in the real sense of the word, within the Palestinian nationalist movement. It may simply have been a faction or trend within the PFLP, or possibly a name tag used to shield the PFLP from the political fallout of Haddad's spectacular terrorist operations. As discontent grew with Haddad's rogue tactics, and the mainstream PLO pressured the PFLP to cease its international operations, Haddad's position became increasingly precarious. After the botched Entebbe Operation in 1976, when Israel gained worldwide sympathy after rescuing more than one hundred airline passengers held by Haddad's PFLP (or PFLP-EO) men and members of the RAF in Uganda , the PFLP leadership responded by expelling him from the organization. Wadie Haddad died in 1979 few years later, first reported from leukaemia and later from possible poisoning by the Mossad .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 322696429.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) or Special Operations (PFLP-SO) or Special Operations Group (PFLP-SOG) were organizational names used by Palestinian radical Wadie Haddad when engaging in international attacks, that were regarded as terrorism , and were not sanctioned by the PFLP. A leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from its inception, Haddad had been banned from organizing attacks on non- Israeli targets after his role in the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, which were widely seen as having provoked the Black September crackdown on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jordan . However, Haddad defied the ban by claiming to carry out his attacks in the name of a PFLP-EO faction, although he remained part of the PFLP. To support him, he solicited the help of non-PFLP organizations such as the Abu Nidal Organization and the West German Red Army Faction (RAF); he also employed his PFLP protégé, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("The Jackal"). It is unclear to what extent the PFLP-EO formed a faction in the real sense of the word, within the Palestinian nationalist movement. It may simply have been a faction or trend within the PFLP, or possibly a name tag used to shield the PFLP from the political fallout of Haddad's spectacular terrorist operations. As discontent grew with Haddad's rogue tactics, and the mainstream PLO pressured the PFLP to cease its international operations, Haddad's position became increasingly precarious. After the botched Entebbe Operation in 1976, when Israel gained worldwide sympathy after rescuing more than one hundred airline passengers held by Haddad's PFLP (or PFLP-EO) men and members of the RAF in Uganda , the PFLP leadership responded by expelling him from the organization. Wadie Haddad died in 1978, first reported from leukaemia and later from possible poisoning by the Mossad .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 649888682.
The opening as it stood in 2020 8 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) ( ) or Special Operations (PFLP-SO) ( ) or Special Operations Group (PFLP-SOG) ( ) were organizational names used by Palestinian radical Wadie Haddad when engaging in international attacks, and were not sanctioned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 959718543.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Wadie Haddad's terrorist organization The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO; ) or Special Operations (PFLP-SO; العمليات الخاصة ) or Special Operations Group (PFLP-SOG; مجموعة العمليات الخاصة ) were organizational names used by Palestinian radical Wadie Haddad when engaging in international attacks, which were not sanctioned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1152380039.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Wadie Haddad's militant organization The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations ( PFLP-EO ; Arabic : الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين - العمليات الخارجية ) or Special Operations ( PFLP-SO ; العمليات الخاصة ) or Special Operations Group ( PFLP-SOG ; مجموعة العمليات الخاصة ) were organizational names used by Palestinian radical Wadie Haddad when engaging in international attacks, which were not sanctioned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1289693737. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“terror” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
terror
3
3
0
1
0
militant
0
0
0
0
1
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
