Ibrahim Abu Hijleh

Ibrahim Abd al-Qader Mahmoud Abu Hijleh (ابراهيم أبو حجلة) is a member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the Politburo of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Despite currently being held in prison by Israel, he is a candidate on the ‘Democratic Change’ list — the DFLP’s electoral list contesting the May 2021 legislative elections.

In 2005 Abu Hijleh was sentenced by the Israeli Military Court in Ofer to 25 years in prison, for a number of charges including leading the National Resistance Brigades (the DFLP’s armed wing) in the West Bank and directing attacks against Israeli targets. He was released in October 2011 as part of a prisoner release deal reached with Israel in exchange for the freeing by Hamas of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He was re-arrested by Israeli forces in June 2012 for “political activities” and subsequently sentenced to a 28 years in prison.

He was previously a leader of the General Union of Students of Palestine and returned to the West Bank in 1996.