Abu Nidal Organization internal executions
Executions within the Abu Nidal Organization
The Abu Nidal Organization internal executions were the mass executions of members of the Abu Nidal Organization and their families by Abu Nidal and key associates during 1987–1988. The executions took place at a number of locations in Syria, Lebanon and Libya. The number of people executed – mostly Palestinians – is estimated between 150 and 600.
Executions within the organization
The Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)'s official newspaper Filastin al-Thawra regularly carried stories announcing the execution of traitors within the movement. Each new recruit of the ANO was given several days to write his entire life story by hand – including names and addresses of family members, friends, and lovers – and was then required to sign a paper agreeing to his execution if anything was found to be untrue. Every so often, the recruit would be asked to rewrite the whole story. Any discrepancies were taken as evidence that he was a spy and he would be made to write it out again, often after days of being beaten and nights spent forced to sleep standing up.
1987 events
By 1987, Abu Nidal had turned the full force of his paranoia and terror tactics inwards on the ANO itself. Members were routinely tortured by the "Committee for Revolutionary Justice" until they confessed to betrayal and disloyalty. Men would be hanged naked for hours and whipped until they lost consciousness, then revived with salt or chili powder rubbed into their wounds.
“Abu Nidal Organization internal executions” enters the record as executions within the Abu Nidal Organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nidal, Organization and internal can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4670295. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 1988.
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