The first leader of ALF was its secretary-general, Zeid Heidar. Heidar was born in Syria in the 1930s into a family of Arab nationalists. In 1956 he joined the Ba'ath Party in Syria. In 1968 he went to Iraq after the coup and was a part of the Ba'ath Party in Iraq. In 1969, he was appointed by the government of Iraq secretary-general of the Ba'ath Party in Palestine, the ALF. In June 1969 the ALF became a member of the newly formed PLO, a device for Iraq to be able to influence the PLO and the events in Palestine. In 1974, the ALF joined the Rejectionist Front, initially strongly backed by Iraq, which was formed by hard-line Palestinian factions which rejected what they perceived as the increasing moderation of the PLO.