The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; Arabic: الجبهة الديموقراطية لتحرير فلسطين, romanized: el-Jabha ed-Dīmūqrāṭiyya li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and Maoist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya (الجبهة الديموقراطية). It is a member organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Alliance of Palestinian Forces and the Democratic Alliance List.

The group was founded in 1969 by Nayef Hawatmeh, splitting from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It maintains a paramilitary wing, the National Resistance Brigades. The DFLP's declared goal is to "create a people's democratic Palestine, where Arabs and Jews would live without discrimination, a state without classes and national oppression, a state which allows Arabs and Jews to develop their national culture."

The DFLP is well-known for the 1974 Ma'alot massacre, in which 25 schoolchildren and teachers were killed. Although the National Resistance Brigades have fighters based in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, these fighters have been engaged in relatively few military operations since the First Intifada, until the ongoing Gaza war (2023–present) which has seen the DFLP fight alongside Hamas and other allied Palestinian factions.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was established by George Habash in 1967, in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War. The PFLP was a Marxist-Leninist, Palestinian nationalist and Pan-Arabist organization; it advocated the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a secular socialist state in Palestine. By 1968, the PFLP had joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), becoming the organization's second-largest member. The PFLP quickly developed a reputation as a violent terrorist group, launching a series of international terrorist attacks in order to draw attention to the situation in Palestine.

The Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DPFLP) was established in 1969, when ideological and personal conflicts broke out within the PFLP, resulting in it fragmenting into a number of different factions. The DPFLP were joined by other sections of the Palestinian left and became the third-largest faction in the PLO. DPFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh, a Jordanian Christian,^{[verification needed]} was characterized as a Maoist by his opponents in the PDFLP, who satirically referred to him as "Nayef Zedong". As a Marxist-Leninist organization, the DPFLP initially advocated for a proletarian revolution to overthrow the State of Israel and establish a "popular democratic state" along bi-national lines.

The DFLP developed a close relationship with the USSR in the early 1970s, resulting in funding from the Soviet Union and Soviet-allied Arab states (South Yemen, Algeria, Libya). After 1975 the DFLP received $1 million per month from Libya. The DFLP used this aid to greatly expand its military and administrative apparatus between 1978 and 1981.

During the 1970s the DPFLP carried out a number of attacks, both against the Israel Defense Forces and against civilians. These attacks consisted of bombings, grenade attacks and kidnappings, the latter often carried out in order to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Israel. The group's largest attack was the Ma'alot massacre of 1974, an attack on an Israeli school in which 27 people were killed.

Following the Yom Kippur War, the DPFLP changed its name to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and started moderating its position towards support for a two-state solution. Along with Fatah and As-Sa'iqa, the DFLP became part of the moderate faction of the PLO, which advocated for Palestinian participation in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Supported by Egypt and Syria, the moderates of the PLO together represented over 80% of the Palestinian fedayeen and occupied a majority on the Palestinian National Council (PNC).