Abdel Wael Zwaiter

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Wael Zuaiter (Arabic: وائل زعيتر) was a Palestinian translator and the first target of Israel's Operation Wrath of God campaign following the 1972 Munich massacre.

Zuaiter was born in Nablus in the mid-1930s as son of Adel Zu`aiter[1]. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad. Zuaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome, where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy. In addition to his native Arabic, Zuaiter spoke French, Italian, and English. During his time in Italy Zuaiter translated One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian.

Zuaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich. When he returned to his apartment building on the night of October 16, 1972, he was shot 11 times by two Israeli agents, killing him.

At the time Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad, deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against terrorism.^[1]

[edit] Portrayal in film

• Abdel Wael Zwaiter is portrayed by actor Makram Khoury in Steven Spielberg's Munich.
• "Material for a film": Retracing Wael Zuaiter (Part 1), installation in the 2007 La Biennale di Venezia by Emily Jacir
• Emily Jacir: "Material for a film": A performance (Part 2), 16 July 2007, The Electronic Intifada
  • Najwan Darwis: Emily Jacir’s Material for a Film: Ongoing homage and artistic revenge for Wa’el Zuaiter

[edit] References

• Klein, Aaron J. Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response. New York: Random House, Inc., 2005. ISBN 1-4000-6427-9

[edit] Further reading

• Janet Venn-Brown (ed.) (English): For a Palestinian: A Memorial to Wael Zuaiter,  1984 ISBN 0710300395
• Janet Venn-Brown (ed.) (Italian): Per un palestinese. Dediche a più voci a Wael Zuaiter, Roma, 2002, ISBN 8880220896
• Khalidi, Walid (1984). Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876-1948. Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0887281443 (Has picture of Wael Zuaiter as a child with his father and brother, see also here (scroll down the page))