Khalil al-Wazir

Khalil al-Wazir
October 10, 1935(1935-10-10) – April 16, 1988
Portrait of Khalil al-Wazir
Nickname	Abu Jihad (Father of the Struggle)
Place of birth	Ramla, British Mandate of Palestine
Place of death	Tunis, Tunisia
Allegiance	Fatah/Palestine Liberation Organization
Service/branch	Al-Assifa
Battles/wars	Battle of Karameh Black September in Jordan Siege of Beirut First Intifada
Relations	Intissar al-Wazir (wife)

Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir (Arabic: خليل الوزير‎), also known by his kunya "Abu Jihad" (Arabic:أبو جهاد — father of the struggle) (October 10, 1935–April 16, 1988), was a Palestinian military leader and founder of the secular political party Fatah. As a top aide of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman, Yasser Arafat, al-Wazir had considerable influence in Fatah's military activities, eventually becoming the commander of Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa. the majority of the Palestinians viewed him as a martyr who died resisting the Israeli occupation or at least sympathized with his cause,^[1][2] while most Israelis, from the left and right-wing spheres of government, considered him to be a high-profile terrorist for masterminding the killings of Israelis.^[3] Al-Wazir became a refugee as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and began leading a minor fedayeen force in the Gaza Strip. In the early 1960s, he established connections between Communist regimes and prominent third-world leaders with Fatah and opened Fatah's first bureau in Algeria. He played an important role in the 1970-71 Black September clashes in Jordan, by supplying surrounded Palestinian fighters with weapons and aid, but they were eventually forced out by the Jordanian Army.

Prior to and during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon — where he fled to after his expulsion from Jordan — he masterminded numerous attacks inside Israel against both civilian and military targets as well as planning Beirut's defense from incoming Israeli forces. Nonetheless, Israel prevailed and he was exiled from Lebanon with the rest of the Fatah leadership. Al-Wazir settled in Amman for a two-year period and was then exiled to Tunis in 1986. From his base there, he started to form and organize youth committees in the Palestinian territories, which eventually became the backbone of the Palestinian forces in the First Intifada. However, he did not live to command the uprising; On April 16, 1988, he was assassinated at his home in Tunis, apparently by Israeli commandos.

Early life

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Khalil al-Wazir was born in the city of Ramla, British Mandate Palestine in 1935 to Muslim parents. His father, Ibrahim al-Wazir worked as a grocer in the city.^[4][5] He and his family fled Ramla, as a result of Israel's capture of the area during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and thus became refugees, migrating to the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip. There, they settled in the Bureij refugee camp, where Khalil attended a secondary school run by the UNRWA.^[6][7] While in high school, al-Wazir, began organizing a small group of fedayeen to harass Israelis at military posts near the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula.^[4]

In 1954, he came in contact with Yasser Arafat in Gaza; al-Wazir would become Arafat's right-hand man later in his life. During his time in Gaza, al-Wazir became a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,^[8] and was briefly imprisoned for his membership with the organization, due to its prohibition in Egypt.^[8] Months after his release, he received military training in Cairo,^[5] while studying architectural engineering at the University of Alexandria in 1956,^[9] although he did not graduate. Al-Wazir was detained once again in 1957 for leading raids against Israel and was exiled to Saudi Arabia, finding work as a schoolteacher.^[4] He continued his job after moving to Kuwait in 1959.^[8]

Formation of Fatah

Al-Wazir's residence in Kuwait allowed him to further his ties with Arafat and other Palestinians he met in Egypt that were exiled to that country. Al-Wazir and his comrades founded Fatah, a secular Palestinian nationalist guerrilla and political organization, sometime between 1959-60.^[10] He moved to Beirut after being put in charge of editing the newly-formed organization's monthly magazine Filastinuna, Nida' al-Hayat ("Our Palestine, the Call to Life"), as he was "the only one with a flair for writing", according to author Said Aburish.^[10]

He settled in Algeria in 1962, after a delegation of Fatah leaders, including Arafat and Farouk Kaddoumi, were invited there by Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella. Al-Wazir remained there, opened a Fatah office and military training camp in Algiers and was included in an Algerian-Fatah delegation to Beijing in 1964.^[11] During his visit, he presented Fatah's ideas to various leaders of the People's Republic of China including premier Zhou Enlai,^[12] and thus inaugurated Fatah's good relationship with China. He also toured other East Asian countries, establishing relations with North Korea and the Viet Cong.^[11] Al-Wazir supposedly "charmed Che Guevara" during Guevara's speech in Algiers.^[10] With his guerrilla credentials and his contacts with arms-supplying nations, he was assigned the role of recruiting and training fighters, thus establishing Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa (the Storm).^[7]

Syria and post-Six-Day War

Yassir Arafat and Abu Jihad meet Gamal Abdel Nasser upon arrival in Cairo to attend first emergency Arab League summit, 1970

Al-Wazir and the Fatah leadership settled in Damascus, Syria in 1965, in order take advantage of the large number of Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) members there. On May 9, 1966, he and Arafat were detained by Syrian police loyal to air marshal Hafez al-Assad after an incident where a pro-Syrian Palestinian leader, Yusuf Orabi was thrown out of the window of a three-story building and killed. Al-Wazir alongside Arafat, was either discussing possibilities of uniting Fatah with Orabi's faction — the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Palestine — or winning Orabi's support against Arafat's rivals within the Fatah leadership. An argument occurred, eventually leading to Orabi's murder; however al-Wazir and Arafat had already left the scene shortly before the incident. According to Aburish, Orabi and Assad were "close friends" and Assad appointed a panel to investigate what happened. The panel found both Arafat and al-Wazir guilty, but the current Deputy Secretary-General of the President of Syria Salah Jadid pardoned them.^[10]

After the defeat of a coalition of Arab states in the 1967 Six-Day War, major Palestinian guerrilla organizations that participated in the war or were backed by any of the involved Arab states, such as the Arab Nationalist Movement led by George Habash and the Palestine Liberation Army of Ahmad Shukeiri, lost considerable influence among the Palestinian population. This propelled Fatah to become the dominant faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). They gained 33 of 105 seats in the Palestinian National Council (PNC) (the most seats allocated to any guerrilla group), thus strengthening al-Wazir's position. During the Battle of Karameh, in March 1968, he and Salah Khalaf assumed important command posts of Fatah fighters against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which developed his credentials as a military strategist.^[13] This eventually led to him taking command of al-Assifa, holding major positions in the PNC,^[5] and the Supreme Military Council of the PLO. He was also put in charge of guerrilla warfare operations in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as inside Israel.^[4][7]

Black September and the Lebanon War

During the Black September clashes in Jordan, al-Wazir supplied the encircled Palestinian forces in Jerash and Ajlun with arms and aid,^[14] but nevertheless, the conflict was waning in Jordan's favor. After Arafat and thousands of Fatah fighters retreated to Lebanon in wake of advancing Jordanian forces, al-Wazir negotiated an agreement between King Hussein and the PLO's leading organizer, calling for better Palestinian conduct in Jordan.^[15] Then, along with the other PLO leaders, he relocated to Beirut.^[14]

Al-Wazir did not played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War, primarily helping strengthen the Lebanese National Movement, the PLO's main ally in the conflict.^[14] During the fall of the Tel al-Zaatar camp to the Lebanese Front and the subsequent massacre by Christian forces, al-Wazir blamed himself for not organizing a rescue effort.^[16]

During his time in Lebanon, al-Wazir was responsible for coordinating high-profile military operations including, allegedly masterminding the Savoy Operation in 1975, in which eight Fatah militants raided and took hostages in the Savoy hotel in Tel Aviv, killing eight of them and three Israeli soldiers.^[17] The Coastal Road massacre, in March 1978, was also planned out by al-Wazir. In this attack, six Fatah members hijacked a bus and killed 35 Israeli civilians.^[18]

When Israel besieged Beirut in 1982, al-Wazir, in contradiction with the views of the PLO's leftist members and Salah Khalaf, proposed pulling out of Beirut. Regardless of his position, however, al-Wazir and his aide Abu al-Walid planned Beirut's defense and helped direct PLO forces against the IDF.^[19] As a result of Arafat ignoring al-Wazir's original proposal, PLO forces were eventually defeated and then expelled from Lebanon, with most of the leadership relocating to Tunis although al-Wazir and 264 other PLO members were received by King Hussein of Jordan.^[12][20]

Establishing a movement in the Palestinian territories

Dissatisfied at the decisive defeat of Palestinian forces during the 1982 Lebanon War, al-Wazir concentrated on establishing a solid Fatah base in the Palestinian territories. In 1982, he began to sponsor the youth committees that eventually became the embryonic organization that later ignited the First Intifada in December 1987. The word Intifada in Arabic, literally translated as "tremor", is generally used to describe an uprising or revolt. The Intifada began as an uprising of Palestinian youth against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.^[2] On June 7, 1986, about a year before the Intifada sparked, al-Wazir was deported from Amman to Baghdad, eventually moving to Tunis days after King Hussein declared the efforts in establishing joint strategy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between Jordan and the PLO was over.^[12]

The first stage of the Intifada was a response to an incident at the Erez checkpoint, where an Israeli military vehicle hit a group of Palestinian laborers, killing four of them. However, within weeks, upon consistent requests by al-Wazir, the PLO attempted to direct the uprising, which lasted until 1992–93. Al-Wazir had been assigned by Arafat the responsibility of the Palestinian territories within the PLO command and according to author Said Aburish, had "impressive knowledge of local conditions" in the Israeli-occupied territories, apparently knowing "every village, school, and large family in Gaza and the West Bank". He provided the uprising with financial backing and logistical support, thus becoming its "brain in exile". Al-Wazir activated every cell he had set up in the territories since the late 1970s in an effort to militarily back the stone-throwers who formed the backbone of the Palestinian force, but also, to use it as an opportunity to reform the PLO.^[2] According to author Yezid Sayigh, al-Wazir believed that the Intifada should not have been sacrificed to Arafat solely for use as a diplomatic or political tool.^[21]

Assassination

Al-Wazir was assassinated at close range in his home at 2 a.m. UTC on April 16, 1988 at the age of 53. He was shot multiple times in the presence of his wife and son Nidal.^[2] Al-Wazir is widely believed to have been assassinated by an Israeli commando team, reportedly ferried from Israel by boat, aided ashore by Mossad intelligence agents. Israel accused al-Wazir for escalating the violence of the Intifada which was raging at the time of his assassination.^[2] Specifically, he was believed to be the architect of the triple bomb attack at a shopping mall. He was buried in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus on April 21;^[12] Arafat led the funeral procession.^[2]

In 1997, a revelation came in a Maariv newspaper report on the execution of al-Wazir. The report claimed that Ehud Barak led a seaborne command center that oversaw al-Wazir's assassination. However, Israel has never officially taken responsibility for his killing and government spokesman Moshe Fogel and aides to Barak declined to comment on the issue. According to the report, Barak, who was then a deputy military chief, coordinated the planning by the Mossad, as well as the army's intelligence branch, the air force, navy and the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit. Barak ran the assassination operation from a command center on a navy missile boat off the shore of Tunis, Maariv said. Mossad intelligence agents watched al-Wazir's home for months before the raid.^[22] The Washington Post reported that the Israeli cabinet approved al-Wazir's assassination and that it was coordinated between the Mossad and the IDF.^[12] The United States Department of State condemned his murder as an "act of political assassination",^[3] and the UN Security Council approved a resolution condemning "the aggression perpetrated against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Tunisia", without mentioning Israel.^[23]

Personal life

Al-Wazir married his cousin Intissar al-Wazir in 1962 and had five children with her. His sons are Jihad, Bassem and Nidal and his two daughters are Iman and Hanan al-Wazir.^[24] Jihad al-Wazir is currently the Governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority.^[25] Intissar and her children returned to Gaza following the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO and in 1996 became the first female minister in the Palestinian National Authority.^[26] After Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian looters raided al-Wazir's home, reportedly stealing his personal belongings. Intissar al-Wazir said that the looting "occurred in broad daylight and under the watchful eye of Hamas militiamen."^[27]

See also

• List of Fatah members

References

External links

• "Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians: Biography of Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad)" Phillip Mattar.

Bibliography

• Aburish, Said K. (1998). Arafat: From Defender to Dictator. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58234-049-4. 
• Cobban, Helena (1984). The Palestinian Liberation Organization. New York: Cambridge University Press Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0-521-27216-5.