Jules Yusuf Jammal (1932 or April 1, 1939-October 29, 1956) Arabic: جول يوسف جمال was a Syrian military officer who killed himself in a suicide bomb attack during the 1956 Suez Crisis against western forces.
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Jammal was born in al-Mishtaya Arabic: المشتاية, which is located between the cities of Homs and Latakia,[1] into an Arab Orthodox Christian family. Jammal's father was part of the Syrian resistance against France which controlled Syria in the early to mid 20th-century. Jammal attended the University of Damascus starting in 1950.[2]
He later joined the Syrian Navy as a military officer. In 1953 Jammal was a part of a Syrian team attending the Egyptian Naval Academy.[2]
During the 1956 Suez Crisis, he volunteered in the name of Arab nationalism to launch a suicide bomb attack against the tripartite invasion by Israel, Britain, and France of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in order to capture the Suez canal. Jammal activated a suicide bomb when he rammed his boat into the Jeanne D’Arc, a French battleship containing 2,055 soldiers and 88 officers, when it was preparing to bombard the Egyptian city of Port Said.[2][3] exploding himself and bringing down the French ship with him.[4][5][6]
A school in Latakia, Syria is named after Jammal.[7]
The Arab film director Gassan Abdullah announced plans to make a film about Jammal in 2008, since he was regarded as a hero for many in Syria and Egypt for his Arab nationalism.[8]
The current Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Bader Hassoun, mentioned Jammal in a speech aimed at Western countries, warning that Syrians and Lebanese would engage in suicide bomb attacks against Europe and the United States if they bombed Syria during the 2011 Syrian uprising. He cited Jammal as an example of a non-Muslim Syrian who carried out a suicide bomb martyrdom attack on the west, and warned that non-Muslims would assist Syria in attacks against them.[9]