Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 5)

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Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 5)

المحتوى

Abu Jihad’s funeral procession, Yarmouk camp
didn’t realize that with this act, they are
admitting their inability to confront the
children fighting with stones... Despite
murdering a number of leaders, the
enemy will not be able to destroy the
uprising. Our answer to this deplorable
crime is continuing and escalating the
uprising until accomplishing the aims
of freedom and independence, and the
establishment of an _ independent
Palestinian state, led by the PLO, the
sole, legitimate representative of our
people.»
While in Damascus for his father’s
funeral, Basel Al Wazir told reporters,
«My father’s martyrdom means a new
beginning, a new start, readiness and
will to fight for the freedom of
Palestine... We will take revenge. There
is fighting now (referring to the upris-
ing) and we will always fight. We will
never stop no matter what the price is.»
Portrait of a Martyr
Abu Jihad was born in Ramleh,
Palestine, on October 10, 1935. After
the occupation of Palestine in 1948, his
family was forced to emigrate to the
Gaza Strip where he completed high
school. While studying, he was leading
some of the fedayeen cells then active
against the Zionist enemy. The most
prominent operation he carried out in
his youth was the destruction of a water
reservoir in the occupied parts of Gaza
(Beit Hanoun), after which the Zionists
raided the Gaza Strip on February 28,
1955.
In 1954, he was elected secretary of
the Palestinian Student Union in Gaza.
The next year he met Yasir Arafat who
was visiting Gaza in his capacity as
head of the Palestinian Student Union
in Egypt. In the same year, Abu Jihad
was arrested by the Egyptian
authorities for his political and military
activities. He was expelled from Egypt
in 1957, whereafter he went to Saudi
Arabia and later Kuwait. ; ;
Abu Jihad remained in Kuwait until
1963. During this period, he was in-
volved in the formation of Fatah, along
with Arafat, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad),
Khaled Al Hassan and the martyr Abu
Ali Iyad (martyred in the 1971 battles
with the Jordanian regime at Jerash)
and others.
In 1966, Abu Jihad, on behalf of
Fatah, developed close relations with
the Algerian National Liberation
Khalil Al Wazir
Front. This resulted in the opening of
Fatah’s first office in Algiers, and
military training camps as well. Abu
Jihad was prominent in developing the
Palestinian revolution’s early contacts
with several socialist countries. In 1966,
Abu Jihad accompanied Arafat on a
visit to China where they met Chairman
Mao Tse Tung. Later, Abu Jihad
visited the Democratic Republics of
Vietnam and Korea.
After the beginning of the Palesti-
nian armed struggle in 1965, Abu Jihad
was based in Damascus. In his work, he
stressed the importance of armed
struggle in occupied Palestine. After
the Israeli occupation of the rest of
Palestine in 1967, he was put in charge
of military operations against the
Zionist enemy launched from Jordan,
Syria and Lebanon. During the
September 1970 massacres against the
Palestinian people in Jordan, Abu
Jihad participated in defending the
revolution against the Jordanian
regime’s forces.
In June 1970, at Fatah’s national
congress in Damascus, Abu Jihad was
elected to Fatah’s Central Committee
and deputy commander of Al Assifa
(Fatah’s armed forces). In this capaci-
‘ty, he played a very prominent role in
the Palestinian armed revolution. He
was directly involved in escalating
armed struggle in Palestine. He played
an important role in the heroic defense
of Beirut during the 1982 Israeli inva-
sion of Lebanon.
Abu Jihad was deeply involved in the
unification talks that took place bet-
ween the main Palestinian organiza-
tions prior to the unification session of
the PNC in Algiers in April 1987. After
this, he was very active in the PLO’s
committee for the affairs of the oc-
cupied homeland. As head of this
committee, he played an important role
in supporting and directing the current
uprising until his martyrdom. Abu
Jihad was married to Intisar Al
Wazir,who has headed the PLO
department for the injured, the martyrs
and the prisoners, since 1962. They had
four children. @

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Democratic Palestine : 29

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