Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar

Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar
Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (white shirt) with Yasser Arafat and Khaled al-Hassan at the Palestinian National Council (PNC) summit in Cairo, December 1970

Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar (1930 - April 10, 1973), commonly known as Abu Youssef, was a Palestinian militant. Originally from Yibna, he began his involvement in the General Union of Palestinian Students. When the Fatah organization formed in the late 1950s, Youssef was an early activist, traveling to Qatar to form similar groups, and taking command of Fatah's military wing. In 1968 Youssef was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Two months before his death, Youssef was interviewed by the Beirut newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour. In it he explained his conviction to the Palestinian cause: "We plant the seeds, and the others will reap the harvest... Most probably we'll all die, killed because we are confronting a fierce enemy. But the youth will replace us."[1] This group was responsible for the 1972 Munich Massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in the crossfire between the German police and the Black September group. This prompted Israel to launch a revenge campaign called Operation Wrath of God, with Youssef as a principal target. In 1973 Israel sent commandos into Beirut, Lebanon to kill a number of high level PLO officials in Operation Spring of Youth. Youssef and his wife were killed by gunfire in their bedroom when troops stormed into their Beirut apartment.[2]


Notes

  1. ^ "Most Probably We'll All Die", Time Magazine, April 23, 1973. Accessed February 24, 2010.
  2. ^ Bell, J. Bowyer. Assassin: Theory and Practice of Political Violence. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-4128-0509-0 p. 138


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