In yet another Zoom interview, palestinian propaganda expert Hanan Ashrawi recollects her time in Beirut, meeting “many of the palestinian leaders whom I met in ’69… all the people whom to us always remain as larger than life figures, the leaders of the revolution.”
And who are these “larger than life figures”?
- Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat): Need I say more?
- Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir): Founded the PPLO with Arafat and was blamed for a series of deadly attacks against Israelis. Among them, he masterminded the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, which killed 38 Israelis. Later, he organized the first “intifada” against Israel, which led to over 200 Israelis killed.
- Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf): Believed by the United States and Israel to have been a founder of the Black September Organization. Admitted to have hand-picked the gunmen for the Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes, as well as transporting the assault rifles and grenades used in the attack.
Note also how she refers to them by their nom de guerres, a sign of her respect and affection for them.
Yup, the winner of the 2005 Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation and the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize, folks – a woman widely held up as one of the reasonable palestinian leaders.
