Bassam Abu Sharif

Bassam Abu Sharif (born 1946) is a former senior adviser to the late Yasser Arafat and press officer of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Yasser Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات‎) August 24 or August 4, 1929 – November 11, 2004), born in Cairo or Jerusalem (sources vary, official death certificate says Jerusalem), Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرؤوف القدوة الحسيني) and also known by the kunya Abu `Ammar (أبو عمّار), was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1969–2004... The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Arabic: ‎; or Munazzamat al-Tahrir al-Filastiniyyah) is a political and paramilitary organization regarded by Arab states as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. ...

Formerly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Sharif was dubbed the "face of terror" by Time Magazine for his role in the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, when the PFLP hijacked Pan Am, Swissair, and TWA flights — a fourth pair of hijackers on an El Al flight were overpowered by security guards and passengers — and blew them up in the Jordanian desert, triggering King Hussein's expulsion of the PLO from Jordan, which became known as Black September. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) (Arabic الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين - al-jabhah al-sha`biyyah li-tahrÄ«r filastÄ«n) is a Marxist-Leninist, nationalist Palestinian political and military organization, founded in 1967. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... Main article: Black September in Jordan The Dawsons Field hijacking occurred on September 6, 1970. ... Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) was the United States principal international airline from the 1930s until its collapse in 1991, and was credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry. ... Swissair MD-11 Swissair, short for Swiss Air Transport Company Limited, was Switzerlands national airline for 71 years (1931–2002), established when the airlines Belair and Ad Astra Aero (To the Stars) merged. ... The Twa are a pygmy people, of short stature, who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of anthe Great Lakes region of central Africa that now comprises the nations of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. ... Categories: Airline stubs | Companies of Israel | Transportation in Israel | Airlines of Israel ... Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: حسين بن طلال) (November 14, 1935 - February 7, 1999) was the King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1952 to 1999. ... This article, Black September in Jordan, describes the events surrounding September, 1970 in Jordan. ...

He lost four fingers, and was left deaf in one ear and blind in one eye, when a bomb exploded in his hands in Beirut, Lebanon in 1972, which he attributes to a letter-bomb attack by the Mossad. [1] For other uses, see Beirut (disambiguation). ... For the Haganah branch responsible for clandestine Jewish immigration into the British Mandate of Palestine, see Mossad Lealiyah Bet   (Hebrew: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) is the Israeli intelligence agency, often referred to as Mossad (in English: The Institute). ...

Writing in the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds in April 2005, Abu Sharif called for a "popular peaceful uprising" of Palestinians to prevent Israel from annexing any land in the West Bank.

Works

• Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi. The Best of Enemies: The Memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi, 1995. ISBN 0-316-00401-4
• ______________________________. Tried by Fire, 1996. ISBN 0-7515-1636-8

References

• "The face of terrorism, then and now" by John Cooley, New Perspectives Quarterly, September 1996 (subscription required)