Ghassan Kanafani Assassinated (1972)

Sat Jul 08, 1972

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Ghassan Kanafani was a Palestinian author and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), assassinated on this day in 1972 by Israeli forces in retaliation for the Lod Airport Massacre, claimed by the PLFP.

In May, when the outbreak of hostilities in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War spilled over into the city of Acre, Kanafani and his family were forced into exile while he was still a child. After fleeing ~eleven miles north to Lebanon, they settled in Damascus, Syria as Palestinian refugees.

In 1969, after establishing himself as an author and journalist, he joined The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and, resigned from his post as editor for the magazine Al-Anwar to edit the PFLP’s weekly magazine, al-Hadaf (“The Goal”). He drafted a PFLP program in which the movement officially took up Marxism-Leninism, a notable departure from pan-Arab nationalist ideology.

On July 8th, 1972, at the age of 36, Kanafani was assassinated via car bomb by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad for his role in the PLFP, which claimed responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre.

The massacre, committed by three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the PLFP, killed 26 people, injuring 80 others.

Ghassan Kanafani was an influential author, whose literary works have been translated into at least 17 languages and published in 20 countries. He began writing short stories when working as a teacher in refugee camps. Often written through the eyes of children, his stories were designed to help his students contextualize their surroundings.

“Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause.”

- Ghassan Kanafani