Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Wadih Haddad (1927 - March 28, 1978)
was a leader and one of the founders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, and before that the Arab Nationalist Movement. He and his companion,
Dr. George Habash.
its beginning
Wadih Haddad was born in the city of
Safed in the year 1927, and his father was working as a teacher of the Arabic
language in a secondary school in the city of Haifa, and by virtue of his
father’s presence in the city of Haifa, he received his primary, preparatory
and secondary education in this city. While he was in school in its various
stages, he was distinguished by his blazing intelligence, distinguished
activities, and excellence in mathematics. He was also an athletic young man
practicing jogging and other sporting activities.
As a result of the tragedy that befell
the Palestinian people as a result of the Nakba in the year 48, he was forced
to emigrate from his homeland and sought refuge with his family and his father
in the city of Beirut, where they settled there. Meanwhile, Wadih enrolled in
studies at the American University in Beirut to study medicine.
its history
He assumed a leadership position in
the “Al-Urwa Al-Wuthqa Association”, and later in the “Arab Nationalist
Movement” and then the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” Since
its founding, Dr. Wadih Haddad has assumed very basic leadership tasks in the
front, as he was entrusted with two main tasks: finance and foreign military
action. Through them, he demonstrated leadership and practical capabilities, as
he embodied the slogan “behind the enemy everywhere.” Wadih was at that time
the smartest Palestinian figure, and he used to gather the fedayeen.
During his work in the external
organization, he led cells operating around the world, and was behind the
famous hijackings of planes, including the German Landshut plane. Wadih left
the Popular Front after the campaign against him by the leader Ahmed Al-Yamani
(Abu Maher), Salah Salah and Walid Qaddoura. Wadih Haddad left the ranks of the
Popular Front, but the Front's Fifth National Conference restored his
organizational consideration, as "a unique national and Palestinian symbol
who gave everything for the sake of Palestine, which he always dreamed and
worked to reach as soon as possible and in the shortest way."
his death
He died on March 28, 1978 in East
Germany, and it was rumored that he died of leukemia. But after 28 years,
Israel recently admitted through one of its intelligence officers who wrote
part of his intelligence life that it had assassinated him by poisoning him in
chocolate through an Iraqi agent who held a high-ranking position. Yedioth
Ahronoth quoted the author as saying that Israel decided to liquidate Haddad on
the grounds that he had masterminded the hijacking of the Air France plane,
which was on its way from Paris to Tel Aviv, to Entebbe, Uganda in 1976, and
that he was responsible for a series of dangerous operations.
He added that the Mossad learned of
Haddad's passion for Belgian chocolate, which was difficult to obtain at the
time in Baghdad, his residence. Mossad experts introduced a slowly acting
biological toxin into a batch of Belgian chocolate, which they sent to Haddad
by a high-ranking Iraqi agent upon his return from Europe to Iraq.
The author notes that this physical
purification process “was the first biological purification process” carried
out by Israel. He added that Israel had accused Haddad, an "experienced
and multi-talented terrorist", of having been the first to hijack a plane
belonging to the Israeli airline El Al in 1968, and the hostages were released
only after the Israeli government submitted to his condition of releasing
Palestinian prisoners.
The Mossad also accused him of being
responsible for establishing relations between Palestinian organizations and
international terrorist organizations and invited their members to train in
Lebanon, one of the results of which was the “Japanese Red Army” massacre at
Ben Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv) in 1972.
The author continues that the
hijacking of the Air France plane to Entebbe was the straw that broke the
camel's back, as the leaders of the Mossad and the Military Intelligence
Service immediately decided to eliminate Haddad, and the Prime Minister at the
time, Menachem Begin, approved the operation.
The writer, who titled his book “An
Open Account,” referred to Haddad’s fondness for chocolate, especially Belgian,
and that Israel knew how to take advantage of this “weakness” and used a Mossad
agent to carry Belgian chocolate with him from Europe, but not before Mossad
agents introduced a biological poison into it. A fatal effect that appears
weeks after ingestion, and leads to the collapse of the body's immune system.
He added that after the
assassination of Haddad, a sharp decrease was recorded in the number of
operations targeting Israel around the world. He added that the Mossad saw in
this liquidation process an embodiment of the theory of "preventive
liquidation" or the liquidation of a ticking bomb represented by "a
creative brain that did not stop planning the next operation (Haddad)."
source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To