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Mahmoud Hamshari (Arabic: محمود الهمشري; 1939–1973) was a Palestinian official who was assassinated by Israel in Paris, France, on 8 December 1972. He was serving as the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to France when the incident occurred. He died in a Paris hospital on 9 January 1973.
Mahmoud Hamshari | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 August 1939 |
| Died | 9 January 1973 (aged 33) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Burial place | Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Occupation | Teacher |
| Years active | 1960s–1972 |
| Spouse | Marie-Claude Hamshari |
Hamshari was born in a village, Umm Khaled, west of Tulkarm, on 29 August 1939.[1][2][3] The family had to leave their village in 1948 when it was occupied by Israel, and the depopulated village was absorbed into the neighbouring town of Netayna.[4] He obtained a PhD in history from a French university.[2][4]
Hamshari worked as a teacher in Kuwait and Algeria.[1] He was a member of the Fatah.[1] He was tasked to organize the Palestinian students in Algeria and worked closely with Khalil al-Wazir, known as Abu Jihad.[2] Hamshari returned to Palestine in 1967 and established the Fatah cells in the region.[2]
Hamshari was appointed representative of the PLO to France in 1968, being the first head of the Palestine office in the country.[2][5] There he founded a branch of the General Union of Palestinian Students.[2] Through the Union Hamshari organized the visit of the Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard to Jordan and Lebanon where he met with the Palestinian fighters in 1969.[5] Elias Sanbar, a member of the Union, accompanied Godard during the visit.[5]
Hamshari was in office until 8 December 1972 when he was badly wounded in a Mossad attack in Paris. After this attack Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, an Iranian who would be the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, temporarily served as the PLO's representative in France.[6] Ezzedine Kalak, a PLO member, was appointed PLO's representative in France in September 1973.[7]
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Hamshari was married to a French woman, Marie-Claude, and they had a daughter, Amina.[8]
Israel initiated attacks against leading Palestinian figures after the killing of Israeli Olympic team members by the Black September Organization in Munich in September 1972.[9] Aharon Yariv, the Israeli minister of information, was in charge of the assassination plans targeting Hamshari and other Palestinians.[4] Hamshari was accused by the Israeli authorities and media outlets of being directly related to this incident.[1] They also claimed that he was the leader of the Black September Organization in France.[8]
A Mossad agent acting as an Italian journalist contacted Hamshari to make an interview.[4] When he was meeting with the Mossad agent, a group of operatives from the Mossad’s burglary unit entered into his home and inserted a bomb under a telephone.[4] This group was headed by Zvi Malchin.[10]
Hamshari was severely wounded at his home on Paris's Rue d'Alésia street on the morning of 8 December 1972 by a booby-trapped device remotely controlled through a telephone call.[2][11][12] He lost his leg in the attack and was treated at the Cochin Hospital.[1][4] Hamshari could tell the French authorities the details of the attack.[4] He died in the hospital on 9 January 1973.[3][4] He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, which was visited by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat on 3 May 1989.[3][13]
Aftermath
One day after the Mossad attack targeting Hamshari the Arab diplomats in Paris organized a three-hour press conference and declared that the French government was responsible for their well-being.[10] On the other hand, immediately after the assassination Israel started a propaganda campaign to conceal the details of the incident which was implemented by the Western media outlets such as Agence France-Presse and BBC.[14] It was argued by these media outlets and Israel radio that Hamshari was injured while making an explosive at his home which was later broadcast by many leading news agencies.[14] Given that Israel had no evidence to prove Hamshari's direct connection with the Munich incident it denounced its involvement in the attack.[15]
The PLO intensified its attacks against Israeli agents following the assassination of Hamshari on the orders of Ali Hassan Salameh.[15] The first attack was carried out by the Black September Organization members in Thailand who attempted to take the Israeli ambassador hostage.[15] Then Baruch Cohen, a Mossad intelligence officer, was killed by the Black September Organization in Madrid, Spain, on 26 January 1973.[11][15] It was claimed by the Palestinians that Cohen was part of the Mossad squad who attacked Hamshari.[11]
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A prize entitled the Palestine-Mahmoud Hamshari was established in memory of him by L'Association de Solidarite Franco Arabe and the magazine France Pays Arabes in 1973.[4] One of the Palestinian Red Crescent hospitals in Lebanon, Mahmoud Hamshari Hospital, was named after him.[16] There is a primary school for girls in Tulkarm, Palestine, which was also named after him.[17]
Anton Shammas's 1986 novel Arabesques provides the details of Hamshari's grave in the Père Lachaise cemetery through the fictional character Abu Masood.[3] In the novel Shammas develops an analogy between Hamshari and Marcel Proust based on their graves describing them as "the two lost times, the two darkness" and "a Jew of Time and an Arab of Place".[3][18] Because the inscription on Hamshari's grave reads "the man of the lost home" and that on Proust's grave reads "the man of the lost time".[18]
Hamshari is one of the characters in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich.[8][19] He was portrayed by Igal Naor in the film.[20]
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