Samir Kuntar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samir Kuntar (2009)

Samir Kuntar ( Arabic سمير القنطار, DMG Samīr al-Qunṭār , also Sameer Quntar , Al-Qantar or El Kantar ; * July 20, 1962 in Aabey , Lebanon ; † December 19, 2015 in Jaramana , Syria ) was a Lebanese Druze , convicted of multiple murderers and a member of the terrorist organizations Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) and Hezbollah . In 1979, he led a PLF raid on the Israeli coastal city of Nahariya that killed three civilians, including two girls aged two and four, and two police officers . He was sentenced to four times life imprisonment. In 2008 it was exchanged for the remains of two Israeli soldiers who had been abducted by Hezbollah at the beginning of the Second Lebanon War . Kuntar later organized Hezbollah's activities on the Syrian border with Israel and was killed in an air strike near Damascus on December 19, 2015 .

Life

youth

Kuntar was born in 1962 to a Druze couple. His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and his mother died when he was a child. His father went to Saudi Arabia to work and left him in Abey, 30 kilometers southeast of Beirut, where he grew up with his stepmother Siham. Neighbors described him as a quiet child who was difficult to raise. He left school at the age of 14. The Lebanese civil war intensified. In 2006, his stepmother said in an interview that Kuntar was sometimes gone for days. She soon discovered that he was receiving military training in camps. Your attempts to stop him failed. He wanted to take part in guerrilla actions against Israel. This desire was reinforced by Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1978. In 1978 he tried to break into Israel across the Jordanian border but was arrested and held in Jordanian custody for the rest of the year. On April 22nd, he led a group of other teenagers whose aim it was to take Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. They reached Nahariya by rubber dinghy.

Attack on Nahariya in 1979

Smadar Haran-Kaiser, who lost her husband Danny and her two young daughters Einat and Yael in the attack, describes the course of events in an interview with the Washington Post on May 18, 2003: On the night of Saturday to Sunday, May 22, 2003. April 1979, they woke up at midnight in their apartment to gunfire and exploding hand grenades when four PLF terrorists went ashore in a rubber dinghy two apartment blocks away. They had already killed a policeman and then, after they had stormed the floor above and saw Smadar Haran emperor turning around, forcibly entered the Haran family's apartment. They would have shot around and thrown hand grenades. When the police arrived, the group took 28-year-old Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat hostage and dragged them from their apartment to the beach. According to eyewitness reports, after using Danny and Einat as human shields against the Israeli security forces, Kuntar shot the father in front of his daughter and then personally killed the little girl by smashing her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle have. Kuntar denied killing Einat. Policeman Eliyahu Shahar and two men from Kuntar's group were also killed. During the exchange of fire, Smadar Haran-Kaiser hid in a crawl space above the bedroom with her younger daughter Jael and a neighbor from the floor above, who had sought refuge with the Haran-Kaiser. She accidentally suffocated the two-year-old girl as she tried desperately to keep it still. It was clear to her that the attackers would have thrown a hand grenade in her hiding place and they would all have died if Jael had cried. The next day, Abu Abbas said from Beirut that the attack in Nahariya was carried out to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty that followed the summit between Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin, which was brokered by US President Jimmy Carter at Camp David in March 1979.

Detention

Kuntar was sentenced to four times life imprisonment for the act by a civil court in Tel Aviv for murder and terrorism . In the Israeli prison, Kuntar learned English and Hebrew and obtained a degree in sociology from the Open University of Israel in Tel Aviv . The English title of his thesis, written in Hebrew, is: The Contradiction of Democracy and Security in Israel . According to Haran-Kaiser, Kuntar married an Israeli-Arab activist who campaigns for prisoners and received a pension from the Israeli state as a prisoner's wife.

According to attorney Buthaina Duqmaq - she is the founder of the Mandela Institute for Human Rights in Ramallah - who Kuntar visited regularly in prison, Kuntar never expressed remorse or regret for his actions. He said he was “proud” to be a member of a “liberation movement”.

Al-Abrass, the only other survivor of the terrorist squad besides Kuntar, was exchanged by Israel for three Israeli soldiers in 1986 as part of the Ahmad Jibril prisoner exchange.

Attempted release during the 1985 Achille Lauro kidnapping

On October 7, 1985, four Palestinian PLF terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro on its way from Alexandria to Port Said in northeastern Egypt and threatened to kill the passengers or to blow up the ship if Israel did not release 50 prisoners. Of these, Kuntar was the only one named by name. In the course of the hostage-taking, an American tourist of Jewish origin, Leon Klinghoffer , sitting in a wheelchair , was murdered and thrown overboard.

Proposed exchange for Ron Arad in 2003

After years of preparation and months of secret negotiations, Israel agreed in 2003 that around 400 Palestinian and 36 other Arab prisoners as well as the German Steven Smyrek, who had been imprisoned in Israel since 1997 for an allegedly planned suicide bombing, in exchange for the Hezbollah prisoner since 2000 The militia released the businessman and retired Colonel Elhanan Tanenboym (other spelling: Elchanan Tennenbaum) and the remains of three Israeli soldiers. In addition, the bodies of 59 fallen Lebanese should be returned to their homeland, the fate of 24 people missing in Lebanon should be clarified and maps of land mines in southern Lebanon should be exchanged.

Hassan Nasrallah , the leader of Hezbollah, initially refused to accept this agreement as long as it did not include Kuntar. He stated, "Hezbollah's terms are clearly defined and we will adhere to them in all circumstances."

Israel agreed to release Kuntar as well, but only if Hezbollah provided “solid evidence” about the fate of weapons systems officer Ron Arad , who had been missing in Lebanon since 1986 .

The German envoy Ernst Uhrlau , then intelligence coordinator in the Federal Chancellery, declared on the occasion of the prisoner exchange that took place on January 29, 2004 without Kuntar, that he would be "transferred to his home country without delay following the ongoing negotiations on his case". "All parties involved hoped" that this would "take place within three or four months".

But there was also resistance to these plans. The families of twelve missing Iranian Jews tried to prevent the exchange of Kuntar by filing a lawsuit before the Israeli Supreme Court in order to retain a trump card against Iran. Smadar Haran-Kaiser was also appalled by the planned exchange, especially since the Israeli government had promised not to release any “terrorists with blood on their hands”.

Shortly after the prisoner exchange of January 29, 2004, Hamas announced that it would also abduct Israeli soldiers in order to secure the release of Palestinian hostages. At the same time, Hassan Nasrallah made it clear that Hezbollah would continue to kidnap Israelis as long as there is “a single prisoner” in Israel's prisons.

Since Hezbollah did not provide any further information about Arad, no prisoner exchange with Kuntar took place.

Lebanon Plan 2006

In 2006, Kuntar became part of a broader peace plan proposed by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and UN envoy Terje Rød-Larsen . The plan consisted of six points:

  1. The United Nations mark the border between Lebanon and Syria.
  2. Syria publicly declares that the Shebaa farms are Lebanese territory.
  3. The Lebanese army is setting up positions on Lebanon's southern border with Israel.
  4. Israel withdraws from the Shebaa farms and hands them over to Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force ends its violation of Lebanese airspace.
  5. Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora formally declares the end of the Israeli occupation and all militias, including Hezbollah, will be disarmed.
  6. Everything possible is done to clear up the fate of Ron Arad . Israel releases Kuntar and all other Lebanese prisoners. Hezbollah is leaving the border area.

It was reported that the plan received the full support of Israeli security circles.

Lebanon War 2006

In various interviews for the Lebanese television station Al-Manar , Mohamad Jawad Khalifeh , the Lebanese health minister , congratulated Hezbollah for "their great actions" and said that "Lebanon has the right to bring its detainees back and to free them" . (Source?) Ali Ammar, a member of the Lebanese Parliament for Hezbollah, expressed the opinion that “especially at this crucial point in the history of the homeland and the nation, the government should express solidarity with its people and make Samir Kuntar feel, that he is a Lebanese par excellence ” .

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol, killed three soldiers and abducted NCOs Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev . According to Hezbollah officials, they should be exchanged for Kuntar and two other prisoners. This incident, along with Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel, sparked a massive Israeli military offensive in Lebanon that culminated in the 2006 Lebanon War .

Three weeks after the ceasefire began, a Haaretz editorial recommended that the "monster Samir Kuntar" be released so that the three Israeli soldiers, Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev, who were still kidnapped, could finally return to their families.

In October 2007, Smadar Haran-Kaiser said in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Olmert that she would not oppose the extradition of her family's murderer.

In preparation for an exchange of prisoners, Kuntar was initially pardoned by Israeli President Shimon Peres . On July 16, 2008, he and four Hezbollah fighters were released in exchange for two Israeli soldiers who were killed.

Kuntar was greeted at the airport by President Michel Sulaiman . "Your return is a new victory," said Sulaiman. Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and other high-ranking Lebanese politicians also took part in the ceremony.

Activities for Hezbollah in Syria and death

In the years after his release, Kuntar was rarely seen in public, but met with Nasrallah, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . Kuntar never regretted the 1979 murders, instead, as a high-ranking member of Hezbollah, he began to build a terrorist infrastructure on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights . He was therefore put on their terrorist list by the USA . Kuntar was killed during the Syrian Civil War on the evening of December 19, 2015 in Jaramana, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus , along with eight other people in a presumably Israeli air strike. The other dead are attributed to organizations with which Kuntar wanted to build an armed resistance against Israel for Hezbollah on the Golan, including Farhan Issam Schaalan, commander of the "Syrian National Resistance on the Golan". Israeli authorities did not confirm Israeli involvement in the operation, as is usual in such cases. However, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already announced in early December 2015 that Israel's air force was operating in Syria "to prevent the country from becoming a new front against [Israel]". They acted "against the efforts of Iran to build a new terror front against [Israel] on the Golan Heights". Syrian state television described the air strike as a terrorist attack, but remained silent about possible perpetrators. Hezbollah accused Syrian opposition groups of collaborating with Israel and fired several rockets into Israel in its first retaliation. Many Israelis therefore spent the night near their air raid shelters. A group of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) assumed responsibility for the killing of Kuntar two days later, but the FSA's authorship is considered unlikely, since such a precisely executed blow would only destroy part of a building without further collateral damage. the capabilities and equipment of the FSA significantly exceed, even though it had a motive due to the cooperation between Kuntar and Assad.

Web links

Commons : Samir Kuntar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Sources and references

  1. ↑ a b Los Angeles Times : Hezbollah Puts Convicted Killer Atop Wish List , Rone Tempest, August 2, 2006, p. 8, engl. (only the summary of the article still available free of charge)
  2. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/world/africa/15iht-profile.4.14519524.html
  3. ↑ a b c d Smadar Haran Kaiser: The World Should Know What He Did to My Family (English) , The Washington Post . May 18, 2003, p. Page B02. 
  4. ↑ a b Orly Halpern: "The man Hezbollah wants" ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , US News, August 6, 2006, engl. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usnews.com
  5. ↑ a b Goel Beno: He Must Not Go Free ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jedi'ot Acharonot , July 3, 2003, engl. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / israelvisit.co.il
  6. ^ Israel National News: Who is Samir Kuntar? ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 9, 2003, engl. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.israelnationalnews.com
  7. ^ A b Carolynne Wheeler: A heartless killer as political pawn , The Globe and Mail , p. A1, July 28, 2006, engl.
  8. ↑ "Achille Lauro Hijacking" ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2000 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.specialoperations.com, (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.specialoperations.com
  9. ↑ a b Assafir : "Samir El Kantar entame sa 28ème année d'emprisonnement par Israël" ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Photo by Samir Kuntar today and the group from April 22, 1979), Institut Tunisien des Relations Internationales (ITRI), April 22, 2006, French @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tunisitri.net
  10. ^ A b "Prisoner Exchange Between Israel and Hezbollah," Die Welt , January 24, 2004
  11. ↑ Canadian Jewish News: Nasrallah: no prisoner swap without Samir Kuntar , November 13, 2003, engl. (Article not available online)
  12. ↑ Chris McGreal: Israel backs deal with Hizbullah to swap prisoners , The Guardian , November 10, 2003, engl.
  13. ↑ The Irish Times : Israel agrees to free prisoners in secret deal with Hezbollah , January 26, 2004, engl. (Article not accessible for free [1] )
  14. ^ Arieh O'Sullivan: Arad could alter release criteria , The Jerusalem Post , January 27, 2004, engl.
  15. ↑ Dan Izenberg: Families: Don't release Kuntar ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Jerusalem Post , May 14, 2004, engl. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.israellawcenter.org
  16. ↑ German press agency : Hamas, Hezbollah vow to abduct more Israeli soldiers , January 30, 2004, engl. (Article not available online)
  17. ↑ a b Mideast Mirror: Diplomatic maneuvers , June 1, 2006, engl. (Article not available online)
  18. ↑ BBC Worldwide: Lebanese Hezbollah TV talk show discusses implications of operation , January 13, 2006, engl. (Article not available online)
  19. ↑ Bradley Burston: Free the monster Samir Kuntar ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Haaretz, September 4, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / haaretz.com
  20. ↑ Christoph Schult and Holger Stark: Three corpses and a letter , Spiegel online , October 23, 2007
  21. ↑ IDF receives bodies presumed to be of Goldwasser, Regev ( English ) Jerusalem Post . July 16, 2008. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 16, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fr.jpost.com
  22. ↑ Spiegel Online Celebrations for Freedmen
  23. ^ Israel's long arm of vengeance , sueddeutsche.de , December 20, 2015, accessed on the same day
  24. ↑ Senior Hezbollah member killed , Die Zeit , December 20, 2015, accessed on the same day
  25. ↑ Israel demonstrates its air sovereignty in Syria , Die Welt , December 20, 2015, accessed on the same day
  26. ^ Strike kills former Israeli prisoner Kantar in Syria , Al Jazeera English , December 20, 2015, accessed the same day
  27. ^ Hezbollah vows revenge for the death of Samir Kuntar , Ynet , December 21, 2015, accessed the same day
  28. ↑ YouTube self-declaration
  29. ↑ "Israel Will Repent of Kuntar's Murder" , Die Welt , December 21, 2015, accessed the same day
personal data
SURNAME Kuntar, Samir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lebanese Druze and terrorist of the Palestinian Liberation Front
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Aabey , Lebanon
DATE OF DEATH 19th December 2015
Place of death Jaramana , Syria