Zuhair Muhsin

Zuhair Muhsin ( Arabic زهير محسن Zuhair Muhsin , DMG Zuhayr Muḥsin ; * 1936 in Tulkarm ; † 15. July 1979 in Cannes ) was a Palestinian politician who from 1971 to 1979 the Syrian-controlled PLO grouping as-Sa'iqa led and 1979 an assassination attempt fell victim.

Background and path to as-Sa'iqa leadership

Muhsin was born in Tulkarm in what was then the Palestinian Mandate ; the family had to leave their home during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 . As a refugee in Jordan , Muhsin was active in the Ba'ath Party and worked as a teacher. He left the country when he came into the interest of the Jordanian authorities because of his political activities. After living in Qatar and Kuwait , he moved to Syria in 1967 . He was quickly embroiled in the power struggle in the Syrian arm of the Ba'ath Party and sided with Hafiz al-Assad .

After Assad came to power with the " corrective movement " in 1970 and expelled former President Salah Jadid and his supporters from the party, Muhsin became head of the organization as-Sa'iqa , which had been formed by the Syrian authorities a few years earlier to take in Palestinian refugees living in Syria .

Muhsin led as-Sa'iqa in the early years of the Lebanese civil war , coordinating closely with the Syrian army . He was based in West Beirut . He fell on July 15, 1979 in Cannes ( France ) when leaving a casino an attack of previously unknown side to the victim.

The US-Israeli Middle East observer Thomas L. Friedman described him as: ... an armchair revolutionary, if he was at all. He was known in Beirut as Mr. Carpet because of all the Persian carpets his men had stolen during the Lebanese civil war. When the stresses of leading the revolution became too much for him, Mohsen moved to an apartment he maintained on Cannes' famous La Croisette, possibly the most expensive strip of real estate on the French Riviera .

Some Lebanese Christian sources say that Muhsin led the attack by Palestinian militias on the Lebanese city of Damur in early 1976 that led to the massacre of Christian residents .

Relations with Syria

Zuhair Muhsins as-Sa'iqa was founded and financed by Syria, as well as being led by the National Command of the Ba'ath Party in Damascus . The organization's loyalty to Syria was so extensive that, at the order of Damascus al-Sa'iqa, even attacked the PLO during the Lebanese civil war. In its political statements, the group has always taken the Syrian position, even during the time when Muhsin was the group's general secretary.

Muhsin rejected the instrumentalization of the PLO by Syria. Hafiz al-Assad proposed Zuhair Muhsin several times as a candidate for the leadership of the PLO, especially in times of conflict with Yasir Arafat . When al-Sa'iqa took part in a Syrian military offensive during the Lebanese civil war against the PLO in 1976, his family's home in Tulkarm in the West Bank was ravaged by angry Palestinians.

There was little support for Muhsin's policies among the Palestinians and within the PLO. His influence was mainly based on the military strength of as-Sa'iqa and dependent on Syrian support. The PLO, however, was apparently always ready to accept Muhsin back into its ranks, although he was temporarily excluded from it, since his participation was a condition for Syria's cooperation. As-Sa'iqa was the second largest group within the PLO after Fatah and well armed compared to other Palestinian groups. Muhsin headed military affairs within the PLO's Executive Committee.

Interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw

Zuhair Muhsin became well known when he made the following statement in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw in March 1977 :

A Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only one means of continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for the benefit of our Arab unity . In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Today we talk about the existence of a Palestinian people for political and tactical reasons only, because Arab national interests demand that we assert the existence of an existing "Palestinian people" in order to oppose Zionism .

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot make claims on Haifa and Jaffa , while I, as a Palestinian, can undoubtedly claim Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba and Jerusalem . However, the moment we claim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait a minute with the unification of Palestine and Jordan.

This was in line with the Greater Syria concept of the Syrian Ba'ath Party, but inconsistent with the PLO's charter , and several pro-Israeli observers have therefore raised the question of the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism (and thus the need for a Palestinian state) . In fact, Muhsin's opinion reflects only one extreme position accepted by a minority in the PLO and Palestinian society, namely that of as-Sa'iqa, which, however, is in line with that of Syria.

literature

• Zuheir Mohsen , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 39/1979 of September 17, 1979, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

swell

1. ↑ Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem ( English ) (HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, 2nd edition), p. 118
2. ^ The Massacre and Destruction of Damour ( English ) Cedarland.org. Archived from the original on June 2, 2007. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
3. ↑ James Dorsey: Wij zijn alleen Palestijn om politieke talk , Trouw. March 31, 1977. Archived from the original on July 10, 2013.