No dia 26 de janeiro de 2008 a Palestina perdeu um de seus maiores líderes e sem sombra de dúvida, um dos dois mais influentes de sua geração: George Habash, mais conhecido pelo laqab - cognome - Al-Hakim (o sábio) ou o Doutor.
Al Hakim morreu com 81 anos em um hospital de Amman, capital da Jordânia, onde vinha sendo tratado de doença crônica. Estava "aposentado" da resistência desde 2000, quando sua saúde o enfraquecera ao ponto de impossibilitar seu papel de líder ativo no partido que criara em 1966: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - Frente Popular para a Libertação da Palestina, então o segundo maior partido na composição da OLP - Organização para Libertação da Palestina - o primeiro era o Fatah, de Yasser Arafat. (O Hamas, um partido com tendência religiosa, nessa época, nem era cogitado. A resistência toda era laica).
Al Hakim nasceu na Palestina, em Lydda, na família Habash, cristã e abastada. Seus pais o batizaram George como São Jorge, também nascido em Lydda, mas no século III. Como se George fosse predestinado a grandes batalhas como o Santo retratado a cavalo combatendo dragões e homens mauvados.
Antes de relatar a vida deste George socialista palestino do século XX, que está tão próximo do Che quanto do Georgios que seria santificado, gostaria de dar uma volta pela história do Santo palestino para entender um pouco a premonição dos projenitores de George ao batizá-lo com este nome de peso.
São Jorge nasceu Georgios ((que em grego significa 'trabalhador da terra', algo como 'camponês'). Era filho da cristã palestina Policrônia e de Gerontius, cristão da Capadócia que era um valoroso oficial no Exército de Roma (que então ainda reinava soberana sobre o mundo inteiro). Gerontius morreu quando o filho tinha 14 anos. Policrônia duraria mais pouquinhos anos.
Órfão, Georgios, seguindo o exemplo paterno, resolveu ir a Nicomedia oferecer seus préstimos ao então imperador romano Diocleciano. Este, que conhecera Gerontius, recebeu o rapaz de braços abertos contando que a competência fosse hereditária. Era. O jovem sobressaiu-se logo entre seus pares e aos 20 e tantos, foi promovido à patente de tribunus na guarda imperial. Seus feitos eram louvados e seus préstimos foram se tornando indispensáveis. Até o dia 24 de fevereiro de 303 em que Diocleciano, influenciado pelo anti-cristão Galerius, publicou um edito que ordenava a detenço de todos os soldados cristãos a fim de oferecerem um sacrifício aos deuseus romanos, renegando assim sua fé em Cristo, o que lhes salvaria a vida e os manteria na profissão.
O Imperador reuniu os soldados em questão para a cerimônia contando livrar a barra de seu melhor oficial e tudo continuar do mesmo jeito após este renunciar ao Cristo e louvar implicitamente César ao oferecer sacrifício aos deuses que eram o esteio do Império.
No entanto, Georgios, corajoso e de fé inabalável, em vez de renunciar ao cristianismo realizando um sacrifício ao qual Jesus se recusara, anunciou aos brados 'Sou cristão!' e reiterou publicamente sua devoção a Jesus e não aos deuses pagãos.
Diocleciano tentou convencê-lo a converter-se prometendo terras, escravos, riquezas, em vão. Georgios repetia as mesmas frases de devoção ao Nazareno que o condenavam.
Diocleciano acabou ordenando a execução de Georgios. Mas antes de ser executado, o rapaz doou toda sua fortuna aos pobres e preparou-se espiritualmente. Foi barbaramente torturado. Sofreu inclusive lacerações em uma roda de espadas. Sofreu tanto que teve de ser ressuscitado três vezes, como as negações de São Pedro, e toda vez repetia a mesma frase sucinta e defintiva que selava seu destino imediato.
Quando não tinham mais como maltratá-lo e vendo que ele não morreria dos maus-tratos, foi decapitado nas imediações das muralhas de Nicomedia às vistas da população para que suas chagas e sua cabeça rolando dissuadissem a convicção dos outros cristãos. Em vão. Serviu de exemplo. A própria imperatriz, Alexandra, e um sacerdote pagão jovenzinho, Athanasius (figura de proeminência na futura Igreja em Constantinopla), o apoiaram em seu martírio e se converteram ao cristianismo deixando Diocleciano conjeturando sobre sua própria vocação.
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Graças à influência dos novos convertidos o corpo de Georgios não foi jogado em cova comum e sim levado de volta para a Palestina, para Lydda, sua cidade natal, onde foi sepultado. Seu túmulo logo virou sítio de peregrinação e ele começou a ser venerado como mártir da religião perseguida por israelitas e romanos.
Acabou sendo santificado e Constantino (reino de 306-37) - primeiro imperador romano cristão - construiu em Lydda uma basíilica em sua homenagem. Na época, o Imperador a dedicou a "um homem da maior distinção", sem nomear Georgios. Porém, posteriormente ficou claro a quem a igreja era destinada.
O culto de Georgios ultrapassou as fronteiras da Palestina para a Síria, o Líbano, e de lá para todo o Ocidente até Roma que era o fim de todas as vias. Lá; o papa Gelasius I o canonizou no ano 494.
A basílica que abriga seu túmulo em Lydda foi destruída em 1010 durante a conquista Otomana, mas foi reconstruída em 1191 após a vitória Ocidental no conflito chamado de Terceira Cruzada (1189-92). Ela voltou a ser destruída por Saladin, sultão da dinastia Ayyubid (reinou de 1171-93).
Diz a lenda que São Jorge apareceu para os Francos durante as Cruzadas em uma batalha na Antióquia em 1098 e em Jerusalém no ano seguinte inspirando os cruzados a redobrarem o entusiasmo para reconquistar ambas cidades.
O sítio em ruínas continuou a ser venerado e cuidado pelos palestinos através das décadas e séculos. Acabaram conseguindo reconstruir a basíilica de São Jorge em 1872 e este foi um dos poucos edifícios que os para-militares israelitas depredaram mas deixaram mais ou menos de pé quando invadiram Lydda para esvaziá-la de seus habitantes durante a Naqba. A população foi massacrada ou expulsa, a cidade foi saqueada, enfim, Lydda faz parte do processo de "limpeza" que as cidades palestinas cristãs e muçulmanas sofreram entre 1948 e 1949, e vêm sofrendo até esta data.
Lydda, após ser "despopulada", foi denominada Lod por seus novos proprietários. É lá que se encontra o Aeroporto Internacional Ben Gurion. É nessa cidade, nessa terra banhada de sangue que os viajantes pisam pela primeira vez quando chegam a Israel.
Quem dá uma volta por lá antes de chegar a seu destino final, vê o muro que os israelenses construíram dentro da cidade para a fim de ilhar os moradores palestinos que sobreviveram à Naqba. Vê a parte dos imigrantes judeus se expandindo para o leste, urbanizada, em crescimento imobiliário, e a parte dos nativos árabes cristãos e muçulmanos estacionada, sem desenvolvimento urbano ou social, e seus habitantes privados de autorização até de reformar suas casas; quem dirá de empreender novas contruções, embora paguem imposto como os outros cidadãos israelenses. É o apartheid em grande forma, e crescendo a passos largos.
Não foi na moderna Lod isarelense e sim na Lydda antiga, palestina, perto da basílica de seu xará, que nasceu George Habash, Al-Hakim. Nasceu com todos os ingredientes para seguir os passos do Santo e jamais renunciar às suas convicções e ao seu direito de propriedade das terras e da História de seus antepassados. A sua história segue, abaixo.
Já disse acima que George Habash nasceu em Lydda em 1926. Em 1948, era o melhor aluno da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Americana de Beirute. Quando os para-militares israelitas começaram os massacres ele nem pensou nisso, correu para casa. Queria estar com a família nesse momento dramático e quem sabe, conseguir socorrer seus familiares bloqueados em sua cidade.
Não conseguiria. A Operation Dani estava em marcha (Blog de 08/02/15). Os para-militares israelitas dos grupos Irgun e Haganah estavam armados até os dentes enquanto que ele e os outros rapazes da cidade, estavam desarmados.
Os invasores mataram sua irmã e forçaram sua família, de arma em punho e usando ameaças e violência, à diáspora pilhando e saqueando sua casa do mesmo jeito que fizeram com todas as famílias palestinas. Os pais que até então dispunham de bens e meios tiveram de partir sem nada. Caminharam durante três dias sem comida e sem água até encontrarem um grupo de resistentes que os salvaram da morte que se aproximava.
A partir desta data fatítica, julho de 1948, a família Habash engrossou a estatística da diáspora e nunca mais pôde retornar à Palestina.
George continuou seus estudos no exílio apesar das penas e dificuldades. Em 1951 formou-se em Medicina em primeiro lugar, especializou-se em Pediatria e em vez de montar consultório elegante em Beirute ou Amman, resolveu ajudar seus compatriotas nos campos de refugiados na Jordânia. Acabou montando uma clínica com outro amigo palestino-cristão Wadie Haddad, nascido em Safed, outra cidade pilhada e destruída durante a Nakba para que os donos das casas jamais pudessem reclamá-las.
Já em 1951 Habash fundou o Movimento Nacionalista Árabe alinhado à organização nacionalista árabe do presidente do Egito Gamal Abdel Nasser. Seu propósito era sensibilizar os estrangeiros à causa palestina e foi por isso que entrou de ponta cabeça na resistência, mas sempre atuando nas duas áreas - médica e política - com a mesma dedicação e paixão que eram sua imagem de marca.
Em 1957 ele foi implicado no golpe arquitetado pelos palestinos que compunham a Guarda Nacional do rei da Jordânia. Em resposta, o rei Hussein proclamou lei marcial, baniu todos os partidos políticos, assumiu sua posição de ditador sem a vitrine democrática que até então dissimulava seu autoritarismo, e adquiriu ódio da liderança palestina (demonstraria sua selvageria durante o Setembro Negro - Blog 01/01/12).
George foi julgado e condenado in absentia. Já estava na clandestinidade, escapou para a Síria (então parte da República Árabe Unida), mas teve de voltar para Beirute em 1961 por causa do desmantelamento desta entidade pluri-Estado.
Em 1964 ele começou a reestruturar o MNA regrupando os palestinos em uma organização de comando regional. O resultado da Guerra dos Seis Dias (em que Israel, com ajuda de França, Inglaterra e EUA derrotou os países árabes e ocupou os Golã e a Palestina) o desiludiu de Nasser. Foi então que fundou, com o amigo Habash, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - PFLP (Frente Popular para a Libertação da Palestina). ambos já eram membros proeminentes da OLP - Palestine Liberation Organization - PLO, e seu partido recém-criado já nasceu membro desta entidade que englobava todos os movimentos de resistênciaa.
Em 1968 foi detido na Síria, mas conseguiu fugir. Depois brigou com seu velho aliado Wadie Haddad (talvez pelo radicalismo deste e sua reticência em cumprir ordens de sua liderança, supostamente, por ter virado agente do KGB) - Haddad seria envenenado pelo Mossad e morreria na Alemanha Oriental em março de 1978). O certo é que ambos continuaram no PFLP, que continuou sua marcha com um membro que começou a agir por conta própria e ficou incontrolável.
No ano seguinte Habash afirmou durante o congresso do partido que o PFLP era um movimento Marxista-Leninista. (Continua com tendência socialista até nossos dias. Não como antes, mas como uma força política cristã-laica de esquerda dentro da OLP).
No congresso seguinte em 1969 houve uma cisão no PFLP. Dois membros mais jovens, de ultra-esquerda - Nayef Hawatmeh e Yasser Abd Rabbo - saíram e formaram o Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hoje conhecido como Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) - Frente Democrática para a Libertação da Palestina.
Sob o comando de Habash , o PFLP foi um dos grupos de resistência mais ativos e mais radicais. Foi o precursor dos sequestros de avião, de ataques a empresas multinacionais israelenses no exterior (já que seus dirigentes eram vítimas da diáspora e não podiam pisar em sua terra natal), e dos bombas-suicidas.
A OLP, sob liderança do Fatah e de Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat), em público, criticava suas ações; em privado, os deixava agir porque não tinham melhor solução. (Como Arafat faria mais tarde com os grupos armados do Fatah durante sua presidência da Autoridade Nacional Palestina).
Em 1970, durante o Black September, citado acima de passagem, Habash foi expulso da Jordânia junto com todos os líderes palestinos que sobreviveram à "limpeza' feita pelo rei Hussein.
Quando em 1974 o Conselho Nacional Palestino adotou uma resolução reconhecendo a solução dos Dois Estados para resolver o conflito, Habash opôs-se a esta solução que o impedia de retornar à sua casa, à sua cidade do outro lado da Linha Verde. Formou então a Frente Rejecionista com outros partidos, inclusive o DFLP de seus ex-camaradas. Defendia ferrenhamente o Direito de Retorno dos refugiados, que Yasser Arafat mostrava-se pronto a negociar.
Mais tarde Habash voltaria a alinhar-se à OLP (afinal, estavam todos no mesmo barco e vivendo no exílio entre Beirute e Damasco). Durante a Guerra do Líbano na década de 70 o partido foi quase totalmente dizimado. Ele foi parar em Damasco onde, em 1980, sofreu infarto que o debilitou bastante e possibilitou a emergência de uma liderança mais jovem, que não o pôs de lado e sim respeitava seu comando.
Al-Hakim era amigo de um grande intelectual palestino, o poeta Mahmoud Darwich, com quem está na foto ao lado junto com Abu Amar.
Apesar de sua proximidade com Arafat, os dois líderes discordavam em muita coisa. Sobretudo nos Acordos de Oslo que Habash rejeitou por inteiro por prever que eram uma miragem feita para enganá-los e ganhar terreno. Estava certo.
Acabou se afastando do Fatah (partido com o qual compartilhava história e ideologia laica) e se aproximando dos partidos que emergiram na Faixa de Gaza durante a Intifada da década de 80 que permitiu o retorno de Arafat. Estes partidos eram o Jihad Islâmico (fundado pelo pediatra Fathi Shaqaqi, nascido em 1951 em campo de refugiado em Rafah, de família expulsa de Zanuqa, cidade palestina 'despopulada' pelo Haganah nos dias 27-28 de maio de 1948) e a organização estimulada por Israel e depois demonizada, Hamas (fundado pelo sheik Yassine, líder da Irmandade Muçulmana na Faixa, e seis intelectuais locais). Al-Hakim entendera que o Hamas era incontornável na luta pela libertação da Palestina e para efetivas um processo de paz.
Esta aproximação não impediu que o Sábio pensasse e resolvesse pôr as discordâncias de lado e reaproximar-se de Abu Amar, com quem manteve boas relações, sem trair seus princípios menos conciliatórios, até a morte do líder palestino em 2004.
Nessa data Habash já passara a liderança do PFLP, no ano 2000, a Abu Ali Mustafa (que o Shin Bet assassinaria em 2001 na leva da campanha israelense de assassinatos de líderes palestinos).
Com a morte do amigo, ele continuaria sua militância no partido durante a gestão de seu substituto Ahmad Sa'adat (encarcerado desde 2002). Concomitantemente, montou um centro de pesquisas do partido.
No ano que precedeu sua morte, o lamentável ano de 2007 que viu um conflito fratricida entre o Fatah e o Hamas na Faixa de Gaza, Al-Hakim condenou veementemente esta guerra interna manipulada (Blogs 21/09-09/11-14/12/14).
Sua popularidade na Palestina ficou intata de sua morte no dia 26 de janeiro de 2008 até esta data. Muitos jovens palestinos apreciam sua determinaão, seus princípios, sua rejeição dos Acordos de Oslo e seu estilo intelectualizado.
Este George não foi santificado, mas fez juz a seu cognome de Sábio. Era uma pessoa extra-ordinária.
Abu Mazen - Mahmoud Abbas era a antítese de George Habash, mas mesmo assim, o respeitava como todos os seus compatriotas. Decretou três dias de luto na Palestina, mas não conseguiu levar o corpo do combatente de volta para casa. Foi privado de missa de corpo presente na basílica de São Jorge em Lydda. George Al-Hakim foi enterrado no exílio. Em um cemitério cristão no subúrbio de Amman com procissão encabeçada pelo bispo local. Sua memória na Palestina foi preservada através de homenagens - em Ramallah ganhou a praça abaixo, já que sua cidade local, Lydda, foi riscada do mapa.
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O presidente Mahmoud Abbas, do Fatah, o descreveu como "historic leader". O Primeiro Ministro "cassado" Ismail Haniyeh, do Hamas, mandou suas condolências dizendo que Habash "spent his life defending Palestine". Fato irrefutável.
Quanto ao FPLP, continua influente nos distritos majoritariamente cristãos como Belém, Nablus, Jerusalém, Ramallah. Mas só conseguiu eleger três dos 132 deputados que compõem a Assembleia legislativa palestina: Ahmad Sa'adat, Jamil Majdalawi e Khalida Jarrar (com 9.4% dos votos em Belém, .6% em Ramallah, 6.5% no norte da Faixa de Gaza, etc.).
Quem sabe os palestinos conseguirão, quando a Palestina for livre, repatriar o corpo de George Habash, o sábio? Quem sabe, para Jerusalém ou para perto de Yasser Arafat ou de Mahmoud Darwich em Ramallah, com as honras que merece.
Para Israel e os EUA, George Habash era considerado terrorista; para os palestinos, combatente pela liberdade; e muitos estrangeiros o admiravam - não pelos meios brutais (repudiáveis) que utilizou aqui e acolá e sim por sua capacidade de reflexão, por seu humanismo, por sua cultura vasta e variada.
Al Hakim nasceu na Palestina, em Lydda, na família Habash, cristã e abastada. Seus pais o batizaram George como São Jorge, também nascido em Lydda, mas no século III. Como se George fosse predestinado a grandes batalhas como o Santo retratado a cavalo combatendo dragões e homens mauvados.
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| O Martírio de São Jorge. Paolo Veronese, 1564. |
São Jorge nasceu Georgios ((que em grego significa 'trabalhador da terra', algo como 'camponês'). Era filho da cristã palestina Policrônia e de Gerontius, cristão da Capadócia que era um valoroso oficial no Exército de Roma (que então ainda reinava soberana sobre o mundo inteiro). Gerontius morreu quando o filho tinha 14 anos. Policrônia duraria mais pouquinhos anos.
Órfão, Georgios, seguindo o exemplo paterno, resolveu ir a Nicomedia oferecer seus préstimos ao então imperador romano Diocleciano. Este, que conhecera Gerontius, recebeu o rapaz de braços abertos contando que a competência fosse hereditária. Era. O jovem sobressaiu-se logo entre seus pares e aos 20 e tantos, foi promovido à patente de tribunus na guarda imperial. Seus feitos eram louvados e seus préstimos foram se tornando indispensáveis. Até o dia 24 de fevereiro de 303 em que Diocleciano, influenciado pelo anti-cristão Galerius, publicou um edito que ordenava a detenço de todos os soldados cristãos a fim de oferecerem um sacrifício aos deuseus romanos, renegando assim sua fé em Cristo, o que lhes salvaria a vida e os manteria na profissão.
O Imperador reuniu os soldados em questão para a cerimônia contando livrar a barra de seu melhor oficial e tudo continuar do mesmo jeito após este renunciar ao Cristo e louvar implicitamente César ao oferecer sacrifício aos deuses que eram o esteio do Império.
No entanto, Georgios, corajoso e de fé inabalável, em vez de renunciar ao cristianismo realizando um sacrifício ao qual Jesus se recusara, anunciou aos brados 'Sou cristão!' e reiterou publicamente sua devoção a Jesus e não aos deuses pagãos.
Diocleciano tentou convencê-lo a converter-se prometendo terras, escravos, riquezas, em vão. Georgios repetia as mesmas frases de devoção ao Nazareno que o condenavam.
Diocleciano acabou ordenando a execução de Georgios. Mas antes de ser executado, o rapaz doou toda sua fortuna aos pobres e preparou-se espiritualmente. Foi barbaramente torturado. Sofreu inclusive lacerações em uma roda de espadas. Sofreu tanto que teve de ser ressuscitado três vezes, como as negações de São Pedro, e toda vez repetia a mesma frase sucinta e defintiva que selava seu destino imediato.
Quando não tinham mais como maltratá-lo e vendo que ele não morreria dos maus-tratos, foi decapitado nas imediações das muralhas de Nicomedia às vistas da população para que suas chagas e sua cabeça rolando dissuadissem a convicção dos outros cristãos. Em vão. Serviu de exemplo. A própria imperatriz, Alexandra, e um sacerdote pagão jovenzinho, Athanasius (figura de proeminência na futura Igreja em Constantinopla), o apoiaram em seu martírio e se converteram ao cristianismo deixando Diocleciano conjeturando sobre sua própria vocação.
Acabou sendo santificado e Constantino (reino de 306-37) - primeiro imperador romano cristão - construiu em Lydda uma basíilica em sua homenagem. Na época, o Imperador a dedicou a "um homem da maior distinção", sem nomear Georgios. Porém, posteriormente ficou claro a quem a igreja era destinada.
O culto de Georgios ultrapassou as fronteiras da Palestina para a Síria, o Líbano, e de lá para todo o Ocidente até Roma que era o fim de todas as vias. Lá; o papa Gelasius I o canonizou no ano 494.
A basílica que abriga seu túmulo em Lydda foi destruída em 1010 durante a conquista Otomana, mas foi reconstruída em 1191 após a vitória Ocidental no conflito chamado de Terceira Cruzada (1189-92). Ela voltou a ser destruída por Saladin, sultão da dinastia Ayyubid (reinou de 1171-93).
Diz a lenda que São Jorge apareceu para os Francos durante as Cruzadas em uma batalha na Antióquia em 1098 e em Jerusalém no ano seguinte inspirando os cruzados a redobrarem o entusiasmo para reconquistar ambas cidades.
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| Basílica de São Jorge, 1920 Lydda antes da Naqba |
Lydda, após ser "despopulada", foi denominada Lod por seus novos proprietários. É lá que se encontra o Aeroporto Internacional Ben Gurion. É nessa cidade, nessa terra banhada de sangue que os viajantes pisam pela primeira vez quando chegam a Israel.
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| O mesmo sítio, hoje. Direitas para a esquerda: Basílica, mesquita, sinagoga. A arquitetura atesta a História |
Não foi na moderna Lod isarelense e sim na Lydda antiga, palestina, perto da basílica de seu xará, que nasceu George Habash, Al-Hakim. Nasceu com todos os ingredientes para seguir os passos do Santo e jamais renunciar às suas convicções e ao seu direito de propriedade das terras e da História de seus antepassados. A sua história segue, abaixo.
George Habash 1970
Os invasores mataram sua irmã e forçaram sua família, de arma em punho e usando ameaças e violência, à diáspora pilhando e saqueando sua casa do mesmo jeito que fizeram com todas as famílias palestinas. Os pais que até então dispunham de bens e meios tiveram de partir sem nada. Caminharam durante três dias sem comida e sem água até encontrarem um grupo de resistentes que os salvaram da morte que se aproximava.
A partir desta data fatítica, julho de 1948, a família Habash engrossou a estatística da diáspora e nunca mais pôde retornar à Palestina.
George continuou seus estudos no exílio apesar das penas e dificuldades. Em 1951 formou-se em Medicina em primeiro lugar, especializou-se em Pediatria e em vez de montar consultório elegante em Beirute ou Amman, resolveu ajudar seus compatriotas nos campos de refugiados na Jordânia. Acabou montando uma clínica com outro amigo palestino-cristão Wadie Haddad, nascido em Safed, outra cidade pilhada e destruída durante a Nakba para que os donos das casas jamais pudessem reclamá-las.
Já em 1951 Habash fundou o Movimento Nacionalista Árabe alinhado à organização nacionalista árabe do presidente do Egito Gamal Abdel Nasser. Seu propósito era sensibilizar os estrangeiros à causa palestina e foi por isso que entrou de ponta cabeça na resistência, mas sempre atuando nas duas áreas - médica e política - com a mesma dedicação e paixão que eram sua imagem de marca.
George foi julgado e condenado in absentia. Já estava na clandestinidade, escapou para a Síria (então parte da República Árabe Unida), mas teve de voltar para Beirute em 1961 por causa do desmantelamento desta entidade pluri-Estado.
Em 1964 ele começou a reestruturar o MNA regrupando os palestinos em uma organização de comando regional. O resultado da Guerra dos Seis Dias (em que Israel, com ajuda de França, Inglaterra e EUA derrotou os países árabes e ocupou os Golã e a Palestina) o desiludiu de Nasser. Foi então que fundou, com o amigo Habash, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - PFLP (Frente Popular para a Libertação da Palestina). ambos já eram membros proeminentes da OLP - Palestine Liberation Organization - PLO, e seu partido recém-criado já nasceu membro desta entidade que englobava todos os movimentos de resistênciaa.
Em 1968 foi detido na Síria, mas conseguiu fugir. Depois brigou com seu velho aliado Wadie Haddad (talvez pelo radicalismo deste e sua reticência em cumprir ordens de sua liderança, supostamente, por ter virado agente do KGB) - Haddad seria envenenado pelo Mossad e morreria na Alemanha Oriental em março de 1978). O certo é que ambos continuaram no PFLP, que continuou sua marcha com um membro que começou a agir por conta própria e ficou incontrolável.
No ano seguinte Habash afirmou durante o congresso do partido que o PFLP era um movimento Marxista-Leninista. (Continua com tendência socialista até nossos dias. Não como antes, mas como uma força política cristã-laica de esquerda dentro da OLP).
No congresso seguinte em 1969 houve uma cisão no PFLP. Dois membros mais jovens, de ultra-esquerda - Nayef Hawatmeh e Yasser Abd Rabbo - saíram e formaram o Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hoje conhecido como Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) - Frente Democrática para a Libertação da Palestina.
Sob o comando de Habash , o PFLP foi um dos grupos de resistência mais ativos e mais radicais. Foi o precursor dos sequestros de avião, de ataques a empresas multinacionais israelenses no exterior (já que seus dirigentes eram vítimas da diáspora e não podiam pisar em sua terra natal), e dos bombas-suicidas.
A OLP, sob liderança do Fatah e de Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat), em público, criticava suas ações; em privado, os deixava agir porque não tinham melhor solução. (Como Arafat faria mais tarde com os grupos armados do Fatah durante sua presidência da Autoridade Nacional Palestina).
Em 1970, durante o Black September, citado acima de passagem, Habash foi expulso da Jordânia junto com todos os líderes palestinos que sobreviveram à "limpeza' feita pelo rei Hussein.
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| Al-Hakim e Abu Amar entre oficiais libaneses em 1976 |
Mais tarde Habash voltaria a alinhar-se à OLP (afinal, estavam todos no mesmo barco e vivendo no exílio entre Beirute e Damasco). Durante a Guerra do Líbano na década de 70 o partido foi quase totalmente dizimado. Ele foi parar em Damasco onde, em 1980, sofreu infarto que o debilitou bastante e possibilitou a emergência de uma liderança mais jovem, que não o pôs de lado e sim respeitava seu comando.
Apesar de sua proximidade com Arafat, os dois líderes discordavam em muita coisa. Sobretudo nos Acordos de Oslo que Habash rejeitou por inteiro por prever que eram uma miragem feita para enganá-los e ganhar terreno. Estava certo.
Acabou se afastando do Fatah (partido com o qual compartilhava história e ideologia laica) e se aproximando dos partidos que emergiram na Faixa de Gaza durante a Intifada da década de 80 que permitiu o retorno de Arafat. Estes partidos eram o Jihad Islâmico (fundado pelo pediatra Fathi Shaqaqi, nascido em 1951 em campo de refugiado em Rafah, de família expulsa de Zanuqa, cidade palestina 'despopulada' pelo Haganah nos dias 27-28 de maio de 1948) e a organização estimulada por Israel e depois demonizada, Hamas (fundado pelo sheik Yassine, líder da Irmandade Muçulmana na Faixa, e seis intelectuais locais). Al-Hakim entendera que o Hamas era incontornável na luta pela libertação da Palestina e para efetivas um processo de paz.
Nessa data Habash já passara a liderança do PFLP, no ano 2000, a Abu Ali Mustafa (que o Shin Bet assassinaria em 2001 na leva da campanha israelense de assassinatos de líderes palestinos).
Com a morte do amigo, ele continuaria sua militância no partido durante a gestão de seu substituto Ahmad Sa'adat (encarcerado desde 2002). Concomitantemente, montou um centro de pesquisas do partido.
No ano que precedeu sua morte, o lamentável ano de 2007 que viu um conflito fratricida entre o Fatah e o Hamas na Faixa de Gaza, Al-Hakim condenou veementemente esta guerra interna manipulada (Blogs 21/09-09/11-14/12/14).
A grande-mídia descreve George Habash e seus atos, em 1970
Este George não foi santificado, mas fez juz a seu cognome de Sábio. Era uma pessoa extra-ordinária.
Abu Mazen - Mahmoud Abbas era a antítese de George Habash, mas mesmo assim, o respeitava como todos os seus compatriotas. Decretou três dias de luto na Palestina, mas não conseguiu levar o corpo do combatente de volta para casa. Foi privado de missa de corpo presente na basílica de São Jorge em Lydda. George Al-Hakim foi enterrado no exílio. Em um cemitério cristão no subúrbio de Amman com procissão encabeçada pelo bispo local. Sua memória na Palestina foi preservada através de homenagens - em Ramallah ganhou a praça abaixo, já que sua cidade local, Lydda, foi riscada do mapa.
Quanto ao FPLP, continua influente nos distritos majoritariamente cristãos como Belém, Nablus, Jerusalém, Ramallah. Mas só conseguiu eleger três dos 132 deputados que compõem a Assembleia legislativa palestina: Ahmad Sa'adat, Jamil Majdalawi e Khalida Jarrar (com 9.4% dos votos em Belém, .6% em Ramallah, 6.5% no norte da Faixa de Gaza, etc.).
Quem sabe os palestinos conseguirão, quando a Palestina for livre, repatriar o corpo de George Habash, o sábio? Quem sabe, para Jerusalém ou para perto de Yasser Arafat ou de Mahmoud Darwich em Ramallah, com as honras que merece.
Para Israel e os EUA, George Habash era considerado terrorista; para os palestinos, combatente pela liberdade; e muitos estrangeiros o admiravam - não pelos meios brutais (repudiáveis) que utilizou aqui e acolá e sim por sua capacidade de reflexão, por seu humanismo, por sua cultura vasta e variada.
Eis a história de George Habash contada em outro idioma, de outra forma :
Palestinian resistance fighter and fouder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), George Habash, died on January 26 from a heart attack, aged 81.
He was known as Al-Hakim (The Wise One) and was one of the most influential leaders of the Palestiinian national liberation struggle.
Born in Lyddia in 1926 into a wealthy Christian family, Habash was a product of his time. In 1936, at 10, he witnessed the Palestinian revolt and was exposed to ideas of nationalism and revolutionary combat, although his family didn't take any part on the fighting.
Then, in 1948 he was one of the thousands Palestinian victims of the Nakba. His sister was killed during the 'cleaning' of his town.
In his own words "I was born to well-to-do-merchants, unable to return home. Before 1948 I was far from politics... I have seen with my own eyes the Israeli army entering the town where I was bornand killing its inhabitants... They have killed our people and expelled us from our homes, towns. On the way from Lydda to Ramallah I have seen children, young and old people dying. What can you do after you have seen all this? You cannot bu become a revolutionay and fight for the cause. Your own cause as well as that of your own people..." He never forgot those who died during the Nakba.
A medical student at the American University of Beirut at the time, Habash was visiting his family in Palestine when Lydda was over-run by a Zionist terror gang in collaboration with Haganah, the forerunner to the Israeli Defensive Forces, IDF, which ethnically cleansed the city of its 20,000 residents in what became known as the 'Lydda death march'.
Historians say that more than 335 men, whomen and children died in the march. Prior to the Death March, dozens of people had been massacred in the town during the attack.
After getting his degree, Habash worked as a doctor in the refugee camps in Jordan, witnessing the everyday suffering of this people in exile. During the period he was drawn towards Egyptian president Gamal Nasser's pan-Arab nationalism. In 1957, he was forced to flee as the Jordanian regime began to crack down on political activists after uncovering a plot to install democracy in the country.
In 1958, along with other former classmates, Habash established the Harakat al-Qawmeyon AL-Arab (The Arab Nationalist Movement). Following Israel victory - with the help of the USA, France and Great Britain - in the Six Day war in 1967 and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, he co-founded with Wadie Haddad the PFLP.
Over the next decade the PFLP became one of the leading Palestinian factions, second only to Yasser Arafat's Fatah. While both Fatah and the PFLP viewed the liberation of Palestine as their main goal, the two organisations differed on their methods.
Given Arafat's family background, the Fatah emphasised the struglle's Palestinian character, defining itself as a popular movement that had 'it's roots in the people', rather than an organisation that represented the Palestinian people in the pan-Arab struglle against colonialism and imperialism. Fatah saw armed struglle as a means of advancing its political goals, and coupled it with diplomatic initiatives.
Given Habash's traumatic experience of the Nakba, the PFLP under him, however, draw its ideological roots from pan-Arab nationalism and Marxist-Leninism. As he had suffered directly from Zionist violence, his party sought to use 'revolutionay violence' to achieve its goals, stating in its inaugural statement issued in 1967 that this was 'the only language that the enemy understands'... The PFLP defined its historic task as opening up a struggle agains the Zionist enemy by "turning the occupied territories into an inferno whose fires consume the usurpers".
Habash himself said that "the entire masses of our Palestinian people live today for the first time since the catasfrophe of 1948 on a completely occupied Palestinian territory, confronting a rapacious enemy face to face, and we now must take up this challenge to its conclusion or we must accept or surrender to the ambitions of the enemy and the daily humiliation of our people and absorbed fortunes of our lives".
In 1970, the PFLP burst onto the world stage when its fighters hijacked and destroyed two airplanes. "When we hijack a plane", said Habash, "it has more effect than if we killed a jundred Israelis in battle... For decades world public opinion has been neither ofr no against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now."
And the world did talk about Palestininians, but as dangerous terrorists. Therefore, when King Hussein of Jordan staged the Black September killing and expulsion of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), the umbrella group of Palestinian resistance factions, from Jordan, the world applauded instead of condemning.
Habash later rejected the tactic of carrying out attacks on Western governments, but continued to affirm its right to engage in armed struglle against the Israeli occupiers.
In the 1980's, Habash suffered a stroke and was force to step back from activiy. In the 1990' he lived in Syria and Jordan. After Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, Habash and the PFLP accused Arafat of selling out the Palestinian national liberation movement. (The Accords committed the PLO to accept limited rule, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority over the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 withe the stated eventual aim of establishing a Palestinian state over those territories.)
In Habash's view this represented a step back from his aim of replacing the Jewish state of Israel with a democratic, secular state, in which people of all ethnicities and religions could live in equality.He felt the Oslo Accords as a betrayal as it was not accompanied by any binding agreement of Israel to resolve long standing Palestinian grievances, such as the right of Palestinians expelled from the territory of Israel to return to their land.
Therefore, along with nine other groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PFLP established the "bloc of 10" who rejected Oslo. After the establishment of PA, Habash vowed never to set foot in PA controlled territory, refusing to give any legitimacy to the accords. "Oslo", he said, "diffused some of the most powerful Palestinian cards, including agreeing to the containment of the intifada, thus bowing at the onset to a clear Israeli ondition; and giving up the legal international framework represented by the United Nations and Security Council resolutions, including those recognizing the right to self-determiantion, to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return, as well as the inalienable right to resist and not to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state".
In 1998, when it was clear that he had been right about Oslo Accords as Israeli was expanding its control over the occupied territories and Palestine was kneeling instead of standing to its rights, he delcared: "There's no chance of justice for Palestinians through a peace process. Thre's no hope for diplomacy to work with the Israelis. It was wrong to brak ranks with Arab negotiating partners... forgetting the true nature of Zionism. The PLO lost its Arab backing, especially from Syria and Lebanon, as well as Palestinian backing represented by palestinian unity.
And Al-Hakim also blamed his fellow Christians in the United States for their rush to sanction the creation of a Jewish state on Palestinian soil, as well as for the continued oppression of Palestinians. "The Israelis could not have done what they did without the support of American Christians. They are responsible for those sitting in the camps today". He called the Palestinian refugee camps "little better' than the Nazi concentration camps for Jews" during World War II.
In the 90's, there weree 85.000 Palestinians in Syria refugee camps and 360.000 in Lebanese camps. While the Syrians granted Palestinians work permits, the Lebanese did not. Habash explained that "The Lebanese Christians opposed granting work permits to the Palestinians. They base their opposition on politics. They say if they accept Palestinians, who are for the most part Muslim, into the mainstream, it will create a political imbalance between Christians and Muslims living in Lebanon."
After his anger against Abu Amar subsided, he undesrstood that what was done was done and that it was through unity that they would gain victory. He decided to make peace and arranged a meeting that would include all Palestinian factions to focus on new strategies to achieve Palestinian rights. "Every Palestinian with a minimum level of responsiblity must think in terms of having a national dialogue. The dialogue must include those who believe in continued armed struggle, such as Hamas and Jihad, as well as Arafat."
The meeting happened abroad, as Israelis were ready to block this reunion of Palestinian forces.
Then came the Second Intifada. Then came the murder of Yasser Arafat. Then came Mahmoud Abbas. Then came conciliation instead of a Nation. Then Fatah crushed every single resistant voice in the West Bank and tried to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Then came battles between brothers. Then Israeli humilliated his people and expanded more and more. Then Al-Hakim called for unity between the warring Palestinian factions, which he did not see happen as it would happen later, after many lost lives. Then George, the warrior, in his last hours, at the hospital, was overjoyed when he heard about the detonation of the Gaza wall, right before he died. It was a gift from Saint George. No doubt.
Then I'll end this eulogy with some of Al-Hakim's words that stayed in my mind: "Every Palestinian has the right to fight for his home, his land, his family, his dignity - these are his rights".
Yes sir! If possible, without violence. I abhor violence. Of all kind. Oppression, humilliation, disposession, bombing, genocide, ethnic cleansing, are unbarable. Are they not?
Then, in 1948 he was one of the thousands Palestinian victims of the Nakba. His sister was killed during the 'cleaning' of his town.
In his own words "I was born to well-to-do-merchants, unable to return home. Before 1948 I was far from politics... I have seen with my own eyes the Israeli army entering the town where I was bornand killing its inhabitants... They have killed our people and expelled us from our homes, towns. On the way from Lydda to Ramallah I have seen children, young and old people dying. What can you do after you have seen all this? You cannot bu become a revolutionay and fight for the cause. Your own cause as well as that of your own people..." He never forgot those who died during the Nakba.
A medical student at the American University of Beirut at the time, Habash was visiting his family in Palestine when Lydda was over-run by a Zionist terror gang in collaboration with Haganah, the forerunner to the Israeli Defensive Forces, IDF, which ethnically cleansed the city of its 20,000 residents in what became known as the 'Lydda death march'.
Historians say that more than 335 men, whomen and children died in the march. Prior to the Death March, dozens of people had been massacred in the town during the attack.
After getting his degree, Habash worked as a doctor in the refugee camps in Jordan, witnessing the everyday suffering of this people in exile. During the period he was drawn towards Egyptian president Gamal Nasser's pan-Arab nationalism. In 1957, he was forced to flee as the Jordanian regime began to crack down on political activists after uncovering a plot to install democracy in the country.
In 1958, along with other former classmates, Habash established the Harakat al-Qawmeyon AL-Arab (The Arab Nationalist Movement). Following Israel victory - with the help of the USA, France and Great Britain - in the Six Day war in 1967 and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, he co-founded with Wadie Haddad the PFLP.
Over the next decade the PFLP became one of the leading Palestinian factions, second only to Yasser Arafat's Fatah. While both Fatah and the PFLP viewed the liberation of Palestine as their main goal, the two organisations differed on their methods.
Given Arafat's family background, the Fatah emphasised the struglle's Palestinian character, defining itself as a popular movement that had 'it's roots in the people', rather than an organisation that represented the Palestinian people in the pan-Arab struglle against colonialism and imperialism. Fatah saw armed struglle as a means of advancing its political goals, and coupled it with diplomatic initiatives.
Given Habash's traumatic experience of the Nakba, the PFLP under him, however, draw its ideological roots from pan-Arab nationalism and Marxist-Leninism. As he had suffered directly from Zionist violence, his party sought to use 'revolutionay violence' to achieve its goals, stating in its inaugural statement issued in 1967 that this was 'the only language that the enemy understands'... The PFLP defined its historic task as opening up a struggle agains the Zionist enemy by "turning the occupied territories into an inferno whose fires consume the usurpers".
Habash himself said that "the entire masses of our Palestinian people live today for the first time since the catasfrophe of 1948 on a completely occupied Palestinian territory, confronting a rapacious enemy face to face, and we now must take up this challenge to its conclusion or we must accept or surrender to the ambitions of the enemy and the daily humiliation of our people and absorbed fortunes of our lives".
In 1970, the PFLP burst onto the world stage when its fighters hijacked and destroyed two airplanes. "When we hijack a plane", said Habash, "it has more effect than if we killed a jundred Israelis in battle... For decades world public opinion has been neither ofr no against the Palestinians. It simply ignored us. At least the world is talking about us now."
And the world did talk about Palestininians, but as dangerous terrorists. Therefore, when King Hussein of Jordan staged the Black September killing and expulsion of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), the umbrella group of Palestinian resistance factions, from Jordan, the world applauded instead of condemning.
Habash later rejected the tactic of carrying out attacks on Western governments, but continued to affirm its right to engage in armed struglle against the Israeli occupiers.
In the 1980's, Habash suffered a stroke and was force to step back from activiy. In the 1990' he lived in Syria and Jordan. After Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, Habash and the PFLP accused Arafat of selling out the Palestinian national liberation movement. (The Accords committed the PLO to accept limited rule, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority over the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 withe the stated eventual aim of establishing a Palestinian state over those territories.)
In Habash's view this represented a step back from his aim of replacing the Jewish state of Israel with a democratic, secular state, in which people of all ethnicities and religions could live in equality.He felt the Oslo Accords as a betrayal as it was not accompanied by any binding agreement of Israel to resolve long standing Palestinian grievances, such as the right of Palestinians expelled from the territory of Israel to return to their land.
Therefore, along with nine other groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PFLP established the "bloc of 10" who rejected Oslo. After the establishment of PA, Habash vowed never to set foot in PA controlled territory, refusing to give any legitimacy to the accords. "Oslo", he said, "diffused some of the most powerful Palestinian cards, including agreeing to the containment of the intifada, thus bowing at the onset to a clear Israeli ondition; and giving up the legal international framework represented by the United Nations and Security Council resolutions, including those recognizing the right to self-determiantion, to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return, as well as the inalienable right to resist and not to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state".
In 1998, when it was clear that he had been right about Oslo Accords as Israeli was expanding its control over the occupied territories and Palestine was kneeling instead of standing to its rights, he delcared: "There's no chance of justice for Palestinians through a peace process. Thre's no hope for diplomacy to work with the Israelis. It was wrong to brak ranks with Arab negotiating partners... forgetting the true nature of Zionism. The PLO lost its Arab backing, especially from Syria and Lebanon, as well as Palestinian backing represented by palestinian unity.
And Al-Hakim also blamed his fellow Christians in the United States for their rush to sanction the creation of a Jewish state on Palestinian soil, as well as for the continued oppression of Palestinians. "The Israelis could not have done what they did without the support of American Christians. They are responsible for those sitting in the camps today". He called the Palestinian refugee camps "little better' than the Nazi concentration camps for Jews" during World War II.
In the 90's, there weree 85.000 Palestinians in Syria refugee camps and 360.000 in Lebanese camps. While the Syrians granted Palestinians work permits, the Lebanese did not. Habash explained that "The Lebanese Christians opposed granting work permits to the Palestinians. They base their opposition on politics. They say if they accept Palestinians, who are for the most part Muslim, into the mainstream, it will create a political imbalance between Christians and Muslims living in Lebanon."
After his anger against Abu Amar subsided, he undesrstood that what was done was done and that it was through unity that they would gain victory. He decided to make peace and arranged a meeting that would include all Palestinian factions to focus on new strategies to achieve Palestinian rights. "Every Palestinian with a minimum level of responsiblity must think in terms of having a national dialogue. The dialogue must include those who believe in continued armed struggle, such as Hamas and Jihad, as well as Arafat."
The meeting happened abroad, as Israelis were ready to block this reunion of Palestinian forces.
Then came the Second Intifada. Then came the murder of Yasser Arafat. Then came Mahmoud Abbas. Then came conciliation instead of a Nation. Then Fatah crushed every single resistant voice in the West Bank and tried to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Then came battles between brothers. Then Israeli humilliated his people and expanded more and more. Then Al-Hakim called for unity between the warring Palestinian factions, which he did not see happen as it would happen later, after many lost lives. Then George, the warrior, in his last hours, at the hospital, was overjoyed when he heard about the detonation of the Gaza wall, right before he died. It was a gift from Saint George. No doubt.
Then I'll end this eulogy with some of Al-Hakim's words that stayed in my mind: "Every Palestinian has the right to fight for his home, his land, his family, his dignity - these are his rights".
Yes sir! If possible, without violence. I abhor violence. Of all kind. Oppression, humilliation, disposession, bombing, genocide, ethnic cleansing, are unbarable. Are they not?
1983
”His very name scatters fire through ice,” wrote Byron of an 18th-century revolutionary leader, and so it has always been with the name of that extraordinary Palestinian, George Habash. Habash died an impoverished refugee in enforced exile in Amman last weekend. What, then, can this revolutionary of a bygone area, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), virtuoso rhetorician, with his charismatic grin, perpetual cigarette and black leather jacket, provide us with now to address today’s bleak geopolitical predicament?
Habash was the archetype of the medic hero, with his free clinic in the Jordan refugee camp, yet his all but forgotten contribution offers a number of powerful lessons to the Middle East today. In an era of unprecedented Arab disunity and reactionary conservatism, and at the zenith of what appears to be an unstoppable juggernaut of Israeli expansionism and accelerating Palestinian defeat and political fragmentation, his model of combining univeralist principle with popular mobilization remains the key to future progress.
For Palestinians, for Arab people in their long anti-colonial struggle against the British and French (and now Americans), and for many anti-colonial movements across the world who learnt and trained under him, his very name embodies that inextinguishable human demand for justice and freedom. His emancipatory model of resistance to injustice, his radical optimism, and above all his tight political organization scorched the consciousness of young people in the Arab world, mobilized masses, created independence movements, trade unions and political parties, and inspired a huge wave of artists, intellectuals and writers from Ghassan Kanafani to Naji el Ali.
One doesn’t have to be a Marxist to measure the enormity of his contribution, nor be devoted to a purist understanding of politics to appreciate the value of his extraordinary force. For 60 years, George Habash engaged in a non-stop struggle for Arab unity, human progress, women’s rights, liberation and equality. Socialist, founder of that great anti-colonial movement of the Arab world, the Movement of Arab Nationalists (MAN), his effect throughout the region was electric: from Yemen, where forces he trained and organized liberated the country from British colonial rule, to the battle for Egyptian-Syrian unity, to Kuwait - which only has a parliament today thanks to MAN’s impact - to the founding of the trade union movement across much of the Gulf. His audacious trajectory raised the spirit and encouraged the dispossessed and disenfranchised to change their own fate.
Currently portrayed in obituaries as the architect of the tactic of airplane hijackings that was never his (and over which he expelled his associate Wadie Haddad from the PFLP), Habash was instead responsible for introducing a much bolder blueprint for international action. From the ANC to Nicaragua, he was a pivotal internationalist who helped make their fight for independence possible: training, encouraging and giving material assistance. This most basic of progressive principles — assisting those who are risking all for their freedom against undemocratic tyranny — is never more relevant than today. Citizens in countries who have obtained their political rights well understand that they are a crucial force in pressuring their own governments to help others achieve theirs — from Pakistan, to Burma, to Palestine.
In the refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1970s, the classic Popular Front partisan brought to the rest of the Palestinian body politic a way of working that enhanced the standard of the entirety of the movement: a rigorous analysis of the political problems of the day, a scrupulous courtesy, a fastidiousness about principle and a real commitment, unlike some other Palestinian political parties, to the advancement of women in their ranks. The space and respect the PFLP accorded to Palestinian women in the political sphere had a salutary effect on the more traditional parts of the movement. In the early years of the PLO, when Fatah and the PFLP and the other parties worked together, a democratic dynamism was fostered that strengthened each. The political realm became a place where everyone could contribute, and the majority of Palestinians participated actively in it.
The last time I sat with George Habash three years ago in Damascus, we discussed for hours the issue closest to his heart, the difficult struggle for justice for those Palestinian refugees who had been expelled from their homes in 1948. He talked a great deal about the Nakba and its devastating continual effect. Although he remained as eloquent and intellectually sophisticated as ever, he described it in such simple and humane terms that it revealed something essential about this issue that still unites Palestinians today, whatever their faction or ideology. Habash always understood the importance of holding fast to the most elementary human rights as the basis for political action.
An eyewitness to the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of people from his home town of al-Lydd in July 1948, and who was transformed forever by that unhealed event to serve the cause of his people for six decades, Habash provides an essential lesson to Palestinians today. The flourishing of more than one political party in the national arena remains the guarantor of not only democracy, but the proven engine for achieving independence — as long as those parties are driven by principle and not simply a desire for power. A colleague visiting Habash in hospital shortly before he died told him how young Palestinian men from a different political party had just destroyed the walls of Gaza in an audacious act, setting free its people from their intolerable imprisonment. George Habash smiled cheerfully and said: “You see the day will come when these borders will fall and Arab unity will be achieved.”
Lucretius celebrated these unforgettable vitai lampada, the torchbearers who bring new hope to us in each generation, “like runners passing on the lamp of life.”
Karma Nabulsi is a fellow at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. This commentary was originally published by The Guardian on 29 January.
"I lived more than half of my life in the US and I never felt the alienation that I felt on the day I read George Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary who passed away last week, labeled as a “terrorism tactician” in a front page obituary in The New York Times. What do you when they want to convince you that a kind and gentle man you met and respected as a person is a terrorist when you know otherwise? Do you quibble with their definitions to no avail? Do you go back and see how they wrote glowing obituaries for Zionist militia leader and later Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, a man whose record of killing civilians is as horrific and grotesque as that of Osama Bin Laden, former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, Fatah Revolutionary Council founder Abu Nidal or Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet?
But they can’t invent facts, and they can’t distort the narrative of Palestinian history. Many of my generation and older knew and respected George Habash. We did not worship him or declare him infallible. We respected that on the personal level he was incorruptible. Here was a man who refused more than the $300 monthly pension he was receiving in Amman, Jordan. Once, a group of wealthy Palestinians schemed to try to pay him in his later years because they did not want the symbol of the Palestinian — the Arab — revolution to die in poverty. He would not budge, not even to accept funds to hire a research assistant to help with his memoirs.
George Habash was the antithesis of Yasser Arafat: he was honest, while Arafat was dishonest; consistent when Arafat was inconsistent; principled, while Arafat was shifty; transparent, while Arafat was deceptive; sincere, while Arafat was fake; dignified while Arafat was clownish; modest, while Arafat was arrogant; tolerant of dissent, while Arafat was autocratic, and on and on.
George Habash embodied an era that extended from the Nakba, or mass expulsions of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948, until the ending of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war in 1976, when the decline of the Left, and the launching of Sadatism began. Up until that time, when a deep ideological transformation took place in the Arab world, Habash was a major actor on the Arab political stage. He was feared by Arab regimes, and respected and loved in the refugee camps. I don’t believe I have ever seen the ordinary people of the camps react to a person as they reacted to Habash. Their love for him was genuine because they felt that he was genuine.
If there is a world revolutionary symbol for the second half of the 20th century, it should be George Habash. He may not be widely known in 2008, but anybody who read a newspaper prior to the rise of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, when Islamism eclipsed the Arab Left, would know him. Habash is one of the main makers of Arab contemporary history and one of the handful of names who changed the course of the Palestinian political struggle.
It is often said that Habash’s “Christianity” — as if he was religious — was the only reason why he was not the leader of the Palestinian national movement, instead of Arafat. I never agreed with the view. Habash’s sincerity, honesty and integrity were the reason why he did not lead the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), while Arafat’s “skills” kept him in power for all those decades. For those who were privileged to have met Habash, his sincerity and honesty came through, as did his natural modesty, and clear sense of himself. Shafiq al-Hout wrote in As-Safir that Habash was a distinctive kind of revolutionary, but then added that he was how a revolutionary should be.
George Habash was shaped by the Nakba. He was born in al-Lydd, Palestine, and his middle class family, like thousands of other families, were violently evicted from their homes by Zionist militias led by Yitzhak Rabin.
Habash was at that time a student at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he had already been inspired by the Arab nationalist ideas in the student club al-‘Urwah al-Wuthqah. He did not wait long to initiate action in revenge after the founding of Israel (we should refer to it as “the destruction of Palestine,” as Zionist propaganda in the West has succeeded in portraying Palestinian national aspirations as an act of “destruction”) — and revenge was his motive early on. He joined ranks with an Egyptian activist to engage in small-scale bombings in Lebanon and Syria. Some of the attacks were actually terrorist: as when a synagogue was bombed. The early Habash was anti-Jewish, but that would change with time. But this small group, Kata’ib al-Fida’ al-‘Arabi, was easy for the authorities to dismantle.
Habash subsequently realized that mass movement and collective action was required. He joined forces with his fellow AUB medical student, the brilliant tactician Wadi’ Haddad, who wanted action and was impatient with theorization and ideological squabbles that occupied hours of meetings. (Haddad’s slogan, “Going after the enemy, everywhere” became the motto for his organization when he was forced to split off from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1971.)
Habash and Haddad joined with other students (who were influenced by the writings and ideas of AUB history professor Constantine Zurayq) to form the Movement of Arab Nationalists. This movement was one of the early political and organizational echoes of the occupation of Palestine in 1948 and left a mark on Arab contemporary politics, inspiring and initiating political organizations throughout the Arab world.
After their graduation from AUB, Habash and Haddad established a clinic for poor refugees in Jordan. There they contributed to the Arab nationalist stirrings that forced King Hussein to oust Glubb Pasha, the British officer who commanded the army, in 1956.
Habash and his comrades also tried to reunite with the Ba’th but came away with the impression that the liberation of Palestine and “armed struggle” were not a priority for the Ba’th or for its founder Michel ‘Aflaq.
Any evaluation of Habash’s career should also take into consideration the mistakes, errors and shortcomings of the experience — some of which can only be seen in hindsight. The Movement of Arab Nationalists was late in realizing the desire of Palestinians for an armed response to the Zionist occupation and threat. It also was not clear in formulating a political explanation of “liberation.” “Revenge” was one of the mottos of the movement, but that scarcely amounted to a political program.
The Movement should also be criticized for developing into an arm of the Egyptian regime; Habash met Egyptian president and symbol of Arab nationalism Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964, and the two men clearly hit it off. In his later years, Habash would cry whenever Nasser’s name would be mentioned. Habash put a high premium on an Arab sense of dignity, which he felt Nasser represented in his dealings with the West — in contrast to the behavior of Sadat and other Arab rulers. One wonders what Habash must have thought when he saw Arab oil rulers literally dancing with US President George W. Bush.
Even in the wake of the Arab defeat in the 1967 War, Habash did not want to break with Nasser despite rising political disillusionment and even anger among the refugees. Habash’s only serious disagreement with Nasser was when the latter accepted the 1969 Rogers Plan, a US political framework for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.
After the war, Habash founded the PFLP which quickly become the second most important Palestinian organization after Fatah, and held that place until the rise of Hamas and the Islamization of Palestinian and Arab politics in the 1980s. The Movement of Arab Nationalists had effectively decided to transform into Marxist-Leninist organizations and adopted the belief that guerrilla warfare against Zionism would achieve the final liberation of Palestine. Unlike Fatah, the PFLP stressed political indoctrination and carefully screened recruits. Young Arabs from different countries joined the struggle, receiving training in camps in Jordan, and later in Lebanon — this was well before the emergence of Dubai as the object of aspiration of Arab youths. Palestine was the destination then.
The PFLP quickly suffered from schisms and defections; the first was by Ahmad Jibril, a recruit of Syrian intelligence, who formed his own splinter group, the PFLP-General Command in 1968 when Habash was in a Syrian jail. The following year, Palestinian politician Nayif Hawatmeh, who was mystified by Habash’s enormous charisma especially as a public speaker, split off and formed the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Other smaller defections followed, and the DFLP would not have long survived if it was not for the support and funding from Arafat who encouraged, funded, and armed many defections in Palestinian organizations to keep himself in control.
The PFLP argued that the liberation of Palestine would be impossible without the liberation of Arab countries from the regimes imposed by the West and Israel. Looking to Vietnam, Habash called for Arab “Hanois,” and stated that the liberation of Palestine passed through every Arab capital. “Armed struggle” was the major path to liberation.
In its early phase, the PFLP showed the promise of charting an independent leftist path, not loyal to the USSR and even flirted with Maoism. But by 1973, it had joined the ranks of Arab communist organizations that pledged allegiance to the Soviet Union.
The PFLP was active in Jordan, and played a major role in Black September — the series of massacres committed by the Jordanian regime in 1970 (with the support of the United States and Israel) against the Palestinians and their fighters. The PFLP like other organizations targeted during Black September relocated to Lebanon and helped agitate the Lebanese political situation.
Earlier in 1970, Habash and the PFLP became famous worldwide when the group orchestrated the hijacking of several airliners to Jordan, releasing all passengers and crew before the planes were destroyed. I once met a German flight attendant who told me that she became a supporter of the Palestinian cause after she heard Habash speak in English to a group of hostages in the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman — and she was one of the hostages. Habash would be a bit defensive about the hijackings in later years; he would hate to be associated with the terrorism of Bin Laden or Abu Nidal. He would argue that the practice was limited to a specific reason (highlighting the plight of the Palestinians when former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir insisted that the Palestinian people did not exist) and for a limited duration. But no fair evaluation should, for better or worse, ignore or gloss over that experience.
Habash also had to deal with Wadi’ Haddad who insisted on continuing with “international operations” despite directives to restrict armed actions to within Palestine. As a result of several actions seen as reckless, Haddad’s membership of the PFLP was “frozen.”
Haddad’s standards for action against Israel and its allies were different from Habash’s. Habash believed that high ethical and political standards should inspire any political and military action. This is not to say that his organization did not commit some acts that violated those standards, but Habash tried not always successfully to reign in the adventurist tendencies of his friend and comrade. For several years, Haddad continued to carry out operations using the name “International Operations of the PFLP” without the blessing of the organization until he was finally expelled.
George Habash was hit hard by the Mossad’s assassination of his PFLP comrade the writer Ghassan Kanafani in 1972, and he suffered a debilitating stroke. Habash himself survived several Israeli assassination attempts; in one, Israel hijacked a plane that it thought carried Habash (he had switched planes only minutes before the flight).
In 1974, Habash froze the PFLP’s membership in the PLO when he realized that Arafat was working for the two-state solution. Habash was instrumental in forming the Rejectionist Front which advocated a non-compromising stance on the liberation of “every millimeter of Palestine,” as Habash was fond of saying in his public speeches. But here was one of Habash’s major mistakes: the front included many organizations that were loyal to or creatures of Arab governments. This gave the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan regimes tremendous influence over the organizations, including the PFLP.
Generous financial subsidies were too hard to resist, and the corruption of the revolution, which had hit Fatah much earlier through Saudi and Gulf funding, also hit the PFLP, and compromised its political independence. The Lebanese base of operations, especially after the eruption of the Civil War in 1975, also compromised the revolution. It quickly became too comfortable a base and the PFLP, like other Palestinian and Lebanese organizations, did not want a radical shift of power on the battlefield. (But the major responsibility for that lies with Arafat and the Syrian regime who did not want to create a radical political order that could trigger a confrontation with Israel.) The PFLP, at least, pursued a policy of supporting the Lebanese National Movement, while Arafat and his associates dragged their feet.
The Rejectionist Front was disbanded in 1977 when Syria and Iraq briefly reconciled following Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem. This period marked the beginning of the decline of the Left and the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Habash began a gradual withdrawal from politics. He had tried for years to leave but his comrades would not let him. They knew that his symbolic presence was too valuable for the PFLP, and feared it would collapse without him. They were right, of course. One can’t speak of the PFLP since 2000, when Habash’s voluntarily resigned from the leadership.
I last saw Habash a few years ago in Damascus, after his retirement. It was very sad for me because I had to compare the last image with the first image when I first met him as a high school student in 1977. His revolutionary impulse and his passions had not waned, but the empty office spoke volumes. The PFLP was almost dead, and Habash was politically irrelevant. I shared with him some of my criticisms of the Popular Front’s long experience, and typically, he was open-minded and very democratic. I was bothered that he seemed too resigned to the rise of the Islamists (Hamas and Hizballah). In my judgment he was too uncritically supportive of both. “We have tried, so let them now try,” he would say, “It is their turn.” I was hoping to hear words regarding the revival of the Left but I did not.
George Habash lived his life for Palestine — every minute of it. He represented a model of revolutionary struggle that is exemplary in its dedication and asceticism, no matter what one thinks of the PFLP or its long political and military experience. One should not hesitate from rendering a harsh judgment against the PFLP; ultimately it failed politically and militarily. And any evaluation of Palestinian political violence must be made in the context of Zionist mass violence that for decades had set out to destroy Palestinian society and resistance and replace it with its own exclusivist vision. But whatever that judgment it should not detract from an appreciation of the profound influence of the PFLP’s founder who helped shape the politics and worldview of a generation. The present political scene is devoid of any leaders of such character."
As’ad AbuKhalil is professor of political science at California State University and founder of the Angry Arab News Service (http://angryarab.blogspot.c. 30/01/2008.
Documentário: Leila Khaled, Highjacker
English subtitles
Sob o comando de George Habash, o PFLP realizou as seguintes ações político-militares em retaliação a operações militares israelenses na Cisjodânia e na Faixa de Gaza :
. The hijacking of an El Al flight from Rome to Lod (Lydda) airport in Israel on 23 July 1968. Many say that the flight was targeted because the PFLP believed Israeli general Yitzhak Rabin, who was Israeli ambassador to the USA, was on board. Several individuals involved with the hijacking, including Leila Khaled deny this. The plane was diverted to Algiers, where 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days, until 31 August;
. Gunmen openend fire on an El Al (Israeli Airlines) passenger jet in Athens about to take off for New York on 26 December 1968, killing one Israeli by mistake – this prompted a terrible reprisal by Israel destroying airliners in Beirut;
. An attack on El Al El Al passengers jet at Zurich airport on 18 February 1969, killing the co-pilot and wounding the pilot;
. Bombings by Rasmea Odeh and other PFLP members killed two Hebrew University students, roommates 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe of a Tel Aviv suburb, on 21 February 1969. The two were killed by a bomb placed in a crowded Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket which the two students stopped in at to buy groceries for a field trip. The same bomb wounded 9 others. A second bomb was found at the supermarket, and defused. Odeh was also convicted of bombing and damaging the British Consulate four days later. In 1980, Odeh was among 78 prisoners released by Israel in an exchange with the PFLP for one Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.
. The hijacking of a TWA Flight from Los Angeles to Damascus on 29 August 1969 by a cell led by Leila Khaled, who became the PFLP's most famous recruit. Two Israeli passengers were held for 44 days;
. Three adult Palestinians and three boys aged 14 and 15 years old threw grenades at the Israeli embassies in The Hague, Bonn and the El Al office in Brussels on the same day, 9 September 1969 with no casualties;
. Attack on a bus containing El Al passengers at Munich airport, killing one passenger and wounding 11 on 10 February 1970;
. On 6 September 1970, the PFLP (including Leila Khaled) hijacked four passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swossaor on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich, and failed in an attempt to hijack an El Al aircraft which landed safely in London after one hijacker was killed and the other overpowered;
. On 9 September 1970, hijacked a BOAC flight from Bahrain to London via Beirut. The Pan Am flight was diverted to Cairo; the TWA, Swissair and BOAC flights were diverted to Dawson's fiels in Zarqa, Jordan. The TWA, Swissair and BOAC aircraft were subsequently blown up by the PFLP on 12 September, in front of the world media, after all passengers had been taken off the planes. The event is significant, as it was cited as a reason for the Black September clashes between Palestinian and Jordanian forces.
. On 30 May 1972, 28 passengers were gunned down at Ben Gurion International Airport by members of the Japanese Red Army in collaboration with the PFLP's Waddie Haddad in what became known as the Lod Airport massacre. Haddad was ordered to stop planning operations, and ordered the attack without the PFLP's knowledge. He had got very friendly with the venezuelian Carlos, the Jackal.
. On 13 October 1977, the PFLP hijacked Lufthansa flight LH181, a Boeing 737 flying from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. After various stopovers the pilot was killed. The remaining passengers and crew were eventually rescued by German counter-terrorism special forces.
. On 12 April 1984 a bus from Tel Aviv was hijacked. Bassam Abu Sharif (que alegaria mais tarde que Daivd Ben-Gurion fora responsável pela morte de John F. Kennedy devido à oposição deste ao projeto nuclear israelense) in Damascus issued a statement in the name of the PFLP claiming responsibility.
. The hijacking of an El Al flight from Rome to Lod (Lydda) airport in Israel on 23 July 1968. Many say that the flight was targeted because the PFLP believed Israeli general Yitzhak Rabin, who was Israeli ambassador to the USA, was on board. Several individuals involved with the hijacking, including Leila Khaled deny this. The plane was diverted to Algiers, where 21 passengers and 11 crew members were held for 39 days, until 31 August;
. Gunmen openend fire on an El Al (Israeli Airlines) passenger jet in Athens about to take off for New York on 26 December 1968, killing one Israeli by mistake – this prompted a terrible reprisal by Israel destroying airliners in Beirut;
. An attack on El Al El Al passengers jet at Zurich airport on 18 February 1969, killing the co-pilot and wounding the pilot;
. Bombings by Rasmea Odeh and other PFLP members killed two Hebrew University students, roommates 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe of a Tel Aviv suburb, on 21 February 1969. The two were killed by a bomb placed in a crowded Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket which the two students stopped in at to buy groceries for a field trip. The same bomb wounded 9 others. A second bomb was found at the supermarket, and defused. Odeh was also convicted of bombing and damaging the British Consulate four days later. In 1980, Odeh was among 78 prisoners released by Israel in an exchange with the PFLP for one Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon.
. The hijacking of a TWA Flight from Los Angeles to Damascus on 29 August 1969 by a cell led by Leila Khaled, who became the PFLP's most famous recruit. Two Israeli passengers were held for 44 days;
. Three adult Palestinians and three boys aged 14 and 15 years old threw grenades at the Israeli embassies in The Hague, Bonn and the El Al office in Brussels on the same day, 9 September 1969 with no casualties;
. Attack on a bus containing El Al passengers at Munich airport, killing one passenger and wounding 11 on 10 February 1970;
. On 6 September 1970, the PFLP (including Leila Khaled) hijacked four passenger aircraft from Pan Am, TWA and Swossaor on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich, and failed in an attempt to hijack an El Al aircraft which landed safely in London after one hijacker was killed and the other overpowered;
. On 9 September 1970, hijacked a BOAC flight from Bahrain to London via Beirut. The Pan Am flight was diverted to Cairo; the TWA, Swissair and BOAC flights were diverted to Dawson's fiels in Zarqa, Jordan. The TWA, Swissair and BOAC aircraft were subsequently blown up by the PFLP on 12 September, in front of the world media, after all passengers had been taken off the planes. The event is significant, as it was cited as a reason for the Black September clashes between Palestinian and Jordanian forces.
. On 30 May 1972, 28 passengers were gunned down at Ben Gurion International Airport by members of the Japanese Red Army in collaboration with the PFLP's Waddie Haddad in what became known as the Lod Airport massacre. Haddad was ordered to stop planning operations, and ordered the attack without the PFLP's knowledge. He had got very friendly with the venezuelian Carlos, the Jackal.
. On 13 October 1977, the PFLP hijacked Lufthansa flight LH181, a Boeing 737 flying from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. After various stopovers the pilot was killed. The remaining passengers and crew were eventually rescued by German counter-terrorism special forces.
. On 12 April 1984 a bus from Tel Aviv was hijacked. Bassam Abu Sharif (que alegaria mais tarde que Daivd Ben-Gurion fora responsável pela morte de John F. Kennedy devido à oposição deste ao projeto nuclear israelense) in Damascus issued a statement in the name of the PFLP claiming responsibility.
Reservistas da IDF, forças israelenses de ocupação,
Shovrim Shtika - Breaking the Silence
"We were in Bethlehem, Nokdim I believe it is called, newr Nokdim. shdema was the name of the base. A thing I've found out just now, during my reserve service, my company commander told me that before going in they would smoke drugs, he and some other officers. I saw things that were in my view, immoral; I was really shocked by the irresponsibility. Because these were people sopme of whom I'd taken as responsible, certainly when dealing with human life, and humanity.
Did they say why they did drugs?
No special reason, just for the kick. Before going out on a reconnaisance tour, something that was expected to warm up, they would sometimes smoke drugs."
Sargento, area de Belém,2001.
(Daniel II)
