Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash In the long history of Palestine, there was a time when the resistance was not shaped by guns but by pens, ideas, and voices. Some poets, writers, diplomats, and intellectuals gave the Palestinian struggle for freedom its cultural strength and political vision. They wrote words so that the whole world could feel the pain of a Palestinian and understand what it is like to be in an occupied land. In the 1970s, Israel systematically targeted and assassinated several of these intellectuals. The aim was to silence the brains of resistance and leave the movement without its most powerful voices. Five of the most prominent among them were Wael Zwaiter, Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Ezzedine Kalak, and Naim Khader. Each was killed far from the land they belonged to, yet each left a legacy that no bullet or bomb could erase. Let’s talk about these freedom fighters. 1. Ghassan Kanafani — Ghassan Kanafani via Palestine Po...
 |
| Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash |
In the long history of Palestine, there was a time when the resistance was not shaped by guns but by pens, ideas, and voices. Some poets, writers, diplomats, and intellectuals gave the Palestinian struggle for freedom its cultural strength and political vision. They wrote words so that the whole world could feel the pain of a Palestinian and understand what it is like to be in an occupied land.
In the 1970s, Israel systematically targeted and assassinated several of these intellectuals. The aim was to silence the brains of resistance and leave the movement without its most powerful voices. Five of the most prominent among them were Wael Zwaiter, Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Ezzedine Kalak, and Naim Khader. Each was killed far from the land they belonged to, yet each left a legacy that no bullet or bomb could erase.
Let’s talk about these freedom fighters.
1. Ghassan Kanafani—
Ghassan Kanafani was a journalist, a novelist and a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organisation. He was born in 1936, and he became one of the most influential Arab writers of the 20th century. His stories, like Men in the Sun and Returning to Haifa, captured the tragedy of Palestinian displacement. He gave a voice to the Palestinians who were dying in the refuge camps; he poured the ache of their suffering into his literature and gave them an identity.
This made him a target for Israel. On 8th July, 1972, Mossad placed a car bomb in Beirut, killing him and his 17-year-old niece, Lamees Najim. His death not only silenced a writer but also directly attacked the idea that Palestinians could have the right to narrate their own story. He proved his own point that:
“The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only but a cause for every revolutionary, for people of conscience.”
Kanafani’s words outlived the men who planted the bomb. His book is still read all over the world.
2. Kamal Nasser—
Kamal Nasser was a poet and an official spokesperson of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He was the editor of Filastin al-Thawra and used his pen to craft a Palestinian national voice. His collection Singing Wounds captured themes of exile, longing, and resistance.
On 10 April 1973, during an Israeli raid on Beirut known as Operation Spring of Youth, Nasser was assassinated along with two other PLO leaders. He was killed in his own home, unarmed, his only crime being that he used poetry and politics to keep alive the idea of Palestine. He once wrote,
“We are a people who do not forget. Our roots are in the land, and no bullet can erase poetry.”
His death proved the first part of that sentence true, and his life proved the second.
3. Wael Zwaiter—
Wael Zwaiter was a Palestinian intellectual and translator living in Rome. He loved literature. He translated One Thousand and One Nights into Italian, hoping to bring Arab culture closer to Europe. Unlike the image Israel painted of Palestinians in those years, Zwaiter was not a militant. He was a man of ideas, a bridge-builder, and a passionate advocate for Palestinian rights. He abhorred any form of violence.
On the night of 16 October 1972, as he returned home, Mossad agents shot him 12 times in the lobby of his apartment building. His assassination was part of Israel’s covert campaign after the Munich massacre, though there was no evidence linking him to those events. Years later, even a top Mossad official admitted that killing Zwaiter “was a terrible mistake”. He was killed simply for being Palestinian and for silencing a Palestinian voice in Europe.
In 2005, Wael Zwaiter was portrayed by actor Makram Khoury in Steven Spielberg’s movie, Munich.
4. Ezzedine Kalak—
Ezzedine Kalak was an intellectual, an activist and a PLO representative in Paris. While attending Damascus University, Kalak joined the Syrian Communist Party, which was suppressed by the government of the former United Arab Republic at the time. He travelled from city to city in France, educating people about the Palestinian cause and the importance of the Palestinians' struggle after he was elected president of the French chapter of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). He believed in building networks with intellectuals, trade unions, and student groups in Europe, bringing the Palestinian struggle into academic debates and political discussions. Kalak was the first Palestinian official to be invited to the Elysée Presidential Palace in Paris to attend the ceremony held by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
“Our presence in Europe is not only political but also cultural. We must speak as a people, not as an issue.”
But Kalak's influence made him a target. On 3 August 1978, he was gunned down in his office in Paris. The assassins were linked to Mossad. His death cut short the promising career of a man who was building bridges of understanding between Palestine and Europe.
5. Naim Khader—
Naim Khader was a diplomat and legal advocate. Born in 1939, Khader played a prominent role in European-Arab dialogue while serving as the PLO representative in Brussels, Belgium, and he became a member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs for the Palestinian National Council. He was the first in Europe to successfully gain recognition for the Palestinian cause. He edited books such as Towards a Socialist Republic of Palestine and Debate on Palestine, expanding the intellectual reach of the movement.
On 1 June 1981, as he stepped outside his home, Israeli Mossad agents assassinated him during Operation Wrath of God. He was gunned down in Ixelles, Brussels.
“Our cause is just, and justice must be explained. The European public can understand if we speak clearly.”
His ability to win European support for Palestine made him more dangerous to Israel than any armed fighter. His life and his work towards the Palestinian struggle made him silent.
Conclusion —
Wael Zwaiter, Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Ezzedine Kalak, and Naim Khader; they all fought with literature, culture, art, diplomacy, and ideas. By killing them, Israel hoped to crush the cultural and political strength of the movement. Yet history shows that the strategy failed. The works of Kanafani are still read. The poetry of Kamal Nasser still inspires. Every Palestinian effort to gain global recognition carries the memory of Zwaiter, Kalak, and Khader.
The genocide in Gaza is one of the most horrific crimes of the 21st century. The weapons that killed then and kill now are largely American-made. The diplomatic cover that protects Israel from accountability is consistently provided in Washington.
Today, their deaths remain unpunished. But their words and their legacies live. They remind us that a struggle is not only fought on battlefields but also fought in libraries, in classrooms, in newspapers, and in the minds of people. Killing the brains of resistance did not kill the resistance. It only made it harder to silence.
Remembering these five men is an act of defiance for me. This is probably the smallest thing I can do as a writer for Palestine. FREE PALESTINE! 🇵🇸
Comments
Post a Comment