Page 39 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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12———Al-Banna, Sabri (1937– )

first operations, and that at its beginning Al Fatah had al-Banna’s worldview. In 1949, the al-Banna family
no separate military wing. resettled in Nablus, on the west bank of the Jordan
Al ’Asifa made international headlines when Sabri River.
al-Banna (also known as Abu Nidal) split from Arafat Al-Banna’s first political involvement occurred
and the Fatah movement in the early 1970s. Al-Banna while attending college in Cairo in the mid-1950s,
condemned Al Fatah’s work for political settlement when he joined the Ba’th Party, a socialist pan-Arab
between Israel and the Palestinians, and is said to have and anticolonialist group whose ideas would influence
been expelled from the organization for plotting to his political views. In 1957, after a brief stint as a
assassinate Arafat. In what many see as a move to teacher, al-Banna moved to Saudi Arabia to work as
prove himself to be the legitimate representative of an electrical engineer. There he joined Al Fatah, the
the true Fatah ideology, al-Banna gave institutions in organization begun by Yasir Arafat to win back
his organization names identical to those in Al Fatah. Palestine from the Israelis. In 1964, Al Fatah united
He called his military operations wing Al ’Asifa. with other Palestinian groups to form the Palestine
Al-Banna’s operatives often claimed responsibility Liberation Organization (PLO). Over the next decade,
for violent acts under the name Al ’Asifa. al-Sabri rose within the PLO, becoming one of
Arafat’s inner circle, and acquiring Abu Nidal
See also ABU NIDAL ORGANIZATION; SABRI AL-BANNA;
(“Father of Struggle”) as a nom de guerre. In 1969,
AL FATAH
al-Banna was sent to Sudan to recruit for Al Fatah. He
spent little more than a year there before being reas-
Further Reading
signed to Baghdad, which in 1970 was dominated by
Aburish, Said K. Arafat: From Defender to Dictator. the Ba’th Party and led by Saddam Hussein.
New York: Bloomsbury, 1998. Al-Banna’s years in Iraq and his reimmersion in
Hart, Alan. Arafat, a Political Biography. London: Ba’thist ideology led to a rupture between him and
Sidgwick & Jackson, 1994. Fatah leaders. Al Fatah and the PLO espoused a form
Wallach, Janet, and John Wallach. Arafat: In the Eyes of the of Palestinian nationalism that, although dependent on
Beholder. Rev. and updated ed. Secaucus, NJ: Carol
Publishing Group, 1997. aid from other Arab nations, was dedicated to creating
Williams, Christian. “Abu Nidal Targets Backers of an independent Palestinian state. Al-Banna subscribed
Mideast Compromise.” Washington Post, February 5, to the Ba’thist belief that the boundaries between
1984. contemporary Arab states were arbitrary—legacies
of colonialism—and that the eventual unification of
all Arab peoples in a single nation-state was the nec-
AL-BANNA, SABRI (1937– ) essary and desirable way for the Arabs to assume a
position of world power. Accordingly, Israel, having
aka Abu Nidal
been imposed upon the Arabs by the West, was an
obstacle to Arab unity and must be eliminated. The
Sabri al-Banna, known to the world as Abu Nidal, existence of Israel also offered an opportunity to forge
is a terrorist mastermind whose various organizations Arab unity through fighting this common enemy. To
have been responsible for an estimated 900 deaths. al-Banna, the fight for the liberation of Palestine was
Born in the town of Jaffa in 1937, in what was then the cornerstone in creating an Arab world power; any
British-ruled Palestine, al-Banna’s early years were move from armed struggle toward political accommo-
spent in luxury. His father, Ibrihim al-Banna, owned a dation placed this goal in jeopardy, anyone who dared
fruit-exporting business that made him one of the make such accommodations was as much his enemy as
richest men in the country. His 18 children and several the Israelis.
wives wanted for nothing. When al-Banna was 9, his In the early 1970s, Arafat began to downplay
father died; the family was left in difficult financial Fatah’s terrorism and to maneuver for political recog-
straits partly because of the political turmoil in the nition; Arafat’s 1974 address to the United Nations
Middle East. In 1948, the al-Banna family was forced was a major step in legitimizing him on the world’s
to flee Jaffa and the advancing Israeli Army. For more stage. Al-Banna protested strenuously, causing Fatah’s
than a year, they were destitute refugees; this year of leadership to question his loyalty. In 1974, al-Banna
poverty and humiliation forever shaped the young left the organization. Using his Iraqi base, he began