Abdel Wael Zwaiter (Arabic: وائل زعيتر; also known as Wa'el Zu'aytir;[1] 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian writer and translator. He was assassinated as the first target of Israel's Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre. Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group,[2] while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution.[3] [4]
Zwaiter was born in Nablus in 1934, the son of Adel Zu'aiter.[5] [6] He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad. Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome, where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy. In addition to his native Arabic, Zwaiter spoke French, Italian, and English. During his time in Italy, Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir, he never completed this.
Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich. When he returned to his apartment building on the night of 16 October 1972, he was killed by two Israeli agents who shot him 11 times in the lobby of the building.[7]
At the time, Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad, deputy-chief of the PLO, stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against political violence.[8] Zwaiter was living with his partner Janet Venn-Brown, an Australian artist, in Rome.[9]
The Italian Communist Party (PCI) declared that it disapproved of the killing of Zwaiter. A funeral ceremony was held for Zwaiter in Rome with the attendance of many people, including officials of the PCI.[10] He was buried in his hometown, Nablus.[11]
“Some of the Arabs we killed in that period, we didn’t know why we were killing them, and they also don’t know to this day why they died,” a Caesarea officer said. “Zwaiter had nothing to do with the killing of the athletes, except, perhaps, that their plane flew over Rome on the way to Munich.”A top Mossad official who looked at the Zwaiter file years too late admitted that “it was a terrible mistake.” Indeed, Palestinians have long insisted that Zwaiter was a peaceable intellectual who abhorred violence. (Granted, similar claims have been made about nearly every other Bayonet target from that period.)[12]
In memoria di Wael e di Nablus, in il manifesto (daily), Rome, September 9, 1993.