Dr
Issam Sartawi (1935 – April 10, 1983) was a senior member of the
Palestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization founded in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United...
(PLO).
Issam Sartawi attended university in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, graduating in medicine, before specializing in
cardiologyCardiology is a specialty dealing with disorders of the heart and blood vessels. The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology. Physicians specializing in this field of medicine are...
and getting his
MDThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Sartawi returned to
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
in 1967, joined the
FatahNot to be confused with Fatah Revolutionary Council also known as Abu Nidal OrganizationFataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum...
movement and helped establish the Palestine Red Crescent Society. He quickly rose to become
Yasser ArafatMohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah political...
's adviser on
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
.
Dr
Issam Sartawi (1935 – April 10, 1983) was a senior member of the
Palestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization founded in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United...
(PLO).
Medical background
Issam Sartawi attended university in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, graduating in medicine, before specializing in
cardiologyCardiology is a specialty dealing with disorders of the heart and blood vessels. The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology. Physicians specializing in this field of medicine are...
and getting his
MDThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Politics
Sartawi returned to
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
in 1967, joined the
FatahNot to be confused with Fatah Revolutionary Council also known as Abu Nidal OrganizationFataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum...
movement and helped establish the Palestine Red Crescent Society. He quickly rose to become
Yasser ArafatMohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah political...
's adviser on
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
. In the mid-1970s he participated with other moderate PLO members at meetings of the Israel-Palestine Peace Council. Sartawi and the senior Israeli negotiator,
Aryeh "Lova" EliavAryeh "Lova" Eliav is an Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for several left-wing parties.-Biography:...
, jointly received the
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
KreiskyBruno Kreisky served as Chancellor of Austria from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after the Second World War.- Life and political career :...
prize in 1979 for seeking an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and for securing the recognition of the state of Israel by the PLO. The meetings between the PLO and the Israel-Palestine Peace Council were detailed in the book '
My Friend, the Enemy' by the Israeli peace activist
Uri AvneryUri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965-74 and 1979-81...
who was one of the negotiators. Palestinian hard-liners were unhappy with Sartawi's peace efforts and induced him to resign from the Palestine National Council. However, Arafat would not accept Sartawi's resignation.
Assassination
In February 1983, Portuguese socialist leader
Mario SoaresMário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares,
GColTE,
GCC,
GColL,
KE , Portuguese politician, served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as President of Portugal from 1986 to 1996.-Background:Soares...
formally invited the PLO to send an observer to the April 1983 congress of the
Socialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of democratic socialist, social democratic, socialist, and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
in
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
. The passionately pro-Israeli
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
LabourThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
prime minister, Bob Hawke, strongly objected to the PLO's invitation; and the SI congress was hurriedly relocated to
AlbufeiraAlbufeira is a Portuguese city and a municipality in the district of Faro, Algarve region. Its name came from the Arabic: البحيرة . The city proper has a population of 13,646. The municipality has a population of 35,281 inhabitants and a total area of 140.6 km²...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. Sartawi was selected by the PLO as its representative at this meeting in Portugal. Because the SI counted both the Israeli Labor Party and the PLO as members, it was hoped that such a meeting could promote the Middle Eastern peace process.
On April 10, 1983 Sartawi was shot and killed in the lobby of the Montechoro Hotel in
AlbufeiraAlbufeira is a Portuguese city and a municipality in the district of Faro, Algarve region. Its name came from the Arabic: البحيرة . The city proper has a population of 13,646. The municipality has a population of 35,281 inhabitants and a total area of 140.6 km²...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. The gunman escaped. Sartawi's assassination (later claimed by the Abu Nidal Organization) was witnessed by SI secretary-general,
Bernt CarlssonBernt Wilmar Carlsson was Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN Commissioner for Namibia from July 1987 until he died on Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988....
, and was assumed to have been carried out so as to frustrate Carlsson's peace efforts. Sartawi's funeral took place in
AmmanAmman , sometimes spelled Ammann , is the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a city of 2,525,000 inhabitants , and the administrative capital and commercial center of Jordan. It is also the largest city in Jordan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world...
and was attended by all factions of the PLO – even including Abu Nidal Organization members (according to
Maxim GhilanMaxim Ghilan was the director of the International Jewish Peace Union, the first Jewish organization to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as a partner in dialogue. He was the co-founder, in 1971, of the periodical Israel and Palestine Political Report.-Early Life:Ghilan was born in...
, founder of the International Jewish Peace Union).
Memorial
In 1998, the Issam Sartawi Center for the Advancement of Peace and Democracy (ISCAPD) was established at the
Al-Quds UniversityAl-Quds University is a Palestinian university in Jerusalem. It was founded in 1984, but its official constitution was written in 1993 when Mohammed Nusseibeh, its first Chancellor and Chancellor of the College of Science and Technology, announced its formation.Its founding constituent colleges...
(the Arab University in Jerusalem) in memory of Sartawi. In 1999, a
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
author André Neves Bento wrote a detailed account of Issam Sartawi's assassination.