PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 99

Pen, politics and bitter bread
Majed Abu Sharar, assassinated in 1981
In the photograph hanging above the sofa in the family
home in Dura, 1 he is standing. The eldest of the boys seems
to be elsewhere behind his thin glasses, eyes gazing into
the distance, looking pensive. A soulful face. This fleeting
vision chills the heart, because we know that everything
that emanates from him in that moment, all his internal
dialogue, his integrity as well as his dreams, will cost him
his life some 30 years later, in 1981.
Here, Majed’s story is told by his family, his childhood
friends, his colleagues, his companions in advocacy, all
those who valued the man, both the poet and the politi-
cian. If, in these few pages, we have attempted to tell of
a life that was as eventful as it was short, it is because it
embodies a whole generation that grew up around the idea
of needing to return to Palestine, of needing to fight for
that. He chose the political route, hoping to find there the
means of regaining a modicum of dignity, but he paid a
heavy price for his involvement because, like many others,
it made him a target for Israel. A target to shoot.
His assassination is one in a long list of intellectuals and
thinkers from various Palestinian movements who were
eliminated by the Zionist state. Deterrent and destabi-
lizing, these carefully planned executions – often using a
car bomb or a parcel bomb – started when the Palestinian
resistance movements began taking shape in the 1960s and
1970s. They were carried out mostly in Lebanon, where
these organizations had their headquarters, but sometimes
in Europe too, when their leaders were visiting there. 2 They
aimed to decapitate the historical leadership of the PLO. 3
The death of Majed coincided with a radical change
in the political situation in the region. Israel’s invasion
of Lebanon in 1982, the division within the ranks of
Fatah, followed by the relocation of the PLO from Beirut
to Tunis, would all put an end to the idea, predominant
until then, that the Palestinian national movement could
pave the way for an Arab Revolution. 4
Since it was not possible to bury Majed Abu Sharar
in the family cemetery in his home town of Dura, he is
buried in Beirut, at the cemetery of the Martyrs of Sha-
tila, next to all the Palestinians, Arabs and non-Arabs
who paid with their lives for their militant involvement
in the Palestinian cause.
His closest friends had advised him against it: going to
Rome for a few days to attend a conference bringing
together writers, journalists and political Palestinians
was risky given his role as part of the management of
Fatah’s military council in charge of the Hebron dis-
trict, and as a member of the Fatah Central Committee.
But Majed had a tendency to do whatever he wanted,
even if he knew he was a potential target for Mossad,
as were his close collaborators Kamal Adwan, Ghassan
Kanafani and so many others who were assassinated
during the 1970s. Along with the poet Mahmoud
Majed
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