A photo of Mahmoud Al-Hamshari’s tomb
Historical stories
Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was appointed in 1968 as the Palestine Liberation Organization’s envoy to Paris, and went there to form an organization to bring together Palestinian students.
Between 5 and 6 September 1972, in the midst of the Summer Olympic Games held in the German city of Munich, the world followed the kidnapping of members of the Olympic sports delegation by members of the Palestinian organization Black September. In the midst of the operation , the Black September organization called on the Israelis to release approximately 236 detainees in Israeli prisons, as well as Kōzō Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army Organization, accused of being behind the operation at Lod airport.
Furthermore, the kidnapping ended with the killing of 11 Israeli athletes and 5 perpetrators, as well as a German policeman and a helicopter pilot. In the following period, Israel launched an intelligence operation in which it sought revenge against the Black September organization. The Israeli operation led to the assassination of many Palestinian figures, such as the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Paris, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari.
A photo of the hostage rescue operation in Munich in 1972
The envoy of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Paris
Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was born in the Umm Khaled area of Tulkarem on 29 August 1939. Initially, the latter received part of his education in Tulkarem before he and his family were forced to leave their village of Umm Khaled, which it later turned into the settlement of Netanya. During his youth, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari studied in Paris and obtained a professorship in the field of history. Subsequently, Al-Hamshari worked as a teacher in both Kuwait and Algeria, and in 1967 the latter returned to Palestine, where he began his activities alongside the Fatah movement.
In 1968 Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was appointed envoy of the Palestine Liberation Organization to Paris. There, the latter met many French political figures and formed an organization to bring together Palestinian students living in France. On the other hand, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s envoy to Paris until his assassination by the Mossad, when the latter was accused by the Israelis of involvement in the Munich operation in 1972.
A photo of Mahmoud Al-Hamshari
Telephone bomb
According to many sources, the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was organized by the Israeli transport minister, Aharon Yariv, who was responsible for overseeing the attacks against the Black September leaders.
In 1972, a Mossad member posed as an Italian journalist and asked Mahmoud Al-Hamshari to conduct a press interview with him to learn about the course of events regarding the Palestinian issue. On December 7, 1972, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari conducted this interview with the press. Meanwhile, some members of the Mossad took advantage of the situation to infiltrate his house, located in Alésia street, in the south of Paris, to plant a bomb on his phone. The next day, around nine in the morning, the phone at Al-Hamshari’s house rang and as soon as he picked up the phone, the bomb exploded, causing serious injuries to his thigh. At the scene, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari was taken to hospital, where he remained for days before dying on January 9, 1973 due to the consequences of his injury.
Before his death, Mahmoud Al-Hamshari requested that he be buried in Tulkarem. When the Israeli authorities rejected the matter, the latter was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.