Wazir’s Manner Belied His Image as Terrorist

Khalil Wazir, the Palestine Liberation Organization guerrilla leader assassinated in Tunisia on Saturday, was a soft-spoken man whose personality seemed at odds with his image as a hard-core fighter.

A meticulous planner, the 52-year-old guerrilla leader was one of the PLO’s most important figures. He was chief deputy to Yasser Arafat in the PLO’s dominant Fatah faction and also Fatah’s military commander.

The stocky Wazir, who came from Ramle in what was then British-controlled Palestine, was one of the earliest architects of the Palestinian struggle for a homeland, starting his guerrilla career as a teen-age confidant of Arafat. His lifelong commitment to the cause was rooted in the slums of Gaza, where his family took shelter after being expelled from their home.

He later became a diplomatic trouble-shooter, arms buyer, military strategist and Arafat’s right-hand military aide.

Israel has accused Wazir of masterminding last month’s bus hijacking in the Negev Desert in which three terrorists and three Israelis were killed.

Wazir is also said to have been responsible for turning the Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza into a semi-permanent challenge to the 20-year Israeli occupation. According to Palestinian sources in Tunis, it was that role that made him a prime target for assassination.

Wazir, known as a mild-mannered man, was the first of the three founders of Fatah to be killed. In 1964, he, Arafat and another Palestinian guerrilla leader, Salah Khalaf, formed Fatah, which was later to evolve into the PLO. All three had survived many attempts on their lives in the last two decades.

Wazir rarely wore a uniform, and because of his neatly pressed safari suits was often described as the best-dressed guerrilla.

He was known as a moderate in PLO terms and “the revolution’s honest man,” one who listened more than he spoke.

Bodyguards called him the “Wailing Wall” and complained that scores of people were allowed to visit him every day to tell their troubles and seek his help.

Wazir--whose nom de guerre, Abu Jihad, means Father of Holy War--was born Oct. 10, 1935. He married his childhood sweetheart, Intissar, and they had five children. An important figure in Fatah, she uses the nom de guerre Umm Jihad, or Mother of Holy War.

Wazir lived in Beirut between 1976 and 1982, in Tunis from 1982 to 1984 and in Jordan until he was deported in 1986. After his deportation, he returned to the PLO headquarters in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.

Wazir helped build the PLO’s organization in Lebanon in the 1970s, when it became a virtual state within a state. In April, 1975, when Lebanon’s civil war broke out, he commanded the Palestinian and Lebanese Muslim forces against Israeli-backed Christian militias.

When the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in 1982 to crush the PLO, he was evacuated on the same ship with Arafat under the protection of a U.S. Marine force.

On Sunday, hundreds of black flags were flying over the West Bank and Gaza to mourn his death. Wazir is scheduled to be buried Tuesday in Amman, Jordan.