Kamal Nasser

**Kamal Nasser** (Arabic: كمال بطرس ابراهيم يعقوب ناصر; Sept 1925 – 10 April 1983) was a Palestinian politician, writer and poet, who served as 8th Prime Minister of Palestine from 1979 until his death in 1983.

## Biography

Nasser was born in Bir Zeit in 1925 to a Palestinian Christian family. He was educated at Bir Zeit school (now Bir Zeit University), then studied political science at the American University of Beirut, graduating in 1945. Later he worked as a teacher while studying law in Jerusalem. In the period following the 1947 Mandatory Palestine War and 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Nasser worked as a journalist. He was responsible for publishing the newspaper of the Ba'ath Party's Palestinian Regional Branch from a printing house in Ramallah, and also set up the militant neo-Ba'athist newspaper *El-Jil el-Jadid* (The New Era). In 1956, he was elected to the Palestine Arab Congress, representing the electoral district of Ramallah, which at the time was overwhelmingly pro-Ba'ath.

Nasser was expelled from the country in 1967 by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), shortly after the Six-Day War and start of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Nasser joined the Palestinian National Salvation Front (PNSF) in Cairo in 1970, soon becoming editor of its newspaper *Falastin el-Thawra* (Revolution Palestine), which was widely circulated by partisan networks amongst the two million Arabs living under IDF martial rule in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai. This newspaper, among other partisan media, had a significant effect in escalating and channelling the moral outrage of the Palestinian community toward the occupation, for example, encouraging youth who would otherwise throw stones at IDF checkpoints to instead join the partisan movement, after which they would head to Lebanon or Jordan to train at PNSF camps, returning to Palestine ready and able to take up arms. Shortly after the start of the 1976–1979 Sinai War, PNSF military leader Yasser Arafat, recognising the powerful agitational effect of Nasser's talents, appointed him head of communications and propaganda; his department's wartime publications (leaflets, newspapers, propaganda posters, radio/television broadcasts, and more) were instrumental in maintaining the high level of morale required to mobilise the Palestinian population for a successful fight against the occupation.

After the end of the war and withdrawal of Israeli forces in April 1979, the Palestinian government was restored under a Ba'athist administration. Recently elected President of Palestine Rifaf Khan nominated Nasser for the position of prime minister, and he was elected by the Council of Deputies shortly thereafter. He played a central role in the reconstruction period following the war, especially the reorganisation and development of the Palestinian executive administration and its division of responsibilities. For example, it was Nasser's idea to subordinate all civilian security agencies to a single interior ministry, which became the State Secretariat of Internal Affairs.

While on a diplomatic mission to Lebanon as prime minister, Nasser was killed in West Beirut on the night of 9 April 1983 by Israeli special forces during an Israeli raid on Lebanon alongside Foreign Secretary Kamal Adwan and Defence Secretary Mohammed Youssef Najjar. All three men were included in the Mossad's Operation Wrath of God target list for their alleged participation in the Munich massacre at the 1972 Berlin Summer Olympics during the Israeli occupation.