UP FRONT

HELEN DAVIS

Israel Correspondent

erusalem — At 1:15 last Satur-
day morning, two rented Volks-
wagen mini-buses and a
Peugeot 305 sedan pulled up outside
a luxury villa in the exclusive nor-
thern suburbs of Tunis.
The occupants quickly emerged
and divided into two groups. The
first—a hit-team of seven men and one
woman headed for the house, while
the second—consisting of 20 men—
took up covering positions on the
grounds.
The hit team killed three
bodyguards before they found their
target, who had been reading in his
den. The seven men pumped a total
of 70 bullets into his body, while the
woman member of the team recorded
the event on a video camera.
Within minutes, the operation
was complete and the three vehicles
sped off into the night. Several hours
later, on a beach some 60 kilometers
up the coast, they were found aban-
doned. Their occupants had vanished
without trace.
Meanwhile, back at the villa in
the northern suburbs of Tunis, Khalil
al-Wazir—better known as Abu Jihad,
the No. 2 man in the PLO and head
of its military wing — was dead.
Wazir was born in Ramie, midway
between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 53
years ago. When Israel was establish-
ed and he was 13, his family fled to
the Gaza Strip, which had come under
Egyptian rule.
After finishing school he traveled
south to Egypt to study law. There he
met up with another student from

j

Gaza, Yasser Arafat, who was study-
ing engineering at Cairo University.
As students, they were attracted
to the Muslim Brotherhood, which
preached a potent mix of Islamic fun-
damentalism and Arab nationalism.
The two students had little interest
in the religious message, but they
were inflamed by its nationalist zeal.
(In time, though, Wazir would become
a devout Muslim.)
After graduating, Arafat moved to
Kuwait, and in 1959, having
crystallized his own particular brand
of nationalism, he announced the for-
mation of the Palestinian nationalist
movement Fatah. At his side was his
loyal friend, Khalil al-Wazir.
Ten years later, Fatah emerged as
the largest single movement under
the umbrella of the PLO and Yasser
Arafat was elected its head. His depu-
ty was his faithful lieutenant from
Gaza, now known by the nom de
guerre Abu Jihad (Arafat became
Abu Ammar, but the appellation is
seldom used).
Abu Jihad — Father of the Holy
War — was particularly appropriate
for the role Wazir was to play in the
organization: he was not only the
nominal head of the PLO's military
wing, but also its key strategist and
the brains behind some of its most
brutal and bloody acts that would be
perpetrated over the next 20 years.
As an observant Muslim, he
would also serve as the pivotal link
between the Islamic fundamentalists
and the largely secular PLO.
In the Israeli consciousness, he is
most vividly associated with the
Coastal Road Massacre of 1978, when

Continued on Page 14

Lau ren Dorfma n

Will Abu Jihad's Death
Undermine Peace Efforts?

Debbie Siegel reads names of Soviet Jewish refuseniks on the University of Michigan's Diag
April 13 during an all-night vigil for Soviet Jews. A half-hour Holocaust memorial service was
conducted at midnight.

Neo-Nazi Edward Dunn
Not A Threat, ADL Says

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

E

dward James Dunn — well
known by the Anti-Defama-
tion League of B'nai B'rith for
his neo-Nazi activities — has been sit-
ting behind bars since last Friday
awaiting trial on federal drug
charges.
"We've known about Dunn for a
long time. He is a full-fledged hate
maker," said Richard Lobenthal,
Michigan regional director of the
ADL. "He's not being charged with
being a Nazi, but I won't be shedding

any tears if his defense is not suc-
cessful?'
Dunn, said Lobenthal, is one of
the founding members of the 12-year-
old SS Action Group, which espouses
racism and anti-Semitism through
mailings and marches. Dunn often
wears a green army jacket inscribed
with two lightning bolts, a neo-Nazi
emblem, on the arm. He has several
Nazi paraphernalia items including
helmets, swastikas and flags.
Lobenthal said Dunn, who was ar-
rested last May in Royal Oak for
disorderly conduct after chanting

Continued on Page 20

ROUND UP

8 Palestinians
Are Deported

Jerusalem (JTA) — Israel

deported eight more West
Bank Palestinians to
southern Lebanon Tuesday,
charging they were involved
in "planning and implemen-
tation of violent disturbances
in Judea and Samaria in the
past few months?'
The deportees had all waiv-
ed their right to appeal,
which they considered
hopeless in light of the
Supreme Court's recent rul-
ing that deportations were
legal. Israel deported eight
other Palestinians from the
West Bank and Gaza Strip on
April 11.
A military court in Jaffa,
meanwhile, gave suspended

prison sentences Tuesday to
two IDF soldiers found guilty
of beating and kicking hand-
cuffed Palestinian youths at a
prison camp near Nablus last
month. The incident came to
light because it was filmed by
a CBS camera crew.

UHS To Keep
Branch In OP

The board of United
Hebrew Schools voted last
week to keep its B'nai Moshe
branch open next year and
not merge the students with
the Beth Achim branch.
Parents appearing before
the board repeated
arguements presented at
earlier meetings. They said
that a school in the area with
low enrollment was prefer-

rable to transporting their
children to a distant school.
They also said that closing
the school would contravene
the spirit of the Jewish
Welfare Federation's
Neighborhood Project, but
that keeping the branch open
without upgrading educa-
tional quality would only lead
to its closing next year.

Tourism Drop
'Catastrophic'

Tel Aviv (JTA) — A rise in
tourism in March and a 15
percent increase during the
first three months of this year
are a statistical illusion, ac-
cording to experts who
analyzed the figures released
Monday. The actual trend is

downward, they say.
In March, 138,700 tourists
arrived in Israel, compared to
124,000 in the same month of
1987, an 11.7 percent hike.
But • this reflected the
Passover-Easter holiday,
which began on April 1. Ad-
justed on a seasonal basis,
March tourism amounted to
106,000 arrivals.

The net decline, linked to
continuing unrest in the ad-
ministered territories, is
reflected in the poor bookings

and heavy cancellations
reported by El Al, Israel's na-
tional airline.

An unidentified airline
source quoted by Yediot
Achronot Sunday said the
number of cancelled reserva-
tions in recent weeks was
"catastrophic."

Weizman: Killing
Was A Mistake

Jerusalem (JTA) — At least
one Israeli Cabinet minister
seems to believe that Israel
was behind the assassination
of the Palestine Liberation
Organization's No. 2 man,
Khalid al-Wazir, and thinks it
was the wrong act at the
wrong time.
Ezer Weizman, a Labor Par-
ty minister without portfolio,
sharply questioned the
political wisdom of the killing
in two radio interviews Tues-
day and implied, without say-
ing so, that Israel was
involved.
Weizman, said the assas-
sination was a serious mis-
take that could jeopardize the
peace process.

