MK Zahalka: PFLP's George Habash should be buried in Lod

Haaretz 18:05 02/02/2008

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Balad faction chairman MK Jamal Zahalka said on Saturday that George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who died last week, must be buried in Lod, his birthplace. "His natural place is in Lod, where he was born and raised," Zahalka declared at a memorial held for Habash, who was buried in Jordan, where he died. Zahalka said that Habash charted an important path for his people by emphasizing that the "Palestinian victim [must] challenge his fate and take the path of struggle and opposition." He also said the Palestinian leader had urged his people to oppose "Zionist colonization and imperialism" and to preserve national unity.

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh reportedly said at the memorial that Habash preserved Palestinian unity and worked for the realization of the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state - which renders him deserving of respect even by those who disagreed with him. During the 1948 War of Independence, Habash was abroad for his studies. He returned to Lod before the city's Arab residents were expelled, and hadn't been back since. The ceremony included a portion in the Orthodox church in the city, after which the mourners marched to the site on which the Habash family house once stood, before it was reportedly destroyed several years ago. Habash, who was 81 when he died, founded the PFLP in 1968. He and his group gained notoriety for the hijackings in 1970 of four Western airliners over the United States, Europe, the Far East and the Persian Gulf. The aircraft were blown up in the Middle East after passengers and crews disembarked. The group also was responsible for gunning down 27 people at Israel's Lod airport in May 1972. Habash, an American-educated physician, launched the Popular Front in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights to Israel. Habash opposed the interim peace agreements with Israel, in part because they did not require Israel to stop settlement construction. Throughout his life, he supported the use of violence against Israel, arguing that Israel would not make the concessions required for a peace agreement.